Not since my freshman year at CXC have I ski raced in the East.  Yeah, it’s been that long.  I can’t wait to get back.  We’re leaving tomorrow morning for the long drive from Wisconsin to Maine–27 hours according to mapquest.  We’ll be competing in the 50km National Championship and the SuperTour Finals.  Here are the details:

March 24: Marathon 30/50km mass-start skate

March 26: 5/10km mass-start classic

March 27: Classic Sprint

March 28: 5/10km skate uphill pursuit

To get me ready for the trip back East, Chris and Judy, my bosses at New Moon, had me over to tap some maples and enjoy some venison on the grill.  With the unseasonably warm March we’ve had, the sap is flowing fast.  Chris has already made several gallons of fresh Wisconsin maple syrup from the 20 or so maples in his yard.

My favorite energy drink, and one you can only find in the spring, is maple sap straight from the tree.  It basically tastes like fresh water with a hint of sweet maple syrup.  No other drink is more refreshing.  Chris and Judy sent me home with a jar of fresh syrup that tasted great on my pancakes this morning.

Of course, Egan couldn’t wait to show off his new boards too.  Chuck, we’ve gotta find Grant a pair of these!

Hopefully this is the only deer we come across on our road trip East.  Next post will be from Fort Kent, the Northern Most Town in Maine.  On a map it may look like the Northern Most Point in the US, but other places we’ve traveled this year are actually much further North, including Spokane, Washington, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan, and, of course, Fairbanks, Alaska.

When did Ironwood sprout a Mtn. range?

As crappy as the weather was that morning, it was far from the norm as of late. The skiing has been, for lack of a better word, perfect. Every skier knows the unexplainable sensation of perfect skiing. The snow is fast, the sun is out, and it’s easy to forget the elapsed time on your watch. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Switzerland, Alaska, or Michigan’s Upper Peninsula; training in these conditions is simply a pleasure and I know there ain’t nothing wrong with that!

Sunsplashed Marquette!

The first time I was ticketed was while road biking in Colorado 2 summers ago.  I was winding through neighborhoods back to my place when a police officer proceeded to pull me over for “rolling a stop sign.”  It is an understatement to say I was frustrated.  He even wrote up the make, model, year and color of my vehicle.  The best I could even tell him was old, red, rusty Maruishi.  What put me over the top though was when he said I needed to put my feet down in order to come to a complete stop at each sign.  I ended up having to go to court to protest the ticket.  With some work I managed to not pay a $100 traffic violation.

Murphy at it's best earlier winter

Wednesday called for 5 minute classic intervals starting in level 3 and building to level 4.  I was determined to get a solid workout in after having spent the day before driving to multiple stores looking for klister only to realize that all the small bike/ski shops close to my house had already gotten ride of their winter inventory.   Murphy Hanrehan is only a few miles away and one of my favorite places in the world to ski and run.  The skiing was been incredible at Murphy this year so I head there again this morning knowing with the warm weather and rain that conditions might be sub par.   I pulled into the parking lot, which is rarely staffed and was informed by a park worker that they were closing the trail and locking the gate to the parking lot.  I know the park better then anyone so I drove down a gravel road and hopped on the trails from a secondary access point.  The snow was soft but coverage was solid and having finished my workout I returned to my car.  Waiting for me was a ticket for “skiing on closed trails” and a court date in March.  Not even a mention of a fine just a court date.  It makes me laugh a little and then I remember that I have to deal with it.

There is still snow to be found and training to do before Supertour finals in Maine.  Best of luck finding some legal snow!

Amy Caldwell, Casey Fagerquist and Matt Whitcomb enjoy the conclusion of the Big Snow Storm in Rogla

We traveled due south from France into the Italian Alps and then along the vineyards of Italy through the coastal plain and finally into Slovenia.  The drive took us through beautiful scenery.  I had to catch myself a few times to match the appropriate salutation to the country.  Most of the trip was void of snow and we enjoyed warmer temperatures. There was no snow in sight as we closed in on Rogla, Slovenia but temperatures continued to drop as we ascended into the Slovenian Alps.  The view changed as we closed onto Rogla, and we started to enter a snow storm.  What a difference a few miles of travel upward makes.  Fortunately we arrived just in the knick of time, for the snow storm was just starting.  I’m not sure our vehicles would have made the mountain ascent if we waited another day.  The thirty-six hour snow storm resulted in high winds, cold temperatures and a lot of snow.  I would guess in the range of twenty inches.  We awoke Thursday morning to a four foot snow drift greeting our bungalow doorstep.  Matt Whitcomb took a great photo with his phone for evidence.

