FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • No [Fairbanks] November

    Overview: A lot has happened in the past few days! A week ago we were planning on heading to Fairbanks. Then Fairbanks was cancelled because it was -40º F (and C!) and we were planning on racing in Anchorage. Our first race in Anchorage was a 1.8k prologue. The next day the races were postponed because of the temperature, so we did a 5k classic at 2pm. After a final 5k skate Sunday, it was time to get ready for three weeks on the road! I packed a huge duffle and headed to West Yellowstone. Pete Kling, Reese Hanneman, Kate Fitz and I woke up on Monday at 4am. We hopped on a plane at 6am, and rolled into our house in West at 9pm. Yesterday we did our first race on the SuperTour here, and still logged a handful of top 10 finishes. Not bad for such a flurry of madness!

    Anchorage Details: I think that races in cold weather are the best thing going. I am actually starting to worry that I am some kind of subzero specialist; I am just so comfortable skiing at cold temperatures on really cold snow, that I can’t help but have a good race. While I was sad that I couldn’t kick off my season with some good races at home in Fairbanks, the races in Anchorage were held below zero on the first two days, and below 10º F on the third. It felt a lot like home! Anchorage had my favorite kind of skiing, the snow was still pretty fast and the kick was perfect. I can only hope it will be cold again later this year!

    [Photo: Robert Arnold. It was so cold that Fitz wore a mask!]

    West Yellowstone Details: We haven’t been here very long, but I am already settled in to a rhythm. My room is predictably a mess, we’re skiing every day, and eating pasta for Thanksgiving. I love life on the road!

    The race yesterday went pretty well. I felt okay, placed consistently, and went as hard as I could. However, because I have been getting 10th in West Yellowstone for almost four years now, I would like to improve on that. It’s a little bit like being in the B final at Nationals three years in a row: it was sweet the first time around, but now I think it’s time to move on. My consistency extended from my 10th place rank coming into the races to 10th places in both disciplines. I suppose there is something to say for being a well-rounded skier and I really can’t complain. For the races tomorrow however, I would like to improve my place!

    Here are a few photos from APU’s West Yellowstone experience this year:

    Our house this year is spacious and
    awesome!

  • Threshold intervals in West: Day 3

    Today is our third day at altitude, and we celebrated with some threshold intervals around a loop away from today’s sprint races.
     Alum Kristin Halvorsen and UNH skier Elizabeth Guiney joined us for the workout. It was great to have them along.
     Hans ripped around on skate skis: 3×8 minutes level three is a tough workout at altitude.

  • Home Skiing

    We had some happy skiers with 11″ of fresh, dense (but relatively dry) snow. Our driveway looks impassable so we packed out a loop around the house and enjoyed some good classic skiing with VR60.
    Thanking the snow Gods.
    Tomorrow we plan the Peru Open. We have applied for a last minute FIS sanction and expect to be granted an ok based upon our course profile and excellent snow conditions.

  • Onward and upward!

    On the World Cup there is little room for error.  The times are so tight that being a little off is magnified greatly on the results list.  The field is so competitive and deep that save for Marit Bjoergen (who after watching her ski last weekend I’m not convinced she’s totally human) a flat race can end up being a really bad day.

    This was my experience in this weekend’s World Cup opener in Sjusjoen.  After so many months of focused training I was very excited for the season to get under way.  But along the way as I had felt my body becoming fitter and stronger, I only envision the great races where the hard work comes together and I felt fast and efficient.  I definitely wasn’t dreaming of races like this past weekend.

    Luckily for me it’s only November and there is a lot of racing ahead.  So instead of harboring on the negatives of this weekend, here’s a list of this weekend’s highlights.

    In Saturday’s skate race I had fast skis!  They were flying!  I passed a Norwegian skier on the first downhill who had come through for a lap right before we started.  They may have had two tractor trailer trucks and a handful of smaller cabins for waxing this weekend but my skis were faster.  It was fun to be able to ski with her for the first two laps of my race although it quite possibly set me up for a much slower final lap.

    sjus1

    I have some fast teammates!  The US is going to turn some heads this season.  Kikkan’s 8th place and Liz’s 18th were just the start.  We are a bigger and stronger team this year and it’s inspiring to ski with these guys.

    sjus2

    I had a lot of TV time on Sunday which the rest of the GRP got to watch live in Finland.  As the scramble leg for the US team I started the race on the front line and got to smile and wave to the camera.  Luckily the TV cameras were not present for my falls but many of the Norwegian spectators were privy to the spectacle.  The abundance of cheering was great thought and I was loudly supported by lots of “Heia, heias” before I was back on my feet.  Here Liz and Kikkan watch the action on the big screen in the stadium which is sometimes the best viewing.

