Nordic Success in Vail

This past weekend the Durango Nordic Ski Club, and youth cross country ski club, travelled to Minturn, CO to compete in the first Junior National Qualifier of the winter season.  “Our Team showed our true colors this weekend, racing with the heart they show every day at practice” said head coach Josh Dalley.

On Saturday Ski and Snowboard Club Vail hosted a kilometer classic technique race.  The Men’s race was won by DNSC alumni Tad Elliott followed by another alumni Lars Ellefson in 6^th place.  Leading the way  for DNSC in the Junior Men’s race (ages 16-19) was Gino Pastore in 4^th place, followed by Sepp Kuss in 10^th, Haakon Samuelson in 13^th, Gunter Ott in 15^th, and Ben Capelin in 22^nd.  The Junior Women’s race was lead by DNSC skier Alicia Pastore in 2^nd place, followed by Elena Breed (DNSC Alumni) in 6^th, Rachel Hampton in 10^th, and Hannah Madden in 15^th.  In the J2 Men age group (14-15), the race was won by DNSC member Cully Brown.  Following Brown were Haakon Sigurslid in 3^rd, Levi Kurlander in 19^th, John Rhoades in 23^rd, Gordon Gianniny in 24^th, and Abe Ott in 26^th.  In the girls J2 age group, Durango was lead by Amy Katz in 5^th place, Lily Oswald in 8^th, Kaylee Blevins in 9^th, Hannah Peterson in 14^th, and Emma Greenberg in 20^th.  DNSC had two J3 boys, Charlie Greenberg skied to a 2^nd place finish and Jared Webster placed 17^th.  Stan Ott placed 8^th in the J4 Male age class.

The excitement continued on Sunday, as the racers went head to head around a 1km loop in an elimination sprint race.  The top 3 skiers in each heat moved on to the next round, until the finals.  In the J4 Boys, Stan Ott placed 9^th.  Charlie Greenberg sprinted to the line to claim 2^nd place in the J3 Boys, followed by Jared Webster in 14^th.  Amy Katz skied to 6^th place finish in the final of J2 girls, followed by Kaylee Blevins in 7^th, Hannah Peterson in 10^th, Lily Oswald in 13^th, and Emma Greenberg in 19^th.  In the J2 boys, DNSC skiers Cully Brown and Haakon Sigurslid sprinted to the line in the final, respectively placing 1^st and 2^nd.  They were followed by Levi Kurlander in 22^nd, John Rhoades in 24^th, Abe Ott in 27^th, and Gordon Gianniny in 30^th.  In the women’s race, ages 16 and up, Alicia Pastore lead DNSC in 5^th place, followed by Rachel Hampton in 6^th, Hannah Madden in 12^th, and DNSC Alumni Elena Breed in 13^th.  In the Men’s race, ages 16 and older, DNSC Alumni Tad Elliott lead the way in 4^th, followed closely by Haakon Sameulson in 6^th.  Lars Ellefson, a DNSC Alumni placed 8^th, Gino Pastore was 13^th, Sepp Kuss was 15^th, Ben Capelin placed 26^th, and Gunter Ott placed 27^th.

Full results can be found on www.fourcornerstiming.com or www.durangonordic.org.

Durango Nordic Skiers Shine

After subzero temperatures and whipping snow blizzards, the Durango Nordic Ski Team returned home from training and racing in West Yellowstone during Thanksgiving vacation.  They appreciated more snow with warmer temperatures for the first week of on snow training at the Durango Nordic Center.  Just five days later, the team repacked and traveled to Frisco, for the season’s first NRL (National Ranking List) race.   

The Gold Run Nordic Center welcomed a large field of club, collegiate and citizen Nordic racers to marginal snow and 40 degrees. Five and ten kilometer skate technique events began Saturday morning with J2 and older women (ages 14 to 30 ).  J1 skiers AliciaRose Pastore placed 4^th and Hannah Madden followed in 11^th place.  Amy Katz placed 3^rd in the J2 women’s class, with Hannah Peterson 9^th, Kaylee Blevins 10^th, Lily Oswald 13^th and Emma Greenberg finishing in 17^th place.

