Owl Creek Chase

Although I was born in Colorado and spent two years of college at Western State College of Colorado I always forget how beautiful it is.  One thing I don't forget however is the feeling of coming from sea level to race at high altitudes.

In college I had the unique experience of spending two years living and training at 8,000 feet in Gunnison and a final two years living at sea level in Anchograge.  Adjusting to altitude is a physical adaptation, but it is also a mental and tactical one.  Two years ago I competed in the 2011 Owl Creek Chase and pushed a little bit too hard and the wheels just came off.  I don't know if I have ever bonked so bad in a race.  This year I came back to Colorado to take up the challenge of the Owl Creek again.

 Fellow ITA Athlete Sylvan and I finishing up the Vail Mountain Games 10km. Photo: Connor Walberg

 A huge thank you to my Aunt Kit and Uncle Horst who are letting us use their home and vehicle in Eagle, CO.  Caitlin and I fly out to Colorado right after the Tour de Twin Cities to put in a solid 3 week block of training at altitude.  In the past I have raced every race every weekend and in general did well but never really shined. This year I have focused on racing a bit less and really racing well when I do race.  This strategy worked well this week and I won both races.

Racing up high hurts and the adrenaline of winning can go a long way. Photo: Fasterskier.com

I traveled out to Colorado in biathlon fashios: with 8 skate skis and 1 pair of classic skis.  My plan being to race the Vail Mountain Games a 10km Freestyle race for $1,000 cash.  Then take Saturday easy and skip the 2 classical Super Tour Race to recover.  Hopefully gaining an advantage for the 21km Owl Creek Super Tour on Sunday. At sea level 4 races in 3 days is tough but doable, at altitude racing so much is another animal.  Several competitors did it all including my In The Arena teammate Sylvan Ellefson.  At the last minute I couldn't help myself and registered for all four races but after the Vail race I was pretty tired and deciding to skip the next days race became a lot easier.

Super happy to be able to train and race together with Cailtin.  In the Vail Mountain Games we both won making it a double victory day for Team Gregg.  Having two racers in the family is like having two lottery tickets.  Photo: Michael Hoffman.  

Sylvan and I with 5km to go. Photo: Michael Hoffman

Sylvan and I worked together throughout the race to pull away from the rest of the group.  Sylvan and his Team Homegrown have been helping us with wax support all week.  Racing at this level ski speed makes a huge difference.  It is unique in the sport of skiing that a team will help a competitor out in a situation where they have no obligation to do so.  It is a real testament to the quality of a competitions character that they want their adversary to have all the same opportunities. Thanks Sylvan and Team Homegrown.

Finishing the Owl Creek Chase.  Photo: Michael Hoffman

Tour de Twin Cities

20km Classic Mass Start. Photo: Joel Woodward

What a treat to have 5 Super Tour races in our back yard at Theodore Wirth Park here in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  We are super lucky to have the opportunity to live and race at home for a month in the middle of the race season.  Caitlin sure was smart when she found us a house with snow making nearby. Sadly it is not a question of if, but a question of when the Midwest will have a bad snow year.  Although grass was showing in the yard, the 3.3km man made snow loop at wirth is perfect.

Only 1km to go in Stage 2: 20km Mass Start Classic. Photo:Joel Woodward

Racing at sea level and on a small loop led to a competitive and exciting week.  The week started off great for me with my first Super Tour podium of the year.  ITA teammate Torin Koos took the win in the mass start classic race and I finished second.  Most of the field stayed together until the final kilometer of the race.  It was a tough day on equipment with several broken poles and skis.  Thankfully and luckily I stayed out of trouble.  I have really struggled in my classic races this year with a 24th, 26th, and a 23rd, so to be back on the podium was sweet.

Chasing down Dylan McGuffin in Stage 4. Photo: Steve Kotvis

I have never had a race series with so many great photographers out on course.  Skiing laps allowed for some really cool photos and video.  Looking at the photos and video is a great way to learn from the races.

Stage 4 Classic Photo: Steve Kotvis

Of all the races in the Tour, I have been looking forward to Stage 5 the most.  15km Freestyle with a pursuit start based on your overall tour time. I started the day in 6th and 1:36 off of Torin's tour lead, but went in with the goal of posting the fastest time of the day.  I figured based on my start position I would ski most of the race by my self. My skis were superb today though and I found myself catching up to 4th and 5th in the Tour.  I skied hard all the way to the end and finished the overall Tour in 4th.  I also met my goal of skiing the fastest time of the day and earning a large mint Oreo and cookie dough blizzard.

