FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • Giro d’Italia: After Stage 18

    Here’s the state of things, team-by-team after yesterday’s Stage 18:

    One thing to note (that you can’t quite see in this graph) is that this year’s course has caused slightly more of a spread in the field than the previous two.

    Related posts:

    1. <Tour de France Charts: Stage 17
    2. <Giro d’Italia – After Stage 8
    3. <Giro d’Italia: After Stage 10


  • Back at it!

    My last post was about the last time I was in the full on ski scene. I took a month off after the Super Tour Finals in Vermont, I had a great time in Alaska doing things I rarely get to do. For me it is necessary to once a year push the good old reset button just so I don’t get blown out on the sport. I find that three to four weeks is all it takes before I am eager to start training again and give up the non-athlete lifestyle. My mind doesn’t work right if I haven’t done a workout that day. I find myself with a worse attitude, schoolwork is harder, food doesn’t taste as good, and I just don’t enjoy life as much. Soooo it’s nice to be back at it again! Here are a couple of photos from my month off-
    Backpacking
    oops

    I jumped back into training two weeks ago with a super big week of training in Anchorage with the APU team. The very first day our coach had us do classic intervals. What a good way to kick our butts back into shape. Most of the week was on snow skiing which is pretty sweet for May. After the start up week in Anchorage I flew down to Utah for two days of testing and strength at the US Ski Team building in Park City. It was sweet to get the results back and see that I have a made a big jump this past year in fitness! If I can make that big of a jump every year I will be more then happy. 

    Testing

    Met a couple of famous runners while I was there. (“Mo” Farah, myself, and Galen Rupp)


    After the two days in Utah I hopped a flight to Oregon where I am now. It’s been one year since the last time I was here in Bend, Oregon. It’s a really fun place to be at this time of year. You can wake up and within a half hour be in a winter wonderland atmosphere at the top of Mount Bachelor, train for a couple of hours and come back down to town where it is usually sunny and warm. This is one of the few places in the world you can do that and that is why hundreds of skiers from around the US and Canada come here to do their May camp. My goal for this camp is to follow around the fastest skiers from North America and learn how to ski better then them. Check out these pictures from skiing-


     The cone marks the end of the speed.

    I learn a lot from following people.

    Also, as I’m starting a new year I have been thinking about things that went great last year. One of those things was all the support I got. I am amazed with all the support I got last year from my hometown and from all around North America. Thanks EVERYONE!! It would be impossible to have made it to where I am today without all your help.


  • SMS Summer Program Update

    We are again offering our summer program for aspiring local skiers. Our Elite program offers 3-5 supervised workouts/week and is for top high school and college age skiers. Our Devo program is for 10-15 year old skiers and allows participants to train alongside our Elite crew.
    The workouts are designed to take advantage of our top skiers. The group includes 3 USST skiers and 3 NCAA All Americans as well as Jr National Champs and BKL standouts.

    We typically have 1 group skate workout, 1 classic/d-pole and 1 foot workout/week. The main goals are to build aerobic fitness and specific strength while we work on technique.
    Click on the link on the right hand side of the blog for more more information.

  • Hello?

    I found Vermont Peanut Butter in a cupboard in Utah!!! So psyched!!!
    If you haven’t tried their peanut butters, get on it! Check it out here:
    Vermont Peanut Butter Company

    HEY!!! I’m back!!! I took a long break from skiing and anything ski related, including blogging this spring, but now, considering I am back on snow in Bend, Oregon for our first training camp of the year, I believe it is time to get back on the ski wagon and begin blogging again.  I took a nice 5 week break in Vermont from Spring Nationals at Craftsbury at the end of March and really didn’t leave my home for more than a night or two the whole time I was there.  I didn’t pack more than a backpack to do anything, and it was completely unexciting and felt so unbelievably good that I think I will do it every spring! I spent the time gardening, landscaping, hanging with my parents, running and playing with my dog, and visiting with friends and supporters.  I was in heaven.  However, it is not the time in my life where I get to garden and own a farm with tons of animals and an old house to fix up yet, so I headed out to Park City, Utah where I have spent the last 6 summer and fall seasons, training and getting ready for the upcoming year.  I did some testing a couple of weeks ago (a real HELLO and wake up call to the body after a spring of recovering) and headed out to Bend after that.  The first training camp of the season always starts here with us skiing in the morning on great snow at the base of Mt. Bachelor and doing some form of dry-land training in the afternoon.  This past Saturday we participated in the Pole Pedal Paddle, a six stage event that includes an alpine ski, nordic ski, road bike, run, paddle and sprint leg.  It is a major gear oriented event, but well worth it.  We fielded two women’s teams, one male team and Kris Freeman did the whole event himself.  It was a great team event and I hope we do it again next year, as everyone had a really good time.  A huge thanks goes out to Andy Fecteau and Rebound Physical Therapy for paying for our entry fees and gathering all of the gear up for us.

