FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

A collection of live feeds from cross-country ski blogs around the web.

  • Birkie Fever!

    Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re getting there aren’t we?
    As the Birkie approaches, this is always an emotional time of year.  For many of us, this is the weekend we plan the whole year around, and ironically our whole purpose is that the Birkie passes as quickly as possible!  I remember doing a marathon a couple years ago where a guy was screaming into a megaphone how everybody needed to slow down

  • First World Cup weekend- Drammen, Norway

    World Cup #1

    Holly and I soaking it in

    Last weekend I had my debut into the world of World Cup racing. Honestly I can’t quite put words to what it was like. I think I may be the luckiest person alive to have my introduction into the world cup life in Norway. In a country where cross country skiing is the most important thing in every person’s life… you can only imagine what would happen when a World Cup comes to town. To say it simple, 15,000 people set up tents, camps, and line the 5 kilometers of trail. I have been to one Seahawks game in my life, and I would compare the sound to that… only it is in another language- so the buzz has a different tone. It is by far the coolest thing I have experienced in my life so far though. I could get used to this lifestyle!


    Watching the sprint race… along with thousands of spectators behind me.


    World Cup Sprint group for the weekend- Jessie and I in our first World Cup sprints 🙂

    The fans were incredible, but the athletes were even more incredible. I have watched hundreds of world cup races on TV and video’s, and to be honest, I even considered it a chance to be able to ski with them for a bit. But when I had the chance to watch them ski in person… I was in awe. These girls are incredibly fast- they are MOVING! It is a whole nother league that I have never seen before. This is the most exciting part to me though. Now I “know what it looks like”. It’s super exciting to watch it, and now know what I am aiming for. The fun part about this year being my first in so many things, is I have no pressure, but I am just going out there and doing the best I can. I have to say, watching Kikkan win a world cup right in front of my eyes was so awesome! I have skid on a team with her now for a year, so I have watched her train, and watched what she does. It was awesome to watch the true “kikkanimal” at work. That girl is GOOD!


    Kikkan on the big screen- showing some love for Subway

    The only down part to having my first world cup experience in Norway… is the competition is about the hardest it gets on the world cup circuit. With Norway hosting the races, they get to start about 20 athletes in both the mens and womans fields. As everyone knows, Norwegians have an incredibly deep field of talent… so in most of my races- there were about 15 norwegians ahead of me. So… I learned quickly- results are not something to be studied in Drammen. The important part is I am in a good place going into World Champs… which actually starts today. They have late starts every day- so I am using my long morning to get some homework done and catch up with some things.


    Soaking in some sun the day of the sprint race- awesome day!

    It has been super fun to meet up with all of the nordic combiners, jumpers, and the rest of the nordic squad. We have quite the group of athletes over here! It is going to be a fun week of racing!

    World Champs 2011 here we come!!!


    Coach Bus taking us anywhere and everywhere we need. World Cup athletes get TAKEN CARE OF!

    Team Norway Bus- I like to pretend these guys are all cheering me on 🙂

  • Images From a BKL Practice

    Click on any picture to enlarge. Thanks to Lilly for taking the pictures.

















  • Reports of fever in the area

    Birkie Fever…………..

  • Watch Birkie Live

     

    This will be the link   http://www.livestream.com/birkie

    Let’s hope it works!

  • Oslo, Finally

    With or without Andrus Veerpalu, the Oslo World Ski Championships are underway. A New Zealander and a Dane won today’s qualifying races, but I think the freestyle sprint podiums will include the usual suspects:I can’t wait…

  • Oslo, Finally

    With or without Andrus Veerpalu, the Oslo World Ski Championships are underway. A New Zealander and a Dane won today’s qualifying races, but I think the freestyle sprint podiums will include the usual suspects:I can’t wait…

  • Oslo, Finally

    With or without Andrus Veerpalu, the Oslo World Ski Championships are underway. A New Zealander and a Dane won today’s qualifying races, but I think the freestyle sprint podiums will include the usual suspects:I can’t wait…

  • Oslo, Finally

    With or without Andrus Veerpalu, the Oslo World Ski Championships are underway. A New Zealander and a Dane won today’s qualifying races, but I think the freestyle sprint podiums will include the usual suspects:I can’t wait…

  • Ridnaun, Italy

    Schneeberg Panorama

    Towering snow covered peaks and warm blue skies greeted our team as we drove up the Ridnaun valley last Friday to the site of U-26 Biathlon Championships.  Our home for the week is the Schneeberg Hotel, a four star resort complete with a giant spa wing and five course dinners.  Do you know the difference between a Finnish Sauna, a Finnish Sauna Vitarium, a Tyrolean Sauna, and a Climate Sauna, and a Caldarium?  Neither did I, but I’m learning.  The accommodations are amazing, and practically all the teams are staying in this giant hotel.  My only complaint is the party tent next door that plays Oompah music all day and pop music late into the night.

