Monday, December 21, 2009

A race day through the eyes of a coach.

Crested Butte Colorado. The season opener for Rocky Mtn Nordic Junior Nat Qualifiers. A race day through the eyes of a coach.

Saturday morning, 6:30am I stumbled my way down to the lobby of the Old Town Inn in Crested Butte, Colorado. Finally, race morning. The moment I’ve been waiting 9 months for has arrived. I convince myself it’s ok to eat a cheese danish and drink lots of coffee. I’m going to need all the energy I can get over the next 8 hrs.

6:57am: The team is out the door for our morning run. I think to myself “Everyone else must be excited about racing as they are all early! Very cool!” as I rush out the door to catch up. Well, “very cool” sure was the right thought. I was shocked at the -12 temp as I started to jog down the street. Yep. It sure is winter!

7:30am: Driving to the Nordic center, even though it’s only about a half mile from the hotel proves to be a hefty challenge. The car is so cold it’s hard to start. Good thing Maggie is a good co-pilot, the frost on the window is almost too thick to see through. Ahhh. Seat heaters. So nice.

7:32am: Arrive at the CB Nordic center. Shoot! We’re not the first team there. Vail has already arrived and is waxing skis. Epic fail.

7:45am: All the benches are set up, skis unpacked, irons plugged in. Jeanne is picking up the bibs and Maggie is waxing her skis with start green. Time to go test what we put down for wax yesterday. The course is squeaky cold and almost Alaska slow. This morning it’s not so much about testing what wax is fast, rather testing what wax isn’t horribly slow. Answer: LF4.

8:15am: Coffee break. Currently the fastest wax we have is already down on all the older kids skis.

8:20am: Re-warmed by the coffee; Brent, Maggie, and I start to brush and check over all the older kids skis. A few of the older boys start to wander into the waxing area.


9:45am: The boys (and some girls) are all busy doing speeds to warm up. All the skis have been brushed and are ready to race. Brent and Maggie are heading out to the course to give splits, Jeanne’s on her way to the start/finish stadium, and I’m hanging by the wax bench to check over the younger kids skis as they arrive.


10:00am: Race time! I hear over the radio that the first skier is on course, officially starting the RMN JNQ season. Awesome!


10:01am-12:30pm: The day fly’s by. I get tons of splits over the radio from Brent and Maggie. DNSC athletes are skiing strong and all the fields seem to be tight. Racers are heading up to their start as others are coming down from the finish. Just as soon as it all started, the races are over.


1pm: Pack up the waxing area and head back to the hotel for lunch. We get the wax tables set up at the hotel so the athletes can put down the wax layers for Sunday’s classic race. What a day! I love my job.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Hello Durango Nordic!

Greetings from Geilo, Norway. I have been busy settling in to the cultural changes and the living. Here are some pictures of the experience thus far. Everybody loves pictures!


Geilo, Norway. One of the Alpine areas at about 15:00, when the sun is setting and the sky turns fiery red when you're lucky.

Male 19/20 Sprint Quarter-Final Sprint race in Sjusjøen, Norway.

Female 19/20 Sprint Quarter-Final Sprint race in Sjusjøen, Norway.

Me doing reconnaissance skiing the day before the 10km Classic race in Sjusjøen, Norway. Great sunset.


Sjusjøen, Norway.


Geilo, Norway.


A tunnel I ski/pass under on my way into town and training.


A fog hangs over the lake in Geilo, Norway. There is a perfect 12km loop around it for distance.


Things are going smoothly. It is great to be around people that are so driven by skiing and how it is just a part of who they are. I've been skiing at least 2-3 times a day. There is a 5km lit loop, so skiing after dinner is great. Plus, there is a lake loop, that is 12km, and takes about an hour or less to ski easy around that is perfect for distance training, it just never gets old. Ski tracks surround the town, so not only is it a great way to train, but a great way to get around. The level of competition is extremely high. Norway goes hard, always. The training is rigorous, but worth it. The food is great, and Hamburgers are a big hit here. There is a bowling lane here so I've been perfecting my technique. Obama's visit here was a huge deal to the people in Oslo and in Norway. Sometimes I feel like I am in America because everyone listens to our mainstream music and watches American movies.

I hope everyone's training is going well. I have a lot of core/medicine ball exercises to show the team, it will make you so fast! Good luck this weekend in Crested Butte!