    FAST AND FEMALE

    We also participated in Bend’s first ever Fast and Female event on Sunday afternoon.  We had a great group of girls and did some really fun dry-land drills and activities as well as some motivational talks and goal setting.  The Bend community is a really great one, so it was fun to meet some of their local stars and have gotten to ski with some of the girls up on the trails since then.

    Fast and Female crew from Sunday’s event
    Speed Ladder at the Agility and Power station

    Core Work!

    A couple of the most impressive and fun-loving young women I had the pleasure of meeting on Sunday

  • Pole Pedal Paddle Madness

    I started the first training camp of the year with serious race anxiety.  My stomach was in knots, I was overly jittery from consuming too much coffee, and I was just trying to stay relaxed.  It felt like the World Championships and my life was on the line at the same time because in a […]

  • June Ski Factory Trip Planning

    Sognefjell skiing – I don't know who this is, the picture came from Erik Nilsson

    We’re in the final stages of planning our June trip to Norway and Austria. This process involves two ski companies, two national teams, a school calendar, three sets of grandparents, at least two siblings, and some as-yet-undetermined vehicles. So it’s taken a little while to get the details ironed out!

    The major excitement for us is that Amy will be coming on this trip, which will make it a bit of a working family vacation. Amy’s been to Europe on ski trips plenty, but she hasn’t been to ski factories. Since she figures prominently in all aspects of the business, including selecting skis, it’s important that she get this experience. And as much fun as it is to share a bed with Patrick Moore in Europe, I’d rather share a bed with my wife!

    The other major excitement is that the trip will start with several days of skiing at Sognefjell with Kris and Noah. A great chance to test product, get a good technique block with Noah, and add some recreation to the workload.

    Kris and Noah have the opportunity to join the Norwegian National Team (by invitation, thanks to Trond Nystad) for an on-snow camp. This fits some of the major off-season objectives for both guys, including contact with other good skiers, and snow-time. For the final few days we’re counting on Madshus connections to hook Noah up with Thomas Alsgaard for some skating technique work. Thomas saw Noah skiing around in Davos the day after the 30K last December. Stian Grønås pointed Noah out to him, and said “he was 31st yesterday”. Thomas replied, “that’s impossible.” Anyway, we’re looking forward to that opportunity.

    We’ll also be logging plenty of factory time on this trip. Which reminds me to remind you – now is the time to order skis for next year!

    Ski Request Form

    Items & Prices

  • Classic speeds in Bend

    We have  a huge North American training group together this week in Bend.  It’s a lot of fun to see so many familiar faces in the summer time and also to train with athletes who we often only see at races.  Yesterday everyone did a classic speed session and there were skiers from the US […]

  • Spring Training & other thoughts

    We continued our spring training this past Monday with a bigger group and a few new faces.  After practicing some juggling skills with the soccer balls, we worked our way through a dryland technique progression then went for an easy run (the kids actually asked if they could dribble the soccer balls around the Range).

    Double-pole armswing

    I took a page out of Dragan Danevski’s playbook and we did 8 x 30″ running “intervals” at approximately 1 mile pace (pictured at the top of the blog). These are too short to be intervals, so they are more like a long speed than anything. Just enough to keep the legs fresh and remember that the point of training is to go faster. After that, we went through a handful of plyos and finished with a group stretch.

    Since we only train together approximatley 1-4 sessions/wk, depending on the time of year, I want to expose the athletes to a variety of activities during our organized training. Then they can take what they have learned, and incorporate it into the training on their own. One of my biggest fears is “spoon feeding” training to the kids. I want them to learn how to do it, and to have excellent opportunities to excel, however I don’t want to force it on them. If they are required to train on their own a few days/week, then the motivation will have to come from within.

    I am encouraged to hear about the new USSA CMO, hopefully he will give the nordic sports our fair share of attention and market them in creative ways. He seems to have some awareness of how easy it should be, when he alludes to the fact that everybody and their mother is nowadays concerned with health and fitness. If only we can get the big execs to believe in new marketing opportunities in non-mainstream sports.

    I don’t have any interest in paying for cable TV, but I would gladly pay for 1 channel that gives me the big bike races, track & field / running events, and the nordic sports. Another option is to do what the Amgen Tour of California did with their live online video: full HD quality with almost no commercials! It put sportlemon to shame.

