FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • Tour de Ski Rest Day Review

    There’s just too much racing going on during the first half of January to comment on it all. But the first rest day of the Tour de Ski certainly deserves some notes. So here’s a look at the current leaders of the Tour, compared to how they’ve fared in previous years, starting with the men:

    Legkov, Vylegzhanin and Angerer either haven’t participated or haven’t finished the two most recent Tours. So it will be interesting to see how they fare during the later stages, when things getting really grueling. Will Hellner drop off near the end of the Tour again? (I seem to recall his fading last year was due to something unfortunate; illness maybe? or bad skis?) On the other hand, will Bauer be able to ski his way up to the front again like he did two years ago?

    Now for the women:

    Obviously, we have the battle at the front between Kowalczyk and Bjoergen. Johaug and Randall are improved (much improved, in Randall’s case). If Johaug stays this close for the rest of the Tour, folks may have to watch out for her on the final climb, considering the damage she did there last year. Kalla, Lahteenmaki and Steira are somewhat further off the pace than they were in previous years.

    Focusing on some of the other North Americans:

    Newell is sick and apparently done, sadly, and Babikov is questionable with a wrist injury. Kris Freeman was actually pretty much right on where he was last year until Saturday’s stage, and Harvey’s had a bit of a frustrating time of it so far, but he’s not that far off from where he was last year.

    Related posts:

    1. <Tour de Ski Rest Day Recap
    2. <Tour de Ski: Comparison To 2010
    3. <Tour de Ski Rest Day 2 Recap


  • Gearing up for Skate Sprint at Nationals

    We’ve got a crew of 15 skiers up in Rumford this week for US Nationals and we’ve just finished our last day of prep before the freestyle sprint tomorrow. We spent the morning up at Black Mountain, checking out the course, testing skis, and doing a final tune-up workout before tomorrow. This afternoon everyone laid low and got off their feet at the hotel before an early dinner down in Bethel and a team meeting to review the plan for tomorrow. We’re getting psyched to race!

    Live results will be posted on the race website. Girls race at 9am, boys race at 10am. Heats to follow. Check it out and cheer the team along, whether trailside or from a distance!

  • Rest => Recovery

  • 40 days…

    The ubiquitous one-handed photo

    This season the Methow Valley in Washington has had good snow.    It arrived before Thanksgiving and we’ve had great uninterrupted skiing through the past 7 weeks.

    For me, the daily skiing typically consists of a very early dash out the back door at around 7 a.m. in order to get everything to sync-up with the schedule at the shop.     Sometimes it’s only long enough to compare some test skis, or a loop around Foster’s Field with a headlamp, but I feel fortunate to get out there every day.

    Today, though, it’s a holiday (HNY!) and I got the chance to ski at a very reasonable 9 a.m. from the Cub Creek trailhead.      Classic skiing today was as good as I’ve seen this season.    Four layers of hard wax and grip was rock solid, with easy release and free glide.    So nice.  

    I enjoyed a mix of striding with kick-double-pole up to Rendezvous Pass and returned on a slightly different route.     I had fun seeing several ‘locals’ out on the trail and stopped for a Hello a few times.

    It’s hard to believe that the ski season is 1/3 done; that I’ve had 40 days of skiing already.

  • Happy New Year

    The first race of the US Nationals Championships is tomorrow (Monday). We race every other day here in Rumford, Maine. There is no natural snow on the ground, but the race organizers have worked hard to make artificial snow and the 1.6km loop we are racing tomorrow is in great condition. Today the high is supposed to be 38 F so we are very grateful the conditions are as good as they are. The hard work is all done and now it is time to rest, relax and toe the line. There are 405 entries for the US National Championships and there are a lot of skiers cruising around the little man-made loop. We are limited to internet only at the Venue and every other elite skier in the country seems to be on it right now. Will try and post some pics of racing the Freestyle Sprint tomorrow.

