Tour de Twin Cities

Today concluded the Tour de Twin Cities a series of 5 Super Tour races right out our back door.  Three races were contested at Wirth which really is right out our back door.   On a good snow year it is faster to ski to the venue than it is to drive from our house to the race trails at Wirth.  The final two races were held just 30 minutes across town at Green Acres Park.

One joy I have in ski racing is getting to know my competitors.  As a Minneapolis native Caitlin and I really took the initiative to welcome the skiers from out of A to the Twin Cities.  A big thanks to the Handlers, Carters and Kuzzy's for hosting skiers and to the many others who offered to host.  

Leading the train in the 15km Freestyle Race at Wirth Park

Caitlin and I hosted my good friend Sam Naney in the basement of our little house.  Sam and I grew up  together in the Methow Valley and have been neck and neck in races since we first toed the line together as 10 year-olds.  It has been fun to live and train with Sam these past weeks.  My cooking skills haven't grown much since my J3 years, but Sam has come in to his own as an excellent cook.  Sam had some great races throughout this week culminating in his first Super Tour distance podium in today's 20km Freestyle.  Recently Sam has been known as a strong sprinter so it is cool to see him establishing his strengths as a distance racer as well.  Nice work, buddy.  

My first year as a Minneapolis resident worked out well and I started the series off with two solid 4th place races.  Unfortunately I struggled in the latter races to match my performances from earlier in the week.  I still felt good in the races, but didn't have the snap to match the pace of some of the other guys.  My desire to win is strong, but it is also good to see my friends do well.  Congratulations in particular to Sam, Brent and Matt today.

Thank you to the organizers and volunteers for a great week of racing.  It has been an exciting week and I am ready for bed and a day off.  Check out this video of the crash at the start of Saturday's 10k Classic race.

 

results

Double Win Today

There is green grass in our front yard in Minneapolis and although it was great to be home for 4 days we set off this weekend to find natural snow in Hayward, Wisconsin and race the Seeley Classic.  Six years ago I moved to Hayward and Cresthill Resort and started my professional ski career.  It means a lot for me to race in the Hayward/Cable Community and it was fun to get back for one of the big Midwest marathons.  

The storybook weekend started friday evening with a fantastic family ski on the Seeley Trails.  Groomed by volunteers and the funds raised through the Seeley Classic ski race the dog friendly trails are a real treat.  It was the first time the Caitlin and I had skied on natural snow in 2 weeks.  Lahti did what he does best and ran ridiculously fast as we attempted to race him on the downhills.  We finished our ski refreshed from the drive and ready for the big race.

The Seeley Classic is a 42km classic marathon race on the Birkie trail with about 500 participants.  Unofficially called the classic citizen championships of the Midwest the race rose to a new level this year with  the addition of a $1,000 purse for the top male and female. The award was in memory of the late Garry Pennman one of the founders of the town of Seeley and the Seeley classic ski race.  Cailtin and I were very happy to both earn the win and the cash purse.  Results.  

Enjoying the natural snow in Hayward, Wisconsin

The CXC Team is spread around a bit this weekend and congratulations to the entire crew for a great weekend of racing.  Jessie Diggins finished 2nd in today's World Cup Team Sprint, Santiago Ocariz won the Sissu Ski Fest Classical race, and my good friend Matt Liebsch won the Sissu Ski Fest Skate race.  Great work.

Happy New Year

The first race of the US Nationals Championships is tomorrow (Monday). We race every other day here in Rumford, Maine. There is no natural snow on the ground, but the race organizers have worked hard to make artificial snow and the 1.6km loop we are racing tomorrow is in great condition. Today the high is supposed to be 38 F so we are very grateful the conditions are as good as they are. The hard work is all done and now it is time to rest, relax and toe the line. There are 405 entries for the US National Championships and there are a lot of skiers cruising around the little man-made loop. We are limited to internet only at the Venue and every other elite skier in the country seems to be on it right now. Will try and post some pics of racing the Freestyle Sprint tomorrow.

