Minnesota: Tickets, Racing, Beer and More!

Currently sitting in the Milwaukee Airport. Hoping to make my way back east after being in Minnesota for the last week racing in the world team trials for biathlon. The races went as well as they probably should have for me. With the lack of snow in NY I raced on my 5^th, 6^th, and 8^th day on snow. As one might have guessed I got faster and faster but poor shooting kept me from having any respectful results. It was a great experience and it was good to knock heads with the best in the country.

With Tim Burke taking over the yellow bib this past weekend as overall leader on the world cup it is truly a special time to be part of biathlon here in the U.S. We have some of the best biathletes in the world racing on the world cup and a bunch of guys waiting to break on to the scene. Can’t wait to see what happens

In other news the trip to Minnesota was eventful to say the least. We got pulled over on the first and second day we were in Grand Rapids. I have to say the event organizers and volunteers were very welcoming the local law enforcement not so much! The first time we got pulled over Marty was dropping the hammer on the rental to get us to our hotel when we came up fast on a car; unfortunately the car we were chasing down was the local state trooper. Thankfully since we came up behind him he had no idea how fast we were going other than too fast and could only give us a written warning. The very next day on our way to the venue to wax up the boards we got jacked up by the local cop. He said we were going 45 in a 30?!?! Not sure about that but he did not give us a warning he gave us a summons to appear in court sometime in January. Not sure we will back for that one!!

!

I also lost my Black Berry only to find it later that same day in the parking lot at the venue. As I pulled up I could see that it had been run over a couple of times and figured it was junk. Miraculously it still works! I’m not sure if it is that tough or if it was just frozen solid from the cold temps!!!

Last night we made out way back to the twin cities so that we would not have to make the drive this morning. We stopped at local hot spot Finsisu and I left a couple pairs of Madhsus for Tom to grind for me. I know a lot of people swear by the UNI grind he pumps out so I thought I would give it a try. Can’t wait to get them back and try them!

I also got a six’er of Summit’s Extra IPA. It’s a local brewery located in the twin cities. I have to say after a long week tipping back a couple with Marty was the perfect way to end the trip. I know Marty has posted a couple first hand accounts of our run in with the law and other activities while in MN. Check it out at his blog! Marty's Blog

Thanks again to everyone at Mnt. Itasca who made the races possible!

It's On Like Donkey Kong!!

It’s on like Donkey Kong!

From Urban Dictionary:

A phrase to denote that it's time to throw down or compete at a high level; something is about to go down; a phrase used to incite fear in an opponent, so much more than simply 'it's on', the inclusion of primate legend Donkey Kong stems from DK's penchant for victory.

So yea it’s on tomorrow! Most of the team is ready to throw down at the World Famous Oceola Christmas Race. This is the first Junior Olympic Qualifier for Mid-A and also the first race of the season for most skiers in NY. Alyssa Likly will look to increase her overall lead in the NYSSRA points race and also have a good points race to start of her bid for a spot on this years Junior Olympic Team!! The rest of the juniors will also be looking for a strong start to the qualifying procedure. Look out for them as they are on a mission!!

Even though Adam, and Reed were able to foil the attempts of P.N.M and H.U.R.T last weekend we have decided to send the big guns in this weekend and blow those guys clean in to next year! Chad will be in the hunt for the overall win as well as solidifying himself as the best senior racer in NY. Steve will be in there mixing it up with the masters as well and will continue his rise to the top!

Marty and I are currently in Minnesota ready to kick of the Biathlon season tomorrow at the World Team Trials. Everyone who is not on the world cup is here so it will be a great test to see where we stack up. It’s will be interesting since we have only been on snow 4 times this year but everyone has excuses!!!

Good luck to everyone who is racing tomorrow and be sure to Get it On!!!!

Big Weekend for R.N.R

New York has finally received some snow and everyone has been making the most of it. Last weekend a couple of the Juniors headed north to Lake Placid. Without any time on snow except for a tour of the course on Saturday they had some exceptional results.