French Alps -

French Alps along the Drive

Ancient French Fortified Fort

Italian Castle

Old Italian Vineyard still alive and well today

The lodging and food are amazing here atop this mountain.  My only concern I have is being selective with all the incredible buffet food.  Good thing we have three races in a row to provide an excuse to get out on skis. 

 Petra Majdic’s face adorns nearly every advertisement at Rogla, displaying their pride of the Nordic skiing superstar.  The alpine ski runs actually start from here atop the mountain adjacent the lodge and descend 500 meters.  There is an alpine slide immediately out the window of the men’s bungalow, which sits idol as a taunt.  The employees have been shoveling it out, which has been a topic of serious discussion upon conclusion of the races here.

Rogla is quite dialed in for Nordic ski racing, especially since they had a World Cup here this past season.  The wax trailers are close to the stadium and warm-up track, so we have electricity and gear storage immediately adjacent to the race venue.  This has made our role a bit easier than last weekend’s shuttling back down form La Feclaz to St Francois to test and wax.

Testing here has gone quite well.  The snow here seems to carry a great deal of moisture, yet the snow is very fresh due to all the new snow.  This unique blend resulted in testing throughout the temperature ranges.  The snow reminds me of the lake effect snowfalls of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  I suppose it is not ironic then that many of the better waxes we found were similar to those utilized in the UP of Michigan in the past.

The courses are challenging – not totally brutal, but quite relentless, so pacing and technical skiing play a major role.  The conditions are quite soft with temperatures around -5 to -10 Celsius.  The cloudbank on the mountain has lifted and the wind as substantially decreased.  The nighttime clearing is drying up the snow and we should certainly have firmer conditions tomorrow for the races.

There are three races in a row – Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  This is the OPA finals and they run them like the World Cup Finals.  Tomorrow is the Classic Prologue, Saturday is a distance classic and Sunday concludes with a pursuit start skate.

It seems that after the Birkie the season always seems to start to wind down really fast.  This year after the Birkie the weather seemed to immediately change from Winter into Spring.  For the past two weeks I have not skied without it being over 40 degrees and sunny.  It really has been amazing, but at the same time it makes me want to hop on the bike more than train for the upcoming 50km skate National Championship in Fort Kent, ME.  However, I am really excited by the chance to become a National Champion so I am hammering out my training (minus getting a head cold this past weekend.)

The trails here in Marquette are still really good despite the fact that they will not groom very often for some reason.  I do not understand why people think that if it gets warm they should no longer groom because they think they will lose more snow that way; when in fact grooming the snow makes it way more enjoyable to ski along with keeping the snow more compact so it will last longer.  I just finished an interval workout at Blueberry Ridge where they decided to groom and the trail was clean and fast.

A really cool thing Maria and I were able to do last Friday was help with the new disabled program we have here in Marquette that is headed by Jodi Tervo and Andrew Rickauer .  CXC has sent a sitski here where they created an Opportunity Center for people with disabilities.  They have been meeting on most Friday’s at 5:30 at Suicide Bowl in Ishpeming.  There they can rent equipment if needed and they have a nice loop to ski.  The program already has youngsters with their eye’s on the next Paralympics.  I was able to ski with Dominic and his twin brother for about an hour and it was really fun.  Dominic is probably around six or eight years old and really enjoys being able to get out and ski despite having some balance and numbness issues in his lower body.  He was also really interested in why we could not just go and jump off the ski jumps?  It was really fun to see his excitement about everything outdoors.

As for the rest of the season, Maria, Gus, and I are heading to Gus’ house in Vermont on the 16th where we will be doing some races at Craftsbury before heading to Maine to finish off the season with the 30/50km and the SuperTour finals.  It should be a really good time especially if the weather stays like this!

La Fleclaz OPA Races

Skiing here at La Fleclaz is amazing with abundant mountain snow.  The temperatures upon arrival were mild and near 0 Celsius for the first two days.  The snow is transformed and granular, so klister has been effective.  A dusting of snow tends to fall each day and temperatures have now dropped slightly (-4 Celsius) to dry out the snow.  Skiing is now very firm and fast as the new snow gets tilled in.

