FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • Short Post On Slovenia And Czech Republic

    I had hoped to have actual racing to write about by this week, but as we all know the snow situation in Europe hasn’t been cooperating. Hopefully we’ll finally get some racing done this weekend.

    In the meantime, everyone keeps writing their little nation previews. FasterSkier’s piece on Slovenia mentioned an up and coming junior with the impressive sounding name of Rok Trsan. How are his FIS points compared to future WC top ten finishers at his age?

    A little better than average for distance events, not so much with the sprinting. Although at this age, particularly with sprint points, it can be hard to read much into this.

    As for the Czech’s, as usual I’m more interested in the folks not named Lukas Bauer:

    I left Ondrej Horyna off this graph as he simply has too few races to be worth looking at. Jiri Magal has been on a slow decline, which is natural for older skiers. He did have fewer truly terrible races last season, which helped improve his median result a bit. Looking back at his career, I’d love to ask him what happened between 2001 and 2002. He was definitely progressing in the wrong direction and just turned everything around. Well done!

    Everyone else here has been seeing a mostly even trend. Janeckova flirts with ok-ness every now and then. Kozisek had a particularly poor year last year. And Nyvltova put together two, consistent seasons in a row, but her best results remain fairly average.

    Hopefully after the weekend I’ll have some actual racing to write about…

    Related posts:

    1. <Post-WJC/U23 Development: Canada
    2. <Post-WJC/U23 Development: Germany
    3. <Post-WJC/U23 Development: Italy


  • Short Post On Slovenia And Czech Republic

    I had hoped to have actual racing to write about by this week, but as we all know the snow situation in Europe hasn’t been cooperating. Hopefully we’ll finally get some racing done this weekend.

    In the meantime, everyone keeps writing their little nation previews. FasterSkier’s piece on Slovenia mentioned an up and coming junior with the impressive sounding name of Rok Trsan. How are his FIS points compared to future WC top ten finishers at his age?

    A little better than average for distance events, not so much with the sprinting. Although at this age, particularly with sprint points, it can be hard to read much into this.

    As for the Czech’s, as usual I’m more interested in the folks not named Lukas Bauer:

    I left Ondrej Horyna off this graph as he simply has too few races to be worth looking at. Jiri Magal has been on a slow decline, which is natural for older skiers. He did have fewer truly terrible races last season, which helped improve his median result a bit. Looking back at his career, I’d love to ask him what happened between 2001 and 2002. He was definitely progressing in the wrong direction and just turned everything around. Well done!

    Everyone else here has been seeing a mostly even trend. Janeckova flirts with ok-ness every now and then. Kozisek had a particularly poor year last year. And Nyvltova put together two, consistent seasons in a row, but her best results remain fairly average.

    Hopefully after the weekend I’ll have some actual racing to write about…

    Related posts:

    1. <Post-WJC/U23 Development: Canada
    2. <Post-WJC/U23 Development: Germany
    3. <Post-WJC/U23 Development: Italy


  • Short Post On Slovenia And Czech Republic

    I had hoped to have actual racing to write about by this week, but as we all know the snow situation in Europe hasn’t been cooperating. Hopefully we’ll finally get some racing done this weekend.

    In the meantime, everyone keeps writing their little nation previews. FasterSkier’s piece on Slovenia mentioned an up and coming junior with the impressive sounding name of Rok Trsan. How are his FIS points compared to future WC top ten finishers at his age?

    A little better than average for distance events, not so much with the sprinting. Although at this age, particularly with sprint points, it can be hard to read much into this.

    As for the Czech’s, as usual I’m more interested in the folks not named Lukas Bauer:

    I left Ondrej Horyna off this graph as he simply has too few races to be worth looking at. Jiri Magal has been on a slow decline, which is natural for older skiers. He did have fewer truly terrible races last season, which helped improve his median result a bit. Looking back at his career, I’d love to ask him what happened between 2001 and 2002. He was definitely progressing in the wrong direction and just turned everything around. Well done!

    Everyone else here has been seeing a mostly even trend. Janeckova flirts with ok-ness every now and then. Kozisek had a particularly poor year last year. And Nyvltova put together two, consistent seasons in a row, but her best results remain fairly average.

