Maddy Wendt – FasterSkier

How General Strength Makes Specific Strength Easier

Maddy WendtSeptember 1, 2010

Jessie Diggins recently graduated from Stillwater High School in Minnesota, where she earned three individual state championship titles, among other impressive national and international results. Diggins skis for CXC Team Vertical Limit. One might wonder why an endurance athlete like a skier or runner would ever bother lifting weights. Isn’t specific strength enough? Shouldn’t skating without poles, single-sticking and double-poling build all the muscles a skier would need? The truth is, general strength does more...

General Interviews News

Where Are They Now? – For Bauer, Family is Focus, but Birkebeiner Still Beckons

Maddy WendtAugust 31, 2010

The name John Bauer hasn’t been heard much around the elite circuit lately, but less than a decade ago, Bauer was kicking ass and taking names atop results lists across the country and around the world. Bauer represented the United States at the 1992, 1998, and 2002 Olympic Games, turning out some of the best individual finishes ever by an American. In 1996, Bauer became the second skier in history to sweep every event at...

Health Lifestyle

Recipe of the Week: Granola from Scratch

Maddy WendtAugust 30, 2010

Whenever nordic skiers are being stereotyped, you are almost sure to hear the word granola, often accompanied by words like crunchy, and nature. So what better to bake than a food that will fulfill all the world’s stereotypes about us? Because granola can be made with just about anything, the recipe is wide open to your interpretation. Substitute craisins for raisins, throw in your leftover almonds, replace the fiber with chocolate – go nuts!

Camps Technique Training

Gold Medal Coaching for Women’s Clinic

Maddy WendtAugust 19, 20102

Attendance may have been small at last weekend’s camp, but the coaching was of gold-medal caliber. Seven master skiers, all women, braved the heat Friday through Sunday, learning from and training with Olympian Nina Gavrilyuk at Lakewoods Resort in Cable, Wisconsin. Skiing for the Soviet Union (until 1991) and Russia, Gavrilyuk won four Olympic gold medals and one bronze over the course of a long and highly decorated competitive career. She also earned 11 World...

General News

College on Skis

Maddy WendtAugust 17, 2010

While every college coach loves fast recruits, producing such athletes is a task generally left up to high school teams and local clubs. But rather than waiting around, Jed Friedrich has decided to do something about it himself. For the past three years, Friedrich, a Michigan alum and head coach of the Nordic ski team at Gustavus Adolphus College, has hosted a training camp for junior skiers entering grades 8-12. “I try to reach out...

Camps Training Uncategorized

Inspiring the Next Generation

Maddy WendtAugust 17, 2010

Where do you start when you have one day to teach all that is cross-country skiing? The Central Cross-Country Ski Association (CXC) gave it a shot, hosting a youth camp for children ages 8 through 11 at Lakewoods Resort in Cable, Wisconsin on Monday, July 26. The day’s schedule was a busy one, as the campers bounced from one exercise to another, including ski-specific warm-ups, bounding, light strength, plyometric strength, swimming, Ski Erg races, laser...

Racing

CXC Looks to Create Worldloppet Team

Maddy WendtAugust 16, 2010

Racing for hours at a time is an entirely different kind of challenge than racing a 5 or a 10k and especially in the United States, the longer of these challenges tends to receive far less attention on the professional level. However, the Central Cross-Country Ski Association (CXC) is making plans to move ahead with the creation of an elite Worldloppet team. Athletes on the team would compete in the American Birkebeiner and Vassaloppet, the...

General Product News

Not Sitting This One Out

Maddy WendtAugust 13, 2010

The athletes are far fewer in number and the competitions receive even less press than most Nordic ski races, but the adaptive ski community is steadily growing and gaining momentum. And now the Central Cross-Country Ski Association (CXC) is getting involved. Over the past year, CXC has distributed over 120 sit skis to disabled athletes across the country. The first ten sit ski prototypes were produced by engineering graduate students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,...

Dryland Racing

Beckman, Liebsch Take 10th Annual Ringer Roll

Maddy WendtAugust 12, 2010

Skiers from all over the Midwest converged on Baker Park in Maple Plain, Minnesota Friday morning. The occasion? The 10th annual Ringer Roll. The 10 kilometer rollerski race was established in honor of Chris Ringsven, a skier and coach who was killed in a whitewater rafting accident on December 2, 2000. The event is the largest rollerski race in the Midwest. A smoothly-paved bike path provides a relatively flat course, but competitors had plenty to...

Camps Collegiate Training Uncategorized

The Search for Summer Snow

Maddy WendtAugust 10, 2010

Getting a little bit tired of your rollerskis? Feeling bogged down by heat? Yearning for snow? The St. Scholastica team has found the answer we’ve all been waiting for. The only problem is the airfare to Sweden. Lead by coach Chad Salmela, members of the College of St. Scholastica Nordic team, based out of Duluth, Minnesota, headed out to Scandinavia on July 28th, and will spend two weeks training at a ski tunnel in Torsby,...

