Here's a good summary of Training Zone by SkiPost

Training Zones

Optimal performance is reached by subjecting the body to specific types of stress in order to elicit specific types of adaptations. Using the Lactate Threshold lactate level or heart-rate, as we have done here, is the most precise way to determine training zones.

Recovery
Intensity: Level 1. Easy, 2-3mmol/L below LT; 30-50 bpm below LT.
Duration: 30 mins. - 1.5 hours.
Objective: This zone is used for warm-up and cool-down periods. Training at this intensity will promote recovery following glycogen-depleting workouts or high intensity intervals and maintain cardiovascular and muscular adaptations. The primary goal of recovery is to deliver O2 and CHO (carbohydrates) back to the muscles.

Endurance
Intensity: Level 2. Moderate, 1-2 mmol/L below LT; 10-30 bpm below LT. Level 1. Easy, 2-3 mmol/L below LT; 25-50 bpm below LT.
Duration: 30 mins. - 3 hours.
Objective: A moderate intensity is the optimum zone for improving endurance adaptations. An easy intensity delivers the same benefits, but more slowly. Unlike many athletes in bipedal and less-weight bearing sports, most skiers do most of their endurance training at the easier of these two intensities (around 35 bpm below LT). Training in both of the endurance zones improves the ability to deliver more oxygen to the muscle cell and process more energy from aerobic sources. Specific training adaptations include an increase in the size and number of mitochondria, an increase in myoglobin, increased capillarization, and an increased number of aerobic enzymes. Skiers tend to lower the intensity the longer the session. Over two hours = level 1. Under an hour = level 2.

Lactate Threshold
Intensity: Level 3. Moderately high, below LT by 5 bpm, or above LT by 5 bpm.
Duration:
· Tempo: 15 to 60 minute continuous effort at 5 bpm below LT.
· Interval: 5 to 15 minutes at LT and up to 5 bpm over LT.
Objective: Training at this intensity will raise LT as a percentage of Vo2 max as well as increase Vo2 max.

VO2 Max
Intensity: Level 4. High, 1-2 mmol/L above LT or at a heart rate associated with 95% of Vo2 max.
Duration: 3-5 minute intervals with half-time to equal recovery.
Objective: This is the optimum zone for improving Vo2 max. Training adaptations include an increase in stroke volume, an increase in maximal aerobic capacity and improved lactate buffering capacity - go fast, hurt less = go faster.

Intensive Repetitions
Intensity: Level 5. Very high, 2-6 mmol/L above LT.
Duration: Short: 30-60 seconds with complete recovery.
Long: 1-2 minutes with complete recovery.
Objective: Training at this zone generally only occurs for a few weeks prior to a major competitive event and increases anaerobic capacity and buffering ability.

Speed
Intensity: Depends on amount of rest taken between and number of repetitions.
Duration: Short. 10-20 seconds generally with full recovery.
Objective: Develops technique and use of dynamic, powerful motions.

UW Nordic Coach Christi is named to Leadville - Lake County Sports Hall of Fame!

UW Nordic Coach Christi Boggs is named to Leadville/Lake County Sports Hall of Fame!

• Video of Induction Video (.m4v)
• Scan of newspaper article (pdf)

Acceptance Speech

Wear Your Helmets!

From Fitz:


I promised that if my little brother lived through his wreck that i would do my part to raise awareness about helmets.  I'm glad to report that he made it in relatively good shape.  Without his helmet, he never would have walked out of that ditch.  I want to take this chance to remind everyone to wear their helmets every time no matter what.  Even if you are just going for a ride across town, a rollerski on the greenbelt or a 45 M.P.H. descent down Rogder's Canyon, wear your brain buckets.  Without a helmet, i would no longer have my brother.  Please remember to wear your helmets next time you get on rollerskis or a bike.  Its not a choice, just do it.

With love,
Fitz.

P.S. Aside from some pretty bad road rash and a few cracked ribs my brother will live to see another day.  Please please please wear your helmets

Pre-Workout/Pre-Race Eating

Good, short, easy article on what is good to eat before that tough workout or a race.

http://wyofile.com/2010/07/pre-workout-nutrition/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pre-workout-nutrition

Yet another reason to sleep!

Want To Get Faster, Smarter? Sleep 10 Hours:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127478147

You can add an actual improvement in performance to the long list of reasons to get sleep that we go over in the fall!

Gotta Love Laramie!

We went crust skiing this weekend and it was amazing! Better snow than I have ever seen up there and it was really quite smooth. It looks to be there awhile since the temperatures aren't too warm yet!

Training for Summer online!

The training schedule for the summer, with strength definitions and interval descriptions, is online. Enjoy!

http://www.uwyo.edu/ski/training.htm

If you have any questions or want to customize to fit your job/summer schedule be sure to let us know!

Congratulations!

Congrats to Marie and Cara for being names to the University of Wyoming President's Honor Roll: Resident and to Kyle and Binny for the Non-Resident.

This is a 4.0 grade for the semester. You Rock Our World!

Resident: http://www.uwyo.edu/news/showrelease.asp?id=42661&from=newssend
Non-Resident: http://www.uwyo.edu/news/showrelease.asp?id=42681&from=newssend

Casper Update (we're still workin' on a catchy name)

Well, to start off, we really haven't done much training wise. According to the all powerful Facebook, it sounds like this is the last week for seniors, so something should start cookin' soon.

Weather wise, it is a typically spring in Wyoming. This is one of the reasons I love this state! It does make it a little hard to train outdoors, but we can get into that later on, when the weather gods start decidin' it's time to bake the place. We've had rain/snow since yesterday mornin'. It's nice, wet stuff and the rancher part of me is dancin'. As of now, this is all that is stickin'.

Another Good Reason to Ski for UW...

...Summer Vacation

Coach Rachel Wins National Teaching Award!

Rachel has won yet another teaching award! This time it's a National award, it won't be long until she's asked to be the Secretary of Education!

http://www.uwyo.edu/news/showrelease.asp?id=42182&from=newssend

Be sure to congratulate her, she's shy and is trying to slip below the radar!

Breakfast! You need it!

It's been awhile since we've posted to the blog. We've all be trying to catch up from Nationals, have fun on Spring Break and finish the semester. We'll try to post to the blog a little more often as we start ramping up for summer.

The first blog post is actually just a link to a great article by US Olympic Team member Abigail Larson about the importance of Breakfast. Abigail knows her stuff so be sure to check this out!

BREAKFAST

Latest press on the team!

For the latest press on the team go to: http://www.uwyo.edu/ski/news.html

Including news articles and two radio interviews of Gracey and Rachel!

UW Nordic Wins Double Championship!

I didn't do the best job of keeping the blog updated during Nationals but here is the final result!

UW Men's, Women's Nordic Ski Teams Repeat as National Champions!

http://www.uwyo.edu/news/showrelease.asp?id=40583

Nationals Day 1:

I will try to keep up on the blog but if you want up to date info be sure to watch twitter, http://www.twitter.com/uwski

We got here with the easiest trip ever, in fact we actually spent less time traveling to Rumford than we sometimes do for weekend races!

Thanks to Ev and Dick everything was amazingly easy. We also love Enterprise rental cars, they are always so helpful, nice and dependable.

We got to the Farm, had dinner, a meeting and a good night's sleep.

We then got up and skied the trails, the sprint course is great and the grooming and organization is wonderful as always. The Chilsom Ski Club is amazing!

Tomorrow is the first race 1.4km sprint. Women start at 9am and men at 9:30. We're hoping for great results and fun tomorrow!

Skiers of the Week - Catch up!

It's been a busy season and we have gotten hopelessly behind on the skiers of the week! I'm going to try to get them all in this posting, it will be a little shorter but they've all been amazing!

January 30 & 31 - Mesa State
It was our fist trip to the Mesa State Invite and to Grand Mesa. All I can say is WOW! What a wonderful and beautiful place! If you are reading this and don't want to come to Wyoming for school you should seriously consider Mesa, it's fantastic!

