FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • New Territory in New York

    Watch it right here or at our Vimeo page click: HERE

  • New Territory in New York

    Watch it right here or at our Vimeo page click: HERE

  • Combi OD

    We finished our training week with a combi OD. It was a beautiful day and we had most of our winter term kids join us for the afternoon.

    Helena and Alex chase their shadows.
    Skyler, Murph and friends.
    Issy is happy to be done with first quarter finals and SAT’s.
    Team Revived Films.
    Everyone switched to running gear and ran on the West River Trail up to South Londonderry. We sent them out in three different groups, 10 minutes apart, with the goal of having everyone finish close together. It worked almost perfectly :).

    Katharine, Mackenzie, Corky, Mac, Issy and Kate.
    Happy girls.
    The third group crosses the campground bridge, only 3 more miles to go.

    After the workout, everyone went to the Caldwell house for dinner (thanks Lilly).

    The 8th grade girls ended the day with a little frisbee practice.

  • Combi OD

    We finished our training week with a combi OD. It was a beautiful day and we had most of our winter term kids join us for the afternoon.

    Helena and Alex chase their shadows.
    Skyler, Murph and friends.
    Issy is happy to be done with first quarter finals and SAT’s.
    Team Revived Films.
    Everyone switched to running gear and ran on the West River Trail up to South Londonderry. We sent them out in three different groups, 10 minutes apart, with the goal of having everyone finish close together. It worked almost perfectly :).

    Katharine, Mackenzie, Corky, Mac, Issy and Kate.
    Happy girls.
    The third group crosses the campground bridge, only 3 more miles to go.

    After the workout, everyone went to the Caldwell house for dinner (thanks Lilly).

    The 8th grade girls ended the day with a little frisbee practice.

  • My Rollerskis Exploded!

    Well…I guess that’s the last time I ski on rollerskis that I didn’t buy at CyclovaXC.  You see that section with the blue wheel and the bolt?  Yeah…that’s supposed to be attached to that big, gaping hole on the rollerski. For the record, these are a pair of Proskis that I probably bought about 15 years ago, and it’s pretty hard to calculate the total number of hours I’ve spent on them, but

  • My Rollerskis Exploded!

    Well…I guess that’s the last time I ski on rollerskis that I didn’t buy at CyclovaXC.  You see that section with the blue wheel and the bolt?  Yeah…that’s supposed to be attached to that big, gaping hole on the rollerski. For the record, these are a pair of Proskis that I probably bought about 15 years ago, and it’s pretty hard to calculate the total number of hours I’ve spent on them, but it’s easily in the 1,000 to 1,500 range, maybe more.
    The actual moment of these skis blowing out is kind of an interesting story.  I was doing a 6 AM ski with John (I haven’t gotten the guy’s last name yet).  We were just going casually along on the bike trail, and fortunately we had already turned around and were well on our way back when BOOM!
    Apparently the stress caused just from that bolt hole was enough to erode the structural integrity of the ski (after 15 years and 1,500 hours of training).  The fact that I’m a bigger man now than I was in my 1st wave Birkie days probably didn’t help (and the fact that the back wheel gets most of the torque and pressure put on it).  If you look at the above picture, you can see that the other rollerski is about to blow out too.  All those cracks around the bolt shouldn’t be there.
    Anyway, I’d just survived a road crossing when there was suddenly a loud grinding sound coupled with the sensation that my foot had fallen into a hole or something.  Amazingly (I’m about to go off about my tremendous skiing skills), I didn’t collapse into a wad, but managed to slow down jumping from ski to ski until I could finally just bail into a ditch.
    The thing about skiing is that it’s not like biking.  In biking, when you fall it’s usually onto your side and you’re able to slide gently across the pavement (unless it’s in a race, then you’re flipping forward and breaking your collarbone).  In skiing, you’re going to faceplant and it’s going to tweak your thumbs, wrists and ankles.  I landed softly enough, however, that I wasn’t hurt at all.
    It was a little bit shocking, however, to look back at the mangled end of my rollerski and see that the wheel was completely gone.  I was expecting that a twig or something had gotten jammed in it…not that the wheel was gone!  John looked at it and said, “wow…that completely failed!”
    Yup, rollerski fail!  Fortunately CyclovaXC stocks tremendous one-way rollerskis and I’m on my way to buy a pair tomorrow!  
    Oh…if anybody wants to buy some blue Pro-ski wheels with quite a bit of meat left on them, just let me know!  I have four to sell as you can see.

