FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • Olympic Day at Hosmer Point

    We have less than a month until the London Summer Olympics begin and anticipation is building across the globe. Last Wednesday, June 27th, we celebrated Olympic Day right here in Craftsbury, Vermont at Hosmer Point summer camp. About 60 kids aged 9-14 participated in this free event that included marching in opening ceremonies, […]

  • Combi OD’s

    Today was a beautiful day for acombi OD and while the REG campers skated and ran around craftsbury, we classic skied and then ran/hiked over Stratton.
    everyone skied for 1-1.5 hrs, then changed to running shoes and ran/hiked for another 1-1.5 hrs.
    Pip.
    Flower shot.
    Boys cruise into the exchange.

    J2 girls group heads out the IP road and up over the Mtn.

  • Another beautiful day in Vermont!

    We had another beautiful day of training this morning in Richmond. The group rollerskied along Cochran Road, working on specific strength and double-pole. After an hour of rolling, the athletes changed into their sneakers to do some trail running along the Winooski River. Towards the end of the workout, most everyone did about 15 minutes of moderate intensity running to work on some leg speed and fitness.

    This afternoon is our first “Learn to Rollerski” clinic in Jericho!

    Here are some pictures from the past week. Click to enlarge!

    Will Solow leading a group of boys on Cochran’s Road (6/30)

    Nigel and Griffin practicing their double-pole (6/30)
    Craig, Parker and Bill practicing their starts

    No-pole striding last Saturday in Williston

    Amy, Tatum and Anna pausing in the shade!

    Rollerski sprints around the penalty loop @ The Range last Thursday

    Sam and Liam sprinting.

  • REG: DP Intervals

    This morning we had a huge group out on the roads for double pole intervals at the Eastern REG.  Our Elite Team and the Craftsbury Green Team set the pace and the big group of REG athletes jumped in and got to push themselves by following some more experienced athletes.  We had a 2k stretch of road in Craftsbury closed so we could take up lots of space (see above) and not worry about cars.   Video of the workout here from Bryan Fish & more photos on the SMS Nordic Facebook page.
    Erika & Sophie up the last steep stretch.
    Skyler.
    Big pack of guys start off their first interval.
    Girls coming through the field on their second interval.
    Hamish & Jack Hegman leading a group of J1/OJ boys on a warm up.
    Koby & Gino hammering out an interval.
    Andy and Pat O’Brien. 
    Eric.

  • Eastern REG camp

    This week forty of New England’s top junior skiers came to Craftsbury for a training camp so we’ve had lots of company on the trails and roads during our training sessions.  The first few days were cold and wet so we were all very excited when the sun came out yesterday afternoon.  The camp started […]

  • More Photos from REG

    Click here for more photos from this afternoon’s skate ski.  Women and J2s went together and guys headed to the other side of town to split up the group on the roads.  Above, SMS skiers Koby & Jack hop in behind the USST’s Ida Sargent on a distance ski.  

  • Weston D-Pole

    With 14 athletes and 2 coaches at Craftsbury for the REG, our group is pretty small this week. 
    Today we worked on double pole technique and specific strength. We are working on using the arm swing to pull the body up and forward into a dynamic starting position.
    The road north of Weston winds up through a nice valley with 3 options for some good climbing.
    More technique.
    Pip.
    Megan, Cam and Keely power up Terrible Mtn.
    Austin and Tyler.
    Mackenzie is starting to figure it out 🙂
    After 50 minutes of d-pole, we threw in 10 minutes of single sticking. Goal here is to keep the body in a nice forward position. You can see that Megan (first girl above) has her hips a bit further forward.
    Kate powers along. Her shoulders are too tight here, but she made good improvements today.
    Smiling Alex.
    Zipping back down to Weston.
    Calvin isn’t smiling so much because he got lost on his drive and missed the early part of the workout.

  • REG: Bounding at Craftsbury

     A quick REG update: we did a bounding workout this morning at Craftsbury in the field near the Green Team house.  We’re about to hit up lunch and then we’ve got a recovery skate ski for all groups this afternoon with the SMS Elite Team and the Craftsbury Green Team as special guests.  Stay tuned for more photos.  Above, the whole group runs from Hosmer Point to the Outdoor Center.