Skål,
Rogan Brown

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

8 Days in West Yellowstone:


The majority of the J2+ skiers and I just finished am 8 day training camp in West Yellowstone, MT. Here’s a brief recap of how it all went down.

Whoever thought it would be a great idea to stick 12 junior Nordic skiers plus a coach in a condo that is meant to sleep 8 would be a good idea? Well, it was. Sure, our space might have been a bit cramped, especially around lunch and dinner time when 8 Crested Butte athletes would show up to scrounge for food, but it all worked out well enough. The main goal of our 8 days spent in West Yellowstone was time on skis, and of that we got plenty. Over 20hrs of training, plus up to 3 races and still no one wanted to go to bed early by the end of the week. I’m not sure where all the energy came from, but heck, it was contagious!

From the coaching aspect, our team more than accomplished their goals.

Ski Related Goal:

1. Lots of volume training

2. Technique work, especially in classic

3. Intervals to get used to absolutely flying over snow

4. And racing. That’s what we do.

General Goals

1. DNSC Team bonding

2. Learning all the words to “Big Green Tractor”

3. Official forming of South West Colorado Nordic Alliance

The skiing goals were easy. “We are here to ski, that’s what we are going to do” was a quote often heard within our cabin. The level of commitment to the “plan” often amazes me. Of course it didn’t hurt that we had totally amazing ski conditions for the whole week of our trip. Every practice we were able to walk right out the door of our condo, put on our skis and ski down the middle of the road for about 5 minutes to the main trail head of the Rendezvous Trail System. From that trail head we had over 30km of groomed and classic tracked ski trails at our disposal. It’s great to have that type of terrain to choose from when doing a 3 hour distance ski.

Outside of all the distance training, we were also able to mix in some racing. The SuperTour series was in town so West Yellowstone was host to a Classic Sprint Qualifier, 10/15k Skate, and 5/10k Classic. These races were a great opportunity for athletes on our team to go head to head with some of the best skiers in the country, both juniors and seniors. The US Ski team was in attendance, as were many professional and college ski teams. There were also many junior teams from within our region there for training and racing. Early season races are always good because it reminds us all (yes, coaches too) what it’s all about. Over the summer we forget how to wax skis and ski fast, so this series was a great “wake up call” for all of us. Race #1, classic sprint: after waxing late into the night, I woke up early to head to the race venue to test kick wax. After getting everything all set up, it finally dawned on me why I was feeling that I was forgetting something. Yep, left all my test skis back at the wax room. Very smooth. From the racers point of view, everything was great! Alicia, Hannah, Gino, Sepp, and Haakon all raced their first 10km, and all of our healthy/non-injured athletes were able to race at least one. Success.


I’m not saying it was all smooth sailing. We had a clothes fire (no, you should not dry ski clothes over a lamp), couch fires (heat guns are hot, even after you turn them off), and an overflowing dishwasher (dish soap and dishwasher detergent are two different things). Lucky for us, with all the parents cooking food and bringing it over at dinner time, there were no kitchen fires.

More to come….


Monday, November 16, 2009

Winter is almost here! And the team leaves for west yellowstone in 5 days!!! yeah!
Last weekend Molas pass was hit with about 18" of snow and it was incredible. Can't wait for snow in town.

Durango Nordic has had an excellent fall of training and preperation. Watch out! We have had great weather and as usual great training opportunities. From the TT's to the "epic" hikes everyone has put in a great effort.... let's see where it takes everyone this winter.

Make sure to check the website - durangonordic.org for results on our tt's from this fall.



As well as all the training we have helped out with building a couple new trails at the Nordic Center. One is north of Boyce lake, and the other is north of North Loop. It will be great to have some extra terrain to ski.



Well hopefully you here from us in West Yellowstone!!! Everyone cannot wait!

Think Snow!


Saturday, September 5, 2009

Mtn Bike Worlds Race Recap from Tad Elliott

I was riding well I started dead last out of 70 riders and moved up ok. 48th on the first lap. I moved up to a group of 30th through 25th. Felt strong my 4th and 5th lap. My times on those laps were 19th and 18th fastest laps. It was hard having dudes bobble in front of you and get gaped off the pack. I cracked hard with half a lap to go only 10 minutes to go and I went from 30th to 36th. Just spent to many matches during the race. If only I could have better UCI points and gotten a better call up at the start. Damn.

