Race of the Methow is coming up February 7th and 8th.br /br /This video is made from footage taken at a previous Race of the Methow. After clicking the link below, click “watch in high quality” to get the best video quality. Enjoy.br /br /
Category: XCFeeds
A collection of live feeds from cross-country ski blogs around the web.
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My First World Cup!
meta equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=utf-8″meta name=”ProgId” content=”Word.Document”meta name=”Generator” content=”Microsoft Word 10″meta name=”Originator” content=”Microsoft Word 10″!–[if gte mso 9]xml w:worddocument w:viewNormal/w:View w:zoom0/w:Zoom w:compatibility w:breakwrappedtables/ w:snaptogridincell/ w:wraptextwithpunct/ w:useasianbreakrules/ /w:Compatibility w:browserlevelMicrosoftInternetExplorer4/w:BrowserLevel /w:WordDocument /xml![endif]–style !– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:””; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} — /style!–[if gte mso 10] style /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”;} /style ![endif]–span style=”font-family:times new roman;”/spanThis past weekend I raced in my first World Cup in Whistler B.C.! Despite a smaller than usual field of racers, the competition was strong and fierce! I raced in the classic sprint on Friday with hopes of qualifying for the rounds with a top-30. Unfortunately, I did not ski anywhere fast enough and saw my name at the bottom of the prelim results.
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br //spanp class=”MsoNormal”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SXeXDT6EOFI/AAAAAAAAAOM/rkvCYEW-cjE/s1600-h/IMG_0096%5B1%5D”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SXeXDT6EOFI/AAAAAAAAAOM/rkvCYEW-cjE/s400/IMG_0096%5B1%5D” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293865970136528978″ border=”0″ //a/p div style=”text-align: center;”span style=”font-style: italic;”span style=”font-size:85%;”Start of classic sprint quarterfinals.
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br //span/span/divp class=”MsoNormal”span style=”;font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;” /span/pIn my mind, I used the classic sprint as a warm-up for the 15k duathlon race on Saturday. A duathlon race is where you ski the first half of the race with classic gear and then you switch to skate gear for the last half of the race. The night before the race I talked to my coach about the duathlon race and he simply told me to ski my own race. He told me not to let my adrenaline push me for the first couple kilometers of the race, but to ski where I felt comfortable. I have to admit I had a lot of adrenaline pumping when I was at the starting line and had to force myself to hold back! I went out with the pack and stuck with the top American skiers throughout the classic portion of the race. At the exchange zone I was the 2nd American, 3 seconds out! I went into the skate leg still feeling pretty good but realizing that I was only half way through the race. The course was lined with spectators and the cheering was loud! It was exciting to hear people cheer my name all over the course. Someone informed me that I was in 30th place…the last place to score world cup points! I knew I had to finish strong in order to hold my position. With less than one kilometer to go, I powered as hard as I could to the finish…just 2 seconds ahead of 31sts! Yay, I scored my first world cup points! I was happy with my result.p class=”MsoNormal”
br //pp class=”MsoNormal”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SXeXfMyb5lI/AAAAAAAAAOU/aCmqCpW5bAY/s1600-h/IMG_0112%5B1%5D”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SXeXfMyb5lI/AAAAAAAAAOU/aCmqCpW5bAY/s400/IMG_0112%5B1%5D” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293866449261815378″ border=”0″ //a/p div style=”text-align: center;”span style=”font-style: italic;”span style=”font-size:85%;”View of men’s sprint relay through the stadium.
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br //span/span/divp class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-size:100%;”/span/pWith the sun blazing and temperatures in the 40’s, I watched the sprint relay on Sunday. The women’s final was very exciting. Sprint partners Kikkan Randall and Liz Stephens, skied to an amazing 4th place finish! The best sprint relay finish by American women! It was very fun to watch!p class=”MsoNormal”span style=””
br //span/pdiv style=”text-align: center;”span style=”” /spana onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SXeXyQLtz6I/AAAAAAAAAOc/CJL4uQ0t47Y/s1600-h/IMG_0103%5B1%5D”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SXeXyQLtz6I/AAAAAAAAAOc/CJL4uQ0t47Y/s400/IMG_0103%5B1%5D” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293866776590667682″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”span style=”font-size:85%;”Crystal clear veiw of Black Tusk.