    The biathlon venue is literally right out the back door and we’ve hardly had to use our van since we got here.  Our first race was an Individual format, biathlon’s longest race.  Instead of doing penalty laps, each missed target results in a one minute penalty.  I had a rough start to the race, missing 5 targets out of the first 10, but cleaned the rest to end up in the top fifteen.  Racing action continues tomorrow with relays.  My job is to be a super-fan for the day since we don’t have enough women here for a relay team.

    “Are we going the right way? This doesn’t exactly look like the Schneeberg…” Kudos to Ethan for maneuvering the rickety Czech rental (a stick shift) up mountainside on very narrow switchbacks. A more amazing achievement: he got us back down again when we dead-ended.

    “Are we going the right way? This doesn’t exactly look like the Schneeberg…” Kudos to Ethan for maneuvering the rickety Czech rental (a stick shift) up mountainside on very narrow switchbacks. A more amazing achievement: he got us back down again when we dead-ended.

    The Schneeberg

    The Schneeberg

    Other USBA athletes who have been to Ridnaun told me I had to find a certain shed full of sleds while I was here. Kelly Kjorlien and I went looking and were rewarded with a ride down the mountainside.

    Other USBA athletes who have been to Ridnaun told me I had to find a certain shed full of sleds while I was here. Kelly Kjorlien and I went searching and were rewarded with a ride down the mountainside.

    My biathlon teammates had also told me wonderful things about the Schneeberg’s weekly dessert buffet. Grace and I checked it out.

    My biathlon teammates had also told me wonderful things about the Schneeberg’s weekly dessert buffet. Grace and I checked it out.

    Local children on their way to opening ceremonies. I think all the school children in the valley must have played some role in the ceremonies. The best part was a fairy tale skit featuring a fight scene between knights and very young dwarves.

    Local children on their way to opening ceremonies. I think all the school children in the valley must have played some role in the ceremonies. The best part was a fairy tale skit featuring a fight scene between knights and very young-looking dwarves.

    This giant groomer can set 4 classic tracks at once. Ethan and Raleigh scoped it out and discovered that it has a computerized touch screen in the cab.

    This giant groomer can set 4 classic tracks at once. Ethan and Raleigh scoped it out and discovered that it has a computerized touch screen in the cab.

    On the way to the range, we walk by the Schneeberg’s biomass boiler complex. The wax cabins are in the foreground.

    On the way to the range, we walk by the Schneeberg’s biomass boiler complex. The wax cabins are in the foreground.

    Mixing it up on the sidelines of the guys’ individual race with our friendly neighbors to the north. L to R: Rosanna Crawford, Claude Godbout, Grace Boutot and Corrine Malcolm.

    Mixing it up on the sidelines of the guys’ individual race with our friendly neighbors to the north. L to R: Rosanna Crawford, Claude Godbout, Grace Boutot and Corrine Malcolm.

    Wynn Roberts grabs a feed from coach Pat Coffey partway through his 20 km.

    Wynn Roberts grabs a feed from coach Pat Coffey partway through his 20 km.

  • Drammen top 10!!!!

    After a disappointing World U23 Championship, it was time for me to focus on the biggest races of my life; the Senior World Championships. I had almost two weeks before the rest of the World Championship team arrived so I decided to go train at altitude in Livigno, Italy with my teammate Alex Harvey and my coach Louis. 



    The weather was absolutely amazing while we were there. The sun was out every day and I was warm enough to ski around in a t-shirt. Alex and I logged some good hard hours on the trails preparing ourselves for the big show. It was a bit sad to leave the amazing Italian food and the perfect weather, but we knew that we had to go meet up with the rest of our team in Norway. We spent the first week in Lillehammer tapering and getting ready for the World Cup in Drammen, Norway and the World Champs just 4 days later.



    The Drammen sprint course suited me very well, it was a fast and flat twisty course. In the Qualifier I one skated the entire lap and posted my best ever finish in a World Cup Qualifier. I finished in 4th place 1.1 seconds from first. Midway throught the qually, I felt so good that I thought that maybe I paced myself too much, but as it turned out my pacing was close to perfect.



