Category: XCFeeds

Kris Freeman and I skate skied for three and a half hours this morning on the 1.8 kilometer loop here in Canmore. We did somewhere around 38 laps. It was again cold enough to make snow, and we are hopeful they will get a couple hundred meter connector open tomorrow or the next day.

I have lots of random pictures today. The first four are from Stratton Mountain School Elite Team (SMS T2 Team) skier Eric Packer. Here I am double poling:

And here’s my teammate of the US Ski Team and SMS T2 Team, Andy Newell:

And Kris Freeman of the US Ski Team and Maine Winter Sports Center:

Here are SMS T2 Teammates (from left to right) Annie Hart, Jessie Diggins and Sophie Caldwell:

Here are my teammates on Ski and Snowboard Club Vail’s Team Homegrown having fun. I believe Sylvan Ellefson is pointing out Tad Elliott’s mustache.

This evening we, as a team, got invited over to Olympic Gold Medalist Chandra Crawford’s house. Chandra is a Canadian. She lives here in Canmore. She won the gold in the cross country sprint race at the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy:

Jessie Diggins, Liz Stephen, and Ida Sargent (from left to right) made a delicious chili at Chandra’s apartment:

We had a couple of minor accidents during the evening. First, we lost a couple of wine glasses:

Then, we lost a full bottle of hot sauce:

After dinner we chatted and listened to Chandra, Andy, and Jessie play the guitar.

U.S. Ski Team coach Matt Whitcomb was playing with the applications on his phone. He made this flattering video of me.

This morning the US Ski Team did a 10 kilometer individual start classic race on the 2 kilometer loop here in Canmore, Alberta.

I had a pretty good day. I lost to my teammate Kris Freeman, but I was closer to him than I was in the time trial in New Zealand. Kris is a great classic skier; he has finished 4th two separate times at the World Championships in 15 kilometer classic races. The terrain on the saved-snow loop is not as challenging as a World Cup course. I have struggled on easier terrain in the past, but I showed improvement today. Overall, I am happy with this effort heading into the season. Here is the men’s video from the race:

And here are the results:

It was cold enough to make snow here in Canmore, Alberta today!

This morning’s workout was a 2.5 hour classic ski. The loop was crowded and we did a lot of laps.

There were some near collisions (and some actual collisions) on the trail. After yesterday’s (and today’s) snow, the mountains around Canmore are gorgeous.

After the ski Kris Freeman was enjoying the sun:

This afternoon and evening I hug out with the Canadians (an assortment of current and former skiers) watching football and eating delicious food. I also tried out their tradition of overheating in the sauna then taking a dip in the glacial river with a 5 minute barefoot walk in the snow between the two. It was quite the experience, and I’m glad I tried it. It was a fun  day!

It snowed on and off all day here in Canmore.

Kris Freeman and I got up early to do a skate intensity session before the two kilometer loop got too crowded. Even though we started skiing in the dark at 7:45, we weren’t even close to the first people on the track.

Kris did 3 by 15 minutes of threshold (a pace you can sustain for at least an hour). I joined him for the first 5 minutes as part of my warm-up. Then I did 12 by 30 seconds at sprint race pace. It was a new interval workout for me. The purpose was to ski fast without working too hard ahead of Monday’s time trial. Here’s some video of both sessions:

The rest of the team did distance. Here are Simi Hamilton (left) and Skyler Davis working on technique without poles (or rocking out in Skyler’s case):

And Stratton Mountain School’s Sophie Caldwell doing the same:

And Jessie Diggins:

Here is coach Jason Cork leading US Ski Team athlete Tad Elliott:

It snowed hard at times today as evidenced by the Vancouver 2012 Mascot outside our hotel window:

We woke up in beautiful Canmore, Alberta today.

Canmore, like other places around the world, saved snow from last season to provide an on-snow training opportunity before there is natural snow and before it’s cold enough to make snow. They made a huge pile of snow last year. Then they covered it with a thick layer of sawdust. Somebody said they lose 40-50% of it during the summer. Last weekend they spread it out to make just over two kilometers of skiing. Here’s a picture of what it looks like:

It was warm today so we were klister (a type of wax for warm wet snow) skiing for our two hour classic in the morning. The loop only takes five or six minutes, but it’s worth a lot of laps to be skiing on October 19th. Other places that I know save snow include Davos, Switzerland and Munio, Finland.

Canmore calls their snow Frozen Thunder. Today was the official opening of Frozen Thunder and the debut of the new Canadian National Ski Team Mascot!

Above my teammates Simi Hamilton (left) and Sylvan Ellefson cuddle up to the head cheerleader.

The snow is dirty with rocks and sawdust. We aren’t using race skis. Here’s Kris Freeman finishing up his session:

And here are Stratton Mountain School Teammates Andy Newell and Annie Hart:

This afternoon I ran the course for the World Cup that will be held here in less than two months (on December 13th, 15th, and 16th.) It fired me up to come back here to compete and psyched me up for the race season in general! The course here is challenging and really good for me. After my run I did a hard core strength session.