FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • Race For The Cure

    a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TEH1GEF-pbI/AAAAAAAADWA/-lLlI1HST5U/s1600/IMG_5469.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/TEH1GEF-pbI/AAAAAAAADWA/-lLlI1HST5U/s400/IMG_5469.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494942504895554994″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TEHjpEhMalI/AAAAAAAADUY/JbslPSQK2Lk/s1600/IMG_5437.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/TEHjpEhMalI/AAAAAAAADUY/JbslPSQK2Lk/s400/IMG_5437.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494923315095824978″ //aThis morning we ran in the Race for the Cure 5km in Manchester. It was a great way to help raise money for Breast Cancer and it was an excellent workout.br /There were 6-800 people in the race so it was “a happening”. Our boys ran as a group the whole way and placed 4,5,6,7,8,10. Sophie and Erika are down from Dartmouth for the weekend and they helped our girls group to fine results with Sophie, MK and Erika leading the way in first, second and 4th overall.br /Devo kids MacKenzie, Alexandra, Tess, Russell and Thomas also ran and did well.br / It was a nice warm, sunny day and everyone enjoyed the free ice cream after the race.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TEHjPdwYvQI/AAAAAAAADUQ/UZyUfZOxLNE/s1600/IMG_5438.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/TEHjPdwYvQI/AAAAAAAADUQ/UZyUfZOxLNE/s400/IMG_5438.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494922875193834754″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TEHijLLkGJI/AAAAAAAADUI/mp55hY8OjFw/s1600/IMG_5439.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/TEHijLLkGJI/AAAAAAAADUI/mp55hY8OjFw/s400/IMG_5439.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494922114293307538″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TEHh3B4MXeI/AAAAAAAADUA/tdpIQvJP7rU/s1600/IMG_5441.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/TEHh3B4MXeI/AAAAAAAADUA/tdpIQvJP7rU/s400/IMG_5441.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494921355881897442″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TEHgsS6zrjI/AAAAAAAADTw/iuZH2jW7EU0/s1600/IMG_5456.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/TEHgsS6zrjI/AAAAAAAADTw/iuZH2jW7EU0/s400/IMG_5456.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494920071966076466″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TEHgOCk6jII/AAAAAAAADTo/ErsWzS-gUf8/s1600/IMG_5457.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/TEHgOCk6jII/AAAAAAAADTo/ErsWzS-gUf8/s400/IMG_5457.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494919552183209090″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TEHflWUxUaI/AAAAAAAADTg/rpVKCOR6dgI/s1600/IMG_5473.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/TEHflWUxUaI/AAAAAAAADTg/rpVKCOR6dgI/s400/IMG_5473.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494918853109567906″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TEHfJA86qDI/AAAAAAAADTY/urg0T5gWy4s/s1600/IMG_5466.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/TEHfJA86qDI/AAAAAAAADTY/urg0T5gWy4s/s400/IMG_5466.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494918366336034866″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TEHedlv_60I/AAAAAAAADTQ/nkrRyFh_YKY/s1600/IMG_5467.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 156px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TEHedlv_60I/AAAAAAAADTQ/nkrRyFh_YKY/s400/IMG_5467.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494917620299721538″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TEHdyRodNYI/AAAAAAAADTI/OnTnu7GyKMM/s1600/IMG_5468.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/TEHdyRodNYI/AAAAAAAADTI/OnTnu7GyKMM/s400/IMG_5468.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494916876165002626″ //abr /That’s a wrap. This afternoon we head to Weston for our d-pole workout.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-4264802262398604931?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

  • Kathleen Cheryl’s Excellent Water Adventure

    A couple of workouts ago Kathleen asked me if I planned to do the time trials when I said, ‘sure’ she suggested that since we’d get a good ski workout early in the week why not play hooky from the Thursday Vakava workout and do a Hoigaards canoe race instead (races are every Thursday all summer). Well, it’s been quite a few years since I raced canoes seriously but Kathleen is just getting into it this year so I thought ‘oh what the heck’. I haven’t been in a boat this year so I made sure I got two canoe training sessions in the weekend before. One of the sessions was with Kathleen on a very windy day on Pleasant Lake. We stayed upright in our racing boat (just barely) so I figured we were ready for anything. Fast forward to July 8. A nice hot day but no wind at Lake Calhoun. I got registered, got the boat ready, got me ready but no Kathleen. I wasn’t too worried until about 10 minutes to race time – still no Kathleen. I knew she wouldn’t blow me off so I figured something must have happened so I started frantically looking for a back up partner, trying to talk solo racers into ditching their boats and going tandem. I even asked the race starter if he’d partner with me (canoe racers never wait for the starters horn anyway). All the boats were in the water when Kathleen came running up. She’d been caught in traffic but she made it so we jumped in the boat and got a great start. She took the stern and for a beginner she did a great job stearing. I guess if you’re going to race with a neophyte, pick a rocket scientist – she’s a quick study on reading the water, waves and boat angles. Well into the second half of the race all was going well and we had some decent teams within sight coming out of Cedar into Lake of the Isles. Water was calm, no boats next to us and suddenly the boat leaned too far to the right and before we knew it we were swimming! Damn! We tried popping the boat up to get the water out but we couldn’t get it flipped AND empty so we had to swim it to the edge of a bridge where we could get a toe hold on the bridge wall. The water was warm and it was a hot night so the water actually felt pretty good. There was a fisherman on the other side of the bridge who enjoyed the show and a few of the old time canoe racers who paddled by as we we struggled to get back into the race took full advantage of our prediciment. I must admit I had a hard time paddling when we got started again because I was laughing. I figured we lost about 6 minutes but hey, we finished the race and still won the women’s division. Neither one of us knows why we tipped but after the race Joe Manns said he saw a 4′ muskie in the vicinity so my theory is that the 5′ muskie knocked us over. br /br /Overall I had a great time paddling with Kathleen. She’s amazingly strong in the boat and I think if we did a couple more races we could hang with some of the regular racing women. So if any other Vakers are looking for some awesome cross training, try canoing. Kathleen might even take the stern with you. Just watch out for that 6′ muskie lurking on the west end of Lake of the Isles.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1572647974447867713-364059405848937508?l=vakavaraceteam.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

  • Week In Review: Friday July 16th

    Now that I’m back from travelling for a bit (but only for a bit) things were a little more busy this week at Statistical Skier.

