FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • Classic Ski in Rogla, Slovenia

    The long drive from Switzerland to Rogla went pretty smooth.  It took us pretty much all day but as we left the mountains we also escaped the snow.  We are staying at the top of the mountain at the resort in Rogla.  The road up the mountain from town is very windy and I am happy that we don’t need to go up and down it each day.  We had to halt the scrabble game during the final part of the drive.

    Tad and I are in bunkbeds in what is described as a bungalow.  The room is tiny, but we have everything we need.  The rooms have a kitchen, table, shower and bathroom and are not much larger than 10′ x 16.’

    Temperatures are just below freezing and we had great skiing this morning.  We had a relaxed start to let things soften up a bit.  It is cool to ski many of the same hills that I have seen on televison watching the annual World Cups in Rogla.  

  • Swiss time

    Thats right, I just spent a week in Switzerland. In one of the most beautiful towns I’ve been in, Fuetersoy. It was a really fun time, we had four days before our races and our goal was to ski a lot of kilometers to keep up our training. This is a great way to get good views in and around town. The trails are scattered all throughout the valley and go from town to town. We didn’t have a trail map so it was just finding a trail and exploring to see where it goes. One day Reese and I got on a trail that climbed up one of the sides of the valley. We hadn’t planned on picking a trail that climbed for two and a half hours but by the time we figured out it was just going to keep climbing we were half way up and the views were getting amazing. We figured we might as well try to get to the top. It was worth it the view on top was one of the best I’ve ever seen, 360 degrees of beautiful swiss alp mountains.
    Picture 1 from long ski.
     Picture 2 from long ski.
    Picture 3 from long ski.
    The first race was on Saturday and was a skate 10 km individual start race. I started near the back of the field with Brian Gregg, my fellow methow racer, and Tad Elliott right behind him. Tad Elliott is fresh of the American birkebeiner win. We had 30 seconds separating us, both are very good skiers and my goal was to not let them catch me. I didn’t succeed, they both caught me about the same time right around the half way mark. I got a good ride with them for about a kilometer and then I had to say goodbye and let them go or I was going to completely blow up. I finished the last kilometer strong and ended up in 8th, third American. Tad was 2nd, Brian 5th, myself in 8th, Reese 9th, and Pete in 11th. 
     The second race we had was a classic mass start, the under 20 guys skied 10 km so today there were about 15 guys in the field. Yes, this may sound like kind of a wimpy little local Switzerland race that the U.S guys came to boost their confidence as they beat up on the locals, but that’s not true, it was a competitive group. The field probably had more World Cup starters then most Super Tours and it wasn’t going to be easy to finish in the front half of the field, I failed to do that the first day. The temperatures were high when the men started at 10:00 am. We all lined up in a chevron behind Remo Fischer. Right as they gave the one minute warning we saw our fellow American Becca Rorabaugh finish in first. After I saw that I was determined to go out there and hold on to the lead pack, I wanted the Americans to take both the wins. For the first lap Peter Kling and I lead the charge around the double tracked 5km loop. We were using team tactics slowing down when we felt like it and boosting over the tops of hills. It wasn’t long before Remo Fischer, the world cup bronze medalist could see what we where doing and made a serge past us. For the next lap myself and two other young swiss guys chased him but we fell off about 10km into the race. The chase pack then turned into two, myself and one other swiss kid. I had followed this kids results, he was one year older then me he had beat me several time but I had just edged him out at U23 Championship in Turkey. I was determined to drop him on the last lap. He had faster skis then me but I had better kick, so I waited tell the last 3km, which was mostly gradual up hill and I slowly put time on him. I was able to finish in 2nd, 18 second behind Remo Fischer for my best ever FIS point race. Tad came in shortly behind me in 5th, Reese 6th, Brian 7th, and Pete in 9th. Pretty good day for team USA!
    Picture from classic 15km podium.
    We stayed at the Hotel Victoria.
    A really nice couple owned the place. They made us some amazing authentic meals.
     We waxed right outside the hotel, somedays shirtless.
    Laying on my bed soaking up some sun.
     Great view from the bedroom porch.
     On a run in the afternoon.

