FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • Toblach 10k Free Pursuit Women’s Video

  • Winning.

    Dev had a chance to showcase his talents with flare and daring today.

    Both he and Kaitlin took top honors in the school-wide bump contest …

    We’re waiting for photos of Fitzy.

  • Quantifying Technique Speed Differences: Sprinting

    Like last time, we’re looking to quantify somehow the average difference in speed (in sec/km) between classic and skating. Only this time we’re focusing in on sprints. Organizing the times for the heats is a bit of a challenge, so I’m only going to consider the qualification round. So essentially we’re just looking at speed differences over much shorter distances.

    Following the same general procedure to fit a model for the sprint races, we get the following results:

    Again, happily, freestyle is faster than classic. Note that I’m not really considering the course length for sprints, so I’m essentially assuming that the differences between a 1km race and a 1.8km race aren’t going to be too meaningful. Recall from last time that the men saw a difference of between 8-14%, the women between 5-12% with the longer races tending to see a smaller difference between skating and classic, on average.

    What’s interesting is that in this case we get a difference of around 8.4% for the men and 9.0% for the women. Given the differences we saw in 5-10km races on Monday we might have expected larger differences.

    What I think is going on is that the speed advantage of skating is sort of non-linear in race length. For very, very short distances there isn’t enough time for skating’s efficiencies to have an effect. But when the races get really long, the increased efficiency in skating starts to be counteracted by physiological issues that will be more constant between techniques. So there may be a sort of sweet spot in between where skating makes a huge difference, but less so at the extreme race differences.

    The strongest case for this I could make would be to consider truly absurd extremes. You’re not likely to see much difference between skating and classic in a 5 meter race. However, you also probably won’t see much of a difference in a 500km race. In the former, skating’s advantages never really get the chance to take effect, and in the latter the relative efficiencies of the two techniques probably may pale in comparison to the pacing demands of a race that long.

    Related posts:

    1. <Technique Specialization
    2. <Improved Gällivare Plots: Technique Focus
    3. <Technique Preferences: Italy


  • Canadian Nationals Day 4

    Another beautiful, sunny day in Mont Sainte Anne!  We had a great day on the race course with some awesome performances from our team in really hot weather and tough, super soft snow conditions.  It’s tough for everyone of course, but those who tend to race best are the ones who can capitalize on the tough conditions and find a way to ski smartly and stay positive.  Racer of the day goes to Kate Kerin for putting together a really smart, well paced race to finish 21st overall in the junior girls race!  Kate put her head down and really raced the 10k – pacing it well, yet skiing aggressively.   One of Kate’s goals going into the race was to start off somewhat conservatively, given the heat, and focus on her technique, then pick up the pace.  She did a great job with executing her race plan – and that got her to a great result.  Given that Kate had pneumonia earlier this winter and missed several Eastern Cup races becomes of her illness, it’s awesome to see her bounce back from that and ski well in March. Nice job Kate on a great race!    
    Kate on her first lap of her 10k.
    Corky deserves a big high five as he was our only guy to race in the 15k today.  He skied very well and ended up 107th in a field that included Alex Harvey, Devon Kershaw and other top Canadians fresh off the World Cup.   
    Katharine was once again the skier to beat in the juvenile girls race (J2s).  She wore the leader bib, started dead last and laid down the fastest time by 15 seconds to win the race.  Nice going!
    Pippin heads out of the start and onto the race course.  Pip was a little wobbly at the finish from giving it everything she had, but after a few cups of water and some Gatorade, she was bouncing around and smiling like her typical self. : )  
    Katharine heads through the stadium on her lap. 
    Mac (above) and Calvin (below) skied a 7.5k race today for the junior boys (J1) race.   Calvin took 27th and Mac was 73rd.  As you can see from Mac’s picture, it was definitely “bib weather”. : )     
    Calvin just found out that he’s been accepted to St. Lawrence!  Congratulations to him!
    Mollie was our last racer today – she did her 10k at 2:30pm after roughly 500 people had already skied the course and temps were climbing into the 60s.  Good thing Mollie is tough as nails. : )  She finished 66th overall in the open women’s race and the 19th junior overall!  Very impressive.  
    Sunny day at Mont Sainte Anne!  Not a cloud in the sky.
    Pretty nice way to spend a day – racing and cheering on your teammates.  (From left: Corky, Katharine, Mac, Calvin).
    There were lots of American racers out on course today.  Tim Reynolds from the Craftsbury Green Team.
    Mike Sinnott from Sun Valley.
    Patty J from Middlebury.
    Dylan McGuffin from Craftsbury Green Team.
    Lief Zimmerman from BSF.
    Bryan Cook from the Craftsbury Green Team.
    Dartmouth alum Nils Koons.
    Justin Freeman.
    Simi Hamilton (USST/Sun Valley).
     Sverre cheering Corky through the stadium.
     Dartmouth/GMVS alum David Sinclair had a heck of a race today – 12th overall, 1st junior.  
    Fritz Horst (UVM/SMS alum) catches a ride with Devon Kershaw! 
     SMS alum Pat O’Brien from the Craftsbury Green Team.
    Mollie’s cheering section: Sverre, Kate, Mac, Calvin, & Corky.
    Izzy Caldwell (Dartmouth/SMS alum) 
    Megan Kiligrew (Dartmouth/SMS alum)
    UVM (above) and Craftsbury (below) ladies work together coming through the lap lane.
    There were some pretty fast Canadians racing today.  The World Cup squad landed in Quebec City at 10:30 last night and then showed up this morning to race.  It was very cool to see them ski and to see how proud the Canadians are of their National Team skiers.  
    Alex Harvey.
    Ivan Babikov, wearing the leader’s bib after his win yesterday.
    Devon Kershaw.
    Chandra Crawford.

