FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • Where Skiing Can Take You 2010-11-16 14:13:00

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  • POW on the Plateau

    Waxing Up

    Grooming

    Stop Ahead Sprints

  • Winter Schedule at SMS

    a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOMGlaK_gXI/AAAAAAAAFUI/XlTCkNH2SZg/s1600/IMG_9610.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/TOMGlaK_gXI/AAAAAAAAFUI/XlTCkNH2SZg/s400/IMG_9610.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540279206346195314″ //aWe finished our first quarter 10 days ago and now we are on our winter schedule. We love it! We have morning training, followed by lunch, 5 hours of classes and then another hour before dinner for training. We do a couple of general strength workouts in the late afternoon, usually on our hard days.br /There is a great gym at school and we take good advantage of it for our strength days. We start with some spinning for warm up, then some speed and agility followed by 20-30 minutes of circuit strength and 10-15 minutes of floor core. A quick change of clothes and washing of hands and it’s dinner time :)br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOMGSCAYezI/AAAAAAAAFUA/2FzSBBltHKo/s1600/IMG_9626.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/TOMGSCAYezI/AAAAAAAAFUA/2FzSBBltHKo/s400/IMG_9626.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540278873441729330″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOMFzyfWjtI/AAAAAAAAFT4/A7ohPsFfbvQ/s1600/IMG_9634.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 270px; height: 400px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOMFzyfWjtI/AAAAAAAAFT4/A7ohPsFfbvQ/s400/IMG_9634.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540278353880583890″ //aGraduated striding to help get the weight forward.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOMFbJd4hzI/AAAAAAAAFTw/Amm4Rx3TM6o/s1600/IMG_9642.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/TOMFbJd4hzI/AAAAAAAAFTw/Amm4Rx3TM6o/s400/IMG_9642.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540277930551707442″ //aCharlie is showing good improvement on the balance.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOMFFQgulRI/AAAAAAAAFTo/uPjvIv_-H0w/s1600/IMG_9651.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 298px; height: 400px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOMFFQgulRI/AAAAAAAAFTo/uPjvIv_-H0w/s400/IMG_9651.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540277554485564690″ //a73,74,75….br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOME4BlfSGI/AAAAAAAAFTg/1nedUUDLM0M/s1600/IMG_9657.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 304px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOME4BlfSGI/AAAAAAAAFTg/1nedUUDLM0M/s400/IMG_9657.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540277327140702306″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOMEgsX-MhI/AAAAAAAAFTY/XPAH67ij58A/s1600/IMG_9665.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/TOMEgsX-MhI/AAAAAAAAFTY/XPAH67ij58A/s400/IMG_9665.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540276926309872146″ //aTyler and Paddy work on Bill Koch’s roller board.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOMEPtJnUoI/AAAAAAAAFTQ/VfKGkVnjv5c/s1600/IMG_9668.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/TOMEPtJnUoI/AAAAAAAAFTQ/VfKGkVnjv5c/s400/IMG_9668.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540276634460312194″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOMDsHl_lvI/AAAAAAAAFTI/8FZvmP-5huY/s1600/IMG_9671.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOMDsHl_lvI/AAAAAAAAFTI/8FZvmP-5huY/s400/IMG_9671.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540276023083374322″ //aThis morning we had a 30 km classic cruise up from Jamaica, through Wardsboro and Stratton and back towards school.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOMDQrqc-wI/AAAAAAAAFTA/ELCIbWBTBaQ/s1600/IMG_9675.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/TOMDQrqc-wI/AAAAAAAAFTA/ELCIbWBTBaQ/s400/IMG_9675.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540275551729416962″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOMC6q23FoI/AAAAAAAAFS4/opSoTvOzcts/s1600/IMG_9677.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/TOMC6q23FoI/AAAAAAAAFS4/opSoTvOzcts/s400/IMG_9677.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540275173555902082″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TOMCoEUUA5I/AAAAAAAAFSw/KrTDSLUdl-I/s1600/IMG_9679.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/TOMCoEUUA5I/AAAAAAAAFSw/KrTDSLUdl-I/s400/IMG_9679.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540274853972804498″ //adiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-6077091762624766416?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