    I went running with Charlotte Kalla, Anna Haag, Maria Rydquist, and Hanna Brodin…twice!  Liz and Kikkan did a training camp with Anna and the other girls in Sweden last summer.  We were staying at the same hotel as the Swedes and combined our evening team jogs.  The girls were all really nice and we may have even convinced some of them to  come to Craftsbury for SuperTour Finals and Distance Nationals this spring!

    sjus3

    We watched the men’s relay live first in the stadium and then out on the course.  Our Athlete bibs give us access to almost anywhere on the course and my pink snowpants which I purchased for several Euros in the thrift store in Muonio kept me warm.  Liz and I stood near one of the TV cameras and Liz’s parents, who were watching the race online, heard our voices from Vermont!  The US men hung close to the lead pack for the entire race and it was really fun to watch and cheer!  Here is Kris Freeman skiing the second leg of the relay for the US.

    IMG_2913

    Our hotel served us a Norwegian Christmas buffet for dinner.  The variety of options was unbelievable and the presentation was much above our normal standards.  Reindeer, salmon, crab, mussels, shrimp, beef, turkey, oysters, scallops, sausages, ham, caviar, and so many other kinds of fish which I wasn’t able to name.  Sadie and I picked up these guys and then remembered we couldn’t put them back.  It was alright but the consistency of the meat was not my favorite.  Photo credit Holly Brooks (http://hollyskis.blogspot.com/2011/11/sjujsoen-world-cup-opener-in-pictures.html)

    sjus4We left Norway (and maybe the sun) yesterday and returned to the darkness of northern Finland.  The Ruka Triple is this weekend and I can’t wait!!

  • Winter Winter Winter!!!! Ostersund ’11

    Hi Everyone,

    The snow is flying and winter is in full swing here in blustery Sweden!

    Er… wait… that’s not right.  Oh yeah, that was last November.  This year is a whole different ball of wax, or ball of mud as it were.

    We arrived last Tuesday to above-freezing temps and nothing but green Swedish tundra to look at as we descended through the clouds of Jamtland.  But not to be outdone by the milquetoast meteorological conditions, the Ostersund venue organizers planned accordingly and stowed away close to 40,000 cubic meters of snow during end of last winter.  They buried it under a blanket of sawdust and let it sit all summer until it came time for biathletes from around the world to make Ostersund there preseason training ground once again.  There is presently a nice 4km loop that spans the entirety of all the various race courses that will be used for the World Cup starting in a little over  a week.

    The training has been pretty good so far and other than the stark contrast of green grass directly adjacent to white snow, the conditions are pretty normal.  I’ve spent the majority of my time getting used to the feeling of snow again – lots of skiing and getting used to skis on the feet while shooting.  Tomorrow is the first Time Trial of the year on snow.  I’m looking forward to racing the Ostersund course once again!

    Other than that, I spent the first week here pining for my beloved laptop which decided to crash the day before I left the States.  After arriving at Apple Store in Albany,  a brief trip to Tennessee, back to LP, then across the pond with teammate Annelies Cook, my little window to the world is back with me once again.  I was a little saddened to realize how attached I am to this internet thing.  While my computer was away, I had to do things like read actual books and play my guitar to occupy my free time rather than stare at a digital screen.  I cruised through some serious reading and was a little reluctant to turn the beast back on when it arrived.  But, you can only stare out into the depths of Swedish darkness for so long before the eyes yearn for something brighter… like a laptop screen.  So, after a brief hiatus from the 21st century world gadgets and gizmos, I am now back online, fully pixillating my way from one site to the next as the hum of the hard drive whistles and whirs beneath my fleeting key-taps.

    -Lowell

     

  • Sjusjøen Recap

    Finally, the World Cup season is under way. The individual 10/15km freestyle races this past weekend had some predictable performances (the Norwegian women) and some not so predictable performances (Swedish men).

    Men

    Let’s focus on just three of the men with notable performances on Saturday:

    Definitely strong races for each of these guys, but there are some differences. Note that in Johan Olsson’s case, the past three seasons have seen him more or less plateau, and maybe even fall off a bit. He hasn’t laid down an effort quite like that in some time. Given his age and the trend over the past few seasons, I’d guess that we aren’t going to see Olsson pull this rabbit out of his hat each weekend, but you never know.