Anyway, the races were a freestyle sprint and a 10km Classic.

For our Men's Skier of the Week we have to go with Dan. Although we think it's likely we'll want to have him as a skier of the day for Nationals you can't ignore the weekend he put together by dominating a tough sprint with rounds that were extremely close together and then following it with an extremely tactically intelligent race to take the 10km classic from 2 Western State boys who wanted to show him what was up. It was an impressive set of races that showed his ski skill as well as his tactical ability. YOU ROCK OUR WORLD!

The Women's Skier of the week will be shared by two great performances in two separate races, both complete surprizes!

First came the sprint and Sarah! Who knew she can sprint, she's never done a sprint before but I think I see a great future for her. For a little context here... We are redshirting Sarah as a freshman because we think she's got a lot more to give with an extra year of nordic training and skiing. So far this season her best points have not gone below 604 and she hasn't broken into the top 10 this year. It was clear after the first round that the sprint was something different. After the qualifying round Sarah sat in 7th place with 320 points! Wow, that alone was a great finish but she continued on, just squeaking through each round until she found herself in the finals! By then she was exhausted but still managed a 5th place! Wow, way to rock the sprint Sarah! YOU ROCK OUR WORLD!




The next day came another surprise, well actually not so much of a surprise, we knew this was coming. Anyway, after a glorious day on Saturday Sunday was snowy, windy and foggy, a little rough for a race. This didn't slow Cara down a bit! In fact she skied like a maniac and had her best points, best place, best race ever! She had already bettered her best race from last season earlier in the year but this Classic race was an announcement that she wants to be taken seriously on her skis! She skied an amazing race and at the end had taken 12o off her best race ever, was only 10ish seconds away from qualifying for Nationals, was the 4th UW woman AND placed 8th in the race! Wow! YOU ROCK OUR WORLD!

February 5 & 6 - New Mexico Invitational
Our Men's Skier of the Week has become our most dependable athlete this year. Both on and off the snow John is a joy. He's skied well and consistently throughout the season and he's been the most helpful and wonderful person off the snow. Whenever I look around to find someone to help, John is not only there but is already helping!

The weekend of New Mexico turned out to be the best season weekend for John in the last two years, possibly the last 4! He not only finished both races with flying colors he had his lowest points for a two race weekend for the last two years. He rocked the classic race, despite not getting his split as his coach crashed and slid beside him. He then came out and despite feeling extremely tired, had a solid skate race. Throughout the weekend he was helpful, cheerful and a great example of a class act. YOU ROCK OUR WORLD - for so many reasons!

The Women's Skier of the Week had to be Morgan. In the classic race she rocked, giving nothing to the NCAA girls that wanted to dominate her. She had her first sub 300 point race ever and skied like a goddess! The second day was a little different, she still struggles with skate and this course was unforgiving. At 3.5km she was in obvious pain and I asked if she needed to stop. She shook me off and kept skiing. On the second loop I watched the other girls ski by and thought that I would have along wait for Morgan and her disfunctional legs when I looked up and there she was! Less than 2 minutes behind Marie! She was skiing well and appeared to actually be gaining ground on Marie and Shanna! Not only did she manage to finish the race she controlled her legs to the point where she could ski well and relatively well. She had one of her best skate points ever and could walk after the race! As I always say, Morgan's too tough for her own good but she really ROCKS OUR WORLD!


February 13 & 14 - Owl Creek Chase
Down to last weekend and the Owl Creek Chase.

For the Men's Skier of the Week we had to go with Zheyna. He had been sick for the last few weeks so none of us were sure how he would feel but he came out with a vengeance on Saturday only 8% and 2.5 minutes out of the top guys and skiing strong and well. He had a great race and felt good, we were extremely pleased. He followed that race with a great effort in the 21km, over the mountain, punishment otherwise known as the Owl Creek Chase. He skied hard and well and his points for the race were only bettered by one race in the last 2 years. It was an extremely great effort and with the inspiration that's bond to come from his brother's Silver we expect great things at Nationals. YOU ROCK OUR WORLD!

We thought long and hard about who to choose for the women, there were several standout finishes but we finally had to give it to the women's elite team on Saturday. As coaches you never have a purely good day and although Saturday was no exception the women's team did their best to give us a great day. All 5 women skied that 5km course better than we have ever seen! Skiing hard, well, fast and just generally looking and skiing amazing! 4 of the 5 women were in the top 25% of the race and most of them tying or bettering their best classic race of the year. It was a truly inspire performance and we appreciate your effort and dedication. YOU ROCK OUR WORLD!

Owl Creek Chase

It was a great weekend! The Elite team competed on Saturday in the Supertour Classic race and did extremely well. Then the Competitive team joined us, after a terrible, snowy drive, for dinner and the Owl Creek Chase on Sunday morning.

The Owl Creek Chase is a 21km point-t0-point race that climbs over a mountain from Snow Mass to Aspen High School. It's a crazy, hard, fun, exciting, exhausting race. The first time out it's usually just an accomplishment, the first hill seems to go on forever. It gets better after the first time you expect the first hill to go on forever and suddenly it actually ends!

We had a great showing from our team at this race. 5 men and 5 women did the elite race with an additional 4 men and 2 women doing the citizen class.

There were only 2 race casualties and 14 athletes finished one of the most grueling nordic races!

College results can be found on the Rocky Mountain Conference Site, http://rmcnordic.wikispaces.com/ and full results can be found at: http://owlcreekchase.aspenrecreation.com/

Great job everyone!

WYO Pride!

Hey! Great job this weekend in NM! You definitely had the altitude on your side! I had to post and let you all know that tonight at my OIA (we call ourselves Only In Alaska...yeah, we are dorks) circuits group my friend Tor (he recently joined the UAA team) came up to me to tell me that Wyoming has more spunk than any other team he has ever seen, and that you guys made the race rock because of it last weekend! We then started to talk about the WY team a little more and he and another UAA alum skier were shocked to find out that UW is a club team that isn't fully funded! It just made me very proud of the team and being a product of it since you guys are doing such a great job keeping up an awesome reputation! Good job!

UNM Day 1!

It was a beautiful day for a classic race! Cold, fast snow, easy kick and beautifully groomed tracks.

The UW skiers took full advantage.

The rest of the teams only brought their top few racers so the field was extremely small AND extremely fast (they only brought their top racers). Despite this we managed to have some great races with some of the best % back and points of the year!

It was a good day!

More tomorrow...

Skiers of the Week - Utah Invite

We totally forgot to get this up last week but better late than never!

As you know, if you've been reading this blog, the Utah race was very difficult. Retrospect and an analysis of times and % points shows that it actually went fairly well for an early season race, despite the feelings of the day. Both men & women were about where they have been in the past and Gwynn tied her best race of last year so things went better than we thought. The only downside was the fact that only two men finished the race on Saturday, John & Dan.

The Men's Skier of the Week is John

John had a really solid weekend with his skate race besting all but one of last year's points! He skied well and smart. With just one slight bobble when Zhenya quit with one lap to go. He pulled it back together though and caught a CU racer in the last 5km!

He struggled a little with rough wax and new skis in the classic race but still pulled off a respectable 254 points, which puts him just about where he started in the first Div-I race last year.

Most importantly, on a weekend of difficult conditions, tough waxing and emotionally difficult trails John was positive, realistic and gave his all to the race.

Great job John!
You'll see John on the first lap at about 1:10

The Women's Skier of the Week is Gwynn.

Gwynn is always a great skier to have on the team, she always works hard, doesn't complain, tries her best and even when she's skiing on too stiff, slow, waxless skis she has a smile on her face.

For the women's race we ended up throwing Gwynn on a pair of waxless skis that were too stiff for her. Despite this she worked hard and managed a decent race under horrific conditions. When asked how it went she said, "Alright." Not a glowing recommendation but considering the skis, wind, lack of track, etc. it is truly amazing!

