Category: XCFeeds

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

Williwaw Lakes – Ship Creek Crust Loop

“There is no way it is skiable,” I thought to myself, “So it can’t hurt to go up and just take a quick look.” Ian, Matias, and I were standing at the high point of the pass between Williwaw Lakes and Long Lake, just behind Elliott Peak in the Chugach front range. What had started as a quick morning crust jaunt up to Williwaw Lakes had already gotten a bit longer, and it was about to be pushed a little further.

We were eyeing the low point in the ridge that separated us from the Ship Creek valley, between Koktoya Peak and Mount Williwaw. Ian suggested maybe we could ski down the backside into the Ship Creek valley. I was skeptical. I’ve been up on that ridge in the summer, and I remembered the backside as being fairly steep – too steep for nordic racing skis. It made me nervous. Besides, that would commit us to a loop that I really didn’t have time for today.

But the view of the Chugach from that ridgeline is sublime…and I did have a little more time…and it couldn’t hurt to look, right?

In half an hour, the three of us were standing on the ridge, admiring the view:

Long Lake Pass overlooking Ship Creek. Click here for a full screen version.

Sure enough it looked pretty steep. Matias said that he was going to hang out in the sun for bit, then head back. I was trying to come up with the right words to tell Ian that I was going to turn back too. But before doing so, I scurried down about 50 yards to a rock outcropping to have a look at the gully directly below us.

I’ll. Be. Damned.

It looked totally skiable. And the conditions were perfect: bomber crust that had an inch of soft corn on top. Hero snow. We were staring at the perfect opportunity to do a pretty cool loop: down into Ship Creek valley, up to Ship Lake, over Ship Pass and back to Glen Alps. We had to do it.

We walked down a couple hundred yards before putting on our skis and descending the gully. It was great skiing. And the upper Ship Creek valley was excellent. I love that area. The best crust skiing in Chugach State Park in my opinion, but it takes a couple of hours to get there from any direction.

We hoofed it up and over Ship Pass and cruised back to Glen Alps.

Ship Pass. Click here for a full screen version.

A fantastic loop! But if you give it a try – remember the descent into Ship Creek valley is east-facing so it starts softening up early. Hit it early to minimize avalanche danger, but not so early that it is rock hard.

GPS Track here

Pass between Williwaw and Long Lakes

Looking towards Ship Pass

The gully we skied down to Ship Creek valley

Heading down

Ship Creek valley – the best crust in Anchorage!

Williwaw – Upper Ship Creek Crust Ski – P4270056.JPG

Williwaw – Upper Ship Creek Crust Ski – P4270059.JPG

Williwaw – Upper Ship Creek Crust Ski – P4270064.JPG

Ship Lake

Ship Pass

April 27, 2012

Fredrik Karlsson

Hopefully there won’t be any more posts like this for a long while. Fredrik Karlsson died recently, I guess in a snowmobile accident. I didn’t know much about him, but I guess he was on Sweden’s development team. As you might expect for someone on Sweden’s development team, he hadn’t quite made a huge splash in World Cup races, having never cracked the top 30 in a distance race, and he’d only done one WC sprint race.

But if you look at his results with FIS points, you can clearly see that while he was relatively old (~27) he had not “stalled out” in terms of improvement:

No major jumps in performance, just a very steady, consistent improvement. By last season, his median FIS point result in distance races was good enough to be one of the top 15 Swedish men:

Name	YOB	Median FIS Point	Total Races
HELLNER Marcus	1985	2.290	24
OLSSON Johan	1980	3.272	12
RICKARDSSON Daniel	1982	9.472	24
SOEDERGREN Anders	1977	11.392	17
JOHNSSON Jimmi	1985	17.912	7
AHRLIN Jerry	1978	18.116	7
FREDRIKSSON Mathias	1973	20.782	13
ERIKSSON Jens	1987	20.932	15
NELSON Lars	1985	22.024	25
HALFVARSSON Calle	1989	24.430	12
JONSSON Fredrik	1990	25.884	21
ANDREASSON Rikard	1979	26.552	10
BRINK Joergen	1974	27.410	10
KARLSSON Fredrik	1985	30.100	15
OTTOSSON Markus	1986	34.124	16

April 27, 2012

Boys and Girls Club on Bikes

My Triple Play group from the Club has the chance to experience the beauty of Theodore Wirth Park. We have been meeting and talking about healthy eating and the importance of exercise for the past three weeks. Thanks to trips for kids for setting us up with bikes.