  • SMS Devo Kids Hit the Bikes Before the Books

    divCheck out what some of the SMS devo kids are up to. This article is also on www.NENSA.net/divdivbr //divdivbr //diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/TN7d9T6xeEI/AAAAAAAAAnc/hvXYSfdbXUI/s1600/IMG_0021.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 239px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/TN7d9T6xeEI/AAAAAAAAAnc/hvXYSfdbXUI/s320/IMG_0021.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539108637100832834″ //abr /span class=”Apple-style-span” style=” color: rgb(51, 51, 102); line-height: 18px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11.6667px;”h6 class=”news_date” style=”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-weight: normal; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.9px; font-family:inherit;font-size:11px;color:initial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”color:#000000;”NOVEMBER 13, 2010/span/h6h1 class=”newsTitle” style=”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1; font-family:inherit;font-size:21px;color:initial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”color:#000000;”Biking to School/span/h1p style=”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-family:inherit;font-size:14px;color:initial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”color:#000000;”Summary: /spanem style=”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-weight: inherit; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; font-family:inherit;font-size:14px;color:initial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”color:#000000;”Read this article from Katharine and Ben Ogden, BKL skiers with West River Nordic, about what they do to get ready for ski season! /span/embr //pp class=”MsoNormal” style=”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-family:inherit;font-size:14px;color:initial;”span style=”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-family:’Times New Roman’;color:initial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:medium;”My brother and I, and a few others have recently been riding our bikes to school everyday or almost every day since school started. Our goal is to continue riding everyday until Thanksgiving, maybe longer. The route varies depending on where you live; some ride almost 12 miles a day while others do about 6 miles a day. We ride mostly on dirt roads and thanks to Bill Koch we also have a beautiful trail to keep us off of the highway. There are about 6 adults and 14 kids between the ages of 8 and 13 who have ridden to school at least once. Four of us have actually ridden everyday since school started! Definitely the most extreme day we rode was 38/spansup style=”line-height: 0; vertical-align: text-top; “span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:medium;”o/span/supspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:medium;”f and pouring rain; the coldest morning was 27/spansup style=”line-height: 0; vertical-align: text-top; “span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:medium;”o/span/supspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:medium;”f, that was a COLD ride! We have really enjoyed this and as an added bonus, studies have actually shown that exercise improves concentration and focus at school! It is really a great experience and/spanspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:small;” /span/spanspan style=”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-family:’Times New Roman’;color:initial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:medium;”is a lot of fun./span/span/pdivspan style=”margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-family:’Times New Roman’;font-size:14px;color:initial;”br //span/div/spandiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-3512547744540061133?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

  • To Gallivare!

    On Monday morning we woke up to a day of easy travel to Gallivare, Sweden, the first World Cup stop of the season. After a leisurely breakfast of the usual spread of oatmeal, breads, jams, fruits, pickles, cheeses, mini Finnish pancakes, yogurt, muesli and coffee, tea and juice, we climbed in the van and pulled out of Muonio. Immediately, we left the main roads, crossed the boarder into sweden and found ourselves on two lane, icy roads, with endless kilometers of snow-plastered pine trees, lakes and reindeer. It was about 250 kilometers to Gallivare, and with about 100 to go we started to worry about the amount of gas we had in the tank, as the gas light had been on for about 20k and every town we came to consisted of merely a blue sign with the town name and a house or two, but definitely no petrol station. So, with about 80k’s to go, we decided it was not looking too good for us and we better ask for some help. So we pulled into a driveway and an older, weathered man walked out of the house, wearing a light fleece jacket and no gloves. He turned out to be a reindeer farmer who was receiving a shipment of 200 reindeer in the next 20 minutes, but as he had no diesel, he called all of his friends and one of them who lived a couple of kilometers away had some diesel we could buy. So we waited with him while his reindeer were delivered, which was quite a process and then went and got ourselves 5 liters of diesel from his friend down the road.

    Mo at the Reindeer farmer’s house, caught in the moment of adventure.

    If you order 200 Reindeer for your farm, this is how they come, in a double stacker semi.

    Sunset in Gallivare when we arrived at 2 pm.

    While we had run our van was out of gas, the second van, carrying all of the gear and 3 people, began leaking oil and broke down at a gas station. Some locals, who turned out to be reindeer herders (it may be becoming clear what people do around this part of the world for professions), took Jocke, Kris and Fish to their house where they made them coffee and attached a homemade trailer to the back of their Golf. Then they loaded Jocke’s stuff in it (he was headed to the airport so he had all his stuff with him) and everyone piled into the small car. Picture it, the reindeer herder, his wife, Jocke, the Bird and the Fish all squeezed into a Volkwagen Golf. Pretty funny.