The skate race went much better with Gwynn fighting from the start and spending most of the race picking people off. She skied the last 2 laps with two racers from CU and MSU. No matter what she tried, they wouldn't take the lead, they just hung on her butt hoping to beat her in the end. That's what they did, just at the finish, but Gwynn made a valiant effort to break them before then and skied hard to hold them off. The % points for that race were better than any of the Elite Team Skate races from last year, not a bad start!

Great job Gwynn, your attitude and toughness is an inspiration!

Greetings from the North!

Hey! You guys are kicking butt! Congratulations on the great season so far and the newest addition to the team, the trailer! This is truly the end of an era, nationals won't be the same again!

So, I just realized a lot of people on the team don't know me anymore, but I am going to post anyway. Today I completed my first competitive 30k classic... and all I have to say is OUCH! hahaha. It was a beautiful race day, 25 degrees and sunny, we waxed with purple (I think?) klister, then 4 layers of extra blue and a bit of purple from the top of the kick zone to the just under the toe. Some people hate klister, but those who know me, know that klister is definitely my friend (I LOVE to stick!)...the race went well (under 2 hours!) and my wax actually was there the whole time, despite the presence of several hairpin corners, haha. I have started this year to choose the longer race option because something I never realized is that the older you get, the longer the race options are! The Anchorage race series offers a 15k skate, 30k classic, and a 30k skate! yikes! Making the transition from 5-15k races has not been easy, it pretty much translates into hours and hours on skis, and in AK that also means a ton of time in the dark! Moose have a tendency to blend in, that makes for interesting training! Enough about my boring racing and training though!

The biggest excitement around here lately is Holly Brooks making the Olympics! This is especially exciting since I am lucky enough to be a part of the circuits group that she and her husband run. Go OIA! I think Holly has a really interesting story, she was never an all star in college, she never made NCAA nationals, and here she is, 5 years later, going to the Olympics. Not only that, she is a coach who is beating her athletes! She has a blog that might be of interest to someone, it is cool to read about her reaction to racing in the world cup for the first time and her Olympic prep, check it out! www.hollyskis.blogspot.com....

I hope everyone is healthy (The Gangl can flare up at any time!) and keep rocking!

Getting it done in the classroom!

Not only do they ski fast - they are awesome in the classroom.

Here is the list of UW Nordic Athletes who have been named to honor rolls for the fall semester!

President's Honor Roll (gpa 4.0)

• Willie
• Sarah
• Kyle
• Marie
• Binny
• Kara
  

Vice President's Honor Roll (3.5)

• Jill

Dean's (gpa 3.4) and Freshman Honor Rolls (gpa 3.25)

• John
• Jacob
• Fitz
• Catherine

YOU ROCK OUR WORLD!

The Magazine of College SnowSports Rankings!

Check out the pre-season rankings for the CSS Magazine!

It seems that the UW Men's and Women's Teams are ranked well, we only hope we can live up to the hype!

http://www.collegesnowsports.com/csspoll.htm

Utah Invitational... Tough

We knew it was going to be a tough classic waxing when we read the forecast for 30's and tons of snow. Sounded like hairy's to us so we made sure we had all the right stuff and the few waxless skis that we had in the garage and headed out.

It turned out more interesting than we imagined. Hairy's we can handle but the wind was blowing so hard that we needed hairy's in one place, hard wax in another and klister in another, not the best fun for waxing. We thought we had it nailed right before the men's race when they re-groomed the course and our men went out first. The wax was rocking and we were stoked. Almost immediately after the start the wind came up and blew fresh snow into the tracks, then the sun came out, then it went away and the pellet snow started. The skis worked alright for about 3/4 of the first lap but then were really sticky. There was no "wax of the day" some teams had no kick, some had too much and some had both! We had too much, we looked like gods going up the hills but couldn't get going down the hills. Although the skis were not near as bad as poor Melissa had at Nationals in 2007!

Despite these rough skis the men did fine, not far off where they started in the classic race last year and Willie actually had his best classic % points ever so it was kinda a wash. The men who did well in the race were using "Zeros", skis specifically designed for temperatures right around zero degrees. This might be one of the first times we've actually been beaten by our club status, we just don't have 6 pairs of Zeros to throw on our athletes!

We did have enough waxless skis for all the women except Marie (she is just too light to kick any of the skis we had) so we put them all on completely new, too long, too stiff skis for their race. On the whole it went pretty well. Gwynn couldn't kick her's very well, Morgan crashed a bunch of times with the long skis and Marie was icing but we felt the damage had been minimized, at least they got around the course and weren't miserable!

Saturday had better potential, although there had been a ton of snow, the course was groomed perfectly and it was pretty cold. The women had a 15km mass start skate and despite their fear of being lapped, not completely unfounded since there were 2 US Olympic Team Women in the race, they did great! Gwynn and Gracey just kept pulling up and catching people, Marie held on amazingly well, Shanna finished her second 15km ever on the killer trails of Soldier Hollow and Morgan not only finished the race, she wasn't even in incredible pain! It was a solid showing for the first big race of the year.

The men didn't have it so easy. Fitz & Eliah didn't start due to illness. Less than 1 lap into the 4 lap/20km race Willie looked like he might keel over any minute so we pulled him out of the race. This left just Zhenya, John and Dan for our men. Zhenya and John spent 3 laps working together and picking off racers and Dan was struggling but hanging on, we had hopes of having a full men's team finish but it was not to be. At the end of the 3rd lap Zhenya stepped out of the race and left John to finish on his own. John did a great job catching a CU guy 30 seconds in front of him and finishing strong despite the tough trail and the mental hit when Zhenya quit. Dan also finished the race, looking tired but tough. Kinda a rough weekend when the team starts with 6 men and you can only get 2 to finish! Hopefully everyone will be well next weekend!

For the wax report. When we arrived for the women's race we realized that it was colder than predicted so we tested Fast Wax Tan and Fast Wax LF-Blue and the LF-Blue was running great so we put it on the front of their skis, they had Fast Wax LF-Red already on the skis. The women's skis seemed to be just fine and they skied really well.

We had the men wax one pair of skis with LF-Red and one pair with Swix HF-8 so they could find out which was faster on the day. They all test and chose different things. While standing up at the top of the hill, where the coaches were feeding, we rapidly discovered that it sure wasn't a wax race out there. Meaning that the wax seemed to make very little difference since teams that had men in the top 10 had on a wide range of wax from no-fluor to low-fluoro to high-fluoro to pure fluoro. The difference in the waxes was negligible, although the team with pure fluoro seemed to struggle a bit. The team that had the winning skier had on basically the exact low fluor wax that we had on one pair of skis and the team with 3 in the top 10 had on the same high-fluor wax that was on our second pair! It seemed to truly be across the board and not really matter in the long run!

It was a tough weekend of racing and we're extremely proud of the effort put out in tough conditions and tough races. We're now preparing for our first-ever trip to Grand Mesa for the Mesa State Invitational. Should be a blast!

Otepaa Video

Here is the link to watch the sprint final from Otepaa, Estonia. Zhenya's brother is bib 13.

We are talking double OG huge balla here.

enjoy

adam k

Skiers of the Week - USAFA Invitational!

Although it's been a few days since the first set of races it's still extremely important for us to recognize our athletes of the week!

This was a hard decision, first there was Zhenya, who dominated both races in grand style and Gwynn and Gracie, who traded the wins in the two days. There were also several other great finishes but in the end we had to look at athletes who seemed to have made a step up already!

Male skier of the week = Devin Oderwald
Be sure to turn your sound down, some crazy coach was a little excited!



Devin started last season struggling and worked hard but was never quite able to pull together a solid group of races. This season has already started out better. Two great races this past weekend, solid finishes, good technique, great attitude - it couldn't have been any better!

The reason that we have chosen Devin as our skier of the week is that the points for his first two races are already 11 points higher than his best 4 races last year! Wow! You can't ask for more than that, it means that he is already faster than he ever was last season! Great place to start! Now we just need to keep healthy and it should make for a stellar season!

