Oslo-Holmenkollen finish line – the end of a long but fantastic season!
The season is finally over; “finally” in the sense that it has been a long one, not to say I’m relieved to see it done. While I’m certainly excited for some down-time, this has been an amazing season. I saw a huge jump in my results and have readjusted my perspective and goals in a positive way. I’m leaving this season behind more motivated and energized as I look towards the seasons to come. This is just the beginning of an exciting road to Sochi.
A fan’s Good Luck sign for Haley and me in Oslo before the mass start.
That said, I’ve taken the typical post-season road and promptly became sick as soon as I arrived home in Boise last week. The good thing about being sick in the off-season is that you don’t worry about it, the bad thing is that you don’t feel good when you should be out enjoying all the things you don’t get to while racing. There are worse things than spending your days drinking tea and cuddling up on the couch with a book.
Already I’m looking towards the coming training season, though. Things will ramp up with a camp in Lake Placid in May, though training will begin before then on my own. Until then, though, I’ll be enjoying my time off-sleeping, reading and just generally relaxing!
Oslo-Holmenkollen finish line – the end of a long but fantastic season!
The season is finally over; “finally” in the sense that it has been a long one, not to say I’m relieved to see it done. While I’m certainly excited for some down-time, this has been an amazing season. I saw a huge jump in my results and have readjusted my perspective and goals in a positive way. I’m leaving this season behind more motivated and energized as I look towards the seasons to come. This is just the beginning of an exciting road to Sochi.
A fan’s Good Luck sign for Haley and me in Oslo before the mass start.
That said, I’ve taken the typical post-season road and promptly became sick as soon as I arrived home in Boise last week. The good thing about being sick in the off-season is that you don’t worry about it, the bad thing is that you don’t feel good when you should be out enjoying all the things you don’t get to while racing. There are worse things than spending your days drinking tea and cuddling up on the couch with a book.
Already I’m looking towards the coming training season, though. Things will ramp up with a camp in Lake Placid in May, though training will begin before then on my own. Until then, though, I’ll be enjoying my time off-sleeping, reading and just generally relaxing!
Part of the fun thing about Spring Series is that everyone is relaxed and you can hang out with kids from other teams. Our kids have gone tubbing with the SV kids and we are going out to dinner with the Jrs from Sun Valley, Norway and Burke tomorrow night. Meanwhile…racing began in earnest today with the 3+/- km prologue. Congratulations to Simi and Kikkan who dusted everyone! The courses were tough, with a killer climb half way through followed by a screaming downhill (no recovery) into another climb. We had kids ski well, ski too conservatively, and blow up…on average..it was great! It’s all an excellent learning experience, figuring out how to ski at altitude after racing 8 races in the previous two weeks. Ski prep in the afternoon. Issy P looking good. Hallie is beginning where all of the O2 is. Rachel flies around the course. Cambria. Heather. Sophie. Tyler zips up the big hill on his way to the J2 win. Charlie B. Mac rounds the corner. Murph tucks the hill above the stadium. Austin. Bridger hammers the hill (then dies). Paddy skied well and placed 2nd for J1’s. Skyler hits the 2nd hill. Chase. Fritz. Andy is “running on fumes” at the end of a long season but he still goes pretty fast 🙂 Parka’s on spring series??? Yup…mid teens last night, cloudy and low 20’s today. It was interesting for waxing…everyone was trying all of the different powders, liquids and rub ons and nothing was jumping out. Ski flex, structure and figuring out how to ski in the thinner air were all much more important. Pack ’em up and take ’em out. Time to get ready for tomorrow’s 10 and 15 km classic mass start races…forecast… low 30’s with light snow 🙂
After the World Championships I remained in Europe for one last WC race, the Lahti classic sprint. The snow conditions changed drastically (from -8 overnight, to +4 by my race time). I took a bit of a gamble and raced with my hardwax skis instead of my warmer klister skis. Unfortunately the snow warmed up quicker than I thought it would and I had absolutely no grip. These things happen; next time, I will be prepared and have both skis waxed and ready to go.