  • My Rollerskis Exploded!

    Well…I guess that’s the last time I ski on rollerskis that I didn’t buy at CyclovaXC.  You see that section with the blue wheel and the bolt?  Yeah…that’s supposed to be attached to that big, gaping hole on the rollerski. For the record, these are a pair of Proskis that I probably bought about 15 years ago, and it’s pretty hard to calculate the total number of hours I’ve spent on them, but

  • My Rollerskis Exploded!

    Well…I guess that’s the last time I ski on rollerskis that I didn’t buy at CyclovaXC.  You see that section with the blue wheel and the bolt?  Yeah…that’s supposed to be attached to that big, gaping hole on the rollerski. For the record, these are a pair of Proskis that I probably bought about 15 years ago, and it’s pretty hard to calculate the total number of hours I’ve spent on them, but

  • 1970s Vintage XC Skiing Gear Ads

    A ski down memory lane on the forgotten xc skiing gear of the 1970s.

  • Presenting the 2011 CyclovaXC Race Suit!

    Ok folks! Here it is, the design that’s about to take the XC world by storm!  I just e-signed the approval form, so this is the CyclovaXC suit for the 2011 season (and beyond as I don’t see us redoing this anytime soon).  After careful consideration, we decided to only offer the “Pro” model.  Initially we had thought about doing a “Team” suit as well, but once we got the fabric in the store for

  • Presenting the 2011 CyclovaXC Race Suit!

    Ok folks! Here it is, the design that’s about to take the XC world by storm!  I just e-signed the approval form, so this is the CyclovaXC suit for the 2011 season (and beyond as I don’t see us redoing this anytime soon).  After careful consideration, we decided to only offer the “Pro” model.  Initially we had thought about doing a “Team” suit as well, but once we got the fabric in the store for the fitting kit, it was just obvious that the “Pro” material is of much higher quality.
    As you can see, the top is almost the same as the top we offered for our long sleeve biking jersey.  This is good because it means that pretty much all our team gear goes together (speaking of that, if anyone is interested in ordering our team jacket or our team vest, I’m doing a reorder along with the ski suit order, so contact me about your size at: bj@cyclovaxc.com).
    The price is 150 + tax for a total of $158.25.  This is an extremely low price for a suit of this quality, so we urge anybody who is thinking of skiing this year to pick this up.  Heck, if you end up not racing, this stuff makes great thermal underwear (it’s a good buy).
    Some things about the design I wanted to point out:

    • You’ll notice that the “backside” area is black, most people that I talked to requested this
    • I don’t know if you can see it in the above rendering, but on one side of the suit’s top it says “Ski Like Landgraf” and on the other side it says “St. Croix Falls, WI  (715) 483 3278”
    • The fabric is “Eyelet Mesh Fabric,” which is reportedly a little warmer than the “Tobago” material of our previous suit (I tried a sizing kit suit on today and it did feel super warm)
    • The sizing kit is currently at the CyclovaXC retail store and I highly recommend you go in there and try it on.  The fit of these suits seems a little tighter than the previous suit
    • Tall sizes are available

    I need to get our order in to Mt. Borah as soon as possible to ensure that the suits will be ready by ski season.  For that reason, you have until November 11th, to contact me with your order (bj@cyclovaxc.com), and to send your checks into the shop.
    Checks can be made payable to CyclovaXC and mailed to:
    P.O. Box 187
    St. Croix Falls, WI 54024
    Buying our suit qualifies you as a “core” team member at CyclovaXC which means you’ll be receiving a 10% discount on select items (if you’re planning on skiing a lot, buying one of these suits is going to save you money in the long term).
    Re-orders for Vests ($75) and Jackets ($145) can also be made at this time.
    The order is going in on November 11th, so make sure you contact me.  After that date, the suit price goes up to $165 where it will stay.

