Going into US Nationals this year my focus was definitely on the distance races.  My distance skiing has been progressively improving and my goal was to ski well in the 15k skate and the 30k classic.  Interestingly those races were mediocre while my sprinting wildly surpassed my expectations.

Nationals kicked off with a skate sprint.  I happily qualified 12th and was pleased with how I skied.  In the heats I was excited to be feeling really strong and skiing at the front moving through to the A final by winning my first heat and finishing a close 2nd in the next heat.  The A Final was extremely tight with the entire group coming over the last hill into the finish all together.  With only four finishing lanes  and sitting in 6th I found myself with nowhere to go and was forced to pick a lane behind someone.  Everyone finished hard and crossed within a second.  I ended up 6th slightly disappointed I did not ski the final stretch smarter but extremely excited about the day.

The classic sprint qualifier was unquestionably my best qualifier ever.  I felt like I was able to hammer the entire time and felt very strong on the double pole.  I was extremely excited to find I qualified 1st.  The first heat went well finishing comfortably in 2nd place and moving on.  I skied the semis from the front and came over the last hill with three guys too close behind me.  I provide a fairly large draft and all three were able to over take me on the descent. It was a close finish to the line but I finished 4th by a boot and was relegated to the B final.   I was looking for a little redemption in the B final and skied hard from the gun and was able to separate myself from the group to win the B final.

It was a very exciting week and I learned a ton about tactics.  I am thrilled with my improvements in sprinting and the valuable experience I gained.

The first race of US Nationals in Rumford, Maine is one week away and final race preparations are underway.  Fitness was established over the summer and fall and now provides a foundation for racing.  Early season races provided a great opportunity  to develop race speed, practice pacing, and get use to going hard.  Now it is simply a matter of resting up and maintaining enough intensity so race day I feel fresh and snappy.  That means this week will have low total volume complimented with short explosive speeds. With racing right up to the week before Christmas this year I was unable to execute a long peaking plan but I think the racing paired with rest and a bit of intensity leading up to Nationals should be perfect.

With no natural snow on the ground in Minnesota Elm Creek has been my best option for training.  The loop is only 2.5 k but the conditions are solid and the skiing is really good.  By late morning the trails get a bit congested and the snow starts to soften a bit on the hills but it sure beats rollerskiing.  In all likelihood conditions will be very similar in Rumford so it is great practice for Nationals.

With snow equipment like this on the streets of West Yellowstone, Mt it is easy to understand why West is the place to be for great early season snow.  We have been out here for over two weeks now and the skiing has been nothing short of perfect the whole time.

The first races of the season are behind us and we are leaving West Yellowstone tomorrow for Bozeman where the Supertour will pickup Saturday with a skate sprint in the morning and  a 10k skate in the afternoon.  Sunday racing will continue with a 20K classic mass start.  With skiing so good here in West Yellowstone it is a little tough to leave.  Bozeman has precious little snow but the race organizer announced today that the races will go off as scheduled.  Hopefully a few inches will accumulate between now and then so condition are solid.

Two great weeks on snow have provided an amazing opportunity to get a feel for our new Salomon skis.  The new soft ground skate skis are really smooth in new snow and feel great on climbs.  I also pickup a pair of stiff 52Kg classic klister skis that I am extremely excited about.  They have an amazingly stiff, high camber but when I roll onto the ball of my foot they close perfectly.  I can not wait to test them out in full on klister conditions.

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.

Last Friday we finished up a great training camp at Telemark and to help absorb that solid training the past week has been fairly easy.  Taking it easy can be hard because it feels counterproductive even when you know it is necessary for recovery and optimal performance.  I have found that I feel better on off days  if I get out and move around a bit and stay busy with non-ski related activities during recovery weeks.

As a result recovery weeks provide a great opportunity to work a lot.  I have been working at the Mathnasium (a math tutoring center) the past 6 months and have really enjoyed helping kids with  math.  I majored in mathematics and although I do not feel I use to much of what I learned in college it is nice to work in a subject I enjoy and see students light up when they figure out tough problems.  With school now in full swing the center is busy and it is nice  to work a lot during a low volume training week.

    I also picked up a junker 1977 Kawasaki KZ650 for practically nothing off craigslist and have been enjoying ripping it apart.  It was sitting for the past 20 years  so it is going to take a lot of work but hopefully sometime next summer it will be a sweet ride I can sell.  One reason I got it so cheap was because the engine did not even turn over.  I had to put a log in the cylinder on top of the piston and nailed it with a sledge to free it.  Everything moves like it should now and after an engine rebuild it will be running like new.

I was half way through an easy 2 hour out-and-back classic ski yesterday when I absolutely smoked  my pole.  I somehow managed to plant it directly in front of my wheel and then ski right through it.  Needless to say I was a little angry.  I quickly realized, however, that I had been either skiing or roller skiing with these old Swix Stars for the past 7 years.  I decided they had received their fair share of use and this was not something to get worked up about.  Nevertheless, it did mean that I had a 1 hour no pole classic ski ahead of me.