    In the heats I tried to ski as smart as possible, no mistakes! For the first time in my life I made it to the Semi Final! I skied in second for most of the way until just before the final sprint where I decided to take the lead. I sprinted side by side with Petter Northug for 200 meters and advanced to the semi final fairly easily. 

    Leading the sprint in front of tons of Norwegian fans. (Thanks for the great photo Brooke!)






    Quarter final 





    My Semi final was a tough one, lots of tactics going on between all of us. Just before the final straight I was pushed back into 6th position, I free skated the short downhill and made a move to the inside and made my way into 3rd position. The last 30 seconds were incredibly hard. I was skiing as fast as I possibly could but still was losing a couple inches every few seconds to a couple guys… I finished in a close 5th place missing the Finals by a tiny margin. My Semi was the faster of the two heats so if I had finished 4th I would have been in the Final. I ended up in 9th place overall! I still can’t believe it. I even have some money coming my way for being top 10 in a World Cup, Yeah Buddy!

    Graham Longford Posted a great video of my semi on youtube. 
    Here’s the link
    Alex had one of the best races of his life. He was so fast in the final stretch it was unbelievable. He finished in 2nd overall! Amazing!!!
    Alex rippin in for a silver medal

    Alex Podium

    I had 4 days off between the Drammen World Cup and the World Champs sprint in Oslo. This means that I race tomorrow. 
    Wish me luck!


  • Drammen top 10!!!!

    After a disappointing World U23 Championship, it was time for me to focus on the biggest races of my life; the Senior World Championships. I had almost two weeks before the rest of the World Championship team arrived so I decided to go train at altitude in Livigno, Italy with my teammate Alex Harvey and my coach Louis. 



    The weather was absolutely amazing while we were there. The sun was out every day and I was warm enough to ski around in a t-shirt. Alex and I logged some good hard hours on the trails preparing ourselves for the big show. It was a bit sad to leave the amazing Italian food and the perfect weather, but we knew that we had to go meet up with the rest of our team in Norway. We spent the first week in Lillehammer tapering and getting ready for the World Cup in Drammen, Norway and the World Champs just 4 days later.



    The Drammen sprint course suited me very well, it was a fast and flat twisty course. In the Qualifier I one skated the entire lap and posted my best ever finish in a World Cup Qualifier. I finished in 4th place 1.1 seconds from first. Midway throught the qually, I felt so good that I thought that maybe I paced myself too much, but as it turned out my pacing was close to perfect.



    In the heats I tried to ski as smart as possible, no mistakes! For the first time in my life I made it to the Semi Final! I skied in second for most of the way until just before the final sprint where I decided to take the lead. I sprinted side by side with Petter Northug for 200 meters and advanced to the semi final fairly easily. 

    Leading the sprint in front of tons of Norwegian fans. (Thanks for the great photo Brooke!)






    Quarter final 





    My Semi final was a tough one, lots of tactics going on between all of us. Just before the final straight I was pushed back into 6th position, I free skated the short downhill and made a move to the inside and made my way into 3rd position. The last 30 seconds were incredibly hard. I was skiing as fast as I possibly could but still was losing a couple inches every few seconds to a couple guys… I finished in a close 5th place missing the Finals by a tiny margin. My Semi was the faster of the two heats so if I had finished 4th I would have been in the Final. I ended up in 9th place overall! I still can’t believe it. I even have some money coming my way for being top 10 in a World Cup, Yeah Buddy!

    Graham Longford Posted a great video of my semi on youtube. 
    Here’s the link
    Alex had one of the best races of his life. He was so fast in the final stretch it was unbelievable. He finished in 2nd overall! Amazing!!!
    Alex rippin in for a silver medal

    Alex Podium

    I had 4 days off between the Drammen World Cup and the World Champs sprint in Oslo. This means that I race tomorrow. 
    Wish me luck!


  • Drammen top 10!!!!

    After a disappointing World U23 Championship, it was time for me to focus on the biggest races of my life; the Senior World Championships. I had almost two weeks before the rest of the World Championship team arrived so I decided to go train at altitude in Livigno, Italy with my teammate Alex Harvey and my coach Louis. 



    The weather was absolutely amazing while we were there. The sun was out every day and I was warm enough to ski around in a t-shirt. Alex and I logged some good hard hours on the trails preparing ourselves for the big show. It was a bit sad to leave the amazing Italian food and the perfect weather, but we knew that we had to go meet up with the rest of our team in Norway. We spent the first week in Lillehammer tapering and getting ready for the World Cup in Drammen, Norway and the World Champs just 4 days later.



