Category: XCFeeds

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_pZgXW6b1QMk/S3v-SKZspDI/AAAAAAAAAG0/QqbXGIVWJsk/s1600-h/DSC05853.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 190px; height: 400px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_pZgXW6b1QMk/S3v-SKZspDI/AAAAAAAAAG0/QqbXGIVWJsk/s400/DSC05853.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439220562963244082″ //ap class=”MsoNormal”OPA Cup number two took place in Forni Di Sopra. They ran the race in a Tour de Ski-style format. There were three races: the classic sprint on Friday, the 10km classic on Saturday, and then the 15km skate on Sunday. The sprint was pretty hard; I didn’t feel a lot of snap and finished mid-pack in the under-20 men’s division. The classic distance went a little better; I knocked off a couple places. The skate distance was a handicap (pursuit style) start, so you started in the order that you finished in the classic race.span style=”mso-spacerun: yes”  /spanI skied with an Italian guy most of the race and we were able to work together switching off leading and ended up passing fifteen or so racers. We fought to the finish and I just barely outsprinted him.br //p p class=”MsoNormal”All in all, it was a demanding but worthwhile weekend, as I got great first-hand experience in this next level of racing. /pp class=”MsoNormal”br //p !–EndFragment–div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2910103639238326543-5426691896521097355?l=methowolympicdevelopment.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

div style=”text-align: center;”br //diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3vyMxQCK8I/AAAAAAAAAP4/j3fXOc5em1U/s1600-h/DSCN2510.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3vyMxQCK8I/AAAAAAAAAP4/j3fXOc5em1U/s320/DSCN2510.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439207276172946370″ //adiv style=”text-align: center;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold;”skate racing/span/divp class=”MsoNormal”We just finished our first series of OPA cup racing this last weekend in Forni di Sopra, Italy. I felt pretty good with the weekend and had my best distance race ever, points-wise.span style=”mso-spacerun:yes”  /spanThe first day was a classic sprint. Unfortunately we found this out the day before the race when we were skiing around on skate skis and noticed the course had three classic tracks across it. The Europeans thought it would be funny to not tell the states what was going on. Apparently it was announced in Italian the weekend before in the team meeting that we were not present at because of our flu sickness. Luckily we found out the day before and rallied our testing and new selection of skis together and got everything under control. The race day was a bit of a different story. Tough waxing conditions and a one man wax technician/coachingspan style=”mso-spacerun: yes”  /spancrew made for some difficult and stressful waxing conditions. The qualifier round went well as conditions were just beginning to warm up which made for fast, slick tracks.span style=”mso-spacerun: yes”  /spanThe course was 1.4km with a steep hill out of the start and a long gradual downhill that required hard double poling and then a gradual climb up into the finish. I qualified in 11supth/sup position, but knew I had a lot more to give. The heats felt a lot better, I felt like I was really starting to ski into it. I hadn’t done any hard training since having the flu, so the more racing I did, the better I felt. My quarterfinal had the 1supst/sup place and 9supth/sup place skier along with some others that qualified behind me. I knew that I was going to have to be aggressive off the gun- so I went out of the start behind the number one French girl and rode behind her for the first hill before I was overtaken by a Swiss girl on the downhill. I sat behind relaxed and ready to strike when I got the chance on the last hill into the finish. When we got there, seems the other girls had the same plan. So I fought hard to keep the gap between the second place skier and me close so I had a good chance to advance as lucky loser into the semi’s. Luckily my heat skied about 5 seconds faster than the other heats so I advanced onto semi’s. I was pumped that I was going to get to do more racing- I was beginning to feel really good. Semi’s went well. I fought hard to stay in the front of the pack and faded a bit double poling into the finish, crossing the line in 5supth/sup. B-Finals are not raced anymore so I was done racing for the day, but the three hard efforts put me in 10supth/sup. One of my goals for every sprint race is to finish better than I qualified initially, so I made that! I was happy with the race with all things considered. I headed home and put my feet up to try to recover for my day of racing the next day. /pp class=”MsoNormal”br //pa onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3vxgx65dcI/AAAAAAAAAPo/ZhWuvHF-eBI/s1600-h/DSCN2495.JPG”img src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3vxgx65dcI/AAAAAAAAAPo/ZhWuvHF-eBI/s320/DSCN2495.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439206520438486466″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; ” //ap class=”MsoNormal” style=”text-align: center;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold;”start of my sprint heat/spanbr //pp class=”MsoNormal”br //pa onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3vxHfGilvI/AAAAAAAAAPg/krvUEthr01A/s1600-h/DSCN2487.JPG”img src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3vxHfGilvI/AAAAAAAAAPg/krvUEthr01A/s320/DSCN2487.