  • JN Classic Sprint Recap

    What a day!  New England came to play yesterday and took 5 of 6 golds and 12 of 18 possible podiums to tally up an impressive 446 Alaska Cup points.  Our nearest competition right now are the Rocky and Midwest teams – they skied very well yesterday and sit in second and third, respectively with 264 & 262 points.  We’re pretty psyched, but we know that all the other teams are gunning for us, so we’re ready to start fresh on Wednesday with the mass start freestyle races.   
    We had some nice results from the SMS crew today!  Brooke, Paddy, and Austin all took silver medals to lead the team and others on our team skied very well (made A finals, fast prelims, etc.).  I know we’ve got a few who were disappointed to get knocked out in the quarters, but they’re refocusing on the next three races.  Sprint races are tough – things don’t always work out in your favor and you have to make split second choices that might cost you a place, but every time you put on a bib you learn something, so hopefully everyone on our team, whether they were psyched or disappointed with their race, learned something that will help them later this week and for the rest of the season.
    Pictures are a bit scattered – I missed most of the J1/OJ girls racing when I was shuttling J2s back and forth to the hotel, but I think we’ve got some parents who got pictures all day so hopefully we can put those up later this week.   
     J2s started their day with a short jog and some stretching before breakfast.
     Our hotel is pretty nice. šŸ™‚ 
     At the venue they have classroom’s for each team to hang out in between races and heats.  The J2 boys put their boots on and get off their feet before the prelim. 
    It was SUNNY yesterday.  We’re crushing it with putting on sunscreen, but we’ve still got a few people with pink cheeks. 
     View from the start.  The sprint course went straight out and then hung left up a hill and onto a flat plateau.
     J2 girls waxing up training skis before their warm up. 
     Rob Bradlee and Nick Mahood were awesome all day long touching up skis and helping athletes dial in their kick and glide in the stadium.  Justin Beckwith, Tim Caldwell, and Cam MacKugler were in the wax trailer all day long getting skis prepped and Nick Kline skied in circles all day to keep on top of what was working well so our athletes could have fast skis.  MAJOR props to the wax crew!    
     Hamish was pretty psyched to qualify 6th!  He led his teammates, Paddy & Gino, to a 6-7-8 run in the prelim.  Gino and Hamish got knocked out in the quarters, but showed they’ve got the speed.  They’re getting psyched for tomorrow’s racing.  
     Koby and Henry Harmeyer (Mansfield Nordic) before their prelim.
    View from the top of the sprint course.  The course starts in the stadium on the left, heads straight out and then left up a short hill.  It goes across a flat section (where this photo was taken from), drops down under a bridge, up a short steep pitch and then turns left and comes down a nice long downhill (which comes into view on the right side of the photo).  Ski speed definitely was evident all day long by watching racers tuck down this stretch. NE’s wax crew totally dialed our skis and we had lots of our athletes making passes and cruising down this stretch throughout the day.  The course turns left over a bridge and then you’ve got a nice long straight away finish.  
     The J2s went back to the hotel to put their feet up between the prelim and heats.  Before heading back to the venue we decorated the van!
     Start of the men’s OJ A final – look closely: 5 out of the 6 racers were New England guys.  Not too shabby. 
    Paddy skied his way into the A final and took the silver medal – first SMS medal of JNs!  Eli Hoenig from CSU took the gold in a sprint finish to put two New England guys on the podium with Cole Morgan (IM) in third.   Hamish and Gino ended up in 13th and 14th place.  Tyler skied well – strong and snappy the whole way through – but missed the heats by finishing 42nd.  He’s pumped for tomorrow with a course that suits his strengths. : ) 
     Austin Cobb (SMS alum/Middlebury) was one of five New England guys in the A final of the OJ race.  Eric Lustgarten (SLU) skied a really nice race to take the win, with Cobby in second, and prelim winner Nick Michaud from Bates taking bronze.  Silas Talbot (Dartmouth) was 4th and Hans Halvorsen (GMVS) was 6th.
     New England sweep!
     Proud dad Michael Cobb with Austin! 
     Austin and Paddy – double silver medals for SMS!  Pretty sweet.
    J2 girls!  Brooke and Katharine qualified 1st and 7th respectively – awesome!  Above, Brooke cruises into the finish of her quarterfinal with room to spare. 
     J2 boys!  Koby qualified 16th overall and skied smartly in his quarter and semi to advance to the A final, where he was matched up with his two good friends and New England teammates Henry Harmeyer and Ben Hegman.
     The boys skied a great race – Henry took the win, Ben was second over Cully Brown from Rocky (we saw him earlier this winter in Stowe at our Eastern Cups).  Koby was psyched with his 4th place finish!  Congrats to Mansfield Nordic for going 1-2!  Awesome!
      Four NE girls (Brooke, Julia, Zoe, Katharine) were in the A final! 
     Happy teammates at the finish. šŸ™‚  Julia took the win, Brooke was second, Zoe fourth and Katharine fifth.   Impressive racing ladies!  Brooke was second last year in this event and proved once again she’s quite speedy.  This is Katharine’s first year at JNs and I think she surprised herself with a top five result. šŸ™‚
    Henry, Ben and Cully on the podium.
    Brooke, Julia, and Alayna Sonnesyn (MW) on the podium.
    I hope we can round up some pictures of our older girls racing.  I’ll try to snap some in the next few days.  In the J1 race,  Anika and Heather qualified 7th and 8th.  Anika got knocked out in the quarters and ended up 18th and Heather skied through to the A final where she finished 4th.  In the OJ girls race, Rachel and Issy qualified 3rd and 24th.  Rachel made it through to the B final where she took third in her heat to finish 9th overall.  Issy got knocked out in the quarters, but did well enough in her heat, so she improved her placing to take 14th overall.  
    Tomorrow we’ve got mass start freestyle races on the schedule.  J2s do 5k, women do 10k, J1 men do 10k, OJ men do 15k.   Stay tuned for more photos!  