I had almost no time at all to sulk over my bad race; I had to get from Finland to Canmore, as fast as possible, to race at Nationals in two days. I took a shuttle to Helsinki after the race and boarded an early 6am flight the next morning en route to Calgary. In Canmore I was reunited with my parents and Austin. Then I quickly ate some supper and went straight to bed. I had been up for 26 hours and was hoping I could survive 3 races, in 4 days, over 9 time zones. The race the next morning was a 15 km Classic race, individual start. I had a great start; feeling good and skiing at a pace that I felt could win me a medal. Mid way through the first lap I got tangled with a skier that I was passing on the fastest downhill corner on the course. Somehow, my right ski went under this guy’s foot and I went down hard on the ice. I fell on the corner where ice had formed from a lot of skiers snowplowing to slow down.
Amazingly, Bill Thompson caught a picture of my crash!
After the crash I never got back into my rhythm. I was feeling some pain in ankle and shoulder. I skied hard right after the wipeout to try make up for lost time and I started to blow up. I was unable to recover on the downhills and suffered right to the finish. What started as a great race, turned into a big disappointment. I finished 12th along with a sprained ankle, a subluxed shoulder, and a bruised hip.
With the sprint race the next day, there wasn’t much I could do about my injuries. I iced both my shoulder and ankle and hoped that they would feel better by the morning.
I woke up at 3 am because of the crazy time change from Finland. My ankle felt noticeably better but my shoulder was still very sore.
While warming up for the sprint, the shoulder felt pretty good, if I kept the movement very linear. If this was a skate sprint I am not sure if I would have been able to race. The twisting arm motion would not have agreed with my shoulder.
The sprint went amazing. I won the Qualifier and made it to the A-final without too much trouble in the heats. I had some energy saved for my attack in the final. I started my attack just before the steep hill mid way through the course and didn’t let up until the finish. My mom put together a quick video of my A-Final.
For the second year in a row, I am the National Sprint Champion!
My season has come to an end. This has been such a fun season for me. I spent almost the entire winter training and racing in Europe (18 weeks). It has been amazing training/racing with my teammates and sharing memories with all of them!
I would like to give a huge thank you to my coaches Justin and Louis for giving me the amazing opportunity to race 8 World Cups and a couple of Scando Cups this season. I can honestly say that I have learned something from every race, the good and the bad.
I’m really happy with the results I’ve had in my first WC season. It goes without saying that those results were made possible thanks to the super team we have travelling with us. Thanks to Sacha, Godefroy, Eric, Ives, Joel J, Joel K, Micke, Peter, Graham, Wolfman, Scott, Shane, Tom, Alain, Andre, Lee, Dr Reed, and so many more.
I’m taking a break in April (with a couple of weeks of windsurfing in Hawaii) and will be ready to start training again in May.
After the World Championships I remained in Europe for one last WC race, the Lahti classic sprint. The snow conditions changed drastically (from -8 overnight, to +4 by my race time). I took a bit of a gamble and raced with my hardwax skis instead of my warmer klister skis. Unfortunately the snow warmed up quicker than I thought it would and I had absolutely no grip. These things happen; next time, I will be prepared and have both skis waxed and ready to go.
I had almost no time at all to sulk over my bad race; I had to get from Finland to Canmore, as fast as possible, to race at Nationals in two days. I took a shuttle to Helsinki after the race and boarded an early 6am flight the next morning en route to Calgary. In Canmore I was reunited with my parents and Austin. Then I quickly ate some supper and went straight to bed. I had been up for 26 hours and was hoping I could survive 3 races, in 4 days, over 9 time zones. The race the next morning was a 15 km Classic race, individual start. I had a great start; feeling good and skiing at a pace that I felt could win me a medal. Mid way through the first lap I got tangled with a skier that I was passing on the fastest downhill corner on the course. Somehow, my right ski went under this guy’s foot and I went down hard on the ice. I fell on the corner where ice had formed from a lot of skiers snowplowing to slow down.
Amazingly, Bill Thompson caught a picture of my crash!