April 27, 2012
SMS NORDIC 2012-04-26 18:49:00

Ok check this out. Centered in the photo one of the greatest “coaches” of all time, Richard Simmons. A fitness guru like no other he pioneered the ultimate and original cross fit “sweatin to the oldies” Don’t know what I am talking about? google it, youtube it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhZ2fYQj6IM&feature=relmfu

Photo was in the Vegas airport 2005 on the way to Truckee JN’s!

Wait there’s a lot more going here in this pic. Far right none other than SMS coach, art teacher, year book commander and 2012 team New England JN coach Liz Kantack. Richard made such an impression on her she went right into the health and fitness world of nordic coaching! Right beside her Ida Sargent from the powerful GRP team from Craftsbury and the USST. Back row blue hat? SMS alum and UVM skier Fritz Horst. Blue head band? SMS alum and Utah skier Parker Tyler. Right in front of her, Burke coach, 2012 New England JN coach and Middlebury alum Kate Barton. Right behind Richard, Kristen Dewey SMS and Dartmouth alum now coaching high school skiers in VT. Tall Dude in the back? The head coach on trip from Burke and now a big cheese on the USST staff, Matt Whitcomb! Don’t worry Sophie we still see half your face right behind the “fro” Sophie Caldwell SMS and Dartmouth Alum and SMS Elite team member.

If you know the rest fill in the blanks…

April 26, 2012
CCC Athlete Development Matrix – April 2012

Cross Country Canada has put together a new Athlete Development Matrix. Please see the message below from Cathy Harris, Athlete Development Coordinator, CCC

Hi Roy

We are wondering if you would like to add the ADM information to your blog courtesy of the Coach and Athlete Development team at CCC!It is currently being translated and hopefully the French version will be available shortly.

The Athlete Development Matrix is CCC’s new athlete development model. It has been developed with the help and contribution of experts from Own The Podium (OTP), Sport-Canada LTAD expert group, the NST and NDC Integrated Support Team (IST) specialists and some of Canada’s HP cross country ski coaches.

In addition to providingspecific guidance on how to develop each performance factor at every stage of development, it also now includes specificbenchmarks and standardsto aim for, for each performance factors at each stage of development as well asadditional resourcesto facilitate the interpretation of the matrix guidelines.

http://cccski.com/Programs/Coaching-Development/Athlete-Development-Matrix.aspx

It is currently being translated and hopefully the French version will be available shortly.

Besides the technique videos database, this initial version of the matrix is just the starting point and we will keep updating it and adding resources to it on an ongoing basis.

Cathy Harris | Athlete Development Coordinator
Cross Country Canada | Ski de fond Canada
100-1995 Olympic Way |Canmore, Alberta |Canada | T1W 2T6
T: 403.678.6791 x41 F: 403.678.3885
charris@cccski.com | www.cccski.com

April 26, 2012
Twins v Red Sox

The staff at the Boys and Girls Club gave me a nice thank you: tickets to my first Twins game in the new stadium. I have always been a Twins fan ever since I was little and my parents told me they were named after my twin brother and I. Our house is only about 1 mile away on the bike path. We had a great spring evening and game. The red sox won by one in a close game with great plays.

April 25, 2012
T2T Performance Indicators

LTAD performance indicators – T2T athletes

How do you create a t2t program that helps kids advance their abilities while maintaining those things that kids would say are essential to their enjoyment? As much as literature might recommend doing this or that, the reality is that individual coaches or teams of coaches at each club make the decisions around what should be included in a program. The goals and outcomes are different at each club based on what leadership is on the ground, the philosophy of the club, the facility available, the tradition or lack of that exists in a community. In my mind this is why there is so much variability between clubs.

