Tag: Social

The American Birkebeiner ski trail is a 52km long, 6m wide ribbon of grass that transects the Chequamegon National Forest between Cable and Hayward, Wisconsin.  Maintaining the trail requires almost constant attention.  The CXC Vertical Limit Team athletes spent Sunday afternoon doing volunteer trail work to get the trail prepped for the winter.

Every five years, brush needs to be cut back from the trail’s edge and tree limbs need to be trimmed.  This allows the Tidd Tech’s to groom the trails without running into downed trees and also allows maximal snow accumulation on the trail.  We got after it with chain saws, brush cutters, and tree limbers to cut back overgrowth.

Of course, everything that got cut had to be cleared as well.  A number of cyclists out inspecting the Fat Tire course for next weekend’s race came across our operation and got some good cyclocross practice dismounting to get over the tree piles.  In all, we cleared 2km of trail from OO South.  That’s a good chunk of the 10km that needs to be trimmed this year.

We are winding down another camp in Hayward, WI. This week was speed block #2 for most of the team. We had lots of hard training and we are starting to feel pretty wiped out. This morning, Coach Igor’s wife, Nina Gavrilyuk, joined us for the big OO time trial. Nina is a 4 time Olympian from Russia. She has three Olympic gold medals, one Olympic bronze, 11 World Championship medals, and 37 world cup podium finishes. She also won the prestigious Holmenkollen race in 1996. It was fun just knowing she was out there. Yesterday, the CXC women’s team joined the Ski and Tea women of Hayward to meet Nina and watch her Bronze medal performance at the Lillehammer Olympics in Norway at Mooselips over coffee and tea. She had her Olympic medals with her and we got a chance to hold them, which was a first for me.
Tomorrow afternoon the whole CXC team will be out doing some work on the Birkie Trail that we love so much. If you are in the Hayward area, you should come to the OO trail head tomorrow and join us anytime between 12:00-5:00pm. After that I’m heading home to Marquette for some much needed rest…and a little work, school, and training. Photos from the Hayward Camp will be coming soon.

The other week I led a CXC/Birkie Nordic Walking Clinic in Woodruff, WI at Premier Physical Medicine and Wellness Clinic. 42 people made the clinic ranging in age from 8 to 86 years old. It is one thing to hear about nordic as a lifetime sport but it is really cool to see both young and old enjoying the sport.

Dr. Jim Mullen offering some advice on Nordic Walking. The hill behind him is a manmade playground with tunnels, paths, steps, tires and all sorts of fun things to climb on. Premier’s facility is really world class. Check out their website at http://www.premierPhysicalMedicine.com

Uphill Technique

The clinic went great. Everyone enjoyed the great weather and many are excited for the Birkie Trail Run and Trek on September 26.

Unfortunatly when I got in the car to head back to Hayward. The ol’ Neon made no effort at all to start. Jim and I tried a few things before realizing it was beyond us. This could have been a rather stressful situation but thankfully the Mullens made it easy. Thanks for letting me stay with you, directing me to the great running trail, and helping me get the car fixed.

The International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) has 10 trails around the world they call “IMBA Epics” – sort of like the Seven Wonders of the World for mountain bikers.  Atop IMBA’s list is the most famous ride, so famous that Pink Floyd named a song after the trail, Comfortably Numb.

I’m in Whistler, BC at the moment, at a training camp with the national team, Sun Valley, Steinbock, NEG, and more.  The training and conditions have been awesome all week.  Check out TeamToday for pics and updates on the camp.  The great weather we’ve had finally gave way to rain this morning.

Time to ride Comfortably Numb.  It wouldn’t be an Epic without wet roots or an overcast view.  Pete & I hit the trail early Saturday morning, heeding trailside warnings to “Leave with plenty of time to return before dark.”  The 17 mile trail had over 1500 vertical feet of climbing–that’s about 25 round trip rides from Fish Hatchery to OO on the new Makwa Trail in Hayward.  Success is measured on this challenging trail not by how fast you can ride it, but how long you can ride without unclipping from your pedals.  My record was about 3 minutes.  It was an awesome ride, despite the bone chilling rain.  Kicking back in the condo this afternoon, I understand why they call the trail, Comfortably Numb.

