Category: XCFeeds
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Pipeline
Yesterday’s ski with half the Comp Team was everything that a spring ski should be. Sunshine, fast conditions, adventure, jumps. April skiing is NOT about logging hours or kms, it’s not about x repeats of y minutes at Level z. It’s about going out and enjoying the conditions, and having so much fun you don’t even realize the bonus training you’re getting in. As much as training is structured through the dryland and race season, now it’s about anything but structure – it’s natural, relaxed, free-flowing and impulsive… Whatever it takes to keep you out there.
A slice of pie at the end of the day is pretty sweet too.
Heading out…
Maddie
MEGAN
Claire
Jordan and Kelsey over Fox
Kipper
James
Claire at a slant
The Kicker. Stefan (2nd from left) is about 5 seconds away from having his head nearly clipped by Jordan. (Lesson learned, boys.)
Stef with the equipment carnage from his bailout during the near miss
Kelsey: airborne
Megan
Group shot (sans James – photographer error)
The first steep climb on the way back to the cars
Momentary pause before bombing a downhill (with a taste of the interior in the background)
Heather contemplates the workings of her car alarm
Apparently it's okay to put pie in your sister's eye: post-ski refuel at Top of the Hill Truckstop.
A different – yet related – type of pipeline.
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Even More Dope
I wasn’t exactly making a brave, unconventional statement when I said – to some controversy – that Veepalu’s gold at Liberec was suspicious. Now the Estonian’s name has come up in connection with the growing Humanplasma scandal that’s so far involved the circle of cyclists and triathletes around the coaches Stefan Matschiner and Walter Mayer.While Veerpalu’s penchant for altitude training is well
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Spring Training
So I think I will declare the 08-09 ski season officially over (even if Dave still has a race on the schedule and it’s supposed to snow this weekend). This means that I am doing a lot of running (I did marry a marathoner, for better or for worse). I am trying to do as much on the trails as I can, since they are much kinder to my joints (I am only 26, but ouch I feel old), but a lot of my running has been on the roads. I have a half marathon in 2 weeks in St. Cloud and I am trying to get in reasonable shape. This afternoon I did threshold with Nichole. I did 5.5 miles of her 7 mile threshold at 6:20 pace, and my legs hurt. This week has been my biggest so far this year, with a 14 miler on Sunday (with a 30 min double-pole rollerski afterwards), Mon was off, 45min on the bike on Tuesday, 9 miles on Wed, 7 miles on Thurs, and 7 miles today. I do feel like I am starting to round into running shape (although that still does not mean I will be fast), but my legs are quite sore. My big goal for the summer is the vacation that Nichole and I have planned for August (that’s right, I have to train for the vacations that Nichole and I take). Our plan is to drive up to Calgary and then hike to the Haig glacier for a day or two of on snow skiing, and then we will run the Moose Mountain Marathon (the one in Calgary, not the one in MN). It should be a ton of fun, but I need to get my butt in shape to survive it! Wish me luck!!div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1572647974447867713-7981046820802329139?l=vakavaraceteam.blogspot.com’//div
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Johnny Klister 2009-04-03 16:20:00
img src=”http://6.media.tumblr.com/COiZNt422lummwe1qCSXVZe7o1_r1_500.jpg”/br/br/bbr//b
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“They paid no attention to women,” Di Centa said in a 1994 Sports Illustrated interview. “We skied,…”
““They paid no attention to women,” Di Centa said in a 1994 Sportsbr/
Illustrated interview. “We skied, but we were taught nothing. Thebr/
world of cross-country skiing used unnatural systems-yes, blood dopingbr/
[then legal] went on. I didn’t agree with these things so I quit.””br/br/ – em Di Centa (In case you didn’t know, blood doping was LEGAL until 1986. WTF.)/em -
New Blog Location!
It has been great having the Vakava Race Team provide race reports this past year, but one of the drawbacks of hosting on the FinnSisu website is that there was no good way to have people comment on a report, and it often took a little while for a report to make it up on the site. At this new location we should be able to handle both! So here we go!!div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1572647974447867713-421790674351675057?l=vakavaraceteam.blogspot.com’//div
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its not easy
This is the second spring in a row that I’ve had major surgery on both of my legs. Its not my idea of a good time… in fact, its extremely painful. It hurts physically. Moving in the wrong direction and a lightening bolt of pain will shoot up my leg all the way to my ears, I wake up in the middle of the night because it feels like someone is sawing my leg off, and if I stand just a moment too long a painful throbbing will take over. It hurts mentally also. I am not the kind of person that is content watching tv all day. I love to be active and outdoors pushing my body to its limits. I love feeling strong, fast, and powerful, because it makes me feel so alive and in the moment. But all I can do is limp slowly from point A to point B then sit there with my legs propped up on some pillows. Its not easy.