    Calle Halfvarsson, on the other hand, is quite young, only around 22 I believe. For some reason I had it in my head that he was more of a sprinter, but looking back at his results I see now that he’s not quite that lopsided. He has racked up a 1st and 5th place in the WJC sprints, and several top 30 appearances in WC sprints, once as high as 9th. His distance results haven’t looked quite as impressive, but they certainly haven’t been poor. One interesting point to make is that after some strong WJC results, Halfvarsson had some strong results in WC races last season, including the sprints I mentioned. But he didn’t fare well at U23′s last year, finishing 23rd, 25th and 27th. This is a good reminder that you can’t put too much emphasis on a single set of championship level races in evaluating skiers.

    All that said, this Saturday’s race was clearly out of the ordinary for him. I’d guess this performance is a good sign for him, but I wouldn’t expect him to do this every weekend this year. Even if this is his best result of the season, and the rest of his races fall between this performance and his median from last year, that would represent an enormous jump.

    There was plenty of excitement about Alex Harvey’s 5th place, particularly on this side of the Atlantic. In contrast with Olsson and Halfvarsson, though, this result doesn’t look nearly as extreme for Harvey. If anything, I’d call this a strong race, but not at the outer limits of what he’s shown before. That’s why I’m taking Alex Harvey very seriously this season.

    Women

    To be honest I’m a little bored by the Norwegian Domination (impressed, but a bit bored) so I’m just going to look at two of the American’s:

    Kikkan showed touches of this kind of performance last season, so it’s exciting to see it come to the surface right off the bat in the season opener. I don’t think she’ll be enough of a threat in distance events to be a serious podium threat in the stage races, but that’s mostly a reflection of how little weight the sprint races get in those events. If the sprint races were actually given equal footing in terms of time penalties, she might be giving some of the Norwegians a run for their money in the stage races with distance performances like these.

    Similarly, it’s awesome to Liz Stephen get off to a strong start. Hopefully this will be a confidence builder for her. She essentially matched her career best, but the follow-up question is whether she can improve on it. I want to see her bust through to the Elite range a few times this season.

    Miscellaneous

    Over at NordicXplained, they commented that the margin of victory in the men’s race seemed unusually large. Close races are of course expected in mass starts, but they have become fairly routine in interval start races as well. How big was Olsson’s winning margin? Well…

    These are the winning margins for men’s interval start races over the past five seasons. I’ve scaled the margins by race distance, for a somewhat fairer comparison. Olsson’a margin is certainly quite large. Not unprecedented, but quite unusual.

    Related posts:

    1. <Gällivare Recap: North Americans
    2. <Gällivare Recap: Europeans
    3. <Kuusamo WC Recap: North Americans


  • Wax Clinic Schedule for CyclovaXC (All Welcome, Free to Attend)

    Hello Everybody,
    At CyclovaXC we understand that the process of preparing your skis can be a daunting task.  For that reason, we have broken up the waxing process into 7 separate wax clinics.  We highly recommend these clinics for both novices and experienced skiers as the industry standard for waxing evolves every year.  Why cost yourself valuable minutes and energy in your races by persisting in waxing your skis with last year’s methods?
    These clinics are completely free and everyone is welcome to attend.  As an added bonus, you will have the opportunity to purchase wax and waxing tools at a 10% discount after the clinics!
    Come and join the fun folks at CyclovaXC and learn how to get everything out of your skis, your wax, and (most importantly) yourself!

    Clinic Schedule:

    Saturday, December 3 @ 6PM: Mike Lundeen of Toko and Madshus leads a clinic for all levels of skiers – from Olympians to first timers on glide waxing fundamentals. In this clinic, we will highlight the fundamentals of how to apply glide wax. It is more important to apply wax properly, than to buy the spendy stuff. Learn to make the most of the time & money you spend on glide waxing, by applying it properly. All are welcome and keep in mind that you will receive a 10% discount on any wax or tool purchase during this wax clinic! Additionally, we will soon be announcing some very special VIP guests for a never before seen presentation on XC Ski design and manufacturing. Stay tuned…
    Thursday, December 15 @ 6PM: Frank Lundeen on de-mystifying the art of grip (kick) waxing classic skis. The art of grip waxing doesn’t need to be a complicated mystery – and it won’t be if you attend this clinic. 10% off on any wax or tool purchase during this wax clinic!
    Thursday, December 29 @ 6PM: Dan Meyer, owner of Fast Wax, Polymer Scientist, and life long skier leads a clinic on fast skis with Fast Wax – made locally in the St. Croix River Valley! 10% off on any wax or tool purchase during this wax clinic!
    Thursday, January 12 @ 6PM: Frank Lundeen focuses in on ski prep for extreme cold conditions – such as those commonly found at January ski races like the Pepsi Challenge. Learn the keys to making your skis glide in those frigid squeaky January ski events! 10% off any wax or tool purchase during this wax clinic!
    Thursday, January 26 @ 6PM: Frank Lundeen zeroes in on advanced race glide waxing techniques. In this clinic, we will discuss and demonstrate advanced race glide waxing techniques used on the World Cup – tricks that will make real differences in your ski speed and race results. A few of the topics to be covered include application of flourinated glide waxes, synthetic hardeners, flourocarbons, layering of waxes, and application of structure. 10% off on any wax or tool purchase during this wax clinic!
    Thursday, February 9 @ 6PM: Waxing guru and master of fast skis Jerry Slater of the Toko Tech Team presents the inside scoop on how to prep your skis for the weekend’s Pre-Birkie and Mora Vasaloppet races. 10% off on any wax or tool purchase during this wax clinic!
    Thursday, February 23 @ 6PM: Frank Lundeen presents how to have your best skis ever at this year’s Birkie! Ski selection, structure, glide waxing, and grip waxing will be discussed and demonstrated.