J1 and older men skied the same course but twice for a 10 kilometer race.  J1 skiers Gino Pastore crossed the finish line in 2^nd place, and Sepp Kuss in 6^th place.  Haakon Samuleson placed 4^th in the men’s OJ field.  Durango Nordic Ski Club alumni Tad Elliott and Lars Ellefson finished 2^nd and 21^st, respectively, among senior men.  Cully Brown lead DNSC in 2^nd place followed by teammate Haakon Sigurslid in 4th.  J3 skier Charlie Greenberg earned gold for the team winning his 3k skate race.

Sunday’s 10K classic technique events started with J1 men.  Gino Pastore placed 3^rd and Sepp Kuss 8^th.   Haakon Samuleson finished 3^rd in the men’s OJ class.  Tad Elliott and Lars Ellefson crossed the finished 11^th and 12^th, respectively.  AliciaRose Pastore placed 6^th in the J1 women’s field and Hannah Madden 14^th.  J2 boys Cully Brown and Haakon Sigurslid swept the 5k course with Brown 1^st and Sigurslid 2^nd.  J2 girls Amy Katz finished 6^th, followed closely by Kaylee Blevins 7^th.  Teammates Hannah Peterson placed 12, Lily Oswald 13th and Emma Greenberg 17^th.  Charlie Greenberg skied the 3K course placing 3^rd in the J3 boy’s class.

The team’s next race will be this Saturday, December 11^th at 9:00am at the Durango Nordic Center.  The classic technique races will offer 1k, 3k, 5k and 10k distances for all interested skiers.  Race entries can be paid at the Nordic Center between 8am and 9am on Saturday.  They hope to see lots of locals come race and join the fun.

Welcome to West Snowystone

Noting like heading into a ski camp worried about the amount of snow, and then in the first few days have 2 or 3 feet of snow dump on the town.  It's awesome.  And that is exactly the case here in West Yellowstone this year. The first 4 days of our trip have been a white out blizzard here in town, with the strong winds and blowing snow just adding to it.  The roads in and out of town are blocked by 8ft snow drifts since Monday and have just opened this afternoon (Wednesday).  If this all sounds crazy, it is.  But the best news of all of this, the skiing here is amazing!  All this snow has packed down on the trails and everything is open, including all the roads  :)

So, for all purposes of a training camp, we couldn't really ask for better conditions.  We've been getting in huge hours each day, and the races that were supposed to start today will now start tomorrow.  They were postponed due to cold temps and the race timer is one of the many people who have been stuck in Idaho Falls just waiting for the roads to open again.  I can't wait for the racing.  Our team is ready.  Everyone is skiing really well and training serious.

Here are some pics from this week so far.

How Nordic Has Helped Me - Howard Grotts

          Nordic skiing is easily one of the hardest sports. The mental and physical strength required for the sport is enormous. I learned that shortly after joining the DNSC, even before there was snow on the ground. Coming from an athletic background almost entirely composed of cycling, Nordic skiing seemed very alien to me (I mean, who puts ski boots and roller skis in 80 degree weather?). I wasn't used to the precision or the intensity of the training involved.  But now I couldn't imagine not having different intensity training periods or skill specific workouts. I've found it very easy to apply the concepts I learned from Nordic skiing practices to biking. These concepts included having easy and harder weeks of training, technique specific days, and interval workouts.

            While all members of the DNSC were very fun people to be around, it was also my first introduction to young athletes who were truly dedicated to their sport. This was exemplified by the seriousness with which they approached their training and the amount of time they devoted to it. I was inspired by their drive to improve, and perhaps more than a little bit humbled when kids 3 or more years younger than I am were beating me. It was hard for me to embrace the sport at first, despite being around people who loved it, and, even now, I very much prefer biking to Nordic. But I have come to appreciate it, if only for the inspiration it gave me to bike at a brand new level.

Howard placed 2nd at US MTB Nationals in the Cross Country (XC) event and was crowned National Champion in the Short Track Cross Country (STXC) event.