  • I love March!

    Not only is March Championship month, we often have our best skiing of the year and the sun is getting warmer!

    This morning, our group that is here worked on striding technique and then did some classic intervals.
    I have a theory that if you lose one of your senses, the others become stronger. This morning we put the theory to test. Everyone skied no poles with their eyes closed. The goal was to get a better feel for the snow. The outcome was hilarious :).
    Right off the bat, Charlie did his best “drunken sailor” imitation.
    After several tries, everyone improved.

    Nice day eh? 22, blue bird skies (and blue hard wax).
    After the blind no-pole skiing, we got down to business and the group looked good!
    Stay tuned tomorrow! We have skiers racing at the Drammen World Cup, the NCAA Championships and Junior Nationals.
    You can follow the Drammen race here
    You can see the NCAA race at: http://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule
    You can follow Junior National results here
    I love March!

  • Turkey In Retrospect- Bus Rides & the Polat

    This is in retrospect mainly because I was too busy experiencing our ridiculously plush and vacationlike hotel to write a blog. Using the word ā€˜retrospectā€™ may imply that I am ponderously recalling the trip, perhaps coming to some grand and insightful conclusion, but thatā€™s not really the case. Itā€™s really is not a good excuse, but I think that the completely leisurely atmosphere forcibly slumped me on my bed and forbade me productive daily blogging activities. Really, our luxury hotel brought to mind middle eastern stories like Shaharzad, in which men lay about in glorious palaces hearing exotic stories and being fed exotic fruit. I kept waiting for Sadie to feed me a starfruit while I reclined gloriously on my bed, but it never happened. In any case, this is the first part of a U23 Turkey trip rundown.