    We all arrived in Gallivare safe and sound, thanks to the kindness of humans. This morning’s ski was awesome and in a couple hours a few of us will head out for an afternoon night ski. Others will run, others will lift weights and others will rest. Everyone is fired up, last year’s Supertour winner, Chirs Cook, shows up this afternoon and we will be fielding 2 relay teams on Sunday. It’s an amazing way to start the season, having a big traveling team, and knowing there are about 15 other American’s racing in Roveniemi this weekend as well.

    Here are a few more pictures from this weekend’s events.


    Newell at the Alpine World Cup in Levi carrying the flag. After the races on Sunday a few of us jumped in the van and headed over to Levi, a town about 45 minutes away to catch the second run of the men’s World Cup slalom. We had 6 guys racing and two qualified for the second run, Ted Ligety and Will Brandenburg. Ted skied to an 18th place finish and unfortunately Will, who had skied up from bib 35 in the first run to 8th, straddled and skied out. It was really fun to be in Finland watching our alpine guys do their thing.

    Alpine World Cup in Levi, Finland.

  • To Gallivare!

    On Monday morning we woke up to a day of easy travel to Gallivare, Sweden, the first World Cup stop of the season. After a leisurely breakfast of the usual spread of oatmeal, breads, jams, fruits, pickles, cheeses, mini Finnish pancakes, yogurt, muesli and coffee, tea and juice, we climbed in the van and pulled out of Muonio. Immediately, we left the main roads, crossed the boarder into sweden and found ourselves on two lane, icy roads, with endless kilometers of snow-plastered pine trees, lakes and reindeer. It was about 250 kilometers to Gallivare, and with about 100 to go we started to worry about the amount of gas we had in the tank, as the gas light had been on for about 20k and every town we came to consisted of merely a blue sign with the town name and a house or two, but definitely no petrol station. So, with about 80k’s to go, we decided it was not looking too good for us and we better ask for some help. So we pulled into a driveway and an older, weathered man walked out of the house, wearing a light fleece jacket and no gloves. He turned out to be a reindeer farmer who was receiving a shipment of 200 reindeer in the next 20 minutes, but as he had no diesel, he called all of his friends and one of them who lived a couple of kilometers away had some diesel we could buy. So we waited with him while his reindeer were delivered, which was quite a process and then went and got ourselves 5 liters of diesel from his friend down the road.

    Mo at the Reindeer farmer’s house, caught in the moment of adventure.

    If you order 200 Reindeer for your farm, this is how they come, in a double stacker semi.

    Sunset in Gallivare when we arrived at 2 pm.

    While we had run our van was out of gas, the second van, carrying all of the gear and 3 people, began leaking oil and broke down at a gas station. Some locals, who turned out to be reindeer herders (it may be becoming clear what people do around this part of the world for professions), took Jocke, Kris and Fish to their house where they made them coffee and attached a homemade trailer to the back of their Golf. Then they loaded Jocke’s stuff in it (he was headed to the airport so he had all his stuff with him) and everyone piled into the small car. Picture it, the reindeer herder, his wife, Jocke, the Bird and the Fish all squeezed into a Volkwagen Golf. Pretty funny.

    We all arrived in Gallivare safe and sound, thanks to the kindness of humans. This morning’s ski was awesome and in a couple hours a few of us will head out for an afternoon night ski. Others will run, others will lift weights and others will rest. Everyone is fired up, last year’s Supertour winner, Chirs Cook, shows up this afternoon and we will be fielding 2 relay teams on Sunday. It’s an amazing way to start the season, having a big traveling team, and knowing there are about 15 other American’s racing in Roveniemi this weekend as well.

    Here are a few more pictures from this weekend’s events.


    Newell at the Alpine World Cup in Levi carrying the flag. After the races on Sunday a few of us jumped in the van and headed over to Levi, a town about 45 minutes away to catch the second run of the men’s World Cup slalom. We had 6 guys racing and two qualified for the second run, Ted Ligety and Will Brandenburg. Ted skied to an 18th place finish and unfortunately Will, who had skied up from bib 35 in the first run to 8th, straddled and skied out. It was really fun to be in Finland watching our alpine guys do their thing.