After the crash I never got back into my rhythm. I was feeling some pain in ankle and shoulder. I skied hard right after the wipeout to try make up for lost time and I started to blow up. I was unable to recover on the downhills and suffered right to the finish. What started as a great race, turned into a big disappointment. I finished 12th along with a sprained ankle, a subluxed shoulder, and a bruised hip.
With the sprint race the next day, there wasn’t much I could do about my injuries. I iced both my shoulder and ankle and hoped that they would feel better by the morning.
I woke up at 3 am because of the crazy time change from Finland. My ankle felt noticeably better but my shoulder was still very sore.
While warming up for the sprint, the shoulder felt pretty good, if I kept the movement very linear. If this was a skate sprint I am not sure if I would have been able to race. The twisting arm motion would not have agreed with my shoulder.
The sprint went amazing. I won the Qualifier and made it to the A-final without too much trouble in the heats. I had some energy saved for my attack in the final. I started my attack just before the steep hill mid way through the course and didn’t let up until the finish. My mom put together a quick video of my A-Final.
For the second year in a row, I am the National Sprint Champion!
My season has come to an end. This has been such a fun season for me. I spent almost the entire winter training and racing in Europe (18 weeks). It has been amazing training/racing with my teammates and sharing memories with all of them!
I would like to give a huge thank you to my coaches Justin and Louis for giving me the amazing opportunity to race 8 World Cups and a couple of Scando Cups this season. I can honestly say that I have learned something from every race, the good and the bad.
I’m really happy with the results I’ve had in my first WC season. It goes without saying that those results were made possible thanks to the super team we have travelling with us. Thanks to Sacha, Godefroy, Eric, Ives, Joel J, Joel K, Micke, Peter, Graham, Wolfman, Scott, Shane, Tom, Alain, Andre, Lee, Dr Reed, and so many more.
I’m taking a break in April (with a couple of weeks of windsurfing in Hawaii) and will be ready to start training again in May.
After the World Championships I remained in Europe for one last WC race, the Lahti classic sprint. The snow conditions changed drastically (from -8 overnight, to +4 by my race time). I took a bit of a gamble and raced with my hardwax skis instead of my warmer klister skis. Unfortunately the snow warmed up quicker than I thought it would and I had absolutely no grip. These things happen; next time, I will be prepared and have both skis waxed and ready to go.
I had almost no time at all to sulk over my bad race; I had to get from Finland to Canmore, as fast as possible, to race at Nationals in two days. I took a shuttle to Helsinki after the race and boarded an early 6am flight the next morning en route to Calgary. In Canmore I was reunited with my parents and Austin. Then I quickly ate some supper and went straight to bed. I had been up for 26 hours and was hoping I could survive 3 races, in 4 days, over 9 time zones. The race the next morning was a 15 km Classic race, individual start. I had a great start; feeling good and skiing at a pace that I felt could win me a medal. Mid way through the first lap I got tangled with a skier that I was passing on the fastest downhill corner on the course. Somehow, my right ski went under this guy’s foot and I went down hard on the ice. I fell on the corner where ice had formed from a lot of skiers snowplowing to slow down.
Amazingly, Bill Thompson caught a picture of my crash!
After the crash I never got back into my rhythm. I was feeling some pain in ankle and shoulder. I skied hard right after the wipeout to try make up for lost time and I started to blow up. I was unable to recover on the downhills and suffered right to the finish. What started as a great race, turned into a big disappointment. I finished 12th along with a sprained ankle, a subluxed shoulder, and a bruised hip.
With the sprint race the next day, there wasn’t much I could do about my injuries. I iced both my shoulder and ankle and hoped that they would feel better by the morning.
I woke up at 3 am because of the crazy time change from Finland. My ankle felt noticeably better but my shoulder was still very sore.
While warming up for the sprint, the shoulder felt pretty good, if I kept the movement very linear. If this was a skate sprint I am not sure if I would have been able to race. The twisting arm motion would not have agreed with my shoulder.
The sprint went amazing. I won the Qualifier and made it to the A-final without too much trouble in the heats. I had some energy saved for my attack in the final. I started my attack just before the steep hill mid way through the course and didn’t let up until the finish. My mom put together a quick video of my A-Final.