As coaches we can learn from each other on how to best advance competitive cross country skiing in Alberta. Our kids are much better off when there are a large number of clubs participating in competitive events and when each of those clubs have a number of top performers.

So what would performance indicators look like for the t2t age group? Maybe you have some of these for your club. Here are a few to consider inlcuding

– efficiency in adapting technique to terrain
– good balance, weight shift
– developing a race plan

April is traditionally a down time in structured physical training/practices in many clubs. Things are ramping up for another go around here in Canmore. I am excited to be back coaching again with the Canmore Nordic Ski Club for the 2012-13 season.
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April 25, 2012
Better Late Than Never

Spring weather in the East keeps us on our toes. Here are a couple of pictures taken 2 days ago. Ana and Adam W. enjoy their first (or last) ski of the year 🙂

April 25, 2012
Jenny Olsson
Unfortunately, we have a distinct theme for this week’s posts. Jenny Olsson also passed away recently, apparently from breast cancer. She raced, quite successfully, for Sweden for much of the mid-00′s:

These are just her WC level distance results (she didn’t sprint much). As you can see, 2002-2003 was her best effort, but it’s not clear to me that it was part of any particular trend, up or down. She finally got sick and stopped racing in 2005.

But for that one season, she was by far Sweden’s best female skier:

Name Median Result # of Races

OLSSON Jenny -1.0595 15

EK Elin -0.6265 13

OLSSON Anna -0.0368 3

HANDLER Mariana 0.0473 8

ANDERSSON Lina 0.2072 5

Related posts:
April 25, 2012
Week 1

Zach and I after a beautiful ski at Flattop in Anchorage. (photo: Christopher Hall)

No, I didn’t fall off the edge of the earth, although I feel like I’ve been to all ends of it in the last month or so. After World Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany (way back in March), I headed to the World Cup final in Khanty-Mansyisk, Siberia, Russia for a week. The races there were good, and it was a nice place to end the season. After a missed flight and a quick turn stop in Lake Placid, I was off to Alaska for some post-season relaxation. I’ve been here since then, skiing and enjoying the winter-spring transition. It’s been great, as I’ve been able to ski more than I’ve ever been able to in the spring, and I’ve been enjoying all that Alaska has to offer: from spring crust skiing to beautiful coastal jogs.

Crust skiing outside Anchorage! (photo: Zachary Hall)

Last week, the first official training week of the 2012-2013 season, Zach and I went out to a small bush village called Kiana to teach kids to ski with the NANANordic program. It was an amazing week, with lots of time on snow and lots of really happy kids learning to skate ski. I can’t imagine a better start to the season. Hopefully I’ll have the chance to get back to Kiana soon!

Kiana School (photo: Zachary Hall)

Who needs a water-belt when there’s a hole in the ice?! (photo: Zachary Hall)

Skiing with some of the girls. (photo: Zachary Hall)

Playing Caribou tag…yep, that’s a real caribou skull. Only in Alaska! (photo: Zachary Hall)

My new fan club in Kiana! (photo: Zachary Hall)

Zach and Forest helping the kids play ice basketball biathlon. (photo: Sara Studebaker)

Sometimes everyone needs a little help! (photo: Zachary Hall)

Next week I’m headed back to Lake Placid for our first National Team camp. It will be good to get back into the “normal” routine. For now, though, I’m enjoying the beautiful Alaska spring days here in Anchorage!

April 24, 2012
Uphill Run Test & Strength – UPDATED

We had four more skiers do the uphill run test today during our morning training block – Paddy, Skyler, Mackenzie, & Brooke. It was misting and cool – nice weather for running! Skyler and Mackenzie both set PRs, by 19 and 5 seconds, respectively, which is always awesome to see. Below are the combined results from Friday and today:

Calvin   12:21
Paddy   12:39
Skyler   12:58
Tyler      13:49
Matt      13:53
Carson 14:02
Gino      14:12
Corky   14:18
Koby    14:23
Hamish 14:35
Mac      15:14
Issy P    15:44
Russell 15:54
Mollie    16:01
Kate    17:14
Mackenzie 17:21
Tess 18:58
Brooke 20:07

Hamish is at the tail end of a head cold and Tess wasn’t feeling well today, so we’ll get those two testing later in the week and add them to the list.