Alyssa Likly started the season off with a bang winning the J2's girls race!!! Her brother Reed has moved up from the J2's to join the big guns this year in the J1 age group. Reed had a great debut placing 4ht in the J1 category. Adam Swayze also had a great start to the season now in his second year as a J1 placing second in his age group and proving that all his hard work this summer is sure to pay off this winter. The winner of the J1 race was Charlie Bencze (NYSEF) this was also Charlie's first race as a J1. On a side note both of the boys took care of business on a club level beating all of the big guns from Peru and putting the H.U.R.T on a couple of other local

NY Clubs

The senior team headed to Byrncliff on Saturday and Sunday. With lake effect snow hitting the Buffalo area hard on Thursday the best skiing around was found on the Piston Bully groomed trails. Often forgot about Byrncliff offers 5k of lit trails and about 20k of total trails and often has snow due to it's close proximity to the lake effect snow bands of Lake Erie. If you live in the Rochester area you gotta make it out there. There ability to groom with a Piston Bully make for some of the best skiing in the state.

That's it for now. I'm currently in Hartford airport waiting for my flight to Minneapolis. A preview of the weekends plans will follow!! Get out and enjoy the snow!!

It's gotta be FUN!!!!

I spend every day working with kids of all ages. From the 2yr olds in the infant program all the way up through my college age staff some of who are 21yrs old. It does not matter what sport, activity or job they are doing they do the best when they are having fun!

As coaches as well as athletes it is imperative to incorporate fun in to instruction, workouts, and racing. It’s not hard or complicated to do but it’s something that has to be well thought out and implemented. It does take some time or at least some creativity to make a level 4 interval session fun but it can be done.

For Coaches: Think of ways to incorporate fun in to each and every workout. Think outside of the box and use creative ideas to incorporate fundamental skills. You can play just about any sport with your skis on. Just because its ski practice does not mean you can’t play a game of ultimate Frisbee, or Soccer, and in my opinion ads a whole new dimension to the sport when you have the boards strapped on! Don’t forget to mix it up as well, if you want to work on speed and agility why not set up an obstacle course. I also feel strongly about coaches jumping in and giving it a go once and a while with your athletes. It makes it fun for you as a coach and it also gets the kids going!

Here is a couple of great example from GMVS. Consequently they have some of the best young skiers and coaches in the country!

For Athletes: Don’t be scared to mix it up once and awhile. If you’re going for a 2 hr OD take a new route or run off the trail and create your own adventure. Also try to find someone to go with you. Time seems to go much faster when you are able to carry on a conversation. You also have to be in to it. If you’re not stoked to get out the door and go train then don’t do it! It’s not going to be that productive and it’s only going to make it that much harder to get out the door and do it tomorrow. One last thing that works even on the hardest days is to reward your self. If you have been looking at those Girl Scout cookies all week have a couple after you get in your OD session!

Racing is also a great reward you get to see all of your hard work come to fruition!

It’s not all about winning but it’s a lot of fun when you do!

Bill Koch Biathlon Clinic

On Sunday I had the wonderful opportunity to work with the local Bill Koch Ski Club. The local club is run by the Rochester XC Ski Foundation and under the guidance of Bob Witkowski. The ski foundation as well as the BK club is one of the major driving forces in the area to develop not only youth skiers but the sport of Nordic Skiing!!

Working in conjunction with the BK Club was Western New York Biathlon. Together the two clubs were able to introduce parents and athletes to the wonderful sport of biathlon. The WNY Biathlon club has a bunch of air rifles and pellet traps that are perfect for the little ones to use. Marty Maynard the WNY club president went over general rifle safety and range procedure. Together with Steve French, Marty and I were able to let each one of the kids shoot 5 shots in the prone position. It was amazing to see some of the kids lay down as many as 4 targets on there very first try!!!

After everyone was able to get some practice in we split the kids in to two 8 person relay teams for a little racing action! The protocol for the race was that each kid had to run a short loop, come in and shoot 2 shots (5 jumping jacks for each miss) and then tag off to the next person in line until the winner was decided. As many of us know it is one thing to hit the targets during zero but another story after skiing/running a loop and having the pressure of friends, family, and self!!!

The kids were doings so well and having so much fun that about ¾ of the way through the line they decided that they wanted to extend the race so that each person shot twice! The race was down to the wire and added to the excitement of the day.

After the race we presented WNY Biathlon patches to all of the kids and our gracious host Kim Douglas (Wife of local Olympian Duncan Douglas) provided everyone with a great snack. Duncan was not able to make it to the event because had left on his own mission to find snow on Saturday. Even without Duncan around we had an eventful day and hopefully did our part to continue New York Sates presence on the Biathlon scene!

I want to thank Rochester XC ski foundation BK ski League, Western New York Biathlon, Kim Douglas and all of the parents and athletes that made this a successful event!!!