    Map of the 1.6 KM Sprint Course

  • Tour de Skiathlon

    The Tour de Ski has been a rock ’em-sock ’em set of races so far. In addition to the crazy weather, we’ve seen an unusual number of crashes, ranging from the meaningless to Kikkan Randall’s digger in the classic sprint today. And we’ve seen some unexpected results, including Kowalczyk’s incredible form, Bjørgen’s vincibility, and Teichmann’s from-nowhere win in the Oberhof 15k.

    Given all that,

  • Home for the Holidays

    There are so many great things about being home for the holidays.  I especially enjoy skiing with the local junior kids and my past coaches, and past Olympians, Leslie Hall and Laura McCabe.  It’s so much fun to see kids skiing and having fun just like when I was a junior.

    Skiing with the Methow Valley Jr. Team

    Another fun tradition is watching the fireworks our neighbors light off every year.  The show lasts about 10 minutes and we have a great view from the front yard.

    The Gregg house back lit by fireworks

    It wouldn’t be Christmas without a few Christmas cookies.  Every year we have a ton of fun spending an evening decorating cookies with our friend Ardis.

    Decorating Christmas Cookies
    And of course the skiing in the Methow is always incredible with over 200km of trails and daily grooming it’s  hard not to have fun.
    Fast skiing and blue sky in the Methow

  • New Article: The Sweet Science of Skiing

    Penned for SkiTrax Magazine: Visit SkiTrax Here

    Riding the cable car up, up, up high into the high Austrian air to the Dachstein Glacier for the first time, I get the feeling Garrison Keillor echoes on his News from Lake Wobegon when he says “All the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” Packed six tight into the tiny aluminum tin, you can’t help but look around and think all the young women around you are strong and good-looking and above average. Here, though, this isn’t some Lake Wobegon effect – our universal, natural tendency to overestimate one’s capabilities. Rather on that first ride up to the Dachstein Glacier, you know this is the big leagues. For good reason. Standing shoulder to shoulder to Axel Teichmann, Timmy Tschanke, or Justyna Kowalczyk, one gets the very real sense they are no longer skiing in the sandlot.

    As a sometime writer, mornings begin with my mind wondering off to write stories about the people I meet. One morning it’s about the fifteen-year-old Finnish girl with her father and the improbably tall Thomas Algaard. It’s then when it hits me: the three of us – all of us, really – are writing our own unique chapters to the same book on our love affair with skiing. That same morning, the clouds and the setting and the sunrise are just perfect. Fortunately, I have my Canon G9 camera tucked away in the backpack with the change of clothes, Bartlett pear and thermos full of chalky chocolate flavored recovery drink. I snap the picture and send it off to the world.

    When I get back to the hotel just over two hours later, former American World Cupper Dan Simoneau (World Cup Best: 2nd; 7th 1983 World Cup Overall) has left a message. Simoneau’s terse prose reads like poetry. “Great photo, Torin. I’m jealous that you are skiing on snow that has so many drops of gold medal sweat. Rub it well. Throw some over your shoulder. Burn some to the Gods. But most importantly, melt it with hard work, focus, and determination. I believe.” Reading these words the first time sends a shiver down my spine. I know what Dan says is true.

    I’ve been to the area many times before, though only in the heart of winter. The Ramsau trails wind through valley, canyon and race loops from the 1999 World Championships for a total of 180 kilometers. I could easily work for the town’s media department: I wouldn’t trade one day of skiing Ramsau for anywhere else.

    And yet somehow, coming to Ramsau in October is even more special. Maybe it’s because for most, October is the toughest time of the training year. You are still putting in big hours. You are a little sick of the dryland. There really isn’t any good or consistent skiing yet. As a racer you have the itch – and a little bit of anxious anticipation – to get on with the season, and visit with those friends for whom you only seem to meet up with along the trails.

