Hayward School Visit

The ‘Skiers’ came to class at the Hayward Primary School on Monday. Kristina, Heather, Katie and I presented a short skit of the Birkebeiner Story, brought in our ski equipment for show and tell, taught the crowd a few skiing cheers and shared our experiences as professional cross country skiers.

Thanks to Janet Wisdom for helping to organize the day, what started out as visiting one classroom grew to 19 different classes. We had a lot of fun.

Cross Country Ski Show and Tell

Protecting young Prince Hakkon. Kristina told the Birkebeiner story and we acted it out.

Refueling our bodies and minds at Lunch

Who wants to play tag?

XC Skiing is Cool, but nothing beats ‘Tag’ at Recess

With staggered Lunch/Recess and fresh teams of kids led to a fun and intense 45 minutes of .

The Barnebirke is on Thursday February 19th at 12:30pm. Come on out and ski and cheer, it will be a good time.

Thanks Kristina Owen for the photos. For larger images go to http://www.xcSkiLife.com

Top 13 Finish within 13 seconds in Men's 15k Freestyle

A number of US skiers scored their first sub-60 FIS point race on sunday after a group finish in the 15km mass start freestyle at Telemark. Racers covered the fast course in 33 minutes. There weren't any major climbs on the course for the pack to break up and with one kilometer to go the lead group contained 20 skiers. I made a move to take the lead with 250m to go, but that only lasted for a short while. Leif Zimmerman won with Lars Flora 2nd. I finished 3rd, which is still a great result. Matt who led most of the race finished a strong 5th, ahead of Cook 6th. Kuzzy was involved in a crash near the highpoint but was able to navigate his way into 9th.

Kristina Strandberg won the women's race edging Nicole Deyong at the line. JoJo again led the CXC women finishing on the podium in 3rd. Stuber finished 6th and Owen 8th.

Thanks Kelly Randolph for all the great photos

CXC Train: Kuzzy, Gregg, Watt

Matt Liebsch sprinting for 5th with Bryan Cook. Matt led the majority of the race

Watt

Men's and Women's Freestyle Results

CXC goes 1st and 5-8th in Home SuperTour

Bryan Cook led the CXC men's team to one of their strongest classic performances. Cook won by 15 seconds over Lars Flora (Saab/Salomon), David Chamberlain and Leif Zimmerman. The CXC train arrived next with Watt, Kuzzy, Myself, and Liebsch taking 5th-8th and seperated by only 8 seconds. Gus, who is on the rebound after compartment syndrome surgery this fall finished a strong 16th. As a team we are generally stronger in skating so it is great to see that our classic skiing is improving.

Thanks to Kelly Randolph for taking all the great photos...

Cook kicking his way to the SuperTour win

Martin Banerud and Bryan Cook

So... This corner has some interesting shots. These photos are all from the classic race. It is important to ski the corners hard, and to take the best line when needed. I was shown a picture of myself looking a bit like Bill Koch in the 80s but I certainly wasn't the only one skiing aggressive on the course.

Liebsch

Gregg

Kuzzy

I seem to have misplaced the cd with photos from the women's race, but they skied well too. The ladies were all top 10 with JoJo 4th, Kristina 8th, and Maria 9th. A real solid day on the home course for CXC.

Men's and Women's Classic Results

Nature Vs. Nurture

My fellow In The Arena Athlete Matt asked me to fill out some questions on Nature Vs. Nurture. As a twin, I have thought a lot about Nature Vs. Nurture and find the topic very interesting. Below are my responses to Matt's questions.

THE BASICS (quick stuff that i'd really like to know)
1. What is the athletic background of your parents and family?
My family shares an active outdoor lifestyle. My Mom, Dad, Sister, Twin Brother and I enjoy running, skiing, biking, soccer, climbing and most anything that can be done outside. The entire family competed in many of the local events and races.

2. When did you begin participating in your sport?
I grew up cross-country skiing. I have seen video of my brother and I wrestling in the back yard with skis on our feet and I am pretty sure we had just learned to walk.

THE EXTRAS (if you have time)
1. What was your early experiences with sport like?
I have always enjoying playing outdoors and would consider myself naturally talented in most athletic endeavors. Unless you count being able to shoot a basketball. One thing that I really liked was that I was faster than many of my peers.

2. How instrumental were parents and coaches in the early part of your development as an athlete?
My parent's did a great job encouraging me to do sports and outdoor activities while not pushing it on me. When I was young my coaches emphasized having fun, working hard and sportsmanship. My coaches set the foundation for a life long enjoyment of sport.