    Hopefully after the weekend I’ll have some actual racing to write about…

    Related posts:

    1. <Post-WJC/U23 Development: Canada
    2. <Post-WJC/U23 Development: Germany
    3. <Post-WJC/U23 Development: Italy


  • Course Preview

    Starting Saturday and going into next week, we’re doing “Nationals Week”. We’ll start with a sprints on Saturday and then follow up with a skate TT on Monday and a classic TT on Wednesday before heading out after classes on Friday for Thanksgiving break. Today we previewed our distance course out in the town of Stratton on skate skis. We had another day of beautiful weather! Mid-50s, sunny, and shirtless (for a few of the boys).

    Kate, Brooke, & Mollie get ready to roll.
    Issy and Tyler skied off the front today.
    Kate & Brooke.
    Charlie, Skyler & Calvin.
    Mac leads a train of boys.
    Corky.
    Paddy, Hamish, & Gino.Mac, Gino, Charlie, Skyler, & Boobar.Just passing by the 10k start – the whole team started at the 15k start and skied through the whole course.
    Big team!
    Mollie.
    Anika.
    Tyler & Issy.

  • Course Preview

    Starting Saturday and going into next week, we’re doing “Nationals Week”. We’ll start with a sprints on Saturday and then follow up with a skate TT on Monday and a classic TT on Wednesday before heading out after classes on Friday for Thanksgiving break. Today we previewed our distance course out in the town of Stratton on skate skis. We had another day of beautiful weather! Mid-50s, sunny, and shirtless (for a few of the boys).

    Kate, Brooke, & Mollie get ready to roll.
    Issy and Tyler skied off the front today.
    Kate & Brooke.
    Charlie, Skyler & Calvin.
    Mac leads a train of boys.
    Corky.
    Paddy, Hamish, & Gino.Mac, Gino, Charlie, Skyler, & Boobar.Just passing by the 10k start – the whole team started at the 15k start and skied through the whole course.
    Big team!
    Mollie.
    Anika.
    Tyler & Issy.

  • A cool time-lapse of the Ostersund sunset

    Suur aitäh to Scott Edmunds for the video.

  • A cool time-lapse of the Ostersund sunset

    Suur aitäh to Scott Edmunds for the video.

  • A cool time-lapse of the Ostersund sunset

    Suur aitäh to Scott Edmunds for the video.

  • Photo

  • Photo

  • Photo

  • First photos from Ostersund, Sweden

  • First photos from Ostersund, Sweden

  • First photos from Ostersund, Sweden

  • Lack of Snow, Tons of Snow & Sjujsoen!

    We just got word that the World Cup races scheduled for next weekend in Norway are on!  The only caveat…. there is currently bare ground at the chosen venue, Sjujsoen!  But, leave it up to the Norwegians to pull off a ski race in sub-par conditions!  This morning over a cup of coffee Rob likened it to the US cancelling the Super Bowl.  While the first World Cups of the season aren’t a championship event, maybe this is better compared to a regular season NFL game…. 
    The cool thing is that I am familiar with Sjujsoen.  Last season a bunch of us chose Sjujsoen to conduct our pre-World Champs training camp.  Sjujsoen is a small ski resort located right outside (above) Lillehammer.  When we were there they had AWESOME skiing and great trails.  The groomers groomed constantly so there were always fresh tracks.  The Norwegian Birkebeiner course also goes through this area.  
    I am certain that this trip to Sjujsoen will be a bit different. We were just instructed in an email from Chris Grover, the US Ski Team Coach to organize bringing roller skis for training.  Apparently the snow situation in Kuusamo, Finland, the next stop on the World Cup is bare at the moment as well. 
    As difficult as it is to leave Alaska where there is plenty of snow and the conditions are quite literally PERFECT I’m excited to go.  I certainly don’t train my butt off year round to stay at home and train!  If only the World Cup could come to Alaska!  
    More soon – we have a classic sprint time trial ON SNOW this morning! 
    Cheers, 
    Holly 🙂 

  • Lack of Snow, Tons of Snow & Sjujsoen!