  • Canadian Nationals Day 3 – Ogden Wins 5k Classic!

    Yesterday were the 5/10k classic races at Canadian Nationals and we came home with a race winner at the end of the day!  Skiing from the end of the start list in the last race of the day, Katharine Ogden skied through the pack to a 7 second victory in the Juvenile Girls 5k.  It was quite fun to hear the announcer speak in both French and English over the loudspeaker to announce that an “American girl from the Stratton Mountain School has taken over the lead”.  🙂   Katharine was joined by her J2 teammates in the race, including Brooke in 6th place (see podium photo below!), Tess in 33rd and Pip in 63rd.  It was a tough race on a challenging course in soft snow conditions, but these girls toughed it out!  It was nice to see them skiing well and focusing on their technique.     
    The boys raced earlier in the day: Skyler, Corky, & Charlie raced in the Open Men’s 10k and our Mac & Calvin (our J1 boys) raced in the Junior Men’s 10k.  Skyler was 62nd, Corky 91st, & Charlie 103rd in the open race. Calvin was 20th & Mac was 62nd in the junior race.  I was shuttling the J2s up so I got a few pictures at the start and then missed the rest of the boys racing – I’ll try to get more pictures today!
     Corky heads out of the start.
    SMS Alum Fritz Horst of UVM, followed by Dartmouth’s David Sinclair ski through the field together.     David ended up 45th, Fritz ended up 60th.  Also racing: future SMS Elite Team member Eric Packer (4th).  

    For the women, Mollie raced in the Open Women’s 5k and Kate raced in the Junior Girls 5k.   Mollie was 74th & Kate was 39th in their respective races. 
    SMS Alum & future SMS Elite Team member Sophie Caldwell leaves the start.  Sophie finished 6th overall and was one of 7 American women in the top 12.  Also racing:  alums Izzy Caldwell (20th) and Megan Kiligrew (52nd).  
     The girls congratulate Charlie on his race before catching the shuttle up to the venue.
     Tess, pretty in pink, skied with great technique. 
     Brooke coming through the lap in the field.
     Pippin double poles to the finish.
    Katharine & Brooke on the podium at the awards ceremony.  
    Typical March: cleaning klister & travel waxing in the mud. : )   Skate races today – should be another hot one!  

  • ’11/’12 Season Complete!

    World Champs, Ruhpolding, Germany. Photo credit: Chelsea Little

    After almost four solid months of racing, countless hours of plane rides and european autobahn driving, ten different biathlon venues, ski conditions ranging from pre-season ice to frigid Finnish snow to Ruhpolding slush, and endless cravings for Mexican food, I am finally headed home today!

    We wrapped up the final week of competitions in Khanty-Mansisysk, Russia on Sunday and now I find myself in Munich, ready to catch a plane for the USA in a few hours. The races last week weren’t my best, but I was able to squeak out enough WC points to push me back up into the top-15. It crazy to think that this whole journey started with the Ostersund Individual, way back in 2011. But when all the races were over, I finished the year in 14th place in the World Cup overall. I’m really happy with the season and I want to thank everyone on the US Biathlon Staff for helping me reach this level. Without the hard work of our coaches, waxing staff, administrative staff, medical staff, and the support of my equipment sponsors at Rossignol, OneWay, Adidas, and Toko, there’s no way I could have come anywhere near this level. I feel very fortunate to have been able to work with all of these people over the past season.