I have done a fair amount no pole skiing during technique work and will no pole skate during a distance ski from time to time but I cannot remember ever no pole striding for an hour.  The first 30 minutes was miserable.  I am not sure what it is but no pole striding causes my back to lock up faster than I can believe.  Forced to stride the   uphills, flats and downhills there was no relief and eventually I was forced to play around with my technique.

The next 30 minutes was some of the most productive time on skis that I can remember.  I started messing around with stride length, cadence, hip rotation, knee drive, ankle flexion, arm swing and body position.   It was amazing.  Forced to stride without poles I feel I made tremendous technique gains.

I am not sure if breaking my pole was good luck, bad luck, or simply dumb luck but I feel I came out on top.

Beating the heat and having fun playing four square on a floating raft with my brothers at the lake.

With summer in full swing it is time to get some serious training in.  With the heat and humidity we had earlier this week, however, it is important to be careful.  Avoid training during the heat of the day at all cost.   I lucked out and had a few rest days in my plan during the majority of the oppressive, tropical heat but found myself skiing very early and very late a few days in order to get my training in.  Going very early was great but I have to admit that skiing too late was a little foolish though.  I finished a ski earlier this week at 10:05  pm on bike paths in the dark and hit a lot of little rocks and sand I could not see.

Enjoying getting after it on my rollerskis and on my bike.

I like going fast and really getting after it so to break up a typical summer high volume focus Gus, Jason and I decided to try a July intensity block.  The humidity broke earlier this week and I started an intensity block.  The idea here is to dedicate about 10 days to skiing hard and fast with minimal volume to develop speed.  Intervals are hard but not at maximal effort and it is important to build throughout the workout so the last interval is the fastest.  Hopeful this will complement my volume training  and have me in great shape come winter.

I found a great job tutoring math this summer and I have really enjoyed the ability it gives me to fully recover between workouts.  With a high amount of intensity it is extremely important to make sure you are fully recovering and not digging yourself into a hole. I like to get my hand dirty so I can’t resist  a little manual labor here and there.

I am home training in Lakeville for a little over a week and then off to Marquette and then Telemark.

Nygren

This morning I helped clear brush in a valley, at Telemark Resort in Cable WI, that is soon to become a water holding pond for nordic snow making.  Once the brush is fully removed in the coming weeks a logging crew will remove the large trees and excavating equipment will modify the natural valley  to better hold water.   The construction of a small dam will seal the outlet of the valley and create an excellent holding pond.

Once completed Telemark will use its existing infrastructure to pump water out of the ground and to the holding pond through pipes already on the alpine hill.  Ground water is relatively warm but water chilled in the pond by cold fall temperatures will be  perfect for the snow guns to cover the trails for early skiing.

With extensive snow making in the works at Telemark the CXC Elite Team is already planning to spend a considerable amount of time in the late fall and early winter on snow at Telemark.  This will help facilitate ideal training with minimal stress and travel prior to the start of the season.

While it is most commonly believed that April showers bring May flowers I think a strong case can be made for April showers bringing May roller skiing.

With all the salt and sand washed off the roads, the onset warm weather and  the easiest training month of the year behind you May is a great time to get out the  roller skis and start your structured yearly training plan.

The first thing I like to do when I get out my summer training gear is go over my equipment.  The first thing that usually needs to be done is changing your pole tip to summer roller ski ferrules.  While there are many ways to do this including heat guns, lighters, and what not I find that the easiest way is to put a coffee mug of water in the microwave for 2 min.  This brings the water to a boil and provides sufficient heat to remove baskets with no danger of hurting your poles.  Simply dip the basket in the water for 20 secs and then pull it off.  When putting on the roller ski ferrrules use a little ferrule glue or just hot glue to make sure it stays on well.

The next thing you want to do is make sure the tips are nice and sharp.  A nice sharpening file works well if the tips just need to be freshened up but I find a grinder works better if they are very dull.   Care needs to be taken using a grinder to make sure the ferrules do not get too hot and melt from all the friction.  To avoid this make sure you have a very hard stone.  I have found a diamond encrusted tile cutting blade works the best.

With your poles all ready to go inspect your roller skis to make sure they are in good shape.  Pay particular attention to the wheels and make sure they are not cracked or splitting as this could be dangerous.  If you are going to be using this years new Salomon RS17 classic boots in old profil roller ski binding cutting the very top off the bumpers works pretty well.

With poles and skis ready to go enjoy getting out and roller skiing.

With the last races of the season completed Santi and I headed out Sunday morning for some amazing crust skiing in Sun Valley before we started the long drive home.  With copious snow and warm afternoon temps the snow had hardened into a strong crust that not even pole plants would penetrate.  With such conditions it was possible to ski anywhere so we parked up by Galena and headed into the National forest.

We found some sweet clearings with fun terrain.

Skiing up and making some turns coming down.

We took off the skis to climb some really step sections and then came flying down.  Here Santi is below and I am still up on the rock face.

It was a blast and a great way to speed our last moments on snow.