Charging hard.  Photo: David Owen

I decided to run for my cool down while watching and cheering the women's race.  I am glad I had my Salomon Spike Cross shoes with spikes for running on the ice.  Caitlin put on quite a show today and   had my adreneline pumping as I ran around the course to cheer her on.  She started the day 1:05 back from the lead and 50 seconds behind second place.  She skied great posting the fastest time of the day and moving up into second for the overall Tour.  

Trying to look like Caitlin

It has been a goal of mine for a long time to share the top step of the podium with Caitlin in a Super Tour.  To make a sweet day even sweeter it is finally snowing.  We went for a recovery run tonight and ran into the groomer prepping the trail behind the house.  Looking forward to a nice easy ski from the back door tomorrow.

US Nationals Prep

I love ski racing and pretty much race as much as possible.  This year is unique in that I have had three weeks to prepare for the US National Championships.   I spent a large portion of last winter skiing short loops on man made snow.  We were treated to a big storm in the Methow Valley and all 200km of ski trail were opened.  The trails are groomed nightly so the skiing was fantastic. 

Caitlin checking out 'a little bit' of snow outside

We parked the car at the end of the driveway so we could make it out in the morning.   Although the trails were groomed and ready it took a while for us to get to the trail head.  I had planned to do intervals on a particular long uphill, but we we went to turn on to the county road to the trail head it had not been plowed.  Crazy to go from too little snow to too much snow.

Prepping skis in the wax room at Soldier Hollow.

The day after Christmas Caitlin and I flew down to Salt lake City.  Both of us are huge fans of Soldier Hollow the venue of the 2002 Olympics.  The Olympic 5 km course which is scheduled to be used for the distance races next week is really hard.  We both really like hard courses with big climbs.

In addition to about 8 inches of natural snow, Soldier Hollow has 11 snow guns and there are some huge piles of snow.  As I finished up with my work at the venue this afternoon the groomer began to spread out the piles.  I am excited to see if the entire course will be groomed and open tomorrow.

Normal (2)

Most mornings when I wake up I conduct a little heart rate test to monitor my recovery and my response to training.  Many athlete take their morning heart rates and this is something I had done off and on for a while.  The idea is that it can give you a heads up about when you might be overdoing the training or beginning to catch a cold.  I perform an orthostatic test that is run through my Polar heart rate monitor.  I lay down for 3 minutes and then stand up for 3 minutes.  The test uses five data points including heart rate variability.  Heart rate variability is a measure of the variance in a single heart beat.  Heart rate is just the number of beats per minute.  My heart rate monitor uses the information gathered in the test and compares it to the baseline I have established through multiple tests and displays a score of 1 through 9.  This is the first year that I have used such a test but throughout the summer and fall I have found it to be extremely useful and accurate.

It doesn't take a fancy test for me to realize that something was a little off with me.  My resting, standing, and recovery while standing heart rates were all high.  My test results were consistently an 8 indicating 'sympathetic over training'.  I think part of the high numbers were a result of being at a higher altitude but they continued even when I returned combined with my race results I figured it was time to take some extended time off.

I recovered and rested for 3 full days.  This might not seem like much, but it was one of the largest breaks I have ever taken during the winter.  Resting and taking time off, especially when I feel healthy is challenging for me.  My reward has been finally seeing normal heart rate values and a test result of 2 (Normal)

Sam grabbing the skis for our ski.

Great to be on trails with complete coverage  Winter still exists

Although it is only 45 minutes away I skied at the South Summit trails on Loup Loup pass for the first time ever.  Over 50km of trails to explore up there and I am excited to come back and explore more.

Training is back on track and my mood has improved greatly.  Caitlin and I are training in Washington with Sam and Scott and getting ready for US Nationals.  My first race will be the 15km Freestyle on January 4th.

A Rough Start

For most of the season my training has been focused on the Canadian World Cups this December.  Training has been great and I traveled to Montana feeling the best I have ever felt.  Everything was going great and then I got a scratch in the back of my throat.  I bought a humidifier and went in to isolation to rest and get healthy.  After a few days of solid rest I started to feel better and went for my first ski on Tuesday.  I skied with the Master's Team and worked on technique with the group.  I felt better and raced on Friday.  I felt good racing and finished a respectable 6th place.  This is a decent result but it fell below my expectations and not what I would need to qualify for the Canadian World Cups. 