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439206085890316018″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; ” //ap class=”MsoNormal” style=”text-align: center;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold;”Waxing crew + Sam/spanbr //p p class=”MsoNormal”Saturday I woke up feeling kind of tired and feeling the fact I had raced the day before. During my warm-up I wasn’t feeling it, but I decided to keep my head positive and give it a hard run anyway. 5k Classic is my favorite race of all time so I was confident I could still do well.span style=”mso-spacerun: yes”  /spanOver the past month I have met a lot of athletes and coaches from the various European countries so while I was racing I got tons of cheering from all the athletes and coaches of other teams, which really helped! I started hard and tried to hold the pace the entire way. The last kilometer was rough but on the last huge hill the Italian coach saved me as he screamed at the top of his lungs “di di di” which means go in Italian. He knew I was hurting but he knew my split and he knew I was in it. I ended up taking the same place as the day before, 10supth/sup place, only 26 seconds back from the leader- a 78 FIS point race. Everyone was tightly packed within these 10 places, which made for an exciting starting list for the pursuit start the next day/p p class=”MsoNormal”Sunday was a pursuit start 10km skate race, which basically means you start based off of your total time from the previous two races. This put me starting 9supth/sup, 52 seconds back from the leader. I had two girls starting 8 seconds in front of me and a French girl starting 1 second behind me. Once again I felt really tired during my warm-up but tried to stay positive. Two days of hard racing had taken its toll on me. I started the race aggressive, determined to catch the group of girls skiing in front of me. Soon I realized that was just not going to happen this day. I was going to need to hold on for the next 10 kilometers and put out a hard fight, which is what I ended up doing. I was passed by about 12 girls throughout the next 9km. About 7 of them passed me in a large group that went on to ski the rest of the race together. I rode with the pack for a while trying hard not to get pushed off the back. The last kilometer I decided to just put every last bit of energy I had on the table. I ended up passing two girls on the last hill into the finish and was within inches of catching a third. I crossed the line and collapsed immediately. I had given every last bit of energy. I ended up only losing 6 places coming in 16supth/sup for the overall tour score.span style=”mso-spacerun: yes”  /spanI didn’t even have the energy to do a warm-down so I headed straight home and took a nice long nap. /pp class=”MsoNormal” style=”text-align: left;”br //pa onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3vykmz0OQI/AAAAAAAAAQA/NpcUVmaAkwo/s1600-h/DSCN2513.JPG”img src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3vykmz0OQI/AAAAAAAAAQA/NpcUVmaAkwo/s320/DSCN2513.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439207685687097602″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; ” //ap class=”MsoNormal” style=”text-align: center;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold;”about to pass the german on the last hill/span/pp class=”MsoNormal”br //pa onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3vxzRMKcFI/AAAAAAAAAPw/v0c2xyVWriw/s1600-h/DSCN2506.JPG”img src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3vxzRMKcFI/AAAAAAAAAPw/v0c2xyVWriw/s320/DSCN2506.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439206838070046802″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 261px; height: 320px; ” //ap class=”MsoNormal” style=”text-align: center;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold;”start of skate race with the french girl starting 1 second behind/spanbr //p p class=”MsoNormal”The most exciting part of the weekend was rooming with a German girl. She arrived by surprise at about 10:30 the night before the race when I was sleeping, so I woke up to a new friend in the morning. She had never spoke English other than during class but she did pretty damn well. It was really fun to get to know her. She knows all my German college buddies from back home which made it fun. I am sure I will meet up with her again in all these next races. The Germans were staying in the same hotel as us so we got to mix up our socializing a bit- YEAH!/p span style=”mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-USfont-family:Cambria;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:medium;”After a good first weekend of racing we are spending the week here in Monguelfo, Italy recovering and training, getting ready for the night city sprint on friday. There are posters everywhere advertising the races and the many parties that will go on afterwards. Sounds like it’s a pretty big celebration here, should be tons of fun!/span/span!–EndFragment–divspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family:Cambria;”br //span/divdivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family:Cambria;”Some training photos-/span/divdivbr //divdivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family:Cambria;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=” ;font-family:Georgia;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3v45VIdu0I/AAAAAAAAAQI/2YjAIYy-pUM/s1600-h/IMG_2178.JPG”img src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3v45VIdu0I/AAAAAAAAAQI/2YjAIYy-pUM/s320/IMG_2178.