FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • Picking up the pace!

    Hello from Drammen everyone! 

    I’ve just arrived in this new city to prepare for the upcoming weekend’s World Cup races.  This is the first time that the whole Cross Country World Championships team has been together and we are quite the Crew. 

    The past week in Sjujsoen absolutely flew by and I have to say, it was a wonderful introduction to the country and a very, very restful place to become accustomed to the 10-hour time difference. I’m happy to report that I only had one fitful night of “sleep” that involved waking up at 3am and staying up through the entire next day.  I continue to be impressed with Kikkan’s ability to sleep anywhere – and to sleep long hours.  (She’s good at this!)
    Skiing in Sjujsoen at sunset
    As far as a training camp environment goes, you basically couldn’t beat the hotel we were staying at. Every day we walked out the door to over 200 kilometers of perfectly groomed trails that were great for easy and/or recovery training.  The downside of being an athlete in training (preparing for upcoming races) is that you must be careful to not “over do it” with training too many hours or skiing to hard.  I miss that about being a coach when there was absolutely no downside to skiing 6 hours per day if I felt like it and not caring if I was so tired at the end of the day to even put my head on the pillow. (However, life as an athlete has many, many benefits – for example, I wouldn’t be here otherwise!)
    For our hard interval sessions we would drive 15 minutes down the hill to the Birkebeiner Stadium that was used in the 1994 Winter Olympic games in Lillehammer. Last night Kikkan and I even watched a documentary about the men’s 4x10k relay about the most famous ski race in history between Norway and Italy for the Gold medal… Norway expected to win the race by minutes with plenty of time to carry the country’s flag down the finish stretch but Italy, the underdog, hung with each skier, each lap of the race and Silvio Fauner beat Bjorn Daehlie in a sprint to the line in front of 100,000 Norwegians.  (In the interview he described how the crowd literally went silent when he lost.)  It was sweet to recognize the trails  – the hills, bridges, and terrain that we had done our intervals on the day before. It was SWEET!  The whole Olympic venue is still alive and thriving – bustling with energy and people skiing everywhere. 

    Fauner and Daehlie in the final stretch ’94

    Me in the Olympic Stadium…. 
    Now that I’m in Drammen it’s time to switch gears and the pace of life is fast forwarding quickly!  I haven’t raced in over a month which makes me a bit anxious about this weekend’s competitions but it will be good to get some starts before Worlds the following week.  It’s funny to think that I’m using World Cups as my “warm up races” for Worlds but I really value the hard training camp I had at home – which will hopefully set me up for a peak here soon.  I theoretically have fifteen races in the next month and a half and I can’t wait for the wild ride to come!

    I’ll leave you all with a few pictures from the last couple of days.  A special thanks to Deb, Kikkan’s Mom, who supplied us with AMPLE Valentine’s Day card making supplies. We had a busy afternoon celebrating eventhough our husbands were thousands of miles away! 

    Our beds, AKA “craft tables”

    13 Valentines in all!

    This is the Valentine that I received from Rob. For those of you that know him, this is one of the best compliments I can receive! 🙂 

    We made Valentines for all the guys in our group.  I think that Kikkan and I enjoyed making them slightly more than the guys appreciated receiving them! (A look of pure excitement from Erik Flora)

    Holding up our creations in the country side, complete with Fast and Female Valentine’s Day ware! 

    We also skied to the store… just because we could. It’s sweet to leave your skis lined up against the side of the store with the other skier-patrons! 

    Here I am excited about an El Paso enchilada dinner kit 

    And here’s Kikkan biting into a huge chunk of the famous brown cheese!
    More soon/thanks for reading,
    Holly 

  • Picking up the pace!

    Hello from Drammen everyone! 

    I’ve just arrived in this new city to prepare for the upcoming weekend’s World Cup races.  This is the first time that the whole Cross Country World Championships team has been together and we are quite the Crew. 