For the second year in a row, I am the National Sprint Champion!
My season has come to an end. This has been such a fun season for me. I spent almost the entire winter training and racing in Europe (18 weeks). It has been amazing training/racing with my teammates and sharing memories with all of them!
I would like to give a huge thank you to my coaches Justin and Louis for giving me the amazing opportunity to race 8 World Cups and a couple of Scando Cups this season. I can honestly say that I have learned something from every race, the good and the bad.
I’m really happy with the results I’ve had in my first WC season. It goes without saying that those results were made possible thanks to the super team we have travelling with us. Thanks to Sacha, Godefroy, Eric, Ives, Joel J, Joel K, Micke, Peter, Graham, Wolfman, Scott, Shane, Tom, Alain, Andre, Lee, Dr Reed, and so many more.
I’m taking a break in April (with a couple of weeks of windsurfing in Hawaii) and will be ready to start training again in May.
After the World Championships I remained in Europe for one last WC race, the Lahti classic sprint. The snow conditions changed drastically (from -8 overnight, to +4 by my race time). I took a bit of a gamble and raced with my hardwax skis instead of my warmer klister skis. Unfortunately the snow warmed up quicker than I thought it would and I had absolutely no grip. These things happen; next time, I will be prepared and have both skis waxed and ready to go.
I had almost no time at all to sulk over my bad race; I had to get from Finland to Canmore, as fast as possible, to race at Nationals in two days. I took a shuttle to Helsinki after the race and boarded an early 6am flight the next morning en route to Calgary. In Canmore I was reunited with my parents and Austin. Then I quickly ate some supper and went straight to bed. I had been up for 26 hours and was hoping I could survive 3 races, in 4 days, over 9 time zones. The race the next morning was a 15 km Classic race, individual start. I had a great start; feeling good and skiing at a pace that I felt could win me a medal. Mid way through the first lap I got tangled with a skier that I was passing on the fastest downhill corner on the course. Somehow, my right ski went under this guy’s foot and I went down hard on the ice. I fell on the corner where ice had formed from a lot of skiers snowplowing to slow down.
Amazingly, Bill Thompson caught a picture of my crash!
After the crash I never got back into my rhythm. I was feeling some pain in ankle and shoulder. I skied hard right after the wipeout to try make up for lost time and I started to blow up. I was unable to recover on the downhills and suffered right to the finish. What started as a great race, turned into a big disappointment. I finished 12th along with a sprained ankle, a subluxed shoulder, and a bruised hip.
With the sprint race the next day, there wasn’t much I could do about my injuries. I iced both my shoulder and ankle and hoped that they would feel better by the morning.
I woke up at 3 am because of the crazy time change from Finland. My ankle felt noticeably better but my shoulder was still very sore.
While warming up for the sprint, the shoulder felt pretty good, if I kept the movement very linear. If this was a skate sprint I am not sure if I would have been able to race. The twisting arm motion would not have agreed with my shoulder.
The sprint went amazing. I won the Qualifier and made it to the A-final without too much trouble in the heats. I had some energy saved for my attack in the final. I started my attack just before the steep hill mid way through the course and didn’t let up until the finish. My mom put together a quick video of my A-Final.
For the second year in a row, I am the National Sprint Champion!
My season has come to an end. This has been such a fun season for me. I spent almost the entire winter training and racing in Europe (18 weeks). It has been amazing training/racing with my teammates and sharing memories with all of them!
I would like to give a huge thank you to my coaches Justin and Louis for giving me the amazing opportunity to race 8 World Cups and a couple of Scando Cups this season. I can honestly say that I have learned something from every race, the good and the bad.
I’m really happy with the results I’ve had in my first WC season. It goes without saying that those results were made possible thanks to the super team we have travelling with us. Thanks to Sacha, Godefroy, Eric, Ives, Joel J, Joel K, Micke, Peter, Graham, Wolfman, Scott, Shane, Tom, Alain, Andre, Lee, Dr Reed, and so many more.
I’m taking a break in April (with a couple of weeks of windsurfing in Hawaii) and will be ready to start training again in May.