Female skier of the week = Marie Cartwright
Once again that crazy coach was out of control!



We're not sure what to say about Marie. She had a fantastic season last year, placing 6th in the skate at USCSA Nationals and finishing 9th Overall! As a coach you hope that your athletes will continue to improve as they move through college but Marie is starting this season by blowing the lid off last season!

In just two races she has already taken 34 points off her 4 best races from last season! Seriously, that's crazy for an athletes that has shown for two years that she just gets faster as the season goes. Not only that but our killer skater is starting to look like she might do some damage in classic! Woo Hoo! It seems that she is trying to make up for Kari's graduation and so far she's doing great!

We wait in breathless anticipation to see where Marie goes this season, it looks like the sky's the limit!

New Years Camp!

Wow! We're not even 24 hours into the New Years Camp and it's been amazing!

Due to illness we only had three athletes come up on New Years Eve, we're expecting more in the coming days but for now this is what we have!

They arrived late afternoon and we all went out to the premier Mexican Food Restaurant in Leadville, Casa Blanca. After a wonderful meal we then went for the most amazing moonlight ski I have ever done. First it was on the Blue Moon on New Years Eve but mostly it was just truly beautiful with the mountains across the valley and the incredible moon shadows. We were planning for 30ish minutes and went for 1.5hours! What a great way to celebrate the new year!

We woke up this morning and found the first stage of the Tour de Ski streaming live and watched that while we ate breakfast. Go Majdic and Northug!

After breakfast we did a great classic hill climb time-trial. It was a wonderful course and everyone had a fantastic time. We videoed in 3 places, for technique work, so we'll have those up on our YouTube Channel soon, youtube.com/uwski . We're now getting ready for lunch, video analysis and some afternoon yoga and swimming. We may go out for another ski this evening, just to take advantage of the amazing moon!

Come on up and join us!

Long time- no write!

It's been a long time since anyone has updated the blog so I'm going to do a quick overview of December and what's coming up!

Early in December we hosted the Laramie High School race and it was a huge success, see blog post below.

After that we were all hit with taking and grading finals, not good but normal!

The week of finals we had our second Wednesday Night Race, 5km classic. The UW and the LHS coaches will be running a Wednesday Night Race Series to help raise money for a new timing system, our old one is still working but is no longer being developed and we feel there is a limited time that it will continue working. If you'd like to donate to the cause email uwski@yahoo.com! The results can be found at: http://mbna.pbworks.com/Results_Classic_12_16

After that everyone went home and started doing some good training, we hope!

Last weekend Zheyna, Fitz, Kyle and Sara did the New Year's Relay in Steamboat and despite Fitz not feeling well they all did great!

We are now getting ready for the New Years Camp in Leadville. The snow isn't as good as Laramie but there is some in the forecast and the Mineral Belt Trail is really great! We're planning lots of technique, some speed and a lot of fun!

After that we'll head back to Laramie to prepare for the beginning of the semester and then for the Air Force Invitational, the first USCSA National Qualifier, at Snow Mountain Ranch and Devil's Thumb Ranch.

Good fun for all!

High School Races!

UW Nordic hosted the Laramie High School Nordic races this weekend and it was great!

We want to thank all the volunteers, UW ski team members, parents, coaches and athletes for a great time!

Results can be found at: http://www.uwyo.edu/ski/highschool/results.htm

We also took a bunch of videos so if you were racing check these out!
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F678E30BC2D4FED7

Thanksgiving Ski Camp

The team just got back from a darn good training camp in Granby. We left Wyoming for Granby wednesday afternoon and got there in time for a nice ski at Snow Mountain Ranch (SMR). Then we convoyed up to our digs for the rest of the week...SICK! Christi and Rachel did a great job of finding some ritzy places, hot tubs and everything. More on the hut tubs later. Thanksgiving morning we had a nice, long ski. Bluebird skies and good snow. That evening we gathered for Thanksgiving feast, and boy was it a good one. Food galore! Smoked turkeys, potatoes, yams, stuffing, green beans, pies...the list goes on and on. Needless to say we didn't have to cook any food Friday night. Friday night also was a hot tub night. The coaches took a dip in their tub prior to dinner and just after food was all taken care off starting feeling pretty goofy. Awful...unfortunately they ended their camp to come home and dominate the illness. As for the rest of us kids, we kept on trucking. Saturday we did some technique work and a few took part in a time trial. DU skiers there thought we were crazy for going down the huge icy hill, but we're from Wyoming and thats how we roll. Saturday night was a little last night of camp hoo rah with some time skiing at Sol Vista in the dark and before they were open. Not the best skiing but fun none the less. The skiing was followed by ice cream and the OC, every teenage girl's dream.

As for my self I spent the better part of November skiing without poles due to a fractured thumb. Yeah, just can't take care of myself. Good news is that its healing and I got a smaller splint that allows my thumb to fit in my gloves, so now I can finally do some real skiing

Well Happy Jack is looking stellar see you out there!

Adam K

P.S. I beat Marie in the last 5@5, she had poles and I didn't, that'll teach her to talk smack!

Hats are here!

Our team hats are in!

They can be purchased for $15 for ski team athletes and $18 for others.

Races!

So I completely dropped the ball on updating the blog on the races this week. I guess it's better to be late than never!

5@5
Wednesday was the first 5@5 of the season and it was great!

We had a great turn-out for this early in the season, 23 people! Only 21 show up on the results because our Law Student and Laramie native, lead some of our Freshmen astray and they got lost. A couple finished the race anyway but two didn't really make it back.

Other than that the field was pretty strong lead by Zhenya, Levin and John followed closely by Sarah. It wasn't a very cold night so good fun was had by all!
Results: http://mbna.pbworks.com/Results-5%405

Classic Sprint
We had a slightly smaller turnout on Sunday for the classic sprints with 18 but it was still a great field! A few people showed up with skate gear and we let everyone race!

It was a great time with 3 full rounds of racing and some interesting finishes.

The conditions were amazing and we'd like to thank our friendly grooming crew of Luke and Randy for putting tracks in just for our little race!

Results: http://mbna.pbworks.com/Results%3A-Classic-Sprint

You can see video of the sprint race on our YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/uwski

This week we're off to Snow Mountain Ranch for our annual Thanksgiving Camp. They don't currently have as much snow as we have in Laramie but with any luck they'll get some more as the week progresses.

First race Wednesday!

Due to the amazing snow we received, which supplemented the snow we already had, we will be having our first race this Wednesday night at 5:00pm.

We have done these in the past but haven't had enough snow for the last few years. It's a 5km freestyle race in the dark and it's a great time!

It's an open/free race for anyone who wants to race but you need to pre-register by emailing christib@rocketmail.com

Don't forget your headlamp!

http://mbna.pbworks.com/5%405

UW Nordic In the News!

Just a quick note on recent UW Nordic Articles:

The Top Prof awards featured our own Coach, Rachel Watson for the 4th time!
UW Senior Honor Society Names Top Professors for 2009

One of the Branding Iron, school newspaper, sports editors chose UW Nordic's double national championship as his favorite sport memory. The Branding Iron’s favorite sports memories

Not bad considering we haven't even started racing this year yet!

Winter is coming, we think!

Wow! What a fantastic Volume week we had!

We knew at the beginning of the week that the massive snowfall we had wasn't going to last the season. No we wouldn't be skiing daily straight through but we also had hopes that we could do an on-snow volume camp last week. That may have sounded crazy when looking at the forecast of 60+ all week but Happy Jack is a magical place and for some unknown reason manages to hold snow amazingly well.

We started the week with a 1:30 LSD skate/technique workout on Monday. Strength & Yoga on Tuesday, 1:30LSD Classic on Wednesday, strength and Yoga again on Thursday, 1:30LSD skate on Friday and a 2:15LSD skate on Sunday!

All of this was done on groomed trails and most of our top athletes did way more skiing than that. We believe Fitz has the record for the week with 15 hours of skiing! Sunday was a little sketchy getting up to the good skiing and some people chose to run but once you were through the meadow the skiing was actually fantastic and it was fairly easy to get in the 2:15. It technically should have been a longer workout but with the great volume we did all week it wasn't necessary.

