Category: XCFeeds

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

Classic Intervals from Hill Week

Here is some quick footage from last week’s classic intervals at Mount Will. It was a hard, but controlled, effort. Everyone focused on maintaining a consistent speed throughout the interval session. Tara Humphries from Burke Mountain Academy also joined us. It’s always good to have different up and coming skiers out there to push Sadie during intervals. Testing week is coming this week, then exams, then Thanksgiving camp! Snow is flying at Sunday River; ski season is almost here!

Classic Intervals from Gould Nordic on Vimeo.

We worked on pacing yesterday at the Lobster Roll too. A post on our day spent out at North Haven Island will be coming shortly.

November 5, 2012
Speed Work and Tennis

This morning I did a classic roller ski speed (10-15 seconds as fast as possible) session with my Team Homegrown teammates. At the uphill station, I played around with gliding versus running on skis. At the double pole station I worked on “grabbing more ground” with my poles (planting my poles further forward) so that I can have more to pull on. I also worked on whipping my hands through quickly. Here’s the video from the session:

This afternoon I played tennis with my strength coach Alex Moore, Eliza Outtrim (the 8th ranked mogul skier in the world), and Eliza’s boyfriend. We played three sets, each time with a different partner. The only set I won was the one I played with Alex:

Alex is here with the US Men’s Alpine Tech Team. They have four athletes, two coaches, a physical therapist, a chef, and Alex here for the camp. I am a little bit jealous of their financial resources. Plus they are on-snow on Vail Mountain:

I was hoping (because Vail Resorts said they would try) to be on a 1 kilometer man-made loop at the base of the Alpine hill. However, it hasn’t been very cold here at night and Alpine comes first for snow-making.

After tennis I went for a one hour skate roller ski by myself. Because of a late start and daylight savings time I was out in the dark. This evening I had a delicious dinner with some of my teammates at our coach Dan Weiland’s house. Thanks mostly to Dan’s incredible wife Carmen for the food.

November 5, 2012
Greystone Double Pole Test; Training 11/5 – 11/18
This morning we did our second double-pole test of the year up Greystone Rd in Richmond. It was cold, damp, and breezy with the temp around 39˚. We last did this test in August (9th and 15th) on two days that were both beautiful, sunny, and 70-80˚. The course is a steep climb for about 600m. We do this test a few times each year to track individual progres over time. Because rollerski speeds vary so much, it isn’t useful to compare times against other athletes. This morning it was much colder than all of our previous attempts (summer and last fall), which makes getting the poles to grip a bit more difficult. Results are below.

I scheduled training for this Tuesday/Thursday at Round Church. We will do our best to mitigate the effects of darkness and get a good workout. As such, bring headlamps and taillights and any reflective stuff that you own!
Training 11/5 – 11/11: “Volume Week”. Note a longer workout on Sunday.
- Tuesday 11/6: 4pm at Round Church. Skate + specific strength ~~and strength test~~.
- Thursday 11/8: 4pm at Round Church. Classic + long L3 intervals (intervals may get moved to Sunday).
- Sunday 11/11: 9-11:30am at Mud Pond (Williston). Long classic rollerski. Be prepared with food/fluids.
Training 11/12 – 11/18: “Speed Week”.
- Tuesday 11/13: 4pm at TBD. Skate + speed and power (strength).
- Thursday 11/15: 4pm at TBD. Classic sprint time-trial if possible.
- Sunday 11/18: 9-11am at TBD (possibly Bear Trap Rd in Milton). Classic rollerski + time-trial.
Greystone Double Pole Test Results, 11/4/12. Cold – 38˚.

Name, Time, (Summer 2012 and PR from Fall 2011 if applicable)
- Forrest Hamilton, 2:41 (2:41, 3:05)
- Ben Hegman, 2:52 (2:49, 3:29)
- Henry Harmeyer, 2:53 (2:51, 3:14)
- Bill Harmeyer, 3:01 (3:02, 4:25)
- Sam Longenbach, 3:07 (3:15, 3:35)
- Parker Francis, 3:17 (2:59, 3:48)
- Emmett Peterson, 3:19 (3:53)
- Nathanael Kuzio, 3:21 (3:18, 4:00)
- Ethan John, 3:28 (3:29, 4:03)
- Murray Banks, 3:48
- Melissa Manning, 3:49 *** new womens’ record (previous 3:56)
- Amy Bruce, 4:07 (4:58)
- Will Solow, 4:09 (4:35)
- Cally Braun, 4:12 (4:09)
- Rachel Slimovitch, 5:51
- Charlie Cobb, 5:51
November 4, 2012
That Essence Rare