After the World Championships I remained in Europe for one last WC race, the Lahti classic sprint. The snow conditions changed drastically (from -8 overnight, to +4 by my race time). I took a bit of a gamble and raced with my hardwax skis instead of my warmer klister skis. Unfortunately the snow warmed up quicker than I thought it would and I had absolutely no grip. These things happen; next time, I will be prepared and have both skis waxed and ready to go.
I had almost no time at all to sulk over my bad race; I had to get from Finland to Canmore, as fast as possible, to race at Nationals in two days. I took a shuttle to Helsinki after the race and boarded an early 6am flight the next morning en route to Calgary. In Canmore I was reunited with my parents and Austin. Then I quickly ate some supper and went straight to bed. I had been up for 26 hours and was hoping I could survive 3 races, in 4 days, over 9 time zones. The race the next morning was a 15 km Classic race, individual start. I had a great start; feeling good and skiing at a pace that I felt could win me a medal. Mid way through the first lap I got tangled with a skier that I was passing on the fastest downhill corner on the course. Somehow, my right ski went under this guy’s foot and I went down hard on the ice. I fell on the corner where ice had formed from a lot of skiers snowplowing to slow down.
Amazingly, Bill Thompson caught a picture of my crash!
After the crash I never got back into my rhythm. I was feeling some pain in ankle and shoulder. I skied hard right after the wipeout to try make up for lost time and I started to blow up. I was unable to recover on the downhills and suffered right to the finish. What started as a great race, turned into a big disappointment. I finished 12th along with a sprained ankle, a subluxed shoulder, and a bruised hip.
With the sprint race the next day, there wasn’t much I could do about my injuries. I iced both my shoulder and ankle and hoped that they would feel better by the morning.
I woke up at 3 am because of the crazy time change from Finland. My ankle felt noticeably better but my shoulder was still very sore.
While warming up for the sprint, the shoulder felt pretty good, if I kept the movement very linear. If this was a skate sprint I am not sure if I would have been able to race. The twisting arm motion would not have agreed with my shoulder.
The sprint went amazing. I won the Qualifier and made it to the A-final without too much trouble in the heats. I had some energy saved for my attack in the final. I started my attack just before the steep hill mid way through the course and didn’t let up until the finish. My mom put together a quick video of my A-Final.
For the second year in a row, I am the National Sprint Champion!
My season has come to an end. This has been such a fun season for me. I spent almost the entire winter training and racing in Europe (18 weeks). It has been amazing training/racing with my teammates and sharing memories with all of them!
I would like to give a huge thank you to my coaches Justin and Louis for giving me the amazing opportunity to race 8 World Cups and a couple of Scando Cups this season. I can honestly say that I have learned something from every race, the good and the bad.
I’m really happy with the results I’ve had in my first WC season. It goes without saying that those results were made possible thanks to the super team we have travelling with us. Thanks to Sacha, Godefroy, Eric, Ives, Joel J, Joel K, Micke, Peter, Graham, Wolfman, Scott, Shane, Tom, Alain, Andre, Lee, Dr Reed, and so many more.
I’m taking a break in April (with a couple of weeks of windsurfing in Hawaii) and will be ready to start training again in May.
After the World Championships I remained in Europe for one last WC race, the Lahti classic sprint. The snow conditions changed drastically (from -8 overnight, to +4 by my race time). I took a bit of a gamble and raced with my hardwax skis instead of my warmer klister skis. Unfortunately the snow warmed up quicker than I thought it would and I had absolutely no grip. These things happen; next time, I will be prepared and have both skis waxed and ready to go.
I had almost no time at all to sulk over my bad race; I had to get from Finland to Canmore, as fast as possible, to race at Nationals in two days. I took a shuttle to Helsinki after the race and boarded an early 6am flight the next morning en route to Calgary. In Canmore I was reunited with my parents and Austin. Then I quickly ate some supper and went straight to bed. I had been up for 26 hours and was hoping I could survive 3 races, in 4 days, over 9 time zones. The race the next morning was a 15 km Classic race, individual start. I had a great start; feeling good and skiing at a pace that I felt could win me a medal. Mid way through the first lap I got tangled with a skier that I was passing on the fastest downhill corner on the course. Somehow, my right ski went under this guy’s foot and I went down hard on the ice. I fell on the corner where ice had formed from a lot of skiers snowplowing to slow down.