Be sure to check out each one of these wonderful organizations website to see what they are up to this winter!

Rochester XC ski foundation BK ski League

http://www.xcrochester.com/new/GVBKYS/GVBKYS.htm

Western New York Biathlon

http://www.westernnybiathlon.com/

Duncan Douglas

http://www.jackedupoldman.com/

Oberhof Ski Tunnel

Today was a great day I was able to get on to snow for the first time this year and I was able to do it in an amazing ski tunnel located here in Oberhof.

Oberhof is an athletes dream; you realize immediately why some of the best Nordic athletes in the world call this place home. There are miles and miles of trails to run on. There is one trail that is nearly 100k long, with numerous trails splitting off in to the near by towns. I wish I had my mnt bike here as well!

Besides the trails Oberhof features one of if not the nicest biathlon stadiums in the world equipped with a 30 point range and a pathed rollerski loop. In addition to the roller loop and range there is also an additional manual target range also on a roller loop as well as an indoor range that has the capability to be open to the roller loop so that you can ski in and ski out! I stopped at the indoor range yesterday and there were a group of juniors doing intervals and shooting air rifles at the biathlon targets. (Here in Germany the juniors have to use air rifles)

Besides all of that there is also a bobsled run, ski jump, and other amenities that make this a winter sports wonderland!!!!

Tomorrow is the biathlon rollerski sprint race. It should be an awesome atmosphere and the top US guys will be on the start line, should be awesome.

Here is a little video and a few pictures I took today in the ski tunnel. I was able to get in 2 hrs of easy over distance mixed with some no pole, double pole. It took a little bit of time to get use to being on skis again but it was defiantly worth the effort!

(Video Link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxzr6bp1_dA

Races

Well the running races are over. For me the races went alright, and I learned a lot so they were successful in that respect. I did not do as well as I would of liked but keeping everything in perspective they were good. My teammate Sam Morse had a couple of great results. I have known Sam for a long time so it was good to see him do well, and it's always great to have a fellow New Yorker out there getting after it. Sam is originally from Camden NY and now splits his time in Camden and Jericho VT as he is in the Vermont National Guard. Doug, and Danny also did very well and were great leaders on this trip, they are veterans of the sport and made things a lot easier for Sam and I as they knew the routine. Steph was running well but here shooting fell apart and she was not able to get the results that everyone knows she is capable of achieving. She will be back though!!!!

Results can be found here:http://www.biathlonworld2.de/en/

After the final race we traveled to a near by town for the pursuit awards presentation. It is amazing at how much Biathlon means to the people of Germany. They know how to make it a truly special occasion. I took a couple of pictures of the stadium here in Oberhof and a little video of the awards presentation.

Tomorrow is the mixed relay roller ski race in which the US has no one entered. It should be fun races to watch though as most of the major contenders are here in Oberhof.

Pea Soup

Can you see the targets? Because I know I was having a hard time!

Today was the first day of official practice or at least it was suppose to be. One look outside the hotels window and I knew it was going to be pretty sketchy at the venue. I have heard the term “Pea Soup” and today I got my first taste. The fog rolled in over night and it was THICK!!

The team made the short trip over to the venue to see what was going on. They pushed the initial range opening time back from 10 to 10:30 but I think everyone knew that would not change anything. Sam and I decided to walk the course to make up for the change in time. After a preview of the course we returned to the range only to see the same thing. NOTHING!

You could barely make out the targets through the fog with the naked eye. They decided to open the range anyway and then after a couple people fired off some shots the closed the range and the decision was made to combine the men’s and women’s training later in the afternoon in hopes that the fog would burn off.

Needless to say when we returned to the range 4 hours later nothing changed. I ended up running the course a few times and then doing some drills. We ended up having the paper targets taken down and Sam and I took 10 shoots at the metal targets. A lot of the nations where also shooting on metal without to much luck, but it was not surprising because I don’t think anyone could see to zero and most athletes have traveled her from far way places and most likely had there rifles out of the stock as well so it was kind of a crap shoot.

Opening ceremonies tonight and the first race tomorrow morning.

Ski Flex Tester!!!!!!!

Not much is new here in Oberhof. Tommorrow is the first official training day so it will be good to be able to send some lead down range and get dialed in for the first race on Tuesday.

