SMS Dorm duty actually has many benefits. Not only do we get to tell kids to clean their rooms, just like my parents would do to me, but during the study hall time I can make some videos. Here is the latest from the SMS DEVO group workout last Saturd...
The snow in the mountains has been teasing us....there's a nice dusting although there hasn't been enough to nordic ski just yet. As the dusting has crept its way down, so has our rollerskiing. Not the intensity or duration-- just the altitude, so we can use the least icy roads! Here is a 4x(45", 60", 90" L5 double poling) workout we did yesterday in the former gravel pit.For my relatives who
The snow in the mountains has been teasing us....there's a nice dusting although there hasn't been enough to nordic ski just yet. As the dusting has crept its way down, so has our rollerskiing. Not the intensity or duration-- just the altitude, so we can use the least icy roads! Here is a 4x(45", 60", 90" L5 double poling) workout we did yesterday in the former gravel pit.For my relatives who
The snow in the mountains has been teasing us....there's a nice dusting although there hasn't been enough to nordic ski just yet. As the dusting has crept its way down, so has our rollerskiing. Not the intensity or duration-- just the altitude, so we can use the least icy roads! Here is a 4x(45", 60", 90" L5 double poling) workout we did yesterday in the former gravel pit.For my relatives who
The snow in the mountains has been teasing us....there's a nice dusting although there hasn't been enough to nordic ski just yet. As the dusting has crept its way down, so has our rollerskiing. Not the intensity or duration-- just the altitude, so we can use the least icy roads! Here is a 4x(45", 60", 90" L5 double poling) workout we did yesterday in the former gravel pit.For my relatives who
I have thankfully received several wonderful gifts in the last week. Today they made me a real happy camper. Kuan and Barry came across the ‘Wish List‘ here on xcSkiLife.com. These are things that I consider luxuries but that would make the life of a ski racer a little bit easier and more comfortable. Thank You. [...]
The first flakes of the fall are falling outside and it’s cold and wet. Occasionally, when nothing gets posted for a while, it’s because not much exciting is going on. Other times, it’s because there’s so much going on that I simply can’t sit around on the computer. Here’s a quick recap of recent events: First of [...]
On Thursday I will speak at NSA as a part of their seriesnbsp;a href="http://www.nationalsportsacademy.com/""The Process of Achieving Peak Performance."/a I've been asked to speak about the importance of balance in an athlete's life. One of the last lu...
This is the sprinting version of my earlier post looking at some of the best young distance skiers on the World Cup circuit last season. The methodology here is basically the same. I’ve set an age cutoff of 24, I’m only considering skiers who did at least four major international (i.e. WC, OWG, TDS) sprint [...] Related posts:Most Improved: Men’s Sprint Most Improved: Women’s Sprint Most Unimproved: Men’s Sprint
div style="text-align: left;"This period of the season is my favorite part of the entire year of training. With the combination of the cold weather, the snow in the mountains, and the building anticipation for the racing season quickly approaching us- there is no way to show up or leave training without unusually high levels of energy. I am beginning to get the feeling that every single workout I am putting in is directly effecting how hard I will be able to push over the steepest hills throughout the season.br //divdiv style="text-align: left;"br //divdivThings are shifting here in Alaska. Starting a couple weeks ago- we drive to training in the dark and do our warm-up in the dark, but we are lucky enough to be doing the true "work" just as the sun rises over the mountains! It sure makes for some awesome views as we speed through the icy streets and trails of Anchorage./divdivbr //divdivThe past month and a half I have been able to shift back into lots of foot workouts. It has been great to do some exploring on foot over the weekends, and to mix up the rollerskiing throughout the week. Last week I decided to put one of my "alpine" friends through some pain and brought him on an OD over the weekend up to Symphony Lakes and the surrounding peaks in Eagle River. It turned into quite the adventure :)/divdivbr //divdiv style="text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;" Symphony Lakes Below.. and lots of white mountains that I wish I knew the names of!/span/divdivbr //divdiva onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/TMhJZikcp7I/AAAAAAAAAcs/NdsfySeGt2Q/s1600/symphny+2.jpg"img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/TMhJZikcp7I/AAAAAAAAAcs/NdsfySeGt2Q/s320/symphny+2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532752845349889970" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 162px; " //a/diva onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/TMhJickpSFI/AAAAAAAAAc0/MubknFDVQbk/s1600/ice.jpg"img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/TMhJickpSFI/AAAAAAAAAc0/MubknFDVQbk/s320/ice.