    The past week in Sjujsoen absolutely flew by and I have to say, it was a wonderful introduction to the country and a very, very restful place to become accustomed to the 10-hour time difference. I’m happy to report that I only had one fitful night of “sleep” that involved waking up at 3am and staying up through the entire next day.  I continue to be impressed with Kikkan’s ability to sleep anywhere – and to sleep long hours.  (She’s good at this!)
    Skiing in Sjujsoen at sunset
    As far as a training camp environment goes, you basically couldn’t beat the hotel we were staying at. Every day we walked out the door to over 200 kilometers of perfectly groomed trails that were great for easy and/or recovery training.  The downside of being an athlete in training (preparing for upcoming races) is that you must be careful to not “over do it” with training too many hours or skiing to hard.  I miss that about being a coach when there was absolutely no downside to skiing 6 hours per day if I felt like it and not caring if I was so tired at the end of the day to even put my head on the pillow. (However, life as an athlete has many, many benefits – for example, I wouldn’t be here otherwise!)
    For our hard interval sessions we would drive 15 minutes down the hill to the Birkebeiner Stadium that was used in the 1994 Winter Olympic games in Lillehammer. Last night Kikkan and I even watched a documentary about the men’s 4x10k relay about the most famous ski race in history between Norway and Italy for the Gold medal… Norway expected to win the race by minutes with plenty of time to carry the country’s flag down the finish stretch but Italy, the underdog, hung with each skier, each lap of the race and Silvio Fauner beat Bjorn Daehlie in a sprint to the line in front of 100,000 Norwegians.  (In the interview he described how the crowd literally went silent when he lost.)  It was sweet to recognize the trails  – the hills, bridges, and terrain that we had done our intervals on the day before. It was SWEET!  The whole Olympic venue is still alive and thriving – bustling with energy and people skiing everywhere. 

    Fauner and Daehlie in the final stretch ’94

    Me in the Olympic Stadium…. 
    Now that I’m in Drammen it’s time to switch gears and the pace of life is fast forwarding quickly!  I haven’t raced in over a month which makes me a bit anxious about this weekend’s competitions but it will be good to get some starts before Worlds the following week.  It’s funny to think that I’m using World Cups as my “warm up races” for Worlds but I really value the hard training camp I had at home – which will hopefully set me up for a peak here soon.  I theoretically have fifteen races in the next month and a half and I can’t wait for the wild ride to come!

    I’ll leave you all with a few pictures from the last couple of days.  A special thanks to Deb, Kikkan’s Mom, who supplied us with AMPLE Valentine’s Day card making supplies. We had a busy afternoon celebrating eventhough our husbands were thousands of miles away! 

    Our beds, AKA “craft tables”

    13 Valentines in all!

    This is the Valentine that I received from Rob. For those of you that know him, this is one of the best compliments I can receive! 🙂 

    We made Valentines for all the guys in our group.  I think that Kikkan and I enjoyed making them slightly more than the guys appreciated receiving them! (A look of pure excitement from Erik Flora)

    Holding up our creations in the country side, complete with Fast and Female Valentine’s Day ware! 

    We also skied to the store… just because we could. It’s sweet to leave your skis lined up against the side of the store with the other skier-patrons! 

    Here I am excited about an El Paso enchilada dinner kit 

    And here’s Kikkan biting into a huge chunk of the famous brown cheese!
    More soon/thanks for reading,
    Holly 

  • Picking up the pace!

    Hello from Drammen everyone! 

    I’ve just arrived in this new city to prepare for the upcoming weekend’s World Cup races.  This is the first time that the whole Cross Country World Championships team has been together and we are quite the Crew. 

    The past week in Sjujsoen absolutely flew by and I have to say, it was a wonderful introduction to the country and a very, very restful place to become accustomed to the 10-hour time difference. I’m happy to report that I only had one fitful night of “sleep” that involved waking up at 3am and staying up through the entire next day.  I continue to be impressed with Kikkan’s ability to sleep anywhere – and to sleep long hours.  (She’s good at this!)
    Skiing in Sjujsoen at sunset
    As far as a training camp environment goes, you basically couldn’t beat the hotel we were staying at. Every day we walked out the door to over 200 kilometers of perfectly groomed trails that were great for easy and/or recovery training.  The downside of being an athlete in training (preparing for upcoming races) is that you must be careful to not “over do it” with training too many hours or skiing to hard.  I miss that about being a coach when there was absolutely no downside to skiing 6 hours per day if I felt like it and not caring if I was so tired at the end of the day to even put my head on the pillow. (However, life as an athlete has many, many benefits – for example, I wouldn’t be here otherwise!)
    For our hard interval sessions we would drive 15 minutes down the hill to the Birkebeiner Stadium that was used in the 1994 Winter Olympic games in Lillehammer. Last night Kikkan and I even watched a documentary about the men’s 4x10k relay about the most famous ski race in history between Norway and Italy for the Gold medal… Norway expected to win the race by minutes with plenty of time to carry the country’s flag down the finish stretch but Italy, the underdog, hung with each skier, each lap of the race and Silvio Fauner beat Bjorn Daehlie in a sprint to the line in front of 100,000 Norwegians.  (In the interview he described how the crowd literally went silent when he lost.)  It was sweet to recognize the trails  – the hills, bridges, and terrain that we had done our intervals on the day before. It was SWEET!  The whole Olympic venue is still alive and thriving – bustling with energy and people skiing everywhere. 