    We just got word that the World Cup races scheduled for next weekend in Norway are on!  The only caveat…. there is currently bare ground at the chosen venue, Sjujsoen!  But, leave it up to the Norwegians to pull off a ski race in sub-par conditions!  This morning over a cup of coffee Rob likened it to the US cancelling the Super Bowl.  While the first World Cups of the season aren’t a championship event, maybe this is better compared to a regular season NFL game…. 
    The cool thing is that I am familiar with Sjujsoen.  Last season a bunch of us chose Sjujsoen to conduct our pre-World Champs training camp.  Sjujsoen is a small ski resort located right outside (above) Lillehammer.  When we were there they had AWESOME skiing and great trails.  The groomers groomed constantly so there were always fresh tracks.  The Norwegian Birkebeiner course also goes through this area.  
    I am certain that this trip to Sjujsoen will be a bit different. We were just instructed in an email from Chris Grover, the US Ski Team Coach to organize bringing roller skis for training.  Apparently the snow situation in Kuusamo, Finland, the next stop on the World Cup is bare at the moment as well. 
    As difficult as it is to leave Alaska where there is plenty of snow and the conditions are quite literally PERFECT I’m excited to go.  I certainly don’t train my butt off year round to stay at home and train!  If only the World Cup could come to Alaska!  
    More soon – we have a classic sprint time trial ON SNOW this morning! 
    Cheers, 
    Holly 🙂 

  • Pre-race pickups, parking and getting pumped

    The trails were busy again today, this time with skiers stopping and starting along the track to do pre-race pick-ups, starts, and other trail-clogging activities. By now, all of the teams competing in this weekend’s races have arrived, which means, in addition to heavy traffic on the trails, a packed parking lot.

    Since we started skiing at Olos over two weeks ago, the 8am occupancy of the lot has increased from a single, unaccompanied, and seemingly ever-present Russia National Team van, to a multi-rowed parking puzzle. Among the Volvo’s, Peugot’s, VW’s and an assortment of squarish van-buses, an entertaining picture of the European ski world is painted in the form of sponsorship logos, team name translations, and a nice coat of wintery dirt.

    russia

    These folks have sure been doing a lot of training. And driving, it appears.

    Some teams just have it better than others.

    Some teams just have it better than others.

    Like, a lot better:

    deutsch

    Like, WAY better:

    blr

    Trends being what are, Team USA should probably look into one of these.

    Some people might like this method of transportation, which is certainly cost-efficient:

    optiwax

    But I’ll stick with my ride:

    I'll stick with my ride, thanks.

    You can rest assured that we will claim our regular parking spot tomorrow morning, exactly on time. And, with the expertise of our Finnish wax tech, Petri, the tireless work of our coach, Pepa, and a solid summer and fall of training behind us, we have everything we need to be ready for our first race. Now it’s just about getting on the line, going as hard as you can, and going even harder when you hear Pepa screaming “Come on baby!!” from the side of the trail.

  • Pre-race pickups, parking and getting pumped

    The trails were busy again today, this time with skiers stopping and starting along the track to do pre-race pick-ups, starts, and other trail-clogging activities. By now, all of the teams competing in this weekend’s races have arrived, which means, in addition to heavy traffic on the trails, a packed parking lot.

    Since we started skiing at Olos over two weeks ago, the 8am occupancy of the lot has increased from a single, unaccompanied, and seemingly ever-present Russia National Team van, to a multi-rowed parking puzzle. Among the Volvo’s, Peugot’s, VW’s and an assortment of squarish van-buses, an entertaining picture of the European ski world is painted in the form of sponsorship logos, team name translations, and a nice coat of wintery dirt.

    russia

    These folks have sure been doing a lot of training. And driving, it appears.

    Some teams just have it better than others.

    Some teams just have it better than others.

    Like, a lot better:

    deutsch

    Like, WAY better:

    blr

    Trends being what are, Team USA should probably look into one of these.

    Some people might like this method of transportation, which is certainly cost-efficient:

    optiwax

    But I’ll stick with my ride:

    I'll stick with my ride, thanks.

    You can rest assured that we will claim our regular parking spot tomorrow morning, exactly on time. And, with the expertise of our Finnish wax tech, Petri, the tireless work of our coach, Pepa, and a solid summer and fall of training behind us, we have everything we need to be ready for our first race. Now it’s just about getting on the line, going as hard as you can, and going even harder when you hear Pepa screaming “Come on baby!!” from the side of the trail.

  • Pre-race pickups, parking and getting pumped

    The trails were busy again today, this time with skiers stopping and starting along the track to do pre-race pick-ups, starts, and other trail-clogging activities. By now, all of the teams competing in this weekend’s races have arrived, which means, in addition to heavy traffic on the trails, a packed parking lot.

