I am extremely disappointed to report that I won’t be starting the races here in Presque Isle. I have been sick with the flu and an upper respiratory infection for the last 10 days and I am just now starting … Continue reading
Category: XCFeeds
A collection of live feeds from cross-country ski blogs around the web.
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Sick
I am extremely disappointed to report that I won’t be starting the races here in Presque Isle. I have been sick with the flu and an upper respiratory infection for the last 10 days and I am just now starting … Continue reading
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Houghton
I like the UP. Yep. It might not be most people’s number one travel destination, but I always enjoy the time spent in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The team traveled to Houghton last weekend for the most recent SuperTour stop. The UP is famous for a number of things like mining, copper, and deep snow. Here are a few other things ubiquitous with the UP. . .
First, Yooper pride.
Second: Pasties. 3 for $5 in Ironwood. Doesn’t get much better than that.
Finally, the Kromer. Modeled here by Wayne Fish.
Wayne is my coach, Bryan Fish’s dad, and an integral member of the Midwestern sports community. He’s traveled with our team and given us a lot of support over the years. Wayne’s played a big role in developing the mountain bike scene in Wisconsin, working with juniors and skiers at all levels, and he’s always an enthusiastic friend to run into on the trails full of great stories. At the moment, Wayne is in the hospital battling a brain tumor. My thoughts and prayers go out to Wayne, Barb, and Bryan. You can follow Wayne’s progress here.
On the racing side of the UP, we got to compete in three races in three days at the Michigan Tech Ski Trails in Houghton: a classic sprint, 10km classic, and 15km skate.
They’ve got a great club, the Copper Country Ski Tigers, with about 50 kids involved. The CXC Team spent our first afternoon in Houghton working with the team: Cook and Stuber led the youth team, while Gus, Eric, and I took the junior team and worked on our hop skate and drop-in speeds. Those kids have got some great ski skills and they handled everything we could throw at them with ease. Thanks to Mike Young for coaching the team and getting us involved with the practice. Go Tigers!
After the workout, we got to sign autographs for the younger skiers, many of whom brought their own posters and skis to the event.
Gus Kaeding is probably the only coach on the ski circuit with autograph seekers, thanks in part to his victory over Bjorn Daehlie in the 2009 Birkie Classic race. Yeah Gus!
One of the highlights of the weekend was receiving tickets to the MTU vs. Wisconsin Badger hockey game on Saturday night. The Tech Athletic Director, Suzanne Sanregret, hooked Mikey Sinnott and me up with some tickets to the game. It was pretty cool that she was the one to hand out awards to all the athletes last weekend. She even volunteered at the finish line all weekend. Great to see a college AD support their ski program.
The game itself was a little lop-sided, as is evident in the attentiveness of the goalies:
vs.
Oh yeah, we did a little ski racing too. CXC tool 5 of the top 6 spots in the men’s race and the top two steps of the women’s podium in the 15km Skate.
Compton and Stuber ski away from the field
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The Athletes Report- Vol. VI
Today was a pretty chill day all in all. After breakfast the team hung out and got some homework done which was pretty successful. Almost all of the team went for a run before lunch. Then at about 3 we were out the door and headed to the venue. We went for a ski later today in hopes of getting adjusted to the late skiing for the night sprint tomorrow. The team is definitely pumped and excited for the race on Friday! It’s gonna be a good one for sure. Our ski was pretty crazy with all of the snow that was coming down on us. The snow was very powdery at first but once the tracks were skied through a couple times, the skiing became pretty well packed down. The race course was sick and consisted of a big hill at the beginning an then rolling hills and downhills from there on. Including some sharp turns, which will make the course all that much better. I think it is safe to say that we are all really pysched for our first race.
Tonight was the first night that other teams started to roll into the hotel. Right after dinner Dylan got right to work fulfilling his trip goal of getting 100 new facebook friends. Nothing held him back. He went on to introduce himself to the Finnish team sitting in the hall, close to our rooms. His vocabulary also increased when he added a couple new Finnish words. All of the teams are staying in the same hotel so the next couple days should be fun!
Until tomorrow, we are in race prep mode and thinking about the next few days. There will be some fast skiing for sure! -Marion
Sorry there aren’t any pictures today- lots of organizing to do before the races, but we will be back tomorrow with lots of race pictures (and podium pictures!) from the Classic Sprint!! The event website, in case you haven’t found it yet, is http://www2.idrottonline.se/HagglundsIoFK-Skidor/Vara-arrangemang/NordicJuniorSkiCompetition/NordicJuniorSkiCompetition2011/
We will be reporting back tomorrow!