    Now, as I sit in a Munich hotel room for one last morning before heading across the pond, I’m looking forward to a little time off from the biathlon world. This season has been the best of my life in so many ways. Thank you to everyone who followed my ups and downs throughout the year. I’m grateful to be a part of the crazy world that is World Cup Biathlon. See you after the break!

    -LB

  • That’s a Wrap… I guess?

    I believe when your team mate skis up to you. Pulls a beer out of her vest. And hands it to you.  You can call the season done.  Pat yourself on the back…. because pieces of you survived that emotional roller coaster they call winter.

    Although I’m not sure my season really ever got off the ground.  I can firmly say with the conclusion of Nationals Sunday my season has come to an end.

    Here’s a quick little wrap up of Nationals:

    After my super fun trip to the emergency room thursday afternoon I pulled myself back together, pain meds and all, and got myself back on the start line saturday morning.  Minimal abdominal pain aside, the pursuit was chaotic at best.  Despite the race organizers best efforts, trying to have 85 or so athletes shoot on 20 points… is well… it’s just a bad idea.

    Oh did I mention it rained and rained and rained? Yup. Staying dry? yeah right.  Minimizing dampness was about as good as you got!  Although I skied fast I missed… oh lets say 8 too many targets. Question: At the end of the day though was I more jealous of the 7 more targets Annelies hit or her rain jacket?  ….yes, I’m going to have to go with rain jacket.

    The mass start was fun for one lap… Annelies, Laura and I skied altogether.  It was painless and fun.  It felt just like another day training.  Then I missed more targets than them and got to play my favorite game… let’s go ski by ourselves!  Sunday was our last race and our only day of sunshine… and it was really hard.  The course conditions broke down rapidly…   Imagine skiing in sand.  really heavy nasty sand… your poles sinking at random another 6 inches through the slop.  Your skis a mixture of suction cups and sandpaper… Doesn’t that sound like a blast?  Ok Ok… in a sick twisted kind of way it was.  Although it was a suffer fest for everyone involved the rush of relief once you crossed the line, combined with the satisfaction of knowing it was over was nice.

    The results from the pursuit are a little confusing.  Because of the problems on the range they had to give out time credits to athletes who got held up on the range.  Unfortunately when you are out on course this is something you don’t really think about.  Although I crossed the line in second ahead of Laura, she received a larger time credit than me (and rightly so)… just large enough to beat me by 0.3 seconds.

    You can find the results here:  WYSEF

    A special thanks to Marc Sheppard, Kimberly Del Frate, and (BIG) Sam Dougherty for the pictures below!

    I’ve made myself a nice cozy corner in Bozeman for a few days before I hit the road for one last biathlon event. I’ll be flying to Mammoth Lakes for their annual biathlon race.  They do their best to bring in an elite field to put on a competition and clinic over the course of a few days.  I’ve been promised snow and sunshine, and will hold them to it!  Here’s to the last few winter adventures of the year!


  • That’s a Wrap… I guess?

    I believe when your team mate skis up to you. Pulls a beer out of her vest. And hands it to you.  You can call the season done.  Pat yourself on the back…. because pieces of you survived that emotional roller coaster they call winter.

    Although I’m not sure my season really ever got off the ground.  I can firmly say with the conclusion of Nationals Sunday my season has come to an end.

    Here’s a quick little wrap up of Nationals:

    After my super fun trip to the emergency room thursday afternoon I pulled myself back together, pain meds and all, and got myself back on the start line saturday morning.  Minimal abdominal pain aside, the pursuit was chaotic at best.  Despite the race organizers best efforts, trying to have 85 or so athletes shoot on 20 points… is well… it’s just a bad idea.

    Oh did I mention it rained and rained and rained? Yup. Staying dry? yeah right.  Minimizing dampness was about as good as you got!  Although I skied fast I missed… oh lets say 8 too many targets. Question: At the end of the day though was I more jealous of the 7 more targets Annelies hit or her rain jacket?  ….yes, I’m going to have to go with rain jacket.

    The mass start was fun for one lap… Annelies, Laura and I skied altogether.  It was painless and fun.  It felt just like another day training.  Then I missed more targets than them and got to play my favorite game… let’s go ski by ourselves!  Sunday was our last race and our only day of sunshine… and it was really hard.  The course conditions broke down rapidly…   Imagine skiing in sand.  really heavy nasty sand… your poles sinking at random another 6 inches through the slop.  Your skis a mixture of suction cups and sandpaper… Doesn’t that sound like a blast?  Ok Ok… in a sick twisted kind of way it was.  Although it was a suffer fest for everyone involved the rush of relief once you crossed the line, combined with the satisfaction of knowing it was over was nice.

