BEND, OR – Following a season of incredible success, including Kikkan Randall’s (Anchorage, AK) World Championship silver medal, the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team reunited this week in Oregon to begin its training season in the lead up to the 2010 Olympics. “It’s an early camp, so we’re really trying to lay down base fitness. We’re also working on technique with each individual working on their weaknesses at the moment,” Cross Country Head coach Pete...
The Canadian National Cross Country Ski Team is enjoying amazing ski conditions on Silver Star Mountain. The team on snow camp started May 10 and continues until May 18th. The team is enjoying the Okanagan weather with skiing in the morning and biking, running, beach volleyball, etc in the afternoon. Note: Today was sunny but it has been snowing almost daily during the training camp, with 20 centimeters on Thursday morning. The snow base on...
A lot more than I can post here... ...it's a twelve page newsletter with lots of good information. a href="http://ultratune.net/pdfs/may2009newsletter.pdf" target="_blank"Take a look./adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https:...
Editor’s Note: This is an updated version of a press release run several days ago. More information on the program is included. NENSA is excited to announce a collaboration with a new summer program at Stratton Mountain School While SMS is continuing to offer a summer training program for their students, this year they are also opening the program to a limited number of additional athletes. This is an ideal opportunity for college skiers without...
SMS is continuing to offer a summer training program for our students. This year we are opening the program to a limited number of additional athletes. This is an ideal opportunity for college skiers without access to a summer training group and coaching. Andy Newell will be around in June and August and SMS skiers will be here all summer. Our goal is to have a dedicated group of high school and college age skiers...
Well I think I have finally got it out of my system! The five days spent with Bjorn Daehlie and his father, Erling, at the Birkie were the culmination of months of planning that lead to as an intense, exciting and enjoyable period of time as I can ever remember. I first had the idea of inviting Bjorn to do the Birkie after discussions with Ned Zuelsdorff, Executive Director of the Birkie, and Colleen Kalt,...
Chad Giese races for the Saab-Salomon Factory Team. More information on the Saab-Salomon Factory Team can be found at www.skipost.com We learn the value of hard work very early in life. One of my favorite books to read to my son Anders is called Pancakes Pancakes. The little boy in the book wakes up one morning and asks his mom for pancakes for breakfast. The mom agrees to make them, but first she sends the...
Sun Valley, ID – Take advantage of ideal summer training for your mind and body this summer at the foot of the Sawtooths in Sun Valley, Idaho. The Community School and the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation announce a rare opportunity for Nordic student athletes. SVSEF’s Dryland Training Program runs from June 8th to August 15th with multiple workouts available through out the week. This flexibility enables student athletes to enroll in The Community’s School...
Registration is still open for the Cross Country Canada FIS Trainers Seminar! While the Canadian quota has been filled, there are still a number of international spots available. This is a great opportunity to learn from some of the best sport science leaders in Cross Country Skiing and check out the Olympic venues, all while spending time in beautiful British Columbia. Full Schedule and Registration Form (PDF)
Part of the review process of the 2008-2009 season is totaling hours. Did you hit your target? What type of change should you plan for next year? Kate Whitcomb recently posted an interesting piece on her blog titled “Read Kate’s blog post. A few things to watch out for: – Don’t fall into the trap of hours for hours sake. You aren’t training to have an impressive training volume at the end of the season. ...
a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/Sd_-FdGBsEI/AAAAAAAAAOQ/ClcyOQnmLoo/s1600-h/Whistler_April_09+010.JPG" target="_blank"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323252654237921346" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand...
Apparently it is too much to hope for a doping free season. Over the past month several doping scandals have made headlines. First, the FIS released the news that the urine sample provided by Russian sprinter Natalia Matveeva following the World Cup classic sprint in Whistler on January 16th tested positive for EPO. Despite initial reports that the B-sample would be tested within a week at the WADA lab in Quebec, no additional information has been forthcoming. Matveeva is provisionally...