    • I debuted an interesting way to mine skiing results data to search for skiers with similar careers and used it to look at “similar” skiers to Beckie Scott.
    • I reproduced (with a few minor flourishes of my own) a version of some bumps charts for the Tour de France that I saw a few years back.
    • The list of World Cup skiers hanging up their boots this year continued, with Swiss skier Reto Burgermeister getting the career retrospective treatment.
    • A commenter asked for a version of my Tour de France bumps plot with the teams indicated in color (despite the fact that he is apparently colorblind) and I happily obliged, but suggested that a better way to look at that type of information is to use faceting.
    • Finally, with another Tour stage in the books, I updated the bumps plot to include the latest data.  Also, I added a bonus bumps chart showing the changes in average speed for each racer.

    Obviously, things have strayed a bit from skiing to bike racing this week.  What can I say?  It’s summer, the Tour de France is in full swing and you just can’t turn down good data.  The cycling content will be pretty heavy until the Tour ends, just to warn you…



  • Reader Request: Tour de France GC By Team

    Commenter ryank asks if I can color code the lines for each rider according to their team.  I can, but it doesn’t lead to a great looking plot.  The reason is that there are just way too many teams and distinguishing that many colors just isn’t pleasant.

    But I’m nothing if not responsive to my reader(s), so here it is:

    Like I said, not so hot.  There are 22 teams, which is way too many to distinguish by color.  A better option is faceting (or trellising):

    Click through the image for a larger version.  I’ll leave it to the more educated cycling commentariat to interpret this plot, since there’s a lot going on in this one.



  • Tour de France Bump Plot: Stage 12

    First off, many thanks to Cosmo for the shout out on Twitter.  My traffic today will be much larger than usual.  Updated charts after today’s stage (and some new stuff too) below the fold…

    Here’s the updated bumps plot for the GC standings after Stage 12 today:

    The yellow jersey is unchanged (Andy Schleck) but the green jersey for sprinting went back to Thor Hushovd and the polka-dot jersey (red dashed line) for climbing switched to Anthony Charteau (whose name is pleasantly free of non-English characters).

    As an added treat, here’s another bumps plot.  But this time, I’ve shown the average speed in kilometers per hour for each rider and each stage:

    You can easily see here the stages where everyone finishes together (i.e. Stage 1) versus a stage with a lot of variation in speeds (i.e. Stages 8/9 or the Prologue).  Also, note the group of faster riders in Stage 10, on a particularly slow day.  Look at the big speed gap from Stage 8 that split the peloton roughly in half.  Obviously, the yellow line is Andy Schleck, currently yellow jersey holder.



  • Career Retrospective: Reto Burgermeister

    Thanks to NordicXplained I’ve been alerted to several more athletes retiring after the 2009-2010 season.  These next three may be somewhat less famous than the other skiers I profiled, but that doesn’t make them less important or less interesting!  For instance…

    …Swiss skier Reto Burgermeister, who has one of the coolest names I’ve ever seen, and that’s coming from someone with an unusual name myself.  Burgermeister has reached the podium two times in his career: a 30km pursuit in Germany in 2004 and a 15km classic race in 2003, also in Germany.

    His Wikipedia page appears to be inaccurate, claiming that he “…retired in 2007 as he was since 2002 very unsuccessful. [sic]“.  I have World Cup races for him through March of 2010.  Maybe he retired and then un-retired?  Lots of people do that these days…

    Let’s look at his distance results:

    Reto Burgermeister's distance results.

    That’s a long career and lots of WC races.  Without a doubt, 2003-2004 was his best season.  The wiki author is kind of right that Burgermeister has had less success more recently, but I think “very unsuccessful” might be a bit harsh.  His bad races certainly got really bad (>150 FIS points) and his top races declined from below 10 points to near 50.

    But Burgermeister was around 29 or so in 2004.  Some skiers just continue hammering away past age 30, but many more do not.  And his results at the end of his career aren’t really that different from his results from 1999-2000.

    Let’s see if he had a favorite technique:

    Reto Burgermeister's distance results by technique.

    The trend lines suggest a (very) slight edge for classic, though I think that underplays the difference somewhat.  Remember the trend lines track the average, but Burgermeister’s best races were nearly all classic, particularly later in his career.

    In the off chance he had any preferences for races of particular lengths…

    Reto Burgermeister's distance results by race length.

    The best I can say here is that his best races, around 2003-2004, tended to come in 30k’s, but that’s about it.

    I’m going to forego the sprint results plots for Burgermeister, because, well, there are only 8 data points.  And that would just make for a silly looking graph.  So let’s just say that sprinting wasn’t Burgermeister’s cup of tea, and leave it at that.