    Getting into Ramsau, I flew to Munich then took the train to a tiny town in Germany where I meet up with Swiss National Teamers Mauro Gruber, Eligious Tambornino, and Martin Jaeger, sprint specialists all. Over the next two weeks, I will meet up with the Swiss athletes from time to time, though rarely for the same on-snow workout. This can be chalked up to the sweet science of cross-country ski training. The Swiss athlete’s are in specific race sharpening training for the race season’s start, coming in two week’s time. The Swiss athletes also don’t believe in doing anything except low intensity long distance training on the glacier, due to its altitude 2700M (8,370ft). Instead, they distance ski in the mornings on Dachstein, then do intensity or strength or speed in the valley below. What they miss out on in real-snow feel they feel they make up in spades with the faster movements of speedy Marwe rollerskis with the low resistance zero wheels.

    For Ramsau, I’m joining up with a Norwegian team comprised from the seven small towns that border the hills around Lillehammer. These Norwegians from Team Sjusjoen are more distance-oriented and believe in getting on-snow twice a day. Unlike the Swiss or the Germans, they believe in the trade-off of doing controlled threshold intensity at this high altitude. Most days I ski with the young up-and-comer Simen Sveen. You haven’t heard of him before, but you will soon enough. As a twenty-two year old in med school, Simen was 3rd in the Norwegian Cup Series and 4th at the Norwegian National 50 kilometer.

    Simen’s motivation is the kind you rarely see. The young up and comer has just tasted success. He can only see himself getting better and achieving more in the ski tracks. The longer someone can keep this feeling burning bright inside their emotional engine can say more than technique or tactics or V02 max test scores. Right now, all are headed up, up, up for Mr. Simen. It is a wordless spectacle in itself. Like all extreme but perishable actions, watching skier find their inspiration, excites the writer. It also burnishes his instinct to bear witness.

    It’s not altoghether different than slide down the window on the cable car, sticking your head out into the cold alpine air and breathe in the oxygen, the sights, and the opportunities that lie ahead for you. If you have the chance to ski the Dachstein, take it. Your love affair with skiing will only go stronger. Just remember that in this little corner of the world all the women really are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.

  • Teichmannia

    How unexpected was Teichmann’s win in the Oberhof classic pursuit? Unexpected enough that none of the 187 guesses on XC Predictions included ol’ Axel for any of the three podium spots. The wisdom of crowds?

    Of course, who’d have thought Teichmann had anything left? His last top-ten finish was last February. His last podium finish was the 2009 Tour de Ski, when he was famously blown away by

  • Mooney, Hoffman Win Grafton TT

    Austin, Corky, Hamish & Gino – post TT.

    Heather Mooney and Noah Hoffman skied away with the victories in this mornings classic time trial at Grafton Ponds. The flat loop, with granular snow turned the TT into a d-pole race. Some who waxed paid the price with slower skis, but everyone had a good hard workout. We took lap times which are listed below. Most of the skiers were quite consistent so that was good. On a course like this, I like to see all of the lap times within 10 seconds; this shows good pacing and no mental breaks.