 Classic Team Sprint:

We had a classic team sprint under the lights Friday evening.  The race started at 7:30PM and concluded around 10:00 PM.  We couldn’t figure out where the start/ finish was the evening prior while testing.  It became apparent why the morning prior as they plowed and moved snow onto the main street of the small La Feclaz village.  They groomed at 5:00 PM on race day, which left the course soft and sugary.  The track did begin to set up a bit as the temperatures dropped into the finals.  One might consider the set up as somewhat amateur, but watching the skiing of the participants during the daytime would tell you otherwise. 

Observation can teach a lot and it was apparent during the training session that the best skiers here have a high cadence and more importantly, very quick and snappy movements – more quick and snappy than I am accustomed to seeing.  This observation would be confirmed in the team sprint eight hours later.  It was also observed at World Cup (like Canmore) in the last 200 meters of the sprints and likely to every Nordic ski fan in the 50 km in the Olympics to name just one example.  I believe this is something for us to pay more attention to.

The team sprint course was great for observation, for there was a little of everything – short and steep uphills to watch a running stride and herringbone stride as well as a couple long gradual climbs to witness kick double pole and long gliding diagonal striding technique.

5km Women’s/ 10 km Men’s Mass Start Skate:

The temperatures have been dropping to -14 to -16 Celsius at night, so the course was sure to be rock solid.  We headed out yesterday morning to test wax and it was status quo.  The waxes that had been running the days before were still running the best.  It was apparent however that the colder conditions had ruled some of the warmer waxes out. 

It’s interesting.  Things are a little different which throw you off your “normal” game.  They are small items like European outlets for example.  My cordless drill can not be charged in Europe even though I have a converter.  The issue is voltage, which – I’m sure can be overcome – but not in the short period of time we were here in La Fleclaz.  I couldn’t charge my cordless drill up, so we didn’t have one at the start.  We didn’t have a wax room adjacent the race start even if we did have a European cordless, so we need to be adaptable and we were.  We had competitive skis.

We tested skis yesterday and the firm snow dictated a stiffer ski for control, but we also noted that the best skis that relatively light in structure.  Light snow fell throughout the day today and there was certainly a happy medium of structure.  Skis, structure and wax had to all be within a reasonable tolerance.  The athletes need to make small but noticeable adjustments as well.  France is 6-9 hours ahead of the US, so time adaptation is important.  We’ll also at moderate altitude.  Another very notable aspect is the competition.  They are unfamiliar and race slightly different.  We need to adapt and we did in many respects.

The adaptations made were effective for a number of athletes to have great races.  A number of athletes scored their best FIS results (Sadie Bjornsen, Erik Bjornsen, Mike Sinnott, Nicole Deyong and Brian Gregg).  The top American in the 5km skate was Caitlin Compton in 10^th place about twelve seconds from the win.  Caitlin Compton tangled with German strength Denise Hermmann and went down at the start.  Caitlin shuttled from last out of the gate to first out on the course and finally finished in 10^th.  Brian Gregg was the top American in the 10 km men’s mass start.  Robin Duvillard had a break away that was reeled in, but he still won.  Robin was 6^th in the Davos World Cup this past December. 

The most valuable item is simply mixing it up with a new group of competitors. We need to be adaptable.  We need to recognize that we rarely have home field advantage, so we need to make “home” on the road.  This is true at least some of the time.  

Subtle changes will result in notable results at this level.  Brian Gregg noted he had a very good race but noted that he might have selected a ski with slightly too aggressive of structure for optimum results.  I agree.  Today was his best FIS result to date, but we need to look where we can squeeze additional seconds whether it is from fitness, recovery or equipment.  Structure and ski select will be an increasing focus for our whole CXC Team Vertical Limit program next year.  We made strides forward this year and will continue into next with a focus on ski selection for races as well as ski structure.

Birkie Wrap up & Europa Cup Travel Adventures

Birkie Wrap-Up:

Last weekend concluded with another successful American Birkebeiner.  A record number of 8,300 total Birkie event participants were met with perfect conditions.  It was great to catch up with the athletes to see how the race unfolded.  The men’s race seemed to be particularly strategic, which wasn’t any surprise with the four Italians there.  It was great to hear that Tad was strong enough to remain with the two Italians in the final break away and that the pace was such that only one Italian would remain at the finish.  It was also good to hear that Rebecca was able to maintain a high pace that lasted to the finish.  I look forward to seeing the new Birkie DVD.  It will be great to watch the action unfold.