Map of the 1.6 KM Sprint Course

Home for the Holidays

There are so many great things about being home for the holidays.  I especially enjoy skiing with the local junior kids and my past coaches, and past Olympians, Leslie Hall and Laura McCabe.  It's so much fun to see kids skiing and having fun just like when I was a junior.

Skiing with the Methow Valley Jr. Team

Another fun tradition is watching the fireworks our neighbors light off every year.  The show lasts about 10 minutes and we have a great view from the front yard.

The Gregg house back lit by fireworks

It wouldn't be Christmas without a few Christmas cookies.  Every year we have a ton of fun spending an evening decorating cookies with our friend Ardis.

Decorating Christmas Cookies

And of course the skiing in the Methow is always incredible with over 200km of trails and daily grooming it's  hard not to have fun.

Fast skiing and blue sky in the Methow

Back From The Bed

It is wonderful to be home for the holidays.  The skiing is great, the weather is beautiful and my friends are around to go skiing.  Unfortunately I spent the first half of the week sitting in bed allowing my body to rest and beat the cold I picked up traveling home from the races in Canada.  It is tough to sit indoors and watch your friends play and have fun, but resting is the best way to be able to get back out there soon.

Eating plenty of fruit and drinking a lot of fluids.  

Thankfully there is no other place that I would rather be sick than at home with my family.  Caitlin takes care of me pretty well, but it hard to beat having your wife, Mom, Dad, Brother and Sister around.  I think the cold was a way for my body to say that I need to rest up a bit more before continuing to trade hard.

Now I am feeling great and ready to go.  I adjusted my training to accommodate for the few sick days and have entered a volume block of training.  Caitlin is helping me out with a peaking plan from her year with US Biathalon and with a few tweaks my Coach Jason and I have a good plan leading up to US Nationals the first week of January.

There is not much snow throughout the world right now, but the skiing in the Methow is fantastic.

Since I have been healthy I have been training 4+ hours each day.  It feels great to get outside after taking 4 days off from training.  Four days doesn't seem like much, but looking out at the beautiful weather it seemed like forever to me.

Caitlin has been training some serious volume and did an hour of threshold intervals today. One of the tools we use to improve our ski technique is to video each other and I got some footage of her.  It is fun to see how fast she can go.  The US Women are skiing very strong right now and are right in there as some of the best in the World.  We get pretty excited about training when we see the US skiers throwing down on the World Cup circuit.

On The Road

60 days on the road may seem like a long time but the time is flying by.  This is my favorite time of year when all the hardwork of summer finally has a chance to show itself in the races.  

This year's new Salomon skis arrived stone ground and ready to go thanks to Nordic Ultratune.  My coach Jason and the guys at Salomon picked some really good skis for me this year.  In my first skate race on the new Salomon Soft Ground ski I had one of my best sprint qualifiers ever finishing just 3 seconds out of the lead.

Life on the road is even sweeter this year because I have my wife along.  We were engaged just 1 year ago after the first races of the season.  Do you celebrate your engagement anniversary? As my friend Ardis says, "Celebrate early and often"

 The man to beat this year is my ITA teamate Sylvan Ellefson (On top of the podium in the 10k Skate and today's 15k Classic).  I still have some time to make up but I was very happy to climb on to the podium for the first time this year in the 10k Skate, 15 seconds off of the win.

Tomorrow we leave Montana for the long drive up to Canada and Silver Star Mountain Resort.

One Final Running Race

Tomorrow we hit the road out West to ski on snow and start the race season. Yesterday Caitlin and I went out to support St Paul Central High School and their nordic team fundraiser the Arctic Comando 5k. Last year the race was held in several inches of snow, this year the high for the day reached 63F.



2 mile and 5k racers on the line



The race course follows the new FIS (International Ski Federation) Homologation standards and is a hard course. People have called the midwest flat, but would disagree after a go at this 5km loop. I am feeling great, yet my winning time on the course was just under 19 minutes.



Fit and ready to go. The first race of the season is on snow and 10 days away.