Weekend Adventures

This weekend a few of us on the team took some long adventures up in the mountains.  Saturday was a bit more eventful with some thunder storm dodging and bumming rides, but nothing can compare to the beauty of Sunday's Island Lake/Ice Lake loop.  A few select pics are listed below and you can see them all in the Photo Gallery on our website.

Meadow view from Engineer Saddle on Saturday

More Meadow

Emma and Charlie on Engineer Trail

Thunder Storms rolling in...

Team 'Sweaty Goosebumps' on our way to Island Lake

Island Lake.  Gorgeous! 

Cutting across the ridge between Island and Ice Lakes

Maybe the best view ever

Ice Lake from a distance

Ice Lakes up close and personal

The Sunday crew

Wildflowers were 'wild'

And the waterfalls were raging

We descended like champs

And crossed streams like Olympians  

And ate ice cream like the kids that we are....

REG (part 2)

We headed out into the Wasatch National Forest for a double pole roller ski on Mirror Lake Scenic Byway.  This is one of my favorite workouts from Park City as the road has nice pavement and very little traffic.  It slowly climbs at a steady grade out of the town of Kamas and goes deep into the Wasatch towards Mirror Lake.  Along the way there are spectacular views of mountains, wild flower fields, rivers, a 6 mile long underground irrigation tunnel (longest man made water cave, I think), waterfalls, and Mirror Lake (which we didn’t get to see).  From the coaches, the emphasis for this workout was on ‘high hands’ and ‘explosive power’.  But to get to this point, we were also having the athletes work on their forward swing through of the arms and keeping their hands and hips moving together.

Thursday was the big test of the week, but first, Agony Hill TT.  Agony is about 1.2 miles long with 1,200 feet of climbing.  The start is down in Salt Lake, right behind a medical center.  The rest of the trail is obvious.  If you are not going straight uphill, you made a wrong turn.  The closest thing that we do (that I can think of) is Telegraph TT.  Now imagine Telegraph, but replace the field running with more steep uphill.  That would be about right.  Here are the results:

Boys

Russell Kennedy 15:55
Will Wicherski 15:56
Erik Fagerstrom 15:57
Rogan Brown 16:24
Conor Wallace 16:39
Max Christman 16:39
Austin Meng 16:39
Mike Vigers 16:44
Akeo Maifeld-Carucci 16:57
Tanner Weigand 17:35
Sean Woods 17:37
Ben Westesen 17:41
Johnny Springer 17:42
Henry Austin 17:51
Danny Sundali 17:54
Casey Smith 19:18
Jack Steele 19:35
Alex Hamilton 19:54

Girls

Annie Pokorny 19:34
Jessica Jortberg 19:38
AliciaRose Pastore 20:33
Elena Breed 21:17
Stella Holt 21:21
Katie Gill 21:25
Mikaela Frias 21:47
Anne Miller 22:37
Haley Piske 22:50
Emily Williams 23:09
Kara Baldwin 24:12
Emma Donohoe 24:51

Like I said, now comes the true test of the week.  Who can make it up the ‘hump’ on the waterslide at Raging Waters.  After Agony Hill Climb TT, we piled into the hot vans for a short trip to the water park.  Thursday was the hottest day of the week, with temps reaching into the 90’s, so the water park visit could not have come at a better time.  Right away, anyone who knew anything headed straight for the two big slides in the back, one of which is the ‘hump’.  The slide goes down a steep drop and then climbs back up high, over a hump, then down another steep before dumping you out into a pool at high speeds.  It’s a true test of your waterslide ability because if you are too scared of the big drop at the beginning, you’ll never make it over the ‘hump’, thus forcing you into the walk of shame (exiting the waterslide half way down and having to walk down the stairs the rest of the way to return your slide mat).  If my description doesn’t give you the image yet, I think the slide has less than 50% success rate.  As we stood in lime, the best thing we could do was make bets on who was going over and who wasn’t.  Turns out there is no real science to it.