    Paddy is coming off of a cold so he did pick-ups behind people. Tess is coming off of sickness so she went L3.
    Womens results:
    Heather 2:29,2:33,2:33,2:35,2:33,2:30, 15:13
    Sophie 2:32,2:36,2:36,2:39,2:38,2:35, 15:38
    Izzy C 2:36,2:39,2:42,2:41,2:40,2:35, 15:53
    Gage 2:37,2:43,2:46,2:47,2:45,2:42, 16:20
    Anika 2:39,2:46,2:45,2:50,2:53,2:51, 16:44
    Keely 2:45,2:52,2:49,2:50,2:52,2:52, 17:04
    Issy P 2:48,2:50,2:51,2:53,2:53,2:52, 17:07
    Cam 2:47,2:51,2:50,2:56,2:58,2:54, 17:16
    Katharine 2:53,2:54,3:01,2:54,2:51,2:51, 17:24
    Chloe 2:55,2:59,2:58,2:57,3:00,2:59, 17:48
    Mollie 3:05,3:10,3:10,3:06,3:06,3:07, 18:44
    ‘Kenzie 3:07,3:09,3:07,3:11,3:15,3:11, 19:00
    Pippin 3:12,3:17,3:14,3:14,3:19,3:18, 19:32
    Alex 3:25,3:32,3:30,3:23,3:25,3:21, 20:36
    Tess 3:28,3:40,3:41,3:41,3:48,3:43, 22:01
    Boys Results:
    Noah 2:14,2:14,2:21,2:22,2:21,2:20,2:20,2:22,2:23,2:19, 23:16
    Hamish 2:24,2:29,2:30,2:33,2:29,2:30,2:32,2:29,2:33,2:29, 24:58
    JACald 2:19,2:31,2:31,2:35,2:31,2:33,2:31,2:26,2:31,2:32, 25:00
    ACobb 2:24,2:29,2:34,2:31,2:30,2:33,2:32,2:35,2:32,2:33, 25:17
    Tyler 2:30,2:34,2:34,2:33,2:31,2:33,2:31,2:34,2:35,2:32, 25:27
    Corky 2:29,2:32,2:38,2:45,2:35,2:34,2:37,2:36,2:36,2:38, 25:50
    Gino 2:20,2:30,2:37,2:35,2:36,2:37,2:40,2:37,2:41,2:40, 25:53
    Calvin 2:37,2:40,2:40,2:35,2:33,2:33,2:36,2:35,2:34,2:32, 25:57
    Mac 2:33,2:44,2:51,2:54,2:53,2:57,2:57,2:57,2:57,2:57, 28:40
    Tomorrow we head to Rumford with a big group for Senior Nationals. It should be a great week of racing!
    Special thanks to Jimmy Levins and Brayton Osgood for helping time!
    More photos here.
    Keeley Levins (Midd).
    Sophie (Dartmouth).
    Mackenzie.
    Katharine checks out what Izzy’s doing. 🙂
    Alex.
    Cam (MSU), followed by Chloe Levins.
    Tess.

    Gage (UVM).

    Katharine.

    TT champ Heather (Midd).

    Mollie.

    Anika.

    Issy.

    Pippin.
    Cousins Austin (Dartmouth) & Paddy.
    Noah Hoffman (USST) set the pace today.
    Gino.
    Tyler.

    Hamish.

    Mac.

    Birthday boy Corky & Calvin battled back and forth.

    Austin Cobb (Midd), followed by Paddy.

    Anika – all smiles while on her cool down. : )

  • Liz Stephen’s Distance Preferences

    I was skimming FasterSkier’s write-up of the Tour de Ski prologue yesterday and noted their comment about how Liz Stephen “… is generally stronger over longer distances, performing better in 10k’s than 5k’s and even better still in 15k’s.”

    That has been my informal impression as well, but I was suddenly skeptical about whether her actual results would bear that out as clearly as you might think. Specifically, I started wondering whether this may be a situation where how you measure results has an impact on how we perceive their quality. For instance, here are her WC level distance races, filtered down to only 5, 10, 15 and 30 km distances, measured by finishing place:

    In 2009, longer distances were definitely better. Then things looked kind of mixed in 2010 (generally an off year), before returning to normal in 2011. So far this season, this look fairly mixed again, although with only a single race over 10k.

    However, the longer races (15k/30k) are usually mass start or pursuit races. They can sometimes have smaller field sizes and are often paced much slower. (Although I think the difference is probably not as pronounced with the women as it is with the men.) If we look at the percent behind the median skier, which corrects for some of the differences between interval and mass start races, we get this:

    Things look the same for 2009: noticeably better at the longer distances. Now, though, 2010 doesn’t look “mixed”. Rather, it seems she skied quite a bit better that year in the 10k’s (again, having a generally off year). But then both 2011 and 2012 look fairly mixed to me, with some good races at several different distances.

    So I think her results have displayed a modest tendency to be stronger in longer distances, but not quite as much as you might think by looking only at her finishing place.