This week is recovery and despite the fact that we can probably still ski in areas we will be taking a break and doing just a few light workouts. If things pan out for the week as we hope we may be skiing for practice at Happy Jack again on Sunday. If not then we'll probably head up to Snowy Range and beat around a little. It appears that there is quite a bit of snow up there. We're just spoiled because we've been skiing 10min from town and Snowy Range is 30!

I took some video on Sunday that I'll be posting to the YouTube Channel, when I can remember to do it!

Fall is almost over, keep doing that snow dance!

Skiing!

Wow! What a great weekend!


After all the snow during the week the road finally opened on Saturday morning (yes that was Halloween!) and we were skiing that afternoon on groomed trails!

Since it was Halloween and our first ski at Happy Jack we had a hunt for the 3 Great Pumpkins that were hidden on the trails. Once they were found each team member had to "brand" themselves and receive the "sign of the spider".

Once they got branded and spider marked from all three Great Pumpkins they raced back to the meeting place and had to do a trick for their treats. You can see most of the tricks at http://www.youtube.com/uwski There were 6 groups and you'll notice that you only see 5 tricks. One group had a questionable trick, questionable because it didn't take any skill, but it was also definitely not PG enough to post online!

There is probably 1 foot of packed snow on most of the trails and all the trails were groomed but the forecast for this week will be less than favorable for keeping the snow (temperatures in the 50's). With that in mind we are going to take advantage of this week to have an early season, on-snow, volume camp. We believe we'll be able to ski up at Happy Jack through Sunday, even with the warm temperatures predicted, so we will be skiing every day, except for Tuesday & Thursday. After that we'll hope for more favorable temperatures to hold the snow we have and maybe even add a little!

Not a bad season so far by the beginning of November some of us will have already skied 7 times!

It doesn't get any better than that!

Yoga & Meditation

As I was reviewing the recent blog posts on my Google Reader I came across and article about meditation by Patrick Stinson (http://fasterskier.com/2009/10/meditation-as-a-recovery-tool/). This article reminded me that one of the most ignored and important part of training, behind but closely related to recovery, is the mental game.

The mental game is interesting because some people believe that it's you really need, "If you want it bad enough!" and it is important but it has to be accompanied with the physical game. I believe that when two similarly trained and talented athletes compete it will often come down to who is mentally tougher but that the real 'Mental Game' happens every day.

Every single day an athlete makes choices that will ultimately help her/him become successful or lead to their ultimate downfall. For most athletes it is relatively easy to tough out a workout, push through the end of a race, or do that last rep in strength. It is not easy to then lie down, go to bed early, eat the right stuff AND give your brain a break. Small choices snowball into huge avalanches when the season starts and it is the athletes that, because I'm also in Wyoming, just "git er done!" every day, all year long, that will ultimately see the success for which they strive.

This is one of the things I like about Patrick's blog post, he is acknowledging the importance of dealing with your mind to increase your ability to recover. Being mentally able to deal with the everyday trauma of training is extremely important but in many ways dealing with the everyday stresses of life is more difficult and finding the balance between the two is the most difficult.

Patrick gave us one example of mental work that athletes can do. Our team started doing yoga last fall for the same reason. The mental part of yoga is extremely important but it also has the advantage of increasing flexibility, balance, strength and provides a great opportunity for active recovery. It's a win-win!

Whichever method you choose, it is important for you to consider the mental part of your training. In the long run what separates the dogs from the pups is not the ability to train hard on the interval days but the ability to recover from those days, make good choices and keep mentally focused.

Christi

It's a good day in Laramie!

From the Eurochopper!

Dear all,

As some of you might know (many of you don't) I am currently on a research visit to the TU Delft in the Netherlands. I will be working here until Christmas which I will spend in Austria. I am still not done with my PhD but really not too far away from finishing anymore (most likely sometimes in summer). Below you'll find a brief summary of my experiences so far...

The traveling was pretty smooth (thanks to my ride Kristyn to Denver, and my hosts Andy&Laura in Denver) since the predicted snowstorm was a little bit late. My last minute packing method worked perfect as usual but my brain did not after a nice meal at the Cafe Berlin and so I managed to forget my Laptop + some paperwork in Kristyn's car. The problem was solved the next day by arranging for a shipment of the documents to the Netherlands (thank you Rene!). Getting to Delft after arriving in Amsterdam was a piece of cake and so was checking in to my new room. I am sharing kitchen and bath with my new roommate Mehmet from Iran. He does not talk very much and I really hope he is not here to get is pilot license...
On my way from the apartment to my new office (which is only 10min by foot) I realized a few interesting things:
1) I must have really adapted to the nice, cold and dry Wyoming climate over the past 4 years, beacause the 15C rainy weather with a humidity of close to 90% was killing me!
2) I already missed mountains!
3) I am not used to people anymore: everybody looked very important and busy here, how annoying!
4) Similarly to the states not many people walk here but that's because everybody rides a bike. I almost got myself killed several times! The way traffic works here: bikes first, then cars at the end of the chain is the pedestrian
5) There is a lot of water here!

After getting a desk in a really nice student office (!) I met my new Prof. Dirk Roekaerts. He seems to be very much like Dr. Heinz described him to me: very smart, very nice with gray hair and sometimes a bit lost in thought (isn't that how a Prof. should be?). We went straight to talking business which was not a good idea since I was pretty incoherent after not sleeping much for 48 hours...Anyways, I think he did forgive me for that and we had a much more fruitful discussion the next day and by now we have already a pretty good idea of what we want to work on (a flame of course!).

Over the last days I met most of the PhD students and a few undergrads. A nice international mix of people! Also, half of them do experiments which already resulted in some interesting discussions about, guess what, flames. Next week I am invited to watch one of the students fire up a burner and take some measurements in the flame. Besides my immediate colleges in the thermo-fluids group I am surrounded by labs in which people research pretty cool things like quantuum tunneling and so forth (my office is in the physics building). Overall, an intellectually very stimulating environment!

The food in the Mensa is pretty good and decently priced. In the evenings I have different cheeses and sausages with pretty good bread everyday. In terms of food it already feels close to home. Though there is one striking difference to home (and to Laramie): the people here are all so tall! Every other guy and every third girl are taller than me (nothing for you Rene!). Must be from the cheese...

After I got rid of a cold which I caught on the plane (of course...) I went on my first run yesterday. Going for a run is always a good way to check out new places. To avoid getting lost (which I usally do) I decided to run along the main canal which runs through Delft. Running at sea level (or even below) is quite an experience after living on top of a mountain for the last 4 years. I started with a nice slow zone 1 pace but my heart rate did not really go up. After a few minutes I increased the pace to what would be a fast zone 2 pace in Laramie. My heart rate was still in low zone 1. I felt like supermen! Along the canal there are very pretty old brick stone buildings all of which are renovated nicely. Living in Laramie, I almost forgot how nice houses can be! Besides the old houses there were more things that really made me feel that I am in an old European University town.
I must have came across at least a dozen rowing boats. To my surprise (and pleasure) most of the boats were filled with pretty hot girls (thats what paradise must be). Seeing these girls I was thinking to myself that I better should have learned rowing instead of spending all my time playing tennis in St. Gilgen. I don't know if the girls were the reason for my heart rate to catch up with the pace I was running but it eventually did. I guess some things don't change: you cant turn a donkey into a race horse, not even at sea level.

It's Friday evening and I pretty much wrote what I have to tell so far. I will go for another run now and perhaps I am able to find out where the rowing girls hang out later on. I will grab a bite to eat and have myself some of the Dutch brews!


Cheers and Goedenavond,
Mike

Nutrition talk!!

In case you missed the nutrition talk on Friday afternoon or just want to review something the videos have been uploaded on the uwski YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/uwski

There are four parts uploaded on YouTube but here's the first section.

