I spent the last two summers training in Park City, Utah, taking a class each June and July at Westminster College in Salt Lake, scooping ice cream and making coffee for the tourists and locals, and getting to know a pretty cool state. This summer I lived and trained with Alice Nelson from Williams College, and Sarah MacCarthy from University of Utah. Each of them race for their respective NCAA teams. We all had different...
While most skiers structure their training by time and not distance, it can be helpful (or just interesting) to know how far you ran, skied, rollerskied, etc. Here is a very handy and simple tool that we came across recently to do just that –
Day 1 The introductory meeting stated the purpose of this camp – to enable the athletes to have a group training environment which may not be readily available on a consistent basis; For the coaches to offer support during the training sessions, and provide technical feedback; and to have lively and productive roundtable sessions in which athletes, coaches and guests can share their experiences on topics such as managing a long term ski career, technical...
Øysteinâ€The Sausage†Pettersen feels stronger than ever. He credits how he feels to a new training plan developed with the Norwegian sprint national team. Not afraid anymore – I was very skeptical to how the sprinters were training until I tried it myself. I was thinking that “I can’t handle thisâ€. But I have learned after changing my training to doing hard workouts every day that you can train a lot tougher than you think,...
HAYWARD, WI (August 20) The Central Cross Country Ski Association (CXC Skiing) is pleased to announce a FREE Get Your Nordic On! clinic in the Twin Cities area. Join local CXC Team skiers Matt Liebsch and Brian Gregg who will be leading the clinic. Orono Ski Club – Baker Park The clinic will be held on Wednesday, August 22 at Baker Park and hosted by the Orono Club. The clinic begins at 7:00pm at the...
On August 4, the National Para-Nordic Ski Team landed in New Zealand for a four week training camp at the Waiorau, Snow Farm in the South Island. Now at the mid-way point, this group of athletes is certain that everyday in this region of New Zealand is a “Skiers Paradiseâ€. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, utilizing every possible moment to ski but making time to stop for a few moments to take in and...
Team 2014 just completed one of their bigger camps of the season. The intent of this camp was to have the athletes from the east and west complete a big block of training together. All athletes under went testing so we could see improvements made during the last 6 weeks of training. During the on-snow portion of the camp athletes were provided feedback on technique and video sessions consumed the afternoons. We were blessed with...
HAYWARD, WI (August 17) CXC with support of the American Birkebeiner recently completed the big open summer camp of the summer season. The goal of the camp was improving technique in small groups. Along with technique training, athletes attended educational seminars on nutrition and motivation and watched some of the latest cross country videos. On the last full day everyone enjoyed waterskiing and swimming following an afternoon roller ski session. “Once again this was an...
The Callaghan Valley Training Centre along with the NTDC Thunder Bay and a few awesome additions from XC.com, Indi-2010 and Lakehead University spent this past week training hard at the Haig Glacier near Canmore, Alberta. The 6 day camp started off with cold and wet weather, followed by a terrifying thunderstorm, where athletes had to race off the glacier to the safety of camp as fast as possible. Fortunately, our luck changed, and we were...
Aotearoa Atop a mountain, in a country known by the native Maori as Aotearoa — land of the long white cloud — weather moves in and weather moves out. One day to the next can make all the difference. On Friday morning the U.S. team ran for 2 ½ hours up the Matukituki Valley in t-shirts, then put in a distance and on-snow specific strength session in the half-light of the evening sky. The nighttime...
Editor's Note: While concussions are much more common in the various alpine disciplines, they do occur in cross-country skiing. This article provides useful guidelines for dealing with such occurances. Concussion is a very prevalent injury in snow sports. It is defined as a disturbance in the functioning of the brain following a blow to the head or a force transmitted to the head, which may or may not cause a loss of consciousness. This typically...
Editor's Note: As stated below, the UCI held a similar meeting in June, before the Tour de France. Many athletes and teams signed the “Commitment to a New Cycling,” including all four riders connected to doping in this year's Tour – Patrik Sinkewitz, Michael Rasmussen, Alexandre Vinokourov, and Cristian Moreni. This recent meeting was held with continental teams, while the earlier meeting was with ProTour teams. The President of the International Cycling Union, Pat McQuaid,...
Testing is just that — a means of measuring fitness, rate of force production and economy. Testing gives an indication to how training is going. Training, though, is where the work gets done that makes skiers faster. With this on their mind, four American women and five U.S. men currently are in a three week on-snow altitude camp, putting in the kilometers, testing equipment and refining technique at the SnowFarm on New Zealand’s South Island....
PARK CITY, Utah (Aug. 4) – From on-snow training and some ocean fun in June to intense testing and roller-ski workouts. That was the transition for U.S. Ski Team cross country athletes in their latest camp where their third round of testing showed continued improvement World Cup skier Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK) does a strength test during the Team's July Park City camp before heading to New Zealand (credit: J. Fritz/USSA) “We're ahead of where...
Editors Note: FasterSkier.com is primarily a cross-country ski news source. However, we are providing coverage of the current doping issues at the Tour de France. As our readers know all too well, the use of banned substances is a significant issue in international cross-country ski racing. The events at the Tour provide insight into the current state of cheating in sport, and serve to remind us that this issue remains one of the largest challenges...
The U.S. Biathlon Team concluded its second major training camp of the season on July 9th with precision shooting tests and a roller-ski biathlon competition at the Ethan Allen Firing Range in Jericho, VT. For the previous two weeks, the National and Development teams trained together in Lake Placid, NY. National Team Coaches Mikael Lofgren and Per Nilsson, assisted by Development Coach James Upham put the group through an intensive program of both physical and...
HAYWARD, WI (JULY 30) CXC Team members Johanna Winters, Matt Liebsch, and Garrott Kuzzy led several Get Your Nordic On! clinics in the Twin Cities recently. The CXC Team skiers were able to work with a number of summer training programs for both Junior and Master skiers, including the Wayzata Ski Club, Go! Training, FinnSisu skiers, and Nordic Werks. The series of Get Your Nordic On! clinics began on Wednesday evening at Baker Park with...
The New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) has announced two Coaches clinics with two-time Olympian Andrew Johnson. The clinics will be held in conjunction with the final two events of the NENSA Summer Rollerski Series. The upcoming '07 NENSA Summer Rollerski Series and Summer Coaches Education Clinics will be held on August 11th (Rutland, VT) and September 8th (Jerhico, VT). Start time will be 12:00. Feel free to bring some of your athletes along as...
It’s been another scorching summer here in West Yellowstone. Like much of the US, we had a low snow winter and we are following that up with a super dry summer — the ground here is parched and many of us are looking forward to the return of winter and a giant accumulation of snow. Just thinking about the possibilities makes it feel cooler here. One thing is for sure; when the snow does start...
Now in its sixth year, the annual Pacific Northwest Troutlake Junior Development Camp, was moved to the Seagle Ranch in nearby Glenwood, WA this past week where 37 skiers from Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, and New York gathered for a week of training, technique instruction, and camaraderie. Attracting national talent and a superb coaching staff, the Glenwood-Troutlake camp has easily become one of the premier dry-land junior development camps in the country. With clouds hanging ominously...