1-on-1 with Erik Bjornsen (Exclusive Video)
FasterSkierNovember 13, 2013
Before the start of the 2013/2014 season, 22-year-old Erik Bjornsen recently sat down with Reese Hanneman for a frank discussion about last winter and the one just ahead.
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There is really only one way to become a faster skier. Train. We will keep you inspired with training reports from the best around, as well as articles on specific workouts and suggestions on how to improve your own training. Use the links below to view articles in a specific sub-category, or srcoll down to view all Training articles.
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.
Selected to head up the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Program just three years ago, John Farra is already thinking medals for his team at the Sochi Paralympics in March, and believes they'll be on par with the Russians by the 2018 Games.
Opening Weekend at Sovereign Lake/Silver Star
Gerry FursethNovember 11, 2013
Sovereign Lake boasted "mid-winter conditions" on Saturday, so naturally, FasterSkier contributor Gerry Furseth had to investigate. What he found was 75-plus kilometres of groomed trails and a reason for switching from his rock to his race skis.
Ask a Sports Psychologist: How Do I Deal with My Team?
FasterSkierNovember 8, 2013
Coaches can't help with everything. We talked to Dr. Mark Hiatt, a sports psychologist at Dartmouth College, for how to deal with some common situations: what if your team is taking up too much time and eating into your life? How do you compete against your teammates? What if you hate your coach? His answers, which we hope will help you.
Scrap the box and make the real thing this weekend with Tracy and Lanny Barnes' dark-chocolate-and-walnut brownie recipe.
Heidi Widmer Rebounding After Third Concussion
Katie BonoNovember 6, 2013
At 22, Heidi Widmer's suffered three concussions in the last four years, with her most recent resulting from a rollerski crash this fall. "I’m super lucky,” the Canadian NST member says. “There’s no internal bleeding, I’m functioning, I’m fine, but I just have to be able to take care of this and come out of it with some lessons learned for sure.”
Muffy Ritz, founder and head coach of the VAMPS women's masters group in Sun Valley, Idaho, leads us through the Vamps Hill Workout, which she adopted from UNH's Beach Hill climb and incorporates stations of moosehoofing, hill walking and bounding.
This Month in Journals: Managing Risks from Sun and Weight Loss; More Inhaler Fights
Chelsea LittleNovember 4, 2013
Kids are at particular risk of sunburn, and possibly later cancer, when they head out for a ski; athletes in weight-sensitive sports like skiing are at risk for developing eating disorders, and the IOC is trying to do something about it; new "designer" drugs for doping; and stop stressing out, coaches! Your job is bad for you!
There's a skiable groomed loop in Eastern Canada, and FS contributor Stephanie Drolet drove an hour north of Quebec City to check it out. This year, Laval University opened the 1.3 k manmade track at La Forêt Montmorency a couple weeks earlier than usual and expect to keep it open into April 2014. In English and French.
Catching Up with Canada’s Former Head Coach Dave Wood
Nancy FiddlerOctober 31, 2013
During his recent visit to California for a training camp with his Black Jack Ski Club, former Canadian National Team Head Coach Dave Wood met up with FasterSkier's Nancy Fiddler and shared some intimate thoughts on the sport. "You can’t improve by just going to Europe to race,” Wood says. “You have to figure out a way to cut 45 seconds over 15 kilometers before going.”
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."
Earlier this month, Devon Kershaw packed his bags for Europe, where he'll spend essentially six months between the World Cup, Tour de Ski and Olympic competitions. It was tough, he said, but an opportunity he couldn't pass up between seeing his girlfriend, Kristin Størmer Steira, and training with the Norwegian men's team in Val Senales, Italy.
Traverse City Gets Creative with Preseason Skiing (with Photo Gallery)
Lander KarathOctober 26, 2013
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.
Katerina Smutna of Austria topped U.S. Ski Team members Ida Sargent and Sophie Caldwell in Thursday's on-snow sprint at Frozen Thunder, and Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess led an American sweep of the hypothetical podium in what was essentially the first race of the season.
For the last several days, skiers from all over Canada and the U.S. have converged on Canmore, Alberta, to ski the seasonal anomaly that is Frozen Thunder: a 2.2-kilometer loop of real snow skiing, harvested from last winter and saved over the brief Canadian summer under a thick coat of sawdust.
With the opening of Frozen Thunder in Canmore, Alberta, Perianne Jones of the Canadian World Cup Team shares an "easy-does-it" workout for getting back into on-snow training.
A former VAMP, Nancy Fiddler takes a close look at one of the country's largest all-female masters nordic groups, Muffy Ritz's VAMPS program in Sun Valley, Idaho, which caps out at 130 participants each year.
Mmm, nothing says delectable-recovery drinks like Noah Hoffman's raw-egg smoothie. In this edition of "The Hungry Skier," the U.S. Ski Team member and his mother, Sharon, share the recipe and explain the importance of quality ingredients, which Sharon drums up in Colorado.
Three Thunder Bay Skiers Slip Under Pancake Milestone
FasterSkierOctober 20, 2013
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.