    For the sake of organizing my Turkey blog series, I think I will break it into four key themes; skiing, town, the bus, and the hotel. Since those are the only places that I spent any amount of time, they deserve the most consideration. The drive from the hotel to the venue was about an hour long, and anywhere that I spent two whole hours each day calls for at least one photo and a small paragraph.

    The buses were exciting from the first hour that we were there. As we drove towards the hotel at 1am, the cargo door of the bus popped open. Only my industrious shoving of my bag into the very top of the compartment had saved us from an expensive explosion; everything was packed so tightly in there that it hadnā€™t really moved. We drove through town in the dark, everyone either sleeping or peeking curiously out the windows. Those of us awake enough to pay attention noticed a curious tendency to ignore red lights and lane markings, but thought nothing of it yet. The next day, we had our first drive to the venue. The bus was late. This became a recurring theme of the trip; the ride was slow, long, and often the bus wasnā€™t there until 10-15min after the planned time. Rolling through Erzurum was fun the first couple of times, we got to see some rundown buildings, a sports store, a university, and large statues of a skier, a two-headed eagle, and a giant hockey goalie:

    We also noticed that the reckless driving of the night before had been no fluke. Cars used their horns more often than their brakes, and any two-lane road automatically became three-lane. Our bus drivers varied, but some were very exciting. One afternoon my bus seemed to use mainly intimidation tactics. If anyone was going too slow in the left lane, he would get within two feet of their bumper and lay on the horn. All while going about 50mph. Everyone got out of the way expediently, to be sure. On another trip, the U23 training bus, made a little detour from the route to the venue. We were assured that it was just because the driver had to make a little stop. We were left for about 10 minutes in an alley way, looking at this store, joking about keeping an eye on our kidneys:

    It turned out to be totally harmless, the driver just needed some chips. At the time though, we felt like we were on another planet. Everyone was looking outside, taking pictures, and definitely not thinking about getting out of the car.

    The positive side of the long and interesting bus rides was a chance to get to know people from other teams. I probably would never have sat down and talked with some of the people that I met on the bus. One of the Austrian coaches didnā€™t speak a whole lot of english, but I know he is a really nice guy because he saw how dirty my glasses were and immediately took them from me and started cleaning. The Aussies, a rowdy bunch of blokes, were fun on the bus as well. It seems that there is a very strong connection between Alaska and Australia, we knew a lot of the same skiers. The Australian wax tech is from the Black Forest in Germany, and knew basically all of the germans that Sadie and I knew from Alaska as well. So many connections!

    Most of the people we met on the bus were also staying in our amazing hotel. If I complain about not getting things done in the hotel, you canā€™t take me too seriously. I am a ridiculously spoiled skier for even thinking about complaining about a place like this:

  • Training this Week

  • Vasaloppet: Insider’s Edition

    One of the coolest ski races in the game has to be Swedish Vasaloppet. The track starts in the village of Salen and ends downtown in the streets of Mora, 90 kilometers away. This ultra-marathon is based on the ski trek Gustav Vasa took in the 16th Century to rally his countrymates to revolt against the Danes who had overtaken and occupied Sweden. Anyways, enough of the history lesson.

    This year saw hard packed, fast tracks, leading to the fastest Vasaloppet times ever. Sweden’s Jorgen Brink took home the men’s crown. He got to drive home in a bright shiny new car as a time-record bonus. Vibeke Skofterud took the women’s crown. She also set a new women’s record. Instead of a new car, Vibeke came back to Norway with a fine bouquet of tulips.

    In related news, the sister of the Duchess of Cambridge – the former Kate Middleton – finished the Vasaloppet ski race in 7 hours and 13 minutes, alongside 15,800 competitors in the bright Swedish sun. Afterwards Pippa Middleton told Swedish tv that the race was “a little tiring.” Pippa, just so you know, you just rose to the top of my cool girls celebrity list. Somewhere Madeleine, the princess of Sweden sheds a tear back in Stockholm.