    Related posts:

    1. <How Well Prepared Are World Cup Rookies? (Part 1a: Distance)
    2. <USST Preview: Liz Stephen & Morgan Arritola
    3. <Technique Preferences: Italy


  • For-Real Pursuit

    It’s great that FIS has switched back to calling it the pursuit. And tomorrow is going to be worthy of the name, at least on the women’s side.Therese Johaug clawing back 27 seconds is going to be impressive, if it happens, and my guess is that there will be a lot of movement on both sides as the one-hit prologue wonder-skiers fade.Frenchman Robin Duvilliard, anyone? In three trips to the prologue

  • Tour de Ski – Day one

    I figure that a short post is better than none at all…. so here it is:  The Tour de Ski started today.  While I had a poor result – by far, my worst “distance race” since being in Europe, I have to happy in that I felt as if I could ski. Yesterday, in the training day, my wrist was incredibly painful and I have to admit; I was worried to say the least.  Today I had a top-notch tape job done by Steph, our massage therapist and a double dose of pain meds.  The duo seemed to do the trick!

    Conditions today were icy, squirrely & fast – not my favorite.  But, it’s snowing outside right now which makes me happy. Klister covered conditions are some of my favorite and I have an awesome pair of skis if the waxing goes that way.  I’ll have plenty of girls to chase tomorrow in the pursuit start so it should be fun to “hunt some down” and try and improve my overall placing, not to mention, aim for a solid “day of” result.

    Other than that, one of the big themes of the Tour is RECOVERY. With nine races in eleven days, proactive recovery becomes imperative.

    Here is the plan: after the race, reach for my Boost – yep, the “old folks drink.”  I may be the only person on the US team that likes the stuff. Me and maybe my grandma 🙂 Change clothes afterwards… get a good, short cool down, ice my hand, change into dry clothes, hustle back to the hotel for a shower, put my feet up. I’m sure we’ll start using the mobile ice bath as fatigue builds up. Also, Kikkan and Bird did a bit of personal fundraiser to bring Steph Caverhill, a massage therapist over for the team.  Most teams travel with a massage therapist everywhere. While we normally do not have one, we’re excited to have Steph here to help us out over the next week and a half. As I said above, she did an awesome job of taping my hand. It’s cool to have a female on staff…. I can tell with the little things like the fact that she used pre-rap on my tape job so I don’t have to pull of 1/2 of my arm hair when de-taping. Thanks for that Steph!

    Here’s the only picture I have of today so far. Check back later and perhaps I’ll have more posted?  Thanks for everyone’s encouragement! Go team USA!

    Re-fueling with the Swedes in the athlete tent after the race: Me, Liz, Anna Haag & Charlotte Kalla. (Kikkan was taking the pic)
    Holly 🙂 

  • Tour de Ski – Day one

    I figure that a short post is better than none at all…. so here it is:  The Tour de Ski started today.  While I had a poor result – by far, my worst “distance race” since being in Europe, I have to happy in that I felt as if I could ski. Yesterday, in the training day, my wrist was incredibly painful and I have to admit; I was worried to say the least.  Today I had a top-notch tape job done by Steph, our massage therapist and a double dose of pain meds.  The duo seemed to do the trick!

    Conditions today were icy, squirrely & fast – not my favorite.  But, it’s snowing outside right now which makes me happy. Klister covered conditions are some of my favorite and I have an awesome pair of skis if the waxing goes that way.  I’ll have plenty of girls to chase tomorrow in the pursuit start so it should be fun to “hunt some down” and try and improve my overall placing, not to mention, aim for a solid “day of” result.

    Other than that, one of the big themes of the Tour is RECOVERY. With nine races in eleven days, proactive recovery becomes imperative.

    Here is the plan: after the race, reach for my Boost – yep, the “old folks drink.”  I may be the only person on the US team that likes the stuff. Me and maybe my grandma 🙂 Change clothes afterwards… get a good, short cool down, ice my hand, change into dry clothes, hustle back to the hotel for a shower, put my feet up. I’m sure we’ll start using the mobile ice bath as fatigue builds up. Also, Kikkan and Bird did a bit of personal fundraiser to bring Steph Caverhill, a massage therapist over for the team.  Most teams travel with a massage therapist everywhere. While we normally do not have one, we’re excited to have Steph here to help us out over the next week and a half. As I said above, she did an awesome job of taping my hand. It’s cool to have a female on staff…. I can tell with the little things like the fact that she used pre-rap on my tape job so I don’t have to pull of 1/2 of my arm hair when de-taping. Thanks for that Steph!

