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...