    Alpine World Cup in Levi, Finland.

  • Beitostolen, Norway: The Season Starts

  • Thanksgiving Schedule

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    One of my

  • Friendly Reindeer Farmers

    So you imagine when you are headed off to the World Cup, everything is going to be very well organized and taken care of.  But in reality you could find yourself in the middle of Lapland in a mini van whose gas light has been on for close to two hours with only a handwritten list of the towns between Munio, Finland and Gallivare, Sweden as happened to us earlier today.  We were driving on roads which very much resembled hard packed but very bumpy snowmobile trails and narrowly twisted through northern Sweden.  The list of towns was the the closest we had to a map and each time we reached another blue sign with another town name we crossed our fingers hoping for a gas station.  But a big town consisted of a handful of cabins rather than just one or two and a store or gas station which wasn’t snowed in and closed was definitely out of the question.  Finally as we passed through one “town” and it was doubtful whether we would make the next, we stopped at a cabin with a fenced in yard of reindeer in the front.  We asked the guy where the nearest gas station was and he said Gallivare which was still close to 100km away.  We asked him if he had any diesel which he did not but was very eager to help us find some.  He started calling all of his friends and neighbors asking for diesel.  Finally he came back to the van and told us he would take us to his neighbor’s house who had diesel but only after his reindeer came since he was expecting a big shipment.  Sure enough, a little while later as we waited huddling in the van which was slightly warmer than the -20 or so temp outside, a big truck showed up carrying this guy’s 200 new reindeer.  We watched as they set up the ramps on the truck to unload all the new reindeer to this guy’s herd which already consisted a couple thousand.  Then when the last reindeer moved its way out of the truck, we were driven over to the neighbor who had enough diesel to get us all the way to Gallivare.  Both men were very nice and helpful and told us we should come back in the springtime which is the best season since “you can sit outside without a shirt on.”  Then we loaded up the vans and finished the drive to Gallivare which seems like quite the metropolis compared to Munio.

    Truck filled with Reindeer!Truck filled with with two layers of reindeer!

    reindeerReindeer in the yard

    Our friendly reindeer farmers house:

    cabin

  • Assessing The Weekend’s Racing

    This past weekend was chock full of racing in Finland, Norway and Sweden.  There’s way too much for me to analyze, even looking at just the North Americans, so I’m going to focus in on just a few performances that I found particularly interesting.  Even so, this post will be quite long.

    Results ranged from Kikkan Randall and Kris Freeman’s victories in the sprint and classic distance events to some rough races for Liz Stephen and Morgan Arritola (who I believe I read somewhere was sick earlier in the week).  The Canadians also had some promising results in Sweden.  It’s easy for people to get carried away, both positively and negatively, after just a few early season races.  In particular, it can be difficult to assess what exactly these performances mean when we have to wait a few hours (or days) for FIS point calculations and even then we have to accept that the penalty calculation is accurately adjusting for the strength of the field.

    First, let’s say straight away that Kikkan’s sprint victory was unambiguously a stellar result.  It’s hard to ignore a race like that over skiers like Justyna Kowalczyk and Petra Majdic (among others) even allowing for the possibility that some of them may not have had their best days.  Personally, I’m unsurprised that Randall is capable of a sprint performance that strong; I’m more interested in whether she can perform at that level more than a handful of times a season, which would represent the next obvious jump for her.

    In this post, though, I’m going to focus on just the distance races for a few North Americans who did particularly well.

    What I end up seeing when people try to make sense of early season distance results are lots of pairwise comparisons:

    • She was 30 seconds behind the winner
    • He beat Really Famous Skier by 15 seconds
    • She was only 8 seconds out of Nth place
    • He was only 13 seconds behind Really Famous Skier

    This is a reasonable way to think about race results, but we’re assuming that the people we’re comparing ourselves to had “normal” races.  This clearly isn’t always the case and often we don’t even really have a great sense of what’s “normal” for each skier.  Can we do better?

    Yes.  I’m going to ditch FIS points entirely here.  Instead, let’s take this idea of pairwise comparisons and expand on it.  Suppose that instead of comparing Kikkan Randall or Kris Freeman to just one or two skiers, we compare them to everyone?

