Sarah Max has experience on her side when it comes to multi-sport races. "After a winter of planned workouts, I generally don’t follow a training plan for the Pole Pedal Paddle," the race's four-time winner explains. This year was no different. But she did incorporate running workouts to minimize the "brick" feeling one gets from transitioning from the bike to run.
Matt Briggs, who podiumed in his first Pole Pedal Paddle two weekends ago, talks about race prep for a six-stage event. "This race was basically a full-time job for the three weeks leading up to the race," he says. To remind himself why he was doing it, he did a workout each week called "Sanity Day."
After a long and grueling Olympic season, the U.S. biathlon team's "A" athletes are getting back to training with a sun- and snow-filled camp in Bend, Oregon. "There's more snow than last year, to be honest – it’s really perfect," said High Performance Director Bernd Eisenbichler.
More than a month after the Olympics ended, we share a different perspective on Team Dominica's legitimacy from their coach J.D. Downing. "[That their Olympic experience was an] un-mitigated disaster is completely true," he says. "I take issue with how this Olympic experience was presented."
Ivan Babikov is excited, to say the least, heading into his third Olympic season. At 33, Canada's most-seasoned World Cup veteran knows what to expect and what not to get too stressed about. "[I’m] not trying to reinvent the bicycle," he says.
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.
XC Oregon's elite team roster is a bit smaller this year, but coach J.D. Downing is excited about the team's quality. "We'll have a bit of a 'factory team' feel with fewer full-time skiers than some years, but a whole lot of talented people involved," he explains.
Bend Endurance Academy head coach Ben Husaby has a good sense of humor when it comes to his one-man team. Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess is their guy, but luckily BEA has a roost of "ravenettes" pushing the 27 year old during summer training.
Perianne Jones has no problem jumping into workouts with the guys. And keeping up with teammates like Lenny Valjas, Ivan Babikov and Devon Kershaw? Piece of cake. Those are the training partners the 28-year-old Canadian World Cup member has been dealt for the time being, and according to Jones, she's off to a great start.
Kikkan Randall has had to take a cautious step back from traditional workouts this spring in Bend, Ore. She's dealing with a recurring issue with her left Achilles and is taking proactive steps to heal it in order to return to full training in a few weeks. "All is good, just trying to be smarter this time around and not push through potential injuries to the point I did last summer," she says.
The U.S. Ski Team's annual May training camp began in earnest this week in Bend, Ore. A few inches of fresh snow greeted skiers at Mt. Bachelor on Wednesday morning, just in time for the group's first interval session: a set of 6 x 4-6 minute L3 freestyle intervals with intermediate sprints.
It took some flexible training and a plane trip from Minnesota, but last Saturday, Santi Ocariz achieved his longtime goal of racing (and winning) the Pole Pedal Paddle in Bend, Ore., while women's runner-up and Bend native, Zoe Roy, challenged the winner.
Leaving their rifles at home, the U.S. biathlon team is in Bend and today addresses a question that many skiers face come spring: how do you tackle the first couple overdistance workouts after a break? How long should they be, and what activity is best? Coaches Per Nilsson and Jonne Kahkonen assigned a three to four hour classic OD, and gave us their tips.
For the third time this year, the U.S. Ski Team ran into their counterparts on the biathlon squad earlier this week when both groups were in Utah for their respective training camps. “The biathletes were at Soldier Hollow yesterday as was the entire U.S. Ski Team,” skier Noah Hoffman wrote in an e-mail to FasterSkier on Tuesday. “Cross country was doing a speed (10-15 seconds) session classic. I’m not sure what was involved in the...
When Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess shows up at a race, he’s hard to miss. If his backward baseball cap doesn’t give him away, his bubbly personality, bearded face or black, red and white-striped spandex will. One of the staples of Bend Endurance Academy’s nordic program, the 26-year-old Blackhorse-von Jess grew up in Bend, Ore., and skied for Dartmouth College before returning to his native state – and town. Back in Bend, Blackhorse-von Jess trains mostly with...
Maybe it was the transition to full-time racing or the fact that Zoe Roy was competing in her home nation last season. It could’ve been the back-and-fourth flights across the U.S/Canadian border, or one team’s hospitality that helped Roy reach new heights on the NorAm circuit. Whatever it was, she wasn’t fighting it. After spending some 20 years in Bend, Ore., Roy, who turned 25 on Sunday, is moving to Canmore, Alberta. Starting Aug. 1,...
After a massive wave of spring skiers left Bend, Ore., last month, the groomers at Mt. Bachelor hardly packed it in. The U.S. and Canadian national teams and several elite squads were gone, but nearly the same amount of skiers – 150 – were expected to flock to the snow-covered trails in June. The Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center and its club, the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation (MBSEF), planned accordingly. On June 16, the MBSEF...
Note: This is the first of a quick-and-dirty preview series on elite teams in the U.S. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. We will be publishing additional reports over the next few weeks. Teams are presented in no particular order. Team name: XC Oregon Coaches: J.D. Downing (coach/program director, 15th year) National /International Elite Roster: Santiago Ocariz, Oliver Burruss, Matt Briggs; Carolyn Ocariz, Stephanie...
BEND, Ore. – Jean-Philippe Le Guellec was riding high in 2010 when he finished sixth in the sprint, 11th in the pursuit, and 13th in the individual at the Vancouver Olympics. The Canadian biathlete – then 24 – was motivated and aiming for his first Word Cup podium. The 2011 season didn’t go quite as expected; he picked up just four top-20 results and late in the year received a diagnosis of mononucleosis, which explained...
BEND, Ore. – The U.S. and Canadian national teams are here in Bend to get on snow, and they seem to be loving it. But what about skiers who are already located in the Oregon Cascades? On several days, local high school athletes have also made the drive up to Mount Bachelor to ski and soak in the atmosphere at North America’s own version of the Dachstein glacier. Unlike senior World Cup athletes, most juniors...