Strength workout! Fun Fun Fun!

The new strength training this fall has been fun and everyone is getting strong!

Check out the videos from last week on our Youtube Channel. Who says you can't have fun and work hard!

Also, meet our newest team member. I think I may have to retire, these freshmen are getting younger and younger!

That's Ironic

This is a good story.

Christi, Rachel and I had a chat about my recently injured leg at today's team practice. Funny enough, they mentioned I did not follow my own sign off from my last post. This leg injury occurred mountain biking last week when I did not keep the rubber side down.

Ironic huh?

we'll try this sign off because I can't follow my own.

Kids, stay in school

Adam k

Fort Robinson Rocks!

The second annual Fort Robinson Camp has crystallized one thing for sure, it is an awesome place for a camp!

The "Brick" is a wonderful place to stay, with tons of room, kitchen, 4 bathrooms, large group table and tons of addition room on the spacious porch!

We walk out the door and run for 20 minutes and we have one of the best hillbounding hills imaginable. Put on our rollerskis and have several km's of new pavement with essentially no cars. If you get bored with that you can head up the scenic road and watch the buffalo, burros, horses, cattle, elk and various other animals wander across the road.

This time we even found an amazing swimming hole, which was great fun after the killer hillbounding!

For the final morning, step out the door, put on your rollerskis and warmup by skiing to the start of the time-trial. The time-trial is flat for about 1 mile and then starts going uphill pretty seriously. The steepest part of the trek is actually right at the top so it's not for the faint of heart! All 16 of the athletes who came to the camp finished the trek to the top. It was an amazing showing for the first intensity week of the year!

On the whole we as coaches couldn't be more proud of our athletes. They came, worked hard and had a positive cheerful attitude. Not only that but they are possibly the most helpful and self-motivated group we have worked with. We never had to tell anyone to do the dishes nor to start dinner. They just jumped in and did it!

I have posted pictures on the team facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/University-of-Wyoming-Nordic-Ski-Club/275361125286?ref=mf

And will post the videos I have on the UW Nordic YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/uwski

Here's a preview of videos to come...

Off to Nebraska!

Although it sounds absolutely silly to have a ski camp in Nebraska this afternoon we are off on our fall low-altitude training camp!

This will be the second time we have done this and last year it was great fun!

We go to Fort Robinson which it turns out is a really nice place and has some amazing training opportunities!

It's only about 3000', is right on the south-east edge of the Black Hills, has a killer bluff for hill-bounding and an awesome scenic drive for the rollerski time-trial. Add to that the huge, cheap house that used to be officer quarters for the old fort and it really can't be beat!

There is no internet nor television there so we'll be out of touch but we'll be sure to upload video and pictures on our return.

Off for great fun and some killer intensity!

2 Wheel Adventures

This summer I did a lot of biking and I am going to share my adventures.
CHAPTER 1 : MINNESOTA
May and June were filled with bike rides in northern Minnesota. Each weekend consisted of a 70+ mile ride with guys double my age. Days with PB&J sandwiches at miles 40 and 60 and uncrowded county roads winding through lakes and forests. Oh and humidity too. One sunday, a group of 3 of us rode 80 miles and I decided I wanted to finish out a century. So, at 3 in the afternoon, in the hottest part of the day I went out solo for 20 miles to finish it up. All in all it was a six hour day, but finishing a century is a great feeling.
CHAPTER 2 : COLORADO
June 20 -28 I rode in Colorado with some fellow Iron Rangers and 1600 people from around the world. The Bicycle Tour of Colorado was the task at hand. I had done this ride twice before and was going out again. This summer's loop took us from Glenwood Springs to Hotchkiss, Grand Junction, Montrose, Crested Butte, Buena Vista and back to Glenwood. A nice 550 mile loop with some good climbs including McClure Pass, Grand Mesa, Cottonwood and Independence Pass. The last two topping out at over 12000 feet.Cottonwood pass
was 14 miles of dirt to the summit and a rippin' downhill with straight stretches of 12%, really fast. Coming out of Grand Junction we rode through the Colorado Monumument and man was that cool. As if 550 miles in six days of biking wasn't enough, a few of us biked Mt. Evans the very next day. Mt. Evans is the tallest paved road in North America going up to 14,200 feet. We started in Idaho Springs and climbed for 35 miles to get to the top. Long day but well worth it, so was passing motorcycles on the way down.
CHAPTER 3 : FRANCE
I got the chance to visit an exchange student we hosted a few years ago this summer. They live in Crolles, near the Alps. Lucky for me, the grand daddy of them all, Le Tour de France was going on less than 100 km from their house! I got to see the big boys climb Col du Columbiere outside of Grand Bornand in stage 17 as well as the individual time trial in Annecy the next day. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. So sweet.
Also I did some riding in the Alps by the student's house as well as some riding in Basque Country near the Pyrenees. Those hills are steeeep. Good fun, what a time!
CHAPTER 4 : WYOMING
Back at school and trying to get out on the bike whenever my homework load allows. Hopefully we can get in some good rides before the snow flies!

keep the rubber side down,
adam

Medal Test- only the tough need apply!

Sunday marked the first ever running of the "Medal Test" for the UW Nordic Ski Team.

We had 4 men and 2 women who were tough enough to try it out and they did amazing! There seems to be some discrepancy on the box jump height online but the rest of the tests should be pretty good!

The results can be found at https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Amj0AQBEzybjdFd1ekJKRXN1dGJ4b0dKYUlGY2FSTGc&hl=en

Skate Sprint Technique

I know it's a little early to start thinking about technique - NOT.

Here is a great video showing a great sprint technique, probably not optimal for 15km!

You can also check out some of the related videos.

Nice article on strength training...

This is a nice article and it cites several coaches from killer ski programs. Give it a read

http://fasterskier.com/2009/09/strength-through-roller-skiing/

First Practice today!

Today is the first official practice of fall! Yay!

We will be doing strength and Yoga. You can attend either activity or both to get practice points.

For strength we'll meet at 5:30pm in front of Half Acre Gym. We'll do a short warmup, then strength.

After strength we'll do Yoga. Meet in Education Annex 318 at 6:30, we will probably be a little late since this is the first strength workout.

We'll see you out there!

Good Teammate Guidelines

Good Teammate Guidelines

• Support everyone’s desire to get better in their individual ways.
• Recognize that what you put in, is what you get out.
• Be prepared [manage your time] – school work first, schedule your time, work around skiing itinerary and syllabi.
  
• Focus on the big picture ⇒ you’ll remember your teammates long after you forget your results.
• Don’t let your anger on yourself/your performance splatter on others. (12 minute:12 minutes immediately after the race you can focus completely on yourself. You can be mad, super glad, run around with your shirt off in the snow doing a jig, snap your poles in half, yell loud, talk about how you were a GOD on the downhills etc... After 12 minutes, turn your focus to your teammates and their races.)
• Voice discontent (in a nice way) to your teammate, team captain or coach. [not behind their back]
• Use your officers.
• Together we can accomplish more than we can alone.
• Foster a safe environment to learn/grow.
• Keep a positive mindset (Thoughts are things)
• Have fun
• Respect everyone (Remember Rachel’s quote = "Treat the person sitting next to you as if he/she has accomplished amazing things. You will never be wrong and you will certainly never be sorry.")
• Sportsmanship – Community visibility & image. Employ class and grace.

The UW Nordic Ski Team is dedicated to adhering to these Guidelines every day.

Here we go!

You've now got your first week under your belt and hopefully you have your classes worked out. It's time to start thinking about skiing or at least ski training!

We'll be having our first organizational meeting this coming Wednesday at 4pm in AG 5030. Come with your excitement and any friends who might be interested in skiing.

We'll go over some basics of the team, changes that have been made in the training/racing schedule since last year and other stuff.

If you have any questions please let us know, uwski@yahoo.com.

We'll see you there!

It looks like you are getting more than just skiing!

Forbes Ranks UW among the Nation's Top Public Colleges

http://www.uwyo.edu/news/showrelease.asp?media=y&id=33643

Getting back into school and training!