Amazingly, Bill Thompson caught a picture of my crash!
After the crash I never got back into my rhythm. I was feeling some pain in ankle and shoulder. I skied hard right after the wipeout to try make up for lost time and I started to blow up. I was unable to recover on the downhills and suffered right to the finish. What started as a great race, turned into a big disappointment. I finished 12th along with a sprained ankle, a subluxed shoulder, and a bruised hip.
With the sprint race the next day, there wasn’t much I could do about my injuries. I iced both my shoulder and ankle and hoped that they would feel better by the morning.
I woke up at 3 am because of the crazy time change from Finland. My ankle felt noticeably better but my shoulder was still very sore.
While warming up for the sprint, the shoulder felt pretty good, if I kept the movement very linear. If this was a skate sprint I am not sure if I would have been able to race. The twisting arm motion would not have agreed with my shoulder.
The sprint went amazing. I won the Qualifier and made it to the A-final without too much trouble in the heats. I had some energy saved for my attack in the final. I started my attack just before the steep hill mid way through the course and didn’t let up until the finish. My mom put together a quick video of my A-Final.
For the second year in a row, I am the National Sprint Champion!
My season has come to an end. This has been such a fun season for me. I spent almost the entire winter training and racing in Europe (18 weeks). It has been amazing training/racing with my teammates and sharing memories with all of them!
I would like to give a huge thank you to my coaches Justin and Louis for giving me the amazing opportunity to race 8 World Cups and a couple of Scando Cups this season. I can honestly say that I have learned something from every race, the good and the bad.
I’m really happy with the results I’ve had in my first WC season. It goes without saying that those results were made possible thanks to the super team we have travelling with us. Thanks to Sacha, Godefroy, Eric, Ives, Joel J, Joel K, Micke, Peter, Graham, Wolfman, Scott, Shane, Tom, Alain, Andre, Lee, Dr Reed, and so many more.
I’m taking a break in April (with a couple of weeks of windsurfing in Hawaii) and will be ready to start training again in May.
The GRP crew kicked off our racing here in Sun Valley with the 50k at US Distance Nationals this last Saturday. The weather here in Idaho has been a mix of fresh snow overnight and sun and clouds during the day making for some great mid-winter conditions. The morning of the 50k we were greeted by falling snow and high humidity, which in a classic race can make for tricky “zeros” conditions. Luckily Nick and Pepa found a hard wax that provided both the speed and kick we were looking for and we were able to avoid having to stop mid race and re-wax like several other teams. Being US Distance Nationals, the course planners didn’t hold back in their design. The result was a 7 lap course (4 laps for the girls racing the 30k the next day) that featured a great combination of fast double poling, gradual striding uphills, as well as an extremely long and steep “A” climb to really separate the field before the fast decent into the finish area. Of the previous 50k races that I have done, this one certainly featured some of the most vertical at over 4800 ft of climbing in 50k (for comparison Mt Mansfield is 4395 ft above sea level and is only around 3600 vertical of climbing) yet the course was still very skiable for having that much climbing.
A 50k is a very interesting distance to race because it is so different pace wise than a 10 or 15k race. Yes you breathe hard, and your muscles burn on the hills, but everything is much more drawn out than the shorter races. Instead of racing for 30 or 45 minutes you’re going hard for 2.5+ hours, and during that time some funky stuff can happen. The weather can change a lot (it did), you run out of glycogen which is your primary fuel source when racing (I did), your muscles can cramp up from over use (they did), and then you might not be going as fast as when you started. Somewhere between the feed station and long hill going out on my 6th lap I knew I was done. I went from skiing pretty easily with the main pack on earlier laps to survival mode in the span of just a few kilometers. Judging from the number of people I passed pulling off bibs or taking off skis trying to stretch and loosen cramped muscles I wasn’t the only one hurting during the second half of the race. The last two laps I was skiing to finish.