    The boys of Trondheim (check out powerdudes.com) made quite an appearance at Vasaloppet. Good thing former world sprint champ Johan Kjolstad showed he had the long distance lungs, finishing just 2 seconds behind Mr. Brink for the title, cash and car. When you wear a suit as ugly as this, you better bring yer a-game on raceday.

  • US Junior Nationals ā€“ Day 1 ā€“ Classic Sprint

    Day 1 at the US Junior Nationals in Soldier Hollow – Classic Sprint. Julien was the lone qualifier today as Blackjack got our first taste of American racing this year on a short, hard 1.3k loop. Nick, Peter, and David all narrowly missed qualifying for the heats today, but were right in the mix. Nick […]

  • Junior Nationals Day 1

    Today kicked off the first day of racing here at Junior Nationals. The morning cold gave way to the warm western sun and it was game on !

    Peter about to start his heat

    Leading the way not only for R.N.R but Mid-A were Peter 20th and Tommy 22nd who both qualified for the sprint rounds. They were the only Mid-A skiers who made the heats so the pressure was on.

    Tommy Pre Super Man

    Unfortunately they were not able to make it out of the preliminary rounds and the day was over, it was a great experience for both of them and a good starting point for the rest of the week.

    All in all everyone got out and got after it today and that’s whats important. Taking what is given and learning from your experiences to become better each day !

    Tommy about to start

    Not a bad place to spend your day !


    To see a sweet video of Tommy’s start and end to his day !
    Check it out

    http://youtu.be/almPpBROH-g







  • Hans 6th at Junior Nationals: GMVS qualifies 4

    I haven’t gotten many details on the day, but congratulations go out to the whole team for qualifying, and to Hans for skiing through the heats and racing to 6th place in the country for OJ Boys! More details and hopefully photos to come!

  • BKL Fest

    The two Festival Masterminds: Sue Wemyss & Abby Weissman

    Wow, what a fun time we had at the BKL Festival at Great Glen! The venue was perfect, the snow was great, and we loved the trails. We want to go back! So thanks to everyone (and there are A LOT of you) who have been working for days, weeks, months, and even a year, to put this event together for the families and kids of nordic skiers throughout the northeast.

    On the racing side of things our kids turned in some of their best races of the year…

    Helena & Pip coming in 2nd and 3rd on the first leg of the relay.

    Here are Mackenzie & Helena on the podium, with some very fast company on either side.
    They were very happy to win given the strength of this group of girls!
    And just off the podium were Alex & Pip in 4th place šŸ™‚

    Here’s the 5/6 girls relay podium with some girls who have been skiing with us on Wednesdays: Mehana on the far left (behind the hat) with Emma, and Mae and Lillian on top.

    Here’s Mehana with her medal.

    Scott Mooney on the first leg of relay….

    Russell on the second….

    And they finished 3rd – chalk one up for the “little guys” šŸ™‚

    Sunday we woke to sunny skies. A welcome change from the smattering of everything in the book that was thrown at us on Saturday. Our girls successfully negotiated the graduation ceremony down the big hill.
    I think they’re no longer nervous about the race. The hill they skied down to graduate was steep and lumpy and everyone was watching…..

    Now here was perhaps the most competitive event of the day, the lollipop race. Boy those kids really took it out. I think this may be how we’ve decided to prep our next generation of racers for the European scene. Fast and tight. Lots of body contact…. šŸ™‚

    This was my favorite painted face šŸ™‚
    Peter Graves was our announcer for the weekend!
    And here’s the foxy lady, out of her den, in her element!

    Ok, back to the racing….

    Here’s Pip, bringing it home!

    Mackenzie, getting into it…

    Helena

    Alex

    And Russell

    Nice job all around guys. It’s been a long season with a lot of racing. Lots of ups and downs, and lots of learning and improvement. It’s nice to see it all in action! Bravo!!