Something happens when you get dialed in. The field of vision funnels into the immediate. The repitition of deep inhales and exhale drown out all other sound. Instead of heading down a path you now are in it. No, that’s not quite right. It’s more than that. You become part of it, connected. Passersby, the scenery, that smell you loved that morning after the night’s rain, it might as well not be there. Because now it’s nothing more than cardboard cutouts tipping over as you roll by.

Motorcyclists tell me they reach this state on the the long runs when the sun’s since set and the cops have all gone to bed. It’s here where they open up the throttle north of ninety miles an hour and the engine’s headers drown out all the sound. The engine’s vibration matches the heart’s rate. It’s here – this rush of the calm that comes with the absorption of action that fuels the journey.

Maybe this is it. Maybe this is why I’m still at it – why we’re all still at it. Maybe what we’re all searching for is this feeling of the long run, or of clicking into the skis at the startgate and just feeling so dialed in.

To hold onto these moments, maybe that is the day’s lesson. To find those days when you’re not just traveling along a road, but in it. It’s like those kodachrome conversations you share with your best friends, where words reflect from one to another into shared expression. Seek moments like these out; there’s not so many of them. So appreciate them. Run to them. And don’t look back.

There’s a saying – that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I don’t believe that. Anger or envy or anything else like this cannot sustain you. I think the things that try to hold you back harden you with anger and sadness.

No, strength comes from the good things. It’s those perfect moments with your family and with your friends, and those times where you find the satisfaction of hard work and a job well done. These are the things to hold onto. It’s for these moments we incur the tenderest of debts and deepen the well of our strength.

November 4, 2012
SMS Girls Soccer Finishes Strong Season

Our girls soccer team wrapped up a great season last week with a tough quarter final loss to Springfield (eventual 2nd place finishers). The girls compiled a 5-2-1 record in the regular season before beating Woodstock in the first round of the State Division 2 playoffs and then falling to Springfield.

Here is a picture of the girls after their thrilling shoot out victory over Woodstock. The game was well played by both sides and had to go to sudden death overtime AND two sets of penalty kicks before SMS prevailed.
Congratulations to the entire team and to our “soccer/nordies”: Brooke, Ana and Alex! Brooke ended the year as the teams top goal scorer and Ana was a co-MVP for the offense!
Good job girls!

November 4, 2012
Long Day

It’s been a long day. I started this morning at 8 with a three hour classic ski with my Team Homegrown teammates. Here’s the group after the ski:

Here’s my teammate Sylvan Ellefson:

I drove directly from the ski to Aspen where I had lunch with my parents. This evening was the Rocky Mountain Nordic Angel fundraiser in Aspen. After lunch I worked on the silent auction bid sheets with my dad for a couple of hours. The fundraiser itself was a great success with several hundred (that’s a total guess) people coming to support us. It was both inspirational and overwhelming. After another hour and a half of driving I made it back to Vail at 11 P.M. I am exhausted from several hours of standing on my feet and talking. Audrey Mangan of Fasterskier.com drove from Vail to Aspen and back with me to attend the fundraiser. After spending the whole afternoon talking to friends and supporters, it is a little tiring to talk to a reporter all the way home.

November 4, 2012
The Fun Factor – Ideas on Creating a Space where Adolescent Cross Country Ski Racers Work Hard and have Fun

If there is one thing that can dial kids in to a program its the fun factor. Fun is important – but the reality is though, that being a good ski racer requires lots of hard work. For early adolescents finding the right mix of fun and work is important to creating a space where kids keep coming back for more.