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br //span/span/divp style=”font-family: times new roman;” class=”MsoNormal”I am back in Sun Valley for a few days before heading to the Midwest for a few SuperTour races next week. In the meantime, I will get in some good training in the sun!
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br /All for now!/p div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5903545846797966075-5734586384970808855?l=in-the-arena-nicole.blogspot.com’//div -
Whistler World Cups
a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ECdHy8vmLAE/SXQrxkFxEQI/AAAAAAAAAO4/L5-25dZ1PxE/s1600-h/mtn.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ECdHy8vmLAE/SXQrxkFxEQI/AAAAAAAAAO4/L5-25dZ1PxE/s320/mtn.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292903592568623362″ //abr /br /We raced this morning at Whistler– a skate team sprint. The format is a two person teams alternating 1.3km laps, three laps each for a total of six laps. br /br /I love being at the World Cups! My favorite part of the course today was the 200m sign. (This was my favorite part of the warm-up, I certainly didn’t have the presence of mind to notice it during the race!) 200 meters to the finish was right before the last turn and marked the separation of the lap lane and the finish lane. Since they kept this part of the stadium fenced off the corduroy here was almost unbroken and wicked fast. The 200m sign was written vertically, like this:br /br /2br /0br /0br /mbr /br /but it was written in a modern, angular font so the two wasn’t very curvy and the sign looked more like this:br /br /Zbr /0br /0br /Mbr /br /which I thought was appropriate signage.br /br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ECdHy8vmLAE/SXQqQrfxxlI/AAAAAAAAAOo/HHBaTA3TTKA/s1600-h/5.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ECdHy8vmLAE/SXQqQrfxxlI/AAAAAAAAAOo/HHBaTA3TTKA/s320/5.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292901928109459026″ /Standing with some of my APU teammates in front of Stony while waiting for a shuttle to where we parked./abr /br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ECdHy8vmLAE/SXQyRilLl5I/AAAAAAAAAPI/j4ksasmPsHU/s1600-h/IMG_3135.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ECdHy8vmLAE/SXQyRilLl5I/AAAAAAAAAPI/j4ksasmPsHU/s320/IMG_3135.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292910738989094802″ /A course marshal raking out the course after the snowmobile drove across./a br /br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ECdHy8vmLAE/SXQyRKQGPFI/AAAAAAAAAPA/TSblF9Khenc/s1600-h/IMG_3129.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ECdHy8vmLAE/SXQyRKQGPFI/AAAAAAAAAPA/TSblF9Khenc/s320/IMG_3129.JPG” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292910732458212434″ /Andy Newell in Friday’s classic sprint./adiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1749693904245260863-4136202909142464726?l=in-the-arena-laura.blogspot.com’//div
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First World Cup
Whistler Pre-Olympic World Cup
Yesterday was my first Cross Country World Cup! The race was a 15K Pursuit at the Whistler Olympic Park where next years 2010 Winter Olympics will be held. Suprisingly very few countries were present to race at the Olympic Venue. With the conclusion of the Tour de Ski, an event modeled after cycling tours like the Tour de France, many athletes were not up to the grueling travel required to compete in the three races here in Canada. Today I raced in the Team Sprint with a former NMU skier Morgan Smyth. Morgan skied great in both of her competitions this week and I had an awesome time skiing with her.
The races were also exciting to watch! There were a few extremely successful finishes by the large North American contingent competing. The highlight of my week was watching and cheering for Kikkan Randall and Liz Stephens who finished 4th in the Team Sprint this morning! A truly inspiring race to watch. There were a lot of other notable finishes from athletes from Sun Valley, APU, and the US Ski Team. I was really excited for fellow ITA member Nicole De Yong who scored her first World Cup points!!!
My races did not go as well as I had hoped. I finished 32 in the 15K and 16th in the Team Sprint. I am feeling a bit drained after many days of travel and a very unpredictable US Nationals in Anchorage, AK. My races were not bad, I was just a little “off” from my usual self, and nowhere is that more obvious then at a World Cup.
I am looking forward to getting back to Minneapolis and catching up with the Youthline Kids. My next adventure is coming up in a few weeks when I head to Liberec, Czech Republic for the 2009 World Championships! I am really excited about qualifying and I am looking forward to another opportunity to test my skills with the best Nordic Skiers in the World.