Mackenzie about 1/2 a mile into the run.

Brooke heads for the finish line. After classes the whole team hit the gym for spinning & strength.

Warming up on the bikes with the snowboard crew.

Birthday girl Anika working the rollerboard!

Mackenzie and Paddy work on woodchoppers together.

Anika on the glute ham manchine.

Calvin working on med ball squat throws…

Tess ripping off some pullups.

Teamwork.

Hamish.

Kate.

Issy on dips.

Gino.

Kate.

Skyler.

Calvin, Hamish, Paddy, Skyler, Mac, & Tyler.

Skyler.

Floor core!

April 23, 2012
Inge Braten
In some very sad news, we learned recently that Inge Braten passed away rather suddenly. It is difficult (and probably slightly foolish) to try to quantify a coach’s impact on skiing results, so let’s consider this post a rememberance, rather than an analysis.

Perhaps most famously, Braten coached the Norwegian men during their “Golden Era”:

(My records only go back to the 1991-1992 season.) Norway has certainly continued to enjoy success since then, but I will always remember that period as one of extraordinary depth, as indicated by the number of top thirty results per race.

His next two major coaching stints were much shorter, first with the Swedish men:

And then with the Canadian men basically just in time for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics:

Related posts:
April 23, 2012
NENSA Coach of the Year.

Thank you NENSA and all of the past present and future GMVS skiers for making me look good!

APRIL 23, 2012

NENSA Announces 2012 New England Coach of the Year

Posted by: Janice Sibilia

Summary:

NENSA is pleased to announce Justin Beckwith as our 2012 New England Coach of the Year!

Justin has been quietly managing the Green Mountain Valley School Nordic Program for several years now. He has coached GMVS athletes through successful junior careers and instills a love of skiing and outdoor adventure into them as well. A world class athlete himself, he knows what it takes to be a student of the sport and his program ensures that there is enough of a challenge intermixed with plenty of fun! Justin wrote via email: “I've been really lucky to work with an impressive group of skiers over the past six years here in Waitsfield. My goal as a coach is to make all around skiers and expose kids to adventures that create a passion for sport and competition. Pursuing your dreams as a ski racer is an ultimate adventure and it is inspiring to help kids follow that path. It has been awesome to watch our alums continue to ski and improve in college and beyond.
We've had five Junior National Champs and three athletes placed on the J1 Team since I've been at the Green Mountain Valley School. We are really excited about our summer training programs with athletes like Tim Reynolds, David Sinclair, Dylan Grald and Heidi Halvorsen leading guests from throughout New England."

Justin has been coaching at GMVS for 6 years, was J1 Scando trip leader in 2009, World Junior Coach in 2012 and the New England Team Wax Tech 2009-2012. For four straight years in a row, Justin has also managed the production of 55- 65 pairs of skis per race at Junior Nationals- this is no easy feat to keep the New England train rolling! His calmness through the inevitable storms of wax testing and making the right calls, consistently put out the best skis on the best skiers day in and day out during a busy week.
Through all of this he stresses the team effort to make New England such a great ski community. In true spirit, Justin recaps his season on a recent blog post:

” Thanks for helping make this winter a success for New England– the enthusiasm of the Nordic Community in our region overshadowed any lack of snow. It was a huge year of successes for Eastern Skiers from the BKL level, at Junior Nationals and NCAA’s. I’m proud to be a part of this energy and I look forward to collaborating with many of you in the future.”

We congratulate Justin and wish him much success as he continues to educate and challenge his skiers to even more success in the future.

Coach of the year award history
2012 – Justin Beckwith
2011 – Sverre Caldwell
2010 – Pepa Milochoeva
2009 – Matt Boobar
2008 – Eileen Carey
2007 – Rob Bradlee

April 23, 2012
Scenes From The Road: Travelling Edition

After the winter’s end, it came time to say goodbye to Norway. Here I pay my respect’s to the 11th century voyaging Viking Leif Erikson.

Before making it stateside, I had to stop by London for the first time, especially as I was flying British Airways and got a free stopover in the capitol of the British Empire.