    Thanks for the memories, Reto!  I wish I could retire in Switzerland…



  • enlightenment through closed eyes

    pI’ve really worked hard on improving my technique and have made great strides, but there’s always something more to work on and tweaks to make. I think I’m on the verge of a breakthrough. Last week at the V2 video session, Ahvo told me that I need to get my hip just a bit further over and pole longer on the one ski before shifting my weight to the other side. I’ve heard this many times from various sources and know what he’s talking about. I can see it on the video and feel it when I ski, but just haven’t been able to make the change. So earlier this week I tried some balance drills with my eyes closed. I’ve read that having the eyes closed is important for improving balance. I think doing balance drills with eyes open helps strengthen the muscles used for balance, but doing them with the eyes closed helps train the brain and other systems involved somehow. Anyway, I was doing the V2 motion with my eyes closed and found that I couldn’t step back and forth without putting a foot down unless I did it a certain way. After thinking about it I came to the conclusion that that motion was what I had been trying to do but couldn’t quite get. Doing it with eyes closed forced me to do it right. So tonight at practice I tried doing the same thing on roller skis (with eyes open this time!). I was finally able to make it work. It feels deliberate and inefficient since it’s new, but I think once I commit it to muscle memory and practice it a lot it will feel good and be more powerful./p div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1572647974447867713-6190660705680671902?l=vakavaraceteam.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

  • Top of Vermont

    We’re in the middle of a high volume week and decided to mix up our usual trails and roads with an OD run on the Long Trail.  So this morning we loaded up a van and headed to the trailhead at Mud City in Morrisville.  The adventure started by running up the Beaver Meadow trail until we hit the Long Trail and then we headed south following the white blazes.  We ran up and over Madonna Mountain, cooled off by swimming in Sterling Pond, ran down a steep descent to the Smugglers Notch road where Pepa was waiting with more water, food, and popsicles, and then headed steeply back up the trail towards the chin of Mt. Mansfield.  Our original plan was to follow the ridge all the way to the Mansfield Lake in Moscow but our time and distance estimations were a bit off so we cut down early by taking the Toll Road and then the Hazelton Trail.  The final steep descent was quite tough on the sore legs and I think Pat even considered borrowing a child’s bike at the top of the toll road for an easier finish.  We finally made it back to Mama Pepa after 5 hours on the trail!  On our way home we hit up a swimming hole in Stowe that felt very cold and refreshing especially compared to the warm water of Big Hosmer.

    Han, Chels, and Susan at the Beaver Meadow Lodge with Madonna peak in the background

    Moni waiting for us on the chin. This was at about 4 hours which was our original goal for time so he asked when Pepa was coming to pick us up. He said, "My legs are starting to not feel."

    Looking tough?

    boys

  • Tour de France Bump Charts (Updated)

    (Updated with results from today’s stage.) A few years ago I saw that someone had made some bump charts based on Tour de France results.  (I actually was alerted to them via Junk Charts).  Brilliant!  Sadly, it hasn’t seemed to catch on, as I haven’t seen these sort of graphs floating around much since then.  Then again, maybe they’ve been everywhere and I just missed them.  In any case…

    Statistical Skier to the rescue!  Sure, it’s not skiing related, but let’s be honest.  The proportion of cross country ski racers paying fairly close attention to the Tour is probably pretty high.  Graphs below the fold…

    All my data comes from Cyclingnews.com.  The original versions of these plots just looked at the general classification rank of each rider.  We can expand on that some, but for starters let’s stick to the basics:

    If you’re not familiar with bike racing, the colored lines might be confusing.  The yellow line is the current overall race leader (Yellow jersey, currently Andy Schleck).  The green line refers to the overall sprint points classification leader (Green jersey, currently Thor Hushovd) and the red dotted line refers to the mountain points classification leader (polka-dot jersey), currently Jeacuterocircme Pineau.  No, wait, that’s Jerome Pineau.  My screen scraper was a truly quick and dirty affair so I neglected some simple things like, say, character set encodings.  Ah well.  <1

    The x axis refers to the general classification rank after that stage.  So the chart begins with the general classification rank following the prologue.  I’ve improved slightly on the original by having riders who’ve dropped out of the race simply have their line end, rather than shoot up off the graph.  On the other hand, I’m not particularly happy with all the black lines.  I might have to play with the colors a bit…

    I’ll update these graphs periodically (hell, maybe daily) during the tour.  Also, we can experiment with plotting things other than the general classification rank on the y axis.  Although if you have suggestions, keep in mind that all the data I’m scraping are the GC, points, mountain and team classifications from the results pages as cyclingnews.com.  So that’s all the data I’ve got.  But that includes times and teams, which is enough to play around a little with some different stuff.

    Update: I wrote this while stage 11 was taking place.  Here’s the same graph with up to date results:


    1. As a side note, screw you Cofidis, for putting a comma in your team name!  You can go to hell! <↩


  • Repeat Workouts

    a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9jtIM34FI/AAAAAAAADTA/mWsfLASOPMY/s1600/IMG_5340.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/TD9jtIM34FI/AAAAAAAADTA/mWsfLASOPMY/s400/IMG_5340.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494219697362034770″ //aThis morning we had an excellent workout at BMD. Here is Poppet working with the Devo kids on basic body position.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9iPhzArsI/AAAAAAAADS4/5se6R145Hvw/s1600/IMG_5347.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 264px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9iPhzArsI/AAAAAAAADS4/5se6R145Hvw/s400/IMG_5347.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494218089325178562″ //aWe always start with some technique drills as part of our warm-up. It is a great way for the younger kids to work with the older skiers and it is fun and beneficial for everyone.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9hdOC2-uI/AAAAAAAADSw/6BDfhG69TTw/s1600/IMG_5348.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 271px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9hdOC2-uI/AAAAAAAADSw/6BDfhG69TTw/s400/IMG_5348.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494217225029483234″ //aWe use the stretch cords for leg strength, body postion and rhythm. Sometimes it is interesting to see what the “riders” are doing.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9gz54vB9I/AAAAAAAADSo/a3QuktIMoKw/s1600/IMG_5356.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/TD9gz54vB9I/AAAAAAAADSo/a3QuktIMoKw/s400/IMG_5356.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494216515243673554″ //aNice view Izzy?br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9gaHX0amI/AAAAAAAADSg/RmMg-11V3AY/s1600/IMG_5358.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/TD9gaHX0amI/AAAAAAAADSg/RmMg-11V3AY/s400/IMG_5358.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494216072187112034″ //aYo Fritz, what’s up?br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9f5JHblkI/AAAAAAAADSY/xighaxnIICU/s1600/IMG_5359.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/TD9f5JHblkI/AAAAAAAADSY/xighaxnIICU/s400/IMG_5359.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494215505719563842″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9fOUq4jkI/AAAAAAAADSQ/Wzxj9HxWbHY/s1600/IMG_5368.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 394px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9fOUq4jkI/AAAAAAAADSQ/Wzxj9HxWbHY/s400/IMG_5368.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494214770086678082″ //aBalance, balance…..balance….. oops!br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9ewlWqeJI/AAAAAAAADSI/LDPz-R9X6vs/s1600/IMG_5362.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 286px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9ewlWqeJI/AAAAAAAADSI/LDPz-R9X6vs/s400/IMG_5362.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494214259169196178″ //aRussell takes getting forward to a whole new level.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9ePIkES3I/AAAAAAAADSA/1YCWKd-RskU/s1600/IMG_5372.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/TD9ePIkES3I/AAAAAAAADSA/1YCWKd-RskU/s400/IMG_5372.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494213684505103218″ //aIf balance is important, why not have a contest to see who can stand on 1 ski for the longest?br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9dpv6lfjI/AAAAAAAADR4/XeTrqPnUXMU/s1600/IMG_5377.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/TD9dpv6lfjI/AAAAAAAADR4/XeTrqPnUXMU/s400/IMG_5377.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494213042233507378″ //aKatharine and MacKenzie.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9bu9ZcYhI/AAAAAAAADRw/3YDM4AMO0Ug/s1600/IMG_5378.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/TD9bu9ZcYhI/AAAAAAAADRw/3YDM4AMO0Ug/s400/IMG_5378.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494210932728685074″ //aAfter our warm-up and technique drills, we did 2X 4km level 3 intervals. Here is Issy P accelerating over the top of the hill.br /We like to do this workout once every 3-4 weeks to see how we are reacting to our summer training. Today we had good news. EVERYONE IMPROVED. The range of improvement was 15 seconds to 1:30 for each interval. We are just doing good steady training with some L3 and easy speed. We are working on technique, specific strength and general endurance. The plan is to continue this type of training through August and then add a bit more intensity. If someone stops improving, that is a little red flag and we will try to tweak the training to help them continue to get faster.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9bEr_XauI/AAAAAAAADRo/1-8UcwJfBmI/s1600/IMG_5380.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/TD9bEr_XauI/AAAAAAAADRo/1-8UcwJfBmI/s400/IMG_5380.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494210206501399266″ //aFritz.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9ahtDOTgI/AAAAAAAADRg/fC8TSIpxsFI/s1600/IMG_5394.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 354px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9ahtDOTgI/AAAAAAAADRg/fC8TSIpxsFI/s400/IMG_5394.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494209605490593282″ //aJAC leading AC in their first 4 km L3 interval.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9aEMQ3uvI/AAAAAAAADRY/A04orWP0jj8/s1600/IMG_5399.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/TD9aEMQ3uvI/AAAAAAAADRY/A04orWP0jj8/s400/IMG_5399.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494209098473257714″ //aAustin Cobb.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9ZkpwAyCI/AAAAAAAADRQ/utcP4a8nsVw/s1600/IMG_5410.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/TD9ZkpwAyCI/AAAAAAAADRQ/utcP4a8nsVw/s400/IMG_5410.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494208556632688674″ //aBen hammers the uphill.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9Yvw0XpJI/AAAAAAAADRI/QWJMtU9T-64/s1600/IMG_5421.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 214px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9Yvw0XpJI/AAAAAAAADRI/QWJMtU9T-64/s400/IMG_5421.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494207647996945554″ //aAlex and Mackenzie get after it in a sprint start. The Devo kids are improving enough to let them try some pure speed. We had a little road rash, but that just means that they are going for it!br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9XqFwhgFI/AAAAAAAADQ4/GH5zHLCOsS8/s1600/IMG_5422.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 244px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9XqFwhgFI/AAAAAAAADQ4/GH5zHLCOsS8/s400/IMG_5422.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494206451027116114″ //aSkyler dominated the sprint starts.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9W_RDzzfI/AAAAAAAADQw/iRWuDbH7sVM/s1600/IMG_5431.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 282px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9W_RDzzfI/AAAAAAAADQw/iRWuDbH7sVM/s400/IMG_5431.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494205715326422514″ //aWe ended with some leg speeds (fast and relaxed) to flush things out.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9WryKz50I/AAAAAAAADQo/An4_PQwACa8/s1600/IMG_5433.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 234px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TD9WryKz50I/AAAAAAAADQo/An4_PQwACa8/s400/IMG_5433.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494205380616775490″ //adiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-513967551566776271?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

  • Meet the new kid: This burrito is bigger than a baby!