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First World Cup
Whistler Pre-Olympic World Cup
Yesterday was my first Cross Country World Cup! The race was a 15K Pursuit at the Whistler Olympic Park where next years 2010 Winter Olympics will be held. Suprisingly very few countries were present to race at the Olympic Venue. With the conclusion of the Tour de Ski, an event modeled after cycling tours like the Tour de France, many athletes were not up to the grueling travel required to compete in the three races here in Canada. Today I raced in the Team Sprint with a former NMU skier Morgan Smyth. Morgan skied great in both of her competitions this week and I had an awesome time skiing with her.
The races were also exciting to watch! There were a few extremely successful finishes by the large North American contingent competing. The highlight of my week was watching and cheering for Kikkan Randall and Liz Stephens who finished 4th in the Team Sprint this morning! A truly inspiring race to watch. There were a lot of other notable finishes from athletes from Sun Valley, APU, and the US Ski Team. I was really excited for fellow ITA member Nicole De Yong who scored her first World Cup points!!!
My races did not go as well as I had hoped. I finished 32 in the 15K and 16th in the Team Sprint. I am feeling a bit drained after many days of travel and a very unpredictable US Nationals in Anchorage, AK. My races were not bad, I was just a little “off” from my usual self, and nowhere is that more obvious then at a World Cup.
I am looking forward to getting back to Minneapolis and catching up with the Youthline Kids. My next adventure is coming up in a few weeks when I head to Liberec, Czech Republic for the 2009 World Championships! I am really excited about qualifying and I am looking forward to another opportunity to test my skills with the best Nordic Skiers in the World.
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First World Cup
Whistler Pre-Olympic World Cup
Yesterday was my first Cross Country World Cup! The race was a 15K Pursuit at the Whistler Olympic Park where next years 2010 Winter Olympics will be held. Suprisingly very few countries were present to race at the Olympic Venue. With the conclusion of the Tour de Ski, an event modeled after cycling tours like the Tour de France, many athletes were not up to the grueling travel required to compete in the three races here in Canada. Today I raced in the Team Sprint with a former NMU skier Morgan Smyth. Morgan skied great in both of her competitions this week and I had an awesome time skiing with her.
The races were also exciting to watch! There were a few extremely successful finishes by the large North American contingent competing. The highlight of my week was watching and cheering for Kikkan Randall and Liz Stephens who finished 4th in the Team Sprint this morning! A truly inspiring race to watch. There were a lot of other notable finishes from athletes from Sun Valley, APU, and the US Ski Team. I was really excited for fellow ITA member Nicole De Yong who scored her first World Cup points!!!
My races did not go as well as I had hoped. I finished 32 in the 15K and 16th in the Team Sprint. I am feeling a bit drained after many days of travel and a very unpredictable US Nationals in Anchorage, AK. My races were not bad, I was just a little “off” from my usual self, and nowhere is that more obvious then at a World Cup.
I am looking forward to getting back to Minneapolis and catching up with the Youthline Kids. My next adventure is coming up in a few weeks when I head to Liberec, Czech Republic for the 2009 World Championships! I am really excited about qualifying and I am looking forward to another opportunity to test my skills with the best Nordic Skiers in the World.
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First World Cup
Whistler Pre-Olympic World Cup
Yesterday was my first Cross Country World Cup! The race was a 15K Pursuit at the Whistler Olympic Park where next years 2010 Winter Olympics will be held. Suprisingly very few countries were present to race at the Olympic Venue. With the conclusion of the Tour de Ski, an event modeled after cycling tours like the Tour de France, many athletes were not up to the grueling travel required to compete in the three races here in Canada. Today I raced in the Team Sprint with a former NMU skier Morgan Smyth. Morgan skied great in both of her competitions this week and I had an awesome time skiing with her.
The races were also exciting to watch! There were a few extremely successful finishes by the large North American contingent competing. The highlight of my week was watching and cheering for Kikkan Randall and Liz Stephens who finished 4th in the Team Sprint this morning! A truly inspiring race to watch. There were a lot of other notable finishes from athletes from Sun Valley, APU, and the US Ski Team. I was really excited for fellow ITA member Nicole De Yong who scored her first World Cup points!!!
My races did not go as well as I had hoped. I finished 32 in the 15K and 16th in the Team Sprint. I am feeling a bit drained after many days of travel and a very unpredictable US Nationals in Anchorage, AK. My races were not bad, I was just a little “off” from my usual self, and nowhere is that more obvious then at a World Cup.