    All clinics are at the CyclovaXC retail store in St. Croix Falls
    CyclovaXC
    125 North Washington St., Suite A
    St. Croix Falls, WI 54024
    (715) 483 3278


    View Larger Map

  • West Yellowstone

    Welcome to the Wild West!
    We showed up in Big Sky country on Sunday night and woke up to beautiful blue skies and snow in Bozeman, Montana. 
    Our minivan took a stone to the windshield roughly four minutes into our trip from the airport and we used that as an excuse to trade up for a bigger ride. 8-passenger Ford Expedition, baby! And we packed it to the gills with everything imaginable.
    The guy greeting us at the hotel in Bozeman gave us directions to Sourdough Canyon, and we cruised up a tracked trail that followed the contours of Bozeman Creek into the mountains.
    We spent some time getting the feel for skiing on snow, and enjoyed the sunshine.
    Coach Beckwith demonstrates some awesome weight transfer. Look how committed he is to that glide ski! Boo-yeah!
    Fitzy pauses in the horse tracks on the trail: there were all sorts of animals rollicking around in Sourdough.
    After our ski, we headed down into Bozeman. When this van pulled up alongside our car we could tell something great was about to happen. And while Fantasy Decks and Custom Interiors didn’t make our fantasy reality, we had a pretty sweet time making a budget wax bench yesterday afternoon. Here’s how it went down: 

    Steve was ready to help out with our needs at Ace Hardware.  We wanted to have a functional ski bench with minimal cost.  We found a locking, aluminum bench which cost 19.99, which needed a 2×4 stud to attach to the top so we could affix our Swix form with standard clamps.  In comes Steve and his skills with a chop saw. Watch those fingers Steve!
    The handy horse and 2×4 in the shop at Ace.

    Two thumbs up — the bench is coming into form and we’ve done nothing but crack some jokes and some brainstorming.
    At the checkout we were really starting to have fun.  Here we met Mellisa who was happy to help with the creation of our project.
    Where’s that bar code?
    Total cost = 33 and change.  No baggage fees.
    How about a balloon for the effort?

    And back into Big Ski Country with a solution to our wax bench woes — 10 minutes and we are in and out.


    After  a snowy drive down to West — which included a spectacular view of a forest fire near Big Sky Resort — we were greeted by the Halvorsen’s and an awesome chili dinner.

    Four sheet metal screws later — the bench is finished and ready to go.
    Even a little room for an iron holder!
    The GMVS team in front of our accommodations at the Faithful Street Inn.  Conditions are great and we’ve started our second training camp for the year on snow.  We’ve already had an adventure ski and two technique sessions on snow.  Heidi got in some killer intervals yesterday and we are all excited to watch and compete in some of the Super Tours.
    Lots of smiles as we meet up with old friends and make new ones.  Tonight alum Peter Kling stopped by to offer some advice and say hi.
    We’re in West until the December 1st and then up to Bozeman for Super Tours and more fun in Big Sky Country.
    Stay tuned!

  • Ball Mtn. Dam Sprint Practice

    We are on our Thanksgiving break now, but a bunch of us got together for a little intensity at Ball Mtn Dam.

    We were practicing a longer spring (1.8 km) in order to help Skyler with his pacing at the upcoming World Cups. We started out by rte 30 and finished just before the top of the hill.
    After a good warm up, we ran a prelim, then a heat, another prelim and finally a last heat. The goal was to hammer the prelim, hammer the heat, hammer…well…you get the idea.
    Issy and Anika did some inetervalsand looked good.
    Times for Prelim #1
    Skyler 4:02
    Bryan 4:05
    Gino 4:16
    Start of heat #1.
    We gave Issy a head start for the first heat and the boys caught her just at the finish.