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  • More Photos

    div style=”text-align: left;”More photos as promised. Erik took some pictures with a “good” camera.br //divdivbr //divdiva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/TD69lvje5dI/AAAAAAAAAZA/uHdXlSJyir8/s1600/glacier+1.jpg”img src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/TD69lvje5dI/AAAAAAAAAZA/uHdXlSJyir8/s320/glacier+1.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494037051556685266″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px; ” //a/divdivdivbr //divdiv style=”text-align: center;”Reese Hanneman and I enjoying a nice L1 ski/divdiv style=”text-align: center;”br //divdiva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/TD69p8i_XMI/AAAAAAAAAZI/Avc7NLWW_dY/s1600/Glacier+2.jpg”img src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/TD69p8i_XMI/AAAAAAAAAZI/Avc7NLWW_dY/s320/Glacier+2.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494037123763756226″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px; ” //a/divdiv style=”text-align: center;”GO HAMMER NUTRITION!/divdiv style=”text-align: center;”br //divdiva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/TD69twcm9PI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/Px5BI5-h0I0/s1600/glacier+3.jpg”img src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/TD69twcm9PI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/Px5BI5-h0I0/s320/glacier+3.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494037189235242226″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px; ” //a/divdivbr //divdiva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/TD69xYTFTOI/AAAAAAAAAZY/6-r-MFiOn70/s1600/glacier+4.jpg”img src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/TD69xYTFTOI/AAAAAAAAAZY/6-r-MFiOn70/s320/glacier+4.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494037251472313570″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 159px; ” //a/div/divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2018521813175454198-193492115660113949?l=sadiebjornsen.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

  • Anna Haag talks about the 2015 World Championships

    This year’s annual FIS congress included the selection for the 2015 Nordic World Championships. The meeting was held in Turkey, and the finalists included Sweden, Finland, Poland and Germany. Sweden was smart. They brought along some of their top athletes to be part of the presentation in their bid to bring the World’s to Falun. Nothing like hearing it straight from an athlete’s mouth.br /br /It definitely worked because Sweden beat their rivals to become the hosts for 2015. Key in that presentation was Olympic medalist Anna Haag. She took a short break from her training to talk with Rick Halling about the World Championships and what it means for the event to come to Sweden.br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD6EnaZ8yZI/AAAAAAAAAhM/k2DkqjZj3M0/s1600/big-mini-6603.jpg”img style=”display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 330px; height: 400px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD6EnaZ8yZI/AAAAAAAAAhM/k2DkqjZj3M0/s400/big-mini-6603.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493974408076511634″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”Anna Haag on the left./spanbr /span style=”font-style: italic;”She brought Sweden Olympic medals and the 2015 World Championships./spanbr //divbr /Rick Halling: Congratulations on winning the bid for the 2015 World Championships. I watched your presentation for Sweden, and I watched Justyna Kowalczyk’s presentation for Poland. It was obvious that the athletes who went to Turkey were not there simply because their federations told them to come. It was quite clear that the athletes truly cared about being the hosts for the World Championships. Why was it so important for you to bring the World Championships to Sweden?br /br /Anna Haag: I was born in the region so for me it’s a dream came true having a new world championship in my home region. I remember the last one, 1993, and I think that my interest in cross country skiing grew just because of that. So, for many reasons, I really want to ski and have a championship in Sweden and in Dalarna (the region).br /br /Rick Halling: Aren’t there also some major drawbacks with the World’s taking place in your own country? You have to admit, there is far more pressure on the home athletes than on the visiting teams. Swedish journalists can be pretty tough on Swedish athletes, don’t you think they will be even tougher when the event is at home?br /br /Anna Haag: I’m pretty sure they’ll be tough, but that is also one of the things that make it even more special and charming. If you can handle the pressure and take a medal at a championship in the home country, you’ve really make something special and really, really fantastic memory for the rest of your life.br /br /Rick Halling: Can you describe your role in representing Sweden at the FIS conference? Do you think you made much of a difference?Anna Haag: I don’t know. But I think that we (me, Emil and Charlotte) helped a bit. We are young and every one of us will ski (hopefully) in Falun, so everything that we said was true. We really wanted the championship to Sweden!! And we did get it!br /br /Rick Halling: You convinced the FIS representatives to hold the World Championships in Sweden. Now, persuade American Masters that it will make for a great vacation to fly to Sweden and attend the Worlds in 2015.br /br /Anna Haag: Oh, that’s a hard one. But to see a ski competion “for real” is something really special. And in Falun 2015, there will be a lot of things to do except just sport. Falun has a lot of culture and a great surrounding with a lot to do and see. I think it will be a great experience!br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD6E71OPBMI/AAAAAAAAAhU/8iwvvf57DbI/s1600/400px-FalunSwedenJake73.jpg”img style=”display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 286px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD6E71OPBMI/AAAAAAAAAhU/8iwvvf57DbI/s400/400px-FalunSwedenJake73.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493974758872515778″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-size:85%;”span style=”font-style: italic;”There will be more than just skiing at the 2015 World’s./spanbr /span style=”font-style: italic;”Exciting cultural opportunities can be found a short drive away./span/spanbr //divbr /Rick Halling: One thing that prevents Americans from attending events like the World Championships is that they are concerned there will be no place for them to ski when they are there. There may be no trails for spectators or there will only be a very short loop open to the public. Will the World’s in Falun be like that? Or, will average folk be able to find plenty of nice and convenient trails to ski on between watching races?br /br /Anna Haag: If there is a great winter, like the last one, it will be a lot of tracks and cozy trails around in the village and neighborhood.br /br /Rick Halling: I have not seen a schedule yet, I don’t know if there is one. How many days between when the World Championships end and the Vasaloppet takes place? Will that be a realistic option? Can tourists attend the World’s in Falun, stay in Sweden for a few more days and then be a part of the Vasaloppet?br /br /Anna Haag: The management from the Vasaloppet said in Antalya, that if Falun got the WCS they will have to move the Vasaloppet for the very first time in history. Ever since the very, very beginning of this completion, it has been hold the first Sunday in March. Otherwise the 50.th Km and the Vasaloppet will be at the same day. So let’s hope that the Americans can both watch the WSC and ski the Vasaloppet.br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD6FkoPpefI/AAAAAAAAAhk/G0Tcm8BElfo/s1600/anders_birken.jpg”img style=”display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 258px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD6FkoPpefI/AAAAAAAAAhk/G0Tcm8BElfo/s400/anders_birken.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493975459763419634″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-size:85%;”span style=”font-style: italic;”Can classic distance specialists like Anders Aukland/spanbr /span style=”font-style: italic;”take advantage of the proximity of the World’s to the Vasaloppet?/spanbr /span style=”font-style: italic;”Over 140 km of racing in less than a week!!/span/span/divbr /Rick Halling: Final question. Let’s say a visiting family goes for a nice ski that morning, watches the races that afternoon, and they are very hungry and want a traditional Swedish dinner that night. What do you recommend they should order at one of Falun’s better restaurants?br /br /Anna Haag: They should order elk and potato, grilled or steaked elk. That’s my favorite!br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD6FUQ7Tq7I/AAAAAAAAAhc/rUvlCppSrE4/s1600/ESTE-LOIN.jpg”img style=”display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 247px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD6FUQ7Tq7I/AAAAAAAAAhc/rUvlCppSrE4/s400/ESTE-LOIN.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493975178626182066″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”Elk Steak, yumm, yumm!!/span/divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7250441303676475856-8892057049612846707?l=blog.ultratune.net’ alt=” //div

