Category: XCFeeds

The CXC Elite team is currently in Fairbanks, AK getting used to being cold again.  The temperatures were rough when we got here, but 2 degrees felt pretty good today, so we must be acclimating.  Our fingers are crossed for warmer weather by the first race on Tuesday.  I will try to get my camera out soon.  HERE is the event website where you can find the race schedule, results, and lots of other stuff.

The skiers are not the only newcomers adjusting to the cold in Fairbanks right now.  Tonight, I had the chance to meet a unique group of musicians called The Bobs who are performing at the UAF Concert Hall tomorrow afternoon.  Since tomorrow will be a short day of training for us, I am planning on venturing over campus to listen to The Bobs.  Take some time to check them out HERE.

After today’s races, the chase for the overall Crystal Globe have once again been flipped on their head. Both Majdic and Northug had races to forget and those chasing them, namely Kowalczyk and Cologna, proved why they deserve to have a say in the matter. The distances today were shortened from the usual 15km/30km to a more reasonable 10km/20km as this was the second of three races in consecutive days for the athletes at the end of a long season. br /br /span style=”font-weight:bold;”Men/spanbr /br /Today saw the men’s race run before the women’s race, which rarely happens on the World Cup circuit. The race was a very exciting display of talent for the spectators as there were many lead changes. At 7.5km there was a three man break away that had Bauer, Angerer, and Legkov 21 seconds in front of the main chase pack. Vittoz was stuck in no-man’s land with 10 seconds on either side of him but he was able to pull in the leaders by the exchange. br /br /On the skate leg, Bauer was quickly dropped from the group to be replaced by Di Centa and Cologna, and it seemed that Angerer was beginning to loose touch with the leaders. With only 5km to go, Gaillard, Magal, and Angerer regained contact with the leaders to make the lead seven. Only 15 seconds behind the group was a 16 man chase group.br /br /At the top of Morderbacken, Cologna had broken the leaders and only Legkov and Vittoz had managed to hold on. The last 2km, which was mostly downhill, saw some great pieces of skiing from some athletes in the chase group; particularly, Marcus Hellner and Piller-Cotter. The finish saw Cologna gain a 10m gap over the rest while Angerer, Vittoz, Hellner, Piller-Cottrer, and Legkov fought it out for the silver and bronze. br /br /Both Hellner and Piller-Cottrer today had very impressive skate legs. Hellner was 27 seconds behind the lead at 7.5km and Piller Cottrer was 43 seconds behind at the same point. Quite amazing skiing to come back into the lead and finish 2nd and 4th respectively.br /br /

The double pursuits put a gel wrapper in my klister, I’ll tell you what. Who expected either Majdic or Northug to fall so far off the front? Nobody who made predictions for the double pursuits, that’s who. Petra finished 24th, more than a minute down, which ruins her chances to win the overall World Cup title, since she’ll be starting 1:06 behind Kowalczyk in Sunday’s 10k freestyle pursuit.

A

It was undoubtedly the best collective day for the German athletes this year. Claudia Nystad and Axel Teichmann both won today’s prologues. It seems that this has happened before…oh wait, it has, just over three months. The opening leg of the Tour de Ski, both Nystad and Teichmann took top honours in the

Today is the first day of spring.  A time for new beginings and fresh starts.  This spring marks the begining of my new legs, new goals, and new victories.  I am fired up and ready to jump head first into this new year!

I am at my halfway point between surgeries.  My right leg was fixed a week ago, and my left leg is scheduled a week from today.  I am feeling better and better with each day, and I am feeling very confident with my recovery.  And more good news, tomorrow my boyfriend is flying to Minnesota for a visit, and he’ll be here untill Thursday!  I’m excited to spend time with him and show him around the town.