A 50k is one of my favorite race distances because it is so much about the right mindset. You really don’t know how the race is going to go until you have a bib on skiing down the trail. There might be times when you feel great, and there are certainly going to times when you feel terrible and want to stop but few things feel better than crossing the finish line exhausted knowing your done and you raced a long long way in the process.
Ida cheering on Kikkan (USST) and Maria (Utah) race leaders in the 30k
Han skiing away from a chase pack on the last climb
Apologies for the lack of photos so far. Super Tour Finals starts tomorrow with the freestyle prologue followed by a classic mass start the next day. Should be a blast!
Yesterday was the 30k National Championships here in Sun Valley…. which is about twice as long as I have ever raced before. Going into this race I have been a bit worried. For the past two months I have been pretty much doing race after race allowing for not much “training”. What that means is I can’t remember the last time I skid 30k in one session… let alone skid more than an hour and a half in one session. I have done plenty of long sessions over the year- but I was struggling to wrap my brain around racing 30K AT ONE TIME! I think my teammates were actually getting annoyed of me asking “what should the pace feel like? Should I be in pain? Should I be suffering as early as 10k?” Not to mention we are racing at altitude, and the course has more than enough climbing- so that threw the experience even more curve balls. The answer to all these questions was different from person to person. But the one piece of advice that seemed consistent with every person was that a 30k is like reading a book- you have the good chapters and the bad chapters. You may feel like crap at 20k and feel like a champ at 25k. You may start cramping really bad at 27k and still manage to finish with a hard punch. In order to get the whole story, you have to read through all the chapters… there is no skipping.
Skiing in the lead pack for the first half of the race- Nat Hertz photo
So this is exactly what happened. I went in with a blind eye and had a ball!! I decided I was just going to try to hang onto the lead pack for as long as I could. This year I have been working a lot with my distance racing and things have come a long ways since last year. There is still a lot more to work on- but yesterday I finally got to try it out. The first half of the race I got to ski with a group of 6 girls. Kikkan, a swedish girl skiing at Utah, Diggins, Holly, and Morgan Arritola and me. As we approached the steepest pitch of the last long hill on the second lap I wasn’t able to hang on any longer. The good news is one of my other teammates, Fitz was also just off the pace of the lead pack- so I got to ski the remaining two laps with her, before she ditched me in the final climb on the last lap.
Pack still together on the first lap- Dave Wheelock photo
It was fun though. There is a lot that can happen in a 30k, and your head can take many directions of thought. From “holy crap- now I know what they were talking about when they said your muscles would cramp”, to “I can’t wait for that coke feed”, to “one last time up this hill Sadie, you can do it”. Good fun- I am excited for more tries!
Today we have a day off, and then tomorrow the true Spring Series starts. 2.8k prelim, 10k mass start classic, day off, Classic Sprint, and then the final day will be a race up the alpine hill.
Doing some training with the ladies in the sun.
Five of the APU girls, and Chandra Crawford are staying together at the Sun Valley Inn. We have been having lots of fun entertaining ourselves between the races. It is always fun at the end of the year to “enjoy the experience” a bit more. With less pressure on the racing, and more focus on the celebration, you are able to soak in the sun and truly live it up!
GMVS Biathlete Antoine St-Louis was a part of the winning Junior Relay this past weekend at Canadian National Championships: TEAM ALBERTA WINS GOLD IN MIXED RELAY AT BIATHLON CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
GMVS Biathlete Antoine St-Louis was a part of the winning Junior Relay this past weekend at Canadian National Championships: TEAM ALBERTA WINS GOLD IN MIXED RELAY AT BIATHLON CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Doogiski over at NordicXplained has a good post up regarding the rivalry (such as it is) between Marit Bjørgen and Justyna Kowlaczyk. The issue between the fans of these two great skiers is the question of which one is better. Shocker, I know.
