Over 150 participants attended Olympic Day. CXC would like to thank Premier Physical Medicine and Wellness Clinic, local communities around Woodruff, participants and all volunteers for making this event a success. Video and Photostream
I got hired as the CXC/Team Vertical Limit Elite Team coach on June 1. Obviously, there’s a bit of a learning curve when it comes to a new job, and going from working with Michigan Tech to here is no exception. That said, most of these things are mundane and esoteric and therefore boring to blog readers. Some of them are awesome, such as realizing that everyone on the team is really, really good, but at this point, it’s difficult to elaborate on that. And some of these things are slightly interesting, so I’ll mention some of them in this post.
(More …)
Just as May was spent cramming for the last semester finals and projects while beginning to prepare for the next racing season, June has its own special purpose.
Historically, June presents me with the opportunity to get a large head start in saving for the upcoming year’s racing and living expenses. Often times June presents long work days and some sleep deprivation while trying to keep up with training. This year I’ve been helping a friend (Eric North) with the Black Torch Survey project for the Forest Service. The surveys are looking for Swainson’s thrushes (a robin like bird) and consist of traveling by foot to approximately 170 points in the remote mixed hardwood/swamp/bog regions south of Clam Lake, WI. I play a recording several times at each point, then I listen and record if I hear a response.
Data Collection
The alarm goes off either at 3:20 or 4:20 am depending on if I decide to make the hour drive the night before and sleep in the car, or drive up in the morning. What follows consists of a 5 hour race against the clock to fit in as many survey points as possible in the allotted time period. This usually turns into a running adventure of barreling through the woods with GPS in hand, hurtling obstacles, scrambling over or under fallen trees, and traversing swamp and bog-land with an occasional stream crossing, all while trying to fend off the relentless swarms of mosquitoes, flies, and ticks.
Running through the lowlands
The subtle miseries come hand in hand with many joy’s. The early morning is the ideal time to see wildlife. I have seen several bull elk in velvet and many cows on the drive.
Bull elk in velvet accompanied by a cow
I also see white-tail deer and bear regularly, and I have the opportunity to observe Wisconsin’s avian diversity.
Broad-winged Hawk
Haha, and did I mention the training?! In combination with the adventure run, cool-down/joy run afterward, and the evening workouts, June is presenting a very large base. In comparison, even the hardest upcoming summer/fall training is going to feel nice and easy!!
We’ve wrapped up our June Camp in Marine and are now back at our respective homes. One of the highlights of the camp was getting together with the St Croix Valley Ski Club, a Minnesota Youth Ski League club, for an afternoon of skills development and games. This is the third summer we’ve worked with these young athletes and it’s cool to see so many familiar faces of kids that are getting older and faster.
New CXC skier Eric Wolcott leads his group of youth skiers
Coach Gus Kaeding shows how to get big air
It was one of the only clear afternoons we had all camp. The kids just finished their last day of school the previous day, so they had a little extra energy to burn off.
Maddy got more air than most of the boys
Trigby and Ben earned some serious style points
Our afternoon with the St Croix Valley club was a highlight of the camp. Thanks to CXC Youth Director Everett Myers for getting this event organized. It was cool to see the building blocks of a strong ski community taking shape.
We’ve posted a video and Flickr Photostream from the Olympic Day Celebration. See it here!
The 2010 rollerski season is underway! The Rochester Nordic Club (RASC) hosted a great early summer rollerski clinic led by 2010 Olympian and CXC Elite skier Garrott Kuzzy on Sunday, June 13
Rochester Active Sports Club
The Rochester Nordic Club made up of silent sport enthusiasts in the Rochester area. In only a few years, they’ve developed an extensive trail network with the help of a great volunteer workforce, allowing local skiers to ski on only minimal amounts of snow. In addition to the trail network, they’ve grown their junior program to over 100 skiers, led by about 12 volunteer coaches. The enthusiasm for skiing in Rochester is infectious; look for the club to expand both their trail network and skier base in the coming years.
During the clinic, Kuzzy led skiers through a progression of dryland drills, both on foot and on rollerskis, to develop a strong technique base upon which to build over the summer and fall. They also worked on new balance, strength, and agility exercises to improve their skiing. The coaches at the clinic will be able to use many of these drills when coaching their skiers this fall and winter. The skiers at the clinic will have skills to master throughout the summer so they are ready to fly when they get on snow this winter. A big thanks to the Rochester Nordic Club for doing a great job getting the clinic organized and even hosting informal rollerski practices over the past couple of weeks to get newcomers comfortable on their rollerskis before the clinic.
Rochester Junior Nordic Skiers
Following the clinic for coaches and master skiers, Kuzzy also led a clinic for the junior skiers in the Rochester area. Although their team is a club team and cannot compete at the Minnesota State meet, the Rochester juniors spend a lot of time training together in the summer and skiing in the winter.
For more information on getting a clinic for your Nordic Club this summer or fall, contact Garrott Kuzzy – garrottkuzzy@yahoo.com.
Unbelievable how well-written and ionrfmtaive this was.
By: Brian Gregg
School is out for summer and the entire 2010/11 CXC Team is together for the first time. We have a big crew this year with 18 athletes on the roster. Unfortunatly the marathon team athletes are not at training camp a solid group of 10 athletes and 3 coaches have been pushing each other and having fun this week.
Morning Exercises
Everything is very green here in Marine on St. Croix, MN. We have had a bit of rain everyday. Some might complain about this, but it is just fine with me because it keeps the temperatures mild.
lots of kilometers this week
Volume has been a big theme for me this year. I am keeping many things similar to last year, but increasing the volume when I am fresh and feeling good. There are plenty of nice roads and variety around town to keep me entertained.
St. Croix Falls OD 3.75hr
I get a lot of twisted satisfaction from wearing out equipment as the result of constant, simple, unrelenting use. I am not talking about accidentally breaking skis or kicking out a roller ski tip but the slow, gradual breakdown of the most durable products I can find. I take it as a sign of progress, success and reward for my work. In my opinion equipment exists to be used, used, fixed and used some more. With training now in full swing my equipment is once again taking a beating and yesterday called for some maintenance.
This week I managed to finish off a pair of shoes and toast enough of the wheels on both my skate and classic roller skis to make them unusable. In my opinion this is a great week! While I enjoy wearing out equipment I would have to say getting new stuff ranks right up there too. With my wheels out of commission I laced up a brand new pair of shoes I had just received from Salomon and headed out on a muddy run to effectively christen them.
In the afternoon I drove up to Finn Sisu and picked up some new Marwe wheels for my skate skis. I am always shocked at how big the new wheels look. Not for long!
I was able to rotate some old front wheels to the back of my classic skis so I can corner once again without scrapping the road. This will be highly appreciated as speed work becomes an increasing part of my training.
Now I should be back in business for a while and I am excited to put some serious miles on my new equipment. Thanks a lot to Salomon and Finn Sisu!
social bookmarking 10:06 am on October 21, 2011 Permalink |
I believe you are right completely!