Marine on St. Croix, MN Training Camp

School is out for summer and the entire 2010/11 CXC Team is together for the first time.  We have a big crew this year with 18 athletes on the roster.  Unfortunatly the marathon team athletes are not at training camp a solid group of 10 athletes and 3 coaches have been pushing each other and having fun this week.

Morning Exercises

Everything is very green here in Marine on St. Croix, MN.  We have had a bit of rain everyday.  Some might complain about this, but it is just fine with me because it keeps the temperatures mild.

lots of kilometers this week

Volume has been a big theme for me this year.  I am keeping many things similar to last year, but increasing the volume when I am fresh and feeling good.  There are plenty of nice roads and variety around town to keep me entertained.

St. Croix Falls OD 3.75hr

Finally a perfect day

Spring in Washington has been surprisingly rainy and wet.  On Saturday the weather finally broke and we had a beautiful spring day.  One of my favorite workouts is to roller ski up Washington Pass.  We had a good group, Me, Chad, Mom, Dad, Mac, Mark and Margaret.

Dad setting the pace

Chad, my favorite all-time training partner

Rollerskiing?

Our June CXC Camp starts today in Marine on St. Croix, MN.  The weather is beautiful and I am ready

Lactate Minimum Testing with Mom

Heart Rate 135, 140, 145, 150, 155, 165, 170, 175

Mom testing my blood lactate

Margaret is helping me with some training zone definitions through blood lactate testing.  Thanks Margaret for loaning me the equipment and thanks Mom for running the test.  I ran two 30 second intervals, took a lactate bath for 7 minutes and then ran 5 minutes at a steady heart rate.  Values looked good with lactates staying below 2.3 until 170 heart rate.

Track intervals were extra fun this week because I was coached, taped, and tested by my Mom.  Plus, I had new orthodics from Andrew, lactate testing equipment from Margaret,  and new shoes from Rita.  It is fantastic to be part of such a strong community.  Thanks!

Final Ski race of the year… Ski to Sea 7.5km

Chad and Hons battling to the finish line (timing cards in hand) Photo: Bellingham Herald

Mom and Dad Camping Out the night before the big race

I like to camp

Warm Temperatures but plenty of snow at Mt. Baker. Fun Fact: Mt. Baker holds the record for the most snow fall in a season 1,140 inches (1999)

Mom and Chad post race

How sweet is it to have a ski race in May?  Each year the Ski to Sea multi-sport relay race kicks off with a xc ski race on Memorial Day Weekend Sunday.  This year was one of the most competitive fields ever.  Ivan Babikov made the trip and he is one of the best climbers in the world (plus he was 5th at the Olympics)

A blast of dynamite starts the 450+ cross country skiers.  A pack of 10-15 elite skiers formed pretty quickly at the front of the race.  I started off conservatively and let drafting and my skis do most of the work on the downhills.  We began the big climb (9-10 min) and Babikov, Koos and I had a small gap on the field.  About halfway up Koos showed signs of tiring and Ivan started breaking away.  I decided to just go for it and made a surge to bridge the gap.  I haven’t skied near Ivan very much but it was easy to see why he is such a good climber.  He pulled over to let me lead but I didn’t have much interest in that and stayed behind.  After asking me several times to take a pull I reluctantly went to the front.  I wanted to do my fair share of the work, but perhaps this was a mistake.  With about 1km to go Ivan took the lead and a few feet slowly turned into 24 seconds.  Still a great race for me and a good position for my team Sportmans Challet.  I tagged off to my high school friend Sol Woras for the downhill ski.

Me, Martin, Dave, Torin and Kent enjoying a long cool down. Martin (15th Vasaloppet gave us some good double pole tips and advice, thanks!)

Results

Training with MOD in Bend

Eric, Torin, Sam (Team MOD) and Me (CXC) after our final ski in Bend

Smith Rocks Climbing Take 2

Naney

First lead climb in a long time

Great time in Bend. Rest/Travel day and Ski to Sea tomorrow.  Good Times

Smith Rocks

Sam and Erik express their opinions of not being able to climb

We dropped Scott off at the airport yesterday afternoon and decided to take advantage of being so close to Smith Rocks.  A beautiful area that has held a firm place in my memory after my junior coach ‘Flash’ took Sam, Chad, and I here when we were in Bend for J3 Championships back in the day.  Our plan was a nice run and climb, unfortunatly the rain and lightning made the trip a run only.  Perhaps we can climb this afternoon.

Brian in the Holmenkollen World Cup

The 50km Holmenkollen  mass start freestyle World Cup is tomorrow in Oslo Norway.  Brian has been looking forward to this event all year and we (his family) are excited to be able to watch the race (via streaming in the US) even though it starts at 3:45 AM Pacific Time.  (Can you say Coca Cola)  In case anyone else is up here is the link for the live video feed:
http://www.fromsport.com/video-199376.html 

Note: since the video is live it can only be viewed between 2 and 5:45am PCT

Results and race updates can also be found at the fis web site:
http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/1228.html?cal_suchsector=CC&event_id=27073

Brian’s first European World Cup

The best skiers in the world are gathered in Norway for the Drammen World Cup Sprint.   This will be Brian’s first European World Cup.  The qualifier will be at 5am PCT with live results at:
Live Results of Drammen World Cup
GO Bri GO! We are all rooting for you back home.