FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • Pumped for Teammates + Personal Reflections

    Sometimes, when things aren’t going your way, it’s best to focus on the positive notes, on the bright spots.  While I have been having a rough start to my European Tour, some of my teammates have been turning in some awesome results.  While I would have loved to be racing in the sprint heats yesterday, it was AWESOME watching Kikkan kick butt – LIVE outsprinting all the other World Cup girls including the “Queen of Vancouver,” none other than Norway’s national hero, Marit Bjorgen.  It was extra fun watching the race from the side of the trail with my APU teammate, Sadie, who had an awesome first weekend of World Cup racing and Jessie, who had had her first World Cup that very day.  Jessie’s direct comment from the day was, “I wish the race would have been longer because it was so much fun out there!”  

    Sadie, Jessie, Holly acting goofy 🙂

    Sunday was Kikkan’s third World Cup win of her career and first in Norway which is an added bonus.  Her result definitely puts her at the top for the list of favorites going into Thursday’s World Championship sprint.  Someone on Facebook asked if anyone can beat Kikkan in a skate sprint right now and the answer was, “Maybe Shani Davis!”  After watching her final kick in the long straight finnish stretch I think I’d have to agree.  Here are some pictures of her victory: 

    Kikkan at the start of the finals
    Marit Bjorgen, the “Queen” of Vancouver…. 
    Shadows on course near start, looking across the stadium at the finish

    Sprint start – ladies followed closely by camera on snow machine


    The downhill on the dimond screen



    Instant replay of the finish, Kikkan in Black
    Final results: USA #1!


    Her interview after crossing the finish line – and of course, a huge smile!

    As for my own racing, this past weekend wasn’t my best.  And, when you’re on the World Cup and have an off weekend or are disapointed by results, it’s compounded because your racing against people who are the best in the World, literally.  This weekend also served as my first hard race efforts in over a month.  It’s hard to fathom that I used a pair of World Cup races to “wake the body up”….. especially when it wasn’t that long ago that the Anchorage Cup was my regular race series. (Hard to believe, right?)
    This morning I was looking on Twitter and stumbled upon Devon Kershaw’s blog, a Canadian skier. I could really identify with his most recent post so I decided to include some excerpts in this post.  Here is what Devon had to say about racing in Drammen after a long period of training:



    “After not racing in so long, the main objective was obtained – feeling that hurt and racing with a bib on again. The reality is no matter how many interval sessions you do, or time trials – real competition can’t be faked and can only come through real racing – with a bib on, and the xc community watching.” (Kershaw, 2.21.11)


    Furthermore, everyone in the World Cup field wants the same thing.  The thing we have in common is that we all want to win.  Unfortunately, there can only be one winner – leaving second through last place for everyone else.  While it’s unrealistic for many of us to hope to win, everyone in the field is hoping to better their best result.  Everyone is searching for a PR or the “race of their life.”  When you think about it, one enters a race in an attempt to do something similar to everyone else – I suppose that is the essence of competition.  Sometimes goals are met, and other times, the athlete is left looking for another chance.  


    Devon also talked about an unsatisfying race on Sunday….. complete with Rolling Stones lyrics. It’s great, check it out: 


    While there’s nothing I loathe more than watching sprint rounds on tv after not qualifying and I was really disappointed with today’s sprint – I was straight up pumped for the crew.  For me, I’ll try to keep telling myself life goes on. It’s just racing. I wanted to have a personal best today when I woke up – and it didn’t happen. Every time I slip a bib over my shoulders I hope for a personal best – and it rarely happens. There are always other chances and luckily my next one is coming up quickly. I hope to make a quick turn around and be ready to go on Thursday for the maiden race of this year’s World Champs. I’m confident in the training Justin laid out, and I know that it will come around at some point (I just hope sooner rather than later!). All I can do is continue to try my best – which I did this weekend. Sometimes it goes – like it did during the Tour – other times racing tests you – like it did in Drammen. That’s the game.
    Maybe The Stones were right all along. “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find – you get what you need.”
    I obviously needed to blow out the carbon, put a bib on and race my guts out. I did that. It wasn’t what I wanted – but hell if I didn’t need it.
    World Championships start Thursday. No matter what, I’ll be busy during the 10 days doing what I always do – getting after it and gunning for personal bests. (Kershaw, 2.21.11)
    I know this was a particularly long excerpt but if you want to read Devon’s full post you can find it on his website by clicking here.   (Devon, I hope you don’t mind!) 
    Finally, some pictures to leave you with: 
    Me and Sadie in Drammen 
    Thanks for reading everyone, 
    Sincerely, 
    Holly 🙂 

  • Pumped for Teammates + Personal Reflections

    Sometimes, when things aren’t going your way, it’s best to focus on the positive notes, on the bright spots.  While I have been having a rough start to my European Tour, some of my teammates have been turning in some awesome results.  While I would have loved to be racing in the sprint heats yesterday, it was AWESOME watching Kikkan kick butt – LIVE outsprinting all the other World Cup girls including the “Queen of Vancouver,” none other than Norway’s national hero, Marit Bjorgen.  It was extra fun watching the race from the side of the trail with my APU teammate, Sadie, who had an awesome first weekend of World Cup racing and Jessie, who had had her first World Cup that very day.  Jessie’s direct comment from the day was, “I wish the race would have been longer because it was so much fun out there!”  