    Here’s the only picture I have of today so far. Check back later and perhaps I’ll have more posted?  Thanks for everyone’s encouragement! Go team USA!

    Re-fueling with the Swedes in the athlete tent after the race: Me, Liz, Anna Haag & Charlotte Kalla. (Kikkan was taking the pic)
    Holly 🙂 

  • Tour de Ski, imPossible Prologue

    First of all, I would just like to say that I think hate prologues as much as Tassava loves the Tour de Ski.They play absolutely zero role in the finish of the Tour de Ski, are a waste of a day, and are so massively unpredictable they drive me nuts.Cross country skiing has enough complicated formats to explain to non-skiers that yet another one is completely unnecessary. You’re likely to spend

  • Tour de Whee!

    I love the Tour de Ski – always have (even when it was just a twinkle in Vegard Ulvang’s eye), always will (even after Northug reels off five straight wins starting this year). I’m especially jazzed for the 2011-2012 edition, since it’s the only major event of the season and is thus getting all the focus of the big-name racers. Before getting to my picks for the prologue in Oberhof and for

  • The Eve of the big day…

    Team USA at the “opening ceremonies/team introduction” for the Tour 
    So…. I haven’t said much on my blog yet about the Tour de Ski but here it is – starting TOMORROW!  As there is no World Champs or Olympics this year, the Tour is kind of the pinnacle of the race year.  Many of the top athletes have been aiming to perform well here all year.  I was a last minute addition to the US Tour roster after having performances during period one of the World Cup this fall.
    Skiing in Ramsau, Austria on one of the few clear days 
    I am ecstatic to have the opportunity to race this event. As a distance skier and high volume trainer, I absolutely LOVE the thought of racing day in and day out, challenging myself physically, mentally, and emotionally.   I have no idea how I’ll do or what will happen to by body as the days of fatigue add up but this is a great time to try it and I couldn’t be more excited for the challenge.
    There are a ton of friends, family, and even people I don’t know that have helped make it possible for me to be here.  As many of you know, I responsible for providing my own funding and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the generous support and enthusiasm of many of YOU. I hesitate to name anyone personally because there are so many of you and I don’t want to leave anyone out but you know who you are.  The experience of needing support and needing it fast has really been really moving. I only hope that I can repay many of you back with the generosity someday be it in the form of a ski lesson, athletic inspiration, a smile, or perhaps one day, dollars to a cause important to you. I know that tomorrow, when I put a bib on, I will feel like I’m racing with the support of people from Washington and Alaska; Kongsberger Ski Club, Alaska Pacific University, and Snoqualmie Nordic Team. THANK YOU so much to ALL of you!
    This is simply the best and most wonderful thing I have seen at a breakfast buffet ever – fresh, local honeycomb. 


    As far as challenges go, I feel the need to share something that’s been on the fore front of my mind lately…. Christmas Day I decided to go for a short run before dinner.  It was dark out and icy in places.  Just as I was about to turn around and head back to the Kobaldhof, I slipped on the ice, falling back, and caught myself with my left hand.  I knew instantly that it was not good…. but I wasn’t sure how bad. And I still don’t know.  The plan for tomorrow, and each day afterwards is to ice, tape, take some anti-immflatatory medication and go for it.  The US team doesn’t have a doctor here at the moment so this morning I went and saw the Norwegian Team’s Doctor and “Physio.”  (The Euro name for PT)  They were incredibly generous to see me and were encouraging in that they do not think my wrist has a scaphoid fracture – my greatest worry via a couple hours on email and web MD. (Always a bad idea and also guaranteed to give you nightmares). If Petra Madjic can win a bronze medal at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games with broken ribs and a punctured lung, perhaps I can race the tour, and excel in the Tour with whatever injury my wrist may have sustained.  It’s not ideal but I’m certainly not the first athlete who has gotten a bit beat up.
    Time for bed as often rest provides one with the best healing and rejuvenation powers!  Thank you everyone for everything and I’ll do my best to keep you posted through this incredible journey!
    Sincerely,
    Holly 🙂

  • European Mid-Season Review

    This will just be a short note with similar graphs as last time, only for a few of the major European nations.