But I didn’t expect it to be easy when I made the decision to chase my dream of being an Olympic ski racer. In fact, I didn’t WANT it to be easy, I knew it was going to be hard. These surgeries are a part of the journey. They are just a very tough stretch of road on the way to becoming the best that I can be, and you can bet your first born that I’m not going to do a U turn and head back. I’m going to keep going on, so buckle up! Its going to be a rough ride for a while, but I can see where the road is headed… and I want to go there.
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Inge Bråten to Canada + Smigun Comeback?
Good day to you all, I hope everyone’s have a great spring. The snow is melting rapidly but the trails are still very skiing where I’m from. The news wires have become increasingly quieter this past week. All national championships are now wrapped up and the “rest” month is officially in full swing.
The biggest news recently which just broke as soon as I started writing this blog post is that the famous Inge Bråten is now Canada’s national team trainer after Arild Monson was released from his duties after a difference of “training philosophies” compared to those of CCC’s (Cross Country Canada’s) High Performance Director and key staff.
Last blog I mentioned that Bråten could be back in the Swedish fold after Svan’s resignation, but it appears that he opted for more interesting challenge. For those of you who don’t know who Inge Bråten is, he’s was the coach in charge of Dæhlie and Ulvang from 1990-1994 and for the Swedish team from 2005-2007, including their great successes in the 2006 Olympic Games in Torino. Currently, he is also the “mental coach” for Justyna Kowalczyk.
In the article link, it metions how Bråten has had good communication with Dave Wood (the current Canadian team head coach) in the past. Hopefully, he can take over and continue on the good work that Monsen started; a catalyst to ignite the Olympic flame within the Canadian team.
Personally, I’m quite excited about the news as Bråten has been a very successful coach in the past; his coaching credentials are something to behold. When he was with Norway, his team won 17 Olympic and World Championship medals; an impressive tally even for a talent rich country such as Norway. Hopefully, he prior relationship with Dave Wood can only grow strong and this can carry forward as Bråten takes up his position in a quest to bring Olympic medals to Canada’s
cross country ski team.In some other intriguing news, Kristina Smigun is attempting a comeback after taking the 2007-2008 season off for pregnancy before retiring at the start of this year. My Estonian correspondent Lauri, says that she’s currently training 3.5 hours a day in Otepää and will be increasing the volume load as the dry land season continues into the summer. In September, she’ll make a final decision if she is going to actually return; citing that she doesn’t want to make a comeback if she is going to only be a mediocre skier. She goes on to say, she wants medals if she goes to Vancouver, anything outside the top 10 will not be acceptable. To read the full article, you can find it here.
Great news, hopefully she doesn’t pull a Tchepalova and fall flat after taking a couple years off, I wish her the best of luck in her attempt to regain the form we all saw in the 2006-2007 season as she barely missed the World Cup overall title.
Lastly, it seems the FIS is going trigger-happy with all the new events that they are going to add into the World Cup season mix. The newest proposition is a “mini-tour” at the beginning of the season. It will be three races that will all take place in Kuusamo, Finland. A World Cup stop that sees races pre-Christmas almost every year as it is.
Til Next Time.
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Inge Bråten to Canada + Smigun Comeback?
