Category: XCFeeds

img src=”http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l198tho86Q1qzt3xbo1_500.jpg”/br/br/pXC DC.  We the people…of skiing. (MWphoto)/p

img src=”http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l18px22WhV1qzt3xbo1_500.jpg”/br/br/pI’m hoping the Olympian meet greet w/ Obama will include a quick pick up game. /p

“Some juice and cookies in the White House… No big deal.”br/br/ – em James Southam, via Twitter (Olympians meet the President today.)/em

Sometimes there are just too many fun things to do. One of my favorite parts about spring is the opportunity to do a variety of activities.    Scott and Kay brought me out for a paddle on the lake.   It is hard to believe that I have lived on the water here for four years and still haven’t seen the entire Tiger Cat Flowage.

Enjoying the morning on Lake Plaid

Scott and Kay

We had some wind which perhaps isn’t ideal for kayaking.  Paddling up wind was a good workout and riding the waves with the wind was a highlight for sure.

Carnivorous Pitcher Plant

It was great to have Scott and Kay as guides around the flowage.  They pointed out this pitcher plant.  The pitcher plant attract insects with its sweet nectar and visual pigments, pretty cool.

I have been coaching for 30 years and I know that it can be both very rewarding and very frustrating. Sometimes everything falls in place and the team skis brilliantly at their biggest races and other times it does not work out. Often we do not know why it goes one way or the other, there are so many little intangibles that play into every event. I have had dream teams and “not quite dream” teams, but the difference has not been because of my effort.br /br /Pete Vordenberg has recently stepped down from his Head Coach position with the USST. I am afraid that his decision may have been influenced by all of the negative chatter during the Olympics. I hope that this is not the case.br /br /Pete did a great job as Head Coach and I want to thank him for his hard work and success. The recent Olympics did not go as well as we all had hoped, but don’t let that cloud your vision of the things that have been accomplished over the last 4 years. Just look at this season, Kris Freeman had some great early races and Andy and Kikkan made the podium in Scandinavian WC’s!br /br /The biggest things that Pete has taught me are that we need to stop making excuses, we need to work harder and be more professional. I know that has filtered into my brain because I now have high school girls training more than one of my boys dream teams from 10 years ago ( Freeman, Newell, 2X Foster, Kaeding etc..). br /br /None of us are as good as our best days or as bad as our worst days. We can only work as hard as possible and do the best that we can. The USST has improved under Pete’s leadership and we all owe him our thanks for his hard work and leadership.br /br /Thanks Pete. I’m really glad that you will continue to work with the USST. Good luck and keep smiling!div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-1702894658887927351?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

img src=”http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l17fqiIGZo1qzt3xbo1_500.jpg”/br/br/pThe good news is the team will be able to travel together in a single vehicle. (Pictured above.)/p

p…a Subaru if they want to. (Put Hoff up front, he gets car sick.)/p

p… of money./p
p… of Koos, Kuzzy, Williams, Smyth Mannix./p
p… of justification for the drops given Marolt’s pay./p

object width=”400″ height=”336″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/0TDPdtp3xM4rel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″/paramparam name=”wmode” value=”transparent”/paramparam name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/paramembed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/0TDPdtp3xM4rel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”400″ height=”336″ allowFullScreen=”true” wmode=”transparent”/embed/objectbr/br/pPetter Northug can cure cancer. (viaMB)/p

img src=”http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l16grmezDL1qzt3xbo1_400.jpg”/br/br/pRemember when ski tips were a foot tall?/p

img src=”http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l16jv6rplL1qzt3xbo1_500.jpg”/br/br/pZach does./p

Photos Continued:

We got a taste of powder on the way down

Nick

Into the canyon

Clint and his snowman

New mascot?

A tired group after 7 hours and 21 miles…

Sunday pics still to come…

pYou will never see Eli Brown and John Lackey in the same place because they actually are the same person.  I MEAN HAS ANYONE EVER SEEN ELI LACKEY IN THE SAME PLACE????? (viaHB)/p

img src=”http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l150k1tV8o1qzt3xbo1_500.jpg”/br/br/pEli Brown / John Lackey/p