    Heat 1:
    Skyler 4:01
    Bryan 4:02
    Issy 4:04 (plus head start)
    Gino 4:05
    It was interesting to see that all 3 boys improved in the heat. They started more relaxed and then really burned it for the last 1 km.
    Gino skied well and was able to hang tough with the “big boys”. Here he is in the 2nd prelim:
    Bryan got faster in each of his 3 “uphill” sprints. He speculated that part of the reason was knowing the course and knowing that he was fit enough to hammer the last .8 km. I figured he did not have enough warm up for his first one. We were probably both correct.
    2nd Prlim times:
    Bryan 3:57
    Skyler 4:12
    Gino 4:16
    Skyler made a bold move towards the end of heat #2 (which was easier because we switched directions) and came home with the victory.
    Skyler 3:14
    Bryan 3:16
    Gino 3:20
    Thanks to Poppet for coming by to help out and to Brooke for taking pictures after her ski.

  • West Yellowstone 24 Years:What its all about

    Current primo ski conditions in West out on Windy Ridge

    History:
    Have no idea how many of the past winters that were blessed by beginning in West but probably have spent 6 months to a year over time in West Yellowstone.

    24 years ago it was the 3rd year Nordic skiing and 2nd in Biathlon I packed my white Subaru and Maki ( Amazing Dog) and I headed west stopping en- route for some training sessions with friends. While cruising down the interstate took exit for Yellowstone Park think I rolled into Gardiner couldn’t find my hotel but luckily the Yellowstone Park was still open so I cruised through and finally arrived in West.

    That year their was no snow for a while. (I had arrived in late Oct) We actually had the Olympic tryouts here that year. The conditions turned out to be biblical in nature. Of note Curt Schriener barely 18 and Lyle Nelson at a solid 40 both representing the National Guard made the Calgary Olympic Team.
    Now unfortunately this is usually my first tracks for the year and first racing suffer fest.
    Upon arriving in Nordic Ski Paradise it is had to resist the temptation to ski myself into a virtual catatonic deathlike state twice a day.
    One has has to stay focused on the ball and limit ones self to stay on some reasonable like plan. People have to realize that XC skiing is not like Cycling, it is a weight bearing sport. One only needs enough stress to facilitate a physiological change. Most importantly is that this adaptation will only occur with the Requisite RECOVERY & REST.
    During my one week stay here I will partake in a Sprint effort, Biathlon Race(Same Day), 15km skate race, turn 46(today) and become reacquainted with the Biathlon Rifle.

  • What’s in Tim’s ear…?

    As you might have heard, there is not an excess of activities here in Mounio. When I’m not skiing or eating or writing blogs, I’ve taken up a small pet project helping my friend Tim with a little problem. There is something blocking his left ear. We are not sure what it is, perhaps a buildup of wax from his flowing locks, or some foreign object that has been lodged inside. Could it be a bug? Or maybe a raisin? I am told that gnomes also make their home in this part of the world, and one could possibly have made a home inside Tim’s head.

    Righteous Flow

    Righteous Flow

    No clues yet, but here are some of the dislodging techniques we’ve tried…

    IMG_0552

    Conventional ear wax dissolver… No luck.

    IMG_0565

    Old faithful Q-tip… nothing.

    IMG_0562

    Oh a dish soap bottle filled with warm water shooting into Tim's ear… yeah that didn't work.

    IMG_0574

    Really thought this last thing would work…

    There has been no luck getting anything out of Tim’s ear thus far. We have determined that it is quite possibly water, but really it could be anything. If anyone has any old tyme remedies or gypsy magic that you think may help, feel free to drop us a line.

  • Thanksgiving Schedule

    Franz Goering
    Photo:  Atomic Skis, GEPA/Felix Roittner

    Thanksgiving is coming up. Here’s an update on the schedule for Nordic Ultratune.

    The shop will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, Nov 24th. Skis that arrive on Wednesday or earlier will still be in the normal stone grinding batch to be shipped out on Monday Nov 28th.

    Nordic Ultratune is closed every week on Tues/Wed, and the Thanksgiving week is the same — this means I’ll get 3 days off! (no worries, FedEx and UPS deliver even when the shop is closed)

    To repeat – the stone grinding schedule carries on without interruption. Nordic Ultratune places a big emphasis on getting skis serviced and returned in the shortest time possible.

