CXC Elite Team Blog

Updates from October, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• nygrenk 5:24 pm on October 26, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Dialing it In 

  Nygren

  The leaves are down and there is a bite to the air in the mornings.  Fall is here and the first races of the season in Yellowstone are only a month away.  My goal for the next couple of weeks is to really dial everything in and make quality the highest priority.  Late summer was the time for high volume and now the focus has shifted more to intensity.  It is time to get the body used to going hard and really develop a race pace.

  This means level 4 intervals with a big focus on skiing fast with good technique.  Working by yourself can be beneficial because it allows you to ski your own pace but now you can also allow yourself to push it a bit.  Brian Gregg, Matt Liebsch, and I got together yesterday morning for a hard level 4 workout and will be doing the same later this week.  Intervals in a group like this is great because it increases the intensity and allows you to ski behind one another and observe.  Skiers engage terrain and intervals differently and it provides a great opportunity to see what works well for others and then figure out what works best for you.  It makes for a really quality workout.

  With quality as a focus, however, not every workout can be in a group pushing the pace.  To allow for hard intervals easy skiing needs to be easy and proper recovery is key.
   

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• sarahewitt 7:03 pm on October 20, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Since arriving back from a great camp in Park City with CXC and the US National Team, I have had the privilege of skiing on snow here in Canmore. In the spring of 2011 the Canmore Nordic Centre pilled a ton of snow and covered to with saw dust, insulating it throughout the summer. “Frozen Thunder” was then unveiled on October 15th and spread out along the ski trails to create a 2km loop. And its been awesome! Here are some photos:

  

  

  

  Here is a video on the loop:

  CBC
   

• Jennie Bender 6:01 pm on October 18, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  The land of many children 

  By Jennie Bender

  Our two week camp in Utah was some of most fun I have had during a training camp. The workouts themselves were great, but my theory is that having relaxed and humurous training partners enhance your body’s response to the workload. A stressful environment and tension surrounding athletes is unnecessary, especially when you are dependent on your body recovering in its’ natural state.

  The highlights included two backcountry adventures with Dave Knoop, Canadian Thanksgiving with Sara Hewitt, Andrea Dupont, and Daria Gaiazova, lots of dancing and singing on our off time, and creating part 1 & 2 of our three part Nordic Spoof videos. If you haven’t seen it already, here is Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT7x3GREQfI

  

  My heart fluttered once again when I saw mountains on our flight in. It was actually clear the whole way, and I had a great view of what I am pretty sure were the BadLands in South Dakota.

  Most of the girls half way through our over distance on Saturday. We classic skied up a mountain for two hours, then ran at the top for one more.

  Dave, Santi, Carolyn, Waylon and I on our way up in the Wasatch mountain range. The adventure ended up being about 5 1/2 hours of hiking, sliding, slipping, and bushwhacking. The guys took the challenge to rock climb up some extremely sketchy terrain at the top to achieve max “Rocky Mountain High” potential.

  

  
  Goodbye Utah for now. It’s time for the last of fall training in the Midwest before (hopefully) great November skiing in Montana!
   

• kletz 4:55 pm on October 13, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  U.S. Set To Host 2012 IPC Nordic Skiing World Cup 

  

  COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – U.S. Paralympics, a division of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), announced today it will be hosting an event in the 2012 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Nordic Skiing World Cup series. The races will be held in Cable, Wis. and Minneapolis, Minn. from January 29-February 3.

  Official Release >
   

• sarahewitt 9:39 pm on October 10, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! 

  
  

  Earlier this year I was a little disappointed to here that the CXC fall camp in Park city was taking place the same time as Canadian Thanksgiving…  I love thanksgiving and normally celebrate it at home feasting on turkey and fresh harvested vegetables from my Mom’s garden. But luckily the CXC team along with a couple other fellow Canadians who came down for the camp, decided we would all get together and make our own Thanksgiving dinner here at Dave Knoop’s house in Park City.

  So this past Sunday, my teammates and I spent our rest day preparing a huge feast, with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, Carolyn’s delicious pecan yams, carrots and parsnips followed by apple and pumpkin pie made by Andrea Dupont and Dasha Giasova.

  The dinner turned out great! Thanks to everyone for making this happen!

  

  

  
  
   

• jessdiggs 2:59 pm on October 9, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  PC’s first ever Fast and Female! 

  Yesterday Park City saw it’s first ever Fast and Female event, with 30 ambassadors from 6 sports; many of them Olympic medalists! It was a super exciting event and very, very Pink. The girls got to experience Nordic, Biathlon, Alpine, Ski Halfpipe, Snowboard, Speedskating, Freestyle through different dryland stations highlighting each sport.

  

  The ambassadors rocking the pink!

   

  When the ladies arrived, they broke up into age groups, where they got to decorate a poster, come up with a team name and cheer, and get to know each other better. Then, with Kikkan’s excellence MC skills moving everything along, we started the stations!