It's that time of year when the days of rest, tedious jobs and lonesome training are over.

Some of you dread the return to school with it's stress and schedule. Some of you are extremely excited to see friends, work on your sexy mind and have training partners. Regardless of which side of the issue you sit school has started.

Hopefully you had a great summer of training and are coming back into fall ready to rock! Some of you will have done as much or more training than you hoped but most of you will find that somehow the summer slipped away from you and despite your best efforts to stay focused your training log doesn't show the hours you wanted. That's all in the past now and now is the time to evaluate your plan for the fall and go forward from there.

We will be meeting individually with anyone who wants during the first fews weeks of the semester. This meeting can help you evaluate your summer training and find a plan for your fall training.

For some tips for starting classes check out the blog entry below.

http://blogs.fasterskier.com/trainingtips/2009/08/25/justin-beckwiths-thoughts-on-going-back-to-school/

School Starts Monday!

After a long summer of fun and training (we hope!) the athletes will be returning for classes on Monday!

Welcome back!

We'll be having our first organizational meeting on Wednesday September 2. If you want to get all the information on training and skiing you'll want to be there! It will be from 4-6pm in AG 5030.

Come ready to listen, participate and ask questions.

We'll see you there!

Max Strength here we come!

This week we will start our two weeks of Max strength for the fall. It was originally scheduled to start on the 24th but due to the Tender Foot Triathlon AND the availability of the High School weight room we have decided to move it up two weeks.

We'll be cutting back on our speed/velocity exercises and adding several max strength exercises.

It should be fun!

Warm‐Up


• 10 min jog
• 5 min jump rope
• 3X20 seconds Step-Taps
Ladder
Drills
(2
 times
 each
 exercise 
X 
10
steps)

• Two steps in each box (both feet)
• Single foot per box
• 2-leg lateral hops
Plyometrics

• 3X6
 Squat
Jump

• 3X6 (on
each
leg)
–
One
leg
vertical
hops

Lower
Body

• 2X6 Squats
• 2X6 Lunges
• 2X6 Step-ups
Upper
Body

• 2X10 Bench press
• 2X10 Dips w/weight
• 2X12 Pull-ups w/weight
Core
Strength

• 2X12 Med ball double pole throws
• 2X12 Each side Russian twists w/ med ball throw
Only for those not doing Yoga:
• 2X12 Prone plank knee extension (physioball)
• 2X12 Supine knee curl (physioball)
Yoga
(Only 
for 
the 
strong
 few...)

1:00 isometric strength, balance and flexibility

Strength examples for Rotations 3 & 4

Below you will find the confusing strength activities with a youtube video of someone doing the activity. I will continue to add videos to this blog post so be sure to bookmark it and come back when you need. Remember that the full list of strength activities is online at: http://www.uwyo.edu/ski/training.htm

Step Taps


Single Foot


Zig Zag (two-feet)



Zig Zag (one-foot)


Bounding


Pushup - Sprint


Squat Jumps onto or over something (Between sets do 10 bench dips)


Side Jumps (over something sideways)


Classic Box Jumps

Thank you to the annonymous donors! The UW Nordic ski team will be much better off because of your donations.

Tri it High Triathlon

Woo Hoo! What a great time!

We all had a wonderful time at the triathlon this last weekend. Kelly and Ashley completed their very first triathlon. After several years of health problems it was quite an accomplishment. Zhenya needs a little work on swimming but despite this managed to place 12th overall. Rachel & Christi both improved their time by almost 3 minutes and Becca had one of the best races ever. The highlight of the day was Joe, who managed to place 3rd, behind two professional racers!

Great fun was had by all and we're looking forward to the Tenderfoot Triathlon!

Important Donation!

We have received a wonderful donation from some generous people!

Although they wish to remain anonymous we want to announce that we have received a donation if the form of safety vests for our entire team! The anonymous donors want to make sure that we are all safe as possible while we train and has donated the vests below, from LL Bean for the team.

All that is necessary now is that you purchase a helmet to attend rollerski practices. Remember we are sponsored by Rudy Project and can get high quality helmets for minimal cost. You can also buy helmets at any bike shop and many other places.

Thanks again to our donors!

Follow up to yesterday's post

Eli Brown, University of Utah Head coach, has made a great post about rollerski safety. Since it goes along with my post I thought I'd put it out there for you to read. We are serious about rollerski safety this year.

http://blogs.fasterskier.com/trainingtips/2009/07/16/eli-browns-tips-for-rollerski-safety/

BE SAFE!

All of you have heard of the tragedy of Willie Neal earlier this summer. We want to take this time to remind you that although there is nothing that can ensure your safety when rollerskiing there are several steps that can be taken. Key among them are to wear a helmet and a reflective vest as well as choose good times to train, good roads to train on and others.

These two things can help a great deal and will be required for anyone who wants to rollerski with our team this fall. Most of you have helmets for biking, which work great for rollerskiing. If you don't remember that we are sponsored by Rudy Project so you have access to helmets at a great deal.

Thanks to L.L. Bean all nordic skiers now have the possibility to purchase a reflective vest at cost. They are offering a wonderful training vest (usually $25) for $10! It's a wonderful opportunity to get a quality vest for a more than reasonable price. Please buy one of these vests before your return in the fall so we can all be safe on the roads.

Brooks Vest at LL Bean: http://www.tworoadsfitness.com/nitelifevest.html


Get one!

Rossignol Boot Recall!

Rossignol has recalled a bunch of it's boots sold 2007-2009. Check out this link if you have Rossignol boots, you might get a new pair!

CBC Link: http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/recalls/2009/07/rossignol_nordic_ski_boots_rec.html
Canadian Recall Page: http://209.217.71.106/PR/recall-retrait-e.jsp?re_id=801
Rossignol Recall Notice: http://evergreenalliance.com/recallnotice/xiumrecall.html

Check it out now!

Vitamin D! You can't get enough!

Check out one of the new research areas UW is embarking upon. It's of vital importance to you as athletes and people so be sure to read it and get a good supplement for next winter!

http://www.uwyo.edu/news/showrelease.asp?id=32563&from=newssend

Summer Training!

We have started our summer training group here in Laramie. So far there are 15 people who come on and off. It's going great and it fun to have a group to train with during the summer.

If you are interested in joining us and are in the Laramie area just shoot an email to uwski@yahoo.com and we'll add you to the summer training group.

If you aren't around be sure to check the training schedules at: http://www.uwyo.edu/ski/training.htm

Be safe & we'll see you there!

Sad News...

It is a sad day for nordic skiing.

I just got word that Willie Neal, whom many of you know and skied with, was killed by a car while rollerskiing on Sunday.

The article is here: http://fasterskier.com/2009/06/jackson-wy-biathlete-willie-neal-killed-in-roller-skiing-accident/

My sincere sympathy to all of you who knew Willie and for US Nordic Skiing.

He will be missed...

Summer Ski Camp In One Minute

USCSA BOD Meeting, Albany, NY

A few words describe Albany, NY. Humid, old, deciduous, and rainy. I arrived at the Marriott Hotel with a distinct feeling of clamminess on my face. A long day of catching planes, eating airport cuisine, and interacting with people I really didn't want to (the self-proclaimed computer geek next to me on my flight into Charlotte, NC) left me feeling ready to relax in my room. I ate dinner by myself in the hotel restaurant (a first for me and not as bad as I had thought). A cute waiter attended to me. Sorry Brian. Christi would not be arriving until the next morning so I checked out the HBO schedule and found to my delight that Baby Mama was playing! I fell asleep to dreams of Tina Fey and Amy Phoeler dancing in my head. 