     Bryan Fish from the US Ski Team explains the workout.   We started with some running drills first and then moved into a 30 minute continuous L2/L3 bounding workout.

  • Sprint Length (By Time)

    By request, we’re looking at how the length of World Cup sprints has changed over time. Specifically, since the length in time of the effort is really more meaningful than the length of the course in terms of distance, that’s what we’ll consider.

    So the following graph shows the average of the top five qualification times for each World Cup (and Olympic and WSC) sprint race for the past six seasons or so:

    The races in red are all, roughly speaking, short courses. Many are city sprints. The actual cutoff I used wasn’t exactly 1km, but you get the idea. I was just trying to highlight the fact that there’s a set of sprint courses that are quite a bit different than the rest. But snow conditions, weather and hilliness can create a fair bit of variation themselves, as well.

    The trend line in blue represents the median time per season (excluding the shorter courses in red).

    I’d say that the women’s freestyle sprints got a bit longer last season, but other than that things are mostly unchanged. In fact, it seems like they have the men’s freestyle sprint courses pretty well dialed in at 2.5-3 minutes or so. The men’s classic courses look like they got a hair longer in 2009 and 2010, but have come back down on average.

    Three minutes seems like a reasonable length to me (although I’d be curious what racers and coaches feel like is the “optimal” length for a sprint race effort), and we’re certainly in that general ballpark. Perhaps the women’s classic courses could be shortened slightly, but that’s the only adjustment I’d make, I think, assuming the women’s freestyle times drop back down again next season.

    Whether or not you like the really short courses is an entirely different matter, of course.

    Related posts:

    1. <TdS Classic Sprint: North Americans
    2. <Can Kikkan Randall Win The Sprint WC Title?
    3. <Sprint Qualification Pacing Analysis


  • REG Update: Pelletier top junior at Uphill Run!

    Hello from Craftsbury!  If you have a strong desire to remember what mid-November feels like, come up to northern Vermont – it’s been a little chilly here lately.  : )  The weather hasn’t slowed this group down though and REG has been going really well.   This morning we had the uphill run test up Mt. Elmore and SMS was well represented with some awesome results, led by alum/future Middlebury freshman Issy Pelletier who was the top junior girl.  Pictures from the run were taken at the very end on a steep pitch with about 100m to go – a few people definitely had their pain face going on.  Full results on FasterSkier (click here).  More photos on the SMS Nordic Facebook page (click here). 
     Hallie was 1:07 behind Issy to finish as the second junior girl.  
     Gavin McEwen (little brother to Hamish).  
     Future SMS PG Jordan Fields ripped it up with the second fastest junior time and third fastest time overall.  
     Future SMS junior Jack Elder was the second J2 to finish today.  
     Paddy ran a nice race – fourth junior overall, six seconds out of third.  
     Heather hammering to the top – fourth junior overall, two seconds out of third. 
     Koby ran well – fifth J2 and hot on the heels of his fellow J2 buddies. 
     Hamish – 12th junior – in the last minute of his race. 
     Gino snuck by me, but here he is coming down from the top.  Gino was the 10th junior boy.
     Alum/CGRP athlete Pat O’Brien was the 9th overall male.
     Hallie & Issy head down from the top. 
     Future SMS winter termer Erik Lindahl gave the race two thumbs up! 
     Tonight we hit up the local mini-golf course for 18 holes and some ice cream.  We’ve got a nice big SMS crew here – nine athletes!  
     The REG crew.
     Yesterday the J2 REG crew arrived and headed out for a 90 minute double pole on some scenic roads around Craftsbury – Koby & Jack lead the boys pack back home. 
    The J2 REG team (missing Zoe Snow & Ben Hegman)!  SMS skiers Jack (tallest one w/ helmet) and Koby (fourth from right) in the middle.  

  • Elite Team Skis 10 km L3

    Andy, Bill and Gus discuss the workout.
    Bill and Gus with Erika, Sophie, Eric and Andy.
    This was the same workout that we did yesterday with a bunch of kids. The goal is to get a baseline for the 10 km skiing L3. We got times, average heart rates and Lactate measurements.
    Everyone looked good and smooth. La scores were 6.8, 3.1, 3.4 and 3.8.  usually 4.0 is used as a target number so everyone was pretty close.