    Here’s what I mean.  I grabbed the top 40 skiers in the men’s distance races in Muonio.  Next, I found every race I could where Kris Freeman skied against one of these skiers (only in interval start races, just to be fair).  For each interval start race where they faced each other, I calculated the difference in percent back.  So for instance, say I’m looking at a race from last season where Freeman and Teichmann were both present.  I’d calculate the percent back for both skiers and then subtract Teichmann’s percent back from Freeman’s.

    This will give us a picture of how Kris Freeman has fared against the specific set of skiers who raced in Muonio, which we can then plot over time to compare to this particular race.  The nice thing about this is that it will hopefully iron out some of the uncertainty about who may or may not have skied well/badly that day.  It’s totally possible for one good skier to have a terrible day (or a bad skier a great day) but it’s unlikely for forty skiers to all ski unusually well or poorly.

    First up, Freeman:

    Kris Freeman – Muonio classic/skate races.

    Each dot represents a race Freeman skied against one of the top forty in the Muonio classic or skate race.  Positive differences mean that Freeman was beaten by that skier that day, and vice versa.  The blue dots are from the Muonio races (which are nearly all negative, since he won and was second).

    Note that against this particular group of skiers, Freeman has been steadily improving over the last several years.  Also, note that the Freeman’s bad races at the Olympics stand out as being quite different from his early season results in 2009.  Based on these data, I’d call Freeman’s races about equivalent, or perhaps slightly better, than his results at the start of last season.  Ironically, a lot of people might consider this a good thing, since so many people seem to worry about being “too fast”  (Freeman included) early in the season.  In particular, we should remember that Freeman began last season very well, with several excellent World Cups (4th, 7th), two good/ok (22nd, 32nd) and two not so good (57th, 59th).

    So I think Freeman’s races this weekend were quite good, but not “jumping for joy” sort of good.  And that seems to roughly match what he said about his races himself.

    How about Kikkan Randall’s 14th place in the classic race?

    Kikkan Randall – Muonio classic race

    Randall’s steady improvement recently relative to the field at Muonio is also apparent, although it may have slowed down a tad recently.  A large number of the unusually low values (i.e. very negative) come from Kikkan Randall vs. Ida Sargent match-ups.  The rest are from a handful of people Randall has only raced against once or twice.  More on Ida Sargent in a bit.

    Basically, I’d call this a somewhat below average distance race for Kikkan Randall against this particular group of skiers.  Which again, ironically, might reassure a lot of people who buy into the “Thanksgiving Turkey” theory of International Ski Racing.  While her average percent back difference to these particular skiers seems somewhat lower than what she managed last season, it’s still just one race, and they aren’t wildly out of line with her past performances.  So I’ll buck the trend here a bit and call that a solid effort by Kikkan, but not fantastic and I bet she can do better.

    Let’s move on to some Canucks.

    Dasha Gaiazova had a decent distance race in Sweden finishing 9th, I believe.  (One interesting thing about this analysis is that it hasn’t required me to look up what place anyone finished in or their FIS points.)  Her distance racing has faltered a bit recently, so let’s see if this represents an improvement:

    Dash Gaiazova – Bruksvallarna skate race

    I’d say yes.  She’s not dominating the field, by any means, but she’s at least showing that she’s competitive with this group, whereas last season she struggled against them.

    The boys, Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey also had some solid races, finishing 4th and 5th.  How did these performances compare against previous match-ups with these particular skiers?

    Devon Kershaw – Bruksvallarna skate race

    Alex Harvey – Bruksvallarna skate race

    Again, these both seem on the “good” side of the spectrum, but not wildly ahead of where they were last year against this group of racers.  As with Kris Freeman, these seem to me to reflect solid starts to the season but not evidence (yet) of a major jump.

    I promised that I’d return to discuss Ida Sargent.  She had a strong sprint result the weekend before this in Muonio, and then followed that up with an 11th in the sprint a few days ago and 25th in the classic race this weekend.  These are interesting results for the US skiing fan, since she seems to be making a good case for getting a few World Cup starts down the road.