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532752998358927442" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " //adiv style="text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"I am screaming because the ice just dropped and broke right under my feet!/span/divdivbr //divdivWe also had TT's last week just to test the body and get it used to "racing". Though maybe a bit rustic, I was happy with where I am right now. The first day consisted of a sprint day simulation. With a team of 6 or 7 of the top skiers in the US, this simulation is quite accurate... it truly resembles a race! The next day we did a 35 min Hill Climb skating from the ocean to one of the highest access roads in Anchorage. In the past, I would have normally despised a race like this, as who wants to put your head down and climb to the peaks, but I actually enjoyed it.!! I have a video posted below that Erik took near the top of the climb. Check out the sweet houses and view in the background!/divdivbr //divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:-webkit-monospace;font-size:12px;"object width="640" height="385"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qPD06LPxlX0?fs=1amp;hl=en_US"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qPD06LPxlX0?fs=1amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"/embed/object/span/divdiv style="text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"It's hard to tell because everyone is wearing pink and blue. But I am wearing blue tights, pink shirt, white helmet and white boots. /spanbr //divdiv style="text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"br //span/divdiv style="text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"br //span/divdivbr //divdiv3 more weeks until departure for the season..... YEAHHH!br //divdivUntil then.... topping 'er off!/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2018521813175454198-2928077285879069817?l=sadiebjornsen.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
With snowy mountains in the horizon and the days down to the single digits before I'm waking up to stride-and-glide most every morning, my power training has been changing with the season. And while Mr. Hazle or Karl Erickson or Mustafa might call int...
[Bounding pictures here. Historical 3km times and more below.]br /div style="text-align: center;"a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_cBFLp0vFuic/TMeJcKakpfI/AAAAAAAAATA/RoTSRaJfi44/s1600...
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TMdk6lK1u5I/AAAAAAAAE9Q/0wpOzIk8Vvw/s1600/IMG_9007.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; c...
a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/TMhAsT-bG-I/AAAAAAAAAks/9QiMYVDxXMI/s1600/caitlin_MV_Sprint_ultratune.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"img border="0" height="227...
Well the whole Green Team group made it safe and sound through security here in Logan Airport and are waiting at the gate for our plane. Travel days usually are a drag. Traveling in a group even more so. Traveling international in a group goes from being unpleasant to just comical, and our check in [...]
The Teton Mountains, view from Idaho.After a good camp in Utah and a great celebration of USBA's 30th anniversary in Jackson, WY, I'm finally back in Lake Placid for a final couple of weeks of training before we get on snow in Canmore, Canada. Fa...
So the 2011 schedule for the a href="http://www.minnesotaskinnyskiseries.com/news/171"Minnesota Skinnyski Series/a was announced today. The skinnyski series is a 7 race series that awards overall, age group, team (Vakava is the defending champs), and most improved awards.br /br /The 2 main changes to the series this year are:br /1.) the Mayor's Challange 15k classic race will replace the Pepsi Challange classic race. This takes one of the least attended races in the series (the classic race at Pepsi) and replaces it with a Super Tour and CCSA event. For the team race this will no doubt make it even more important than normal to have older team members racing that weekend - since the under 25yr olds will have the entire college field to fend off, and the under 30yr olds will have the CXC team and other elites to battle to earn good age group points. I can already hear Peter calling up every 80 year old he can think of to try and convince them to ski on his team.br /2.) the Nordic Spirit Race will be classic this year. This means that for the first time in the 7 year series history there will be 2 classic races in the series (along with a 2 day pursuit and a same-day pursuit - meaning 4 chances to put on classic skis). This is putting an increased emphesis on classic technique that makes since, since the prize for winning the series is a trip to Iceland to race in the Fossavatn ski marathon (a classic race). This also only reinforces my desire to buy a new pair of classic skis ASAP.br /br /Anyone else have thoughts on the series?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1572647974447867713-6650797198888927514?l=vakavaraceteam.blogspot.com' alt='' //div