    Fauner and Daehlie in the final stretch ’94

    Me in the Olympic Stadium…. 
    Now that I’m in Drammen it’s time to switch gears and the pace of life is fast forwarding quickly!  I haven’t raced in over a month which makes me a bit anxious about this weekend’s competitions but it will be good to get some starts before Worlds the following week.  It’s funny to think that I’m using World Cups as my “warm up races” for Worlds but I really value the hard training camp I had at home – which will hopefully set me up for a peak here soon.  I theoretically have fifteen races in the next month and a half and I can’t wait for the wild ride to come!

    I’ll leave you all with a few pictures from the last couple of days.  A special thanks to Deb, Kikkan’s Mom, who supplied us with AMPLE Valentine’s Day card making supplies. We had a busy afternoon celebrating eventhough our husbands were thousands of miles away! 

    Our beds, AKA “craft tables”

    13 Valentines in all!

    This is the Valentine that I received from Rob. For those of you that know him, this is one of the best compliments I can receive! 🙂 

    We made Valentines for all the guys in our group.  I think that Kikkan and I enjoyed making them slightly more than the guys appreciated receiving them! (A look of pure excitement from Erik Flora)

    Holding up our creations in the country side, complete with Fast and Female Valentine’s Day ware! 

    We also skied to the store… just because we could. It’s sweet to leave your skis lined up against the side of the store with the other skier-patrons! 

    Here I am excited about an El Paso enchilada dinner kit 

    And here’s Kikkan biting into a huge chunk of the famous brown cheese!
    More soon/thanks for reading,
    Holly 

  • Picking up the pace!

    Hello from Drammen everyone! 

    I’ve just arrived in this new city to prepare for the upcoming weekend’s World Cup races.  This is the first time that the whole Cross Country World Championships team has been together and we are quite the Crew. 

    The past week in Sjujsoen absolutely flew by and I have to say, it was a wonderful introduction to the country and a very, very restful place to become accustomed to the 10-hour time difference. I’m happy to report that I only had one fitful night of “sleep” that involved waking up at 3am and staying up through the entire next day.  I continue to be impressed with Kikkan’s ability to sleep anywhere – and to sleep long hours.  (She’s good at this!)
    Skiing in Sjujsoen at sunset
    As far as a training camp environment goes, you basically couldn’t beat the hotel we were staying at. Every day we walked out the door to over 200 kilometers of perfectly groomed trails that were great for easy and/or recovery training.  The downside of being an athlete in training (preparing for upcoming races) is that you must be careful to not “over do it” with training too many hours or skiing to hard.  I miss that about being a coach when there was absolutely no downside to skiing 6 hours per day if I felt like it and not caring if I was so tired at the end of the day to even put my head on the pillow. (However, life as an athlete has many, many benefits – for example, I wouldn’t be here otherwise!)
    For our hard interval sessions we would drive 15 minutes down the hill to the Birkebeiner Stadium that was used in the 1994 Winter Olympic games in Lillehammer. Last night Kikkan and I even watched a documentary about the men’s 4x10k relay about the most famous ski race in history between Norway and Italy for the Gold medal… Norway expected to win the race by minutes with plenty of time to carry the country’s flag down the finish stretch but Italy, the underdog, hung with each skier, each lap of the race and Silvio Fauner beat Bjorn Daehlie in a sprint to the line in front of 100,000 Norwegians.  (In the interview he described how the crowd literally went silent when he lost.)  It was sweet to recognize the trails  – the hills, bridges, and terrain that we had done our intervals on the day before. It was SWEET!  The whole Olympic venue is still alive and thriving – bustling with energy and people skiing everywhere. 

    Fauner and Daehlie in the final stretch ’94

    Me in the Olympic Stadium…. 
    Now that I’m in Drammen it’s time to switch gears and the pace of life is fast forwarding quickly!  I haven’t raced in over a month which makes me a bit anxious about this weekend’s competitions but it will be good to get some starts before Worlds the following week.  It’s funny to think that I’m using World Cups as my “warm up races” for Worlds but I really value the hard training camp I had at home – which will hopefully set me up for a peak here soon.  I theoretically have fifteen races in the next month and a half and I can’t wait for the wild ride to come!

    I’ll leave you all with a few pictures from the last couple of days.  A special thanks to Deb, Kikkan’s Mom, who supplied us with AMPLE Valentine’s Day card making supplies. We had a busy afternoon celebrating eventhough our husbands were thousands of miles away! 