    The Key Bank Vermont City Marathon is this week! I am participating as a part of the NENSA relay team. I’m sure lots of MNC coaches and athletes will be out there in some way. Until next week…

  • Giro d’Italia: After Stage 16

    Another overall comparison of the GC standings to the previous two years:

    Related posts:

    1. <Giro d’Italia: Stage 21
    2. <Giro d’Italia – After Stage 8
    3. <Giro d’Italia: After Stage 10


  • Bend in Pictures

    With only 3 more days left in beautiful Bend, Oregon, there’s not much to report except positives.  The skiing has been great, the weather mostly fabulous, and the company perfect.  I even got to spend a couple days with my parents, whom I haven’t seen since January.  All in all, it’s been a successful trip…hopefully the last 3 days won’t disappoint!

    A couple of rainy afternoons have made for perfect rainbow weather…this one was pretty amazing.  Photo: Jonne Kahkonen
    Annelies and me on a run down by the Deschutes River.  Photo: Lowell Bailey

    The team! Can it get any more beautiful?  Photo courtesy of Lowell Bailey

  • First Day Back at Lot 1

    Today we had our first trip of the year to Lot 1 where we spent 45 minutes working on a bunch of balance drills – slaloms, two V2, gliding on one ski, etc. – and getting back into the swing of things on skate rollerskis.  It was nice and warm out this morning – it’s felt like summer all weekend!  This afternoon some rain showers rolled in to keep it cool and the team went out for a short run and then hit the gym for strength.  Tomorrow our seniors have their last day of exams and then head off to Rye, NH for their senior trip and three days of surfing and relaxing as a class before graduation on Saturday!  The underclassmen will push on for two more weeks of classes and then their final exams.  Summer is almost here! 
     Anika.
     Corky – focused.  
     Getting instructions from Sver.
     Gino & Issy.
     Hamish.
     Calvin.
     Paddy, Corky, Mac, & Calvin.
     Mollie & Gino.
     Paddy & Tyler.
    Mac.
     Mackenzie.
     Brooke.
     Tyler & Paddy.
    Paddy & Calvin. 

  • Update From Skyler

    An update from Skyler in Bend, OR:  “Two weeks on the road for half of the SMS Elite Team!  Jessie, Andy, and I had testing in Park City at the Center of Excellence.  All sorts of testing was done, including: VO2 max testing, strength tests and a lot of treadmill skiing!  SMS Elite Team Coach Gus Kaeding was out in Park City for the USSA coaches meetings, so it was good to have him there to get some technique focus early on in the season before our on snow camp in Bend, Oregon.
    We are currently at our first US Ski Team camp of the 2012 -2013 season in Bend, Oregon. It is awesome – there is plenty of snow and great skiing conditions! It’s been a great camp and a great time for everyone so far; with one more week we are hoping to get more skiing and work on technique with some added intensity here and there.
    This past weekend we had the PPP (Pole Pedal Paddle), which is the World Series of Bend, Oregon. The US Ski Team cleaned up.  Our boys team won with the fastest time of the day. Our ladies teams did the same; they went one, two!  The Bird Man took the individual title and lifetime glory in Bend! It was a great event run by MBSEF (http://www.pppbend.com/). 
    More updates & pictures soon from the 2012 -2013 USST Camp in Oregon.”

  • Update From Skyler

    An update from Skyler in Bend, OR:  “Two weeks on the road for half of the SMS Elite Team!  Jessie, Andy, and I had testing in Park City at the Center of Excellence.  All sorts of testing was done, including: VO2 max testing, strength tests and a lot of treadmill skiing!  SMS Elite Team Coach Gus Kaeding was out in Park City for the USSA coaches meetings, so it was good to have him there to get some technique focus early on in the season before our on snow camp in Bend, Oregon.
    We are currently at our first US Ski Team camp of the 2012 -2013 season in Bend, Oregon. It is awesome – there is plenty of snow and great skiing conditions! It’s been a great camp and a great time for everyone so far; with one more week we are hoping to get more skiing and work on technique with some added intensity here and there.
    Pictures: Jessie (above) and Jessie and Kikkan (below) at the COE in Park City.
    This past weekend we had the PPP (Pole Pedal Paddle), which is the World Series of Bend, Oregon. The US Ski Team cleaned up.  Our boys team won with the fastest time of the day. Our ladies teams did the same; they went one, two!  The Bird Man took the individual title and lifetime glory in Bend! It was a great event run by MBSEF (http://www.pppbend.com/). 
    More updates & pictures soon from the 2012 -2013 USST Camp in Oregon.”
    Picture above, start of the PPP xc race course. Below, finish of the race.

