An XC Ski Racer in Washington State

Kikkan Wins in Dusseldorf

2011-12-03T09:23:00.000-08:00

A powerful no-pole skate on the final stretch moved Kikkan to the top of the podium.

Kikkan 8th in WC 10k skate!!

2011-11-19T09:10:00.000-08:00

Still in school so no peronal race news. Will fill in with a bit of other nordic news.

Awesome first for Kikkan! (first WC top 10 in a distance race).

Kikkan's tweet:

kikkanimal: Psyched to nab my first World Cup distance top 10 today! Snow was fast and the speed was high. Our women's team was strong, yeah relay!

Liz Stephen showed great form with an 18th place finish!!

USA men: a rough day.

school = no time for ski racing

2011-04-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

I've started into a master's degree in computer science. It seems I won't be doing much ski racing until I graduate

Race recap for the season

2010-03-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

Methow Super Tour 15k classic

I think I was 5th out of 5 in age group. Waxing was difficult... I ended up skiing on fish scales. Lot of fast racers. The course (they moved the race to Loup Loup north) was a big climb and then a very technical down hill. The tracks were in tough shape all over the course so not much rest even on the gentle downhills.

Gunnar Hagen 10k classic (Cabin Creek Snoqualmie Pass WA)

My time was something like 32min49sec which is a personal best for 10k though I understand the course is really only 9k. First in age group but most of the fast guys were doing the 30k distance and their lap times (same course for both 10k and 30k... 30k racers did three laps) were quite a bit faster than mine. Wax was klister but I didn't get it quite right (only my second time ever using klister) and had almost no kick... wasn't too bad though because the course has a ton of double poling terrain and the climbs are all short so not too terrible to herring bone all the climbs.

Spokane Langlauf 10k classic

Great event again this year. This year my wife and I talked her mom and my cousin into joining us in the race. Three of us made the podium. I was looking to take three minutes off my time from last year. In the end my time was something like 38min28sec which was only about 45 seconds off of last year's time. The conditions were definitely slower this year though and comparing to some other racers I can see that I closed the gap on them a bit compared to last year. Conditions this year were klister and I got it to work pretty good this time. The best part was that I was able to hammer the double pole to the finish and beat the guy that I chased up the last hill.

Ozbaldy 10k skate at Cabin Creek Snoqualmie Pass

Icy and fast conditions. My skating needs a lot of work... my time was something like 33min23sec which is slower than my classic time on nearly the same course. I think I need more skate technique and more skate muscles.

Overall conclusion for the season: Faster than last year but still a long ways to go to catch the fast guys.

no time to blog

2010-02-20T09:51:00.000-08:00

I've been super busy since I started school in January. Hopefully I'll have time to post soon about my races so far this season...

First time trial, Still Slow

2010-01-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

First time trial of the season last Wednesday.

5km skate by headlamp.

Despite more and better training, I was disappointed to find that my time was not significantly faster than last year.

Conditions were fast and icy. I fell during warmup and landed pretty hard on my hip. After that I skied conservative on the downhills which no doubt contributed to a slower time.

Opportunities for improvement:

1) Improve skate technique

2) Learn to hold good technique despite icy conditions with bumps, ruts, crowns, and divots on the course

3) Find ways to ski fast despite the possibility of a painful fall on an icy course

4) Ski faster and more smoothly through transition and corners

Ski Rodeo Cancelled

2009-12-22T21:37:00.000-08:00

http://www.mvsta.com/winter/skirodeo.html

Bummer...

Newell makes the final in Rogla

2009-12-19T08:08:00.000-08:00

Andy Newell of the US Ski Team made the final heat in the World Cup classic sprints in Rogla Slovenia today! A great step in the right direction after barely missing the final a couple times earlier in the season. The individual sprint at the Olympics in February is also classic technique... maybe Newell can crank it up a couple more notches and get an Olympic podium which would be absolutely historic for US cross country skiing.

Training without snow

2009-12-16T20:40:00.002-08:00

Living in the Seattle area, I have to drive an hour or more to get to the snow. This means that even during the season I will be training on snow only once or twice per week. How do you get fast without snow? A recent article on Fasterskier says you need specificity which essentially means "You have to rollerski". This is another vote confirming my acquisition of rollerskis... especially since I get only limited snow time even during the season.

Pacific Northwest Race List

2009-12-16T20:40:00.001-08:00

Mark at Nordic Ultratune just posted a list of regional races:

Pacific Northwest Race List

Follow USST nordic skiers on Twitter

2009-11-29T21:26:00.000-08:00

Some of the US Ski Team cross country skiers are tweeting.

Andy Newell tweets as AndyNewellskier.

Kris Freeman 4th in Kuusamo

2009-11-29T21:24:00.000-08:00

Freeman placed 4th in the 15k individual start classic race in Kuusamo Finland today!!!

Difficult to ski in Level 1

2009-11-29T21:11:00.000-08:00

I started using a heart rate monitor this fall. Here's a few comments from my experiences thus far.

The monitor says my level 4 efforts were about right.

My level 1 training was way off. With the monitor, I found that Level 1 is a much lower level of effort than I supposed. I'm also having trouble staying in level 1 while skiing... yesterday I was constantly finding myself in Level 2 or 3 while trying to ski an easy Level 1 distance workout.

I'm using the levels defined by CXC Academy. My numbers are shown in the table below. I'm using 187 for my max heart rate which is the highest I've seen during hard efforts. This is a bit higher than the age formula which gives 220-40=180.

Max HR: 187

Level MIN MAX

5 187 (100%) 187 (100%)

4 168 (90%) 187 (100%)

3 150 (80%) 168 (90%)

2 131 (70%) 150 (80%)

1 112 (60%) 131 (70%)

World Cup Opener

2009-11-21T15:04:00.000-08:00

Cross Country Skiing World Cup opener today in Beitostolen Norway.