The next morning I was decidedly nervous about what was to go down. Christi was already delayed in her quest to Albany so I knew I was going to be alone for part of the morning. After a delicious breakfast and meeting many North-easterners (including a guy who spoke just like the announcer in Maine!) we convened in the conference room with water bottles and candy dishes abounding. We began with a couple presentations, one dealing with sexual harassment (don't worry team, I now know the rules) and the other with coaching. This is about when I first realized that the majority of this meeting would deal with Alpine skiing because he began by asking who in the room deals with alpine skiing and nearly every hand went up. The guy giving the presentation had been one of the US Alpine women's coaches for the past season and it would have been very interesting had I known how to apply it at all to Nordic. 

Then began the committee meetings. Christi arrived just in time for a delayed start to the Nordic meeting. We decided to continue the night sprint because of the positive response from both Nordic, snowboard AND alpine skiers! We will decide whether to hold the sprints at the downhill area where the lighting is better or at Black Mountain (where the Nordic races are held) once Nationals begins. One of the hot topics for the entire meeting was how to hold awards. Most athletes are all for holding separate discipline awards (Nordic skiers have their own awards at Black Mountain, Alpiners have theirs at Sunday River, thus eliminating the long drive for us). That is still to be decided. That was the majority of what we talked about. (feel free to ask me if there are any other questions about this). Now for the fun stuff!

Christi and I went downtown on Friday night--no one else wanted to adventure out. We saw the huge capitol building and a church that was built in 1714. That is OLD! We also noted how different the east in that there are SO MANY TREES that don't allow you to be able to see anything around you! It was a claustrophobic, suffocating feeling! I also rode in a taxi for the first time in the US. That was fun. The next night, we went to a mall close by and ate at a fondue restaurant called The Melting Pot. It was the best! Next we saw Night at the Museum 2 on IMAX. 

The next morning, I heard Christi silently leave the room to catch her taxi to the airport since her plane left an hour before mine. I had set my alarm for 5:20 and figured I had about twenty more minutes of shut eye. Well, I began a dream that involved me being the hero on some sort of treasure hunt game, and I was interrupted by my cell phone ringing. Through my foggy brain came the realization that I shouldn't be hearing that particular ring because it wasn't my alarm tone. It was also too light in my room to be 5:20. It was my mother calling, at 7:30 asking if I had made it to Chicago. Of course, I hadn't made it to Chicago, I was sleeping peacefully in Albany while my plane left me. I flew out of bed in a panic yelling a few bad bad words along the way. Throwing my belongings into my bags and not even brushing my hair, I got a shuttle to the airport and worked everything out so I made it to Salt Lake only a few hours later than I should have. 

Thanks Christi for the wonderful time in New York and to the BOD for teaching me about Roger's Rules. It was a great weekend!

University of Wyoming Dean's and Freshman Honor Rolls -- Non-Resident

Congrats to Liz, Cara & Erin O. for making the Dean's and Freshman Honor Rolls - Non-Resident.

You make us proud!

Check out the full list at: http://www.uwyo.edu/news/showrelease.asp?id=32002&from=newssend

Thanks so much!!

Just a short note to thank everyone for all the help you gave us at the UW Ski Camp!! It is our privilege and pleasure to be associated with such talented and outstanding young men and women! We couldn't have done it without you. A special thanks to Ashley who was there with us before 6 AM until 9 PM. You were amazing. Of course there were so many others who spent hours in the kitchen with us - we can't thank you enough! As Christi and Rachel would say, "You rock our world!!"

Is This Heaven?

Today was the end of the 2009 UW Nordic Summer Ski Camp. The Summer Camp is put on by the UW Nordic Ski Team for high school skiers. This year at camp we had 30 high school athletes, 10 college athletes, 7 coaches and 2 Heroes who some people call Dick and Evelyn.

Reunions and introductions filled the first day of camp. As the drive to camp is no simple task even from Laramie, there was no workout planned on Saturday. However, there was an amazing dinner prepared by Dick and Evelyn with help from Ashley and others. Following dinner, Rachel and Christi gave a lecture over training. For a bedtime story time, I played a stick figure movie I made about Junior Olympics 2006 for anyone who wanted to watch. I hope everyone wasn't bored to tears! After the movie, lights went out in the lodge and we all headed up to our cabins for a chilly heatless night in the mountains.

The main attraction of the camp is skiing the crust at Libby Flats. Libby Flats is a place located in the Snowy Range west of Laramie. At 10,800 feet, the snow doesn't melt completely until mid to late July. Sunday morning wasn't a particularly cold day. Unfortunetly, the snow had crusted over with many pot holes. It made skiing difficult and there were a great many painful falls. Surpassing adversity, everyone generally had a good time and as far as I know, there was no broken equipment on Sunday. We even managed to get in a technique lesson. We returned from skiing to a warm breakfast prepared once again at the hands of my heroes. Following breakfast we had a discussion about skiing in college and a Yoga session lead by Gracie. It was raining so we had to do it in the lodge. Not everyone could see Gracie but it didn't matter, we all twisted and stretched in ways we never thought possible! After a delicious lunch we headed out on a long slow distance run. For the people running with me, or near me, it was a fun run marked by rapping and joking. As far as I know, everyone had a fairly enjoyable run in the Wyoming weather. When we began our run, it was sunny and warm. The saying "If you don't like the weather in Wyoming, wait 15 minutes" could not have been more true. A few minutes into the run, it started to rain, rain turned to snow, snow turned to sun and then the end of the run was sunny. And just for the record, Gracie never dropped her key into the bog, we just wanted to run a little more. We returned to camp and a wonderful dinner. We went to bed in a rain storm.

Monday morning was another day of skiing. We always hope for a beautiful crust but it doesn't always work out that way. The night brought two or three inches of fresh snow. Without sun, the new snow didn't turn to crust. Did that stop us? Never! We all put on our skis in the frigid wind. The main course of skiing on Monday was a little game taught to me by a Russian. Zhyena taught me how to play a game which we quickly dubbed "Russian Biathlon." I taught everyone how to play Russian Biathlon. We had a great time playing a great game. Monday wasn't as nice to us as Sunday. We broke two skis. However, there was a noticeable lack of pot holes so that made things a little easier. To comfort our pain, a comforting breakfast was served after our ski! A short talk about training logs was followed by a strength circuit. It was raining so we held it inside. After our circuit we ate another amazing lunch. After lunch we ran natural intervals. It could be said, we didn't need showers after that run. It poured on us. At 8,500 feet, rain in June is not warm. It was a cold day of intervals but true to their nature, our athletes did very well. Unfortunately, we suffered our first injury on the rocky trials. Kyle rolled his ankle. A cold run is best remedied with a warm meal, and we weren't disappointed. After dinner, Angela formerly of the Wellness Center at UW gave a wonderfully informative speech on injuries and injury prevention. At this point, it had been raining all day which meant it was snowing all day up on top. Coaches gave us a choice, to sleep in or to try and ski even though the skiing might be horrible. Almost unanimously, they voted to get up and try even if it meant a hard day on snow. There's just something about Nordic skiers isn't there? Monday night was the last night of camp and that could only mean one thing. Dance Party!

When the trumpet sounded off on Tuesday morning, it was hard for most everyone to get out of bed but we did it and we made it up the hill. At the top, we were met by a few inches of new snow but it turned out to be the best skiing conditions yet! Though of course, the wind was blowing like crazy. It was a windy cold ski but totally worth every second of being on snow in June. We posed for a picture on the castle lookout tower. When we returned to camp, the most amazing thing happened. We got to eat Evelyn's cinnamon rolls! I truly do not think I’ve eaten a better tasting breakfast in my life. Next up was the team's competition. We competed in a series of relays and games such as a three legged race, an egg toss, an egg carry and other fun relays. At the end, the victors got first pick in their clean up duties. As the teams competition came to a close, parents started to arrive. We ate lunch with a few parents and then started to clean up camp. After camp was clean we all left never to forget the great time we had at Summer Ski Camp!

If I had to sum up ski camp in a five words they would be; Rain, Snow, Fun, Friendship and Delicious. So to answer my question, is this heaven? No, it’s Wyoming!

P.S. I would really like to thank Dick and Evelyn for everything they do for us at Ski Camp, without them none of this would be possible.