Went on a ride today saw a blue and red Parrot saw a Kangaroo jump a fence and petted a mini horse on the bike path all in ten minutes. Pretty cool. Eating a Steak dinner tonight at the hotel. Kangaroo steak that is. Should be cool. The Ausies hate the meat here for some reason. I watched all the four cross last night and that was really cool.

Also, Todd Wells was 8th. Congrats to both Tad and Todd.

Friday, September 4, 2009

More from Tad Elliott at World Championships


Things here are looking good. I broke my race shoes, went to my back up pair and then was able to repair my favorite race shoes. My knee is sore from the new position on the shoes but Bernard is here on will dial me in for the race. For the hammer head section on the course. I am going around the easier safier way which may be two seconds slower. Also going around is US National Champ, Jeremy Hogan-Kobelski, Colin Cares, World Cup leader Wolfram, and the Junior Women are riding it. Sketchy! Rob Squires crashed super hard there today and hurt himself. He is OK to race but he is sore. Man, still no Kangaroo sightings. I Saw a mini horse but no Kangaroos. I guess I repel them. Todd Wells is staying at our hotel. So is Bury Stander, and Christof Sauser. Pretty cool to see them eating breakfast with us each morning. The Ausie people are super nice. They have been helping us out a lot. Also they come over and talk to us about our bikes and travel and America. It's pretty rad. When I talk, people instantly know where I am from. I am resting up well and hope things will go OK. I start at the back so hopefully I can move up well. Weather should be good and cold. temperature will be around 60 degrees. Should be nice for racing.

you can go to cyclingnews.com to check out photos from the race course they are pretty rad.




Tuesday, September 1, 2009

World Championships for Mountain Biking

Tad Elliott is at the World Championships for Mountain Biking on the USA Team racing in the U23 class in Canberra, Australia. Tad is a product of the Durango Nordic Ski Club, Rocky Mountain Nordic and the Durango DEVO Club. He left last Friday and I believe he will race this Friday or Saturday. Canberra is 14 hours ahead of Colorado. Todd Wells from Durango is also there. Here is a little blurb from his trip so far:


Flight went well, economy plus on the isle with no one next to me. I slept for 7:30 hours straight no sleeping pill. Woke up ate some food then took another 1:30 nap. I had so much food I did not even eat the airplane food. Very Nice. Course is good with a lot of single track and tons of option lines with jumps over ditches, drops, and fun stuff. It is a lot like Colorado trails. I hope to do well. Colin Cares and I are roommates. Hotel room is so swank. Two bedrooms, living room, kitchen, big flat screen TV, movie channels, two bathrooms and showers, plus our own laundry. So nice. Food set up is rad. Walk downstairs and there is 4 star restaurant preparing our meals. We see tons of Cockatiels and Parrots flying around, Kangaroo dead on the side of the road, I have not seen a live one yet but I hope to soon. It is very cold and windy here. Thermal stuff like spring in Colorado. Talk to you more when there is something cool to report.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

New Race Suit, Take 3 (final round)

Hey Skiers. Final round of voting on the new suit design. Here are the top three choices:



Option#1




Option #2



Option #3

Email your votes to joshdalley@gmail.com




Friday, July 24, 2009

New Race Suit Take 2!


Ok, so I've gotten a few more suggestions from skiers and parents. I think the best way to do this is to post all the designs on the blog (below) and everyone email me what design you think is best. I'll tally the replys and we'll see where that goes. So, vote away!



#1 (above)


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


#7

Monday, July 13, 2009

New Race Suit??


I wanted to post this on the blog for all your to check out. Below is a standard design ski suit made by Podium Wear. Like it? Let me know. Don't care for it? Design your own on their website (http://mtborahcustom.com/index.asp?pageID=customdesign&Product=NordicSkiing) and send me the result.


Saturday, June 27, 2009

Finishing up at REG

We’re wrapping things up here in Park City. Today was the last day of official training for the REG and as far as things go, it was pretty epic. Today’s workout started out with a classic roller ski up Emigration Canyon, about five miles of climbing to the summit. At the top everyone changed into running shoes for a 2hr high ridge run down to Parleys Summit. I think the kids managed to find every bit of mud along the way!