On another note of of my buddies dad has been hard at work developing a new flex tester. The things is unreal with the data it is able to give back about a ski. It's actualy kinda scary how much info you can get from this thing. I'm going to cut and paste the info in about the new flex tester and if you have any questions feel free to shoot him and e-mail he is a great guy and will be happy to answer any questions.

I'm going to apologize now for the format but for some reason the Euro Net does not like this certian functions like spell check or cut and paste.!!

DS Nordic Ski Flex Tester II
Overview:
This snow ski flex tester provides an accurate measurement of total deflection at over 100 points tip to tail. Deflection is directly proportional to the spring compression forces. Of course, the center camber will only show deflection after the ski is compressed to the point it can be measured with the LVDT. The symmetry and balance of the force distribution is influenced by whether the force is applied at the balance point, or behind the balance point where a skier’s weight is located.
Think about measuring the pressure-distribution along the length of a 2x4 [or a steel I Beam]. You certainly would not use a bunch of fixed load cells on a flat surface and press down in the middle. The entire length needs to be allowed to flex and its profile measured. This allows you to see the effect of knots and other irregularities. We are doing exactly this in order to provide an accurate and repeatable test to allow flex comparisons of skis.
We selected a spring rate that is stiff enough to give good resistance and soft enough to give us enough travel to measure. Our force-factor is 0.131 Kg per cm2 per cm of displacement. High Peaks preferred to have the y-Axis read out in cm of displacement [the software allows either].
Note that we are not trying to simulate snow conditions. We are testing skis. As this system is used to test “Favorite/Fast” skis or skis that perform like a skier wants, the Flex Tester curves will identify certain particular characteristics that make the ski perform for the skier in certain specific snow conditions. This becomes obvious with several iterations of testing and reviewing the data on the “Favorite/Fast” skis. The ski technician operating the machine will quickly be able to match a skiers favorite/fast ski curves to a new pair of skis to be sure they are going getting the same performance out of the new skis. This is assuming that we are talking about like snow conditions.
Please keep in mind we are providing a tool to advance the Sport and we leave determinations as to what is a fast ski to you ski experts and skiers as you correlate flex profile data with what works best for each skier for specific conditions.
FYI: The software provides the graphical data in Excel® so it is easy to add comments to each sheet and include Ski Brand and Model numbers in the File Name for easy sorting and retrieval.
We intend the DS Nordic Ski Flex Tester II to become the worldwide benchmark for all ski flex measurements. Please contact us to ask questions or discuss any details. We welcome your feedback.
DS Flex Testing Systems
715 Mendon Center Road Pittsford, New York 14534 585-750-8746 SkiFlexTester@gmail.com http://www.skiflextester.com/

SkiFlexTester@gmail.com
http://www.skiflextester.com/

World Championships

I'm in Oberhof Germany for Summer Biathlon World Championships. The flight over went off without any problems other than a couple tight connections. All of my luggage and most importantly my rifle was waiting for me when I arrived. It was about a 3 hr ride to Oberhof from Frankfurt. It is interesting to see all of the different models of vehichles that are avaliable over here and not in the states. Makes me wonder how much vehicle manufactures in the states really want to push more effeicant vehicles because they are obviously avaliabe in other parts of the world!!



Yesterday we ran from our hotel to the Biathlon venue (3k via a interlinking trail system). The venue is absolutly amazing! I will get some pictures tommorrow because it is one of those things that words can not do justice! The entire town of Oberhof seems to have one thing on it's mind and that is winter sports, the place is just set up to help athletes succeed. There are tons of Juniors at the hotel and each morning they roll out with there skis to take advantage of the new ski tunnel they opened here last month. Hopefully by weeks end I will be able to make my way over to the ski tunnel and get a few K's in.



Thats it for now, Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures tommorrow and let you see what i'm talking about.

NP to NYC !!!

On Saturday the group hit the roads early and got in some agility and speed work. It was a short and sweet workout to allow some extra time for the real business of the day. A trip to NY City!

New Paltz is only about an hour and half outside of the city. So we took advantage of the proximity and hit the road after lunch. I have a love hate relationship with the city. I love the atmosphere, people, shops, and entertainment, but hate the over indulgence, waste, and pollution that the city produces.

Sorry to go all Al Gore on everyone but was blown away by the fact that all of these huge stores have the AC blasting and the doors wide open!?!?!? No wonder the weather is whacked out Up State!