    Here’s what the stone grinding schedule looks like for the next few weeks:

    • Skis in by Nov 24th will ship out on Nov 28th
    • Skis in by Dec 1st will ship out on Dec 12th and arrive to you by Dec 8th
    • Skis arriving by Dec 8th will ship back out on Dec 19th
      There is plenty of time to get a fast stone grind on your cross country skis before the season really gets moving!     Why wait? …click here for workorder form download.

    November 2011 Nordic Ultratune Newsletter
    A lot more than I can post here. It’s a twelve page newsletter with lots of good information. Take a look (click here).

  • New Statistical Skier Features

    I’ll have a post up on Wednesday with some items from this weekends World Cup races. But I’ve been busy over the off-season and the site has seen some fairly major changes, so I need to take a second to describe what’s new.

    First, some general housekeeping. Regular readers may notice that I’m going to keep to a rigid posting schedule this winter of Mon-Wed-Fri (hopefully, this will appease the haters). There are several reasons for this, but mostly I’m just a lot busier. I’m working full-time instead of part-time and the Statistical Wife and I are expecting our first kid any week now. So, I’m going to have my hands full this winter!

    Second, I need to acknowledge the enormous contribution that Brayton Osgood, (former professional ski racer, current Dartmouth College DTeam coach, all around great guy)  has made to this site. I haven’t mentioned his presence here before, but he’s been invaluable in much of the behind the scenes web stuff. While I’m ultimately responsible for all the content on the site, Brayton has also been an important sounding board while I’m writing posts and analyzing data. I get the lion’s share of the attention for this site, but Brayton is very much a part of the Statistical Skier team. Credit where credit is due.

    Ok…here’s what new:

    User Generated Graphs

    There’s a link above the tabs to data.statisticalskier.com (or at least there should be; the PHP was acting odd this weekend. If you don’t see it, try clearing your cache). This was by far the biggest project, and allows you guys to generate some of the basic types of graphs I use on the site. There is a FAQ tab on that page that runs through some of the basics, but hopefully the forms should be fairly self explanatory.

    Please keep in mind that this page is still in beta! It might be slow, it might not work at all at times. We’ll be continuing to work on it, so hopefully it will get more polished and stable over time.

    Head over there and have fun playing around!

    Power Rankings

    I know, I know. Not another points system for ranking athletes.

    But if you think about the tools we have now, they are all percent back based systems like FIS points and they’re either a little too specific (FIS points for a specific race) or too general (FIS points profile from the entire past year). What I’d like to see is something more akin to ESPN’s Power Rankings for baseball, that captures who’s hot right now. So I went about building it.

    My starting point was a basic ELO system, like what is widely used in the chess world. It’s based on the idea that the best way to compare performance is to use individual head-to-head match-ups between two skiers. The general idea is that everyone starts with a big pile of points. Let’s be concrete and think of them as a pile of stones. If you ski in a race, that constitutes multiple ‘matches’ against all the other skiers in that race. Each skier that beats you takes a few stones from your pile and adds them to their pile. Similarly, you take a few stones from each pile of the skiers that you beat. The number of stones that changes hands is weighted according the time gap between the two skiers and the relative size of skier’s piles of stones. There are several other minor tweaks and adjustments, but that’s the basic idea.

    This is trickier to implement than it may seem. It’s a little finicky and can be sensitive to fairly arbitrary decisions about how much weight to apply to various components. But I think I’ve got it working fairly well, so we’ll give it a shot. The idea here is that this is not a serious performance measure, but a fun one. You know, the sort of thing you argue about with your coworkers at the water cooler. So don’t take it too seriously.

    The current top ten ranking will always be in the tabs in the right sidebar. The distance rankings have been updated to include this weekend’s World Cup opener. (These Power Rankings use the points from the close of the previous season as a starting point.) Each discipline lists two values, the change in rank from last week and the change in their score. Keep in mind that these scores have no units. They just represent ‘the number of stones in someone’s pile’. I’ll be updating these Power Rankings more or less weekly (following the WC schedule), and I may write a post or two talking about any interesting movement they show.

    If you’re at all familiar with ELO ranking systems, you may be aware that one of their limitations is that they assume a reasonably ‘well-mixed’ population. What that means is that it assumes that everyone is racing against everyone else fairly regularly. So the World Cup circuit is a reasonable group to apply this to, since it consists of a mostly fixed group of skiers competing against each other regularly. I have tinkered with extending this to all races, but it performs poorly. As you might imagine, the North American and European racing communities are not always very well mixed, so you end up with some pretty wild behavior.