  • Presenting the 2011 CyclovaXC Race Suit!

    Ok folks! Here it is, the design that’s about to take the XC world by storm!  I just e-signed the approval form, so this is the CyclovaXC suit for the 2011 season (and beyond as I don’t see us redoing this anytime soon).  After careful consideration, we decided to only offer the “Pro” model.  Initially we had thought about doing a “Team” suit as well, but once we got the fabric in the store for

  • Chilly Morning at Lot 1

    It seems that everyone on our team loves Lot 1. Whenever someone pokes their head into the office to ask where we’re going for practice and “Lot 1” is our answer, we get lots of smiles (Rizio usually shouts “YES!” and runs down the hall to get ready). It’s a great place to have the team all in one spot and zipping around working on speed, starts, agility, technique, you name it. This morning we had a fun workout at Lot 1, focusing mostly on technique and agility. We warmed up with some no pole tuck skating down the hill and headed back up with some “2-V2” and then got into a Figure 8 race (video coming).

    Paddy.
    Charlie.
    Anika.
    Hamish.
    Tess.

    Gino – definitely cold enough this morning for a buff.
    Kate.
    Issy.
    Mollie.
    Murph.
    Gino, Tyler, Hamish.
    Mackenzie & Kate.
    Charlie, Mac, & Calvin.
    Can you guess what these guys are doing?
    Yep. Skiing backwards.
    Skyler might be pretty darn fast, but he’s human too. : )
    At least he’s a great sport about it!
    We wrapped up with some downhill speeds, trying out a variety of techniques (tuck skate, V2, V2 alternate, etc.) to see what is fastest.
    Tyler.
    Skyler & Paddy.

    Team discussion (“Raise your hand if you thought V2 alternate was fastest!”) before heading in for lunch.

  • Chilly Morning at Lot 1

    It seems that everyone on our team loves Lot 1. Whenever someone pokes their head into the office to ask where we’re going for practice and “Lot 1” is our answer, we get lots of smiles (Rizio usually shouts “YES!” and runs down the hall to get ready). It’s a great place to have the team all in one spot and zipping around working on speed, starts, agility, technique, you name it. This morning we had a fun workout at Lot 1, focusing mostly on technique and agility. We warmed up with some no pole tuck skating down the hill and headed back up with some “2-V2” and then got into a Figure 8 race (video coming).

    Paddy.
    Charlie.
    Anika.
    Hamish.
    Tess.

    Gino – definitely cold enough this morning for a buff.
    Kate.
    Issy.
    Mollie.
    Murph.
    Gino, Tyler, Hamish.
    Mackenzie & Kate.
    Charlie, Mac, & Calvin.
    Can you guess what these guys are doing?
    Yep. Skiing backwards.
    Skyler might be pretty darn fast, but he’s human too. : )
    At least he’s a great sport about it!
    We wrapped up with some downhill speeds, trying out a variety of techniques (tuck skate, V2, V2 alternate, etc.) to see what is fastest.
    Tyler.
    Skyler & Paddy.

    Team discussion (“Raise your hand if you thought V2 alternate was fastest!”) before heading in for lunch.

  • Mt. Elmore TT with Burke

    We trucked up to Mt Elmore last Saturday to run up with the Burke kids. It’s always fun to mix it up with another squad, and this day wasn’t about competition so much as it was about hanging out with some new faces and having a good time. That’s not to say we weren’t going to try hard…
    The whole group, including Tanner, on top after the race. Thanks for coming down, Burkies!
    Two Burke kids charge up the final pitch as Tanner looks on. This is the final climb of the course, and we were all in the pain cave by the time we got here.
    Coach Beckwith made me do all the time trials this week, and I was suffering by this point. It was a tough week for the whole gang, with a lot of hard efforts and our first real exposure to cold temperatures.