    Erika at the turn by Grout Pond.
    The team headed north to join the REG camp this afternoon.

  • Training Update and Pictures

    Training for next week (July 2 – July 8):

    • Monday 8:30 – 10:30am at the Range. Skate rollerski plus intro to biathlon!
    • Wednesday – Next Wednesday is the 4th of July and we will not have organized training. Coach Erin Mallory will be at a 5km race in Colchester (longtime Colchester coach Leigh Mallory organizes this event), and I will hopefully be at the GMAA Clarence DeMar 5km race in South Hero. The Clarence DeMar race is organized by Jessica Bolduc and Liz Hollenbach — both skiers on the NWVE Ski Team! Last year had nearly 400 participants on a flat, fast course.
    • Thursday 4:30 – 6:30pm at Charlotte Beach. Skate rollerski.
    • Saturday 9:00 – 11:00am at Mud Pond (Williston). Classic roll + running.

    Pictures from the past week or two:

    Sunday morning ride in Shelburne. Jake Hollenbach chucking the deuces up! (6/3)

    At least 2 junior national champs in this photo! (6/3)

    Lukas, Casey, Ethan and Jordan getting their bound on (6/27)

    Charlie Cobb under the eye of coach Paul Smith (6/20)

    Getting ready to ride…skies clearing (6/3)

    Coach Alice Nelson leading some bounding drills with the gals (6/20)

    Eli, Alice and Murray leading core (6/20)

    Ending training with capture the flag! (6/27)

    First official day of summer training. (6/18)

    Leslie Roberts sent all those other people to jail (6/27)

    Patrick Hickey smiling and Sam Longenbach exploding (6/27)

    Forrest Hamilton leading a group doing plyos (6/20)

    Looking across Shelburne Bay towards BURLINGTRON – THE CITY OF THE FUTURE (6/3)

  • SMS NORDIC 2012-06-27 11:04:00


    Summer Vid of the DP test

    More vids here:   SMS XC Vimeo Channel

  • L3 Skate

    This morning we did a 10 km continuous L3 workout. The course started with a 6 km uphill and then rolled for the last 4 km. Our goal is to build a strong aerobic platform and this is a good workout to improve aerobic fitness. We will do the same workout later in the summer and look for improvement.
    Above, Tyler and Austin crest the top of the hill.
    Megan broke her pole right near the top of the hill and continued on w/o  poles.
    Mackenzie paced herself well and looked in control.
    Keely nears the finish.
    Coach Boobar gets the report. We hope that it was a good warm up for her 6 swim races this afternoon!
    Pippin pops to the finish.

    Alex looked good and smooth.
    It was a far cry from the weather we had last week. This morning the temps were in the low 50’s and it was a great training day.

  • Sprint Heat Time Trends

    Since I’m starting to accumulate a reasonable collection of heat times from World Cup sprint races, I thought it might be interesting to compare general trends between the few seasons I have data on.

    The biggest trends that you can typically see are the differences in tactics between the men and women. Generally what I’ve seen is that the women will ski qualification fairly conservatively and then the heat times will get progressively faster with each round, although possibly tailing off slightly in the finals. The men are generally more “tactical” in that they tend to really hammer qualification and then get a bit more cagey during the heats.

    I was curious if these characteristics had changed much over the short time period I have data:

    The units on the y axis aren’t in seconds, since I have to standardize the time differences to compare values from different races. But larger values are slower, smaller values are faster, and everything is relative to the median heat time for the entire day, which is pegged at zero.

    You can see that the general impressions that I outlined above were strongly influenced by what I saw in the data during the 2010-2011 season, which was where these trends were most stark. This most recent season was mostly similar for the men, although somewhat more variable (shaded region indicates, roughly, variability). Interestingly, though, the women’s data changed pretty dramatically this past season. The qualification round times were in general quite a bit faster relative to later rounds than they have been in the past, and the later rounds became slightly slower, or more “tactical” perhaps.

