Kara Doescher and Ben Grasseschi provide overviews of the PNSA/Far West Nor Cal Nordic Camp near Mt. Lassen. Kara is a high school skier from Corvallis and Ben coaches for the Auburn Ski Club. Nor Cal Nordic Camp, by Kara Doescher As a high school skier the Nor Cal Nordic Camp was my first XC ski training camp. It was a wonderful experience, I really learned a lot, and I met some great new people....
A group of handpicked Norwegian junior skiers in the Norwegian Ski Association’s talent development group are treated to their own mentors among the World Cup racers, as well as team camps that blend athletes from all the ski disciplines. The result is major motivational boosts.
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...
There aren’t many people who can spend more time in work boots than cycling shoes and still harbor reasonable hopes of keeping up in a bike race with Tour de France veterans. But count American nordic combined skier Billy Demong as one of the few members of that group. Over the past few years, Demong has been an avid bike racer during the off-season. This summer, though, he’s been more focused on remodeling his house...
AURE, NORWAY – Cross country skier Petter Northug (NOR) leaves Aure and the rest of the events at Toppidrettsveka. Northug completed two of four events. Toppidrettsveka started out as an elite Norwegian week of competitions, camps and challenges that evolved into an international week of camps and competitions in the northwest part of Norway. The past two years it has featured World Cup roller ski events, and this summer acted as test events for the...
If I know it’s going to be a big day, I make sure I have a solid breakfast. People always say that it’s the most important meal of the day and that’s true. When you wake up in the morning, you probably haven’t eaten in at least 8 hours. Your glucose stores will be depleted, which are the main energy source of the body. A lot of people tell me, “I’m not hungry,” or “I...
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...
Barrie, ON – Team Hardwood, one of Ontario’s most successful cross country ski racing clubs, is host a gathering of winter Olympians, National Ski Team members, and 50 of the top junior cross country ski racers in the province at the annual Ontario High Performance dryland training camp, being held at Hardwood Ski and Bike, Barrie, ON, from August 12-15th, 2010. The objective of the “Hitting Your Stride” camp is to show and teach promising...
Martin Rosvall, 32, works full time as an assistant professor of physics at the University of Umeå in northern Sweden. But the constraints of a full time job, work-related travel and conferences are no barriers to stellar marathon performances, Rosvall says. Point in case: In March, he finished 15th overall at the Vasaloppet, the 90 K classic race that attracts more than 20,000 skiers and was Rosvall’s main goal for the season. The legendary race...
OSLO, NORWAY – It’s a well known fact that cross-country skiing is among the worst offenders when it comes to increasing risk of exercise induced asthma and has some of the highest use of asthma medicine among elite athletes. According to the Norwegian TV station NRK, as many as half of the skiers on the Norwegian national team have asthma. “These are not exact numbers, but we test the national team every year, and about...
What do you do when you can’t keep up with Andy Newell? For most of us, the answer is that we continue on with our normal lives, content to compete for a spot in the elite wave at the American Birkebeiner rather than the top spot on a World Cup podium. But Steinbock Racing’s Chris Cook was not so easily deterred. Instead of giving up, he turned to a sprint workout: sets of all-out 30-second...
Yeah right, we’re all skiers, and we all need to eat carbohydrates. Pesto, the classic Italian combination of basil, pine nuts, garlic, cheese and olive oil, is a staple. Relatively easy to prepare, it meets a skier’s carbohydrate needs. However, one doesn’t live by pasta alone. As the chief dishwasher as well as cook in our house, I’ve adapted the classic pesto recipe for to incorporate vegetables and protein, while minimizing the number of dishes...
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,...
If Nicaragua is not the last place you would look for a story about cross country skiing, it’s pretty darn close. But for former Junior National Champ and Alaskan Espen Haugen, the small Central American country has become an obsession. Growing up, Haugen was an avid skier and member of the Alaska Pacific University (APU) team with such greats as former U.S. Ski Team member Nina Kempall and 2009 World Championship medalist Kikkan Randall, as...
Most of his competitors train full time; Martin Rosvall, 32, works full time. In March, Rosvall was 15th overall at the Vasaloppet, after having led the podium finishers large portions of the way from Sälen to Mora. No small feat for an amateur.
Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen finished second in the 2008 overall World Cup standings, and has three career World Cup victories. She won a gold medal in the classic sprint at the 2007 World Championships. OSLO, NORWAY – Roller ski training can be a lot of different things to different people, but here is some of the information I have, Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen writes on her blog. I do a fair amount of roller skiing, but I...
Launched for the first time this summer, 40 of the best J2 boys and girls in the U.S. were invited to take part in a the USSA National J2 Talent Camp. The following is a written report with photos from U.S. Ski Team coach Bryan Fish. Original camp announcement can be found at: www.nccsef.org) provided $5k in funding for this camp which greatly helped offset the costs for the attendees. Camp sponsors also include Chums,...
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...
Been out of the game for the past few weeks with an illness that kept me from trying out and eating tasty recipes but here it is. We’re back with a delish recipe involving, rice, cheese and spinach… my favourite! Risotto with Mushrooms, Red Peppers, and Spinach Ingredients: – 1 cup Arborio rice – 3 cups chicken stock – 1/2 onion or three shallots, chopped – 3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely – 1/2 a red...