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439214638788885314″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; ” //a/span/span/divdiv style=”text-align: center;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family:Cambria;”Skiing in Elm, Switzerland/span/divdiv style=”text-align: center;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: Cambria;”br //span/diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3v5bcOTPhI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/tt-unaUCVbo/s1600-h/IMG_2220.JPG”img src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3v5bcOTPhI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/tt-unaUCVbo/s320/IMG_2220.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439215224807964178″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; ” //adiv style=”text-align: center;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: Cambria; “Training at one of the 2010 Tour de Ski venues Dobiacco/spanbr //divdivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family:Cambria;”br //span/divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2910103639238326543-7501994866363695883?l=methowolympicdevelopment.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Mg2hQbkHkNs/S3rUt9GPo8I/AAAAAAAAAXs/Mvqco56uln8/s1600-h/DSCN2492.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Mg2hQbkHkNs/S3rUt9GPo8I/AAAAAAAAAXs/Mvqco56uln8/s320/DSCN2492.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438893385963250626″ //abr /Last weekend’s races in Forni di Sopra, ITA were very indicative of the competitiveness of the fields in this year’s OPA Cup series. World Cup athletes, U-23 and World Junior Champions, and other top national team members all showed up to compete in a 1.4K classic sprint, 5/10K classic race and 10/15K skate race. The weekend was scored in a Tour de Ski-style format, where you accumulate points and “bonus seconds” with each race, and a total is awarded at the end of the weekend. divbr //divdivI went into the weekend with a mixture of excitement and desperation; it’s been a rough season, performance-wise and I really wanted to put down a solid finish. It didn’t help that the organizers changed the sprint from skate to classic, because skate is definitely where my strength lies. But I went into the sprint day feeling strong and was pretty confident I could qualify well. We had a bit of a struggle with wax testing given that the wax rooms were a good distance away from the tracks and, with only Scott waxing (though he is superhuman in that regard) we had a hard time dialing in good kick with the rapidly changing conditions from hard and cold to glazed and warm. I ended up double-poling the race on my warm-up skis as they felt faster right before the start. I felt strong and was confident I’d moved on. As it turned out I finished 44th, 14sec out of 1st and 4sec out of the top-30. Needless to say, a terrifically strong field. /divdivbr //divdivThe next day was a different story. I don’t know whether it was residual illness from the previous week’s stomach flu, or fitness issues from the season, or mental flatness or a combination of the three, but my 10K classic race was a disaster. After falling twice, vomiting once and filling completely up with lactate, I dropped out at 5K. First time ever. Fortunately there was no entry fee so I don’t owe Ruff anything. But certainly a very humbling experience and one I want to get past as soon as possible. /divdivbr //divdivOh yeah, and if you go to northern Italy (outside of the Sud Tirol) don’t expect very delicious bread. For a whole week we ate delicious Italian food complemented by depressingly-airy and weak-crusted bread. It’s a blessing to be back in the Sud Tirol, German-influenced regions where bread is hearty and heavy. /divdivbr //divdivMore later as we prep for this weekend’s downtown night sprints in Monguelfo, ITA!/divdivbr //divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2910103639238326543-6408605388460925990?l=methowolympicdevelopment.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Mg2hQbkHkNs/S3rUt9GPo8I/AAAAAAAAAXs/Mvqco56uln8/s1600-h/DSCN2492.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Mg2hQbkHkNs/S3rUt9GPo8I/AAAAAAAAAXs/Mvqco56uln8/s320/DSCN2492.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438893385963250626″ //abr /Last weekend’s races in Forni di Sopra, ITA were very indicative of the competitiveness of the fields in this year’s OPA Cup series. World Cup athletes, U-23 and World Junior Champions, and other top national team members all showed up to compete in a 1.4K classic sprint, 5/10K classic race and 10/15K skate race. The weekend was scored in a Tour de Ski-style format, where you accumulate points and “bonus seconds” with each race, and a total is awarded at the end of the weekend. divbr //divdivI went into the weekend with a mixture of excitement and desperation; it’s been a rough season, performance-wise and I really wanted to put down a solid finish. It didn’t help that the organizers changed the sprint from skate to classic, because skate is definitely where my strength lies. But I went into the sprint day feeling strong and was pretty confident I could qualify well. We had a bit of a struggle with wax testing given that the wax rooms were a good distance away from the tracks and, with only Scott waxing (though he is superhuman in that regard) we had a hard time dialing in good kick with the rapidly changing conditions from hard and cold to glazed and warm. I ended up double-poling the race on my warm-up skis as they felt faster right before the start. I felt strong and was confident I’d moved on. As it turned out I finished 44th, 14sec out of 1st and 4sec out of the top-30. Needless to say, a terrifically strong field. /divdivbr //divdivThe next day was a different story. I don’t know whether it was residual illness from the previous week’s stomach flu, or fitness issues from the season, or mental flatness or a combination of the three, but my 10K classic race was a disaster. After falling twice, vomiting once and filling completely up with lactate, I dropped out at 5K. First time ever. Fortunately there was no entry fee so I don’t owe Ruff anything. But certainly a very humbling experience and one I want to get past as soon as possible. /divdivbr //divdivOh yeah, and if you go to northern Italy (outside of the Sud Tirol) don’t expect very delicious bread. For a whole week we ate delicious Italian food complemented by depressingly-airy and weak-crusted bread. It’s a blessing to be back in the Sud Tirol, German-influenced regions where bread is hearty and heavy. /divdivbr //divdivMore later as we prep for this weekend’s downtown night sprints in Monguelfo, ITA!