Before I got back in the classroom with Mr. Peck’s 5th graders, I made a quick visit to the desert to visit my grandparents in Arizona.

April 23, 2012
The Spring Routine

The past three weeks have marked the most amount of time I have spent in one place for the past year. I enjoy the excitement of travel, but it has been nice to have a standard routine. After taking a good week off from training I have been easing back in to activity with a nice morning workout followed by some sort of house project and planning for this next training and racing season.

The weather has been fantastic all spring in Minneapolis and I have been able to make the quick 2 mile ride to the Boys and Girls Club. The opportunity to spend a few hours with the kids every day has been huge in building their trust. I remember the change in the kids at the LCO Boys and Girls Club in Hayward after being able to spend consistent time with them and it is fun to watch the trust grow with the North Minneapolis kids.

Kendral working on his homework packet of the week.

Our focus this week in Power Hour has been reading retention. In addition to regular reading we are asking the kids to tell me of Mr. Vain what they read.

I have also started a new program called Triple Play where we focus on a healthy eating and lifestyle. We are learning about nutrition and how to read labels on food. We are also learning some of the major muscled in the body and how to strengthen them. Several of the teens in the program have the desire and potential to play professional basketball. We have talked about how most pro-basketball players play in college and the importance of being an all-around athlete.

We have also talked about the importance of getting 1 hour of exercise a day, regardless of whether you want to be a pro athlete. Plus, you are never to old to jump around and have fun.

April 22, 2012
Week Recap

It’s been a busy week at SMS! We’ve just finished our first week of school & spring training after our two-week spring break. We had a really nice week of weather (see above!) and got spring training off to a nice start with several bike rides, runs, games of pick up soccer, and trips to the gym for strength. The coaches are working their way through the team doing one-on-one season wrap up meetings and making plans and goals for next year. Everyone is taking the time they need to get caught up on school work following a busy month of March with lots of travel and the teachers & advisors have been helping our athletes make a game plan for getting on track for the spring. Fortunately we’ve got a bunch of smart kids on this team and everyone seems to be hitting the ground running in that department!

We’ve had the pleasure of several prospective athletes join us this week for a day at school and afternoon training. Jordan Fields from Woodstock, VT joined us on Wednesday for the afternoon. We drove around the back of Stratton Mountain and did a trail run out towards Stratton Pond as a team. Jordan has been accepted to Williams College, but is thinking of a PG year before heading to Massachusetts.

From Maine, Sadie James and Jack Elder came over on Thursday for classes and practice – a bike/run and strength. Looking forward to next year, we’re psyched for the growth and opportunities we’ll have for our current skiers with the addition of the Elite Team and it’s been a great to share that excitement with some potential new athletes who’ve visited us.

Yesterday we wrapped up the week with our uphill run test to get a baseline for everyone’s fitness.

We started off with some running drills on the field to work on form and getting our weight forward.

The uphill run test is two miles of rolling uphill. A little over one mile is on a dirt road (County Road) and then it finishes off with the paved road towards the Sunbowl and up to the school.

Calvin set the pace for the boys.

Tyler made the pass midway through to move into second.

Matt in third.

Carson Thurber (admissions, fresh off the Boston Marathon on Monday!) and Gino.

Corky.

Koby.

Mac.

Russell.

Issy.

Mollie.

Kate & Liz. Below are more photos from practice on Thursday.

Mackenzie is playing lacrosse this spring two days a week – she’s rushing in from practice on Thursday to join the team at strength.

Anika working on her dips.

Gino & Hamish.

Gino on the ring dips.

Pull ups – Tyler, Corky, & Paddy.

Sadie James from Maine visited us for an overnight on Thursday and works with Mollie on med ball tosses.

Calvin looks like he’s mid-double pole!

Tess working on her core strength.

Jack Elder from Maine visited on Thursday and joined us for a bike ride and strength after spending the day in classes and meeting with the coaches.

Anika.

Mackenzie.

Girls, happy to be done with strength!

Finishing up with floor core.