    Race Snapshots

    I feel like people really liked the race snapshot graphs I made last season, but there were just too many of them, and they cluttered up the main page and the RSS feed. So the race snapshot graphs will all be found on a separate page (see the tab above) and will not appear in any RSS feeds. Moving these of the front page, and dialing things back to three posts a week should keep the content here more manageable and focused (and hopefully, higher quality).

    Anyway, that’s what Brayton and I have been working on all summer. Enjoy!

    Related posts:

    1. <Athlete Rankings: What’s In Your Bucket?
    2. <Introducing: Biathlete Rankings
    3. <Week In Review: Friday, June 11th


  • WC weekend in Sjusjoen Norway. Results not great. Looking…

  • First Ski: West Yellowstone Ski Festival

    Ian presenting at the annual TOKO “University”. Which runs concurrently with the Ski Festival TOKO tech reps get versed in wax updates, and other topics pertaining to skiing. Today we had an informative session on the particulars of ski flex with respect to snow conditions. Found it very insightful actually.

    First tracks this year on actual snow. This year prematurely thought that was getting in good form. This afternoon found out unfortunately rather quite harshly… that I am not in awesome form, maybe just old and washed up. Last year I spent the summer in Afghanistan and only did limited ski training prior to coming to West.
    As Josh Thompson says ” On snow is reality”
    Maybe I will have to back to Rochester and train alone on rollerskis again. Then will be able to believe that if I went out there and skied against them that I actually would be fast and strong.
    The good thing is the snow is plentiful and superbly groomed out here. Will focus on the positive.

  • Sjujsoen World Cup Opener – in Pictures!

    The first stop on the World Cup is over and this makes one week that I’ve been in Europe. Here are some pictures from the weekend: 

    Walking into the venue the first day we weren’t quite sure what to expect… 

     But Marit does… basically tons & tons of press and attention – check out the Norwegian ski  paparazzi   – simply on a training day!  What is super impressive is that yesterday was Marit’s 47th World Cup win where she finally surpassed the “king” of Cross Country Skiing, for the most World Cup wins by any athlete (I believe….) 

    Tad Elliot, my Salomon Complete buddy…. 
     Every morning and night the ground here in Lillehammer has been completely COVERED in ice making it really difficult to run, even treacherous.  I’m hoping to get a pair of Salomon’s new “Spike Cross” running shoes that have spikes drilled into the soles. It’s literally the only way to run over here right now! They look sweet too: 

    Salomon Spike Cross

    The bottom of the shoe

     Canada’s van for the season with the famous picture from World Champs – these guys have gotten a ton of mileage out of this picture, rightly so. 

    Two of the three nights at the hotel we’ve been served “Christmas Dinner” in an ornate buffet.  As far as we can tell, the World Cup coincided with some super fancy function. The result, we got to “experience” the buffet too.  And, an experience it was…. I’ve never seen anything like it. The food really seemed like art, rather than edible, nutritious food.  Check out some of the crazy pictures below…. I think there must have been close to 50 different kinds of meat when you include all the seafood, sausages and even lutefisk – basically rotten fish…. 

     The Norwegian wedding cake rocked my world as two years ago, Rob and I had one at our wedding made by our good friend Ase Haugen:


    Back to the “God Jul”…… 


    Sadie and Ida with the crustaceans…. 

     Saturday night was Graham Nish’s Birthday – Happy Birthday Graham! 

    And now…. it’s relay day! 
    USA face painting, pre-race
     Here I am rounding the final corner anchoring the women’s relay.  The other teams are Italy, Russia, Germany & Poland.  Out of this five I won a photo finish for second place! Good sprint action and a great result for our team! (photo courtesy of Kikkan!) 

    The women’s team: Ida, myself, Kikkan, Sadie & Liz
    (photo from Kikkan)

     The men’s start

     Ski race, typical Norwegian style: “Hey, do you want to go sit on the frozen ground, light a fire, drink bad black coffee and watch people ski circles in spandex?” (The answer – YES!) 

     Casey and Sadie spectating…. 

     Bird followed closely by the Russians

     Hey! 

     The men’s lead pack, leg 3

     APU Girls: Holly, Kikkan & Sadie 

     Tad Elliot (center of the picture) skiing at great leg 3 for the US men’s team 

     Kris Freeman, Andy Newell & Tad Elliot while waiting for men’s anchor, Simi Hamilton

     The whole men’s team 

    Last but not least, an anonymous plate that was filled with food for no less than one minute – before being inhaled with not one, but TWO forks. It was impressive. 

