Methow Valley Nordic Team Classic Campbr /Monday December 29br /9am-3pmbr /Mazama Community Centerbr /br /br /Join Methow Valley Nordic Team coachesbr /Laura McCabe Leslie Hallbr /and their fabulous assistantsbr /for a day of classical technique instructionbr /br /Open to all skiers J3-OJbr /waxable skis only pleasebr /Cost: $10 per skierbr /Bring a bagged lunch, classic skis, cork, water bottle and a great attitudebr /Please return $ and commitment to Hall@methownet.com, MVNT office in Winthrop Vet. or call 996-3320 by 12/23 if possiblediv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/489212310283984495-5852777353186922361?l=methowvalleynordicteam.blogspot.com’//div
Category: XCFeeds
A collection of live feeds from cross-country ski blogs around the web.
-
Kershaw’s Korner: ABSOLUTELY AWFUL – a garbage day here in Davos.
It was a horrendous race today in the distance race, oops I mean sprint here in Davos. It seemed that the epically long feeling 1.7km sprint qualifier was just BAD NEWS.
-
Sunday Training Race Cancelled
The training race scheduled for Sunday, 12/14 has been cancelled due to insufficient snow. -ScottWdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/489212310283984495-864220334687929515?l=methowvalleynordicteam.blogspot.com’//div
-
NCCSEF Calendars
Order your NCCSEF calendars now. Contact Reid Lutter at reid@nccsef.org , or 651.208.9391. They will be ready on December 12th, so place your orders now because they will go fast.
$10 to purchase for club fundraisers, they retail for $20. -
NCCSEF Calendars
Order your NCCSEF calendars now. Contact Reid Lutter at reid@nccsef.org , or 651.208.9391. They will be ready on December 12th, so place your orders now because they will go fast.
$10 to purchase for club fundraisers, they retail for $20. -
NCCSEF Calendars
Order your NCCSEF calendars now. Contact Reid Lutter at reid@nccsef.org , or 651.208.9391. They will be ready on December 12th, so place your orders now because they will go fast.
$10 to purchase for club fundraisers, they retail for $20. -
Colors
Day off after two days of racing. Our first sprint of the season was on Saturday and a 10K skate followed on Sunday. It was great to be racing on a loop again, as West’s out and back classic race and point to point skate race made it difficult to have much terrain change. Our coaches dialed the wax both days and worked their tail ends off helping us out. Canada is into getting things done quickly, which is awesome, especially on sprint days. Saturday’s race was done in an equally efficient manner, sending all 100 dudes out, one every 15 seconds, and then immediately, with no break, all 50 girls out right behind the last boy starter. If having a girl start 15 seconds behind you when you are a junior boy doesn’t get you going, I don’t know what else would. As a coach trying to get splits for his athletes, it was a cluster, but as a skier it was pretty fun. divbr //divdivSilver Star is beautiful and it is always fun to stay in one of the houses on the knoll whose color is one that your mom would never think to paint your own home. Bright yellows, greens, blues, purples, pinks, you name it, and in many cases the trim is an equally exciting shade, making the house look all the more inviting. After all, anyone who lives in a house whose shade is a bright pink, must be one of the more friendly people you will ever meet.divbr /img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 192px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ObMdc4mpVIg/ST2ZxCdjT1I/AAAAAAAAADQ/Y4yyG1-lXTw/s320/Taz.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277543406101548882″ //divdivdiv style=”text-align: center;”Taz Mannix starting off/divdiv style=”text-align: center;”br //divimg style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 192px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ObMdc4mpVIg/ST2ZRiR8fhI/AAAAAAAAAC4/I_ewgh2GULI/s320/Mo.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277542864886988306″ //divdivdiv style=”text-align: center;”Mo hammering/divdiv style=”text-align: center;”br //divimg style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 192px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ObMdc4mpVIg/ST2ZRCXGhkI/AAAAAAAAACw/BXma2h4y3kU/s320/Noah.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277542856318682690″ //divdivdiv style=”text-align: center;”Noah hanging with Frederic Touchette/div img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ObMdc4mpVIg/ST2ZSCx5H9I/AAAAAAAAADA/ptxkzPAHVa0/s320/Liz.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277542873610919890″ //divdivdiv style=”text-align: center;”Coming through the stadium for Lap 2/divdiv style=”text-align: center;”br //divimg style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 192px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ObMdc4mpVIg/ST2ZQzbUJoI/AAAAAAAAACo/OaF4VVFMkag/s320/Weierdo.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277542852309821058″ //divdivdiv style=”text-align: center;”Weirdo skiing with Kristina Strandberg/divdiv style=”text-align: center;”br //divimg style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 192px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ObMdc4mpVIg/ST2ZQYczyPI/AAAAAAAAACg/PtlDTmf-Qmo/s320/Garrott1.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277542845068331250″ //divdivdiv style=”text-align: center;”Kuzzy starting things off/divdiv style=”text-align: center;”br //divdiv style=”text-align: center;”Things are great here, but I have to say, our cheer squad from West was missing in a big way…/divdiv style=”text-align: center;”br //divdiv style=”text-align: center;”br //divdiv /div/div/divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8313858291794282393-1828813295736523344?l=lizhstephen.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div
-
A musical line
We sprinted on Saturday. I spent my entire training session on Friday doing laps around the 1.1k sprint loop. I hate doing laps but at so many of our venues there’s no option for skiing other than a crowded sprint course so I decided I needed to learn to deal with the crowds and the short loops.br /br /This is what I thought about on Friday. I broke the course down, thought about it, and reassembled it. I asked myself, “if this was a line of music, how would I play it?” This isn’t normally how I think about race courses. Music, along with most other skills, is a decided non-talent of mine. The course had a playfulness and a flow to it that made it conducive to my musical analogy. I imagined playing this race course on my oboe. It starts with very simple quarter notes, full of energy because they’re the first notes and you’ve been waiting for ever so long for the oboe solo. The pace picks up briefly to eighth notes around the first broad bend, more interesting certainly, but still legato. Then some slow quarters, but these notes carry more potential. It’s only a few bars, but there’s the option here for some vibrato. how many pulses can you squeeze into each note? How much extra speed can you add with each kick?br /br /Then it starts getting challenging, up the first rolling hill. Now is time for accelerando. The fingering gets tricky and there’s no break in the phrase. You have to use all those little keys running down alongside the oboe. You had better know without thinking where exactly you’re going step, how exactly you’re going to move. Then there’s a breath mark, a short down, a short tuck. Which is good because coming up is a short, steep section. Stacato. Allegro. It’s going to be hard and there’s no room for error because you only get a few seconds of playing before the next breath mark. Then it’s a series of trills around a sharp, fast corner. Played with vivace. Finally it’s straight into the finish and there’s fewer options for technical mistakes but it gets more and more difficult to maintain the proper tone. And then, a finish, a lunge, and the rest of the orchestra takes back over.br /br /This analogy only momentarily got me distracted with trying to remember all the musical terms that I used to know. Thinking about where the breath marks were along the course was helpful. I told myself to take the opportunity to breath and relax. I also focused more on my tempo on the uphills. It’s good to be able to look at a race from more than one perspective.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1749693904245260863-670508159890928011?l=in-the-arena-laura.blogspot.com’//div
