April 2010
2 posts
The End of a Season, and A Lot to Look Forward To!
Well, it looks like my ski season is pretty much all wrapped up… despite the fact that it looks to be full-on winter outside my window right now! But, things closed up on a really good note, and I am really grateful for that!! Also, I am stoked because I have a LOT TO LOOK FORWARD TO, and I am already super excited about it! The last race of the season was this past weekend, the California...
SuperTour Finals / Season Wrap-Up / Next Year /...
A little over a week ago (Gold Rush weekend, wished I could have done the Gold Rush too) I raced the final 3 races of the US SuperTour in Fort Kent, Maine, along with a very solid representation of the country’s best skiers and a bunch of top Canadians as well. There were really only a handful of elite US skiers missing from the field, it was possibly the most “stacked” field...
March 2010
5 posts
Live Music: Support Your Local Ski Racer ; )
If you feel like coming out this weekend to hear/see some live music, it would be awesome to see you! It really helps when people show up since it means I can get booked again and continue to earn money and not starve ; ) Plus I really, really like playing for people I know, and playing for anyone that shows up to listen!!!
Here are my gigs while I’m in Truckee (I’ll be leaving...
An Almost-Great Race
It is awesome to be back in Cali where there is sun and fast granular snow…and a whole lot of people I haven’t seen since December when I went on the road to race on the national circuit and do other races around the country in search of tougher competition which always teaches you more than you would learn in a less competitive race where the overall level of skiing is not as high.
...
One Really Great Weekend
One Really Great Weekend…. So it’s probably self-explanatory from the title of this blog post, but hey I’ll say it again because I like it: I just had one really great weekend! It was one of those weekends that was gratifying on multiple levels: an overwhelming reiteration of why I love coaching so much and why it can be so rewarding, pride in the job I have done in that regard, the unexplainable...
Changing Roles
Changing Roles
(as taken from karasdreams.blogspot.com — check for year-round updates and other fun information!)
Another big change for me this season has been a major role reversal. After more than a decade of being coached almost daily by a whole heep of amazing coaches, each with their own plethora of valuable advice, the tables have turned. I, taking what I have learned from them, am...
February 2010
3 posts
WatchFirst-hand report on / preview of the 1.2k sprint loop in Presque Isle, brought to you by the Far West Senior Team ; )
WatchFirst-hand report on / preview of the 5k loop in Presque Isle, brought to you by the Far West Senior Team ; )
update
Since my last post I’ve done the following races and gotten the following results:
Telemark SuperTour 10k Classic: 11th Telemark SuperTour 15k Skate Mass Start: 18th
EISA Eastern Cup 10k Classic: 13th (20sec. out of third)
Mora Vasaloppet Eldris Sprints (Skate): 2nd Mora Vasaloppet 58k Skate: 6th
Overall not results that I’m super excited about although I did feel strong in the...
Ski Season, So Far...
Note: I wrote this entry on my personal blog on Thursday night, so some of what was mentioned as “upcoming” has now passed!
So, here we are, smack dab in the middle of ski season, and I have finally decided to get thing going with my blog again. While I originally made a commitment to be better about this last fall, smack dab in the middle of running and triathlon competitions and at...
January 2010
23 posts
Tip of the Week: 1 ski at a time
My feeling is that one of the most important things to do right in terms of ski technique, is to make sure you are never on two skis at once. That’s what all the early kick / late kick, quick kick, nose-knee-toes, commit-to-the-ski, focus-on-glide, etc. stuff is about. If you can classic and skate ski without ever having your weight on two skis at once or “scootering” when you...
6th! And pole glue failure #2 of the season...
I felt pretty beat and not on top form coming into today’s 15k mass-start classic SuperTour race in Minneapolis, but ready to give it my best.
Temperature: 35 F Humidity: 168% Wind: 5 - 10mph Conditions: water
People mostly skied on klister, with a few going on zeros. My zeros, as it turns out, are WAY way too stiff for me, so that was not an option. I had two swix reps, Josh Korn and...
12th in Minneapolis SuperTour 10k Skate
Today was the first of 2 SuperTours in Minneapolis (on the same courses which will host the 2011 JO’s). The courses here are all about lots of turns, short steep hills, fast rutted off-camber downhill corners, and transitions in general.
Today’s race was a 10k skate in freezing rain„ which actually let up for most of the men’s race (at least for the A-seed). My legs were a...
Report From the Methow SuperTour Weekend
Many of the top racers in the country gathered this past weekend in the famed Methow Valley (Washington) for the continuation of the season-long, top national-level race circuit known as the SuperTour - which serves as a qualification series for the World Cup. Fields were stacked with National Team skiers from the US and Canada, as well as many of the top elite racing clubs from Western Canada,...
Tahoe Rim Tour: YOU MUST GO!
Just a quick word about the Tahoe Rim Tour. I skied this race for the first time last year and have to say, it is (in my opinion) possibly the awesome-est race in the entire Far West region, all year!!
-Rolling and flat off the start;
-a long long climb but one that’s not very steep and allows you to ski very smoothly and get in a nice rhythm; -and then an incredibly fun, very long gradual...
Tip of the Week: Recovery Walks
I’ve been feeling somewhat flat and tired and not racing my best lately. So I’ve gone back to something that has ALWAYS worked for me to get me out of a funk: walks!
It sounds simple, and it is. Yet it’s incredible how helpful going for a good 20 to 40 minute walk can be for recovery, whether it’s shaking out some sore legs, or just moving around to be active a little bit...
Over and out
US Nationals are over (except for the 50k which will be in March at Fort Kent, Maine) and I’m headed out to Washington state (Methow Valley) for the next big races: a freestyle sprint on Saturday and a 15k classic (interval start) on Sunday.