Having spent 20+ years working at residential summer camps for kids as a counsellor and camp director, on some days I think I might have a bit of a gut feeling about what fun looks like for a group of kids. Summer camp is a fun factory – it’s product is joy. Nailing down exactly what fun looks like and feels like is a fine art. At summer camp, this art is mastered by 19 year olds who lead the program as camp counsellors. Camp Counsellors work really hard to create fun – the reality is though that their role isn’t always the highest valued role by society (these kids earn peanuts for wages), but paradoxically their work is highly valued by the kids who work with them. For many reasons, many summer camps have got it together in creating fun. Knowing just the right amount of leadership to provide – allowing for plenty of choices – and understanding the need for challenge, camaraderie laughter, and self direction – if you’ve been to a good summer camp, you’ll know exactly what I am talking about. Anyone can do this though – a big part of the equation is just being able to join in on it all – modelling what you’re looking for and reinforcing the right kind of energy.

In the NCCP coaching materials there is a piece of research shared that asks kids what is important to them when participating in a sport – the top response is ‘sport needs to be fun’ – and for kids who have stopped participating in sport who were asked what would it take to get you back involved – again the top response was ‘I’d join in again if it was fun’. I’m sure you will agree that this stuff is worth giving some attention to and as I’m certain many of you already do – adding a bit of ‘creating some fun’ into your skill set when working with youth. In some ways, working with early adolescents is the world of the middle school teacher – knowing how to relate to adolescents – adolescents who for all accounts become a different species for a few years. Great middle school teachers know how to use humour, build relationships that leverage engagement, and keep things pretty light hearted. Great coaches know how to do this as well. I know a number of them personally. When you see this work in action – you know something special is going on – kids stick around, get excited about ski racing – the reality is that cross country ski racing is not the easiest sport in the world – so when you’ve got something good cooking, it is often because you’ve thought of the recipe beforehand. I am so lucky to have been in spaces where this has happened – and where it is happening.

So if fun is so important what does it look like? Fun is a great energy, focused on something positive, often without a very important outcome attached, and in the arena of adolescent sport, generated and sustained by kids. Adults are great a creating fun as well – but sometimes we have a harder time with it because we’ve got so many other things to take care of – (fun for us often includes a few of the right kind of beverage). Nurturing the care free state of childhood for kids is a gift – a gift that lasts for a few years. Games are fun – but fun is bigger than a backpocket full of games – fun is an energy that is created.

I recently got a text from my program director, saying that his daughter who is in the T2T group I am coaching, got in the car after practice saying ‘that was the hardest and most fun workout I have ever been to’. Of course its nice to get these sort of texts – especially when they come from the guy who supervises your work – but thinking back on the practice session – it really wasn’t particularly hard to pull together or require lots of planning and coordination. What we did – and I do think it came off pretty well – was do an ‘amazing race’ style of running workout – kids got a map – ran from one station to another (over several kilometers) – got to choose between ‘running around the lake’ or doing ‘200 push ups’ – then run on to the next station where they had equally as fun activities to choose from. It was a race of course (it was a day when I had wanted to do some speed work) with everyone getting some gummy prizes at the end – the higher the finish, the more gummy treats. Because I knew that the kids would be fired up about seeing their names on zone 4, I even posted some results there http://zone4.ca/results.asp?id=5099 – our T2T group loved the workout.

Our role as coaches is bigger than creating some fun though. I might argue that kids can get that somewhere else – they can go to summer camp, they can get it at middle school, they can get it in their cul-de-sacs or in the forest behind their house on a unicycle. For me, coaching cross country skiing is about hooking kids on a great sport – helping them develop the technical skills and physical fitness to perform in a way they’re happy with. For me, that is the primary outcome I strive for in my coaching – to build the engine – the engine is made up of pieces like the carburator and the pistons and the crankshaft that form the structure and mechanical engineering of the vehicle – they’re what makes the engine run. I like to think that there is another important piece, I think of fun as the oil – the lubricant that makes the pieces of engine work well together. When the engine is running well, adolescents are ready to learn how to drive. I know its a little out there but I’ll tell you, kids can feel it – I know this because they are smiling, laughing, talking, being silly and responding when they need to switch gears.

What is important to coaches is evident to the kids that they coach. Adolescents know if their coach sees them as someone who has great potential, or if their coaches think someone else in their training group has great potential. All of this might be pretty irrelevant to a coach who is strictly performance driven. Don’t get me wrong – I think performance is incredibly important – it is important to each and every young skier. Every kid in a Train to Train program wants to improve, has a dream of finishing on the podium, of getting there, of doing it themselves. Great coaches leverage this, for the top performers, and also for every young skier they work with.