  • Giro d’Italia: After Stage 15

    Back to the team by team view, after Stage 15 (yesterday):

    Compare Movistar with Orica GreenEdge. Also, note the damage that yesterday’s stage did to several team’s top riders, e.g. Rabobank, Omega Pharma, BMC, RadioShack.

    Related posts:

    1. <Tour de France Team-Nationality Guide
    2. <Tour de France Charts: Stage 17
    3. <Giro d’Italia: Stage 21


  • SMS Prom Photos

     The SMS prom was held yesterday evening at the Stratton Mountain Club and the weather could not have been more perfect for the occasion.  After the trail run TT this morning, everyone got cleaned up and dressed up for the prom.  Sverre and Lilly hosted the nordic team and their dates at their house for photos and hors d’oeuvres before and the team got the full paparazzi treatment from their coaches and parents. : )  More photos on the Smugmug site.
     The crew! 
     The ladies: Mena, Mary Kate, Anika, Alana, Tess, Quincy, Issy, and Mollie.
    The gentlemen: Calvin, Mac, Gino, Corky, Paddy, Tyler.
     
    The nordic team! 
     Paddy and his date, Quincy. 
     Corky and his date, Alana.
     Calvin and his date, Mena.
     The girls hanging out at Sverre & Lilly’s house. 
     The girls and their precariously high heels. : ) 
     Mac & Mollie.
     Tyler and Mary Kate.
     Mollie, Mac, Mary Kate, & Tyler.
     Mollie and her parents. : ) 
     Mac and his family. : )  
     Smile!  Welcome to prom! 
     Gino, Luca, Hamish Chip, and Jimmy. 
     Anika and her roommate, Noelle.
     Issy, Mollie, & Chloe.
     Hamish with his date, Chloe.
     Gino, Issy, Mac, Mollie, Paddy, Quincy, Hamish, & Chloe.
     The nordic gentlemen. 
     The prom attendees on the deck.
     Paddy & Quincy.
     Paddy & Mac. : )
     Nordic ladies. 
     Suspender men. 
    Revived Films brain trust.

  • Crust Ski to Reed Lakes

    By mid-May, I had basically given up on any more crust skiing. With the record-setting winter, there was still snow to be found, but the weather hadn’t been aligning with my schedule, and I figured it wasn’t healthy to stew about it, best just to move on to summer. But then Tim and I got an email from Benji saying that Reed Lakes was still really good. Ed Strabel and the Mat-Su ski club had been grooming the Archangel Road in Hatcher Pass for late season skiing. The grooming ended in early May, but according to Benji, the road was still good enough to get you to primo crust. The weather for the next day (Saturday!) looked good. So game on!

    My pictures are below, but you should definitely check out Tim’s photos. His pictures are better, and the first shot is one of my favorite pictures of me on skinny skis. I almost look like I’m shredding it!

    Some good climbing to get to the lakes
    Some good climbing to get to the lakes
    Crust Ski To Reed Lakes - P5190020.JPG
    Crust Ski To Reed Lakes – P5190020.JPG
    Crust Ski To Reed Lakes - P5190024.JPG
    Crust Ski To Reed Lakes – P5190024.JPG
    Above lower Reed Lake
    Above lower Reed Lake
    Crust Ski To Reed Lakes - P5190036.JPG
    Crust Ski To Reed Lakes – P5190036.JPG
    Tim (lower left) checks out some snow rollers
    Tim (lower left) checks out some snow rollers
    Upper Reed Lake
    Upper Reed Lake
    Crust Ski To Reed Lakes - P5190056.JPG
    Crust Ski To Reed Lakes – P5190056.JPG
    Not a black and white photo - it just looks like it. Lots of white for May 19th!
    Not a black and white photo – it just looks like it. Lots of white for May 19th!
    Not nearly as good as the photo Tim took of me in the same spot. Need to keep working on my shutter skills.
    Not nearly as good as the photo Tim took of me in the same spot. Need to keep working on my shutter skills.
    A long, fun ride down!
    A long, fun ride down!
    Crust Ski To Reed Lakes - P5190094.JPG
    Crust Ski To Reed Lakes – P5190094.JPG
    Panoramic near upper Reed Lake
    Panoramic near upper Reed Lake

    What a great ski! Both Tim and I were a little dumbfounded that we’d never crust skied up this valley before. It is definitely one of the best.