    I’m going to set her sprint results aside for the moment (analyzing sprint races requires different graphs and hence different code; I can only type so fast) and look at just her result in the classic race.  Since Sargent doesn’t have nearly as many international race results for me to draw on, I’ve dipped a little deeper into the results sheet for her graph:

    Ida Sargent – Muonio classic race

    Even so, the data here are quite thin.  The majority of these data points arise from races she’s done against Kikkan Randall, and only a handful from other skiers.  Keeping in mind that this is primarily a comparison against Kikkan, and that Kikkan may not have had a stellar race on Saturday, it does look like Ida Sargent has made a bit of a jump in her distance racing.  Possibly.  We’ll really have to wait and see.  But given that she seems to have a reputation as a better sprinter, it’s probably more likely that we’ll see her getting international starts in sprint races.

    So that’s my recap of the weekend’s racing.  Sorry if I didn’t cover your favorite skier!  When the racing turns to World Cup action, it will be easier for me to recap things, since everyone will be doing the same race, more or less, and I won’t have to contend with so many distance and sprint results in the same weekend.

    Related posts:

    1. <Career Retrospective: Sara Renner
    2. <Career Retrospective: Milan Sperl
    3. <USST Preview: Kikkan Randall


  • Rebuilding at home

    While 66% of the MOD Squad is duking it out over the pond in Norway, I’ve been focusing these last few weeks on rebuilding strength and fitness following having mono, which I estimate lost me about a month and a half of training.br /br /So far things have gone well. I was able to get in a few good strength sessions, rollerskis and some long-ish runs this week for a total of 14 hours, which is twice as much as I had for all of October. It’s amazing how fast the fitness does come back and heart rates come down, but I also notice that my body isn’t there quite yet. I’m not getting much above level 1 for any of these workouts, and am taking today completely off to allow the work to soak in. This coming week I’m hoping to get in some speedwork to start tuning the legs a bit, and with luck I’ll be on snow in a week or two!br /br /Here are a few pictures from a late fall run over Spokane Gulch:br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Mg2hQbkHkNs/TOGQ5EXodyI/AAAAAAAAAgE/OrwLE7SBXV4/s1600/P1010359.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Mg2hQbkHkNs/TOGQ5EXodyI/AAAAAAAAAgE/OrwLE7SBXV4/s320/P1010359.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539868326742226722″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”Looking upwards to Washington Pass – not a lot of snow yet!br /br //spana onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Mg2hQbkHkNs/TOHIrAHFm-I/AAAAAAAAAgQ/b_OF-785wQw/s1600/P1010386.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Mg2hQbkHkNs/TOHIrAHFm-I/AAAAAAAAAgQ/b_OF-785wQw/s320/P1010386.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539929657732078562″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”MOD Team Massage Therapist and ultrarunner Alison Hanks and intrepid pace-setter Nikkibr //span/divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2910103639238326543-6161695043505442815?l=methowolympicdevelopment.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

  • Ski Trail Profile: Balsam Branch Trails / Garfield

  • First Race Of The Year

    object width=”640″ height=”385″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/VQ7eYjkbtEw?fs=1amp;hl=en_US”/paramparam name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/paramparam name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”/paramembed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/VQ7eYjkbtEw?fs=1amp;hl=en_US” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”640″ height=”385″/embed/objectdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2910103639238326543-3131180566563722955?l=methowolympicdevelopment.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

  • High Visibility Clothing STANDS OUT!

    a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/TORSImIHlmI/AAAAAAAAAnk/MbeT1fBORSw/s1600/IMG_0166.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xxDw1qNK1JA/TORSImIHlmI/AAAAAAAAAnk/MbeT1fBORSw/s320/IMG_0166.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540643749199582818″ //abr /divdivbbr //b/divdivbbr //b/divdivbThe facts about high visibility clothing from a Bicycling magazine article, December 2010./b/divdivbbr //b/divdivbDay time: Regular/dark clothes drivers see at 400feet, High visibility fluorescent, 2200feet!/b/divdivbbr //b/divdivbNight time: Regular/dark clothes drivers see at 75 feet, High visibility/reflective 260-1200feet!/b/divdivbbr //b/divdivbSo cars will see you 3-16 times earlier!/b/div/divdivbr //divBy now most everyone in the nordic community is familiar with the bright yellow shirts often worn by roller skiers. As coaches we try our best and to have the entire SMS team wear them out on the roads and we can really see the difference! Currently the team is outfitted in several generations and versions from cotton t shirts and tanks to Nike and Reebook sport bras, shirts and Brooks Podium shirts. The later has seemed to become the go to shirt for nordies. The USST, college teams and clubs have all had some made up, and this year SMS got some logo’ed. These are great workout, wicking, performance T’s that run about $20-25. You can never have too many work out shirts (or you risk the double whammy, bright on the eyes and burning stank on the nose). So if you are holiday shopping for an athlete consider hitting up NENSA partner LL Bean’s or any sporting goods/cycling store’s high visibility section.divdivbr //divdivbbr //b/div/divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-106452984473861751?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

  • Check! And Cheering.