Travels through Europe:

I was excited to find that my flights to Europe departed MSP at 3:30 PM on Monday.  This allowed time to pack up gear and clean out Vortanz’s pole barn where we had 12 wax stations hitting on all eight cylinders Friday night and Saturday morning for the Birkie.

My flights were seamless.  I checked my bags straight through from Minneapolis to Munich, Germany with a layover in Chicago O’Hare.  I met up with Amy Caldwell and Matt Whitcomb at O’Hare.  I hopped onto the plane, watched a movie and slept the remainder of the way.  It was morning in Germany and 3:00AM back home.

We drove from Munich through Switzerland via a stint in Lichtenstein and then onto the northern French Alps.  The total drive was a touch over 7 hours.  The last portion of the drive was eventful only due to the sheer number of villages named St Francois. I counted 4 total.  We checked out three until we found our final destination.  St Francois must to be pretty popular around here.

The City of Chambrey:

On the Wednesday, March 3^rd I had an impromptu scenic stroll around Chambery’s city center.  I headed down from our lodging near the Col de Plainpalais and into the city to pick up Matt Whitcomb.  Matt had returned one of our vans back to Geneva and took a train back to Chambery where someone was to swing by and pick him up.  I heard word of the need for Matt’s pick up time with little time to spare, so volunteered and hopped out of my clothes ski clothes and onto the road.  

I found my way successfully into the City Center.  Chambery’s city center was beautiful, but challenging to navigate.  Many roads ended abruptly into old historic sections that had been preserved for tourist walking traffic only.  Urban planning and design was a concept developed long after Chambery’s City Center.  I opted to park on a near-by road close to the city’s Post Office, Police Department, Bus Station and Train Depot reside.  I took note of a full-sized statue for a notable landmark near my parking position, for the street signs were challenging to find even at a walkers pace.  A simple trip resulted in a memorable experience that includes a story I just can’t make up. I am now offering my expertise for hire as a travel guide of Chambery’s City Center due to my intimate knowledge of the pedestrian sites.

I was testing kick on Thursday as well as assisting Caitlin Compton with skate ski selection.  We dropped off her additional skis and my warm-up jacket and pants toward the tail end of our training session.  We placed them along the trail close to our entry/ exit to the parking lot.  Caitlin’s skis remained but my jacket and pants unfortunately did not.  I thought early departing athletes from our group snagged them, but unfortunately not.  They did say they were there when they left 15 minutes shy of my departure.  Well, I hope someone less fortunate than I acquired my warm-ups.  They will be happy to find a new Canon G10 camera and mid-temperature hard waxes in the pockets.  Bummer, since the USST kick wax box was lost by the airlines and the airlines traded by providing 7 sweet one-piece carbon hockey sticks.  The owner of the sticks is one NHL hockey player.  His name is engraved on them.

My Birkie Finish (SkinnySki.com Photo)

The CXC Team Vertical Limit has been away from internet service and totally absorbed in all the wonderful Birkie festivities in Hayward, WI.  Most of us headed to Hayward, immediately after the Madison Winter Festival.  I stopped in Minocqua, WI to visit the dentist, (Thank you Dr. Kozeluh!) and arrived in Hayward on Tuesday night.  On Wednesday Bryan Cook and I did some private lessons for a couple friends in the Hayward area and waxed a lot of skis.  On Thursday we competed in the Elite Birkie Sprints and I hung out with some family friends from the Waukesha area.  On Friday we tested skis, worked at the expo, waxed a bunch, and got ready for the Big Show on Snow.

