As readers of previous this column know I am always in search of the sure-fire way to improve my fitness. Recently, my wife and I decided to buy a hot tub or, I should say, portable hydrotherapy spa in today terms. If you read the sales literature, portable hydrotherapy spas or hot tubs are today’s fountains of youth. Hot tubs will restore the natural well being to your body, what ever that is. Simply by...
USSA members take note, the USSA Spring Meetings are May 15-18. In a USSA press release, CEO Bill Marolt says, "As a dedicated supporter of USSA's programs for ski and snowboard athletes, you are a critically important part of the future of young athletes in your community and in this country. I want to invite you to take part in our upcoming USSA Congress 2003 in Park City May 14-18. " xcathletereps@earthlink.net
Introduction See the www.torbjornsport.com if you are looking for a personal coach to help you with training planning and workouts. John and Torbjorn have decades of racing, training and coaching experience. We even studied sport and XC skiing in College (who else in the US can brag about a College degree in XC Coaching)! We’ll help you get fit, create and reach goals, ski faster and have more fun. A great selection of rollerskis can...
Get off the couch and start working out – Part 4 By Torbjorn Karlsen The NBA Playoff Workout Introduction See the www.torbjornsport.com if you are looking for a personal coach to help you with training planning and workouts. John and myself have decades of racing, training and coaching experience. We even studied sport and XC skiing in College (who else in the US can brag about a College degree in XC Coaching)! We’ll help you...
By Gunnar Kagge (Published in Aftenposten 4/16/03) Translated by Per K. Johnsen, Kongsberger Ski Club, Seattle Klister is synonymous with "Easter in the Mountains in Norway" in red, blue and universal. To smear klister onto the skis is hard enough, and to remove it is worse. But the worst is to cook one’s own batch. For those of us who take the spring ski trip into the woods around Oslo, klister is literally a "mixed"...
UNITED STATES SKI AND SNOWBOARD ASSOC. USSA Employment Opportunity for the position of: Cross Country Assistant Service Technician Description: The Cross Country Assistant Service Technician works with the Cross Country Head Technician in all aspects of his work. This is a seasonal position requiring extensive travel, and long workdays outdoors and in the wax cabin. High level cross country skiing skill and experience with equipment preparation, grinding, ski selection and both kick and glide waxing...
A mini-series of articles intended to get you going this spring. Spring Training: Biking Introduction See www.torbjornsport.com if you are looking for a personal coach to help you with training planning and workouts. John and myself have decades of racing, training and coaching experience. We even studied sport and XC skiing in College (who else in the US can brag about a College degree in XC Coaching)! We’ll help you get fit, create and reach...
A mini-series of articles intended to get you going this spring. Spring Training: Biking Introduction See www.torbjornsport.com if you are looking for a personal coach to help you with training planning and workouts. John and myself have decades of racing, training and coaching experience. We even studied sport and XC skiing in College (who else in the US can brag about a College degree in XC Coaching)! We’ll help you get fit, create and reach...
PROSKI roller ski update for 2003 The World’s leading skiers have been using PRO-SKI for twenty years as an essential aid for reaching the top. Both the Swedish and Norwegian National Cross-Country teams are using PRO-SKI roller skis, including World Cup Champions, Olympic and World Championship medalists Bente Skari (Nor), Marit Bjoergen (Nor), Thomas Ahlsgaard (Nor), Per Elofson (Swe), Joergen Brink (Swe) and Beckie Scott (Can). The 2002 and 2001 winners of the World’s largest...
Every year I conclude skiing season with a trip to Cascade Crest Tour at Mt Bachelor in Bend, OR for the first weekend of April. Throughout Washington State the good skiing has usually been over for at least three weeks. On weekends one might find an occasional ski area that is still grooming, but temperatures are in the upper 40s during the day and the snow turns to slush pretty quickly and often doesn't even...
Spring Training: Skiing A mini-series of articles intended to get you going this spring. I often see that skiers “spring breaks” are too long and contain too little variation. Good domestic skiers, masters or juniors don’t have the need for a long post-season mental and physical break like World Cup skiers do. They have spent months on the road, in and out of hotel rooms, and raced up to three weekly races from November to...
Wintersport.as has posted an interview with US Ski Team head coach Trond Nystad. It is a pretty short interview, with only three questions, the best question being: “Traditionally the Americans have skied well at home, yet had problems in Europe. Can you give us some background for the success this winter for Freeman and Swenson in terms of training, background and other relevant information.?”
Many ask if I am dissatisfied with the media, if I think they write and broadcast strange things or if I am misquoted. For the most part I have been satisfied, even though we do not need special detecting devices to find the individual situations I have not liked. There were a lot of misquotes in the beginning, before I knew that I could insist upon reading through the interviews before they were printed. No...
Park City/Heber Valley, Utah At the 2002 Olympic Venue – Soldier Hollow/ Heber, Utah Join us for some great altitude camps on the Olympic trails. Top international teams have raved about the dryland training (rollerskiing and running) and skiing at Soldier Hollow and the surrounding areas in Heber and Park City. Great terrain, scenic views, nice temperatures, super rollerskiing, fantastic hiking terrain, and great restaurants are some of the comments we've heard. Come join us...
I do much of the ski waxing in our house. I am not sure why this is. My wife has been racing competitively much longer than I have. However, she was racing at a level where there were coaches who tested and selected the wax of the day and just told her what to put on. This was also in the pre fluorocarbon/graphite/molybdenum era and waxing was much simpler then. The state of the art...
There are many races that skiers take very seriously. They set goals months in advance, train all year, and peak at just the right time for maximum performance. The ultimate goal might be to win their age-group, or beat last year's time, or beat their training partner. People might say they do the race because it is a lot of fun, but ultimately it is only really fun if they do well. It is all...
Crested Butte, CO to Aspen, CO March 28th- March 29th A vertical foot adding course change, extremely cold weather, and dry powdery snow led to perhaps the hardest Elks Mountains Grand Traverse yet. This extreme backcountry Nordic race, in its 6th year, saw slightly over 1/3rd of the field drop out or not finish. This race starts at the Crested Butte Community School at midnight, climbs over and around Crested Butte Mountain Resort, heads out...
The goal of the US Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) is very clear — “to be the best in the World” (USSA President Bill Marolt). This statement is also repeated on most every statement and communication from the USSA Office, including the USSA Cross-Country office. How can this goal be reached in Cross-Country, a sport where progress goes painstakingly slow, and where it is commonly known that it takes 10 years of hard, systematic and...
The UNH Ski Team, along with some alumni and friends, recently took a spring break trip to participate in the Norwegian Birkebeiner. The Birkebeiner is a fifty-four kilometer ski race that starts in Rena and finishes in the Olympic stadium in Lillehammer, Norway. It is one of the more famous ski marathons on the World Loppet tour. We left from Boston on a Friday night flight that took us to Oslo with a quick layover...
Pete Vordenberg is the Assistant Coach of the US Ski Team. He is the author of Momentum: Chasing the Olympic Dream, available now at Part Two is here. European Campaign ‘03. Our European Campaign began in Rumford, Maine – at the US National Championships. And God bless the people of Rumford, Maine. There is no more enthusiasm for putting on a ski race anywhere else in the world. They do it right in Rumford. After...