    Sadie, Jessie, Holly acting goofy 🙂

    Sunday was Kikkan’s third World Cup win of her career and first in Norway which is an added bonus.  Her result definitely puts her at the top for the list of favorites going into Thursday’s World Championship sprint.  Someone on Facebook asked if anyone can beat Kikkan in a skate sprint right now and the answer was, “Maybe Shani Davis!”  After watching her final kick in the long straight finnish stretch I think I’d have to agree.  Here are some pictures of her victory: 

    Kikkan at the start of the finals
    Marit Bjorgen, the “Queen” of Vancouver…. 
    Shadows on course near start, looking across the stadium at the finish

    Sprint start – ladies followed closely by camera on snow machine


    The downhill on the dimond screen



    Instant replay of the finish, Kikkan in Black
    Final results: USA #1!


    Her interview after crossing the finish line – and of course, a huge smile!

    As for my own racing, this past weekend wasn’t my best.  And, when you’re on the World Cup and have an off weekend or are disapointed by results, it’s compounded because your racing against people who are the best in the World, literally.  This weekend also served as my first hard race efforts in over a month.  It’s hard to fathom that I used a pair of World Cup races to “wake the body up”….. especially when it wasn’t that long ago that the Anchorage Cup was my regular race series. (Hard to believe, right?)
    This morning I was looking on Twitter and stumbled upon Devon Kershaw’s blog, a Canadian skier. I could really identify with his most recent post so I decided to include some excerpts in this post.  Here is what Devon had to say about racing in Drammen after a long period of training:



    “After not racing in so long, the main objective was obtained – feeling that hurt and racing with a bib on again. The reality is no matter how many interval sessions you do, or time trials – real competition can’t be faked and can only come through real racing – with a bib on, and the xc community watching.” (Kershaw, 2.21.11)


    Furthermore, everyone in the World Cup field wants the same thing.  The thing we have in common is that we all want to win.  Unfortunately, there can only be one winner – leaving second through last place for everyone else.  While it’s unrealistic for many of us to hope to win, everyone in the field is hoping to better their best result.  Everyone is searching for a PR or the “race of their life.”  When you think about it, one enters a race in an attempt to do something similar to everyone else – I suppose that is the essence of competition.  Sometimes goals are met, and other times, the athlete is left looking for another chance.  


    Devon also talked about an unsatisfying race on Sunday….. complete with Rolling Stones lyrics. It’s great, check it out: 


    While there’s nothing I loathe more than watching sprint rounds on tv after not qualifying and I was really disappointed with today’s sprint – I was straight up pumped for the crew.  For me, I’ll try to keep telling myself life goes on. It’s just racing. I wanted to have a personal best today when I woke up – and it didn’t happen. Every time I slip a bib over my shoulders I hope for a personal best – and it rarely happens. There are always other chances and luckily my next one is coming up quickly. I hope to make a quick turn around and be ready to go on Thursday for the maiden race of this year’s World Champs. I’m confident in the training Justin laid out, and I know that it will come around at some point (I just hope sooner rather than later!). All I can do is continue to try my best – which I did this weekend. Sometimes it goes – like it did during the Tour – other times racing tests you – like it did in Drammen. That’s the game.
    Maybe The Stones were right all along. “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find – you get what you need.”
    I obviously needed to blow out the carbon, put a bib on and race my guts out. I did that. It wasn’t what I wanted – but hell if I didn’t need it.
    World Championships start Thursday. No matter what, I’ll be busy during the 10 days doing what I always do – getting after it and gunning for personal bests. (Kershaw, 2.21.11)
    I know this was a particularly long excerpt but if you want to read Devon’s full post you can find it on his website by clicking here.   (Devon, I hope you don’t mind!) 
    Finally, some pictures to leave you with: 
    Me and Sadie in Drammen 
    Thanks for reading everyone, 
    Sincerely, 
    Holly 🙂 

  • Pumped for Teammates + Personal Reflections

    Sometimes, when things aren’t going your way, it’s best to focus on the positive notes, on the bright spots.  While I have been having a rough start to my European Tour, some of my teammates have been turning in some awesome results.  While I would have loved to be racing in the sprint heats yesterday, it was AWESOME watching Kikkan kick butt – LIVE outsprinting all the other World Cup girls including the “Queen of Vancouver,” none other than Norway’s national hero, Marit Bjorgen.  It was extra fun watching the race from the side of the trail with my APU teammate, Sadie, who had an awesome first weekend of World Cup racing and Jessie, who had had her first World Cup that very day.  Jessie’s direct comment from the day was, “I wish the race would have been longer because it was so much fun out there!”  