    The results from the pursuit are a little confusing.  Because of the problems on the range they had to give out time credits to athletes who got held up on the range.  Unfortunately when you are out on course this is something you don’t really think about.  Although I crossed the line in second ahead of Laura, she received a larger time credit than me (and rightly so)… just large enough to beat me by 0.3 seconds.

    You can find the results here:  WYSEF

    A special thanks to Marc Sheppard, Kimberly Del Frate, and (BIG) Sam Dougherty for the pictures below!

    I’ve made myself a nice cozy corner in Bozeman for a few days before I hit the road for one last biathlon event. I’ll be flying to Mammoth Lakes for their annual biathlon race.  They do their best to bring in an elite field to put on a competition and clinic over the course of a few days.  I’ve been promised snow and sunshine, and will hold them to it!  Here’s to the last few winter adventures of the year!


  • Heidi Halvorsen at NOR Junior Nat’s

    Junior, Heidi Halvorsen, has kept her race season rolling overseas.  After the completion of the J1 Scandinavian trip in Estonia she stayed in Norway, training with a club in Oslo and staying with her grandmother.  Two weeks ago, while we were basking in the sun in Utah, she was completing a very strenuous Norwegian intensity block.  She kept her cool, wished her friends and brother good luck in the JO, and trained for the Norwegian Junior Nationals.

    By virtue of her strong results in Estonia and in time trials with local skiers she was given a great seeding spot in the races.  In the under-17 class of 87 athletes she started in the mid-forties.  We can’t wait to hear more about the races when she gets back but, she seems to have nailed the 5km skate — 17th place.  A fantastic result in perhaps the deepest field she has raced against.

    Thanks to Peter Moore for finding the below photo of Heidi competing in the relay.

    7.5 km classic. Guest class winner. 49th overall.
    http://www.emit.biz/races/2012.03.16/Junior_NM_Klassisk/resultat/RESULT.HTM

    5 km skate. Guest class winner. 17th overall!
    http://www.emit.biz/races/2012.03.17/Junior_NM_Fristil/resultat/RESULT.HTM

    4×3.75 relay. 23rd place team.
    http://www.emit.biz/races/2012.03.18/Junior_NM_Stafett/stafres/DAMER_4x3.75_KM.HTM

  • Still Going

    Hello Monday morning!  It was a weekend to remember and a ski season that leaves us all wanting more time.  It’s five days till the start of Super Tour Finals.  Our winter has been made possible by hard working and resourceful touring centers taking advantage of any clip of cold weather — we’re still optimistic for this weekend and we have a gang ready to race.

    The wax choices are getting easier as we head deep into the warm and wet season.

    The klister box got a thorough going over after JO’s — ready to go!!

    Congrats to the Vermont skiers and the hard workers at Mt. Top who were able to get the weekends races off.  Truly impressive to drive into the area, with no snow visible for miles and see a great track laid out for some early spring ski derby!

    Yesterday was the last day for MRG.  I missed the lift in the afternoon, but skied up, no skins (’cause I didn’t have ’em), but the snow was so sticky it worked with some good upper body work.  Too short, but always awesome.

    We’re gearing up for awesome summer camps and the registrations are starting to roll in — give me a shout and secure your spot — gonna be some fun camps this year!!

  • Quantifying Differences In Average Speed Between Classic/Skating

    I received an email recently from a reader who pointed out to me that Marit Bjørgen completed the 30k classic mass start in Oslo this season in 1:26:09.8, last year at World Championships Therese Johaug did the same course, mass start, skating in only 1:23:45.1, which is only a difference of about 2.8%. Surely, skating is more than 2.8% faster than classic?

    Now, there are all sorts of reasons why unusual differences like this could occur. Strange weather and snow conditions, obviously, is the major culprit. My memory for those things isn’t so good, but my correspondent assured me that the classic conditions for Bjørgen were not favorable, which should have made the gap much larger, one would think. (I’m also assuming that the course really is identical, which is another factor that I have very limited knowledge of, being many thousands of miles away with limited TV coverage.)

    As a first pass, let’s just look at the average speeds for the winner of all recent women’s 30k mass start races:

    Now we can see that the average speed difference does appear to be quite large, but that my correspondent happened to stumble across a particular pair of races that weren’t that different. But clearly I can’t stop here.

    Before going any further, let me be up front that there are numerous important variables that influence average skier speed that I can’t control for simply because I don’t have the data. Weather and snow conditions, as mentioned above, but also the fact that I collapse race distances down to their “advertised” distance. For instance, if the schedule says it’s a 15km course, that’s what I call it. The PDF race results will typically have a more accurate number, but pulling data out of PDFs is just more trouble than it’s worth.