    Related posts:

    1. <Düsseldorf Sprint Recap
    2. <Flashback: Kuusamo Sprint
    3. <Men’s Sprint Heats Tend To Be More Tactical


  • Summer Camp Starts With Fresh Weather

     As we head into our camp season we are grateful for our beautiful valley and humbled by the dynamic nature of recent summer weather systems.  Today we watched the radar closely and managed to have two safe and quality sessions on roller skis.  Yesterday the kids got to escape the heat of the valley as they ascended to the Green Mt Ridge to experience elevational cooling and a strong breeze.
     Afternoon session for Fast and Female gals: four miles gradual uphill.  First two miles on pavement and the finish on smooth dirt.  Cool temps and uplifting clouds.

     A few of the boys stepped it up to a 15km ski.  Dylan Grald led the boys over a cool loop: pavement, dirt, pavement, dirt.  Here is Ford Sayre skier, Adam Glueck, striding over the Mad River.

     Looking down over Phen Basin from Castlerock.
     Engulfed by the grass and experience: Mad River Glen.

     Very proud of our local skiers: Noah Eckstein, Elliot Ketchel, Maddy Strasser and Anneka Williams.  Noah and Elliot are learning amazing orienteering skills of their local hills — combining winter and  summer travels and learning a deep sense of place.
     Heading down Antelope.  
    More travels to come.  Don’t forget the APP GAP CHALLENGE.  July 3rd.  Cash Prize for setting new course record — ice cream party and awards for all!!

  • Lucky Jim Bluff Traverse

    Happy Birthday little brother! Chad and I planned to go for a ski tour on Sunday to celebrate our Birthday. However rain and snow is not the best combo so we opted for a a traverse over Lucky Jim. The weather cleared up as we ran along the top.
    00046_00117.jpg
    Enjoying the view of the Methow Valley
    waterfall
    The last time we did this (8 years ago) we went too far to the right on our decent and found ourselves cliffed in.  This time we went a bit too far left.  Next time should be just right.
    knoll
    brothers
    We always try to do something memorable on our Birthday.  It will be hard to beat our golden birthday from last year when our girls organized a behind the scenes visit of Berlin the Polar Bear in Duluth.  Perhaps I can go visit her since he is now in St. Paul.  I wonder if she will remember me.

  • SMS Elite OD in NY

    Here is my first attempt at the SMS blog.  I’ll just stick with a few photos this time of Andy, Eric, guest Mikey Sinnot, Erika, and Sophie on a long easy OD over the NY border.  Andy has said it over years and I’m inclined to agree, best rollerskiing on the planet.
    Start of the ski
    Fun roads with zero traffic

    We decided to hit the pool afterwards to enjoy the nice weather

    Erika and Sophie paced the workout very well today given the heat

    Enjoying the ski!

  • Salt City to Central Oregon Cinder Cones

    These last days I’ve spending in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City, with one of my new favorite discoveries has been Antelope Island out in the Great Salt Lake. Wide open roads shared with as many buffalo and antelope as vehicles makes for a great long-distance skate workout. If you wake up before the sun starts shining too brightly… This picture was taken out of the window of my recent direct flight to Central Oregon. Most weeknights in the city are filled on the Westminster College campus where I’m working on all forms of business communication. One of the skills I’ve having to learn is getting some proficiency with the Adobe Software Suite. I recently finished up an intensive class working with Photoshop and Illustrator. To finish off the class we had to brand a new business, then present it Mad Men style. Here’s a sketch of the website homepage from my efforts with Delerium Brewing Company. Once upon a time, I called Bend my hometown. In the two year’s hence, I hadn’t been back. Looking up at another bluebird day atop Mount Bachelor, you can understand a little why it was quite nice to make a return. I got to ski on the trails of Mount Bachelor with Leif Zimmermann and Company for nine days. The junior camp also even asked for a couple cameo coaching appearances on the ski trails. I wish I could have been there longer, but I still have some university learning to do. Until the next time, goodbye.

  • Take-A-Hike

    With our Elite team off roller skiing, our Devo team resting and a bunch of the kids headed up to the REG camp, we had a small, but spirited group for our hike/run this morning. We all started at the base of the gondola and headed up and around the backside of the mtn. The J1/OJ group went out to Stratton Pond and then climbed the mtn. The J2’s skipped the pond and went up Stratton to the fire tower and then over to the ski area and down the gondola.
    Watch Alex eat, eat Alex, eat.
    That’s as high as ‘kenzie would go.
    Nice day eh?

    Team bonding on the way down the gondola.