    Sadie, Jessie, Holly acting goofy 🙂

    Sunday was Kikkan’s third World Cup win of her career and first in Norway which is an added bonus.  Her result definitely puts her at the top for the list of favorites going into Thursday’s World Championship sprint.  Someone on Facebook asked if anyone can beat Kikkan in a skate sprint right now and the answer was, “Maybe Shani Davis!”  After watching her final kick in the long straight finnish stretch I think I’d have to agree.  Here are some pictures of her victory: 

    Kikkan at the start of the finals
    Marit Bjorgen, the “Queen” of Vancouver…. 
    Shadows on course near start, looking across the stadium at the finish

    Sprint start – ladies followed closely by camera on snow machine


    The downhill on the dimond screen



    Instant replay of the finish, Kikkan in Black
    Final results: USA #1!


    Her interview after crossing the finish line – and of course, a huge smile!

    As for my own racing, this past weekend wasn’t my best.  And, when you’re on the World Cup and have an off weekend or are disapointed by results, it’s compounded because your racing against people who are the best in the World, literally.  This weekend also served as my first hard race efforts in over a month.  It’s hard to fathom that I used a pair of World Cup races to “wake the body up”….. especially when it wasn’t that long ago that the Anchorage Cup was my regular race series. (Hard to believe, right?)
    This morning I was looking on Twitter and stumbled upon Devon Kershaw’s blog, a Canadian skier. I could really identify with his most recent post so I decided to include some excerpts in this post.  Here is what Devon had to say about racing in Drammen after a long period of training:



    “After not racing in so long, the main objective was obtained – feeling that hurt and racing with a bib on again. The reality is no matter how many interval sessions you do, or time trials – real competition can’t be faked and can only come through real racing – with a bib on, and the xc community watching.” (Kershaw, 2.21.11)


    Furthermore, everyone in the World Cup field wants the same thing.  The thing we have in common is that we all want to win.  Unfortunately, there can only be one winner – leaving second through last place for everyone else.  While it’s unrealistic for many of us to hope to win, everyone in the field is hoping to better their best result.  Everyone is searching for a PR or the “race of their life.”  When you think about it, one enters a race in an attempt to do something similar to everyone else – I suppose that is the essence of competition.  Sometimes goals are met, and other times, the athlete is left looking for another chance.  


    Devon also talked about an unsatisfying race on Sunday….. complete with Rolling Stones lyrics. It’s great, check it out: 


    While there’s nothing I loathe more than watching sprint rounds on tv after not qualifying and I was really disappointed with today’s sprint – I was straight up pumped for the crew.  For me, I’ll try to keep telling myself life goes on. It’s just racing. I wanted to have a personal best today when I woke up – and it didn’t happen. Every time I slip a bib over my shoulders I hope for a personal best – and it rarely happens. There are always other chances and luckily my next one is coming up quickly. I hope to make a quick turn around and be ready to go on Thursday for the maiden race of this year’s World Champs. I’m confident in the training Justin laid out, and I know that it will come around at some point (I just hope sooner rather than later!). All I can do is continue to try my best – which I did this weekend. Sometimes it goes – like it did during the Tour – other times racing tests you – like it did in Drammen. That’s the game.
    Maybe The Stones were right all along. “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find – you get what you need.”
    I obviously needed to blow out the carbon, put a bib on and race my guts out. I did that. It wasn’t what I wanted – but hell if I didn’t need it.
    World Championships start Thursday. No matter what, I’ll be busy during the 10 days doing what I always do – getting after it and gunning for personal bests. (Kershaw, 2.21.11)
    I know this was a particularly long excerpt but if you want to read Devon’s full post you can find it on his website by clicking here.   (Devon, I hope you don’t mind!) 
    Finally, some pictures to leave you with: 
    Me and Sadie in Drammen 
    Thanks for reading everyone, 
    Sincerely, 
    Holly 🙂 

  • Drammen 10/15km Classic Recap

    After reviewing yesterday’s sprint race in Drammen, Norway it’s time to get caught up on the distance racing action from the day before. And lucky for you I’m going to use some new graphs that I’ve been working on for a while. They’re similar to the biathlon graphs I introduced last week, with a few modifications and improvements.

    Let’s start with the top four men:

    This should be fairly self-explanatory, I hope. But here are some technical details if you’re into that kind of thing:

    • I’ve gradually become convinced that percent back from the median skier is often a better metric than percent back from the winner (which is what FIS points are based on). Additionally, I’ve standardized these values to account for systematic differences between interval start races, mass start races, etc. Hence, the y-axis literally represents standard deviations away from the mean, using percent back from the median skier as a base measure.
    • The race in question (i.e. Saturday’s race) is highlighted with a blue circle. The blue line tracks the median by season, but only for seasons with at least three races.
    • Since I’ve standardized the performance measure, I had a little fun with labeling performances that are within one, two, etc. standard deviations from the mean. So one SD better than the mean is ‘Good’, between 1-2 SDs better than the mean is ‘Elite’ and more than 2 SDs better than the mean I’ve playfully named ‘Inhuman’.
    • Take these ‘Good’, ‘Elite’ and ‘Inhuman’ labels with a grain of salt and a sense of humor. Even after standardizing the results, there’s still a fair bit of variation from race to race. So a result in the ‘Inhuman’ zone will typically be good enough for the win, but not always. Other times, a race can be won with a performance that is merely ‘Elite’. Generally speaking, ‘Inhuman’ performances are likely to put you in a position to win, ‘Elite’ performances will tend to put you on or near the podium and ‘Good’ performances are likely to put you in the World Cup points (i.e. top thirty). But these are just general rules of thumb.

