MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — With temperatures staying in the mid-20s overnight on Friday, it was a warm, slightly sticky start to the 2018 Masters World Cup on Saturday in Minneapolis. However, despite temperatures in the upper 30s to low 40s, the 7.5-kilometer loop course at Theodore Wirth Park held up well — an important thing, as Saturday was all classic races. According to Tom Ajax, a Minneapolis-based skier who raced in the men’s 30 k classic...
This Saturday, Jan. 20, the
Part I of this interview discussed findings about general health and exercise habits of American Birkebeiner participants compared to the general public. You can catch up on that piece said at the time. Researchers Paul Anderson and Ralph Bovard received survey responses from more than 5,000 people who had participated in the American Birkebeiner, a cross-country ski marathon held every year in Wisconsin. While the survey asked about exercise, general health status, and behavior, it...
Back in 2014, Paul Anderson and his colleague, Ralph Bovard, set out to study the health habits of cross-country skiers by surveying those who participated in the American Birkebeiner (“the Birkie”), a cross-country ski marathon in Wisconsin. “We wanted to understand and characterize the role of social support for exercise among Birkie skiers,” Anderson explained in an email this month. “Dr. Bovard and myself are both Birkie skiers and we have both experienced how the...
In March of 2016, we published an article penned by Scott “Bjorn” Cummings, a Postbaccalaureate student working towards his Academic Behavorial Strategist K-12 (ABS) Special Education License at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), titled “FasterSkier article written last year after the conclusion of ski season. The 2017 ski season did not go well for many others and me as a lack of snow in the Upper Midwest shortened or canceled races. Almost every race I did...
By Jason Somers Introduction: Welcome to the jungle My quads were burning from too much snowplowing. My coach’s words were echoing in my head: “You are most stable when tucking.” I willed, begged, and pleaded with my legs to assume the position, but being in this aerodynamic position also meant I would go fast, too fast, because at the moment I had one small problem – I couldn’t see where I was going. This small...
*Note: This article has been updated to include email comments from Laura McCabe as of Wednesday. Don’t let the name “Old Lady Intervals” (designated by Leslie Hall) fool you. The interval ladder she and Laura McCabe complete every Wednesday and submitted to FasterSkier is one that takes experience and willpower. Hall doesn’t recommend the workout for juniors, but more for masters and those with limited time for harder training efforts. *** If their houses were any...
You don't have to be a World Cup racer to ski similar distances on the world's best courses. While many masters focus on traditional ski marathons, the annual Masters World Cup presents an opportunity for skiers 30 and older to ski up to four races of regular World Cup distances in a week.
An APU skier and University of Alaska-Anchorage professor shares the story of his experience at last month's Marcialonga. "The Italians are famous for their snowmaking, but it's still impressive to see a 70 k long white stripe of manmade snow that runs along an otherwise brown valley," the author recalls.
The story of why one citizens skier trekked six hours (each way) for a race in a southern port city of Alaska. "Sometimes it’s important to travel for five days so that you can spend less than two hours racing, but do so on a course that goes from a mountain overlook to the shores of the Pacific Ocean," the author explains.
XC Oregon founder J.D. Downing was recently elected president of the World Masters Cross-Country Ski Association. While he'll continue to hold his post as a U.S. national director, Downing has big goals for the international organization, including an increase in participation and keeping skiers under 55 "in the game."
Finland will host the Masters World Cup for the fourth time in February 2016, welcoming roughly 1200 master skiers to Vuokatti.
CXC masters skier and American Birkebeiner board member Charlie Dee recalls the story of two subsequent days of skiing in 2014 and the memories of late coach Igor Badamshim that came with them.
Inge Scheve's take on racing at her fifth Masters World Cup, which took place last month in Syktyvkar, Russia. In all, eight members of Team USA collected seven medals at this year's championships.
There will be several things to keep an eye on during this year's 42nd American Birkebeiner, including top competitors, like two-time U.S. Olympian Holly Brooks, and a brand-new bridge just a few kilometers from the finish. Watch it live and follow our post-race coverage.
One author shares his uneasiness with training plans and investigates CXC Academy, an online subscription service that provides nordic tips and regimens for skiers of all ages. "You will go faster when you want to go faster and it will be a lot more enjoyable," founder Yuriy Gusev says.
This past weekend, nearly the entirety of the adult population of Midwestern skiers made their way to Hayward for the annual get-together of the ski community: The Birkie. The American Birkebeiner (or Birkie, for short), is the biggest ski race in North America. For many skiers, the race represents their culmination of training for the whole year. Read a first-timer's perspective on the race, the trail, and Birkie Fever.
Muffy Ritz, founder and head coach of the VAMPS women's masters group in Sun Valley, Idaho, leads us through the Vamps Hill Workout, which she adopted from UNH's Beach Hill climb and incorporates stations of moosehoofing, hill walking and bounding.
A former VAMP, Nancy Fiddler takes a close look at one of the country's largest all-female masters nordic groups, Muffy Ritz's VAMPS program in Sun Valley, Idaho, which caps out at 130 participants each year.
Tad Elliott's headed back to Wisconsin for another "Train Like A Birkie Champion" camp, this time with his mountain bike. Organizer Bill Pierce added a mountain-bike component to this year's three-day camp (Sept. 6-8) to appease Elliott and all the citizens/masters that train for more than just the Birkie. Pierce is also hoping to raise $4,000 for the Birkie Skier Development Fund.