span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: Times; “div style=”border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; width: auto; font: normal normal normal 100%/normal Georgia, serif; text-align: left; “div style=”text-align: center; “I apologize to everyone for how long it has taken to get to this post. The past couple of weeks have seemed to go way too fast with all the decisions and new things that have been going on.br //divdivbr //divdivMy season ended with the SuperTour Finals which were held in Fort Kent, Maine. In my opinion, there is no better way to describe this area of the US better than “the end of the world”. You literally feel off the map when you are there. The town of Fort Kent runs parallel to a river which is the border between Canada and the US, so you are about as far north as you can go in Maine. As frustrating as this is on the 8 hour drive to get there, it was necessary for these races to be located somewhere like this the last couple weeks of March. It actually felt like full on winter during the week of racing when the temperatures were dropping below zero at times./divdivbr //divdivThe week of racing went pretty well for me. The first race was the 8k mass start classic race, held on friday night. I got to practice my newly acquired night racing skills, as the woman didn’t start their race until 5:00 PM. I was able to ski near the front of the pack for the majority of the race but ended up fading a bit in the last couple of kilometers. I was having to work extra hard because of some mediocre kick wax, so it started waring on me by the end when the pace picked up. Regardless it was a fun race and I came away feeling satisfied with my 8th place finish for the day./divdivbr //divdivSaturday was  a 1.4k classic sprint. The race that I was most excited for at this series of races. I felt like my sprinting had been gradually building throughout the season, so I was ready to test it out against the US skiers. In my qualifier round I finished 3rd, 2 seconds out from Ida Sargent, one of my closest competitors in sprinting this year, and 4 seconds out from Kikkan Randall. Kikkan finished 8th in the classic sprint at the Olympics previously this year, so I was feeling pretty good that I had closed some of the time gap since I last competed against her at Nationals in Anchorage. In Alaska she had managed to space herself 13 seconds ahead of me in the 1.4k course.  /divdivbr //divdiva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S8sdYlnnQAI/AAAAAAAAASI/USFTj1Lz1ys/s1600/Bjornsen.jpg”img src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S8sdYlnnQAI/AAAAAAAAASI/USFTj1Lz1ys/s320/Bjornsen.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461491281369186306″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 213px; height: 320px; ” //a/divdivThroughout the next three races that completed the elimination rounds I pushed hard and built throughout the day. My quarterfinal heat started with a hard bang and refused to back off until the three of us racing for 1st and 2nd positions crossed the line, posting the fastest quarterfinal heat. We then went on to the tightly packed semi-final heat, that pushed hard throughout the course posting again the fastest semi-final heat. Ida and I crossed the line 1st and 2nd, excited to challenge for the final. In all the sprinting that I have done yet this season, I have failed to be able to stay strong throughout the three elimination heats. The finals I always drop the plow and drag until the finish. So I was determined to change that with this last sprint of the season. I started hard, and tired a bit over the top of the hill where Holly Brooks managed to squeeze past- but still crossed the line in fourth. I did die down a bit, but this was by far the best I had ever held myself together for the finals. So as disappointed as I was to miss the podium, which I was so close, I was happy with my 4th place finish for personal goal oriented reasons. /divdivbr //divdiva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S8sdS0sLg7I/AAAAAAAAASA/TZEzKX8U0LM/s1600/tour+3.jpg”img src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S8sdS0sLg7I/AAAAAAAAASA/TZEzKX8U0LM/s320/tour+3.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461491182335656882″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 261px; ” //a/divdivSunday was my race I had been least looking forward to the entire week. A hill climb, the race that you ski up an alpine run. I decided it was best to not preview the course, and just go with the unexpected. I figured the less I knew, the better. The first two kilometers were normal terrain- rolling throughout the trees. We then made a hard left and started the death march up the mountain. I went into this race thinking it was better not to hold back any energy at the beginning, regardless I was going to be in a lot of pain and die as I hit the wall. So that is exactly what I did. As painful as the hill was, the end actually came sooner than I expected. I managed to be passed by three skiers on the way up, but held my top ten overall position until the end. I crossed the finish line in 8th overall for the mini series of races, the same place I had finished on the first day. As fun as it was to try this little climb up the alpine run, it is not my favorite type of race. I am glad we don’t have to do many of those as nordic ski racers!/divdivbr //divdivSo with the conclusion of the Super Tour races, the season officially came to an end. This season has seemed long, starting racing early in November- but in many ways it felt like a break away season. Even though the first three months were far below where I would have like to ski, because of some mistakes with training early on, I felt like I learned a ton. I was able to make something of the last two and a half months of my season. Racing in Europe really opened my horizon on what is out there. Not only what is out there, but the fact that we can be there. If the US skiers commit to racing at this higher level, we can easily fight for podium positions. I know from the two months that I spent knocking heads on the OPA racing circuit this year, I gained an endless amount of not only experience and skills, but confidence. I am walking away from this season more excited and determined than I ever have, and am confident next year I can be right there./divdivbr //divdivThanks to everyone that has made this year possible and offered their support in many various ways. You guys are making it possible- and I truly appreciate it!/divdivbr //divdivHave a great Spring!/div/div/spandiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2018521813175454198-7218103456944584901?l=sadiebjornsen.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

A trio of Devo athletes, along with parents and coaches headed down to the Ragan Family’s cabin at Summit Lake in the Eastern Alaska Range.  Due to injuries and scheduling conflicts the group was small, but that didn’t keep the adventure from being huge!

Story in pictures…

Cabin stylings: Keegan's retro snowmachine helmet, circa 1980 (?)

Kent and Bob enjoy a laugh

Scrabble and Blueberry Pancakes: Breakfast of Champions

Nick and the cabin: the beginning

Onto the flats by Gunn Creek

Beginning the Climb to 'First Aid'

…and a long way to go…

At least 1000 vertical feet of herring bone

And it only gets steeper at the top

But quite the view from up there

And a fun ride on the way down

Stay tuned for more pics from the rest of the trip tomorrow!

div style=”text-align: left;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=” border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: medium;”I want to thank all of you for your part in helping me make it to the Olympic Games. Each year it has been my goal to be prepared to qualify for and to compete in the Olympic Games, but it would not have happened without the generosity and understanding from my sponsors, supporters, friends and family./span/span/divspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=” border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;”divspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: medium;”br //span/divdivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: medium;”This group of people is multi-faceted, but collectively helps to keep my career sustainable, fun and meaningful: /span/divdivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: medium;”My bag doesn’t get packed without my /spanb

img src=”http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l131aaYtdY1qzt3xbo1_500.jpg”/br/br/pcirca 2004 (vialowland)/p