Good day to you all, I hope everyone’s have a great spring. The snow is melting rapidly but the trails are still very skiing where I’m from. The news wires have become increasingly quieter this past week. All national championships are now wrapped up and the “rest” month is officially in full swing.br /br /The biggest news recently which just broke as soon as I started writing this blog post is that the famous Inge Bråten is now
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Spring Break
div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pZgXW6b1QMk/SdU8JoEm2jI/AAAAAAAAAAc/py3X6O7TIZk/s1600-h/100_1841.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pZgXW6b1QMk/SdU8JoEm2jI/AAAAAAAAAAc/py3X6O7TIZk/s320/100_1841.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320224670881339954″ border=”0″ /Callaghan Valley, Canada/abr //divIt’s spring break and the snow in the Methow has almost come to end. After Junior Olympics I took two weeks completely off. It’s one of the longest and worst times of the year. It’s the time when you’re most pumped up and it’s beautiful outside, but you’re not supposed to train or think about skiing. After those two weeks, I decided to take a trip to Vancouver to ski at the Callaghan Valley 2010 Olympic venue. I’m staying with my friends Jim and Sharon Bishop. I left Mazama on Monday, so my first chance to ski at Callaghan was Tuesday morning. It’s about an hour and a half from the Bishop’s house to Callaghan. It’s quite a hectic drive because the whole road is under construction, getting ready for the Olympics next year. The weather the first day couldn’t have been better. It was sunny with about a half foot of fresh snow. As soon as I got there I was so excited to put my skis on and get going!. I had skied over to the stadium and set some clothes down whenI noticed there was another ski team nearby, so I skied over to check it out. It was the Norwegian National Team! I couldn’t believe it! Right there was Petter Northug, the fastest cross country skier and a personal hero. After stopping to get a couple of pictures I skied off and did the Olympic courses. I spent about an hour skiing around enjoying myself, stopping every couple of minutes to soak in the beautiful views and the perfect trails. I also ran into a couple other famous skiers, including Dario Cologna, the overall World Cup winner this year from Switzerland. With all of these top athletes here and the great conditions, I’m very glad I came. It’s been great to check out the Olympic venue, and the Bishops have been so generous with their hospitality. Sometimes all it takes is to get some skis in to have a great spring break.br /br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pZgXW6b1QMk/SdU3rC91CvI/AAAAAAAAAAM/MmE8ieELgMM/s1600-h/100_1811.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 428px; height: 321px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pZgXW6b1QMk/SdU3rC91CvI/AAAAAAAAAAM/MmE8ieELgMM/s320/100_1811.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320219747478211314″ border=”0″ //aThe view from the parking lot.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pZgXW6b1QMk/SdU54m7CdCI/AAAAAAAAAAU/U0XKok5w9Ac/s1600-h/100_1812.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pZgXW6b1QMk/SdU54m7CdCI/AAAAAAAAAAU/U0XKok5w9Ac/s320/100_1812.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320222179491738658″ border=”0″ //aThe Lodge.a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_pZgXW6b1QMk/SdU9DdkFupI/AAAAAAAAAAk/lmc7ZTNQ9Xw/s1600-h/m1F18.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 302px; height: 320px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_pZgXW6b1QMk/SdU9DdkFupI/AAAAAAAAAAk/lmc7ZTNQ9Xw/s320/m1F18.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320225664493009554″ border=”0″ //aPetter Northugbr //divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2910103639238326543-2201700426430430682?l=methowolympicdevelopment.blogspot.com’//div
![Heading out...](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03780.jpg" "dsc03780")
![Maddie](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03782.jpg" "dsc03782")
![MEGAN](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03783.jpg" "dsc03783")
![Claire](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03785.jpg" "dsc03785")
![Jordan and Kelsey over Fox](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03795.jpg" "dsc03795")
![Kipper](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03798.jpg" "dsc03798")
![James](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03800.jpg" "dsc03800")
![Claire at a slant](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03803.jpg" "dsc03803")
![The Kicker. Stefan (2nd from left) is about 5 seconds away from having his head nearly clipped by Jordan.](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03804.jpg" "dsc03804")
![Stef with the equipment carnage from his bailout after the near miss](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03806.jpg" "dsc03806")
![Kelsey: airborne](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03808.jpg" "dsc03808")
![Megan](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03811.jpg" "dsc03811")
![Group shot (sans James - photographer error)](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03823.jpg" "dsc03823")
![Steep climb (#1) on the way back to the cars](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03832.jpg" "dsc03832")
![Momentary pause before bombing a downhill (A taste of the interior in the background)](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03837.jpg" "dsc03837")
![Heather contemplates the workings of her car alarm](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03839.jpg" "dsc03839")
![Apparently it's okay to put pie in your sister's eye: post-ski refuel at Top of the Hill Truckstop.](http://fairbankscrosscountry.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dsc03843.jpg" "dsc03843")