Leading up to this morning Over Distance workout, we took yesterday pretty easy, starting off with an explosive bounding workout. The REG kids were joined by some USST members. Check out the pictures of Noah, Rogan, and Alicia killing it below.


Thursday was cool, with some early morning skate roller skiing back at SoHo for a distance workout and some video and technique sessions.



BUT, I think Wednesday was the most fun. Hands down. That morning was Agony TT, which is a hill climb just outside of SLC. The trail climbs 1327ft over 1.08 miles (credit GPS watch). Anyway you look at it, the climb was a leg burner! After Agony, all the fun begun. We bussed it down to Raging Waters Water Park for some fun in the sun. The highlight was ‘King on the Tube’, where if you didn’t nearly drown or get kicked in the face, you weren’t trying hard enough. Three days later and I’m still sore…

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Update from REG

REG is off to a great start here in Park City. REG is a weeklong training camp for elite junior skiers from the western region. After a recovery run and team meeting on Sunday afternoon/evening, the training really got underway yesterday morning with level three skate roller ski intervals at Soldier Hollow. As always, the main focus is on body position: mainly achieving the correct hip position and proper ankle flex. Doing level three intervals gives everyone a chance to focus on their race technique in addition to getting in a great aerobic workout. After completing the intervals on the access road to the ski center, we headed out to the trails for our cool down. Wow is it great to have paved (and swept) ski trails at our disposal.The workout was a huge success and we coaches even got a chance to grab some video footage to review later this week. Day one was finished off with an easy recovery trail run along some rolling trails with views of the Olympic Jumps and Bobsled track.



Today was day two and we again woke up to blue bird skies and headed out for a classic roller ski on the Mirror Lake Highway. My van was rocking out to Queen and Rod Stewart on the drive out to the start of the ski. Today’s focus was on double poling, as the road was mostly flat or gradual uphill. USST coach Pat Casey came by last night to show some video and demonstrate exactly what we were to focus on during today’s ski. The answer: body position. We were to focus on bringing the hips and hands forward together, getting the hands up high in front of our face, then exploding down with a hard crunch (punishing the pavement)! The ski session ended at the base of a waterfall, but no kayakers today. This afternoon we are heading down to do strength at USSA’s Center of Excellence.

The big excitement is about tomorrow. Early in the morning is Agony Hill Climb, followed immediately by a trip to a water park. Look for some more updates to come!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Tad Elliott on Houffalize World Cup Race

Houffalize was awesome for me. The town is so sick. It is really small with stone buildings cobble stone streets. We stayed in a small hotel 10k away from the venue. I got my own room because I snore and keep everyone else up. I am not complaining. The elderly Belgium couple cooked all of the meals for us, and it was to order, so we ate well. The course was rad, we started right in town and went up a road climb and then jumped onto the course. The road climb is in Leige Bastone Leige and is 14 percent and about 3 minutes long. There was still paint on the road cheering on Frank and Andy Schlek. The course was long at about 25 minutes per lap with some longer climbs, technical rocky single track climbs, and steep rough descents. I liked it, and hoped it was a chance for me to make it all the way through the race without being lapped. My start number was 107, but the UCI implemented an "Insert rule" where they could insert riders they deemed fit to start higher up in the call up. I was one of these riders. I was called up 68th out of 230 riders. Before Jeremy Horgan Kebelski. No rhyme or reason just the UCI thought I could do well or something. I didn't ask too many questions. The start climb was again CRAZY. I was staying in position and even started to move up a bit. I even caught up to Sam Schultz. Then I had some Euro take me out. I was riding strong and I was around top 80 going into fourth lap and in the middle of the fourth out of five laps I started to go under. The fifth lap I went under major. Both quads, calves, triceps, and forearms started to cramp. I took in a lot of fluids, but I approached the race as a four lap race and wanted to be able to finish and not get lapped, I accomplished this goal, but only if I could have held on. I ended up 114. I raced the whole time, never tried to recover, and was always looking for speed, until 20 minutes to go. I ended up being the second American in the race. JHK crashed out Todd did not start; Sam Shutlz had a rough day. I passed him on lap three. So I was riding really strong which feels good over here.