    Men’s Distance

    Sweden continues to generally improve. Note that in terms of top thirty performances, Norway has steadily declined over the years, but not among the top ten or better level. So they’ve become somewhat less deep of a team, but they still manage to crank out top results. Indeed, if anything they’ve been improving. After a couple stronger seasons, the Russian men aren’t off to a great start so far this season.

    Women’s Distance

    Some more dramatic trends are at play for the women’s distance events. Recall that a while back I was asked about whether the Norwegian women’s dominant performance so far this season is unprecedented and I answered “No”. I had sort of misunderstood the question to mean unprecedented compared to any other nation, but relative to Norway’s history it did appear fairly unusual. This would seem to suggest that the Norwegian women are indeed doing something they have never done before.

    Men’s Sprint

    After a bit of an off year last year, the Russian men seem to be sprinting a bit better again. Otherwise, things seem fairly stable, with the exception of the Swedish men, perhaps.

    Women’s Sprint

    More evidence of a strong resurgence for the Norweigan women women here, and a fairly large drop off in top 30 results among the Swedish women.

    Related posts:

    1. <Mid-Season Recap: North American Distance
    2. <Mid-Season Review: North American Sprint
    3. <Mid-Season Review: USA Biathlon


  • Timed Workout at Craftsbury

    Today we regrouped post-xmas for a timed effort  with a strong group of skiers making the rounds up in Craftsbury on a new coat of snow.  The hard work of the Craftsbury community is paying off in spades, with families, teams, and recreational skiers enjoying the heck out of that snow.  We were able to do our workout on the race loops, which gives some good feedback on pacing.  Our gang was instructed to hold back at the beginning with the goal of having the last lap be fastest.


     (4x approx. 1.75km)                                               Lap 1                      Lap 2                     Lap 3                     Lap 4                     Finish

    Sam Tarling
    		04:05 04:01 04:09 04:07 16:22
    Andrew Clemence
    		04:06 04:09 04:08 04:11 16:34
    David Sinclair
    		04:03 04:08 04:12 04:17 16:40
    Sam Marshall
    		04:13 04:10 04:09 04:12 16:44
    Adam Terko
    		04:03 04:14 04:26 04:22 17:05
    Jon Dixon
    		04:07 04:23 04:30 04:28 17:28
    Jared Supple
    		04:16 04:33 05:00 04:40 18:29
    Devlin Shea
    		04:37 04:46 04:42 04:32 18:37








    Heidi Halvorsen
    		04:47 04:50 04:53 04:59 19:29
    MK Cirelli
    		04:47 04:56 04:50 05:06 19:39
    Cate Brown
    		04:43 05:07 05:16 05:24 20:30
    Kaitlin Fitzgerald
    		05:05 05:20 06:20 05:10 21:55 lost pole

  • Skate Intervals

    This morning we had a good group meet at Grafton for some skate intensity. After a good warm up, we agreed on a 1+ km loop and got in some good intensity/speed work. The first 3 intervals were “on your own” and the last 2 were run more like sprint heats.
    Alex.

    Scott, Mackenzie and Chloe.
    Keeley, Mac and Mary.

    Austin Cobb and Calvin.
    This picture just looks fast.
    Tyler and Austin are coming off colds so they did not hammer too hard.

    Hammering the hill. It is pretty impressive to see this group training together. Present today were 8 skiers who have represented the US at World Jrs and/or the J1 trip.

    Is this a new fangled relay race?
    Sophie, Noah and Parker.
    The mandatory group photo.
    Part of the alumni contingent.
    Happy birthday Issy P!