    The Drammen sprint course suited me very well, it was a fast and flat twisty course. In the Qualifier I one skated the entire lap and posted my best ever finish in a World Cup Qualifier. I finished in 4th place 1.1 seconds from first. Midway throught the qually, I felt so good that I thought that maybe I paced myself too much, but as it turned out my pacing was close to perfect.



    In the heats I tried to ski as smart as possible, no mistakes! For the first time in my life I made it to the Semi Final! I skied in second for most of the way until just before the final sprint where I decided to take the lead. I sprinted side by side with Petter Northug for 200 meters and advanced to the semi final fairly easily. 

    Leading the sprint in front of tons of Norwegian fans. (Thanks for the great photo Brooke!)






    Quarter final 





    My Semi final was a tough one, lots of tactics going on between all of us. Just before the final straight I was pushed back into 6th position, I free skated the short downhill and made a move to the inside and made my way into 3rd position. The last 30 seconds were incredibly hard. I was skiing as fast as I possibly could but still was losing a couple inches every few seconds to a couple guys… I finished in a close 5th place missing the Finals by a tiny margin. My Semi was the faster of the two heats so if I had finished 4th I would have been in the Final. I ended up in 9th place overall! I still can’t believe it. I even have some money coming my way for being top 10 in a World Cup, Yeah Buddy!

    Graham Longford Posted a great video of my semi on youtube. 
    Here’s the link
    Alex had one of the best races of his life. He was so fast in the final stretch it was unbelievable. He finished in 2nd overall! Amazing!!!
    Alex rippin in for a silver medal

    Alex Podium

    I had 4 days off between the Drammen World Cup and the World Champs sprint in Oslo. This means that I race tomorrow. 
    Wish me luck!


  • Drammen top 10!!!!

    After a disappointing World U23 Championship, it was time for me to focus on the biggest races of my life; the Senior World Championships. I had almost two weeks before the rest of the World Championship team arrived so I decided to go train at altitude in Livigno, Italy with my teammate Alex Harvey and my coach Louis. 



    The weather was absolutely amazing while we were there. The sun was out every day and I was warm enough to ski around in a t-shirt. Alex and I logged some good hard hours on the trails preparing ourselves for the big show. It was a bit sad to leave the amazing Italian food and the perfect weather, but we knew that we had to go meet up with the rest of our team in Norway. We spent the first week in Lillehammer tapering and getting ready for the World Cup in Drammen, Norway and the World Champs just 4 days later.



    The Drammen sprint course suited me very well, it was a fast and flat twisty course. In the Qualifier I one skated the entire lap and posted my best ever finish in a World Cup Qualifier. I finished in 4th place 1.1 seconds from first. Midway throught the qually, I felt so good that I thought that maybe I paced myself too much, but as it turned out my pacing was close to perfect.



    In the heats I tried to ski as smart as possible, no mistakes! For the first time in my life I made it to the Semi Final! I skied in second for most of the way until just before the final sprint where I decided to take the lead. I sprinted side by side with Petter Northug for 200 meters and advanced to the semi final fairly easily. 

    Leading the sprint in front of tons of Norwegian fans. (Thanks for the great photo Brooke!)






    Quarter final 





    My Semi final was a tough one, lots of tactics going on between all of us. Just before the final straight I was pushed back into 6th position, I free skated the short downhill and made a move to the inside and made my way into 3rd position. The last 30 seconds were incredibly hard. I was skiing as fast as I possibly could but still was losing a couple inches every few seconds to a couple guys… I finished in a close 5th place missing the Finals by a tiny margin. My Semi was the faster of the two heats so if I had finished 4th I would have been in the Final. I ended up in 9th place overall! I still can’t believe it. I even have some money coming my way for being top 10 in a World Cup, Yeah Buddy!

    Graham Longford Posted a great video of my semi on youtube. 
    Here’s the link
    Alex had one of the best races of his life. He was so fast in the final stretch it was unbelievable. He finished in 2nd overall! Amazing!!!
    Alex rippin in for a silver medal

    Alex Podium

    I had 4 days off between the Drammen World Cup and the World Champs sprint in Oslo. This means that I race tomorrow. 
    Wish me luck!


  • Drammen top 10!!!!

    After a disappointing World U23 Championship, it was time for me to focus on the biggest races of my life; the Senior World Championships. I had almost two weeks before the rest of the World Championship team arrived so I decided to go train at altitude in Livigno, Italy with my teammate Alex Harvey and my coach Louis. 