    With those caveats in mind, I went ahead a fit a big complicated model. Well, it’s not really that complicated, but I’ll spare you most of the details. Basically, it models average speed among the top 30 skiers as a function of gender, technique, race type (mass start vs interval start), race length and time (to account for changes in speed between, say the mid-90′s and now). There were a little over 16,000 observations in the data set used for this model.

    Then we can look at the model’s estimates for the average speed of skiers in various types of races. First, the men:

    First, a minor statistical point. If we look at the 10km interval start panel (upper left), it suggests that the average speed of the winner is around 144 sec/km when skating and around 163 sec/km when classic. These are actually estimates of the average average speed. Confused? That’s ok.

    What the model is estimating here is the average sec/km for men in 10km interval start races. This also means we shouldn’t be fooled by the apparently very narrow confidence bands. Those reflect our uncertainty in estimating the average, but in reality there will be races with actual speeds that vary greatly from these values.

    Ok, enough boring stuff.

    Happily, our model says that freestyle skiing is considerably faster than classic. Yay for sanity checks! It’s hard to compare the interval and mass start races in this graph, but at the very least we can see that the mass start 30km events see a noticeably smaller gap in speeds. The other things I notice is that (unsurprisingly) the mass start events see a smaller difference in (average) speeds between 1st place and 30th place, but oddly skating seems more even in this regard than classic. (The freestyle lines seem flatter to me than the classic lines.)

    The same graph, but for the women:

    Some things remain the same. Freestyle is still considerably faster than classic. The difference in speeds between 1st and 30th seems more consistently large, compared to the men. Again, this fits with our general expectations that the men’s field is a bit deeper than the women’s. I also see a more obvious difference between the interval start and mass start events for the women: the gap between classic and skating seems smaller in mass start events for the women.

    This last one doesn’t fit quite so well with my expectations. The conventional wisdom is that the women’s field doesn’t adopt quite so relaxed a pace in mass starts as the men, so I would have guessed that the women would have seen more similar gaps in speed between the mass start and interval races.

    Let’s sum all this up with one last graph:

    This would suggest that for the men, skating can be anywhere from 8-14% faster, while for the women skating is typically between 5-12% faster. The men generally see that technique gap decline as the race length increases, particularly so for mass start races. The women don’t really see such a pronounced difference with race length, but they do exhibit a much clearer gap between mass and interval start races, with the former being considerably slower, on average.

    Of course, this all only pertains to distance races. I’ll have some similar analysis for sprinting (qualification rounds, at least) on Wednesday.

    Related posts:

    1. <A Look At Skier Speeds
    2. <Do The Japanese Prefer Classic Skiing?
    3. <Drammen 10/15km Classic Recap


  • Canadian Nationals – Team Sprint Relay Video

    Julien Locke and Geoffrey Richards placed 7th in the Haywood Ski Nationals Classic Sprint Relay on the Plains of Abraham March 17th 2012: Filed under: Race Updates

  • Canadian Nationals Day 2

    Yesterday (Sunday) we previewed the race courses up at Mont Sainte Anne for the 5/10k classic races today.  As you can see from the picture above, it was nice and sunny and the weather was quite warm – temps in the 50s – but fortunately there is still plenty of snow and the skiing is quite good.  The J2 girls will do two loops of a pretty challenging 2.5k loop and the rest of the crew will do the full 5k once (Mollie & Kate) or twice (the guys).  After our ski we headed back to our house for lunch.       
    Brooke and Mac and many others hit the books yesterday afternoon – with no prompting from their coaches.  : )  We’ve got a lots of quizzes and tests to proctor for our team this week so everyone was on the ball with studying and getting ready for those.  
     Dinner time!  Kate and Tess did a great job with burrito night. 
     One big happy family! 
    Katharine & Pip model their new Canadian Nationals buffs from their goodie bags.

    We’ll have to wait and the full report and some photos from Koby, but he had a great weekend as the lone SMS representative at the Eastern High School Championships at Mountain Top.  10th place in the classic race, 21st in the sprint, 29th in the skate race, and a leg on the 15th place relay team to help Vermont to the team title.  Nice job Koby!  