The trip was great and well worth it. I have attached a few pictures of our day!

Group Shot in Times Square

I have heard of the Naked Cowboy. But the Naked Cowgirl?

You always gotta pay attention to what's going on in the city. I would not want to step on this thing!!

I’m a big fan of DMB and the bands new song “The Way it is” about sums up the City in my mind.

We all made it back to NP safe and Sound and have a time trial to get after next!!

New Paltz Day 1

I arrived in New Paltz yesterday with Adam and Amy. We made the journey east to attend a camp being put on by Nick Mancuso. Other coaches at the camp include myself, Janice Sabila , Art Stegan, and Jon Stern. I was a little hesitant as I got off 87 and was instantly stuck in the New Paltz traffic but to my surprise as soon as we turned off the main drag we were smack-dab in the middle of the picturesque Hudson Valley. The Mancuso’s have a sweet set up right on the banks of the river and it provides an excellent base camp!

After arriving and a short camp meeting it was time to get down to business. We broke the athletes up in to small groups and focused on technique. We utilized the coaches and set up three separate stations with each station focusing on specific technique V1, V2, and Alt. We were also able to have a coach drive around to each group and video the athletes. Things were off to a great start!!

When we had finished the ski we jumped in to the cars and headed up the road a mile or so and swapped our boots for the sneakers and started out on our run/hike/rock scramble/bad ass workout!!!!! We ran from the cars up to Mohonk Mnt House!

This place is for strait up balers!!! With rooms in the $300-600 range!! But we were able to take advantage of the great views and the rock scramble they have set up to make our way up to the fire tower! It was an epic adventure and the entire way up all I could think about was how awesome NY really is!! This state has is all and though I often find myself bitching about lack of snow, the size of the state and the fact it takes 5 hours to drive to a local race this state is truly amazing and impresses me more and more with all it has to offer. I wish I had my camera but the threatening skies forced me to leave it at the car. I will link in some photos from the Mnt Houses website but they don’t even do the place justice! Not to mention that during the winter there are over 50k of groomed trails at this joint!!!!!!!! I gotta make a trip out here when the white stuff is flying!

That’s it for now I gotta get out of Starbuck and back to the ranch to wake the kids up!!! More to come from New Paltz…

*Images from the Mohonk Mnt House Website!! Check it out at www.mohonk.com

Work and Play !!

There is no doubt that to become faster you need to work hard, but you also need to know how to have fun! Today we did 90min of specific strength on skis. (45 min no pole skate/45 min double pole) We had a great break in the middle in the form of a couch and love seat found on the side of the road! Who ever dumped this thing off should be beaten with it for in proper disposal but none the less we decided to have a little fun. Here are a couple of pictures of the foolishness!!

Have Fun!

But don't forget about the work!!

We finished off the the day with some sprint work. It always fun to line it up against the youngsters and test not only your own speed but also to judge the improvement that is being made by the kids. Tonight a couple of the boys and I were bum pin heads with a little best 2 out of 3. My man Sway-Easy took the first one with a nice move from the start line. On the second one he also got a good start and was leading right up until the last second when I was able to sneak past him. To my amazement he decided to bypass the boot throw and just strait up dive for the finish line! I was psyched to see how bad he wanted it but a bit worried to see what he looked like after I turned around. As usually he was a little bloody but he's tough and was pissed when I decided to leave it at a 1-1 tie!!! Gotta love effort!!!

Now that's what I call

ALL-IN!!!!!!

Get Back Up!!!

The summer is absolutely flying. In and earlier post I mentioned that the most important months for a skiers training is June, July, and August. Well Guess what?? June is GONE!!! It's hard to believe but it's NOW or NEVER! If you have not been training you better get your butt out the door and get something done or you will be toast!!! The R.N.R crew has been hard at work for the past month and I'm starting to noticeevery ones fitness and confidence gaining on the skis. It’s not always easy to tell if the athletes are REALLY pushing themselves or just working hard. There is a big difference!!! But sometimes it is easy, Last week at the end of a hard OD session the kids where doing some uphill sprints working on there speed. I was at the top of the hill watching them come up and giving them some technique advice and some encouragement to keep the peddle down on each one. On the last one I hear a crash and look down to the bottom of the hill just in time to see reed eat it as well!!!! I love/hate to see kids or anyone eat the pavement. On one hand it means they werepushin hard and trying to make the gains necessary to improve there skiing. They were bothOK, and surprisingly psyched about the blood!!! The moral of the story!?!? Push your limits everyday and if you happen to fall get back up and do it again!!!