There were 30,000 fans. All crazy about cycling and you can hear them roar all around the course when the leaders come through. When I came by it was pretty silent. Some fans love the US and I got some good cheers. On the last lap I was hurting up the climbs and I think they could tell, so the cheers picked up and were pretty loud. In lap 2 and 3 I was riding with the U23 world cyclocross champion and 2nd place finisher in Cyclocross Worlds last year from Netherlands. Holy cow were the fans going crazy when he came by. In the lap we rode through town and it was hard to breath with all the grill smoke, cigarette smoke. The weather during the race was different. The warm up was cold. The race started cold, then it rained, then it got really hot and sunny. Europe Weather?


Rob, Was 146. He blew his rear shock in the race, flatted, messed up his shifting somehow and he got pulled with one lap to go. In the pre-ride Ethan Gilmore’s tire was defective and rolled off the rim. He crashed hard, which swung his bars around sending his stem into his top tube on the carbon frame. The stem hit the frame so hard it broke. Ethan was ok but his bike was done. He ended up having to ride Marc G's Large epic instead of a medium frame. He had a hard day and got pulled with two to go. Adam Craig learned that Ethan needed a new bike and offered Ethan either one of his race bikes. Hard Tail or Full suspension. His quote "Choose your poison." That is crazy nice of Adam. Ethan stayed on Specialized to not get Marc in trouble with sponsors, even though Adams bikes would have fit him better. That is all from here.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

2009 Junior Nationals



After two days of travelling, covering enough miles officially classify this trip as a ‘road trip’, we (CB and Durango) pulled into the parking lot of our home for the week, the Boreal Inn.  Shortly after arriving, we got out for a short run in order to stretch our legs and get a lay of the land. The location of the hotel is perfect.  While all the other divisions have to stay down the pass in Truckee, the RMN skiers and coaches are housed right at the race site.  This will infinitely simplify the logistics for the week.  The stadium for the 2009 Junior Nationals is only located a short 500 meters from our hotel front door, with the base lodge of Boreal Ridge (where we eat our meals) half way in between.  Shortly after we settled in to our rooms, the remainder of the RMN skiers arrived from the Sacramento airport, marking the official start of Junior Nationals for the complete RMN team.  Game time.


 

Saturday and Sunday we broke up into age groups and previewed the race courses, talked some strategy, and prepared for Monday’s sprint races. Oh yeah, and we marveled at how much snow is on the ground out here!

 


On the morning of the sprint, the RMN skiers were ready to lay down some speed.  Everyone was focused on the job at hand and they ripped it up!  We qualified 17 skiers for the heats and ended up with multiple top 10 finishes.  Lars, Gino, and Alicia were the 3 skiers from Durango to move on into the rounds.  Be sure to check out the full results on http://www.durangonordic.org/Results/results.htm. 

 



Today was another training day and once again we broke into age groups and previewed the distance skate course one last time before tomorrow’s mass start race.  The 5k loop that the J2 boys and all girls will be skiing is a tough course without a lot of rest.  The climbs are short and steep, but typically followed by a log gradual uphill grind.  This is where we are going to ski fast.  There are no long downs that those lower elevation dwellers can catch their breath on, so our plan is to make them suffer: to push the pace on the transitions to eliminate any chance for the group to rest. 

 

Tomorrow is going to be a good day for RMN skiers, I can feel it in the thin air….

 

 

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Succes at SoHo!



January 30th and 31st - Western JN Super Qualifier, Soldier Hollow Utah.

A great weekend for Durango Nordic! 28 skiers represented.

Notable results:

Stephanie Ogier - 1st place J3 female (3km freestyle)
Hannah Madden - 5th place J2 female (both days)
Rogan Brown - 6th overall 1st J1 male (15km freestyle)
Charlie Greenburg - 1st and 2nd overall J4 male
Mallory Byrd - 2nd J4 female
Hakkon Sigurslid - 2nd and 3rd overall J3 male

These are just a few of the great results Durango had!
For full results and more photos go to www.durangonordic.org



Thanks so much to the Coaches and Parents of DNSC!
We had great skis, plus they kept everything well organized, and us ready to race.




Dense fog and cool temps in the morning broke away to beautiful sunshine in the afternoon.








Soldier Hollow put on a great race weekend. Excellent timing, grooming, and organization make this race one we can't wait to go back to next year!

Thanks to Jeanne Pastore for the great pictures -