/divdivbr //divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2910103639238326543-6408605388460925990?l=methowolympicdevelopment.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3rOfe4PDlI/AAAAAAAAAPY/R5tO4Nk7N5M/s1600-h/DSCN2458.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 142px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3rOfe4PDlI/AAAAAAAAAPY/R5tO4Nk7N5M/s320/DSCN2458.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438886540263493202″ //adiv style=”text-align: center;”MOD SQUAD- view over Camprabr //divdivbr //diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3rIq_YdaUI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/5V2IrFt6VYs/s1600-h/DSC05873.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3rIq_YdaUI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/5V2IrFt6VYs/s320/DSC05873.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438880140897380674″ //adiv style=”text-align: center;”MOD SQUAD- view over Forni di Soprabr //diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S3rIOTpixAI/AAAAAAAAAPI/x0WtdUken98/s1600-h/DSCN2458.JPG”/a !–StartFragment– p class=”MsoNormal” style=”text-indent:.5in”We have been without internet pretty much since the start of our five week adventure, so I am going to do a little recap of our series of unfortunate events early on in our trip. About two days after meeting up with Sam in Zurich, Erik and Sam woke up early with an upset stomach that soon lead to much worse. I spent the morning in my room trying to stay away from the germs while turning my music on really loud so that I didn’t have to hear the constant hurling noises in the bathroom right next to me. Within the next couple of hours the boys got so bad we decided it would be best to head down the curvy mountain road to the hospital about an hours drive away. Nearly 10 hours after checking the two boys in I was in the same state and headed into the hospital as well. After hooking up some IV’s and getting some pain medication, the doctors rolled me down many hallways into a room where Erik was also sleeping. Sam was lucky enough to check out only four hours after getting there and heading home to sleep it off. The nurses thought it was so great that Erik and I were going to be able to share a room while we were sick so we would feel more comfortable. It turned out being pretty dang nice. Every time I have ever gotten the flu, the one thing I want more than anything, even more than a cold glass of water, is my mom. Somehow she just has a way of making me feel more comfortable. But having your brother is the second best thing. It was pretty funny we both woke up several times throughout the night and it was pretty nice to have someone to talk to. The next morning we waited for what seemed like forever for the doctor to come and release us. I was still feeling pretty sick, but I wanted to just go home to the apartment and sleep it off. When the doctor got there he spent a couple of minutes checking me over and then went on to say I needed to spend another night there. Both Erik and I thought he was joking so we laughed it off, imagining how miserable that would be. When the doctor gave us a funny look, I had to ask “are you serious!?”.span style=”mso-spacerun: yes”  /spanTurns out he was serious! Erik got to go home, but I had to spend another night hooked up to an IV tube in the little boring white hospital jail room. I spent the next twelve hours of the day watching replays of a track event and some euro ball game that I have never seen played before. It got super boring the third time through when I knew exactly where every runner was going to make their move and who was going to win every event! I was starting to go crazy. All the nurses were really nice though so the company was nice. After two nights, nearly 48 hours, the doctor finally released me, and I got to go home! By that time Sam and Erik had got several meals in them, and they were feeling recovered and ready to ski again. For several days following we fought to get our meals down and feel strong enough to ski for at least 30 minutes. I know for me, it took about a week (the day before our first race) to feel good enough to ski for at least an hour and get a full meal to sit nicely in my stomach. Sam, Erik and I are still trying to figure out how the boys picked up this little vicious bug. They seem to think they got it from the gondola ride up the mountain to go sledding. That’s the best we can come up with. But it was certainly quite the adventure to start the trip out with. Unfortunately we had to miss our first weekend of races and went into our second set not as strong as we would hope but we will definitely continue to build from here. Hopefully we can avoid more situations like this. We carry our little hand sanitizer bottles around in our pockets and wash our hands before ever meal!/p !–EndFragment–div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2910103639238326543-716578603116236672?l=methowolympicdevelopment.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div