    One more day training here in Lillehammer and then the journey to Kuusamo, Finland for the Ruka triple! I can’t wait! 

    Thanks for reading!!!! More soon! 
    Holly 🙂 

  • Alive!

    Yes, though I may have seemed more than a little M.I.A. these last couple months, I’ve actually been quite busy.  It’s been pretty much the usual fall schedule since I left Alaska (with my cousin’s wedding thrown in): Utah camp, prep for snow, head to Sweden, begin skiing…you get the idea.  One major difference is that unlike last year’s frigid weather, Sweden is this year offering very little snow, and balmy, just near freezing temperatures.  But more on that later.  For now, it’s time for the here’s-what-you-missed-in-photos blog post! 

    Training in AK…you work with what you’ve got.
    My brother and me at my cousin’s wedding.  We clean up well!
    What fun is a wedding without wheelbarrow races?!  This counts as training, right?
    Rollerskiing on the loop at Soldier Hollow, Utah.  All but one day brought us amazing weather!
    Annelies, Corrine and I enjoy the sunshine on a hike in Park City.
    Along with several other people, we saw several Mountain Goats on Mt. Timpanogos!
    Annelies and me on the way down from Timp.  Snow turned us around early, but the hike was great anyway!
    Corrine shows her excitement at the dusting of snow we hiked through before I left Lake Placid for Sweden.  Ironically, there’s more snow in this picture than in Ostersund!

  • Skiing the Sibley Ski Tour Back in ’95 or so

    I was just digging through some old photos when I came across this one from the Sibley Ski Tour from about fifteen years ago.  Frank and I are decked out in the original Riverbrook duds that we designed after a rollerski down at Lake Wissota Park.  This suit became known as the “icicle” suit since back then the sublimating companies couldn’t do a fade, so they just dribbled icicles on the fade areas (it was effective enough from a distance).  Oh, that was also a one piece suit which seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur.
    You know…the whole one piece versus two piece argument isn’t a slam dunk.  Sure, the two piece is a lot more convenient for things like going to the bathroom before a race.  But it’s like Mike says, when you zip up that one piece suit, you just feel complete.
    Anyway, I seem to remember this being a brutally cold race and the fact that we’re both wearing neck warmers seems to attest to that.
    Sigh…to be fifteen years younger again, oh well.
    But as you can see, Frank and I have been doing this ski thing for a loooooong time!

  • World Cup Start- New sponsor

    So it is officially that time of year again, and I could not be more happy. The times of roller-skiing, running and bike are officially over which is good!

    Tomorrow, Nov. 19th we are leaving for the first period of world cups in Finland and Norway. To say the least our team is very excited and ready to go. I feel like I have had a very solid summer of training and I should be well prepared for these first competitions.

    The crews in Utah have done a fantastic job to get the hill prepared well, so  we could get plenty of jumps before we take off tomorrow. Also, the people at Park City mountain resort, have been very nice to allow us to ski on the alpine resort for cross country.   I have been very happy with these last finishing touches on my preparation for the season, there is not much more that I can do, but work on the mental side.

    Also, I am proud to announce that I have a new sponsor the the 2011/2012 season. Fast Big Dog Racing is aboard the train for the year, and I could not be more pumped. Fast Big Dog Racing is passionate about supporting up and coming skiers and helping them with financial responsibilities that come from skiing.

    Now it is time for dinner, and stuffing the last little items into my duffel. Stay tuned for updates from these first two weekends of competition, and look for positive results!

    Taylor

  • World Cup Start- New sponsor

    So it is officially that time of year again, and I could not be more happy. The times of roller-skiing, running and bike are officially over which is good!

    Tomorrow, Nov. 19th we are leaving for the first period of world cups in Finland and Norway. To say the least our team is very excited and ready to go. I feel like I have had a very solid summer of training and I should be well prepared for these first competitions.

    The crews in Utah have done a fantastic job to get the hill prepared well, so  we could get plenty of jumps before we take off tomorrow. Also, the people at Park City mountain resort, have been very nice to allow us to ski on the alpine resort for cross country.   I have been very happy with these last finishing touches on my preparation for the season, there is not much more that I can do, but work on the mental side.

    Also, I am proud to announce that I have a new sponsor the the 2011/2012 season. Fast Big Dog Racing is aboard the train for the year, and I could not be more pumped. Fast Big Dog Racing is passionate about supporting up and coming skiers and helping them with financial responsibilities that come from skiing.

    Now it is time for dinner, and stuffing the last little items into my duffel. Stay tuned for updates from these first two weekends of competition, and look for positive results!

    Taylor