Friday we were let into the USSA Center of Excellence (COE) for the Canadian style strength test.  In order to not overwhelm the Olympic athletes training in the COE (and the COE staff) the group was broken up by gender.  The girls went to the COE in the morning, ripped out a bunch of pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, box jumps, and dips.  We got a chance to chat with John Farra and Simi Hamilton as they were walking around the floor.  My conclusion of the strength: I think there is a lot of room for improvement, but we are not training world champion sit-up-ers (did I just make up that word??), we are training skiers.  So far there is no proven research that shows that winning the sit-ups will make you the fastest skier, BUT strength does play a large role in what we do on snow. 

Saturday was the big Over Distance (OD) workout.  It started with a 1:20 classic roller ski again in the Wasatch National Forest.  This time we climbed up route 65 (east canyon?) to the top of the pass.  With gorgeous views, we switched from ski boots to running shoes and took off on a long trail run that would eventually take up back down close to Park City.  I was running at the front of the pack, helping to ensure that no one made a wrong turn.  Ummm…yeah….I should have had a map.  Myself and 3 other boys ended up running the wrong ridge and heading towards the wrong phone towers.  10 miles later we were finally convinced that we made a wrong turn, spotted a golf course, made a pick up phone call, and took a straight line for the parking lot.  That was cool!

Overall, another awesome REG camp.  Hope you all enjoyed the recap.

Western REG (part 1)

This past week Alicia, Elena, Rogan and I travelled up to Park City for the Western Regional Elite Group (REG) training camp.  We were again set up in condos at the base of The Canyons Resort, which I learned was one of the three largest ski resorts in the country.  It doesn’t look like much from the base, but as we started running up the mountain for training the first afternoon, once you get over the first ridge the ski trails and peaks of the resort seem endless.  So does the winding, climbing single track.  The trails were awesome running, but I bet it would also be sweet mountain biking.  Just ask Alicia about that.

The second day was when the real training started.  We all piled into vans and headed to Soldier Hollow for some roller skiing.  If you think those trails are awesome in the winter, try flying down the hills and around corners on roller skis.  True, the paved trail aren’t quite the same super fast and crazy down hills that are on the Olympic race course, but when you are buzzing along on narrow strips of pavement, it seems fast enough.  And if you ever do get there in the summer to check it out, I have a word of advice.  Follow the DO NOT ENTER signs.  Myself and two other coaches went early to scope out a good loop that would be safe for the kids to ski, but we inadvertently skied past a do not enter sign and quickly found ourselves hurtling down a twisty hill like an out of control missile.  And then we exploded.  All three of us, ending up with matching missing patches of skin on our hips and elbows. 

When the real athletes showed up and showed us how to ski.  We did a 2 hr skate roller ski workout with some speeds and video technique work.  With all the chaos of packing 30 skiers plus coaches onto the trails, doing speeds, and skiing on some rocky roads, there was not a single fall or use of a med kit.  Good job guys!  For the workout we broke down into smaller groups that we would use later in the week to look at the video and discussion about technique.

The afternoon was a pole bounding intensity workout.  This was a combination of short fast intervals (15 sec) with a lot of recovery between each one (2 min).  On these types of workouts, the rest is important to be sure that our muscles are firing at the top end for each interval.  After the explosive stuff, the workout continued with longer (2-3 min) threshold intervals.

Each day we got to wind down with a nice meal from chef Doug and a team meeting to discuss schedule or hear talks from the USST nutritionist or USST member Andy Newell.  I’ll post later this week with more from the REG camp.

Happy training!

Finding our Stride

I’ve mentioned this a few times already, but it is worth mentioning again.  It is really important to take some time in the summer and really break down to the basics.  We’ve been doing that over the last couple of weeks, starting with a lot of no pole technique work and also some ski walking technique.  It all comes from the core (yeah, that’s why it’s called the core).  Our core marks our body’s center of mass, so all of our stability is driven from a strong and centered core.  If you want to go faster, just move your center of gravity further forward.  Duh! 

I guess it’s easily said, but what’s going to stop us from falling on our face?  Well, on roller skis, not much!  Hopefully, our strong core keeps us balanced in the upper body and the lean come from the ankles.  Once we get the position, our skis should accelerate on their own and keep up with our falling body.  Again, this is what we are striving for.