    In the past eight days I have been able to check something off my life list four-times over: racing in Europe. Check! It has been an exciting experience, to say the least. Watching Olympic medalists and World Cup regulars train and then starting in the same races as them has been pretty amazing.

    Today marked the end of our weekend of racing with a 10 km skate. The weather was definitely cooler but the snow was still fast and as I crested the top of the big climb on my first lap I caught a glimpse of sunlight hitting the windmills. (That was sometime around 11 am.) Sunlight here is always a reason to celebrate. Ida didn’t race today, so she was out there cheering us on as we made our way up that hill two times. In any race, but particularly one where you are feeling tired, there isn’t anything better than hearing a friendly voice yelling and cheering for you. Ida is wicked good at saying just the right things to get you to pick up your pace a bit and ski a little better. Thanks Ida!! A number of us also got cheered on by Justyna Kowalczyck as we raced by her while she was doing a cool down. Another excellent motivator. I was feeling really tired today but it was still satisfying to go hard. After a ski in the morning tomorrow we will head south (it’s all relative) to Rovaniemi for our last week in Finland and two more races!

  • Congrats!

    div style=”text-align: center;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”color: #cc0000;”ispan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: x-large;”Congrats to the US skiers competing in Finland this weekend! Fantastic start to the year!!/span/i/span/divspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”color: #cc0000;”ispan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: x-large;”br //span/i/spanbr /div class=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”

  • Weekend OD

    a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_m4-z_fBI/AAAAAAAAFSY/8WdwnEZHqHQ/s1600/IMG_9571.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/TN_m4-z_fBI/AAAAAAAAFSY/8WdwnEZHqHQ/s400/IMG_9571.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539399933297130514″ //aWhile the USST is getting some impressive early season results in Finland, we are enjoying some great November dryland training. Yesterday was one of those days where you could be in a t-shirt, but there was ice on the ponds and snow on the side of the road. Perfect weather for a 3- 3 1/2 hr combi OD!br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_mau_zGLI/AAAAAAAAFSQ/PG0XdLg13x4/s1600/IMG_9567.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 375px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_mau_zGLI/AAAAAAAAFSQ/PG0XdLg13x4/s400/IMG_9567.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539399413655607474″ //aOur team mascot, dressed to run.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_mHtnR0AI/AAAAAAAAFSI/Lu69qW1SYbs/s1600/IMG_9566.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_mHtnR0AI/AAAAAAAAFSI/Lu69qW1SYbs/s400/IMG_9566.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539399086866812930″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_lrHlf21I/AAAAAAAAFSA/xmnh7mvwbgY/s1600/IMG_9573.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 243px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_lrHlf21I/AAAAAAAAFSA/xmnh7mvwbgY/s400/IMG_9573.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539398595622460242″ //aThe “pack”.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_vpD_FDAI/AAAAAAAAFSo/kBT7j8qd71Q/s1600/IMG_9575.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 218px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_vpD_FDAI/AAAAAAAAFSo/kBT7j8qd71Q/s400/IMG_9575.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539409555412552706″ //aCick on any photo to enlarge.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_lZ4rGlNI/AAAAAAAAFR4/PDl99Hly0wU/s1600/IMG_9578.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/TN_lZ4rGlNI/AAAAAAAAFR4/PDl99Hly0wU/s400/IMG_9578.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539398299561661650″ //aMid-ski food station.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_kPs6o4FI/AAAAAAAAFRw/XWGlrD553RM/s1600/IMG_9579.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/TN_kPs6o4FI/AAAAAAAAFRw/XWGlrD553RM/s400/IMG_9579.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539397025095278674″ //aSome of the boys sprint to the exchange area. (notice the snow in the dip).br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_j2aGsIvI/AAAAAAAAFRo/_EgoaN8YNAg/s1600/IMG_9583.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/TN_j2aGsIvI/AAAAAAAAFRo/_EgoaN8YNAg/s400/IMG_9583.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539396590548820722″ //aExchange.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_jfgS75-I/AAAAAAAAFRg/yKaC4yiJPrE/s1600/IMG_9588.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/TN_jfgS75-I/AAAAAAAAFRg/yKaC4yiJPrE/s400/IMG_9588.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539396197073807330″ //a1 hr into the run, Stratton Pond sparkles in the sun.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_jOJMhlcI/AAAAAAAAFRY/G1wyGWzJWug/s1600/IMG_9591.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 316px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_jOJMhlcI/AAAAAAAAFRY/G1wyGWzJWug/s400/IMG_9591.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539395898815124930″ //aBoys will be boys. Actually, they are cleaning their shoes at the end of the run.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_iWufMNHI/AAAAAAAAFRQ/he8nTDBg5nA/s1600/IMG_9592.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 309px; height: 400px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_iWufMNHI/AAAAAAAAFRQ/he8nTDBg5nA/s400/IMG_9592.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539394946752853106″ //aThat was fun.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TN_h_hRgsoI/AAAAAAAAFRI/bhdEhEyqcX4/s1600/IMG_9594.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/TN_h_hRgsoI/AAAAAAAAFRI/bhdEhEyqcX4/s400/IMG_9594.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539394548068823682″ //aRECOVERY aid.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-672315679777321276?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