    Anyway, back to Saturday’s race. Daniel Rickardsson outclassed the field by a healthy margin, putting himself well into the ‘Elite’ performance range. As you can see, this represents one of the best races of the season for him or even for his whole career, and if you’re from Sweden you’ve got to like the way his performances are trending.

    Martin Johnsrud Sundby also had a strong race, which stands out in part because of the heat that the Norwegian men have taken lately. Despite the complaints, it seems to me that Johnsrud Sundby has actually had a very strong season in distance events this year. Dario Cologna has been probably the strongest overall distance skier this season, but Saturday’s race, while just edging into the ‘Elite’ zone was probably just average for him. He’ll be expecting better over the next week at World Champs. Northug also had a strong race for him this season, despite being outclassed by Rickardsson.

    Now let’s look at the top four women:

    Now you can probably understand my word choice in labeling these performance zones. Marit Björgen is, indeed, inhuman. I mean, the only distance race she’s had this season that wasn’t more than 2 standard deviations away from the mean was the pursuit from the mini-tour back in Finland, where the tactics of stage racing came into play. And Saturday’s performance wasn’t even really as good as several of her others this season.

    Despite the focus on Björgen, Kowalczyk and Saarinen were actually not that far behind; the noticeable gap was really between third and fourth. Saarinen in particular had a strong day, seemingly recovering from problems with injuries. Hopefully her fitness will hold through World Champs. Johaug, despite finishing fourth with a performance that is pretty close to her median for this season, has had tantalizingly better results at times. When she’s hot (well, she’s always hot on some level) she really can put in dominating performances.

    Related posts:

    1. <La Clusaz Recap: Distance Mass Start
    2. <La Clusaz Recap: North American Women
    3. <Rybinsk: Pursuit Recap


  • Thanks Colter!!

  • Thanks Colter!!

  • Thanks Colter!!

  • Thanks Colter!!

  • Birkie week!

    Does Birkie fever got you eager as a beaver? Listen here to get in the mood (feel free to put these on a continuous audio loop at work all week).

    For most of us citizen skiers and master blasters, the season comes down to the Birkie. It is a crazy race that is unlike any other. It is big and important enough to get a story in the Washington Post – with one of the more perfect profiles of Ahvo that I have ever read 🙂 It has an entire library of aforementioned Birkie songs (available on CD with your donation to the local public radio station).

    Ari put a nice guide to the Birkie on his blog. He also has some good course profile info (in comparison to the Birkie office’s profile).

    The weather reports are starting to come out for race day. Sounds like the waxing should be pretty straight forward and conditions should be excellent! Birkie trail reports say that Hayward received 5-7″ in this latest system. Don’t know if it will be as fast as last year (which was course-record fast), but I am optimistic that it won’t be a 50k grinder.

    Anyone else still really confused as to why the official results go off of “chip time“, which does not start until you cross the 300m mark from the start? So unless you think you will finish in the top 6, let that be one more reason why starting on the front line does not matter – and may even be a negative (since last year I out-sprinted people on main street, but they “beat” me in the official results). Makes for a weird race strategy. Not sure why they don’t just put the timing wire at the start line. As I said, the Birkie is a race unlike any other!

    FYI: Make sure you pick up your bib at the Middle School this year.

    Oh, and Vakava Racing did wrap up our Minnesota Skinnyski Series Team Championship again this past weekend, even with Kathleen being our loan representative at the Finlandia – although she did win the race for good measure! (video evidence) Atta girl!

  • Birkie week!

    Does Birkie fever got you eager as a beaver? Listen here to get in the mood (feel free to put these on a continuous audio loop at work all week).

    For most of us citizen skiers and master blasters, the season comes down to the Birkie. It is a crazy race that is unlike any other. It is big and important enough to get a story in the Washington Post – with one of the more perfect profiles of Ahvo that I have ever read 🙂 It has an entire library of aforementioned Birkie songs (available on CD with your donation to the local public radio station).

    Ari put a nice guide to the Birkie on his blog. He also has some good course profile info (in comparison to the Birkie office’s profile).

    The weather reports are starting to come out for race day. Sounds like the waxing should be pretty straight forward and conditions should be excellent! Birkie trail reports say that Hayward received 5-7″ in this latest system. Don’t know if it will be as fast as last year (which was course-record fast), but I am optimistic that it won’t be a 50k grinder.

    Anyone else still really confused as to why the official results go off of “chip time“, which does not start until you cross the 300m mark from the start? So unless you think you will finish in the top 6, let that be one more reason why starting on the front line does not matter – and may even be a negative (since last year I out-sprinted people on main street, but they “beat” me in the official results). Makes for a weird race strategy. Not sure why they don’t just put the timing wire at the start line. As I said, the Birkie is a race unlike any other!

    FYI: Make sure you pick up your bib at the Middle School this year.

