News – Page 2 – FasterSkier

Honoring the Architects of the Birkie Trail: Statues Unveiled for Sven Wiik and Marty Hall

Matthew VoisinOctober 8, 2025

On October 4, amid a crisp autumn morning at the trailhead near Cable, Wisconsin, around a hundred skiers, family members, and supporters gathered to witness the unveiling of two life-size bronze statues celebrating the trail designers of the American Birkebeiner, Sven Wiik and Marty Hall. Half a century after their work laid the foundation of what has grown into the United States’ premier cross-country ski marathon, the Birkie community paused to remember the minds behind...

Feature News Training

Pitfalls of Junior Athlete Training: A Case Study in Overload and Misguided Intensity

Jim GalanesOctober 6, 2025

Over the years, I have often been asked to review training programs for junior athletes. Most of the time, these requests come when an athlete is underperforming, showing signs of overtraining, or failing to make anticipated steps in competition. Unfortunately, these situations occur far more often than we might think. In fact, I have reviewed at least a dozen similar cases in recent years, where athletes share the same training and performance profile: high motivation,...

Feature News Olympics Tech

Tariffs, Currency, and Cross-Country Skiing: How Global Economics Could Shape the 2025–26 Ski Season

Matthew VoisinOctober 2, 2025

When snow begins to dust the Rockies and frost settles into New England, North America’s ski community usually shifts into high gear with optimism. But as the 2025–26 ski season approaches—one poised to crescendo with the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina—a double economic hit is reshaping the industry: U.S. tariffs on European sporting goods and a weakened U.S. dollar against the euro. Together, they are raising prices, complicating supply chains, and threatening accessibility in a sport...

News

The Loppet Awarded $500,000 Multi-Year Grant for Habitat Conservation

Press ReleaseOctober 2, 2025

The Loppet Foundation has been awarded a $500,000 multi-year Conservation Partners Legacy (CPL) Grant through the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, launching a three-year habitat restoration effort at Theodore Wirth Park. The project will focus on restoring 50 acres of woodland, prairie, and savanna surrounding The Trailhead, aligning with the Loppet’s mission of connecting people to the outdoors while fostering stewardship of Minnesota’s natural landscapes. A Transformational Restoration Project Working alongside Minnesota Native Landscapes (MNL)...

Job Postings News

University of Alaska Fairbanks Assistant Men’s and Women’s Ski Coach

FasterSkierOctober 1, 2025

The Assistant Men’s and Women’s Nordic Ski Coach plays a key role in supporting one of the nation’s premier collegiate ski programs. Working alongside the Head Coach, this position contributes to fostering a high-performance environment grounded in growth, development, and teamwork. As part of the UAF Athletics Department and the broader Fairbanks ski community, the assistant coach will mentor student-athletes both on and off the trails, helping them excel in competition while preparing for...

Feature News Training

A Review: Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool—“Peak”

Jim GalanesSeptember 29, 2025

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. As I was re-reading “Peak” by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool, the quoted paragraph caught my attention. (I most often read my books multiple times as with each reading I tend to find more learning.) “A 2012 study of tennis players looked at the success...

Dryland News Racing Regional / Local

Thrills and Triumphs at the Climb to the Castle Roller-Ski Challenge

FasterSkierSeptember 24, 2025

On Sunday, athletes from across the region gathered for the highly anticipated Climb to the Castle roller-ski hill climb, hosted by the New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) in partnership with the New York Ski Education Foundation (NYSEF). Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway, this event marks an exciting addition to the 2025 NENSA Rollerski Race Series. Participants faced the daunting task of tackling either a long course of approximately...

Feature News Training

Training Zones

Jim GalanesSeptember 23, 2025

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. About two years ago, I started asking myself if we could define training zones in a better way. Since then, I’ve looked at just about every model out there. From a metabolic perspective, the 3-zone models tries to anchor the zones on metabolic events. But...

Feature News Training

Rethinking Endurance Training: The Implications of Pontzer’s Constrained Energy Model

Jim GalanesSeptember 12, 2025

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. Over the past few years, I’ve been studying the work of Herman Pontzer, PhD, whose research in human energetics challenges long-held paradigms of how endurance athletes adapt to training. For decades, endurance training theory was based on the principle of cumulative energy expenditure: train more,...