    The weather was absolutely amazing while we were there. The sun was out every day and I was warm enough to ski around in a t-shirt. Alex and I logged some good hard hours on the trails preparing ourselves for the big show. It was a bit sad to leave the amazing Italian food and the perfect weather, but we knew that we had to go meet up with the rest of our team in Norway. We spent the first week in Lillehammer tapering and getting ready for the World Cup in Drammen, Norway and the World Champs just 4 days later.



    The Drammen sprint course suited me very well, it was a fast and flat twisty course. In the Qualifier I one skated the entire lap and posted my best ever finish in a World Cup Qualifier. I finished in 4th place 1.1 seconds from first. Midway throught the qually, I felt so good that I thought that maybe I paced myself too much, but as it turned out my pacing was close to perfect.



    In the heats I tried to ski as smart as possible, no mistakes! For the first time in my life I made it to the Semi Final! I skied in second for most of the way until just before the final sprint where I decided to take the lead. I sprinted side by side with Petter Northug for 200 meters and advanced to the semi final fairly easily. 

    Leading the sprint in front of tons of Norwegian fans. (Thanks for the great photo Brooke!)






    Quarter final 





    My Semi final was a tough one, lots of tactics going on between all of us. Just before the final straight I was pushed back into 6th position, I free skated the short downhill and made a move to the inside and made my way into 3rd position. The last 30 seconds were incredibly hard. I was skiing as fast as I possibly could but still was losing a couple inches every few seconds to a couple guys… I finished in a close 5th place missing the Finals by a tiny margin. My Semi was the faster of the two heats so if I had finished 4th I would have been in the Final. I ended up in 9th place overall! I still can’t believe it. I even have some money coming my way for being top 10 in a World Cup, Yeah Buddy!

    Graham Longford Posted a great video of my semi on youtube. 
    Here’s the link
    Alex had one of the best races of his life. He was so fast in the final stretch it was unbelievable. He finished in 2nd overall! Amazing!!!
    Alex rippin in for a silver medal

    Alex Podium

    I had 4 days off between the Drammen World Cup and the World Champs sprint in Oslo. This means that I race tomorrow. 
    Wish me luck!


  • Where Skiing Can Take You 2011-02-23 12:49:00

  • Where Skiing Can Take You 2011-02-23 12:49:00

  • Where Skiing Can Take You 2011-02-23 12:49:00

  • Where Skiing Can Take You 2011-02-23 12:49:00

  • The Unusual Sprinting Success Of People With ‘LL’ In Their Name

    Ask, and ye shall receive.

    Christopher Tassava noted at the link above that the top four female sprinters on Sunday all had a double-L in their names. Coincidence? A mere statistical anomaly? Or should American and Canadian parents start naming their children Allan, Allison or Ellen?

    I’m being kind of silly here, of course, but what good is having lots of skiing results data if you can’t ask of it silly questions? So here you have it, the median (and middle 50%, or interquartile range) of sprinting results in WC, OWG, TdS and WSC races by athletes with and without an ‘LL’ in their name (first or last):

    Clearly, the overlap in the interquartile ranges (the shaded regions) indicates that whatever difference exists is far from being “statistically significant”. But a difference does in fact exist, at least for the women! The crazy thing is that women with an ‘LL’ in their name have usually tended skied somewhat better, except for 2007-2008. There has been a gap for the men as well, but it’s been much smaller in most cases.

    So, make of that what you will…

    This is as good a place as any to expand briefly on two other equally silly factoids that raised their heads last week. The first involved the Czech coach informing his athletes that “…if you are not in top ten, you can forget a medal from the Worlds. Top shape won’t come in a week.” Lukas Bauer must have been breathing a sigh of relief on Saturday, as he just squeaked into the top ten by a few seconds! Now, I get his point, that if you aren’t in shape you aren’t going to get in shape in a week. But it’s just silly to get that specific about correlating a performance outside the top ten with not winning a medal. As I pointed out, nearly 40% of the podium finishes at World Championships came after that skier finished outside the top ten in the preceding WC race. So it’s hardly unheard of.

    The other factoid noted (h/t Nordic Commentary Project) that no one since the late 90′s had won the distance WC race immediately preceding a major championships (Olympics or World Champs) and then gone on to win a gold medal. Now, I can confirm that that’s true, at least for the men. There have been some women who’ve done it more recently. But the big thing it ignores is that more than half the gold medalists at WSC or the OWG didn’t even race at the immediately preceding WC distance event. Now, maybe skipping that race provided some benefit. But of course you’re not going to see back to back victories like this when so many athletes are skipping one of the races in question! Sigh.

    Related posts:

    1. <Gadflies & Punching Bags
    2. <Podium Heartbreak
    3. <How Often Can You Go Fast?