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The Athletes Report- Vol. VI
Today was a pretty chill day all in all. After breakfast the team hung out and got some homework done which was pretty successful. Almost all of the team went for a run before lunch. Then at about 3 we were out the door and headed to the venue. We went for a ski later today in hopes of getting adjusted to the late skiing for the night sprint tomorrow. The team is definitely pumped and excited for the race on Friday! It’s gonna be a good one for sure. Our ski was pretty crazy with all of the snow that was coming down on us. The snow was very powdery at first but once the tracks were skied through a couple times, the skiing became pretty well packed down. The race course was sick and consisted of a big hill at the beginning an then rolling hills and downhills from there on. Including some sharp turns, which will make the course all that much better. I think it is safe to say that we are all really pysched for our first race.
Tonight was the first night that other teams started to roll into the hotel. Right after dinner Dylan got right to work fulfilling his trip goal of getting 100 new facebook friends. Nothing held him back. He went on to introduce himself to the Finnish team sitting in the hall, close to our rooms. His vocabulary also increased when he added a couple new Finnish words. All of the teams are staying in the same hotel so the next couple days should be fun!
Until tomorrow, we are in race prep mode and thinking about the next few days. There will be some fast skiing for sure! -Marion
Sorry there aren’t any pictures today- lots of organizing to do before the races, but we will be back tomorrow with lots of race pictures (and podium pictures!) from the Classic Sprint!! The event website, in case you haven’t found it yet, is http://www2.idrottonline.se/HagglundsIoFK-Skidor/Vara-arrangemang/NordicJuniorSkiCompetition/NordicJuniorSkiCompetition2011/
We will be reporting back tomorrow!
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WJC/U23 Assessment: Finland, Germany and Sweden
Ok, this will be my last post on WJC/U23s, I promise! As we did before with the US and Canada, and then Norway and Russia, these graphs are simply displaying each WJC or U23 result for each nation (in finishing place, not FIS points) with the median tracked in red. As usual, I’ll keep my commentary to a minimum, except to remind you to be aware of situations where there isn’t much data (e.g. U23 sprinting events).
Here I notice the general improvement by the men’s distance racers over the last two seasons and that the women’s sprint results have recently included one quite fast skier and then several others who aren’t quite so fast.
A bit of a drop off for the Swedish women in distance events this year, but a modest improvement on the men’s side.
The drop off in the Finnish men’s distance results is notable, as is the steady improvement in the women’s distance results.
The German junior women have been getting better in distance events, while the men have roughly been holding steady.
Overall, a sizable improvement in the women’s distance events for the Swedes over last year, but not so good for the men, in either distance or sprinting.Related posts:
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Awesome Skiing.
a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TUr2Ke46GHI/AAAAAAAAGTk/ZRl_u8n5kcY/s1600/IMG_0930.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 372px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TUr2Ke46GHI/AAAAAAAAGTk/ZRl_u8n5kcY/s400/IMG_0930.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569534549147916402″ //aIt doesn’t get much better than this. 14″ of new fresh snow (over the perfect conditions that we already had), blue sky, mid teens, perfect fresh tracks….divWe skied out to the Sun Bowl and worked on classic technique and then skied 3X 3-4 minute uphill intervals.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TUr1z-fONXI/AAAAAAAAGTc/LGhehiZQdCo/s1600/IMG_0932.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TUr1z-fONXI/AAAAAAAAGTc/LGhehiZQdCo/s400/IMG_0932.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569534162493126002″ //aWe started with a few technique drills and some no pole skiing.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TUr1e7Y89LI/AAAAAAAAGTU/hTTZKOjn8Sc/s1600/IMG_0939.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TUr1e7Y89LI/AAAAAAAAGTU/hTTZKOjn8Sc/s400/IMG_0939.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569533800884270258″ //aBridger, Charlie and Mac cruise up the hill.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TUr1GGcW_LI/AAAAAAAAGTM/UhrMYekF65E/s1600/IMG_0941.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TUr1GGcW_LI/AAAAAAAAGTM/UhrMYekF65E/s400/IMG_0941.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569533374354619570″ //aHallie and Issy near the top.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TUr0qOUxSpI/AAAAAAAAGTE/PmIIwkVESSk/s1600/IMG_0942.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TUr0qOUxSpI/AAAAAAAAGTE/PmIIwkVESSk/s400/IMG_0942.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569532895433935506″ //aAustin looked good and smooth./divdivWe ended with the fun ski back to campus. Our connector trail is mostly downhill coming back so it makes for an exciting cool down ski.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TUr0V5BWlHI/AAAAAAAAGS8/WOn1lT62kqU/s1600/IMG_0944.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 146px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TUr0V5BWlHI/AAAAAAAAGS8/WOn1lT62kqU/s320/IMG_0944.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569532546117964914″ //aWe finished the morning with a little “floor core”./divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-2151553810198555226?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div
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Paintball "World Cup"
Instead of hosting a World Cup this week, Van Hoe and its staff put on a pretty good NorAm and what I am most psyched about – another paintball biathlon race for local young skiers. Its something new in the Adirondacks this winter and thanks to some excited participants, supportive parents and devoted individuals these races seem to go off with out a hitch. Here’s a couple snap shots from the event:
I’m up in Presque Isle, Maine now for the first week of US World Cups but just came off a good week of training at home. Out of all the places I get to ski around the world Mt. Van Hoevenberg remains to be my favorite. Nowhere has yet to compare to the 15km Porter loop, the heights of High Notch or the terrain of Ladies 5km. If you’re in the area, check them out, conditions are great and the local Lake Placid Loppet is this weekend!