    Oh, and Vakava Racing did wrap up our Minnesota Skinnyski Series Team Championship again this past weekend, even with Kathleen being our loan representative at the Finlandia – although she did win the race for good measure! (video evidence) Atta girl!

  • Birkie week!

    Does Birkie fever got you eager as a beaver? Listen here to get in the mood (feel free to put these on a continuous audio loop at work all week).

    For most of us citizen skiers and master blasters, the season comes down to the Birkie. It is a crazy race that is unlike any other. It is big and important enough to get a story in the Washington Post – with one of the more perfect profiles of Ahvo that I have ever read 🙂 It has an entire library of aforementioned Birkie songs (available on CD with your donation to the local public radio station).

    Ari put a nice guide to the Birkie on his blog. He also has some good course profile info (in comparison to the Birkie office’s profile).

    The weather reports are starting to come out for race day. Sounds like the waxing should be pretty straight forward and conditions should be excellent! Birkie trail reports say that Hayward received 5-7″ in this latest system. Don’t know if it will be as fast as last year (which was course-record fast), but I am optimistic that it won’t be a 50k grinder.

    Anyone else still really confused as to why the official results go off of “chip time“, which does not start until you cross the 300m mark from the start? So unless you think you will finish in the top 6, let that be one more reason why starting on the front line does not matter – and may even be a negative (since last year I out-sprinted people on main street, but they “beat” me in the official results). Makes for a weird race strategy. Not sure why they don’t just put the timing wire at the start line. As I said, the Birkie is a race unlike any other!

    FYI: Make sure you pick up your bib at the Middle School this year.

    Oh, and Vakava Racing did wrap up our Minnesota Skinnyski Series Team Championship again this past weekend, even with Kathleen being our loan representative at the Finlandia – although she did win the race for good measure! (video evidence) Atta girl!

  • Birkie week!

    Does Birkie fever got you eager as a beaver? Listen here to get in the mood (feel free to put these on a continuous audio loop at work all week).

    For most of us citizen skiers and master blasters, the season comes down to the Birkie. It is a crazy race that is unlike any other. It is big and important enough to get a story in the Washington Post – with one of the more perfect profiles of Ahvo that I have ever read 🙂 It has an entire library of aforementioned Birkie songs (available on CD with your donation to the local public radio station).

    Ari put a nice guide to the Birkie on his blog. He also has some good course profile info (in comparison to the Birkie office’s profile).

    The weather reports are starting to come out for race day. Sounds like the waxing should be pretty straight forward and conditions should be excellent! Birkie trail reports say that Hayward received 5-7″ in this latest system. Don’t know if it will be as fast as last year (which was course-record fast), but I am optimistic that it won’t be a 50k grinder.

    Anyone else still really confused as to why the official results go off of “chip time“, which does not start until you cross the 300m mark from the start? So unless you think you will finish in the top 6, let that be one more reason why starting on the front line does not matter – and may even be a negative (since last year I out-sprinted people on main street, but they “beat” me in the official results). Makes for a weird race strategy. Not sure why they don’t just put the timing wire at the start line. As I said, the Birkie is a race unlike any other!

    FYI: Make sure you pick up your bib at the Middle School this year.

    Oh, and Vakava Racing did wrap up our Minnesota Skinnyski Series Team Championship again this past weekend, even with Kathleen being our loan representative at the Finlandia – although she did win the race for good measure! (video evidence) Atta girl!

  • View The Su

    It’s become sort of an annual tradition for me to spectate the Susitna 100. Go to the start, head out on the trail a few minutes before the racers, then cheer them on as they pass by. I usually get in a nice long ski as well. I don’t really have any interest in racing the Su 100 again. There are a number of things about the race that I don’t really care for. But the racers – I respect and admire all of them, so its fun to get out on the trail and cheer them on.

    This year, Rob and I went together. Our original plan was to ski out to Luce’s Lodge. We’d get to spend the day in the middle of the pack, seeing a lot of the bikers and skiers. We’d stop there for a burger, then turnaround and ski back to the start in the evening, seeing the runners and the rest of the bikers and skiers along the way, and maybe even get passed by the leaders near the finish. That would have been an ambitious day (75 miles), for a couple of spectators. Because of a litany of excuses ranging from head colds to cats, we decided to turnaround just after we hit the Yentna River. So it was only a 60 mile ski.

    The race was really interesting, as always. After pre-race rumors of “a foot of new snow”, there were only a few inches at the start. It had been packed well enough that the bikers were able to ride without any problems. But the cold, dry snow didn’t glide very well for the skiers. By Flathorn Lake, there wasn’t any new snow, making the trail even faster for the bikes, but at least by then the sun had warmed the snow enough that the skiing was pretty fast too. The lead bikers rocked it the whole way. Three guys finished around 11 hours. That’s fast. Given the conditions, I would have expected relatively fast skier times as well, but we only saw about have the course, so who knows what it was like the rest of the way. I do know that Chet had some problems with his sled early on, so that was likely a factor for him. But no skiers under 20 hours – I can’t remember the last time that happened.

    For us, it was a fantastic day of fun in the sun. Here’s a link to our route on a map. Once again, Rob was the trip photographer.

