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...
During the month of June, the Canadian National Ski Team (CNST) tackled the usual Haig glacier ‘Yo-Yo’ Camp. Featuring 23 days of skiing, intervals, distance workouts and traveling from high to low altitudes and back again, the ‘Yo-Yo’ camp has been a fixture on the CNST schedule for the last couple of years. The training camp has always been a difficult one, due to its length and its strenuous workouts. The 2010 edition featured four...
In the voice mail he leaves me with directions to his cabin in the woods, Andy Newell gives me the street address—number 380—but tells me to just give him a call when I get close, since it’s not marked. But when I drive through the nearest town, he doesn’t answer, and then, predictably, when I find 376 and 382 a mile down the dirt road, I don’t have cell service. After driving past two surly-looking...
Our Pro Workout series continues, this week shifting from rollerskis to running shoes for ski bounding intervals with XC Oregon’s Kristina Strandberg. A native of Sweden, Strandberg is a consistent force on the U.S. racing circuit. A two-time SuperTour overall champion and repeat winner of the FasterSkier Continental Skier of the Year award, Strandberg earned a spot on the World Cup circuit for the start of last season. She competed in seven World Cup events,...
The summer is in full swing. For athletes, that means building up your training base with long workouts, intensity sessions, and time in running shoes and on rollerskis. While the training is what will keep you fast for those race weekends in January and February, during July and August, the season can seem a long way off. The temptation to have a barbeque with your friends, knock back a few of your favorite adult drinks,...
A lot of things were better in the old days. But distance workouts in rubber boots? “It felt mostly like running on cutting boards, but we didn’t think twice about it!”
The eternal question of cross-country ski training: how much to train? This is a debate that will never find resolution, for the simple reason that there is no one answer. A recent FasterSkier http://fasterskier.com/2010/06/after-ncaa-championship-gelso-to-join-sun-valley/) to give you background, so you may better understand where this is all coming from. One of the keys for any young skier using these charts would be to do it with you club or program coach, so you can decide...
Protein is a very important component of any athlete’s caloric intake, but it can be difficult to sort myth from fact when judging how much protein to incorporate into your diet. In the next few paragraphs, I hope to debunk some myths and provide you with a new pieces of information that might improve your diet and subsequently enhance your training. Myth: You only get protein from meat. Fact: While this is a bit exaggerated...
Training camps for junior skiers are important both as a social arena and networking function, as well as the physical training aspects.