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My First Marathon
The Marathon this past weekend represented the culmination of a lot of hard work by the Craftsbury Nordic Center staff. Whether it was planning, organizing volunteers, grooming or shoveling snow onto the course, everyone pitched in to make the 30th Craftsbury Marathon a spectacular event!
Craftsbury Marathon 2011 Start
The Craftsbury Marathon was actually my first 50k race in 10 years of ski racing. I enjoyed the marathon immensely for both aesthetic and competitive aspects. I went into the race not really knowing what to expect. It is said that when training for a running marathon, you can only prepare for the first 20 miles of the race, after that you have little idea what your body will do. This thought was in the back of my mind throughout the marathon. I went out reasonably conservatively with the lead pack, hoping to maintain this pace for the first half of race, but at about 10k the remainder of my first marathon turned into an individual start 40k race. I lost the 2 leaders, multi-time runner-up Justin Freeman and eventual winner GRP’s Pat O’Brien, but managed to stay ahead of the chase pack. I was just dangling out in no man’s land with the leaders in sight, but not able to maintain a connection due to sub par waxing, another rookie mistake.
At 35k I realized that I had never raced this far, followed by a second realization that I actua
lly still felt pretty good and there was only 15k left in the race. I think this was a turning point for me. I had been eating plenty, and my energy level was still high. I knew I’d have enough to hold my own to the finish.
It was a pleasure to do my first Marathon in Craftsbury, on my home trails with the support of staff and locals. The weather was perfect, grooming impeccable and race support was superb. The 2011 Craftsbury Marathon undoubtedly goes right to the top of my list of favorite races. Only 363 days until next year’s marathon. See you there!
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The Athletes Report- Vol. V
Ornskoldsvik: Day 1. After a buffet-style breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the ski trails. The
walk was maybe 10 minutes to the venue (a bit longer than the 10 steps at Camp Sodergren) but
temperatures were nice and the day promised to be sunny.
The team walks the streets of Ornskoldsvik from the hotel to the race-venue.
The view from the parking lot includes a soccer field, the ski stadium, and a bridge that leads to the trails beyond.
Team USA girls: Cam, Stella, Annie, Sharmila, Marion, HannahAt the race venue, athletes toured the skate course and dialed in their klister zones in preparation for the sprint race on Friday. The trail in the trees is narrow and windy, with some exciting downhill turns that will be a spectator favorite in the heats. The qualifiers don’t begin until 4 in the afternoon… Night racing here we come!!
In the afternoon, we did the tourist thing and shopped some more. We found our favorite store (Intersport), a giant mall unlike anything in Ostersund, and a massive thrift-store.
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The Athletes Report- Vol. V
Ornskoldsvik: Day 1. After a buffet-style breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the ski trails. The
walk was maybe 10 minutes to the venue (a bit longer than the 10 steps at Camp Sodergren) but
temperatures were nice and the day promised to be sunny.
The team walks the streets of Ornskoldsvik from the hotel to the race-venue.
The view from the parking lot includes a soccer field, the ski stadium, and a bridge that leads to the trails beyond.
Team USA girls: Cam, Stella, Annie, Sharmila, Marion, HannahAt the race venue, athletes toured the skate course and dialed in their klister zones in preparation for the sprint race on Friday. The trail in the trees is narrow and windy, with some exciting downhill turns that will be a spectator favorite in the heats. The qualifiers don’t begin until 4 in the afternoon… Night racing here we come!!
In the afternoon, we did the tourist thing and shopped some more. We found our favorite store (Intersport), a giant mall unlike anything in Ostersund, and a massive thrift-store.
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