  • Anna Haag talks about the 2015 World Championships

    span style=”;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;” bi style=””span style=”color: rgb(255, 255, 255);”This year’s annual FIS congress included the selection for the 2015 Nordic World Championships./spanspan style=”color: rgb(255, 255, 255);” /spanspan style=”color: rgb(255, 255, 255);”At the meeting, held in Turkey, the finalists included Sweden, Finland, Poland and Germany./spanspan style=”color: rgb(255, 255, 255);” /spanspan style=”color: rgb(255, 255, 255);”Sweden was smart./spanspan style=”color: rgb(255, 255, 255);” /spanspan style=”color: rgb(255, 255, 255);”They brought along some of their top athletes to be part of the presentation to bring the World’s to Falun./spanspan style=”color: rgb(255, 255, 255);” /spanspan style=”color: rgb(255, 255, 255);”Nothing like hearing it straight from an athlete’s mouth./spanspan style=”color: rgb(255, 255, 255);” /spanspan style=”color: rgb(255, 255, 255);”It definitely worked because Sweden beat their key rivals to become the /spanspan style=”color: rgb(255, 255, 255);” /spanspan style=”color: rgb(255, 255, 255);”hosts for 2015./spanspan style=”” /spanbr //i/b/spanp class=”MsoNormal”b style=””i style=””span style=”;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;” Key in that presentation was Olympic medalist Anna Haag./spanspan style=”;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;” /spanspan style=”;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;” She took a short break from her training to talk with Rick Halling about the World Championships and what it means for the event to come to Sweden./span/i/bbr //pdiv style=”text-align: center;”b style=””i style=””b style=””i style=””a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD57su6cInI/AAAAAAAAAgk/8SHymCkEfZU/s1600/big-mini-6603.jpg”img style=”display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 264px; height: 320px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD57su6cInI/AAAAAAAAAgk/8SHymCkEfZU/s320/big-mini-6603.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493964603876188786″ border=”0″ //a/i/b/i/bspan style=”font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;” Anna Haag on the left.br /She brought/spanspan style=”font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;” Sweden Olympic medalsbr /and the 2015 World Championships./spani style=””o:p/o:p/i/div p class=”MsoNormal”o:p /o:p/p p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-weight: bold;”Rick Halling:/span i style=””Congratulations on winning the bid for the 2015 World Championships. I watched your /ii style=””presentation for Sweden, and I watched Justyna Kowalczyk’s present/ii style=””ation for Poland. It was obvious that the athletes who went to Turkey were not there simply because their federations told them to come. It was quite clear that the athletes truly cared about being the hosts for the World Championships. Why was it so important for you to bring the World Championships to Sweden?o:p/o:p/i/p p class=”MsoNormal”i style=””o:p/o:p/ispan style=”font-weight: bold;”Anna Haag: /spanspan style=”color:black;”I was born in the region so for me it’s a dream came true/spanspan style=”color:black;” having a new world championship in my home region. I remember the last one, 1993, and I think that my interest in cross country skiing grew just because of that. So, for many reasons, I really want to ski and have a championship in Sweden and in Dalarna (the region)./span /p p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-weight: bold;”Rick Halling: /spani style=””Aren’t there also some major drawbacks with the World’s taking place in your own country? You have to admit, there is far more pressure on the home athletes than on the visiting teams. Swedish journalists can be pretty tough on Swedish athletes, don’t you think they will be ev/ii style=””en tougher when the event is at home? /i /p p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-weight: bold;”Anna Haag/spanspan style=”color:black;”span style=”font-weight: bold;”:/span I’m pretty sure they’ll be tough, but that is also one of the things that make it even more special and charming. If you can handle the pressure and take a medal at a championship in/spanspan style=”color:black;” the home country, you’ve really make something special and really, really fantastic memory for the rest of your life./span/p p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-weight: bold;”Rick Halling: /span i style=””Can you describe your role in representing Sweden at the FIS conference? Do you think you made much of a difference?/i/p p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-weight: bold;”Anna Haag:/span span style=”color:black;”I don’t know. But I think that we (me, Emil and Charlotte) helped a bit. We are young and every one of us will ski (hopefully) in Falun, so everything that we said was true. We really wanted the championship to Sweden!! And we did get it! /span/p p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-weight: bold;”Rick Halling:/span i style=””You convinced the FIS representatives to hold the World Championships in Sweden. Now, persuade American Masters that it will make for a great vacation to fly to Sweden and attend the Worlds in 2015.o:p/o:p/i/p p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-weight: bold;”Anna Haag: /spanspan style=”color:black;”Oh, that’s a hard one. But to see a ski competion “for rea/spanspan style=”color:black;”l” is something really special. And in Falun 2015, there will be a lot of things to do except just sport. Falun has a lot of culture and a great surrounding with a lot to do and see. I think it will be a great experience!