Busy Busy Busy!!

A lot has happened since the last post, and I apologize for not posting sooner but as the title states I have been super busy racing, training, and coaching. Last weekend the senior team was in race mode !! Marty, Chad, and I raced in the Thursday night GVCC bike race. Since Chad and I knew we were racing the next two days we talked about sitting in the pack and then trying to make something happen in the uphill sprint finish. But as usual we were not able to sit in the pack and worked to push the pace the entire race. A three man break got away and chad and I lead the group to try to catch them. We were unable to catch them but were able to put the pack in a world of hurt that lead to me being able to win the field sprint and taking 4th overall. Chad got a calf cramp on the last lap and was relegated to soft peddle to the finish. On Friday night we all raced in the festival on the green 5k in Honeoye Falls. I really wanted to do this race because I had won it last year and it would be a good benchmark to measure my fitness. The raced started out slowly and at 2 miles I was with the leaders I did not catch the mile mark on the way out but at 2 miles I was at 11:35 and knew I needed to make a move because if it came down to a sprint I would be toast. I was able to step on it pretty good and ended up winning by about 20 seconds (17:18) . I was happy with my time after doing the bike race the night before. Marty was next 5th overall (18:34) Chad 6th (18:52) Steve 19th (21:56). results are posted here.

http://www.yellowjacketracing.com/FestivallontheGreenOverallResults2009.htm

After the race everyone was tired but looking forward to the biathlon race the next day! The biathlon race also went well despite the fact that Marty and I were both DQ'ed for a closed bolt infraction. Chad ended up 3rd overall and Steve also had a great race. Adam came out to race and was able to take home the lone victory for RNR in his age group!! For race results visit.

http://www.westernnybiathlon.com/

Overall it was a great weekend of racing! Only two more weeks until summer biathlon nationals so it's time to keep the peddle down and get to work!!!

Race Weekend !!!

Race Weekend !!!

It was a big weekend for most of the crew as the team spread out across the state to contest several different races and to show everyone why Nordic skiers are considered some of the best athletes in the world.

Chad and I stayed local and raced the Power Bar 9 mile trail race on the familiar trails of Mendon Ponds Park. This is the second time I have done this race. The last time I raced it was in 2005!! In 05’ I was just getting back in to training after returning home from college and taking a year off to student teach and coach in Virginia. In 05’ on the same course I ran 1:02:01 this year I ran 57:35 I’m pleased to see that I was able to run faster especially considering that racing 9 miles doubled my avg weekly mileage! Chad also was able to step it up in a big way over his 2005 result. In 05’ Chad ran the 4.5 mile course in 33:40 this year he ran the 9 mile course in 59:11. Chad is also running around 10-15 miles per week so I would say our 2^nd, and 3^rd place overall result was a good effort!!! My avg HR was 183 with a max of 192 and if I remember correctly Chad had an avg of 178 and a max of 191 !!!

Adam and Reed also stayed local and mixed it up jumping in the Pittsford Triathlon. Reed was 3^rd in his age group and Adam was 4^th. Looking at the ages Reed was a man amongst boys considering he is only 13 yrs old and competing in the 19 and under age group!?!?! MAN-CHILD !!!!

Amanda also was able to “Throw Down” at the state qualifier in the 3000 meters. She came in to the meet with a seed time of 10:38 and was able to rally and run 10:14 taking the win in Division I . Amanda has been dealing with some injuries so I know it was a big win for her!!! We will all be cheering for her this weekend as she travels to Syracuse to compete at the State Meet!!

Steve also was in action this weekend at the Keuka Lake Triathlon. He was able to take the win in his age group and finished 15^th overall. Not to bad for the old guy!!!!

Marty tried to bring the wrath of R.N.R to New England but was un-able to locate the 5k in downtown Boston and missed the race. (They were Lucky)!!!

Overall it was a great weekend for R.N.R proving that we not only know how to ski but we are can run, swim, bike and even get lost!!!

Here is a picture of Steve on top of the podium!!!

Where are YOU at ???

We did our first baseline test of the year on Wednesday. It was not only a chance to get some information on everyone but it was also a chance to remind ourselves what it feels like to hurt. The test also provided the opportunity to fight those mental battles that are so common in Nordic Skiing providing that line that needs to be crossed to be good, to be great, to be a skier!!!