The CXC Team Vertical Limit September Camp kicked off this Thursday in Hayward, WI with VO2 max testing on the treadmill.  With multiple tests so far this year the results will be a great way to chart progress.   Ideally we will have become more aerobically efficient after the long hours of summer training.  Hopefully our threshold pace and heart rate will also have improved.   It is important to keep in mind that testing alone does not make one faster.  It is the ability to personalize and improve training based on test results in order to elicit a more positive response that really matters.  Bryan and Igor have been great at this so far and I for one am feeling great.  This summer I have enjoyed the highest quality of training I have ever experienced.  The hours have not been more then I am used to but every workout has been focused and specific with a greater emphasis on intervals.  I continue to struggle with improving my technique and am continuously focusing on tips I have gotten from Bryan while skiing.  My old habits are proving to be very stubborn but I feel progress is being made nonetheless.  In general I am trying to keep my arms and feet wider while engaging the core more and increasing the fluidity of the movements.

Here are some pics from the V02 testing.

By Gus Kaeding
Hey everyone, I am back in Marquette after quite a bit of hopping around. For the past month I have been dealing with the fact that my body seems to be falling apart. Following our last training camp I developed a nasty case of shins splints. I was headed back to VT for a wedding so I set up an appointment with the doc who did my compartment surgery last year. I wanted to make sure this wasn’t a recurrence. We decided it was just shin splints (which is excellent news in the big scheme of things) and that my legs are actually made out of glass. Never the less, due to the shins splints I was doing a lot of double poling and managed to hurt my elbow. This left me with swimming. I hate swimming but was blessed with some unusually warm summer weather. I convinced my younger brother Sten to take a kayak around a local lake with me while I swam. I worked my way up to being able to swim (or as my brother called it “not drown”) for a solid hour. Not a bad way to spent a 90 degree afternoon! Yesterday, I arrived back in Marquette and went for my first short, pain free run which was encouraging. My elbow also seems to be healing which is good as we have a training camp starting in Hayward next Wednesday. I have to thank Donna Smyers, Pepa Mildfh, and Brian Huber for helping me out with my legs. I should also add that prior to my elbow mishap I had been doing some solid work on our new Concept 2 double pole machine. It works surprisingly well and is an excellent alternative in central Vermont to the somewhat suspect roller skiing. In fact, I have to drive nearly an hour for a paved road which can sustain skiing. If you have the same problem, I highly recommend checking out the Concept 2 machine. Hope everyone is having a solid summer as we are still waiting on ours to start here in Marquette.

I enjoy a game of Chicken Bingo. I have never been much for gambling, but as far back as I can remember I have enjoyed this game

My brother and Me placing our bets

For those of you unfamiliar with the game here are the rules:

How it Works:

• Squares are sold for 50 cents. 
• If the chicken poops on your square you win $10. 
• There is one winner per card, leave your contact info and we will let you know if you win

The Rules: 

1. There are no ties, the most poop wins.
2. The judge makes the final decision. 
3. You may talk to the chicken but you can’t touch the cage or the chicken. 
4. Anyone can play.

Cheering is a big part of the fun.

My brother Chad was one of the day’s big winners

Chicken Bingo is a great way to attract people to any booth at a fair, festival or expo.  This particular contest is part of the Methow Conservancy booth at Wintrhop, WA 49ers Day.  Stop by the CXC booth at next years Birkie Expo to see if we brought chickens. 

My workout on Sunday ended short after I took a spill mountain biking. Thankfully I had my Rudy Project helmet on.  The impact was great enough that my helmet cut into my forehead and cracked.  I still have a small headache which makes me belive I had a minor concussion.  In case you were wondering, my ‘concussion’ photo saved right next to my ‘chickenBingo’ folder and I though those pictures were more entertaining. 

Yes, you heard it here first, CXC is Trendy.  According to Fasterskier.com, Green and Vintage are the two biggest trends of the 2009 dryland season.  They have yet to pick up on the growing Nordic Walking trend, but as they say about all things Nordic, “It’s big in Europe.”

Bill & I spent the afternoon cutting and rebuilding old broken poles found on the Birkie trail over the past 30 years.  We will be using these recycled (read: “Green”), old (read: “Vintage”) poles to teach Nordic Walking (hey, “it’s big in Europe”) clinics around the Midwest this fall.  Let us know if you’d like to host a Nordic Walking Clinic for your fitness group.  All CXC Team Vertical Limit athletes are trained professionals and will put on an informative, entertaining clinic. Get your Nordic on!