Same deal when we are ski walking.  Or running.  Yeah, running is what really got me on this mindset.  I’ve been reading a bit about Chi Running in order to help me prepare form Leadville, but the more I read about it, the more I think it relates to skiing.  Almost all the key points of Chi Running can be (and usually are) applied to Nordic.  Relaxed Shoulders, Stable Core, Forward Lean, Ankle Flexion.  Sound familiar?  I hope so. 

Whoa!  Enough about running.  Here were the top 5 things learned this week:

1. Roller Ski silhouette pictures look awesome 
2. Don’t roller ski by Bar-D on Tuesday afternoons
3. Ski walking feels as weird as my hair
4. Every roller ski is the ‘best roller ski ever’ when talking to those who were not there
5. 4:30pm IS the hottest time of the day

Euro Mountain Bike Trip

We are in Champerey and it is unreal!  We are surrounded by super beautiful and tall mountains. 
It is unreal!! Gino raced today and the rest of us race tomorrow. The course is ridiculous!! Yesterday preriding there were 4 huge crashes in the first 10 minutes. One girl broke her helmet, it sounded like a car crash. I did a huge endo and landed on my head and scraped up my new glasses and my face!! :( Thankfully it was soft ground though because I left a huge head plant which probably saved my helmet. (we have a good pic of it) my neck and back are super sore and stiff, not good. 

The experience is really cool because the Rabobank team is staying right next to us. We have kinda made friends with them, haha.  It is impossible to explain it here. There is a creek right by us and we went there yesterday. The water is super clear and awesome. Today I also bought about 2 pounds of chocolate (!!!!) so get ready. Haha.  The above pic is from our ride today.

Alicia

Burgers and Birthdays! Episode 3

The title just about says it all.  Well, I guess it described what was happening outside of training…on one night.  This past Monday a few of us got together to celebrate a certain someone named Hannah’s birthday!  It was cool.  Now about the stuff that really matters…. (just kidding!  Birthdays matter too!)

Our training this week looked a lot like it did the week before, but better.  Tuesday we were back on the bike path cruising through town on our roller skis, taking a water break to watch Cully shred some river in his kayak.  No tragic crashes or broken hands this week, which is pretty rare on the bike path.  Maybe someday all those sketchy sections will be fixed (with pavement please!!).  Our main focus was on ankle bend and keeping our weight forward over the ball of our foot, but once it started raining on the way back, a little of that focus went to speed!

Wednesday we just “jumped” around from place to place, speed hiking with heavy med balls, big jumps on steep hills, ball throw relay TTs (I’d say races, but we were really just racing against ourselves), and of course….parkour (the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment). 

Saturday was a steamy one.  It finally started to feel like summer again, especially the heat.  We hit the pavement for a technique focused session, shooting some great video and getting time to analyze it right away.  I look forward to more of these workouts over the next few weeks until we really start to get out technique dialed in.  Maybe a little less shirt stealing next time.  Maybe….

So, you think you can Jump?!?, Episode 2

Wow, what an interesting week. But super fun. Us Nordic-ers started the week off on a rough…errr…path. Yeah, the bike path. Initially I was nervous, as I was one some super fast and sketchy roller skis as Haakon borrowed mine. But, things started off going pretty well, with a short lived race against some DEVO riders as they cruised by. We took some time at the end of the path to talk about positioning in more depth and check out a groovy new patio. The trip back proved to be a little more interesting with a crash or 3. I seriously though Lily was going to lose a tooth.

Wednesday I decided to try out a new workout that I’ve been thinking about. The goal is to help us increase our explosive strength, leading to better sprinting as well as use of power during distance races. The workout involved steep hills, a lot of jumping, med ball double pole races, sprinting, and tons of fun.

This weekend was an incredible one to be in Durango for. Beyond the roller ski video session, and the fabulous weather, it was also Taste of Durango and dance performances from many current DNSC members. Kaylee, Lily, Mattie, and Maggie along with many other dancers from Durango put on a wicked cool show on Saturday night. For me it was cool to see those guys in a different context, having fun, and putting on a great show!

Here’s looking forward to next week and remember…just two more weeks of school!!