The test consisted of a mile run on rolling terrain (give or take a few meters) followed shortly after by the following strength test Dips, Sit-Ups, Push-Ups, Step-Ups, and Pull Ups in that order. The protocol for the test was that each athlete would do as many repetitions as they could in 1-min get a 1-min rest and then as many repetitions as they could in 1-min again! This not only test overall strength but muscle recovery and muscle endurance. The title of the post is Where are you at?? Well here are the results so you know where your at!

Name Mile Time Dips Sit-Ups Push-Ups Step-Ups Pull-Ups
A.S 5:56 31/15 30/32 29/16 63/40 7
R.L 5:36 49/35 43/40 30/15 48/52 6
D.H 6:27 50/30 40/40 38/17 44/48 8
S.Z 6:22 57/32 50/33 40/25 45/48 15
J.H 5:20 52/35 49/43 36/19 38/42 13
C.D 5:46 88/62 70/58 60/35 49/52 18
D.D 6:08 67/36 55/36 41/17 52/44 9
M.M 5:39 61/40 68/49 42/25 34/39 9

K.D 7:02 34/24 49/46 35/24 42/41 6
A.C 6:42 26/8 53/50 27/25 46/50 5

Here is a picture of Chad, He posted some of the top performances during the test! He was not kidding about using his Iron Gym!! As you can tell we are all about getting back to the basics. You don't need a gym membership to do pull-ups all you need is a branch, swing-set or in our case a 2x6 beam! Don't make excuses!

Get Out and Get After It!!!

June, July and August

 

The summer is the most important time of year for a Nordic skier. I’m going to quote my high school coach and in my opinion one of the very best coaches in the country HF-L’s Bernie Gardner.

 

 “There are three things that determine how successful a high school athlete will be the following year June, July and August!!!”  

 

I cannot agree more with Bernie. June, July and August is when the biggest gains are to be made for the high school athlete and in most cases elite athletes as well. The day’s are long, energy is high and it seems a lot easier to get out of bed and go train.  It is also the only time of year that the high school athlete is actually able to train!!  They are not running four events twice a week at a track meet or playing three games a week (A major problem with our development in the US in my opinion!!)  The athletes are able to get some quality hours under there belt and build a base that will hopefully be able to carry them through the intervals and races that the season will bring.

 

With that being said I’m excited to say that the R.N.R summer program is filling up fast!! I think there are 2-3 spots left!! This summer’s group will feature familiar faces and some exciting new additions! Only 10 day’s until we get going! I’m ready to rock and roll and I think the athletes are as well. Some of them won’t be able to start on June 1^st but that’s not a bad thing because a delayed start means that they are killing it on the track and advancing through the gauntlet of championship races that make up the road to the NY State meet at CNS! Good Luck to them!

 

Another bit of information that I would like to pass along to you is the opportunity to join two former New York State Skiers at there camp in Vermont. Tim Weston (Fairport) and Justin Beckwith are the coaches at GMVS and are heading up a couple of camps this year on campus. Justin and Tim are both great guys and are exceptional coaches! Both coach for the New England JO team and Justin was the head coach for this years US Ski Team J1 Scando Trip!! You can see a brochure at:

 

 http://www.gmvs.org/gmvs/pdf/nordic_summer_brochure2.pdf

 

 

If you have any questions about the camp you can visit the GMVS blog or e-mail me and I can help you out.

 

Get out the door and MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!!!!!!

2009 Summer Program!!!!!

I want to take this opportunity to introduce you and invite you to become a part of Rochester Nordic Racing.  Rochester Nordic Racing is committed to improving the state of cross-country ski racing in the Mid-Atlantic Division amongst J2-U23 athletes. Cross-country ski racing is no longer a winter-only sport. Consistent, year-round training is a major step towards reaching our goal of developing the best junior racers in the country. Rochester Nordic Racing will work in conjunction with local and regional programs to help support the aspirations of junior skiers in the Mid-Atlantic Division.

This year the summer program will be open to 12 athletes.  Selection will be based on 2008-09 results. Due to the nature of the program prior roller-skiing experience is a must!! Their will be other options throughout the summer for beginners level skiers! Stay tuned! 

E-mail or phone contact must be made with me prior to Sunday May 31^st for those who wish to be a part of the program.

For more information, and registration documents please visit.

www.rochesternordicracing.com