Job Postings News

Durango Nordic Ski Club Seeks Executive Director

FasterSkierSeptember 12, 2025

Durango Nordic Ski Club Is Searching for Its Next Trailblazing Leader Durango Nordic Ski Club is looking for an Executive Director who can glide between big-picture strategy and daily operations with ease. This role leads the strategic direction of the organization alongside a committed and involved Board of Directors. Key responsibilities include supervising staff, fundraising, financial management, and building strong community connections — all in service of fulfilling our organization’s mission. This position reports directly to...

Feature News Training

Does Lactate Threshold Even Exist?

Jim GalanesSeptember 9, 2025

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. In the mid-90s, I began doing extensive lactate testing with the athletes I coached. For about ten years, I collected data before eventually abandoning the practice. Why? Because the results raised more questions than answers. Lactate values varied greatly from day to day, and the...

Feature News Training

High Intensity Training

Jim GalanesSeptember 4, 2025

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. We live in the information age where a tremendous amount of training information is available. When it comes to that information, much of it is biased, hyped, or stripped of context for each athlete’s individual physiology. New trends come and go, often pushed more by...

Feature News Training

A Common Question

Jim GalanesAugust 21, 2025

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. “Starting out, it is difficult to train at L1–2. The unfit blows right through just shuffling on the flats. Any insight on how the rank novice can gain enough fitness to begin varying the level of effort?” Submitted by a FasterSkier reader, this is the...

Job Postings News

Methow Valley Nordic Ski Educational Foundation Seeks Assistant Coach

FasterSkierAugust 19, 2025

Position: MVNT Assistant Coach The Methow Valley Ski Educational Foundation (MVNSEF) started as a small ski team in the late 1980s and was formally established in 1998 as a 501(c)(3). We have grown to include many programs, initiatives, and events. We serve over 300 youth, adults, and para-athletes through our cross-country skiing, biathlon, and after-school Ski Cubs programs. While we have supported several current and past Olympians, Paralympians, and National Team athletes in both cross-country...

Job Postings News

University of Alaska Anchorage Seeks Assistant Coach

FasterSkierAugust 19, 2025

The University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Department of Athletics is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Assistant Coach – Men’s and Women’s Nordic Ski. Seawolf Athletics is a member of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC), and competes in multiple National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) divisions. The Seawolf program features 13 teams competing at both the Division 1 and Division II levels. UAA Athletics Mission We support the educational mission of the University of...

Feature News Training

If I Knew Then What I Think I Know Now — Or Has Training Really Changed That Much?

Jim GalanesAugust 19, 2025

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. I want to highlight a comparison between how we trained in the late 1970s and 80s, and what we now consider best practices. I’ve reviewed some old training logs to refresh my memory, though with time, those memories fade. I started unstructured training around the...

Feature News Training

Training Philosophy: Building, Not Breaking Down

Jim GalanesAugust 10, 2025

I regularly share my thoughts on training through various social media platforms. My goal is always to spark discussion and share insight from decades of experience and study. But what I’ve noticed over time is that people often read between the lines and make erroneous assumptions that simply aren’t accurate. Some suggest I don’t value high training volume. Others think I advocate only for easy training or that I always train in 2-3 day blocks....

Community Feature News

Is SafeSport—and U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s MAAPP Protocol—Actually Working?

Jim GalanesAugust 3, 2025

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. In March of this year, an alpine coach from a Colorado based ski club—a club that encompasses all U.S. Ski & Snowboard (USSS) disciplines—was reported for abusing a nine-year-old child during a post-season training camp in Taos, New Mexico. The club promptly reported the coach...

Feature News

The Vasaloppet Experience

Jim GalanesJuly 31, 2025

This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. In 2021, our family decided to do the 2022 Vasaloppet, marking the 100th anniversary of this iconic event. That meant setting an alarm for 1:30 a.m., firing up the computer, and scrambling to grab a spot as the Vasaloppet website went live. With 15,800 entries...

Biathlon Feature News

Biathlon Mourns Loss of German Olympic and World Champion Laura Dahlmeier

FasterSkierJuly 30, 2025

The International Biathlon Union is deeply saddened to learn that former Olympic and World Champion Laura Dahlmeier has passed away at the age of 31 following a tragic mountaineering accident in Pakistan. Laura was one of the greatest athletes to grace biathlon and her loss is felt deeply by everyone in biathlon, the wider German sport family and beyond. The IBU’s thoughts are with Laura’s family and friends during this very difficult time. Throughout her...

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