     

    IMG_0099

     

    I had an idea that since we’d be seeing so much of the race, it would be fun to create a little documentary video. So early on, I tried to get video clips of everyone. But I didn’t realize that my memory card was pretty much already full of photos and videos of my kids. So I ran out of card space before we were even got to Flathorn. Bummer! So instead of a cool race documentary, all you get is a little video dump of all the footage I did take in the first couple of hours.

  • View The Su

    It’s become sort of an annual tradition for me to spectate the Susitna 100. Go to the start, head out on the trail a few minutes before the racers, then cheer them on as they pass by. I usually get in a nice long ski as well. I don’t really have any interest in racing the Su 100 again. There are a number of things about the race that I don’t really care for. But the racers – I respect and admire all of them, so its fun to get out on the trail and cheer them on.

    This year, Rob and I went together. Our original plan was to ski out to Luce’s Lodge. We’d get to spend the day in the middle of the pack, seeing a lot of the bikers and skiers. We’d stop there for a burger, then turnaround and ski back to the start in the evening, seeing the runners and the rest of the bikers and skiers along the way, and maybe even get passed by the leaders near the finish. That would have been an ambitious day (75 miles), for a couple of spectators. Because of a litany of excuses ranging from head colds to cats, we decided to turnaround just after we hit the Yentna River. So it was only a 60 mile ski.

    The race was really interesting, as always. After pre-race rumors of “a foot of new snow”, there were only a few inches at the start. It had been packed well enough that the bikers were able to ride without any problems. But the cold, dry snow didn’t glide very well for the skiers. By Flathorn Lake, there wasn’t any new snow, making the trail even faster for the bikes, but at least by then the sun had warmed the snow enough that the skiing was pretty fast too. The lead bikers rocked it the whole way. Three guys finished around 11 hours. That’s fast. Given the conditions, I would have expected relatively fast skier times as well, but we only saw about have the course, so who knows what it was like the rest of the way. I do know that Chet had some problems with his sled early on, so that was likely a factor for him. But no skiers under 20 hours – I can’t remember the last time that happened.

    For us, it was a fantastic day of fun in the sun. Here’s a link to our route on a map. Once again, Rob was the trip photographer.

     

    IMG_0099

     

    I had an idea that since we’d be seeing so much of the race, it would be fun to create a little documentary video. So early on, I tried to get video clips of everyone. But I didn’t realize that my memory card was pretty much already full of photos and videos of my kids. So I ran out of card space before we were even got to Flathorn. Bummer! So instead of a cool race documentary, all you get is a little video dump of all the footage I did take in the first couple of hours.

  • View The Su

    It’s become sort of an annual tradition for me to spectate the Susitna 100. Go to the start, head out on the trail a few minutes before the racers, then cheer them on as they pass by. I usually get in a nice long ski as well. I don’t really have any interest in racing the Su 100 again. There are a number of things about the race that I don’t really care for. But the racers – I respect and admire all of them, so its fun to get out on the trail and cheer them on.

    This year, Rob and I went together. Our original plan was to ski out to Luce’s Lodge. We’d get to spend the day in the middle of the pack, seeing a lot of the bikers and skiers. We’d stop there for a burger, then turnaround and ski back to the start in the evening, seeing the runners and the rest of the bikers and skiers along the way, and maybe even get passed by the leaders near the finish. That would have been an ambitious day (75 miles), for a couple of spectators. Because of a litany of excuses ranging from head colds to cats, we decided to turnaround just after we hit the Yentna River. So it was only a 60 mile ski.

    The race was really interesting, as always. After pre-race rumors of “a foot of new snow”, there were only a few inches at the start. It had been packed well enough that the bikers were able to ride without any problems. But the cold, dry snow didn’t glide very well for the skiers. By Flathorn Lake, there wasn’t any new snow, making the trail even faster for the bikes, but at least by then the sun had warmed the snow enough that the skiing was pretty fast too. The lead bikers rocked it the whole way. Three guys finished around 11 hours. That’s fast. Given the conditions, I would have expected relatively fast skier times as well, but we only saw about have the course, so who knows what it was like the rest of the way. I do know that Chet had some problems with his sled early on, so that was likely a factor for him. But no skiers under 20 hours – I can’t remember the last time that happened.

    For us, it was a fantastic day of fun in the sun. Here’s a link to our route on a map. Once again, Rob was the trip photographer.

     

    IMG_0099

     

    I had an idea that since we’d be seeing so much of the race, it would be fun to create a little documentary video. So early on, I tried to get video clips of everyone. But I didn’t realize that my memory card was pretty much already full of photos and videos of my kids. So I ran out of card space before we were even got to Flathorn. Bummer! So instead of a cool race documentary, all you get is a little video dump of all the footage I did take in the first couple of hours.

  • View The Su

    It’s become sort of an annual tradition for me to spectate the Susitna 100. Go to the start, head out on the trail a few minutes before the racers, then cheer them on as they pass by. I usually get in a nice long ski as well. I don’t really have any interest in racing the Su 100 again. There are a number of things about the race that I don’t really care for. But the racers – I respect and admire all of them, so its fun to get out on the trail and cheer them on.