April 21, 2012
Most Unimproved: Women’s Sprinters
Last in the series of most improved/unimproved we finally turn to the women’s sprinters:

Alena Prochazkova took a major tumble this season in sprints. She had been a fairly reliable presence in the semifinals until this season, when she appeared to often have trouble qualifying. Celine Brun-Lie also saw a major drop-off, but the much reduced number of races that she did this year makes me wonder if she possibly had some issues with illness or injury.

Anna Haag joins many of the Swedish men as having a sup-par sprinting season, but sprinting wasn’t really her focus it seems, anyway. Laure Barthelemy did a lot “worse” this season, but the data is fairly clear that what really happened is that she had an unusually large cluster of excellent races last season, that were at least partly out of character for her. Most of her results this season seem generally in line with how she’s fared in 2009 and 2010.

Let’s consider the two Finns next, Roponen and Saarinen. There were also some injury issues here as well, but even so, note that both ladies have seen some declines for more than one season in a row now, so that doesn’t necessarily explain all of it. Roponen in particular was a fairly solid sprinter several years ago and has just really struggled since. Saarinen was an arguably pretty dominant sprinter for two seasons there in 2009 and 2010, but now has seen two seasons in a row of faltering results.

Stefanie Boehler deserves a mention as well as someone who’s had a few seasons in a row of troubles. She was never a really dominant sprinter, but things have gotten pretty bad the last two seasons.

Most of the other ladies here may seem like odd inclusions. Keep in mind that these “bottom twelve” were picked based on a blend of a few metrics (average result, best results, etc.) and I’m only graphing one of those. But their declines are certainly less stark.

Related posts:
April 20, 2012
Summer Programs Announcement
Greetings Skiers!

Did you know?
- The Burlington-area has the highest density of the best Nordic skiers in the State
- Vermont is the best State in New England (Eastern High School Champions!)
- New England is the best region in the country (an unprecedented 4 consecutive years)
- Kikkan Randall is the BEST IN THE WORLD (2012 World Cup Sprint Champion)
- Nordic skiers are the coolest people ever (I do not have objective verification of this last one!)
I am writing to announce the Mansfield Nordic Club (MNC) Summer 2012 programs. The summer programs are for endurance athletes that want to take their training to a new level. With a fabulous group of coaches, more frequent training, and a “de-centralized” model, this should be a significant improvement over prior years.
The goals of MNC include supporting long-term development of endurance athletes. This may include skiers, runners, and bikers. We will focus on nordic ski training, however these programs could also benefit a soccer player or a swimmer. We will perform a variety of training that will include basic athletic skill development, endurance training, technique, and strength. Activities will include running, rollerskiing, bounding, strength work, hiking, and even some biking.
New For 2012:
- We will have 2 training options for this summer:
1. Development Group: This is a 3-day/week option for athletes that are newer to summertime training (Monday / Wednesday / Saturday mornings). Cost: $475 ($350 for 2nd family member)
2. Competitive Group: This is a 4-day/week option for more advanced athletes (Monday / Wednesday / Saturday mornings, plus Thursday evenings). Cost: $600 ($475 for 2nd family member)
- Weekly training in the Hinesburg-area.
- We will rollerski on the open-roads from time-to-time.
Registration:
Register online via the following link: http://form.jotform.us/form/21059308395153

Word of Mouth: please pass this information along to anybody that may be interested.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
April 19, 2012
About "The First 1000 Hours" blog

About this blog – There just isnt very much out there for professional or volunteer coaches about ‘best practice’ in the world of coaching adolescent cross country skiers. This blog will pull together ideas from a number of sources including club programs from around the country, universities invloved with research in biomechanics and phyisology of cross country ski racing, iniatives aimed at advancing competitive cross country skiing all with a focus on optimizing what we do as coaches to best prepare young athletes (12-16 year olds) to be the best they can be in a positive, supportive, and challenging environment. I invite you to read and contribute to this blog aimed at creating a space where coaches as a community can share, learn, collaborate to advance competitive cross country skiing.

About me – I am coach working with train to train (12-13 year olds) cross country ski athletes in Canmore, Alberta, Canada with the Canmore Nordic Ski Club

Cheers
Roy Strum

April 19, 2012
Race Season Recap

April 18, 2012