3. How were you introduced to your sport and how many other sports did you seriously participate in?
I joined the Methow Valley Nordic Team when I was in 5th grade and skied 3-days a week. I also played soccer, basketball, hockey and baseball. In high school my main focus was skiing and I trained 6 days/week, however I also ran cross-country and played soccer.

4. Is your success a product of nature or nurture?
A bit of both. I think I got some good genes from my parents but they also provided the perfect enviornment for me to improve athletically. My hometown in Washington is the second largest cross country ski resort in the United States. Additionally, my coaches are or had been highly competitive ski racers. Surrounded by great skiiers and an awesome skiing community it was hard not to develop into a good skier.

5. Are you an expert in your field? (by your own definition)
Yes, but I continue to learn more about cross country skiing everyday.

On Snow Together at The Club

After two months of traveling on the road and some cold days when the schools were closed I finally got to meet up with the kids at the Boys and Girls Club. It is great to see them again. The kids have a big map on the wall and have been following my travels. I was excited to check out the new ice rink that Bob built this fall. I didn't have a chance to grab my skates though the kids were super excited to glide some laps on the trail behind the club.

Some of the crew, excited to test out the new headlamps from
ActivEdge and a grant from Nike.

Shaylena and Keshawna skiing over to check out the Ice Rink

Hailey, coloring Valentines and reading "Frog and Toad Together,"
before we went out to ski

Don Adams groomed a nice loop behind the club for us to practice on during the week. The club has some classic equipment and we have been able to take 6-8 kids depending on foot size. Last monday, Kaynen went out swimming around in a pair of 46 boots, and 180 classic skis. I didn't think it was going to work, but he was determined to try it. At one point his foot fell out of his boot but he was skiing great. Temperatures were near zero but we stayed warm as long as we got up quickly when we fell. Jathan and Bob had hot chocolate and marshmallows waiting for us back at The Club too.

CXC Strong in Mt. Itasca SuperTour

It was a good weekend for the CXC Team at the first stop in the Midwest Grand Prix. Bryan Cook and Caitlin Compton led the team with a second place finish and Caitlin Compton 3rd in the first day of competition. I had one of my better classic distance results finishing in a tight group of times for 4th place. Sunday was an even better day for the team with Caitlin winning by a minute and the CXC Men sweeping the podium.

Mathew Liebsch led the sweep in the 10km Freestyle ahead of myself and Bryan Cook. Splits had Liebsch and me tied at 4km but Liebsch built an 18 second lead on the second lap to win his first SuperTour. Cook who is known to be a strong finisher closed to just 3 seconds behind me at the finish. We had a good lead over the rest of the field, finishing 40 seconds ahead of fourth place, Canadian Luke Vilakinen (NTDC/Big Thunder Nordic). Santiago Ocariz of University of Wisconsin Green Bay continues his strong season posting the top collegiate time.

Caitlin Compton of CXC led from the wand to win the Women’s race by a minute. Although the race was interval start Compton crossed the line in an exciting sprint finish ahead of CXC teammates Kristina Owen (8th) and Maria Stuber (5th). Kristina Strandberg (Saab/Salomon) finished second with a 50 second gap on third place Lindsey Dehlin (USST). Kelly Chaudoin of Gustavus Adolphus won her first collegiate race, nearly a minute ahead of the next college skier.

Classic Results

Skate Results

Seeley Hills Classic

It was nice to race a local event this weekend. The 17th Annual Seeley Hills Classic was dedicated to the memory of Seeley entrepreneur and arguably it's founder Gary Penman. The CXC crew in Hayward enjoyed some warmer temperatures (10F feels pretty warm relative to what the temp has been)and fresh snow for the 22k and 42km events. Kristina won the 22km and I won the 42km. Click Here to Play Video New this year, CXC filmed the first half of the 42k on a snowmobile in preparation for filming the 2009 American Birkebeiner. Snow fell most of the morning and the Piston Bullys were out working the trail all the way up until the start. Still, the lead racers were breaking through 1-2 inches of fresh snow. The 42k lead group took advantage of the film snowmobile’s tracks searching for a faster line through the slow new snow. The front pack was nearly 10 skiers strong at the halfway point. Once the racers reached the tracks skied in by the 22km skiers the lead group narrowed to four skiers. These four racers skied together before spreading out with 3km to go. I broke away for the win with Bjorn Batdorf of Rossignol just 20 seconds behind. University of Minnesota’s Dave Anderson finished 3rd ahead of Colby graduate John Swain. The video only shows the first half of the race, because the second half of the course has two way traffic. Complete Results