Well, the CXC Team Vertical Limit has just wrapped up an awesome camp in Ironwood, Michigan.  In order to convince the reader of the awesome-ness of this camp, I am going to recount, in my opinion, ”The Top-10 Reasons Why August Camp Was Awesome.”

10.  Homemade pasta dinner.  Nothing like combining carbo-loading with a cultural experience.

9.  OD rollerski in Porcupine State park. Beuatiful scenery, wide open road, and Lake Superior waiting at the end.

8. Eating watermelon sitting on top of a waterfall. 

7. Pasty (rhymes with nasty, but are quite the opposite) dinner.  The pasties came with three 12-oz complimentary bottles of ketchup.  We killed them all.

6. 16% grade.

5. Learning that “I can beat you with one arm tied behind my back” might not be such an exaggeration after all.

4.  Bee stings, poison ivy, and road rash.  I may be the only person who escaped all of the above (knock on wood).  Most people experienced two of the above and some even got all three.

3. Track intervals on the square track in Bessemer.  This thing seriously had 4 turns and it took the group the first couple of intervals to determine whether it was 400 meters or 400 yards long.

2.  No one on the team was carried away by mosquitoes.  In fact, no one even had to get the bug spray out.

1. Lake Superior: the world’s largest fresh-water ice bath.

Pictures from a perfect off day, spend in the waters of the Presque Isle River in the Porcupine Mountains.

Sometimes, you just need to take a little break from skiing, and focus on having fun. So on Monday, with no workout scheduled, Kuz, Karl, J. Diggs, Kelly, Audrey and I went in search of adventure. What we found was breathtaking, and exactly what we were looking for. And when Tuesday rolled around, we were ready, game on, to throw down on some hard uphill v1 intervals. Sometimes, you just need a little reset button, in the form of a relaxing dip!

By Maria Stuber

After James and Kelly’s wedding in Colorado, I had a pretty bad ankle role and couldn’t train for a couple days.  Bryan Cook and I spent some time in Boulder where our good friends Shane Mundt and Tami Kochen took excellent care of us.  Shane made us tons of good food.  There was lots of fishing and shooting guns.  We played horseshoes, had campfires, and enjoyed the fresh mountain air.  We also saw the new GI-Joe movie and met the newlyweds in Breckenridge where we stayed at the Ahern’s house.  Tami, Bryan, James, Kelly, Kyle and Kevin Ahern did a 10 K running race at 12,000 feet.  We also met Kelly’s Brother and sister-in-law (Ryan and Annie) in Denver to watch the Rockies play the Cubs.  Getting tickets was a little harder than we expected so the girls got into the game while the boys watched from a bar across the street.  We felt pretty bad leaving them, but our tickets were just a few rows behind the Cubs dugout.

During the first week of our Colorado trip we did a bunch of trail running and hiking.   I took a few days off after my ankle role, but I was soon able to put on a ski boot and double pole.  I had never roller skied out west before and the scenery was amazing.  In Boulder, we went up the Left Hand Canyon where you need to ski up and drive down.  Climbing for two hours is certainly not easy at that altitude.  We also did an out and back near the Eldora downhill ski area, and used a gorgeous bike path in Breckenridge.  I really enjoyed skiing with Tami again.  We had a blast.

Before heading back to Marquette, Bryan and I spent the night at the Eloranta residence in Pewaukee, WI.  We went to one of my high school friend’s weddings on Saturday night, and went for a long roller ski on Sunday morning.  It was super hot and humid; however, we were still able to recruit some friends to come along.  One of my best buddies, Shane Hoelz, was home from dental school and joined us for half of the roller ski, and my little brother Thomas came all the way from Madison to roller ski with us in the heat.  We were very temped to stay in Waukesha Sunday night to check out the Wisconsin State Fair with the Hoelz family but we had to get back to Marquette for work.  Fortunately, Shane said that the chocolate covered bacon wasn’t as good as it sounds.

The Ironwood camp is rapidly approaching and I am excited to train with the team again but I also greatly enjoy training by myself.  In order to be a successful skier I think you need to like training alone in the forest or on a quiet stretch of road.  I think the hardest part is simply getting out the door and down the driveway.  I my case the following scene  greets me and makes it all the easier.

I also enjoy the simplicity of doing every thing at home. I leave most workouts directly from my house and even lift in the garage and yard.