  • Canadian Nationals – Team Sprint

    The team had a successful day of team sprint relays on a great course right on the Plains of Abraham. Everyone had fast times, promising good competitions for the coming week of individual events. Our top performance was Julien Locke and Geoffrey Richards, surging through the finals. They were the only junior team to advance […]

  • Ханты-Мансийск (Khanty-Mansiysk)

    Following World Championships in Germany, the biathlon circus packed onto 3 different charter planes headed for central Russian and the final World Cup competitions of the season.  I was excited for the chance to see Khanty-Mansiysk after hearing so much about it, but I was also very tired from the previous week’s racing.  I couldn’t help but feel like I traveling  5 timezones in the wrong direction.  However, the racing has been awesome, the temperatures have been reasonable, the food is (somewhat) edible and Russia’s oddities have kept us plenty entertained.

    Many athletes haven’t bothered to adjust to the time change, especially since all the competitions are in the evening.  The bright white lights of the stadium extend normal daylight hours and I keeping forgetting that it is well past sunset when I cool down from my races.  Sara and I have watching movies late at night (starting around 11:00) to help us fall asleep and we’ve been sleeping-in until well past 9.

    Where in the world are we? At an oil boom town in Siberia

    Where in the world are we? At an oil boom town in Siberia

    Some of athlete housing: a tropical paradise. I can almost imagine the snow as a white sandy beach.

    Some of athlete housing: a tropical paradise. I can almost imagine the snow as a white sandy beach.

    Adventures at the grocery store, where the vodka aisle is the same size as the vegetable aisle

    Adventures at the grocery store, where the vodka aisle is the same size as the vegetable aisle

    Hungry? With the wide selection, you should to be able to find some type of canned meat to your liking. I was also very excited to find some white cheddar in the cheese section, but it didn't live up to my high Vermont standards.

    Hungry? With the wide selection, you should to be able to find some type of canned meat to your liking. I was also very excited to find some white cheddar in the cheese section, but it didn't live up to my high Vermont standards.

    Since the tap water is not safe to drink, we've been going through lots of bottled water. Don't worry, we are finding ways to be green and reuse all those plastic bottles. Photo: Sara Studebaker

    Since the tap water is not safe to drink, we've been going through lots of bottled water. Don't worry, we are finding ways to be green and reuse all those plastic bottles. Photo: Sara Studebaker

    A fur vendor who set up in the lobby of our hotel

    A fur vendor who set up in the lobby of our hotel

    This beautiful church sits on top of the hill overlooking downtown

    This beautiful church sits on top of the hill overlooking downtown

    A familiar face. Posters featuring Russian and Soviet superstars from years past line the road to the venue. Walking by the signs one day, Sara commented "That one looks like Algis!" and it was indeed. Algis, formerly of Lithuania, now lives in Vermont and coaches many local biathletes, including the Craftsbury crew.

    A familiar face. Posters featuring Russian and Soviet superstars from years past line the road to the venue. Walking by the signs one day, Sara commented "That one looks like Algis!" and it was indeed. Algis Shalna, formerly of Lithuania, now lives in Vermont and coaches many local biathletes, including our Craftsbury crew.

    Reindeer and sled on route to the stadium to pick up medalists for a victory loop. Seconds after I took this picture, these animals ran wild knocking their driver off the sled and dragging him into the woods. I started wondering if any of the medalist would survive to race in the next day's pursuit.

    Reindeer and sled on route to the stadium to pick up medalists for a victory loop. Seconds after I took this picture, these animals ran wild knocking their driver off the sled and dragging him into the woods. I started wondering if any of the medalists would survive to race in the next day's pursuit.

    For all its quirks, Khanty has one of the most professional and state-of-the-art race venues I have ever seen.

    For all its quirks, Khanty has one of the most professional and state-of-the-art race venues I have ever seen.

  • 5/10km Freestyle Toblach

    58th today, +2:13 out. Had a fun battle out there today with the guy who I tied with Yesterday.  He caught me at 5km and we tried to break eachother.  I was able to get 10 seconds on hime in the final kilometer.  Not battling for the positions I had originally wanted to but still enjoying the fight.  Tomorrow is a day to catch some people.
    Enjoying the good and the bad

    Caitlin and the APU ladies

    Congratulations Holly on the OPA win today.  Results from the day on FIS here.