Both are SuperTour races although they probably won’t be the deepest fields…however this is motivating for me as it gives me a better...
The Little Engine That Couldn't But Kept Going...
If I had to name my 30k race yesterday it might be something like that. It was a rough, rough, bad, slow, tough, completely disheartening, tricky, soft, squirrelly, draggy, wet, snowy, drizzly, awful nightmarish day. Struggled again with classic skis…just can’t find a pair that I can kick very well and they weren’t terribly fast either.
At about 1.5k I poled between my legs...
US Nationals: 15k skate report
Results: http://summittiming.com/races/race_results.php
Today I managed a 31st in the 15k (individual start) skate despite a little bit of a cold so I am fairly happy with that. Sea level racing is still proving to be quite a challenge as it felt like sprint speed at elevation the whole time…I think I could have managed 20th no problem if it had been at elevation…maybe even 10th or...
Tip of the Week: Drag Racing
Possibly the best way to learn how to ski faster (which can often translate to being able to ski more efficiently at a slower speed as well) is to ski head-to-head against someone of similar or faster speed than you.
In order to get the most technique benefit out of it, it is important that the effort be all-out (100%) or close to it, so that you can’t simply “try harder” and...
...
Not a lot to say about my race today (1.5k sprint @ US Nationals.) I came into the race ranked 25th, was aiming for a top 20, felt good and fully ready to race, went for it, and for some reason just didn’t end up with a good result at all (37th, 1.5 seconds outside the heats), really no idea why. Hopefully I’m just still shaking off the travel and/or need to do more warmup in these...
Links for following US Nationals
PS: ok I guess Summit Timing is doing the timing so you should be able to find LIVE splits and results on their site:
http://summittiming.com/races/race_results.php
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Here is the main official nationals website:
http://www.anchoragenordicski.com/nationals10/index.html
...
Set to Jet, Groomed to Zoom, and Ready to Ramble
(title copyright 1983 by Glenn Jobe / Diagonal Cowboy Productions. All rights reserved.)
Well after some ridiculously horrendous travel delays and changes I finally made it out to Anchorage, AK for US Nationals 2010!!! I am here with coach Ben Grasseschi and junior racer Russell Kennedy in a sweet condo with a kitchen. Also sharing the condo with us is Martin Benes (far west alum now coaching for...
December 2009
18 posts
Watch“Tip of the Week” - Shoulders and Hips
15k Time Trial
The 15k went reasonably well, as best I can tell.
It was a pretty strong field for a simple afternoon time trial at Craftsbury, with the whole Green Team there (NENSA’s elite senior team), and all the “college boys” home for Christmas. My whole family and some relatives came out to ski and watch/cheer and with all the cheering/encouragement in the first 2 or 3k I definitely got...
MERRY BOXING DAY
…I like making Christmas last as long as possible. This is just Christmas part 2!
Today I’m about to do a 15k skate time trial with the Craftsbury Green Team, which is the elite senior team for New England / NENSA.
Full report to follow!
Hope everyone had an awesome Christmas out there in FW and hope you are skiing up a storm!! (meaning, many long hours of skiing since you’re...
AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM JOHN CALDWELL
I really hope you’ll take the time to read this blatantly cut-and-pasted-without-permission article from the nensa site. It pretty well sums up a big part of the reason why the Far West Senior Team is trying to exist and get some support.
For anyone that doesn’t know who John Caldwell is, he’s basically the grandfather of US xc skiing. I believe he was there when Bill Koch...
Things I'm going to work on...
After Presque Isle, these are the things I see I can do to be faster next time I race:
-sleep (plenty each night starting plenty early in the evening, and of course no all-nighters. This is an obvious one and shouldn’t be a problem now that I’m moved out, settled in in VT, and don’t have to travel for the next week and a half. But I will for example be extremely careful to pack...
Eastern Cup Day 2: 10k Classic Mass-Start
Well, after another 8-hour drive last afternoon/night I am finally all home and settled in VT ready to enjoy a good block of training at home in preparation for US Nationals in Anchorage, Jan. 2-8.
Yesterday’s 10k C wasn’t quite what I hoped for, ended up 6th (basically finished right with 4th and 5th), 52 seconds from 1st. I was definitely feeling pretty beat from the sprint heats...
Eastern Cup Day 1: Sprint F
Today was a skate sprint in Presque Isle, Maine (site of the Junior Nationals to be held this March…an awesome venue but WAY THE HECK UP NORTH to say the least…). The past few days have been pretty terrible for me as far as getting any sleep, rest, or training in…so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had to pull an all-nighter the night before I left for the east coast, since...
The Key
I saw this on the ASC comp team schedule page, and thought it was pretty right on:
“The key is not the will to win—everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important”. - Bobby Knight
Royal Gorge Blizzard Race!
Race results:
http://www.farwestnordic.org/raceresults/results20092010/rg_freestyle09.html
What a day at Royal Gorge today. I’d been looking forward to this 10k skate race in Van Norden since about June or July, imagining crusing along at 20mph on fast firm snow all along those endless Van Norden flats where I kind of learned how to ski flats more quickly and efficiently when I was a...
Bozeman Report
Well, the 2 Bozeman SuperTour races are now done. It was quite a weekend.
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Sunday 15k Classic (interval start)
Today was the 15k classic, and boy was it a tough day. Super super cold, windy, snowing, SLOW snow that made even the flats feel like uphills, and a very challenging, HILLY, cranky course…all at elevation. After too many...
Points
The 2 distance races in Yellowstone did end up being my best distance points in several years. I think partly due to the Canadians being there and helping the penalty be lower, and partly due to the somewhat flat, fast courses (especially the skate race.) But hopefully a sign of genuine progress and training as well! In any case it will help me get in a better seed in the future. Aiming for even...