    Our beds, AKA “craft tables”

    13 Valentines in all!

    This is the Valentine that I received from Rob. For those of you that know him, this is one of the best compliments I can receive! 🙂 

    We made Valentines for all the guys in our group.  I think that Kikkan and I enjoyed making them slightly more than the guys appreciated receiving them! (A look of pure excitement from Erik Flora)

    Holding up our creations in the country side, complete with Fast and Female Valentine’s Day ware! 

    We also skied to the store… just because we could. It’s sweet to leave your skis lined up against the side of the store with the other skier-patrons! 

    Here I am excited about an El Paso enchilada dinner kit 

    And here’s Kikkan biting into a huge chunk of the famous brown cheese!
    More soon/thanks for reading,
    Holly 

  • Nicole Fessel Update

    After taking a bit of a break from the high profile races through January, Nicole Fessel popped up again this past weekend at the OPA Cup races in Italy. I’ve noted earlier that she started this season with quite a bang, and she picked right up where she left off, winning both the sprint and distance OPA Cups this weekend.

    I don’t have a ton of great comparison tools for sprinting, but we can look more closely at her distance race. In terms of FIS points, it might look OK, but not spectacular:

    But of course, the penalty may or may not have captured what we’re trying to measure. Instead, let’s look at a percent back difference plot, tracking each head-to-head performance of Fessel versus one of her competitors from this particular OPA Cup race:

    What I take away from this is that Fessel seems to have picked up right where she left off. This weekend she skied practically identically relative to her competitors compared to how she fared against them earlier in the fall. If anything, she may have done a tad better.

    She may be a skier to watch going into World Championships.

    Related posts:

    1. <Head-to-Head
    2. <Poll Update
    3. <Week In Review: Friday Oct 1st


  • 53

    That’s the current temperature (in degrees Fahrenheit) in Hayward, Wisconsin.  Might as well enjoy it while you’ve got it!

  • GMVS Nordic at New England J2/EHSC Qualifiers

    It was a very cold day in Craftsbury for the New England J2/EHSC Qualifier races. But we had a positive day on the race trails, and we were once again well-fed by the parents!


    Ryely skied strong, finishing 2nd overall on the day.

    Heidi won the whole kit-and-kaboodle.

    Hans finished 5th overall for the day.

    Fitz toughed through the back pain and finished 10th overall.

    Devlin had an awesome skate race and was 7th for the day.

    Brennan Degen raced well as a first-year J2, and qualified for the J2 team as the #6 overall.

    Link to results.

  • GMVS Nordic at New England J2/EHSC Qualifiers

    It was a very cold day in Craftsbury for the New England J2/EHSC Qualifier races. But we had a positive day on the race trails, and we were once again well-fed by the parents!


    Ryely skied strong, finishing 2nd overall on the day.

    Heidi won the whole kit-and-kaboodle.

    Hans finished 5th overall for the day.

    Fitz toughed through the back pain and finished 10th overall.

    Devlin had an awesome skate race and was 7th for the day.

    Brennan Degen raced well as a first-year J2, and qualified for the J2 team as the #6 overall.

    Link to results.

  • Toe Warmers–An Essential Ski Bag Item

    Back in the old days I never used to use these things…but I was young and stupid back then.
    Up at the Pepsi Challenge, as Frank and I were preparing to confront a -10 start (or whatever it was), Frank saved my life by whipping an extra pair of toe warmers out of his pocket.
    “Here…do you want these?”
    DO I!
    There was a time when I would have turned him down out of the misplaced notion that I’d

  • More on Mora

    Dave writes:

    What a day! The Vasaloppet does seem to be our race. We’ve accumulated a huge herd of horses and a good number of wreaths over the years, and Sunday saw some significant additions. It’s great to see everyone skiing so well and having all that hard work pay off.

    35k skate men’s and women’s champs and 42k classic men’s champ

    You’ve already read Nate’s account; I’ll just add a note of my own. I’ve always loved doing the Vasaloppet. Aside from getting some pretty good results in 30+ years, there’s something about the friendliness of the small-town atmosphere, the chiming of the bell pulling you across the lake, the mainstreet finish, the shower and the lunch afterwards (except maybe for that baloney sandwich).

    I’ve also been involved in running enough races to really appreciate all the hard work that goes into something like the Vasaloppet. I especially appreciate all the volunteers who actually make the race possible and whose efforts often aren’t given enough recognition.