Happy to be back on snow

 The next set of races were moved to Bozeman, MT for a total of three races in four days.  Since getting sick my morning heart rate has been high, although I have felt fine.  I felt great in the skate sprint and finished 17th in the qualifier and 3rd in my quarterfinal.  This was a good race for me.  

Then the classic races came and things started to go downhill.  I went on skate skis, similar to most of the top men in the classic sprint but I didn't even qualify in the top 30.  I am amazed how fast the top guys are in the classic sprint. I went all out and still finished 20 seconds out.  I enjoyed watching the heats of the races and cheering on my friends and teammates.  The really good guys look so relaxed and that is something I still need to work out.

The view from our bedroom on the road.  We have a few skis with us. T
he snow coverage has been thin which makes it hard to test skis.

My focus for the weekend in Bozeman all along was the classic distance race.  Thankfully the race organizers worked hard and the warm weather cooperated for the races to happen (barely, Bozeman set a new record high on Sunday of 58 degrees).  The course was moved to a 3.8km loop but really was a great course.  I started at the front of the mass start pack.  I started fast and quickly found myself at the front of the pack.  About a hundred meters in I lost my pole basket.  I stopped about 500m up the trail for a new pole and the race went downhill from there.  My skis were ridiculously fast out of the start, but I went without enough grip to kick up the climbs.  When the group started climbing I could tell I was relying a lot on my arms.  On the third or four laps I increased the pace to try and make up some of the time I had lost.  I went a bit too hard and went under.   The last lap I fell apart and finished the furthest back in a domestic distance race in the last 3 years.  It takes a few bad races to appreciate the good ones.   This last weekend will help make the good races this season sweeter.

Instead of heading to the Canadian World Cups I am heading to WA to train and prepare for the next big set of races US Nationals.  I know that my preparations from this summer have gone well and I look forward to coming back from this setback.  If my morning heart rates recover to normal in the next few days I will race up at Silver Star, BC at the Nor Am races.

Green fields on Winter Wheat 

2 Feet of fresh snow today in Washington

Scott and Max were up early grooming.  Super tough grooming conditions today.  So much snow that the snowmobile and track setter kept getting stuck.

Let the Race Season Begin

This weekend the domestic race scene kicks off with the West Yellowstone Super Tour.  After 6 months of preparation and training it is exciting to have the opportunity to show off the hard work.  I actually ski more on roller skis, but the feeling of gliding on snow is hard to beat.  Snow skiing requires more maintenance than roller skiing.  I travel with 15 pairs of skis that all have unique characteristics.  The bases of the skis are ground with a special structure to match different snow types.  Ski speed makes a big difference over the course of a race so I make sure to take good care of them.  I wax them every time I ski on them.  

To say thank you to out sponsors Toko and Nordic Ultratune, the MOD Squad gave a free Toko clinic for locals to learn the latest on waxing techniques. 

Toko Waxes keep me gliding and kicking all season long.  Thanks Toko.

November and December mean darkness settles in before the completion of the second workout of the day.  Now I can train day or night with this new headlamp.  With 350 lumens the light is nearly as bright as a car headlight.

The day before we left for Montana we woke up to fresh snow at the Yurt.

Excited to meet up with my CXC Teammates for some early season skiing 

at Bohart Ranch in Bozeman, MT.

We are now in West Yellowstone and watching the forecast intently for more snow.  There is skiing up high, but it is pretty thin.  I unfortunately caught a cold so am sitting tight and resting.  Hopefully I will feel good enough to ski tomorrow.

Weekend Coaching in Chicago

As a student of the sport of cross country skiing it is fun to switch roles sometimes and share my knowledge with others.  This year marked the 5th year I have made the trip to Chicago for a weekend clinic with some of the most dedicated and passionate skiers in the country.  Chicago doesn't get a lot of snow in the winter and so the local season is short.  The community is awesome and the lack of snow doesn't scare them.  We had over 35 passionate athletes come out to learn and improve over the weekend.

The Illinois Nordic community had a great showing for the King Keyser/CXC Clinic this weekend

Splitting in to small groups to give more one on one time to everyone

Working on the basics without skis

Creating more challenging terrain by pulling other skiers and dragging a tire.
Training can be creative.

Chicago does food right and we enjoyed a Saturday evening together swapping stories from last year as we get excited for the 2012/2013 winter to begin.