  • West Yellowstone

    Day One.  Made myself a new pair of rock skis on the Plateau this morning, but still pretty sweet to be skiing on snow.  Even cooler to be getting snow reports from folks back home in Hayward and Minneapolis.

    These skis were fresh before the ski!

    The ground is frozen and it won’t take much more snow to make the skiing a lot better.  The whole team cruised together along the Plateau this morning.  We even came across bear tracks that followed the trail for at least 5km.  This afternoon I roller skied into the Park and had a standoff with a couple herds of elk with a couple of big bulls.  Great to be back in Montana (or Wyoming as the case may be).

    Brian Gregg photo.

    In alma matter news. . .

    Rob Fuhr just sent me these photos taken by a student on Wednesday afternoon when I joined the Hopkins team for a Captains Practice.  Thanks to Connor Benton and the Hopkins Captains for getting me out.  There were over 60 skiers at the practice.  Dang!

    Best comment of the day:

    Garrott: “This exercise is really good for your skating.”

    First year skier in eighth grade: “What’s skating?”

    Connor: “We haven’t taught them about skate and classic yet.”

    Well, luckily, these students joined the best ski team in the state and will soon be teaching all the other teams in Minnesota a thing or two about skating.

    Finally. . .

    Congrats to the Middlebury Men’s and Women’s cross country running teams on qualifying for NCAA’s and making history.  The women have had plenty of experience at NCAA’s (including multiple National Championships), but it’s first time the men’s team has ever made it to Nationals.  Not a bad way for Terry to celebrate his birthday and his retirement.  Nice work Terry and Nicole!

  • Hello, Goodbye!

    A snow gun going full-blast in Canmore trying to make up for a snow-less November.

    I thought this post would be a hello from Canmore, Alberta, Canada, where USBA is currently having it’s on-snow camp and December World Cup/IBU Cup trials. However, it is instead a hello from the Albany airport, where I am currently killing time waiting for a shuttle back to Lake Placid.

    The quick version of the story is that, until yesterday, there was no skiing at all in Canmore. So, the National Team coaches and staff decided that those of us pre-qualified athletes should leave Canmore and head to Sweden early where there is already 5km+ of great skiing. This has meant a lot of shuffling of tickets and last minute preparation, but here I am, just 6 days after leaving, back in Albany and heading to Lake Placid for re-packing and a quick turn-around for Sweden.

    I’ll be off on Wednesday for Östersund, the site of the first World Cup, and am looking forward to a more relaxing lead-up to the first races. It will be nice to be there early and hopefully I’ll have more time to explore the city than I did last year. It’s going to be hectic couple of days back in Lake Placid, but well worth it to get good skiing in sooner. I’ll keep you all posted as I continue to country hop!

    Östersund here I come!