  

  Poster decorating for group 1 with Sadie

   

   Liz was amazing – planning the event months ahead of time! She and Lauren put amazing amounts of energy behind it, and Kikkan jumped right in as soon as she got to Park City. Thanks to these ladies, the event was possible.

  

  Lauren, Kikkan and Liz – the masterminds behind the event!

   

  Kikkan and I got to run the Nordic station, where we showed the girls that as endurance athletes, we like to constantly be moving and groovin’! Kikk led the girls around a loop, where at one end we did different activities like pushups, crabwalks, jumps, bounds, ect. Then, at the other end of the loop, I led the girls in a dance. Each girl got to add a move of her own, which we added on to the dance so by the end of the station, we had a pretty long and super awesome dance to an ever-changing playlist. It was really, really fun but super hard to keep the dances seperate once the 6th group rolled in!

  

  Dance party at the Nordic Station – showing off the “sprinkler” move! (photo by USSA)

   

  The girls were awesome, creative, energetic, and fun to work with. Although after the morning’s 3 hour skate ski, I was getting really tired by the end!

  

  Kikk and I ROCKED the dance station

   

  Nordic skiing was represented by: Holly, Me, Sadie, Liz and Kikkan!

  

  The Nordic girls represent in PINK

   

  It was a great event and the girls left inspired, with signed posters and t-shirts, ready to try out some new sports and be active with friends.
   

• carolynocariz 8:58 pm on October 8, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Adventures in Utah 

  By: Carolyn Ocariz

  We just finished our first week training out in Utah and while here we have experienced both fall and winter. The week started with fresh cool crisp fall weather and eventually turned into perfect snowball fight conditions. The training has been great and a big thanks goes to Dave Knoop for his wonderful generosity in letting us stay with him.

  

  Sara, Jennie, and I out on a double pole workout.

  

  Santi and Nordic Dave after a mountain adventure.

  

  Jennie and Sara during our snowy hike.

  

  A snowy run/hike with Dave.

  

  Santi made a new friend after our hike.

  Tomorrow we celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with our friends from Canada. I know the team is excited for two Thanksgivings in one year!
   

• jessdiggs 12:34 am on October 2, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Testing…and hang cleans! 

  What makes two 11-hour days at the Center of Excellence so awesome? Maybe it’s the hug you get after you fall off the treadmill. Maybe it’s learning new strength moves. A big part of it is meeting the athletes that train there and learning more about other sports. Either way, although I was mentally exhausted it was a good couple of days. We did a “near-max” test in both classic and skate, and a max test in classic. And with the classic tests, we got to breathe sea-level oxygen, so the balloons in the picture are filled with oxygen.

  

  Coolest part? The balloons hanging off the bar.  (picture taken by Erik)

   Here’s the video of the tests…and the crashes…it’s pretty epic. Thanks to Matt and Pete for being great cameramen and getting the footage for everyone.

   http://www.dartfish.tv/Presenter.aspx?CR=p1490c6378m793106#!AQECAAEBAAEBAQAAAAEBEXAxNDkwYzYzNzhtNzkzMjYyAAAA 

  I don’t actually remember the last 20 seconds of my max test, but it looks like it really hurt! I also have this freakout after I fall because I thought the harness was choking me. It wasn’t, but I couldn’t really breathe anyways. So that’s embarrassing! :)

  

  Erik took it to the max

  The guys pushed really hard on their tests – again, check out the video to see some sweet crashes.

  

  THE BIRD warming up on the other treadmill

   The coaches at the Center of Excellence are totally AWESOME. They’re enthusiastic, smart and encouraging. So I never know if I should be dreading a treadmill test or not, because although it hurts a lot, you get a ton of people cheering for you as you suffer. Hmmm.

  

  Adam and Michael…our “testing dudes”. Excellent at pricking fingers and drawing blood…among their many talents.

  Kikkan showed us how it’s done by keeping her technique together even as the speed increased! It gets really tough to think about anything when you’re in the final minutes of a VO2 test, so you know you’ve been working on it a lot when your technique stays with you.

  

  Keeping it smooth with good technique

   I’m not known for being a power skier. Or being good at strength. Or lifting heavy objects for fun. But I really wanted to learn how to do a power clean, so yesterday Michael (one of the strength coaches at the COE) taught me how! I’ve still got a ways to go in technique and adding weight onto the bar, but I can do a hang clean. WHoo! Then we did strength, and I got to use the upside-down boots during core. You hook your boots on a bar, hang upside down and then do sit ups. It was really, really tough but fun!

  

  Picture taken by Kikkan

  

  The flying wonder-kid. Pretty impressive.

  In between tests, I joined the alpine girls watching some crazy kids practicing on the trampolines. They got really high up, and made a LOT of rotations before hitting the mat, the trampoline, or the foam pitt. So fun to watch!