    GPS track went a little haywire, but here it is.

    Upper Reed Lake – Pan around or click here for a full screen version.

  • From School to Schooling

    From April to May has definitely brought change to the days. From Leavenworth to Salt Lake City. From working in the class with Mr. Peck, to getting my learn back on at Westminster College. In addition to taking classes on Professional and Technical Writing, I’m taking a course in Digital Editing. Here are a couple photostories I put together for the first week’s assignment.

    “A day at the races with the Mountain Lions of Leavenworth”

    “Channel Island: Handmade. Handmade in America”

    “Snapshots of Winter Twenty-Twelve”

  • Ski 2 Sea 2012

    Team Black Jack – Hellman Canoe took part in the 2012 Ski 2 Sea in Kelowna BC. The grueling multi-stage event was well contested and Team Black Jack – Hellman canoe put up a great fight. Nick lead off with the Alpine leg, which included arguably the hardest part of the race with the run […]

  • 14 and 19 km Trail Run TT’s

    This morning we had a trail run TT on the West River Trail. The boys started at the Jamaica State Park and the girls started at Ball Mtn. Dam. They all ran the trail north and ended in South Londonerry at the  old train station. Issy pulled away on the last 5 kms for the girls win and Calvin hammered up the last small hill to gap Paddy and win by 6 seconds.
    It was warm and sunny, ut not too hot. The boys course took them up along the river and then over BMD at about 5 km.
    Calvin set a good pace and Paddy hung tough, but lost a little on the ups.
    Calvin comes up the last switch-back.
    Paddy in pursuit.
    Anika mtn biked the boys course. The switch-backs were too steep and the turns were too tight for biking. Here, Sverre gives her directions for the next part of the course. But..either the directuions were a bit off or she was foggy brained because she took a couple of detours!
    Mac, Corky, Liz and Tyler hit the switch-backs on BMD.
    Anika rides off the top.
    The chase group crests the hill…..
    …charges over the top.
    Mollie, Kate and Syd cross the bridge at the Windhall campground. This was about 5.5 km from the finish and served as our feed station.
    Issy P starts to pull away.
    Relief.
    Paddy and Calvin looking strong at 14 km!
    Tess.
    Kate.
    Corky and Tyler.
    Mac gulps down his drink.
    Finish smiles.
    Hanging in the shade after the hard effort.

    All done!

  • Bringing Back The Hurt

    Oh man. Training. Again right?

    We all enjoyed our break away but there is something comforting in getting back to that daily rhythm of eat, train, sleep, repeat.  After all, eventually the euphoria of not HAVING to rollerski in the rain or go outside in the cold  just because I don’t feel like it wears off…  so what’s a girl to do  when that unsettling need to go run for long periods of time in woods creeps back in?    This…This is where I raise my arms up in the air and  yell, “At last!”

    After recovering from that absolutely hanis  kettle bell workout (see post below for reference) I made it back to the East in time to jump head first into our National Team camp.

    The abbreviated play by play:

    During the first workout, on the first day, of the first camp of the year your’s truly managed to dislocate a rib!  Sucker popped right out mid rollerski session.  Two days later, still struggling to breathe and no longer able to run without clutching my side (Riddle me this. Why is it that we think clutching the hurt area will somehow make it better?) the trainers were able to pop her back into place.

    The coaches have once again constructed new ways to make me sore.  Seriously what muscle is that?

    I was informed I now need to cut a large chunk of my rifle stalk off.  Because unlike last year I am now trusted with sharp objects.

    While my classmates graduated from college like real adults I did intervals up White Face.

    I learned just how much this past injury riddled season has effected my ability to do pull ups, ouch!  (positive spin…  positive spin!)  …it can only get better? …right?

    We reacquainted our elbows and knees (over and over again) with our shooting mats.

    And of course, most importantly, I made it through the entire two week camp with out falling down during a single workout!  The joys of little victories!

    (L-R: Me, Annelies, Susan, Hannah, and Sara)

    I’m incredibly fortunate to be back on the team for another year, and more than that I have a great group of gals to keep me in line… I mean train with!

    For now the A-team is off gallivanting in Bend Oregon, putting in long glorious hours on snow while I’m in Lake Placid where the morning temperatures make it feel like I should be on snow!   We’ve cranked up the volume, which compliments my love of adventuring on foot or bikes quite nicely, and I have two college courses to keep me extra busy.  …but as much as I ‘love’ training on my own I’m looking forward to having the rest of the team back in a little over a week.

    Until then. I bide my time. I continue to adventure, and do my darndest to stay out of any real trouble!