divbr //divdivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: Times; “div style=”border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; width: auto; font: normal normal normal 100%/normal Georgia, serif; text-align: left; “a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/ScAmwAf4BjI/AAAAAAAAAC8/S1GZV4Nv22M/s1600-h/podium.jpg”img src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/ScAmwAf4BjI/AAAAAAAAAC8/S1GZV4Nv22M/s320/podium.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314290166506456626″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 303px; ” //adiv style=”text-align: center; “span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold; “My first NCAA podium. 5k Classic- 3rd place/span/divdiv style=”text-align: center; “span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold; “br //span/diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/ScAmg8CVD-I/AAAAAAAAAC0/8dSvwV9OmGU/s1600-h/n624440321_6298828_516319.jpg”img src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/ScAmg8CVD-I/AAAAAAAAAC0/8dSvwV9OmGU/s320/n624440321_6298828_516319.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314289907610750946″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 238px; ” //adiv style=”text-align: center; “span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold; “University of Alaska Anchorage- Fourth place team/spanbr //divdiv style=”text-align: center; “br //divdiv style=”text-align: center; “span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold; “br //span/divspan class=”Apple-tab-span” style=”white-space: pre; ” /spanI have finally arrived home after what seems to be like traveling home from another country. Maine may be close to the farthest place in the US you can get from Alaska. Regardless of our five hour time change (an extra hour because of daylight savings the first day there), and the long travels UAA was able to post the best team result in history! A successful first day for the woman, and a successful second day for the men put us in first place for the nordic team standings. In college NCAA skiing, alpine and nordic skiing is considered one team. Our alpine team had some unlucky runs, and wasn’t able to pull off races as well as the rest of the season. Even so, UAA came in fourth in the team standings. The best UAA has ever recorded in history is fifth, many years back. It was fun to be a part of it. Our team got a nice huge trophy that everyone enjoyed lugging around town and the airport on the way home. It is fun to race as a team, then you are sharing the excitement afterwards!divspan class=”Apple-tab-span” style=”white-space: pre; ” /spanAs far as my races, I had one really successful race, and one not so successful race. The first day was 5k classic. This is my favorite event, so I had my eyes set on gold. The course was perfect for me. A mellow first couple of kilometers, and then it picked up quickly. With two long steep uphills in the last kilometer and a half, I knew that holding the hard pace at the end was most important. I felt good, and was able to slide across the line making the podium, in third place, 17 seconds out of first. The second day was not nearly as successful. I did a 15k race for the first time ever. The 15k was a mass start, so things were extremely aggressive for the firs 5k lap. I have never been in such an aggressive race, falling two times in the first couple of kilometers. Girls were pushing and shoving, running over each other, even taking each other out. Rather than being crazy, I decided to ski the first lap comfortably and try to come on hard at the end to avoid the crashes and breaking equipment. When the time came to go really hard and catch up, I was too far back to get back on with the front group. I didn’t feel too terrible, but the result was not what I was hoping for. br //divdivspan class=”Apple-tab-span” style=”white-space: pre; ” /spanOverall it was an awesome experience, competing not only for yourself but 11 other members of your college team. Rumford, Maine was an enjoyable place, but I have realized I never want to spend more than 10 days at a time there.br //divdivspan class=”Apple-tab-span” style=”white-space: pre; ” /spanI am now off to Fairbanks for distance Nationals next week. I will be racing in the team sprint, 5k classic, and 15k pursuit. Hopefully Fairbanks warms up a bit…!!/div/div/span/divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2018521813175454198-3616026601386980376?l=sadiebjornsen.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

While one of the four predictors had a pretty good showing with the women’s prologue, no one would say that the co-bloggers and commenters had their finest hour with the men’s prologue. Ain’t none of us the King of Mördarbacken.Petter, pooped, puttered and disappointed everyone except ADS, who put him in fifth, two spots higher than His Sneerness’s final spot. Even beyond putting Northug in first

It seemed like there was a lot more awareness of the Iditarod Trail Invitational this year. I’ve followed the race for the past few years and I don’t remember seeing nearly as many newspaper articles as there were this year. I wanted to make sure I had a copy of this stuff […]