    Since we started skiing at Olos over two weeks ago, the 8am occupancy of the lot has increased from a single, unaccompanied, and seemingly ever-present Russia National Team van, to a multi-rowed parking puzzle. Among the Volvo’s, Peugot’s, VW’s and an assortment of squarish van-buses, an entertaining picture of the European ski world is painted in the form of sponsorship logos, team name translations, and a nice coat of wintery dirt.

    russia

    These folks have sure been doing a lot of training. And driving, it appears.

    Some teams just have it better than others.

    Some teams just have it better than others.

    Like, a lot better:

    deutsch

    Like, WAY better:

    blr

    Trends being what are, Team USA should probably look into one of these.

    Some people might like this method of transportation, which is certainly cost-efficient:

    optiwax

    But I’ll stick with my ride:

    I'll stick with my ride, thanks.

    You can rest assured that we will claim our regular parking spot tomorrow morning, exactly on time. And, with the expertise of our Finnish wax tech, Petri, the tireless work of our coach, Pepa, and a solid summer and fall of training behind us, we have everything we need to be ready for our first race. Now it’s just about getting on the line, going as hard as you can, and going even harder when you hear Pepa screaming “Come on baby!!” from the side of the trail.

  • brief summer update

    This update is way over due. I am going to start bliggidy bloggin more often now that the races are about to begin.
    It’s been a really good summer for me. I was able to get in some high quality training, in places that I had never been before. Training with the World Cup Team for the first time was amazing. Alex, Devon, and Ivan are incredible athletes; I am trying to soak up all the helpful advice that they give me.
    First, though I took a month off and my summer started off with a little bit of fun in the sun.  I spent two windy weeks in Maui windsurfing. This was my first time in Hawaii, and I LOVED it. I rented a beauty of a car while I was there. Let me tell you, it’s not your usual rental car that’s for sure. Before leaving Toronto, the owner of the rental car company left me a voicemail saying “Aloha, the car will be waiting for you in the parking lot just outside of Arrivals. It’s a grey Nissan Sentra, and the keys are in the ignition.” The man wasn’t kidding; I found the car at the end of the parking lot ready to rock.
    I contemplated waiting in Maui for an additional 4 weeks until our team training camp, but then I remembered that I am a Cross Country skier not a windsurfer.  
    Our first team training camp of the summer was held in Bend, Or. This place was really cool, we stayed in amazing rental houses in the warm desert climate, and skiing was only a 25-minute drive away. This camp was a perfect time for Justin to help me dial in my technique, it was time to get rid of my old bad habits. The US national team was training in Bend at the same time as us. It was good to meet the new members of the team and do some intensity workouts together. 
    After the Bend camp, it was time for the first ever Hawaii training camp. The training was absolutely amazing. We pounded out two weeks of really quality training. Most of our training was done climbing the hot and steep roads of the Haleakala Volcano. This is a big hill, its 38 miles of steady climbing. 4 hours of biking/rollerskiing/running still left us short of the summit. We had a couple easier days during the camp, so we all went to catch some Hawaiian Waves. I am sure that the whole team would agree with me, saying that this was the best camp ever. We then flew straight to Canmore to finish off the second half of the training block.
    I spent the next couple weeks training on my own. I spent 6 days fishing in Alaska with my teammate Dave Greer, and then made my way home for some RR by the lake.
    Before I got too settled down at home, it was time for the New Zealand man camp and the NZ Winter Games races. Skiing was amazing at the snow farm this year. Almost everyday was sunny. We were able to put in some long hard training days.

    During my time at home, I had the privilege to go and help out at the SOD training camp at Hardwood Ski and Bike. Hardwood is the ski centre where it all began for me, they were the ones who taught me how to ski! I was really excited to help coach, talk, and train with the 120+ kids that came out to the camp.  

    The final training camps were held in Park City, Canmore, and Whistler. The first three weeks were at altitude with lots of hours, and the week in Whistler was a low altitude intensity camp. I was feeling pretty tired after all the altitude training that I didn’t perform all that well in Whistler. It was all part of the plan to be tired in Whistler and enjoy a nice easy week after to recover.
    The final three weeks I spent in Quebec preparing for the Fall World Cups in Scandinavia.
    This was a super brief rundown of how my summer went, I will keep you updated regularly now with news from Europe.