    This year, Rob and I went together. Our original plan was to ski out to Luce’s Lodge. We’d get to spend the day in the middle of the pack, seeing a lot of the bikers and skiers. We’d stop there for a burger, then turnaround and ski back to the start in the evening, seeing the runners and the rest of the bikers and skiers along the way, and maybe even get passed by the leaders near the finish. That would have been an ambitious day (75 miles), for a couple of spectators. Because of a litany of excuses ranging from head colds to cats, we decided to turnaround just after we hit the Yentna River. So it was only a 60 mile ski.

    The race was really interesting, as always. After pre-race rumors of “a foot of new snow”, there were only a few inches at the start. It had been packed well enough that the bikers were able to ride without any problems. But the cold, dry snow didn’t glide very well for the skiers. By Flathorn Lake, there wasn’t any new snow, making the trail even faster for the bikes, but at least by then the sun had warmed the snow enough that the skiing was pretty fast too. The lead bikers rocked it the whole way. Three guys finished around 11 hours. That’s fast. Given the conditions, I would have expected relatively fast skier times as well, but we only saw about have the course, so who knows what it was like the rest of the way. I do know that Chet had some problems with his sled early on, so that was likely a factor for him. But no skiers under 20 hours – I can’t remember the last time that happened.

    For us, it was a fantastic day of fun in the sun. Here’s a link to our route on a map. Once again, Rob was the trip photographer.

     

    IMG_0099

     

    I had an idea that since we’d be seeing so much of the race, it would be fun to create a little documentary video. So early on, I tried to get video clips of everyone. But I didn’t realize that my memory card was pretty much already full of photos and videos of my kids. So I ran out of card space before we were even got to Flathorn. Bummer! So instead of a cool race documentary, all you get is a little video dump of all the footage I did take in the first couple of hours.

  • Drammen Sprint Recap

    I’ve got the sprint heat times in hand again, thanks to Jan at WorldOfXC.com, so let’s look at how things played out. Starting with the men:

    I’ve omitted a handful of times from this graph that were unusually slow, which typically happens due to a crash, broken pole or some other mishap.

    As usual with the men, we saw the field skiing fairly hard in qualification and then backing off a bit and being a slightly more tactical in the subsequent heats. Northug put in relatively fast times in both the quarters and semis, in addition to having one of the top qualifying times. After some very fast qualifying times, Jönsson and Jylhae both lucked into a rather slow quarterfinal heat. One of the big stories of the day was of course Alex Harvey’s second place finish. His day was interesting for how consistently he skied through all four rounds.

    A quick look at the semifinals shows that they were pretty well mixed, so there wasn’t much of advantage on that score on this particular day.

    On to the women:

    Once again, I’ve dropped 1-2 times from this graph that were much, much slower than the rest.

    As usual with the women, the qualification round was slower than most of the rest of the heats, although the speeds remained mostly constant once they reached the semis and finals. Maiken Falla laid down some fast times all day long, only getting edged out at the very end by Randall. Ida Ingemarsdotter had an excellent sprint race, despite finishing last in the final.

    Randall also stumbled into some luck by having a somewhat slower quarterfinal than all of the other finalists. Here’s a look at the semifinals for the women:

    Interesting split here. Generally, semifinal 1 was slightly faster, and so it had both the lucky losers. But the eventual winner, Randall, came from semifinal 2. Obviously this is no slight on Randall, but this just reinforces how capricious sprint racing can be; a lot can turn on the particular athletes you have to face on the way to the final.

    Related posts:

    1. <Recap: Davos Sprint
    2. <Recap: Davos Sprint Con’t
    3. <TdS Classic Sprint Recap


  • The BIG Show comes to Oslo

    With Torin’s shoulder still needing a few more days before subjecting it to racing, he opted out of starting this past weekend’s World Cup in Drammen, Norway where the rest of the US crew was racing. It was a pretty easy decision but not too pleasant as we were both looking forward to another chance work on some of the new ideas and keep the momentum rolling after last weeks race in Beitostolen.

    Instead, we made the 30 minute trek into Olso and Holmenkollen for a chance to train on the sprint course for the first time. Hollmenkollen is a legendary ski race venue and has hosted the 1952 Olympics, the 1982 World Championships and now these upcoming Nordic World Champs. To be here in the lead up to the competitions is to see a country gripped by the sport of Nordic skiing. The newspapers are featuring daily front page stories on the event and the sporting heroes who will be competing. The TV is running daily shows of old black and white newsreels of notable competitions and competitors from the days of yore. It is clear that while they love celebrating the present event they are very mindful of keeping the history alive and showing appreciation and respect for all that have gone before these modern champions. This helps give perspective; allowing us to see that the current generation of erstwhile champions (to paraphrase Issac Newton) “Stands on the shoulders of giants” as they reach new heights.


    Torin passing an ancient church adjacent to the course.