The US Team posted a couple of top 30 finishes (Kikkan and Freeman).

Check this video post from Andy Newell

World Cup Video from Andy Newell

Hopefully the races will be on tv next week.

2009-11-14T16:11:00.001-08:00

First day on snow today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sharpening tips on rollerski poles

2009-10-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

My advice:

Get a bench grinder with a silicon carbide grinding wheel. Dip the tip in water to keep it cool (grind a little; dunk it; repeat until sharp). I couldn't find much for diamond files in hardware stores and the one I tried wasn't very effective. There are some good details here: Sharp Roller Ferrules Make for Better Skiing

Rollerskiing: a bit scary

2009-10-06T12:49:00.000-07:00

Asphalt is hard and abrasive. I have to admit that cruising down hills on rollerskis with no brakes is proving a bit scary.

I'm working on my gear and technique to make it less sketchy.

I started with a pair of rollerskis that were given to me. They appear to be homemade and the wheels look like they are from inline skates. They had NNN bindings when I got them. I tried my classic race boots (planning to just do some double poling) as these are my only NNN boots. Result was face plant into the asphalt. Then I scrounged a pair of SNS profil bindings so I could use my SNS combi boots. This is better but still more unstable ("tippy") than I'd like. There are other issues too... one ski wants to veer left all the time (probably due to worn wheels). Perhaps slower wheels would keep the speeds down to "slightly less scary".

This morning I hauled out the piggy bank and ordered some new rollerskis (Pursuit T6101 from rollerskishop.com) with pilot bindings.

1) I hope these wheels will be slower (I ordered the speed 2/speed 3 wheel set)

2) I spent the extra dough to get the lowered shaft of the T6101 (it uses forks similar to Marwe) for added stability

3) pilot bindings will let me use my pilot skate boots which have more torsional stiffness than the combi boots

4) Bigger (and softer?) wheels should roll more smoothly

I think knee and elbow pads are in my future as well.

More time on rollerskis should improve everything... I hope.

Another Great Video Update from Andy Newell

2009-10-05T21:31:00.000-07:00

Andy Newell blogs regularly on fasterskier.com. Here's another great video update from Andy complete with metal on the audio track. Updates like this one help keep me fired up to train.

Lake Placid Training Camp Video Update

In case you aren't following the US Ski Team (USST) nordic efforts: Andy is our fastest sprinter and is a threat for World Cup podiums. He keeps up with the blog entries on fasterskier pretty well and often does video updates like this one. It's cool to get stuff like this straight from one of our top level athletes.

My racing history

2009-10-04T07:59:00.000-07:00

Here's some background on how I got started and how I'm progressing.

2005-2006 season:

My first race was in Jan 2006 at age 36: 10k, classic, interval start, Leavenworth WA. I didn't train for this at all. Wanted to just get started and see what the scene was like etc. Race time was about 49 minutes (quite slow).

2006-2007 season:

Next race was the following year in Feb 2007. Another 10k classic. I did some training but it wasn't very organized and not so much ski specific. My training and race prep was severely derailed by my work schedule. I worked crazy hours in the days leading up to the race and my time was lousy.

2007-2008 season:

I did a fair bit of cycling during the summer and thought I was in decent shape but when I got on skis I did not feel very powerful (I'm blaming it on lack of upper body workouts). I started keeping a log of my training. Race season got derailed by work schedule again and I did not make any races except for a couple Wednesday night headlamp time trials at the Cabin Creek sno-park near Snoqualmie Pass WA.

2008-2009 season:

I added hill bounding intervals and strength workouts to my training. I also moved up to waxable skis (my previous races were done on nowax). I did the Spokane Langlauf race (10k classic) in 39min 9s. I actually won my division with this time. I guess none of the fast guys in my age bracket showed up to race that day. This season was a big improvement even though my training didn't start until October due to a busy summer involving a move to a new house.

2009-2010 season:

Started training in April. Been doing a mix of strength, intensity, and distance every week. Recently signed up for the CXC Academy web site in order to get more training information and it has given me a very detailed plan and lots of new training activities. My wife gave me a heart rate monitor for my birthday so I'm starting to use that to do my training at the proper levels. I've obtained some old roller skis (free from someone in the ski club) over the summer and am starting to use those for workouts. If I don't get derailed, this is shaping up to be my best ever season on the training front. I'd like to see my 10k classic time down to under 36min. Another goal for this year is to do at least one skate race.

Torin Koos on the news

2009-10-01T08:28:00.000-07:00

King 5 TV news carried a short piece last night which featured several clips of US Ski Team (USST) member Torin Koos. Torin is from Leavenworth WA and is on the USST A squad for cross country skiing.

King5 Clip

Snow is Coming!

2009-09-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

Snow in Silverstar BC Canada:

http://fasterskier.com/2009/09/snow-in-silverstar/

Snow level forecast down to 3000ft this coming Saturday in the WA Cascades!

Race Calendar

2009-09-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

These are the races I'm thinking about for the 2009 2010 season:

Ski Rodeo, 27 Dec, Mazama WA, 10k skate

Skirennen, 9 Jan, Leavenworth WA, 10k skate

Methow Valley Super Tour, 17 Jan, 15k classic

Gunnar Hagen, 24 Jan, Snoqualmie Pass WA, 10k or 30k classic

Spokane Langlauf, 14 Feb, Mt Spokane WA, 10k classic

I think my focus will be on the Langlauf.

It's Fall in Puget Sound

2009-09-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

Today's training session was cycling to work and back with two 10 minute level 3 intervals on the way home. Fall was in force as it was soggy and dim.