So if you’re like me, and you’re interested in helping as many kids as possible to reach their potential as athletes, if you’re interested in trying to keep kids engaged – then thinking about the fun-work balance is an important piece in the puzzle.

November 4, 2012
Sr. Nationals Week Opens With Classic Sprint Race

We started our “Nationals Week” with a classic sprint race this afternoon. Everyone skied a prelim and 3 heats on an uphill course at Ball Mtn. Dam. We started at the dam, came up the hill, did a short loop through the parking lot and then continued up over the top of the hill, finishing with a gradual downhill.

Tyler tries to hold off Koby. He couldn’t do it in the prelim. Here are the boys times:
Skyler 3:09
Paddy 3:27
Koby 3:28
Hamish 3:29
Gino 3:41
Tyler 3:54
Adam 4:04
Scott 4:24
Russell 4:24

Russell looks good with Adam W chasing.

Ana has been fighting a cold so she just skied the prelim.

Sophie gets advice from Gus and Matt. Her plan….double pole the whole thing.
Here are the girls results:
Sophie 3:53
Katharine 4:08
Brooke 4:16
Mackenzie 4:23
Kate 4:40
Mollie 4:42
Ana 4:48
Tegan 4:50
Pippin 4:53
Tess 4:55
Alex 5:11

Scott looking stylish in tights and shorts.

Since Skyler had faster skis he had to start behind the rest of the boys. Here he is catching them in a heat. (oh…it wasn’t just ski speed 🙂 ).
Heat 1 results:
Skyler 3:18
Koby 3:31
Hamish 3:32
Paddy 3:33

Gino 3:50
Tyler 3:58
Sophie 4:07

Katharine 4:13
Brooke 4:30

‘Kenzie 4:18
Scott 4:34
Russell 5:28

Kate 4:34
Mollie 4:42
Tegan 4:43
Pip 4:52
Tess 4:58
Alex 5:03

Heat 2:
Skyler 3:10
Hamish 3:32
Koby 3:33
Paddy 3:35
Gino 3:40

Tyler 3:57
Sophie 4:05
Katharine 4:15
‘Kenzie 4:20

Brooke 4:17
Scott 4:18
Russell 4:23
Kate 4:48

Mollie 4:47
Tegan 4:48
Pip 4:52
Tess 4:54
Alex 5:19

Pip and Tess.

Heading up the top part of the hill.

Liz and Ana discuss health and technique.

Sverre and Brooke.

Above is the end of heat 3. Skyler started 25 seconds behind and really had to hammer.
Skyler 3:03
Koby 3:31
Paddy 3:33
Hamish 3:36
Gino 3:41
Tyler 3:48

Sophie 4:06
Katharine 4:12
Scott 4:19
Russell 4:25
‘Kenz 4:31

Brooke 4:26
Kate 4:39
Tegan 4:52
Pip 4:55
Mollie 4:59
Tess 5:02
Alex 5:10

Mackenzie srides the top of the hill.

Mollie.

Paddy, hamish and Koby near the parking lot loop.

Tyler and Sophie.

Katharine powers onto the top half.

Brooke.

Alex and Kate striding well :).

Hamish holds off Koby in Heat 2.

Gino.

Pip and Tess.

“Just wait until Monday.”

Time to warm down.

Oh yeah…team-mates!

November 3, 2012
Vail Training

This morning I went on an hour and a half skate roller ski with my Team Homegrown teammates.

From left to right above: Sylvan Ellefson, Ryan Scott, Christian Shanley, me, Max Scrimgeour, and Tony Ryerson. Here’s Tony after the ski:

This afternoon I ran and lifted weights. This evening I drove over to Frisco to see my friend on the US Ski Team for Moguls, Mikaela Matthews. Mikaela, her parents and I played the game Hoopla which is based on the board game Cranium. It was really fun! Here’s Mikaela acting out a UFC Fighter:

Lastly, here’s some video of our intensity session yesterday afternoon:

November 3, 2012
Happy Halloween!

Alright, so I’m a few days late. But here are some Halloween pictures from here in Canmore! And we weren’t the only costumed skiers out there either–a bunch of the Canadians also dressed up, so it made the little loop a bit more interesting!

We had a lot of fun putting costumes together out of clothes we brought with us, items from the recycling bin, and tape.