    I would rank this sprint course as one of the best designed I have seen. Starting in the HUGE stadium (I heard Liz Stephan speculate that it had to take a least one hundred passes of the Pisten Bully groomer to pack it out)the first 200-300 meters are a gradual uphill to a hard left hander. Dropping into a tuck for a fast downhill into right turn leads to the base of, what by sprint course standards is a big climb. This climb will require the men to V1 for 30 seconds. The ladies course enters the climb about 1/3 of the way up but after the steepest section. The climb takes them over Gratiskollen (meaning “free hill”, where traditionally spectators could watch the races without paying). I have paid $100 for the privilege of standing with a few thousand
    drunk Norwegians in knee deep snow to watch the sprint. It was the only place that still had space available! These crafty Norwegians know a thing or two about capitalism. Anyway back to the races. After the top of Gratiskollen the course begins to drop into the stadium with a long gradual downhill that will require fast, no poles (speed skater style) skiing for 300 meters before a short steep climb and a big curve around the back end of the stadium. The final 200 meters is down hill and flat promising some very dramatic finishes. There is plenty of room to pass. The big climb will help spread out the field a bit. The flats and gradual downs will reward the skiers who are at home at high speed skating. It has the whole package of modern skiing skills.


    Torin atop Gratiskollen looking into the stadium and the monster 130m! jump hill

    Torin did some hard intervals while I danced around trying to keep warm and film the efforts for immediate analysis. The Norwegian World Champion sprint team was also skipping Drammen (except Northug) and were, interestingly, doing a very similar workout to ours.

    The circus atmosphere is beginning to build early with many tourists already wandering around the stadium. Here is me trying to coax a reluctant Torin away from the ski simulator that promises all thrills of jumping the big hill at Hollmenkollen or racing the downhill course at Beaver Creek. The crowd of tourists waiting to get a ride attests that Norwegians have strong stomachs.

    Because when you turn around from the simulator cue this is view down the out run of the jump!

  • The BIG Show comes to Oslo

    With Torin’s shoulder still needing a few more days before subjecting it to racing, he opted out of starting this past weekend’s World Cup in Drammen, Norway where the rest of the US crew was racing. It was a pretty easy decision but not too pleasant as we were both looking forward to another chance work on some of the new ideas and keep the momentum rolling after last weeks race in Beitostolen.

    Instead, we made the 30 minute trek into Olso and Holmenkollen for a chance to train on the sprint course for the first time. Hollmenkollen is a legendary ski race venue and has hosted the 1952 Olympics, the 1982 World Championships and now these upcoming Nordic World Champs. To be here in the lead up to the competitions is to see a country gripped by the sport of Nordic skiing. The newspapers are featuring daily front page stories on the event and the sporting heroes who will be competing. The TV is running daily shows of old black and white newsreels of notable competitions and competitors from the days of yore. It is clear that while they love celebrating the present event they are very mindful of keeping the history alive and showing appreciation and respect for all that have gone before these modern champions. This helps give perspective; allowing us to see that the current generation of erstwhile champions (to paraphrase Issac Newton) “Stands on the shoulders of giants” as they reach new heights.


    Torin passing an ancient church adjacent to the course.

    I would rank this sprint course as one of the best designed I have seen. Starting in the HUGE stadium (I heard Liz Stephan speculate that it had to take a least one hundred passes of the Pisten Bully groomer to pack it out)the first 200-300 meters are a gradual uphill to a hard left hander. Dropping into a tuck for a fast downhill into right turn leads to the base of, what by sprint course standards is a big climb. This climb will require the men to V1 for 30 seconds. The ladies course enters the climb about 1/3 of the way up but after the steepest section. The climb takes them over Gratiskollen (meaning “free hill”, where traditionally spectators could watch the races without paying). I have paid $100 for the privilege of standing with a few thousand
    drunk Norwegians in knee deep snow to watch the sprint. It was the only place that still had space available! These crafty Norwegians know a thing or two about capitalism. Anyway back to the races. After the top of Gratiskollen the course begins to drop into the stadium with a long gradual downhill that will require fast, no poles (speed skater style) skiing for 300 meters before a short steep climb and a big curve around the back end of the stadium. The final 200 meters is down hill and flat promising some very dramatic finishes. There is plenty of room to pass. The big climb will help spread out the field a bit. The flats and gradual downs will reward the skiers who are at home at high speed skating. It has the whole package of modern skiing skills.


    Torin atop Gratiskollen looking into the stadium and the monster 130m! jump hill

    Torin did some hard intervals while I danced around trying to keep warm and film the efforts for immediate analysis. The Norwegian World Champion sprint team was also skipping Drammen (except Northug) and were, interestingly, doing a very similar workout to ours.

    The circus atmosphere is beginning to build early with many tourists already wandering around the stadium. Here is me trying to coax a reluctant Torin away from the ski simulator that promises all thrills of jumping the big hill at Hollmenkollen or racing the downhill course at Beaver Creek. The crowd of tourists waiting to get a ride attests that Norwegians have strong stomachs.

    Because when you turn around from the simulator cue this is view down the out run of the jump!

  • Foreign Brushes

    I was over at Lindsley’s house waxing my skis and I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this brush. As you all know (at least those of you who read this page on a daily basis and have done so for more than a year), Lindsley went over to Falun, Sweden last year along with Landgraf to race in the Master’s World Championships.  At the time I thought it was sort of hilarious because only a skier