    So it’s with a certain amount of dismay that I recount this aspect of my race. I had skipped the first food stop, so I wanted to make sure that I got a good feed at the second. We came into it fast, however, and, as sometimes does happen, the cup of liquid that was pushed out to me, instead of ending up in my mouth, explodes all over my face and my glasses.

    When I open my eyes a split second later, I realize that another of the volunteers has accidentally backed straight ahead of me into my path. I’m still going at a good clip, she realizes I’m coming straight at her, I lurch to the left, she moves in the same direction, we both shift to the opposite direction, and then BAM. I reach forward to grab her and hold her up, but just end up flattening her. Right over her I go, one ski on each side of her body. Amazingly enough, I don’t end up on top of her. In fact, the whole thing doesn’t even slow me down (which is a good thing because I’m doing my damnedest to hold on to Ahlers and the pack ahead of me).

    So, to the volunteer, whoever you are, I do apologize, and I really do appreciate your being out there for us. I’ll be back again next year, and, if I do encounter you, I promise it’ll be in a much more friendly manner.


    (My wife keeps wanting me to bring home one of the pretty blue ones. Sorry, Paula.)

  • More on Mora

    Dave writes:

    What a day! The Vasaloppet does seem to be our race. We’ve accumulated a huge herd of horses and a good number of wreaths over the years, and Sunday saw some significant additions. It’s great to see everyone skiing so well and having all that hard work pay off.

    35k skate men’s and women’s champs and 42k classic men’s champ

    You’ve already read Nate’s account; I’ll just add a note of my own. I’ve always loved doing the Vasaloppet. Aside from getting some pretty good results in 30+ years, there’s something about the friendliness of the small-town atmosphere, the chiming of the bell pulling you across the lake, the mainstreet finish, the shower and the lunch afterwards (except maybe for that baloney sandwich).

    I’ve also been involved in running enough races to really appreciate all the hard work that goes into something like the Vasaloppet. I especially appreciate all the volunteers who actually make the race possible and whose efforts often aren’t given enough recognition.

    So it’s with a certain amount of dismay that I recount this aspect of my race. I had skipped the first food stop, so I wanted to make sure that I got a good feed at the second. We came into it fast, however, and, as sometimes does happen, the cup of liquid that was pushed out to me, instead of ending up in my mouth, explodes all over my face and my glasses.

    When I open my eyes a split second later, I realize that another of the volunteers has accidentally backed straight ahead of me into my path. I’m still going at a good clip, she realizes I’m coming straight at her, I lurch to the left, she moves in the same direction, we both shift to the opposite direction, and then BAM. I reach forward to grab her and hold her up, but just end up flattening her. Right over her I go, one ski on each side of her body. Amazingly enough, I don’t end up on top of her. In fact, the whole thing doesn’t even slow me down (which is a good thing because I’m doing my damnedest to hold on to Ahlers and the pack ahead of me).

    So, to the volunteer, whoever you are, I do apologize, and I really do appreciate your being out there for us. I’ll be back again next year, and, if I do encounter you, I promise it’ll be in a much more friendly manner.


    (My wife keeps wanting me to bring home one of the pretty blue ones. Sorry, Paula.)

  • More on Mora

    Dave writes:

    What a day! The Vasaloppet does seem to be our race. We’ve accumulated a huge herd of horses and a good number of wreaths over the years, and Sunday saw some significant additions. It’s great to see everyone skiing so well and having all that hard work pay off.

    35k skate men’s and women’s champs and 42k classic men’s champ

    You’ve already read Nate’s account; I’ll just add a note of my own. I’ve always loved doing the Vasaloppet. Aside from getting some pretty good results in 30+ years, there’s something about the friendliness of the small-town atmosphere, the chiming of the bell pulling you across the lake, the mainstreet finish, the shower and the lunch afterwards (except maybe for that baloney sandwich).

    I’ve also been involved in running enough races to really appreciate all the hard work that goes into something like the Vasaloppet. I especially appreciate all the volunteers who actually make the race possible and whose efforts often aren’t given enough recognition.

    So it’s with a certain amount of dismay that I recount this aspect of my race. I had skipped the first food stop, so I wanted to make sure that I got a good feed at the second. We came into it fast, however, and, as sometimes does happen, the cup of liquid that was pushed out to me, instead of ending up in my mouth, explodes all over my face and my glasses.