/span/p p class=”MsoNormal”br /span style=”color:black;”o:p/o:p/span/p p style=”text-align: center;” class=”MsoNormal”b style=””i style=””a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD57s6uMr8I/AAAAAAAAAgs/1deeAowdOQ4/s1600/400px-FalunSwedenJake73.jpg”img style=”display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 229px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD57s6uMr8I/AAAAAAAAAgs/1deeAowdOQ4/s320/400px-FalunSwedenJake73.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493964607046070210″ border=”0″ //a/i/bspan style=”font-size:85%;”b style=””span style=”color:black;”There will be more than just skiing at the 2015 World’s.span style=”” /spanbr /Excit/span/bb style=””span style=”color:black;”ing cultural opportunities can be found a short drive away./span/b/span/p p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-weight: bold;”Rick Halling: /span i style=””One thing that prevents Americans from attending events like the World Championships is that they are concerned there will be no place for them to ski when they are there. There may be no trails for spectators or there will only be a very short loop open to the public. Will the World’s in Falun be like that? Or, will average folk be able to find plenty of nice and convenient trails to ski on between watching races?o:p/o:p/i/p p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-weight: bold;”Anna Haag:/span span style=”color:black;”If there is a great winter, like the last one, it will be a lot of/spanspan style=”color:black;” tracks and cozy trails around in the village and neighborhood./span/p p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-weight: bold;”Rick Halling:/span i style=””I have not seen a schedule yet, I don’t know if there is one. How many days between the finale of the World Championships and the start of the Vasaloppet? Will that be a realistic option? Can tourists attend the World’s in Falun, stay in Sweden for a few more days and /ii style=””then be a part of the Vasaloppet?o:p/o:p/i/p p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-weight: bold;”Anna Haag:/span span style=”color:black;”The management from the Vasaloppet said in Antalya, that if Falun got the WCS they will have to move the Vasaloppet for the very first time in history. Ever since the very, very beginning of this completion, it has been hold the first Sunday in March. Otherwise the 50.th Km and the Vasaloppet will be at the same day. So let’s hope that the Americans can both watch the WSC and ski the Vasaloppet!/span/p p class=”MsoNormal”b style=””i style=””a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD57tCVzNwI/AAAAAAAAAg0/1mmfNXRRypc/s1600/anders_birken.jpg”img style=”display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 206px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD57tCVzNwI/AAAAAAAAAg0/1mmfNXRRypc/s320/anders_birken.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493964609091221250″ border=”0″ //a/i/b/p p style=”text-align: center;” class=”MsoNormal”b style=””i style=””span style=”color:black;”Can classic distance specialists like Anders Auklandspan style=”” /spanbr /take advantage of the proximity of the World’s to the Vasaloppet?span style=”” /spanbr /Over 140 km of racing in less than a week!!o:p/o:p/span/i/b/p p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-weight: bold;”Rick Halling: /spani style=””Final question. Let’s say a visiting family goes for a nice ski that morning, watches the races that afternoon, and they are very hungry and want a traditional Swedish dinner that night. What do you recommend they should order at one of Falun’s better restaurants?o:p/o:p/i/p p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-weight: bold;”Anna Haag: /spanspan style=”color:black;”They should order elk and potato, grilled or steaked elk. That’s my favorite!o:p/o:p/span/p p class=”MsoNormal”b style=””i style=””a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD57tlIB_XI/AAAAAAAAAg8/e1oOA4ef00o/s1600/ESTE-LOIN.jpg”img style=”display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 198px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TD57tlIB_XI/AAAAAAAAAg8/e1oOA4ef00o/s320/ESTE-LOIN.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493964618428710258″ border=”0″ //a/i/b/p p style=”text-align: center;” class=”MsoNormal”b style=””i style=””Elk Steak, yumm, yumm!!o:p/o:p/i/b/pdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7250441303676475856-8006321007043594977?l=blog.ultratune.net’ alt=” //div

  • Athlete Similarity: Beckie Scott

    Now that I have some athlete similarity code up and running, let’s take it for a spin, shall we?

    The basic idea is to pick a skier (Beckie Scott in this case) and then mine my results database for skiers who’ve had similar careers.  This is a fairly complicated task with a lot of steps.  You can refer to my previous post for more details on the methodology.  The important things to remember at the moment, though are:

    – My measure of similarity looks at every result in overlapping age ranges

    – This is an inherently noisy process; we can expect some bad matches

    – This is not a 100% automated process; we should expect to have to make some judgements along the way about when two skiers can reasonably be thought of as “similar”.

    – Distance and sprint racing will be treated separately.

    – Athletes that are “most similar” to Beckie Scott might still be very different in an absolute sense.