Can you tell what we are? I laughed to myself every time I saw the nun out on the trail…

Ida was an awesome bumble bee, though the wings, stinger, and antennae weren’t ideal for skiing.

I of course had to carve a pumpkin. This one would have looked way cooler if I had lit the stogie on fire.

November 2, 2012
Gearing up for Nationals Week

We’ve had a solid end to the week here with some workouts designed to get ready for Nationals Week, which starts tomorrow with classic sprints. Yesterday we did a skate ski with some agility and drills, followed up a quick run through of our strength routine. Last night was our fall sports awards dinner. Congratulations to Jack Elder (XC Running Achievement), Koby Gordon (Mountain Biking Achievement), Katharine Ogden (XC Running Achievement) and Mackenzie Rizio (XC Running Most Improved) who were our award winners for the evening!

Mackenzie & Tess.

Pip & Alex.

Alex & Brooke.

Koby.

Brooke.

Kate.

Hamish.

Tyler.

Gino.

Tegan.

Alex.

Hamish & Gino.

Koby.

Scott under the watchful eyes of Alex & Ana.

Today we did a classic ski and did some pickups to wake up for tomorrow! Alex & Pip go stride for stride up the hill here.

Mollie & Kate.

Kenz and Tess charging.

Sophie and Skyler are back home from their trip out west and joined us for practice today.

Last night, Jack got the prize of the evening at sports awards – a real live lobster for this speedy Mainer!

Boobar even cooked up the lobster for Jack for lunch today!

November 2, 2012

Vail Intensity

This morning I went to the Aspen Rotary Club Meeting with my dad. It was fun to see a lot of people I had not seen in a while. Plus the breakfast is fantastic. When I go with my dad I have to get introduced as a guest. Today, I also won the raffle which meant I get $10 and I have to draw a card from a deck. If I had drawn the Queen of Spades, something else would have happened. I’m not sure what. I didn’t draw the queen. I am not totally comfortable with the attention in that crowd.

My morning workout was an hour and a half double pole up and back on the Maroon Bells Road. In the middle of the day, my mom and I played tennis. Here’s my mom practicing her swing:

And here I am serving:

After tennis, I drove to Vail. This afternoon I did a skate intensity workout with my Ski and Snowboard Club Vail Team Homegrown teammates. We did 6 continuous laps of an 11:30 minute loop at threshold (a sustainable pace.) It was a really good workout! Here’s the data from my heart rate monitor:

Interval #	Time	Average HR	Max HR	End HR
1	11:30	155	162	151
2	11:27	159	166	155
3	11:35	159	165	157
4	11:48	160	165	153
5	11:35	159	166	155
6	11:34	160	167	156

I am staying here in Vail at my teammate Sylvan Ellefson’s house. He lives in the caretakers unit of a very fancy estate. I happen to have the main house to myself. It’s not too shabby!

I think I can make it work for the next couple days.

The large tub and steam shower will be nice post workouts.

November 1, 2012

Winter Term prep!

Tonight the coaches took a quick drive down to Tripp Middle School to set up the calendar for the Maine Junior Ski League which our 8th grade Winter Term skiers can compete in.

Kirk Siegel, the Telstar MS coach setting up his race:

It was really fun to get down into the grass roots level of where skiers come from! The Maine Junior Ski League is taking some very progressive action – both Middle School teams and non-school affiliated clubs are included in their constituency. This creates a huge impact in getting more kids from more places out on the trails together – we can’t wait to get the Gould Winter Term skiers competing with all of these great teams this winter!

Attendance tonight included some wonderful newer clubs – Caroline Mathes from the Central Maine Ski Club in Waterville, Dan Perkins from the Penobscot Valley Ski Club in Bangor, Tony Ramsey from the Farmington Area Ski Team and Laura Creagan (my own middle school coach – awesome connection!) who has started up a club in York. They are all doing great things! Gould will be proud to host one of the league races this winter at Pine Hill – watch for the calendar to come out shortly.

After the meeting I caught up with Laura, who had been coaching in New Hampshire for the last few years. She had some very encouraging perspective about the work that Maine is putting in for Middle School racers. She even identified the positive skiing environment here as one of her reasons for coming back to Maine!

We also ran into John Weston from Fryeburg Academy who is working hard to help the Trapp Family Lodge with their organization for Junior Nationals, which they will be hosting in 2014.