    When I open my eyes a split second later, I realize that another of the volunteers has accidentally backed straight ahead of me into my path. I’m still going at a good clip, she realizes I’m coming straight at her, I lurch to the left, she moves in the same direction, we both shift to the opposite direction, and then BAM. I reach forward to grab her and hold her up, but just end up flattening her. Right over her I go, one ski on each side of her body. Amazingly enough, I don’t end up on top of her. In fact, the whole thing doesn’t even slow me down (which is a good thing because I’m doing my damnedest to hold on to Ahlers and the pack ahead of me).

    So, to the volunteer, whoever you are, I do apologize, and I really do appreciate your being out there for us. I’ll be back again next year, and, if I do encounter you, I promise it’ll be in a much more friendly manner.


    (My wife keeps wanting me to bring home one of the pretty blue ones. Sorry, Paula.)

  • More on Mora

    Dave writes:

    What a day! The Vasaloppet does seem to be our race. We’ve accumulated a huge herd of horses and a good number of wreaths over the years, and Sunday saw some significant additions. It’s great to see everyone skiing so well and having all that hard work pay off.

    35k skate men’s and women’s champs and 42k classic men’s champ

    You’ve already read Nate’s account; I’ll just add a note of my own. I’ve always loved doing the Vasaloppet. Aside from getting some pretty good results in 30+ years, there’s something about the friendliness of the small-town atmosphere, the chiming of the bell pulling you across the lake, the mainstreet finish, the shower and the lunch afterwards (except maybe for that baloney sandwich).

    I’ve also been involved in running enough races to really appreciate all the hard work that goes into something like the Vasaloppet. I especially appreciate all the volunteers who actually make the race possible and whose efforts often aren’t given enough recognition.

    So it’s with a certain amount of dismay that I recount this aspect of my race. I had skipped the first food stop, so I wanted to make sure that I got a good feed at the second. We came into it fast, however, and, as sometimes does happen, the cup of liquid that was pushed out to me, instead of ending up in my mouth, explodes all over my face and my glasses.

    When I open my eyes a split second later, I realize that another of the volunteers has accidentally backed straight ahead of me into my path. I’m still going at a good clip, she realizes I’m coming straight at her, I lurch to the left, she moves in the same direction, we both shift to the opposite direction, and then BAM. I reach forward to grab her and hold her up, but just end up flattening her. Right over her I go, one ski on each side of her body. Amazingly enough, I don’t end up on top of her. In fact, the whole thing doesn’t even slow me down (which is a good thing because I’m doing my damnedest to hold on to Ahlers and the pack ahead of me).

    So, to the volunteer, whoever you are, I do apologize, and I really do appreciate your being out there for us. I’ll be back again next year, and, if I do encounter you, I promise it’ll be in a much more friendly manner.


    (My wife keeps wanting me to bring home one of the pretty blue ones. Sorry, Paula.)

  • The Feminist Movement In Marathon Times

    A reader sent me an email over the weekend regarding the discussion that’s popped up over the fact that women compete in far shorter distances than the men in cross country skiing. He suggested that looking at men’s and women’s road marathon times (running) might be interesting.

    I did him one better and grabbed the world record progressions for road marathons, half-marathons and 10k’s as compiled by the Association of Road Racing Statisticians. Here they are, expressed as the percent back from the men’s world record at that time:

    Do not be surprised that these lines sometimes bend upward; if the men’s WR drops that’s the equivalent of the women’s WR falling somewhat further behind the men’s. So we’d expect these lines to bounce upwards on occasion.

    Much of what we see here is unsurprising, of course. Once you actually allow women to compete in an event, they may start out really slow, but they’ll make pretty darn rapid progress.

    I was surprised that all three distances appear to have largely stabilized at around 10% behind the men’s world record. More recently, the women’s marathon times dropped a bit suddenly starting around 2000. The half-marathon distance must get more attention with the men or something; the women set a record back in 1987 and then again in 2007, but nothing in between.

    So how does this relate back to our skiing discussion? Several things. First, discussions about what distances the women ought to be skiing should acknowledge that however fast they might ski a distance right now, they’re likely to improve on that once you actually let them ski it. Someone arguing in 1972 that holding women’s marathons was logistically too difficult because they ran them 30-40% slower than men would be making precisely this mistake. I doubt that the current female World Cup athletes are likely to make nearly that much of a step forward if they started racing 50k’s, but surely they’d get better at the distance over time.

    Second, a 10% difference in time isn’t very big. Now, I think it’s likely that if we could plot a similar graph for skiing, we’d see the values start to level off a bit higher than this, maybe 15-20%, since skiing revolves more around upper body mass, which might work against women somewhat. But assuming you want the men’s and women’s races to be roughly the same amount of time, either for TV or to create equivalent physiological tests, you’d probably be better off shooting for having the women race around 85% of the men’s distances or so.