    Heidi cruises up the final pitch. Though she didn’t feel as though this was a great effort, she nonetheless improved on her time from the early fall. Not bad!
    MK ran Elmore, ran to victory in a road race in Montpelier, then joined me in the “Beep Test” with the Alpine kids after our max speed workout early this week. It’s time to recover!
    Alva Swing crushed Mt. Elmore on his first trip up. He’s an alpine skier who wants a little variety in his life and it was great to have him along on Saturday. His enthusiasm was contagious.

    Ryley gets his pain face on for the last 100 meters… 1.8 miles feels like a long way when it’s all uphill and you just finished a week of testing. 
    Cool down and crazy stretch!

  • Mt. Elmore TT with Burke

    We trucked up to Mt Elmore last Saturday to run up with the Burke kids. It’s always fun to mix it up with another squad, and this day wasn’t about competition so much as it was about hanging out with some new faces and having a good time. That’s not to say we weren’t going to try hard…
    The whole group, including Tanner, on top after the race. Thanks for coming down, Burkies!
    Two Burke kids charge up the final pitch as Tanner looks on. This is the final climb of the course, and we were all in the pain cave by the time we got here.
    Coach Beckwith made me do all the time trials this week, and I was suffering by this point. It was a tough week for the whole gang, with a lot of hard efforts and our first real exposure to cold temperatures.

    Heidi cruises up the final pitch. Though she didn’t feel as though this was a great effort, she nonetheless improved on her time from the early fall. Not bad!
    MK ran Elmore, ran to victory in a road race in Montpelier, then joined me in the “Beep Test” with the Alpine kids after our max speed workout early this week. It’s time to recover!
    Alva Swing crushed Mt. Elmore on his first trip up. He’s an alpine skier who wants a little variety in his life and it was great to have him along on Saturday. His enthusiasm was contagious.

    Ryley gets his pain face on for the last 100 meters… 1.8 miles feels like a long way when it’s all uphill and you just finished a week of testing. 
    Cool down and crazy stretch!

  • Mt. Elmore TT with Burke

    We trucked up to Mt Elmore last Saturday to run up with the Burke kids. It’s always fun to mix it up with another squad, and this day wasn’t about competition so much as it was about hanging out with some new faces and having a good time. That’s not to say we weren’t going to try hard…
    The whole group, including Tanner, on top after the race. Thanks for coming down, Burkies!
    Two Burke kids charge up the final pitch as Tanner looks on. This is the final climb of the course, and we were all in the pain cave by the time we got here.
    Coach Beckwith made me do all the time trials this week, and I was suffering by this point. It was a tough week for the whole gang, with a lot of hard efforts and our first real exposure to cold temperatures.

    Heidi cruises up the final pitch. Though she didn’t feel as though this was a great effort, she nonetheless improved on her time from the early fall. Not bad!
    MK ran Elmore, ran to victory in a road race in Montpelier, then joined me in the “Beep Test” with the Alpine kids after our max speed workout early this week. It’s time to recover!
    Alva Swing crushed Mt. Elmore on his first trip up. He’s an alpine skier who wants a little variety in his life and it was great to have him along on Saturday. His enthusiasm was contagious.

    Ryley gets his pain face on for the last 100 meters… 1.8 miles feels like a long way when it’s all uphill and you just finished a week of testing. 
    Cool down and crazy stretch!

  • The Belarussians Are Mysterious

    FasterSkier’s piece on Belarus over the weekend naturally got me thinking about their performances. As they note in that article, they’ve had some wild times, including the famous “lucky” silver medal by Leanid Karneyenka in 2007 thanks to an early start position and a freak snowstorm, and their mishap in the team sprint relay in Vancouver, and then Sergei Dolidovich’s near miss in the 50k this past season in Oslo.