Doogiski gives a good rundown of some of the limitations of comparing skiers using only World Cup points and does some adjustments for the number of races each skier did, plus a few other factors. I think this is a reasonable way to look at World Cup points, but ultimately I agree with one of his commenters that this is really fairly simple. In the specific case of two athletes who have actually raced against each other a fair amount, the least ambiguous way to measure who was better is simply to look at these specific head-to-head matchups.
In this case, they raced against each other in 7 sprint races and 14 distance races. (I’m not including the overall standings for the stage races both ladies competed in at Kuusamo and in Falun, just each individual race.) Kowalczyk beat Bjørgen in only one sprint race (Otepaa) and in only two distance races (handicap pursuit in Kuusamo and the regular pursuit in Lahti). That’s a record of 6-1 (Sprint) and 12-2 (Distance) for Bjørgen, and with numbers like that it’s very hard for me to take seriously claims that Kowalczyk was the better skier this season. And one of those wins for Kowalczyk was a somewhat unusual race, with Bjørgen holding the overall lead in the Kuusamo mini-tour and most likely not really trying to win the stage, but simply hold on to the overall lead.
In fact, if you extend this back to the previous two seasons, Bjørgen’s record is 11-3 (Sprint) and 20-5 (Distance). Kowalczyk can, and does, beat her on occasion, but it’s not exactly a back-and-forth rivalry lately.
Obviously, Kowalczyk skied very well at the Tour de Ski, and I think in doing so proved that she was (on average) better than everyone other than Bjørgen this season. (Although one could possibly argue that Johaug deserves that title.) Bjørgen didn’t do the Tour, but probably will next year, which I predict will lead to either an epic battle between the two, or a really boring Tour as Bjørgen crushes everyone.
Let’s kick things up a notch, though, focusing in on the times they’ve raced against each other in distance events overall:
The y-axis here is the difference in standardized percent back from the median between Kowalczyk and Bjørgen. (It doesn’t really matter what percent-back based measure I use, the graph would look essentially the same if I used raw percent back or FIS points, only the scale of the y-axis would change.) Values above zero are races where Bjørgen beat Kowalczyk, and vice-versa. Obviously, many of their match-ups are fairly close, so it can be hard to tell from looking at this graph whether some of these are above or below zero, but I want to look at the forest here, not the trees.
Here’s what I see: From 2003-2005, Bjørgen was beating Kowalczyk every time and by healthy margins. Then from 2006-2009 races between the two became increasingly more competitive until Kowalczyk might have had a slight edge. During this time they each are winning close to half the match-ups, but by 2009 Kowalczyk’s victories tend to be by a (much) bigger margin than Bjørgen’s. Then in the last two seasons Bjørgen has mostly returned to her winning ways, although the amount she’s beating Kowalczyk by isn’t as large as it was back in 2003-2005. Finally, we should note that Bjørgen is 3 years older than Kowalczyk, which probably was a major factor in their match-ups early on between 2003-2005.
I wonder if I should start a little timer to see how long it takes for a Kowalczyk fan to show up in the comments to point out what changed for Bjørgen starting in the 2009-2010 season? My only comment on that matter is: correlation does not necessarily imply causation.
Oslo-Holmenkollen finish line – the end of a long but fantastic season!
A fan’s Good Luck sign for Haley and me in Oslo before the mass start.
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OHsDUXXBxqM/TZDzc60As8I/AAAAAAAAAGU/nJmjSg3WVDc/s1600/1220739761_dist+is+classic+nat+2011+mar-15-1137.jpg")
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PHE_SY4qknU/TZD_5D7dw2I/AAAAAAAAAGY/jxFF5XywYv8/s1600/1220967823_sr+sprints+nat+2011+mar-16-2757.jpg")
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K30Yd67vrTw/TZD_7pP5AWI/AAAAAAAAAGc/WhCw1Y-Ibnk/s1600/1220968801_sr+sprints+nat+2011+mar-16-2882.jpg")
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HhdHBIqzCEw/TZD_9oHy4JI/AAAAAAAAAGg/Fou1pva1ros/s1600/1220968857_sr+sprints+nat+2011+mar-16-2894.jpg")
![](http://www.statisticalskier.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/kowal_bjoergen.png" "kowal_bjoergen")