    That would mean (very roughly) a 50/40km event, a 30/25km event and a 15/12.5km event. And that’s certainly not what we’ve got now.

    Related posts:

    1. <Running: What’s The Relationship Between Distance And Pace?
    2. <Trends In Race Times
    3. <Week In Review: Friday Jan 14th


  • Ruhpolding

    Our homebase in Ruhpolding

    Our homebase in Ruhpolding

    When I was a college ski racer, February felt crazy.  It was the culmination of 6 weeks of winter carnival racing season, in which we raced every Friday and Saturday and missed a day and a half of class every week.  Staying healthy, keeping caught up with school work and making time for ski training required super human time management skills.  Now, as a full time biathlete with nothing to worry about except training and racing, February is a piece of cake.   However, this year there weren’t any February biathlon races on the domestic schedule expect for the World Cups.

    So what is a biathlete to do?  If you are Lauren, you make the pilgrimage up to Fort Kent and forerun the World Cup.  (Check out a neat article about the TV test race that she helped out with: http://fasterskier.com/2011/02/19-miles-of-cable-and-one-espresso-machine-how-biathlon-gets-on-television/)  If you are Hannah, you prepare to go kick some butt at the Birkie, America’s biggest ski race.   If you are a US Junior biathlete, you might decide to stay in Europe following Junior World Championships for a couple extra weeks to race in Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic.  Another option is to rent an RV or “Wohnwagen”   for 3 weeks and follow the German race circuit, which is what the Barnes twins and MWSC’s BethAnn Chamberlain decided on.  (Read about their adventures here: http://bambambiathlon.blogspot.com/).  Since I already had a plane ticket to Europe for U-26 Championships at the end of the month, I decided I’d fly over a week early and rendezvous with the Juniors and the Wohnwagen posse in Ruhpolding, Germany.  A weekend of German Cup racing sounded like a perfect tune-up before heading down to Ridnaun, Italy for U-26s.

    Juniors Raleigh, Casey and Ethan enjoying a spring-like day from the top of a Bavarian cow pasture.

    Juniors Raleigh, Casey and Ethan enjoying a spring-like day from the top of a Bavarian cow pasture.

    My friends in the WohnWagen. Notice the impromtu drying rack they created to deal with Ruhpolding's rainy weather.

    My friends in the WohnWagen. Notice the impromtu drying rack they created to deal with Ruhpolding's damp weather.

    Ruhpolding is a biathlon Mecca.  Every January, tens of thousands of spectators descend on this tiny town to watch the World Cup.  Biathlon paraphernalia lines the shelves of local shops.  Biathlon is Germany’s most popular winter sport and many of their top athletes live in this region.  As I was traveling in, I had no shortage of people volunteering to help carry my giant ski bag, rifle case, heavy backpack and overflowing tote bag when I changed trains in Traunstein.  They all wanted to know where I was coming from and they wished me good luck in Ruhpolding.

    Four Ruhpolding World Championship hopefuls for 2012. They've got the countdown timed to the second.

    Ruhpolding is the site of the 2012 Biathlon World Championships. I'm hoping to be back next year…

    With beautiful rugged mountain peaks on all sides, Ruhpolding is one of my favorite biathlon venues to visit.   However, last weekend I understood why the World Cup team nicknamed the town “Rainpolding.”  On the first day of the German Cup races, it down poured.  We went through several changes of clothes and still were drenched and cold.  Nonetheless, it was a successful day of racing.

    Dave Gieck flew in from Wyoming to help USBA athletes with race support. Thanks Dave!

    Dave Gieck flew in from Wyoming to help USBA athletes with race support. Thanks Dave!

    We competed in an unusual race format: a sprint race with extra relay rounds.  We were allowed to hand-load up to 3 extra bullets to try to knock down missed targets, so very few people had to ski penalty loops.  In addition to the Germans, we had a bunch of Brits, a Norwegian, and a Canadian in our race.  I had some of my better shooting of the season, requiring only one spare round, and I finished 2nd, one second behind my US teammate Lanny Barnes.

    Race volunteers at equipment control staying dry inside.

    Equipment control volunteers stay dry under cover.

    The following day we competed in a mass start.  We rarely get to ski in mass starts at NorAm races at home, and never against an international field, so it was a valuable experience.  I got a little distracted during the first shooting stage when we approached the range in a big pack, and it caused me to miss 2 targets.  I spent the rest of the race playing catch up, but I was able to focus better in the range for the remaining stages.  Lanny had another good day and cleaned her fourth biathlon race in a row- that’s 60 consecutive hits during competition.