    I know you’re a bit tired today, but not as tired as these two šŸ™‚

    Thanks Again!

  • First Update on JO’s results

    Hans Halvorsen set the bar high with a 2nd place in qualifying. He was just under 1.5 seconds out of the win, and will look to ski some awesome heats this afternoon.

    Unofficial results are beaming in over the interwebs, and summit timing shows GMVS skier Hans Halvorsen racing to a second place qualifying time in Soldier Hollow in the classic sprint. Devlin Shea crushed it out there as well, coming across the line as the 19th J1. I think that the last qualifier just crossed the line, so we want to wish those boys good luck in the heats!

    Dev ripping the classic stride at Craftsbury on  the final Eastern Cup weekend.

    Head Coach Justin Beckwith is the head kick wax tech for the New England team, which has continued its strong performances in JO sprint racing with 16 boys qualified unofficial in the Men’s J1/OJ category. Seems like they had some pretty good boards out there!

    Justin probably had the power shades on in the wax cabin in SoHo.

    Stay tuned for more updates as the day progresses. We will keep you posted on MK and Kaitlin’s results when they come through in a little while, and will tell you about heat results as they unfold.

    Great start to the day for GMVS!

  • Driving to Rogla in a Snowstorm

  • Kershaw + Randall World Cup Point Updates

    Let’s check in on where we’re at with Kikkan Randall and Devon Kershaw’s World Cup points situations. First, Kershaw:

    I finally figured out a decently efficient way to track WC points during a season, that requires only a minimal amount of data entry by hand. Cologna’s going to walk away with this one, obviously, but one thing this graph reveals is that that’s largely a function of Northug’s choice of schedule (and subsequent illness). Cologna may have eventually beaten Northug anyway, but they were matching each other pretty evenly up until Northug essentially left the WC circuit for a few weeks.

    Kershaw is probably safe from Hellner, given how the Swede has been skiing of late. Legkov is probably the bigger worry now. As for overtaking Northug, I’d say that Kershaw could certainly overtake him next weekend (especially if Northug skips those races as well). But Kershaw’s two most recent sub-standard sprints probably have made it impossible for him to stay ahead of Northug. At least, assuming Northug doesn’t completely collapse. You never know.

    As for Randall:

    Randall got some lucky breaks this weekend from her opponents with Matveeva just missing the finals and Kowalczyk, well, not winning. Kowalczyk finishing third, not first, makes a huge difference in the point gap between them. With only two more sprints to go, I’m willing to go out on a limb and predict that Kikkan has this locked up.

    Why?

    Well, suppose for a moment that someone pulls a Tonya Harding and Ā Kikkan earns zero points in the remaining races cause she’s home with two broken kneecaps. Matveeva is currently the closest, so her path to winning is the easiest. She’d need to garner 139 points to move past Randall.

    But the final sprint is part of a stage race, and hence is only worth half the points. To get 139 points, Matveeva would have to win in Drammen and finish in the top four in the World Cup Final sprint. If Matveeva does not win in Drammen, it’s over, mathematically speaking.

    Indeed, the gaps to Falla and Kowalczyk are both larger than 150 now, so they can’t overtake her no matter what they do.

    I hope Kikkan knows all this and that it makes her even more aggressive and pumped for the final two races!

     

    Related posts:

    1. <Follow-Up On Kikkan Randall
    2. <Points Necessary For Randall To Podium In The WC Sprint Standings
    3. <Can Devon Kershaw Overtake Petter Northug In The WC Overall?


  • Sunday – Sprint Preview Day

    Yesterday the New England team spent the day testing skis, previewing the sprint course, and getting individualized pre-race workouts in.  As you can see from the photos, it was another gorgeous day – clear blue skies and temps in the upper 30s/low 40s.   The J2s started off the morning with a team jog (above) before breakfast (below).  
     Breakfast buffet at the Zermatt.
    Some of the J2 boys: Jack Elder (Cumberland Nordic), Gavin McEwen & Max LaChance (both CSU).
    The J2 girls at breakfast.
     