A fun Maine ski night!

November 1, 2012
Winter Term prep!

Tonight the coaches took a quick drive down to Tripp Middle School to set up the calendar for the Maine Junior Ski League which our 8th grade Winter Term skiers can compete in.

Kirk Siegel, the Telstar MS coach setting up his race:

It was really fun to get down into the grass roots level of where skiers come from! The Maine Junior Ski League is taking some very progressive action – both Middle School teams and non-school affiliated clubs are included in their constituency. This creates a huge impact in getting more kids from more places out on the trails together – we can’t wait to get the Gould Winter Term skiers competing with all of these great teams this winter!

Attendance tonight included some wonderful newer clubs – Caroline Mathes from the Central Maine Ski Club in Waterville, Dan Perkins from the Penobscot Valley Ski Club in Bangor, Tony Ramsey from the Farmington Area Ski Team and Laura Creagan (my own middle school coach – awesome connection!) who has started up a club in York. They are all doing great things! Gould will be proud to host one of the league races this winter at Pine Hill – watch for the calendar to come out shortly.

After the meeting I caught up with Laura, who had been coaching in New Hampshire for the last few years. She had some very encouraging perspective about the work that Maine is putting in for Middle School racers. She even identified the positive skiing environment here as one of her reasons for coming back to Maine!

We also ran into John Weston from Fryeburg Academy who is working hard to help the Trapp Family Lodge with their organization for Junior Nationals, which they will be hosting in 2014.

A fun Maine ski night!

November 1, 2012
Utah Camp: Sunny Soldier Hollow

Men’s Team at October Training Camp in Soldier Hollow, Utah

After a long training season, we find ourselves once again in Soldier Hollow, Utah, site of the 2002 Winter Olympic Nordic Events. This is one of my favorite training camps of the year because the weather is usually really favorable in Utah during October. We’ve spent the better part of the last three weeks rollerskiing and shooting on the Soldier Hollow biathlon trail system, just a ten minute rollerski down the road from our rented house. The weather has been great (except for a few days that brought an early season snow storm to the region) and we’ve been able to do a lot of quality training. Check out the videos of some of my roller skiing technique video from the last weeks.

It hasn’t just been training the entire time. Tim, Leif, and myself have been able to get out and fish the Middle Provo (a few pics below). I also did an interview with KPCW (www.kpcw.org) up in Park City. It was a short interview but I was able to play a few of my original songs and talk a bit about biathlon and music and how they all play into my life. I hope to post a video of the interview shortly. And, last but not least, I was able to get in a mountain bike ride with the one and only “Iron Bill Demong” himself yesterday. Park City has great mountain biking and I’ve definitely taken advantage of it during our cross-training sessions. Thanks to US Ski Team’s Tad Elliot for letting me borrow a sick Specialized Epic during my stay here… Hellofa Bike!

Just a few more days, then we fly back to LP for about a week. Then it’s over to Sweden and eventually the first World Cup in Ostersund!

Cheers,

LB

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November 1, 2012
October in Pictures….

T-minus 9 days before I take off for the entire winter…. it’s fun, overwhelming & exciting, all at the same time! Here are a few pictures from the last month. Welcome to November & the race season everyone!

“Holly’s Trail” on our over distance run in Park City…. awesome, 3 hour loop

Running buddies: myself, Liz, Becca & Fitz

We had an awesome fun(d) run for Mary. 400-500 people showed up and we raised 15k to help out with her medical expenses!

The event even made the front page of the paper!

The APU team helped out with the second annual “First Tracks” camp in Fairbanks. The camp was open to high school skiers from all over the state. The athletes got to spend a ton of time on snow and learn from our coach, Erik Flora – as well as train with the APU elite team skiers. The kids had talks on nutrition, staying healthy over the season…. I gave a slide show about the World Cup.

First Tracks boys & APU coach Sam Sterling

Lots of waxing going on in the Birch Hill waxing cabin!

Flora showing off his coaching biceps!

Our group: kids in white, “coach/athletes” in yellow

Check out this skeleton made completely out of bike parts!

My Halloween costume for the weekend over distance ski!