    The American junior men were put into the senior men’s race for the mass start because they would have made the junior’s field too big. Craftsbury’s Ethan Dreissigacker had some of the better shooting of the field during both days of racing. He can be seen here winning the double pole sprint off the starting line in front of German Olympian Michael Rosch (#187).

    The American junior men were put into the senior men’s race for the mass start because they would have made the junior’s field too big. Craftsbury’s Ethan Dreissigacker had some of the better shooting of the field during both days of racing. He can be seen here winning the double pole sprint off the starting line in front of German Olympian Michael Rosch (#187).

    On Monday, we drove to the town of Schleching to drop off skis at Bauer Rennservice. Muck Bauer gave us a tour of his ski grinding workshop and sports and shoe store. Muck grinds all the US team’s skis. Check out this giant poster of Tim Burke decorating his store.

    On Monday, we drove to the town of Schleching to drop off skis at Bauer Rennservice. Muck Bauer gave us a tour of his ski grinding workshop and sports and shoe store. Muck grinds all the US team’s skis. Check out this giant poster of Tim Burke decorating his store.

    Watching the Ft. Kent WCs on Eurosport was our favorite entertainment for the first few days. Now that those races are finished, we’ve taken up puzzling. Here Grace, Casey and Kelly are hard at work.

    Watching the Ft. Kent WCs on Eurosport was our favorite entertainment for the first few days. Now that those races are finished, we’ve taken up puzzling. Here Grace, Casey and Kelly are hard at work.

  • Beitostølen FIS Race Recap: Women

    Continuing on from earlier today, we’ll turn to the North American women’s results from Saturday’s classic race in Beitostølen, Norway. As before, we’ll start with just a rough look at FIS points:

    Once again, I’ll repeat my caution about how seriously these folks may or may not have been taking these races, having just arrived back in Europe. Clearly, Brooke Gosling didn’t have a spectacular day, and probably neither did Liz Stephen or Ida Sargent, but other than that nothing really stands out.

    Several of these ladies haven’t done a ton of distance racing in Europe, so the data’s a little thin, but we can get a closer look at Arritola and Stephen’s races using percent back difference plots:

    Morgan Arritola – Percent Back Difference Plot

    This strongly suggests that Arritola had a particularly strong race on Saturday, which is nice to see. Recall that the red line tracks the median for each season and Saturday’s race is in blue, with that race’s median denoted with a red dot. That race was quite a bit better than her races against these same folks earlier in the season.

    On the other hand, the graph for Liz Stephen isn’t so rosy:

    Liz Stephen – Percent Back Difference Plot

    This looks about in line with her results against these particular skiers earlier this season. But all of this appear to be a bit of a drop-off from last season.

    Again, I wouldn’t necessarily read a huge amount into a sub-par race in Beitostølen, since many people seemed pretty up front about using these starts as tune-ups following the travel over to Europe.

    Related posts:

    1. <Gällivare Recap: North Americans
    2. <Kuusamo WC Recap: North Americans
    3. <Davos Recap: Distance – North Americans


  • Pictures from Norway

    Here are a couple pictures from our past training days in Beito. We trained here for 3 days following the race because it is a nice low key, low stress area with great skiing. Temperatures have been super cold, which has made for some amazing classic skiing!! Skating sounded like such a bad idea every day with such slow, soft snow…. so I have been sticking to the classicing 🙂

    Tomorrow we leave for Drammen where we will be competing in World Cups Saturday and Sunday. Finally, my first world cup start!! I can’t wait. Saturday is a 10k classic, Sunday is a skate sprint. The team will be picking up the APU group, (Kikkan, Holly, Lars and Erik) which I am super pumped about because it has been so long since I have seen these guys!


    Soaking in some Sun with the Frosty Weather- Scott photo


    Beautiful Beito View


    Norwegian Nordic Love


    Valentines Ski with Tadlet- frosty cold!

    Tad and Jessie doing some easy skiing on course

  • Mean Greeny goes on a Trainabout











    Mean Greeny has traveled near and far to end up at an undisclosed training location for final preparations for upcoming events. Above are a few of the people that he encountered today.

  • Mean Greeny goes on a Trainabout











    Mean Greeny has traveled near and far to end up at an undisclosed training location for final preparations for upcoming events. Above are a few of the people that he encountered today.

  • Mean Greeny goes on a Trainabout











    Mean Greeny has traveled near and far to end up at an undisclosed training location for final preparations for upcoming events. Above are a few of the people that he encountered today.