    Tyler and Hamish scrapping training skis in the morning.
     That’s teamwork!  Katharine helps Zoe scrape a pair of skis when all the benches are full.
     Wasatch Mountains right behind our hotel.
     Pepa helps skiers wax up their training skis for the day.
     J2 girls head out to preview.
     The J2 boys team with their coach, Cam MacKugler (SMS ’05).
     Koby cruises around the sprint course.
     J2 boys.
     Henry Harmeyer (Mansfield Nordic).
     Katharine.
    That’s all for now – off for the sprints, we’ll post pictures and results later today.  Live results should be available on Summit Timing.    

  • Soldier Hollow

    The BlackJack team just arrived in Soldier Hollow for the U.S. Junior Nationals. The team was out training and trying the course for the classic sprints tomorrow. Photos courtesy of Peter Locke Filed under: Race Updates

  • The Art of Doing Nothing

    As a full time athlete it often feels like you have copious amounts of time on your hands.Ā  (and somehow… no free time at all?)

    You have to fill this void.Ā  You have to find creative ways to do nothing.Ā  So that ONE, your brain wonā€™t turn to mush… and TWO, youā€™ll also actually get those precious hours of rest in that are so important when sports are your job.

    Who knew doing nothing could be so difficult? tedious? and often times unenjoyable?Ā  For me it really did use to be all of those things.Ā  But with some serious practice (yeah ok I have to take all aspects of this full time athlete thing seriously) Iā€™ve gotten alot better at just that… doing nothing.

    When we are not getting ready to go training, traveling to training, training, traveling home from training, showering (yeah even we sweat), eating, afternoon pre training snacking, getting ready for more training, training, showering some more, and of course eating even more… we still find ourselves with hours to fill.Ā  And you see itā€™s especially important to master this skill in the spring and summer… because come winter and racing there is less training (and associated nonsense) to take up your time!Ā  And when a rest week or tapering time comes around and you have not properly prepared… Hello mental breakdown or a rather mean case of little restless leg syndrome!

    So for all of you out there here is a little (somewhat aggressive and mostly complete) list of how to do nothing like a professional amateur by yours truly, Corrine Malcolm.

    Napping.Ā  Master this tool and you are 60% better at doing nothing.Ā  Eat some food, drink some tea, find a dark corner, snuggle up in a warm blanket and pass the heck out.Ā  As athletes we know that resting is when our bodies gets stronger, right? Of course right. Moving on.

    Embrace your artsy-self.Ā  As a person who is not ashamed to rock full body spandex you must not be afraid to well… put it all out there. Ā  Man this should really have itā€™s own section…

    Paint or draw.Ā  I do not care if you are the worldā€™s best doodler or the master of stick figure art, break out that sketch pad or note book and get after it.Ā  (Yes this is also where I start to shamelessly plug team mates and friends) One of my team mates Hannah is quite the painter and when she is on the road traveling for training and racing she makes some pretty incredible art work. Ā Check it out here!

    Strum, Bang, Clang, Toot.Ā  How many times have to talked about learning the guitar or the piano? (ok I know traveling with a piano is unrealistic) Well you know that time between nap time and snack time (man I sound like a kindergardener!) pick up that guitar and strum… strum quietly as to not wake your room/house-mates.Ā  Use that solid 30 minutes of time before you get a hankering for some cereal to learn a handful of chords.Ā  Letā€™s face it…your attention span isnā€™t much longer than that anyway.

    Write. This is my go to.Ā  I have notebooks of notes.Ā  Of half written monologues, poems, and short stories.Ā  Articles, imaginary and real. Pep talks. Conversations I will never have with people… atleast not real people.Ā  Write because those thoughts that are screaming around inside your mind need to go somewhere, and paper wonā€™t talk back.