    Here’s what I see when I look at their men’s distance results:

    Pretty wacky group of results, eh? Let’s start with Dolidovich. He’s been plugging away at the World Cup circuit for quite some time now, and has mostly been just OK. His results tends to straddle the divide between pretty good and not so hot. What stands out to me is that starting in 2000-2001 or so, his best results start improving steadily. Since then he’s managed to pull on at least one really stupendous effort every other season or so. Often, this lines up with World Championships. But the vast majority of the time he’s solidly in the “pretty good” territory.

    I think it’s fairly clear from Leanid Karneyenka’s graph that his moment of glory in 2007 is unlikely to repeat itself. Michail Semenov is still young-ish, but his good-but-not-spectacular results are a decent start. Alexander Lasutkin has the all too familiar troubling trend of a steady decline in his best results.

    Even when we look at Karneyenka’s (limited) WC sprint results, things don’t look promising:

    Related posts:

    1. <Participation Rates
    2. <Canadian National Team Preview: Chandra Crawford & Daria Gaiazova
    3. <Lahti Pursuit Recap


  • The Belarussians Are Mysterious

    FasterSkier’s piece on Belarus over the weekend naturally got me thinking about their performances. As they note in that article, they’ve had some wild times, including the famous “lucky” silver medal by Leanid Karneyenka in 2007 thanks to an early start position and a freak snowstorm, and their mishap in the team sprint relay in Vancouver, and then Sergei Dolidovich’s near miss in the 50k this past season in Oslo.

    Here’s what I see when I look at their men’s distance results:

    Pretty wacky group of results, eh? Let’s start with Dolidovich. He’s been plugging away at the World Cup circuit for quite some time now, and has mostly been just OK. His results tends to straddle the divide between pretty good and not so hot. What stands out to me is that starting in 2000-2001 or so, his best results start improving steadily. Since then he’s managed to pull on at least one really stupendous effort every other season or so. Often, this lines up with World Championships. But the vast majority of the time he’s solidly in the “pretty good” territory.

    I think it’s fairly clear from Leanid Karneyenka’s graph that his moment of glory in 2007 is unlikely to repeat itself. Michail Semenov is still young-ish, but his good-but-not-spectacular results are a decent start. Alexander Lasutkin has the all too familiar troubling trend of a steady decline in his best results.

    Even when we look at Karneyenka’s (limited) WC sprint results, things don’t look promising:

    Related posts:

    1. <Participation Rates
    2. <Canadian National Team Preview: Chandra Crawford & Daria Gaiazova
    3. <Lahti Pursuit Recap


  • The Belarussians Are Mysterious

    FasterSkier’s piece on Belarus over the weekend naturally got me thinking about their performances. As they note in that article, they’ve had some wild times, including the famous “lucky” silver medal by Leanid Karneyenka in 2007 thanks to an early start position and a freak snowstorm, and their mishap in the team sprint relay in Vancouver, and then Sergei Dolidovich’s near miss in the 50k this past season in Oslo.

    Here’s what I see when I look at their men’s distance results:

    Pretty wacky group of results, eh? Let’s start with Dolidovich. He’s been plugging away at the World Cup circuit for quite some time now, and has mostly been just OK. His results tends to straddle the divide between pretty good and not so hot. What stands out to me is that starting in 2000-2001 or so, his best results start improving steadily. Since then he’s managed to pull on at least one really stupendous effort every other season or so. Often, this lines up with World Championships. But the vast majority of the time he’s solidly in the “pretty good” territory.

    I think it’s fairly clear from Leanid Karneyenka’s graph that his moment of glory in 2007 is unlikely to repeat itself. Michail Semenov is still young-ish, but his good-but-not-spectacular results are a decent start. Alexander Lasutkin has the all too familiar troubling trend of a steady decline in his best results.

    Even when we look at Karneyenka’s (limited) WC sprint results, things don’t look promising:

    Related posts:

    1. <Participation Rates
    2. <Canadian National Team Preview: Chandra Crawford & Daria Gaiazova
    3. <Lahti Pursuit Recap