My Birkie experience was incredible.  I got to stand on the start line with Tami Kochen, had all the highs and lows of a true Birkie bonk, and I was still able to place 4th overall.  Thankfully, the bonk happened about 25K later this year than last year.  There was a pack of four women for the first 44 K, consisting of Rebecca Dussault (CXC Team Vertical Limit-1st), Tax Mannix (USST-2nd), and Brooke Gosling (Alberta World Cup Academy-3rd), and me (CXC Team Vertical Limit-4th).  I sat in this group, not working very hard.  The pace felt really comfortable and then all of a sudden, without really pushing harder of increasing the pace, 40K of racing caught up with me and my legs began to burn.  I made it a few more K and I did everything I could to hang with the group, so when I fell off the back I really started to struggle.  I had 4K to go when I really fell apart, stomping up the hills and twisting like crazy.  I started to find it funny when I began cheering for myself in my head.  Since skiing up the hills was not going well, I focused on skiing over the tops of the hills.  I hit the lake alone, but thankfully was able to pull myself together enough to catch a ride from a passing wave 1 skier that went by me with about 1.5K of lake to go.  The cheering on Main Street was the loudest cheering I have ever heard in my life.  I loved it.

It would have been very nice to make it onto the podium, but I am 100% certain that I could not have done any better in that race on that day.

I staggered to the finish line, spent a good amount of time laying on the floor of the changing tent nursing my cramping feet, and greeted my female friends and teammates as they trickled in.  Then, I went out to the lake to cheer people in.

Right to Play, for those unfamiliar, is the leading sport-for-development organization, which uses sport and play to improve the lives of some of the world’s most impoverished children.  Programs currently operating in 23 countries use specially designed curriculums impart social skills, safety and health practices, as well as a whole set of values aimed at spawning social change in communities.

The event was attended by representatives of CXC, the American Birkebeiner, the Winter Fest, members of the Madison nordic ski community, as well as others.  One very special guest happened to my all-time ski hero and an ambassador of Right to Play, Beckie Scott. 

At the event Beckie spoke about her career and how after her great success at the Olympic games she felt a responsibility to use her position to make a difference for others.  She described all the support she received from others on her way to Olympic gold, and how she believed that she should in turn play a similar role for others.  She found her opportunity to do so in the Right to Play organization, which she became involved with and subsequently became an employee of. 

Another special guest was Don Becker of Becker Law in Madison, a man who is endlessly giving of his time and money in order to support local and now international efforts in a variety of areas.  Don was so enthusiastic to support Right to Play that he pledged to match all funds raised up to $10 thousand.

Don Becker hands off a check for $10,000 to Beckie Scott of Right to Play.

The evening was highly inspiring between the presentation by Beckie and the demonstrated generosity of the guests.  Those in attendance took advantage of the live auction portion of the event to open wide their pocket books in the name of Right to Play. 

Auctioneer Dennis Kruse of the American Birkebeiner entices bidders with a one-of-a-kind Right to Play/Beckie Scott banner.

A few aspects that most impressed me during the course of the evening were the idea of using privilege of position to make a difference for others, as well as the lasting impact that development of the mind can have.  Among Don, Beckie, and all the others involved in the event, there was no shortage of examples of those who wanted to share their good fortune among others.  It struck me that a person such as myself need neither win a gold medal or be financially well off in order to do the same.  Also, I really liked the idea that unlike many other humanitarian organizations that focus on providing material and physical services to those in need, which, of course, are valuable and much-needed, Right to Play provides for children a service that will serve them the rest of their lives, namely, the development of their minds.  It is along the lines of giving a person a fish versus teaching that person how to fish.  Even when a child is grown, the skills they learned through Right to Play will continue to benefit them and their community.  It might seem silly to worry about the ability of starving children to play, but as Beckie said, Right to Play provides children with the gift of humanity, something that is as essential to people as food or water.

Besides learning the skiing basics, the course curriculum included weekly nutritional lessons. We discussed different types of food kids and adults should eat to fuel their bodies properly. The smell of hot lunch wafting from the cafeteria doors seemed to mock me, though, as I rambled on about making sensible nutritional choices.

The program culminated with the Minne-Loppet at the City of Lakes Loppet weekend extravaganza. A sea of kids from Minneapolis schools, including my stead of Pillsbury students, embarked on a 1.5k  journey onto the Lake of the Isles in Uptown, Minneapolis. It showed that the contingent of Pillsbury skiers  had prepared well for the mass start and had worked hard to improve their agility skills on skis. What a rewarding afternoon for skiers and coaches alike!

Refining hill bounding skills in the early season

Mastering the art of tumbling and getting up

Practicing the ever-elusive no-pole stride

Demonstrating proper technique when approaching a descent

Preparing for a future elite wave mass start at the Birkie

Sizing up the competition

Making a calculated move to overtake the leader!