I just finished the first week of our three week camp here in Lake Placid. We have a good crew of about 12 athletes here. It’s great to have everyone together again, pushing each other in practice. It’s also awesome to have Per, Armin and Bernd here. These guys work nonstop in camp. Sometimes I [...]
The recent tragic loss of Willie Neal, an up and coming biathlete, to a rollerski/automobile collision, should not have happened. Willie was training in Maine. The New England Nordic Ski Association report stated: br /MWSC athlete killed while rollersk...
In the middle of May, the U.S. Ski Team (USST) dropped seven of the 18 skiers that were on the team. Three of those seven skiers are currently attending college: Matt Gelso and Alexa Turzian at Colorado University (CU), and Rosie Brennan at Dartmouth. Following those skiers’ dismissals, the USST released a new set of recommendations that called for elite high school skiers to take time off to train before starting college. That announcement spawned...
I just wanted to take a moment to send my prayers and thoughts the Neal family for the loss of their son, Willie, who I have come to learn was a remarkable young skier and more importantly was an amazing person, teammate, brother and son. It is a tragi...
Bird Ridge. 3 miles, 3400 ft uphill the whole way. Throw some wet, wind, and cold and that was nasty. Brent and I took off from the start and I felt super comfortable for about 15 minutes until last week caught up I couldn't match the pace. After about...
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PPMeqZXka1Y/Sj6FvzU7otI/AAAAAAAAAms/_TrF00D_zzE/s1600-h/IMG_1054.JPG"img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;...
Working with machine structures on skis, there are only a few variables that can be adjusted to influence the performance of the ski.br /br /The structure on the ski base is primarily a closely spaced lengthwise pattern of micro-grooves. Depth of the g...
The Wood River YMCA summer camp has begun! We are two weeks into the camp and we've already enjoyed countless activities, crafts, snacks and games! Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what we have been up too...br /br /a onblur="try {parent...
Yesterday I dragged my body out of my bottom bunk. Shoved down some more food and coffee before heading out for the last ski of the first Eagle Glacier camp of the year. This morning I woke up to the chirps of baby Hazel and gave her a bath before I at...
The following wax tips were not prepared by me alone. A few years ago SOLDA wax was imported and distributed by Torbjorn Karlsen. Torbjorn, along with Gordie Lange, traveled, coached and waxed for many of the best cross country athletes in the country...
div align="left"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_k1DHbqzFvCE/SjlePfbc-9I/AAAAAAAAAlc/k19gEil86nk/s1600-h/st+agnes+graduation+003.jpg"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348409652706868178" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand...
I apologize for the lack of updates lately but I have been absolutely swamped with training over the last few weeks. I am back in Lake Placid now and will be here for the majority of the summer. Luckily, our next team training camp will be held here, so I don’t have to travel until our [...]
...And it doesn't usually snow on June 14th either!br /br /div style="text-align: center;"a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SjaPowR_9ZI/AAAAAAAAAWY/aL4Fh2USuxg/s1600-h/IMG_...
a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T8lplfcx_Ro/SjZNUWg5T_I/AAAAAAAAAQ8/uMSDcLh6qZU/s1600-h/NGW.bmp" target="_blank"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347546619585318898" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 104px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" al...
After an epic start to the season – I left April 22nd and didn’t get back until May 14th – I’m back in LP. I guess I’ve been here for about a month now but I just haven’t got around to posting a new update. It took some prodding from a certain Jacked Up Old [...]
It's been a big two weeks of training now, and as I come to the end of it I can surely feel the 48 hrs completed to my core. That was always the plan though, and because of that June has been slightly tougher than in previous years. Tougher hour-wise, and although we've started with intensity as well, it's predominantly been level 3 type efforts with the odd level 4 or race effort to keep us honest.
Since Kevin isn't a "contributor" to this blog yet, I am going to post the piece of brilliance that he emailed earlier today. It deserves a wider audience.br /br /Vakers,br /br /Now, there's no reason to wait for that post-rollerski beer! At last, I no longer have to act ashamed whenever people discover my hydration bladder is full of Summit Pale Ale —I'm simply ahead of my time. Our pal Science now says that beer, yes beer, is more effective for rehydrating the body than plain ol' water. I think I'm not alone when I say that this qualifiesas news on par with peace in the Middle East.br /br /Researchers at Granada University in Spain found this Nobel Prize-worthy discovery after months of testing 25 student subjects, who were asked to run ona tread mill in grueling temps (104 degrees F) until they were as close to exhaustion as possible. Half were given water to drink, and the other half drank two pints of Spanish lager. Then the godly researchers measured their hydration levels, motor skills, and concentration ability.br /br /They determined that the beer drinkers had "slightly better" rehydration effects, which researchers attribute to sugars, salts, and bubbles in beer enhancing the body's ability to absorb water. The carbohydrates in beer also help refill calorie deficits. br /br /Based on the results of the study, researchers recommend moderate consumptionof beer as a part of athletes' diets. "Moderate consumption" for men is 500ml per day, and for women is 250ml per day. Goodbye Gatorade, hello Sam Adams. This opens the door to a whole raft of new athlete beer sponsorships. Hopefully we'll see Lance replace the water bottle on his bike with a 40 of St. Ides in the next few months. (In fact, maybe that's why he didn't win the Giro d'Italia.)br /br /This of course doesn't mean anything for hydration outside of strenuous exercise, but I'm not taking any chances—best to start hydrating now. [cracks open bottle of Newcastle]. br /br /Kevin Ivensdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1572647974447867713-306269802460842844?l=vakavaraceteam.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
Last night was our first time trail of the summer - an individaul start, self timed, approximately 1k double pole up lower afton rd. It was a nice night, and we had a bit of a tail wind (I seem to remember head winds most times), and this lead to some fast times, with 6 people setting new personal bests even though it is early in the season. We had a big group of skiers participating (including Caitlin Compton).br /br /Results:br /Nate 2:39!br /John S 2:47*br /Andy 2:51!br /Derek 2:58*br /Caitlin 3:01*br /Brent 3:05br /Mark 3:06!br /Dave 3:10!br /Jojo 3:11*br /Kevin 3:13br /Paul 3:20*br /Pete 3:20br /Cheryl 3:21br /Angie 3:25!br /Michele 3:31br /Margie 3:43br /Allie 3:45*br /Nichole 3:59*br /Mel 4:00!br /Katy 4:00*br /Sara 4:04*br /(! = personal best time, * = first time on course)br /br /After the time trial we went up into the neighborhoods and worked on double pole kick technique, with some pick-ups thrown in.br /br /Even today my throught is still a bit scratchy from breathing hard during the TT - maybe that's because my body is not used to 1k sprints... got to love the taste of blood in your mouth at the end of a sprint.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1572647974447867713-7537572662164440006?l=vakavaraceteam.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
There is no perfect place. Some locations come closer than others, yet all the areas of "ski country" I have seen have certain locales which, on certain days, are near perfection. At Proctor Academy in Andover, NH there is Elbow Pond, a small glacier c...