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_swTO9gFuMfs/ScOLPIgeUPI/AAAAAAAAAC0/ia2mFiUFEFs/s1600-h/P1010440.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_swTO9gFuMfs/ScOLPIgeUPI/AAAAAAAAAC0/ia2mFiUFEFs/s400/P1010440.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5315245077325304050″ border=”0″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_swTO9gFuMfs/ScOLOkTo9vI/AAAAAAAAACs/FO-UAqJBA30/s1600-h/j%40+cahmpionship+09+272+%282%29.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_swTO9gFuMfs/ScOLOkTo9vI/AAAAAAAAACs/FO-UAqJBA30/s400/j%40+cahmpionship+09+272+%282%29.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5315245067607799538″ border=”0″ //abr /Last weekend, Devlin, Andrea, and Kaitlin were at the J2 Festival in Holderness, NH. Here are a couple pictures for the weekend. All three of them had great Skate 5km, sprint, and team relay races. Well done!!div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1847564486460994594-1736297990470550736?l=gmvsxc.blogspot.com’//div

img src=”http://20.media.tumblr.com/COiZNt422laan2fe6zzlNtFyo1_500.jpg”/br/br/p“To all the skiers who don’t have the talent, guts or stamina to make it: all is not lost.  You too, can be a wax tech, which is basically the same as being a rock star.”   Randy Gibbs in Liberec with Therese Johaug and Kristin Stormer Steira./p
pBonus random musing: you too would kick ass if you weighed 43 lbs and had “stormer” as part of your name./p

object width=”400″ height=”336″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/hRnlDXGBBbErel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″/paramparam name=”wmode” value=”transparent”/paramparam name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/paramembed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/hRnlDXGBBbErel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”400″ height=”336″ allowFullScreen=”true” wmode=”transparent”/embed/objectbr/br/Probably my favorite classic skier of all time.

Tomorrow will see the first of three back-to-back-to-back races in Falun and the second race in the World Cup finale. The women go 2.5km and the men 3.3km. Last year the finale was held in Bormio, Italy where Piller-Cottrer and Nystad won race with times of

a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3c1Nv5NLyNg/ScKbz0IhwcI/AAAAAAAAAdU/5G_8B7WuZck/s1600-h/not+cali+1.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 296px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3c1Nv5NLyNg/ScKbz0IhwcI/AAAAAAAAAdU/5G_8B7WuZck/s400/not+cali+1.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314981824720650690″ border=”0″ //aNot Trapps today… Weston inspecting snow crystal structure.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3c1Nv5NLyNg/ScKbztBqyFI/AAAAAAAAAdM/D47dLkbrAF4/s1600-h/not+cali2.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3c1Nv5NLyNg/ScKbztBqyFI/AAAAAAAAAdM/D47dLkbrAF4/s400/not+cali2.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314981822812833874″ border=”0″ //aAlso not Trapps today… Sinclair floating through the new stuff in Cali.br /br /br /Most of the racing for the year is wrapping up and we are starting to explore the combination of the words FUN and SKI.br /br /Two of the best downhills at the Trapp Family Lodge are Bobcat and Parizo.br /br /Today we had two time trials. The first, down Bobcat, which has four winding turns and bullet proof tracks, determined the starting order for the second. The second race down Parizo started with reverse pursuit start order.br /br /Junior, Alec McGovern, took top honors after having a slip-up in the Bobcat trial. He ran scared in the second race and held off a hard charging Louis-Etienne Garceau and Devlin Shea.br /br /Conditions were variable, but the kids kept it upright and achieved some great speed through the woods. Smiles were contagious!!div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1847564486460994594-1902841222723485365?l=gmvsxc.blogspot.com’//div

I recently did an interview about Trondheim for SkiTrax’s website with Nathan Schultz. Click the link and read it, if you’re into it.

In attempt to get back on Alaska-time and off east-coast-time I laid down for a nap at 5:30pm thinking when I got up I would be able to keep my eyes open a little later. That “little nap” turned into a 14hrs snooze-fest, where I didn’t wake up until 7:30 the next morning. I guess that’s an even better way of adjusting to a time zone and recovering from a week of 5 races.I feel like my fitness

This is part three of a three part story. Part one is here. Part two is here.
Thursday – Day 5 (continued)
Rohn to Bison Camp – 45 miles (255 miles total)

Because we had all spent a decent amount of time bivied during our trip over the pass, most of us in the lead […]