Kikkan’s a sled dog, Sadie’s a ski enthusiast & I’m a Swedish Ski Fan 🙂

Kikkan and I both brought our collections of National Team suits & World Cup bibs to Fairbanks. Saturday night we drew names out of a hat and the kids got to ski in them for Sunday’s over distance workout. Many of these suits once belonged to World Cup veterans and it was pretty darn cool to see how psyched the kids were to wear them. They even got to keep the World Cup bibs! Collectively we were the “World Cup Field” for Halloween!!!

I put some of these pictures on Facebook a couple days ago and tagged Anna Haag – who one of the Swedish suits once belonged too. Anna’s boyfriend and World Cup Sprint Champion Emil Jonsson was the first one to “like” it and Anna herself added a comment almost immediately. That’s pretty cool, right?

Taryn rockin the German one piece!

Slovenia, Sweden, Germany & the USA

Sweden & Italy!

As if First Tracks wasn’t busy or ambitious enough, we held a Fast and Female to cap off the weekend

I thought the coolest part was having Diana (center) come as guest speaker for the girls. She was the first women’s basketball coach at UAF and told the girls about Title 9 & a time when girls weren’t allowed to compete. Her two main take home messages were “keep it fun” and “include ALL girls in sports.”

Eventhough during our time there Fairbanks only had 4-6″ of snow we were able to ski ALL 30k of trails at Birch Hill, even the black loops! Birch has an awesome trail system and I think they’re going to do an awesome job of hosting 2013 Junior Olympics!

John Estle’s played a big role in the trail evolutions in Fairbanks. Here is “Estle’s Mesa!”

There are some wonderful people and incredible organizers in Fairbanks. Here is the Hajdukovich family… Mike Hajduk (center) is solely responsible for putting on the First Tracks camp. This guy has vision, creativity & an electric energy that I wish I could bottle up and take with me all season in Europe. Thanks Mike & Challenge Life (his organization) for making the camp happen!!!!

While in Fairbanks Dave Edic was our “host.” He has a great “skier’s house” within walking distance of Birch Hill and it was fabulous staying there. Plus, Dave is quite the skier himself, training for World Masters. This year the Championship is in Asiago, Italy, only a short drive from Val di Fiemme. Dave is planning on coming to watch and cheer at World Champs – cool stuff!

I extended my trip to stay in Fairbanks longer than initially planned before they had snow and Anchorage didn’t…. Thanks for letting me crash Dave!

November 1, 2012
Alpine World Cup – Soelden
Just following up from Tuesday with the race snapshot graph for the women’s GS race on Saturday:

Related posts:
November 1, 2012
Uncle John’s Basement

Uncle John has a bunch of old wax he was thinking of getting rid of. I told him I wanted to come take a look at it. Anybody need some Rex Arctic?

November 1, 2012
Off Day and Packing

I had the day off of training today. I spent the day trying to get organized before leaving tomorrow for Vail. I won’t be back in Aspen (except a quick trip on Saturday for the fundraiser!) until after the first World Cup races in Scandinavia. My time at home has been too short.

I also got to go to practice at the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club today. We played soccer then did a shuttle run test. I tried the shuttle test which I’ve never done before. I couldn’t stay with junior Keegan Swirbul. He is really strong!

It was fun to meet the kids and tell them what it’s like skiing on the World Cup.

October 31, 2012
Transition to Ski Strength!

Last week we crushed it on the rolling hills of western Maine. This week we are doing some focus on ski specific strength. Tuesday we introduced a new circuit that we’re hoping will boost balance, agility, mobility and strength. Med balls, box jumps and the always popular power slide joined our newly acquired balance beams. Backwards and forwards, eyes closed, on the balance beam…it’s harder than you think!

Coach Kline decided to do show us his own gold medal balance beam routine:

Balance Beam Action

Today we headed out for some classic technique and specific strength. Former Gould coach Dick Taylor tagged along today too. He is a great resource to have here in Bethel. Ashton and Sadie definitely benefited from Dick dropping by today:

Dick, Ashton and Sadie

The ‘Cello working some spooky strong double pole strength on Halloween:

Video of today’s double poling staring Coach Blazar, Marcello, and First Year Phenom we like to call Caleb:

Classic10-31 from Gould Nordic on Vimeo.

Look for another video of the Lobster Roll on Sunday. Sadie, Marcello, Ashton and Trent will all be duking it out with the best skiers Maine has to offer!

October 31, 2012