Camps Training

Rubbing Elbows with the Pros: Alaska REG

Maddy WendtAugust 6, 2010

This summer’s Alaska Regional Elite Group (REG) camp, held in Anchorage, proved to be a challenging and valuable week of training for all involved. Just like the Eastern, Central, and Western REG camps held earlier, the Alaska camp included a variety of distance, strength, technique, and intensity workouts as well as two time trials. “I think the main objective and goal of the week was to give the REG athletes an opportunity to bang heads...

Health Lifestyle

Mythbusters: Protein

Maddy WendtJuly 21, 20106

Protein is a very important component of any athlete’s caloric intake, but it can be difficult to sort myth from fact when judging how much protein to incorporate into your diet. In the next few paragraphs, I hope to debunk some myths and provide you with a new pieces of information that might improve your diet and subsequently enhance your training. Myth: You only get protein from meat. Fact: While this is a bit exaggerated...

General News

Summer School

Maddy WendtJuly 21, 2010

A business primarily known for being the only US importer of Marwe rollerskis, Finn Sisu Sauna and Ski Shop has even more to offer this summer. Monday, July 12 kicked off the Sisu Summer Lecture Series. The lectures, held at Finn Sisu’s new store location in Lauderdale, Minnesota, will take place every Monday night at 6:00pm.

Camps Training

Running Up Hills: Eastern REG Camp

Maddy WendtJuly 15, 2010

High-caliber junior athletes flocked to Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Vermont on June 25 for the five-day Regional Elite Group (REG) camp. The week provided attending skiers with a chance to train with and learn from some of the country’s best coaches. This year saw some changes to the general REG plan, including more time trials and the requirement that athletes wear numbered bibs for all workouts, fostering a greater spirit of competition and professionalism. “I...

Technique Training

Smooth Is Fast: Relaxation Key to Good Technique

Maddy WendtJuly 15, 2010

Relaxed and fast may seem like contradictory adjectives, but any successful skier can tell you otherwise. Learning to relax while skiing is essential to racing fast at a high level. Nerves and tension are natural components of any athletic competition, but if untamed they lead to choppy technique, inefficient movement, and a needlessly tiring struggle. “You can be as fit and strong as anybody but still not be able to hang on… You cannot power...

Camps Training

Through Time Trials and Tug-of-War: Central REG Camp

Maddy WendtJuly 12, 2010

Friday marked the end of the Central Regional Elite Group (REG) training camp at the Cresthill Resort in Hayward, Wisconsin. Top athletes from throughout the Central region arrived on Saturday, July 3 for a week of tough competition, quality training, and phenomenal coaching. One of the great values of the REG camps is the educational component, as athletes attended lectures presented by the coaches almost every night. The star-studded coaching staff included Bryan Fish (US...

Dryland Racing Uncategorized

How Did You Celebrate the 4th? Alaskans do it Right with Mount Marathon

Maddy WendtJuly 7, 2010

For many of us, July 4th is a day to spend with friends and family, take in a parade, eat a lot of good food and maybe watch some stuff blow up, but in Alaska, Independence Day means one thing: Mount Marathon. Sunday marked the 83rd annual running of the grueling competition in which runners climb almost 3,000 feet in elevation over 3.5 miles before turning around to run back down. The race ends on...

General Health Lifestyle Training Uncategorized

SPF: Slather it on

Maddy WendtJuly 7, 20104

The summer sun is enticing to outdoor enthusiasts like most of us skiers, but it can be more dangerous than we realize. We all grew up with Mom chasing embarrassingly after us with a bottle of SPF 200, but it turns out Mom was right. Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, and studies have shown that endurance athletes are at a greater risk due to the extended hours spent in...

Interviews Uncategorized

Both Speed and Smarts Make One Athlete Successful

Maddy WendtJuly 5, 2010

Annie Hart of St. Paul, Minnesota is the 2009 Minnesota State High School Champion, 2010 State runner-up, a three-time All State recipient, 2010 Junior 5k champion, three-time Junior Olympian, and a U.S. World Junior team member. But skiing isn’t all that Hart can do well. She also ran on the St. Paul Academy cross-country and track teams and excelled academically throughout her high school career, earning her the honor of being named 2010 Star Tribune...

Racing Uncategorized

Sweden Dominates in Chinese Summer Ski Tour

Maddy WendtJune 29, 2010

Skies were sunny and conditions were fair as racers competed in the fourth annual Chinese Summer Ski Tour sprint race last Monday. The 1.5 km course was constructed from snow that has been stored since the end of winter, and athletes said that the snow was surprisingly good throughout the day. The Chinese team was extremely pleased with the day’s results, as the team was able place a skier on the women’s podium. Jenny Hansson...

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