CXC Elite Team Blog » lieb0088

Ski Erg World Challenge

lieb0088 — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 02:20:40 +0000

This past week I made a visit to Larry Foss’s, The Fix Studio (http://www.thefixstudio.com). My objective was simple… try out the Concept 2 SkiErg. I had played around on one at the Olympic Training Center but I never tried doing a workout or time trial. Since The Fix Studio is hosting a joint fundraiser for Jennie Bender and I, that revolves around the SkiErg World Sprint SkiErg Fund Raiser, I thought I should give it a try before race day. The goal was to go as fast as possible over 1000m. Warming up for the 1k was easy; I had just finished an hour of threshold bounding intervals. Larry hooked me up to a heart rate montor and away I went. The first 250m were a little fast as I struggled to maintain pace during the remainder of the 1k test. I ended up finishing with a solid time even though I was spent from my morning workout. To my surprise I nearly hit my max heart rate duing the effort. I am looking forward to November 13th when I can compete against the rest of the world!

Perfect cold and rainy day for an indoor workout!

Getting ready

Going for it!

The Fix has all the tools an endurance athlete needs to get faster!

Run4Snow

lieb0088 — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:17:46 +0000

By: Matt Liebsch

Thank you Renee and Dave

This weekend the family and I packed up and went to Madison for the second annual Run for Snow. This run benefits the CXC adopt an athlete program and I am Madison’s adopted athlete. I must admit I was a little nervous bringing a 2 year old and 13 month old for a 5 hour car ride (each way) however, they did amazingly well. Grant even did his first race, well sort of. Once he saw Marybeth he wanted to run to her. However, I think a few more training sessions with the old man and he’ll be able to finish. I did the 14.5K race and ran a time of 52:50, I think. There was a great turnout and our family had a fun weekend!

Banff

lieb0088 — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:49:09 +0000

This morning I went up to the World Cup Venue for a ski. The trails were great and I am super psyched to be here with all these athletes. I am feeling good and ready to race Friday. After my ski Marybeth and I headed up to Banff for some sightseeing. It is only about a fifteen minute drive and we didn’t want to miss seeing the splendor of Banff for the first time. While we were there we looked around the Fairmont Banff Springs, it was an amazing sight to see. Then, we took a Gondola to see the mountaintop of the Canadian Rockies. The Gondola climbed 2292 ft (698M, we are in Canada) at an incline of 51%. I love this kind of adventure, and I was very proud of Marybeth for going on the Gondola with me and leaving her comfort zone. We then toured downtown Banff and did some window shopping. I am feeling great this week and I am so thankful for this amazing experience. Soon it will be time to race the world’s best…I couldn’t be more stoked.

Gregg and I at the venue

Fairmont Banff Springs

Banff

at the top of the Canadian Rockies

Downtown Banff

Winona, MN fundraiser and hills

lieb0088 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:42:59 +0000

Yeap, some big hills around Winona!

This Weekend the Winona Ski Community hosted CXC for a combined fundraiser for the Winona Ski Trails and our programs. Saturday included a dinner and a live auction. Thank you to Ryan and Megan Ping for hosting my family; we had a great time!

Sunday morning Ryan introduced me to some of the best roller-skiing I have ever seen… low traffic, big climbs and great pavement. We had Gerry and Mike Cichanowski (famous Wenonah canoes), Jeff Stagemeyer, and Bob Heath (google Elliott or Garrett Heath to see some fast run times) came out to join us for a few repeats up Homer Hill. The workout was a blast and I really enjoyed my time in Winona. Hopefully I can make it back to ski the trails in the winter.

New boots, training camp and now recovery

lieb0088 — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:42:31 +0000

This past week I was in Hayward for an intensity block of training with the CXC team. For me, the week involved 9 hard workouts over the course of 5 days… 3 VO2max workouts, 2 time trials, 3 strength workouts and a threshold session. I am a little tired to say the least. Luckily I have been working with Larry Foss at “The Fix Studio” … http://www.thefixmassage.com. Larry is great at putting me back together after I break down my body with hard training. This coming week is a well deserved recovery week as I allow my body to absorb all the training I have completed over the past few weeks.

When I arrived at camp in Hayward I was greeted with a gift… new boots! I think it may be my engineering background but I love any new techie stuff. Kevin Johnson of Salomon sports sent me a pair of next seasons boot. I didn’t think the new boots could be more comfy than my current S-Lab boots but I was wrong. It feels like Salomon improved the overall fit, especially the arch and last. Kevin also sent me 2 cuffs to play around with; the standard cuff and new Carbon Energyzer cuff. Initial testing has me very excited with the carbon cuff. It seems to keep you in a better skiing position than the standard cuff. One last item I noticed was the pin on the boot is moved further under the foot. This definitely gives a better feeling of control and pushing off the ski seems a little more natural. Additionally, the boots are just as water proof as last years boots, I would know as we did a lot of rollerskiing in the rain last week at camp.

Reason to wear a helmet and new family member

lieb0088 — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:54:07 +0000

This morning I worked out with Piotr Bednarski’s Go-Training group for 3 hrs total counting my time rolling from home. I rolled to practice, played Ultimate Frisbee with the kids and then went on a 1:45hr classic ski with Gordon, Ben and Ben, and finished by rolling home. Great workout and lots of fun!

I was going to follow that workout with a ride into Gear West and back, but 2 minutes into my bike I was T-boned by a car coming out of a drive way that rolled through a stop sign. I had the right-of-way but the driver didn’t see me. I’m banged up, my left hand does not work properly and my bike is toast; but I’m alive. The lesson here is “WEAR YOUR HELMET.” I had mine on and if I had not been wearing it I could still be laying in the road.

Hopefully I heal up quick so I can get out training soon. The weather has been great here in the Twin Cities.

In other more important news, I became a Dad twice over little over a week ago. Marybeth, Grant and I welcomed Samantha Lea Liebsch into our family on Tuesday, June 16^th at 10:37pm. She is the cutest little girl… and sleeps a lot!

Weight Training

lieb0088 — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:04:57 +0000

A few weekends ago the entire family went ski walking in French park. My good friend Kuan was able to pick up a sweet backpack for me at the REI scratch and dent sale. Now I can haul Grant around with me! Grant is actually a lot lighter than the 60 pound pack I took up Mt. Rainer this past spring so I was able to cruise pretty fast with him.

The training in the cities has been going very well the last few weeks and we have had some very nice fall training weather. More recently the temps have dropped and we had our first snow flakes of the season a few days ago. The racing season starts in West Yellowstone a little over a month from now… time to get excited!

Go faster Dad!