    Now let’s get down to it.  My algorithm grabbed around 60 skiers that were plausibly similar to Beckie Scott with respect to distance racing.  After analyzing these 60, here are the 9 identified as the most similar (in no particular order):

    Scott is shown in the upper left for reference.  As I warned, some of these seem like more reasonable matches than others.  Remember that what I’m matching here is the similarity of the overall point cloud, not particular success at particular races, etc.

    Arianna Follis, Marianna Longa and maybe Elin Ek seem like decent matches, although Ek certainly wasn’t as successful as Scott.  Karine Philippot also seems like a decent match, although again she wasn’t quite as successful, and she continued to race at later ages.

    Cristina Paluselli looks like a good fit, up to around age 24-25.  Scott continued to improve significantly, while Paluselli stalled a bit.  Sara Renner is much the same: very similar up to around 24-25 years old, and then just didn’t quite get to the next level like Beckie Scott did.

    Petra Majdic and Riita-Liisa Roponen are being matched for roughly the opposite reason.  Their careers look more similar to Scott’s between ages 26-33 than earlier.

    How about sprinting?

    Things are a little messier here (which I found generally to be the case when looking at sprint race data).  Let’s dispense with Manuela Henkel and Pirjo Muranen first.  They clearly don’t seem like good matches.

    Anna Dahlberg, Aino-Kaisa Saarinen and maybe Petra Majdic seem like reasonable matches.  Dahlberg certainly wasn’t nearly as successful as Scott, but the general age vs. result pattern is roughly similar at least.  Majdic and Saarinen had more success at an earlier age than Scott, but other than that, they’re pretty close.

    Beckie Scott had a fair degree of success at sprinting, which means she’s got a bunch of dots down near the bottom of her graph. This will lead my algorithm to select skiers who’ve just generally been good at sprinting.  This tells most of the story behind why Bjoergen and Skari are included here.  The message here is that Beckie Scott was (for a few years) one of the world’s best sprinters, so the algorithm is going to compare her favorably to other dominant sprinters.

    Virpi Kuitunen is an interesting case.  Her graph doesn’t look all that similar to Scott’s at first.  But partly this is because her graph is so bizarre looking.  That jump from age 24-25 happened in 2001, Kuitunen is Finnish, and, well…then she took some involuntary “time off” for two years for her chemical exploits.

    Try something: imagine her development pattern between ages 24 and 27 proceeded roughly how you think they “should” have by just filling in the graph with a nice continuous improvement in results.  Now it would look more similar to Scott’s, at least between ages 21-32 or so.  So maybe, in an alternate doping free universe, Kuitunen might have been more similar to Scott.  Who knows…



  • Summer 2010: Eagle and Everything

  • GRASS STAINS AND SPLINTERS

    Worthington, MA – I am at my folks house this week (sleeping a lot, playing in the woods and getting some dirt under my fingernails). I rehung the rope swing and got a few new calluses from putting it to good use with Lindsey (in the purple).

    It has not been ALL fun and games though – I had a job interview, and have another scheduled for tomorrow. Okay, it HAS been all fun and games. It is very exciting, thinking of what you want to be when you grow up. It is even more exciting when you realize you are about to start doing it and in fact, don’t have to grow up at all!

    Who said you have to stop climbing trees and playing in the brook when you turn 30? I hope nobody, because I am not giving it up in 3 months!

    My health continues to improve and I look forward to training again in August. Here is to living it up. Every. Single. Day.

    Hanging the rope

  • GRASS STAINS AND SPLINTERS

    Worthington, MA – I am at my folks house this week (sleeping a lot, playing in the woods and getting some dirt under my fingernails). I rehung the rope swing and got a few new calluses from putting it to good use with Lindsey (in the purple).

    It has not been ALL fun and games though – I had a job interview, and have another scheduled for tomorrow. Okay, it HAS been all fun and games. It is very exciting, thinking of what you want to be when you grow up. It is even more exciting when you realize you are about to start doing it and in fact, don’t have to grow up at all!

    Who said you have to stop climbing trees and playing in the brook when you turn 30? I hope nobody, because I am not giving it up in 3 months!

    My health continues to improve and I look forward to training again in August. Here is to living it up. Every. Single. Day.

    Hanging the rope

  • GRASS STAINS AND SPLINTERS

    Worthington, MA – I am at my folks house this week (sleeping a lot, playing in the woods and getting some dirt under my fingernails). I rehung the rope swing and got a few new calluses from putting it to good use with Lindsey (in the purple).

    It has not been ALL fun and games though – I had a job interview, and have another scheduled for tomorrow. Okay, it HAS been all fun and games. It is very exciting, thinking of what you want to be when you grow up. It is even more exciting when you realize you are about to start doing it and in fact, don’t have to grow up at all!

    Who said you have to stop climbing trees and playing in the brook when you turn 30? I hope nobody, because I am not giving it up in 3 months!

    My health continues to improve and I look forward to training again in August. Here is to living it up. Every. Single. Day.

    Hanging the rope

  • GRASS STAINS AND SPLINTERS

    Worthington, MA – I am at my folks house this week (sleeping a lot, playing in the woods and getting some dirt under my fingernails). I rehung the rope swing and got a few new calluses from putting it to good use with Lindsey (in the purple).

    It has not been ALL fun and games though – I had a job interview, and have another scheduled for tomorrow. Okay, it HAS been all fun and games. It is very exciting, thinking of what you want to be when you grow up. It is even more exciting when you realize you are about to start doing it and in fact, don’t have to grow up at all!

    Who said you have to stop climbing trees and playing in the brook when you turn 30? I hope nobody, because I am not giving it up in 3 months!

    My health continues to improve and I look forward to training again in August. Here is to living it up. Every. Single. Day.

    Hanging the rope