I am looking forward to getting back to Minneapolis and catching up with the Youthline Kids. My next adventure is coming up in a few weeks when I head to Liberec, Czech Republic for the 2009 World Championships! I am really excited about qualifying and I am looking forward to another opportunity to test my skills with the best Nordic Skiers in the World.
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First World Cup
Whistler Pre-Olympic World Cup
Yesterday was my first Cross Country World Cup! The race was a 15K Pursuit at the Whistler Olympic Park where next years 2010 Winter Olympics will be held. Suprisingly very few countries were present to race at the Olympic Venue. With the conclusion of the Tour de Ski, an event modeled after cycling tours like the Tour de France, many athletes were not up to the grueling travel required to compete in the three races here in Canada. Today I raced in the Team Sprint with a former NMU skier Morgan Smyth. Morgan skied great in both of her competitions this week and I had an awesome time skiing with her.
The races were also exciting to watch! There were a few extremely successful finishes by the large North American contingent competing. The highlight of my week was watching and cheering for Kikkan Randall and Liz Stephens who finished 4th in the Team Sprint this morning! A truly inspiring race to watch. There were a lot of other notable finishes from athletes from Sun Valley, APU, and the US Ski Team. I was really excited for fellow ITA member Nicole De Yong who scored her first World Cup points!!!
My races did not go as well as I had hoped. I finished 32 in the 15K and 16th in the Team Sprint. I am feeling a bit drained after many days of travel and a very unpredictable US Nationals in Anchorage, AK. My races were not bad, I was just a little “off” from my usual self, and nowhere is that more obvious then at a World Cup.
I am looking forward to getting back to Minneapolis and catching up with the Youthline Kids. My next adventure is coming up in a few weeks when I head to Liberec, Czech Republic for the 2009 World Championships! I am really excited about qualifying and I am looking forward to another opportunity to test my skills with the best Nordic Skiers in the World.
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HOME
div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PPMeqZXka1Y/SXIpRtYDcZI/AAAAAAAAAgk/kGMC6J4MG-s/s1600-h/IMG_0385.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 340px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PPMeqZXka1Y/SXIpRtYDcZI/AAAAAAAAAgk/kGMC6J4MG-s/s400/IMG_0385.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292337896328753554″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-size:85%;”span style=”font-style: italic;”cruising around Billy’s Bridge, north of Ketchum, IDbr /br //span/spandiv style=”text-align: left;”span style=”font-size:85%;”span style=”font-size:100%;”I am home, recovering and training. Things are progressing and the weather is perfect. Blah, blah, blah. The real news is up north, Whistler Olympic Park where the rest of my team is competing in the World Cups.br /br /Yesterday was a classic individual sprint and COLIN WAS 27th!!! and scored his first WC points. Way to go Col!!!
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5th Place! Finally!
A quick picture before the flower ceremony
After three years of working towards a top-five result in the relay, we finally reached that goal on Thursday night, here in Ruhpolding, Germany. It was an awesome feeling to be a part of the best relay finish in recent history for the U.S. Like I said, the relay has been a main focus since we placed 9th at the Olympics in Torino in 2006. At that point, people finally started to realize that we had a legitimate chance of medalling at the next Olympics… provided we made the right improvements. I big part of that journey involves taking the right steps along the way.
17,000 fans!
We took the right steps but, for the past couple of years, we couldn’t quite get everything to click in the relay events. Individually, we all made big steps and broke into the top of the pack on several occasions. But it wasn’t until this Thursday that we proved – to ourselves and everyone else – that we were a legitimate medal contender. Jeremy, our fourth leg, finished within 24 seconds of the bronze. In a race that takes around one hour to complete, that is a tiny sliver of time.
As much as this took a lot of hard training and preparation, I have to say that we have a lot of people to thank for helping us make this step. Per Nilsson (head coach), Bernd Eisenbichler (Team Manager), and Andi Elmslander (Head Was Technician) have been at the center of this process for the last three years and their guidance has been a huge factor in the U.S. team’s recent success. Everyone on the staff deserves a write-up but I’m afraid that would take all night. Suffice it to say that we have one of the hardest working teams on the world cup and their enthusiasm is a huge motivation for all of us (athletes).
Best,
Lowell