a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hvZteNu0E40/SdmEDzirWOI/AAAAAAAAAC8/fbyp-_UiEGg/s1600-h/P1020959.JPG"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321429635625081058" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hvZteNu0E40/SdmEDzirWOI/AAAAAAAAAC8/fbyp-_UiEGg/s320/P1020959.JPG" border="0" //abr /div/divbr /pI dont know if I should jinx it by even saying it, but I am ready for the snow to be over so that the running will be a little better. Nichole and I, along with Nichole's running buddy Jenny, did a long run this morning. I did 14, Jenny did 16, and Nichole did 22 miles. Long days like this would be nice to do along the minnesota river on the woodchip trails, but this spring has made things very muddy, so we stuck to the roads and paths. The water still did find a way to complicate things when one of our bike paths near the river was still under water. This meant running right by 35W for a while and then jumping a fence (see Nichole's blog for more info on that adventure) to get on dry trails. I am hoping all this running will pay off later in the summer. My total training hours for March 2008-Feb 2009 was 328 (although I don't count any time lifting in my hours). This is still a little less than I think is ideal (I would like to be closer to 350-375hrs a year), so my goal is to increase most of my weeks throughout the spring and summer by an hour per week. So far so good, since I have hit 5:50, 5:20, 3:10, 4:30, and 7:00 so far this year, and that is already 5.2 hours more than 5 weeks into last year. We will see if we can keep that up, but I think it is doable, and a sane way for me to break it down (52 weeks in a year, so just bump up one hour a week)./ppFirst get-together of the year for the Vakava Team is this week. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again, plus some new faces (including my wife Nichole!)./pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1572647974447867713-7719073180461303185?l=vakavaraceteam.blogspot.com'//div
So I think I will declare the 08-09 ski season officially over (even if Dave still has a race on the schedule and it's supposed to snow this weekend). This means that I am doing a lot of running (I did marry a marathoner, for better or for worse). I am trying to do as much on the trails as I can, since they are much kinder to my joints (I am only 26, but ouch I feel old), but a lot of my running has been on the roads. I have a half marathon in 2 weeks in St. Cloud and I am trying to get in reasonable shape. This afternoon I did threshold with Nichole. I did 5.5 miles of her 7 mile threshold at 6:20 pace, and my legs hurt. This week has been my biggest so far this year, with a 14 miler on Sunday (with a 30 min double-pole rollerski afterwards), Mon was off, 45min on the bike on Tuesday, 9 miles on Wed, 7 miles on Thurs, and 7 miles today. I do feel like I am starting to round into running shape (although that still does not mean I will be fast), but my legs are quite sore. My big goal for the summer is the vacation that Nichole and I have planned for August (that’s right, I have to train for the vacations that Nichole and I take). Our plan is to drive up to Calgary and then hike to the Haig glacier for a day or two of on snow skiing, and then we will run the Moose Mountain Marathon (the one in Calgary, not the one in MN). It should be a ton of fun, but I need to get my butt in shape to survive it! Wish me luck!!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1572647974447867713-7981046820802329139?l=vakavaraceteam.blogspot.com'//div
USSA has officially launched the XC Coaches Certification. The course manual and excel training plan are now available for purchase from the USSA website. The test is available at here. The 2009 clinic schedule will begin with the Regional Elite Group camps throughout the U.S. If you’ve participated in a U.S. Ski Team clinic within the past two years of applying for your Level 100 certification, this category is satisfied. To get started, complete a...
Olympian Nina Gavrylyuk will coach an on snow camp in Ramsau, Austria this summer for Gunstock Nordic Association.
Cross Country Canada is pleased to announce that registration for the 2009 FIS Trainers Seminar is now underway! The schedule is as follows: 22/05/2009 Tour of Whistler Sliding Centre (WSC) Tour Host OWG venue – Bobsleigh, Luge, Skeleton Whistler Sliding Centre Wine and Cheese Social 23/05/2009 Sprints (Biomechanics & Physiology) H.C. Holmberg – Swedish Winter Sports Research Centre Prediction of Excellence Dr. David Cox – Simon Frazer University Building Successful Systems Dr. Stephen Norris –...
Justin Freeman is a US Olympian in cross-country skiing. He races for the Saab Salomon Factory Team – http://www.skipost.com Level four, roughly speaking, is race pace. And so for those of us who like to race, it is an easy level to train in. The goal of level four training is straightforward: by skiing at the same pace and effort you race at, you get better at racing. The downside to level four training is...
a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/Sau_WR7bplI/AAAAAAAAALo/l6zdqFqCeGM/s1600-h/ski+team+practice+001.JPG"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308546975276967506" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 239px"...
The Spring Sweden Trip currently does not have enough people to make a go of it. Before we cancel the trip however we want to put out a little more information in case some have missed it. We know that times are hard and wages low…cost and timing are the main issues but if it comes together it will be an exceptional opportunity to race at a top international level. All races are on the...