  • Canadian Nationals Day 1

    We have a group of 12 athletes in Quebec this week for Canadian Nationals – Skyler, Mac, Charlie, Nick, Corky, Calvin, Kate, Mollie, Brooke, Tess, Katharine, & Pip.  This morning was the team sprint event in Quebec City.  The race took place on the Plains of Abraham, a large open field right downtown on the St. Lawrence River.  Our day started off cloudy and foggy (see the picture of Pip & Tess below) and around 12:30pm the fog lifted, the sun started shining and the temperatures started going up.  
    The J2 girls raced this morning around 11am.  Pip & Tess and Brooke & Katharine each teamed up for a total of six laps per team around the sprint course.  Brooke & Katharine snagged the lucky loser spot and were able to advance the afternoon finals (only an hour or so later) where they raced a second time.  Kate & Mollie, Corky & Murph, and Charlie & Mac all raced in the open event in the afternoon. Everyone skied well and for most it was the first time racing a team sprint so it was a fun learning experience.  Skyler wasn’t planning on racing the team sprint, so with an odd number of guys left, Calvin graciously opted not to race and got in a workout and then spent the afternoon cheering on his teammates.   The UVM team is up here racing as well so we got to see alum Fritz Horst speed around the course with his teammates.  

    We’re up in Mont Sainte Anne now, settled into our house, and we’ll check out the distance courses tomorrow morning before we do back to back distance races on Monday & Tuesday.  
    Pip raises a pole for Tess in the tag zone. 
    Corky with the Chateau Frontenac in the background.
    Kate.
    Murph.
    Brooke runs alongside Charlie.
    Katharine racing in the finals – after the fog cleared out!
    Brooke herringbones up a short steep hill before the finish.
    J2 girls cheering on the boys. 
    Calvin out cheering for his teammates.
    Tess on the final hill before the finish.
    Alum Fritz Horst (UVM).

  • Nationals: Day One…. and a super fun trip to the ER

    Oh West Yellowstone…  I can see how they have so much snow!  While on a jog this morning one of the athletes I’m staying with reminded me, “We haven’t seen the sky in days!?”  Fact.  We have not.  Unfortunately for us spring-like temperatures have reached the West and we have fallen victim to a constant trickle of rain (and if we are really lucky sleet).  Tomorrow’s forecast you ask?  Rain, snow, and thunder oh my!

    The roads have all but turned into ponds and streams of slushy cold nasty-ness.  Welcome to the end of the season I suppose.  I don’t mind spring but this weather makes it virtually impossible to stay dry… no matter how creative we get!  Wish I had photo documentation of our juniors heading out to the range this morning.  Not only were they wearing varying sizes of garbage bags but their feet (already in their boots) were also wrapped in grocery bags… This is what desperation and unrelenting hope looks like!

    I opted for an exploration run into the park.  And although we definitely came back thoroughly soaked atleast we managed to stay warm.

    But I’m getting off track.  Back to yesterday… Or as the title states.  Back to… Nationals: Day One!

    I kicked off my first nationals as a Senior with our shortest race of the weekend.  A 7.5Km sprint race.  The course was slow but our skis were slick.  And aside from your poles occasionally sinking in a solid 6 inches every few pole plants, and some relentless stomach pain, it wasn’t all that bad.  I shot proficiently, missing a single shot in prone and two in standing.  At the end of the day I would come in third behind two of my team mates.  Annelies, fresh off a full world cup season and world championships, won the race with a single miss in standing.  Followed by Laura in Second.  These two gals are more or less veterans on the team so to duke it out with them is always a good time.  Slowly I’m holding my own more and more.

    After the delight of a decent race had worn off the abdominal pain that had plagued me for much of the morning set back in.  This time so intensely I couldn’t bring myself to stand up straight.  At first I thought I was just dehydrated.  We are racing at altitude here and I figured it was just taking a toll on my body.  Boy was I wrong.  After another hour or so in fetal position I realized… it wasn’t going to get any better.

    To the emergency room we went!  …all the way to Bozeman.  After living in Bozeman for two years I never made it to the ER, so I suppose it was about time.  Honestly if someone was going to get sent to the ER from our team… it would probably be me.

    Pat and Annelies made the ride bearable, keeping the mode light and my wincing to a minimum and the hyperventilating to an all time low!  At the hospital I got poked, prodded, and looked over.  I got a great look when the nurse told me they needed a urine sample.  ”Are you familiar with peeing in a cup?”  my response of “Yeah I get drug tested all the time!” was not what she expected.  From there I was given a healthy dose of pain meds (thank goodness) and waited for someone to tell me what was going on.  I got in a great nap which I felt sort of guilty about…. Pat and Weise had to hang out and wait for me… while I was taking a nice little snooze under not one but TWO heated blankets.

    After a while a doctor came in and told me “Well its not a UTI, and you’re not pregnant… so at least you have that going for you!”  Oh thank goodness Doctor. If I hadn’t been on meds I might have been offended?  Two ultrasounds (I should get a punch card for those things, I’m about one away from a free one) and a misplaced ovary later I was done.  They finally had an answer for me. During this time I may or may not have said a few inappropriate things to the ultrasound tech.  Apparently things aren’t quite as funny when you are the only one on pain medication.  …Apparently the race had caused me to rupture a cyst in my ovary. Which in turn led to a bunch of free fluid floating around.  Which apparently is the equivalent of sand paper to your internal organs… who knew!?