    Learn. Take a class. Read something really nerdy that you secretly canā€™t get enough of.Ā  I have this odd fascination with nutrition.Ā  With health sciences.Ā  I was recently asked by a friend for a list of books on nutrition that were… ā€œreadableā€ Readable?Ā  Right not everyone can read medical journals and stay awake. Silly me. Secret super nerd.Ā  Ā 

    Get Crafty.Ā  Create.Ā  Build. (rebuild) …what have you. Get your hands dirty.

    Plant. Sew. Knit. Build. Spackle. Grout? Ā  Grow something, basil, mint, whatever…. something that you probably wonā€™t kill.Ā  Get a pet Cactus (name it Jelly Donut). Sew something you wildly domestic freak. Knit a hat…. Or in my case attempt over and over and over again.Ā  I have recently made a series of really horribly awkwardly shaped/sized purple hats…Ā  Try, try again.Ā  Help a team mate or friend with those house renovations that they canā€™t afford to pay outside help to do… because lets face it… youā€™ll work for food.

    Cook some really time intensive things.Ā  Sour dough bread? Apple sauce?Ā  Baked goods that you will shamelessly give away because although you really like to make cookies and pie you really do not want eat a whole batch or an entire pie. (Someone has to ski up hill after all)

    Dream.Ā  I spend a lot of time day dreaming.Ā  Iā€™ve sketched the future garden I want to have some day probably a dozen times. Iā€™ve dreamed about the houses, huts, cabins, yurts, and humble abodes I could see myself living in at some point or another.Ā  Is it weird that Iā€™ve already named farm animals that I may or may not want to have at some point down the road?Ā  (on the ā€˜listā€™ might be two goats named Cornelius and Fergie… I will forgetfully refer to them as my ā€˜kidsā€™) Ā Dream about whatever meal it is you really want to have when you finish that 3 hour rollerski… and then fight your odd craving for Sprite, Sprite? Why?

    Lastly and most importantly… I highly encourage and suggest lying about how much time you might spend fumbling around the confines of the inter-web…

  • Swiss Cup 10/15k Classic Mass Start

    Good day for the Americans here in Feutersoey, Switzerland.  As the men waited for the start command we were able to watch Becca (APU) take the win.  Erik Bjornsen led the day for the US men finishing a strong second place to World Cup veteran Remo Fisher.
    We had 5 road crossings out there today. Some of them were used as the scrub zone for lanes.  This one is coming in to the stadium.

    Women’s Results (sorry I didn’t have the focus dialed in).  Congrats Becca (APU) on the win.

    Men’s Results.  Great race Erik Bjornsen.  Nice to see the Methow on the podium

    Men’s Podium

    Becca with double podiums for the weekend.

    Erik and Peter Kling took the early lead in the race.  Competitive field but perhaps the smallest mass start race I have ever contested.  At 4km Remo took the lead and the pace heated up.    At 5km I fell off the pace and stayed more or less in no man’s land.  Reese caught up to me after a crash with Peter Kling on the first lap and we skied a lap together before I dropped off the pace.  Skiing smooth was important today and as I tired I became a bit choppy.  I am dissapointed with my performance today but excited to see Erik and Becca throw down.  Next race is a 10km Freestyle in Rogla, Slovenia.

  • Blackjack Kootenay Cup & Loppet

    With all them old folks down in Utah for the US Junior Nationals, there were only a couple of us left to attend Black Jack’s own Kootenay cup and Loppet this past weekend. Many of the young Jackrabbits came out though, and made up for the lacking numbers in theolder categories. I only made it […]

  • Sun Valley

    With the US Junior Nationals less than a week away, Team Black Jack spent some time in Sun Valley to acclimatize to the altitude and put in some good quality training. With amazing skiing at Lake Creek, the Sun Valley trails and the route up to Galena, our mission was accomplished. Many thanks to the […]