Rollerskis are simple enough: mini-skis with wheels. But with repeated use comes wear and tear, and we asked a couple experts the question: how should you take care of them? Here are some tips.
Brian Gregg, Caitlin Gregg, Patrick Johnson, Todd Eastman, and Russell Kennedy — those names sound familiar? The five U.S.-born cross-country racers started each of their eight-person teams off two weekends ago in the 93-mile Ski to Sea Race from Mount Baker to Bellingham, Wash. The Greggs and their teams swept -- again -- and Caitlin skied to fifth in the nordic race.
Are your a winter warrior but springtime sally when it comes to skiing? This author asks the question that several not-so-elite skiers might be dying to ask: are rollerskis right for us mortals, and if so, how do we use them without risking road rash?
Sarah Max has experience on her side when it comes to multi-sport races. "After a winter of planned workouts, I generally don’t follow a training plan for the Pole Pedal Paddle," the race's four-time winner explains. This year was no different. But she did incorporate running workouts to minimize the "brick" feeling one gets from transitioning from the bike to run.
Construction is underway on the eight-mile Whiteface Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway, the upper five miles of which the U.S. Ski Team, US Biathlon and NYSEF use for the annual Climb to the Castle rollerski race, set for Sept. 6.
Taylor Fletcher is not a master blaster, but the 24-year-old U.S. Nordic Combined skier does like to get out for a hard, group road ride a few times a month. Here's an example of a 2 to 2.5-hour workout, or race, depending on your viewpoint, called Wednesday Night Worlds.
Time passes and skiers come and go, but terrain (usually) doesn’t change. Dan Simoneau of the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation (MBSEF) in Oregon shares a place from the past, which he still drives his athletes to today and shares stories of his former teammate.
Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess knows as well as anybody that falls is the time to up the intensity. "For the first time since the training year started in May, I get to play in the area of threshold - and threshold plus," he explains. "Wednesdays we hit the trails: pole bounding in mixed terrain."
Traverse City Nordic Fest: America's biggest preseason XC party on a 350-foot loop. How do they do it? Lots of enthusiastic volunteers, long nights, and ice-rink shavings. The event kicks off Saturday.
The historic Lappe Pancake Run in Thunder Bay, Ontario, is anything but flat. On Friday, three NDC Thunder Bay men joined four others in the race's record books by breaking the 1:20 mark set more than 30 years ago.
The Pierre-Harvey National Training Centre has expanded this season with more women than men on its senior roster. Alex Harvey and Dasha Gaiazova are back from the World Cup team, and CNEPH has big goals for its younger athletes.
At first glance, one might not see much of a difference on the Canadian World Cup Team: mostly the same faces looking fit as usual. But head coach Justin Wadsworth said there's a lot that's gone on behind the scenes this training season, especially in monitoring recovery and priming his athletes for what he hopes to be their best seasons yet. A new camp in Truckee was part of the plan.
With week one of the U.S. Ski Team's two-week training camp in Park City, Utah, in the bag, head coach Chris Grover shares what his athletes have been up to and how they've trained with dozens of other U.S. skiers.
Billy Demong put himself in fighting position and went on to win Sunday's 10 k rollerski at U.S. Nordic Combined Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y., holding off the Fletcher brothers for his ninth national title.
Since nordic skiing is a lactate-tolerable sport, it's important to know how to get that stuff out of your system and deal with it on race day. That's why AWCA assistant coach Stefan Kuhn loves this lactate clearance workout: "It's super simple to do, but it really makes you have to dig deep," he says.
With Fast and Female catering to young female skiers for the last eight years, Andy Newell and Simi Hamilton finally came up with an option for boys: Speed Camp. On Sunday afternoon, the same time as Fast and Female's Champ Camp, the U.S. Ski Team hosted its first all-male camp for juniors at Soldier Hollow.
FasterSkier caught the US Biathlon team during one of their hardest workouts of the training season in Lake Placid, with the added bonus of watching German gold medalist Andrea Henkel rollerski around with them.
The Alberta World Cup Academy is inviting participants to its third-annual Spray Drag running race up Spray Lakes Road on Oct. 12 in Canmore, Alberta. Winners take 50 percent of the proceeds, and a Lactate Challenge is also on the table.
There's a bit of a mystique surrounding the Ethan Allen Firing Range in Jericho, Vt., and we wanted to find out more about the treasured training site and who exactly can use it.
Speed workouts make fast skiers in more ways that one might think, SMST2 Head Coach Gus Kaeding says. He lets us in on a couple of his go-to variations on a staple workout.