    A perscription later I was out the door and we were on our way back to West Yellowstone!  An eventful day.

    We have a pursuit race tomorrow morning and with 5 second start intervals it should be a lot of fun!

    And now for a picture that has nothing to do with racing or my internal organs!  Oh West Yellowstone…

  • 3.3km Freestyle Prologue

    47th place today, 30 seconds out.  Pretty humbling.  A lot of fast guys in the race.  Looking forward to the 10km classic race tomorrow.

  • Springing.

    What has this winter been up to?  We’ve been celebrating this week, up in Stowe, and on the slopes of Mad River Glen.  It’s been a great stretch and our legs are tired — a good sign of winter.

    Wax testing in Soldier Hollow.

    Before we get into this week we’ve gotta mention a great day of skiing in Alta, Utah.  It was a nordic skiers dream, the Sunday after a championship week and you are at the base of Little Cottonwood Canyon.  Even better we were getting to share our trip with guests, Bill, Henry and Don Harmeyer, and Ben Hegman.  All of these skiers had the forethought to put some tele or touring skis in their quiver for a trip to Utah.

    Hans and Dev under the Devils Castle.  Superior in the background.

    So we took over the New England Girls van, complete with pastel writings including, “Hugs and Kisses,” “Girl Power,” and heart shaped drawings and headed up the canyon.  After visiting friends here for many years now I was getting to give the tour of a skiers Disneyland.  “To the left you might see some climbers and mountain goats,” we looked — and by golly they were there.  Through the slide paths and past he Y Couloir we drove.  Because of our window art we were given VIP Parking at the front of the lot!

    Jason with the group looking west.

    We toured a lot of the area and found chalky snow, most memorably on High Rustler, and corn and frozen corn.  During our ski we ran into several friends including, Mid – A coaches Bill Brooker and Jason Hettenbaugh.  We also had the chance to check out a friend’s octagon house off the Albion Lift — elk burgers with a view!!

    Bro, good GNAR Points! @awesome

    This week started with a tour up the Hual Road at Trapps.  We climbed up and descended into the Mansfield Touring Center, purple and yellow klister eating up the tracks and kicking on all eastern surfaces.  Ice-slop-freshly groomed corn-pine cone-stick-water-air-rock-snow.  A special time climbing up Ranch Brook, running proud with melt, and feeling the rich forest air fill your lungs after two weeks of thin and dry Utah air.  David Sinclair was back training with us for a few days during break and helping keep the pace.

    With the strong group we were covering good ground and soon found ourselves rounding the perimeter of the trail system, heading straight up Houston to Stowe and then onto the Derby Trail.  The trail we raced over only weeks ago was reduced in places to a thick, dark sheet of pine cone ridden ice.  It’s the sketchy conditions are what make skiing so much fun!  As we climbed home the snowmobile groomer cut a fresh track directly in front of us — good luck is following us … so we hid our hunger and tiredness and did a continuos interval to the top.  David said good bye, Evan made a proud push, and I kept them parallel.

    David and I skied on Sugarbush during Christmas — bell to bell – three months… Oh winter what are you up to?

    Thursday we skied on the lower trails at Trapps.  Again we were greeted by varied conditions and all feeling a sense of loss for this winter that never really seemed to come.  We’ve been lucky for sure, Dev and I made turns in October, and we had great snow in Yellowstone and then constant skiing up to this point.  The east side of the Greens is going to be the place to be for the next years!

    After a quick warmup we did a three person sprint relay with each skier doing six laps around a fun stadium loop.  There was gravel showing through the Sugar Road and the field is getting quite green.  Our course had two options at the far point; if you turned early you could gap, or ski over a patch of grass, or continue to the second gate and stay on the snow.  When we dropped off David we interrupted a coyote stalking a group of four deer.

    Rafter supervising snow angel making at the Starks Nest 11/11/11, during a training hike.

    Today we went up to celebrate the snow on Mad River Glen.  Part of being a skier is the ability to ski it all — skiing at Mad River you get to do that.  Skiing Paradise is the definition of skiing to me.

    We had a great posse and got to show Evan around some of the best trails.  The signs of spring and a soft winter all over, the ground barely looks like it froze.  The skiing is great and the grass is fast all over so get out and enjoy the heck out of it.

    We are so fortunate to live here in the Mad River Valley and get to ski and travel like we do.