Epic Weekend of Results

(Chad and Marty holding Jason up after the Loppet)

Some teams believe that they were the big winners this weekend but don’t let the hype fool you there was only one team throwing it down in NY this weekend!! You guessed it R.N.R!

I will start of with the most impressive result of the weekend and that had to be the 3^rd place that Adam scored at the Section 5 meet. Just last year Adam was 20^th at sectionals yea you read that correctly 20^th. This year 3^rd you better check yourself if you think hard work, dedication, and a good attitude are over-rated! It did not stop there either as the rest of the boys were on it as well with Reed 4^th, Stefan 7^th, and Dylan in 15^th. Adam, Reed, and Stefan will all represent Section 5 at this year’s state meet.

Not to be out done the girls had spectacular races as well. Katie led the way in 2^nd, Alyssa 3^rd, Amy 4^th and Katie 10^th. It’s pretty impressive that all of the girls that participated in the summer program are now headed to states; it speaks volumes about how important it is to get some ski specific training in over the summer.

It’s hard not to be excited about how well the kids are skiing this winter. It is not only a testament to how hard they work but also to how hard there high school coaches work. I don’t know anyone who is as dedicated to the coaching and education of young athletes as Mr. Gardner at HF-L and I would not be where I am in my own life if it were not for him. The same goes for Mrs. Gorbold at Pittsford she puts in many more hours than she will ever be given credit for! Without them NY skiing would not be the same and I have to give them a big shout out !!!

The senior team made the trip north to contest the Lake Placid Loppet. It was the first 50k skate race for all of us and we were able to be the first 3 New Yorkers across the line. Leading the way was Jason 4^th, Marty 6^th and Chad 10^th Overall. As always we go to win the race not our age group so I would be lying if I said we were not a little disappointed with our performances. But we went for it! We did not sign up for the hurt a little 25k or the ski and not destroy our self classic race we went for the big daddy and that’s what it all about! Go big or go home! Kinda like Shawn Payton in the Super Bowl you either have a set or you don’t!

We even sent our senior leader all the way down to the Art Roscoe Loppet. Steve was sent on a mission to avenge his loss from last year but was unable to come through in the clutch. By his own omission he was a “Big Baby” and is already looking forward to next year. He was 3^rd overall and 2nd in his age group but as stated before we are not interested in winning the age class we want the whole dam thing!

As you can see R.N.R was all over the state this past weekend and will be back at it this weekend. Before you even think about leaving a comment I will let you all know that Marty and Jason are headed to Lake Placid for the Nor-Am Biathlon races and they will have there rifles!

We are all looking forward to the NYSSRA Championship weekend in two weeks!! You can bet we will be there for one reason and one reason only!

Placid Post

(Alyssa Leading The Way!)

It was a big weekend of racing for the R.N.R gang as we made the trip north to the Olympic village of Lake Placid. The senior team set up base camp at the “JR” where we were joined by Amy, Stefan and Rob. We kicked off the weekend with the infamous coin game. I thought I was in prime position to secure one of the double beds as I won the preliminary round securing my position as the last one to throw in the money round, but as luck would have it the last two qualifiers came up big when the pressure was on and ended up with the two bigger beds!! Marty and I were relegated to the two single beds for the weekend while Steve and Chad got to enjoy the luxury that the queen beds provided!

The morning of the Skate race we should have known we were in for it as we pulled out of the driveway headed for the venue and got a classic North Country welcome from one of the locals. Marty may have taken his time as he pulled out of the driveway but we had plenty of time to get in to our lane and get on our way, apparently the guy in the pickup coming the other way did not think so and made sure to roll down the window and get his hand out to throw us the bird!!

As we arrived at the venue the A1 cluster F%$#@ was already in full swing! The cold temps overnight had everyone running around switching wax and trying to find more clothes. By the time the first starter was off the sun was out and it was a picture perfect day. The juniors had a big day as they looked to lock of there position on this years JO team. Reed led the way for the boy’s while Alyssa and Amy threw it down in the girl’s races! The senior team did not ski up to expectation and it was decided that to make up for it we would ski the first ½ of the Loppet course in preparation for the upcoming race. Since we really had no idea where we were headed we recruited Jacked Up to give us a tour of his stomping ground. It seemed like we went up a lot of big hills so I’m not really sure if he took us on the real loppet course or his own loppet course! It was a good ski and we even found a few surprises out on the trail. Jacked Up was getting hungry and as usual decided to prey upon the weak!! Law of the jungle baby!

(Only the strong survive)

When we returned to the "JR" we were treated to a first class meal prepared by Amy, Stefan, and Rob. After dinner we had a bunch of visitors stop over and it was great to catch up with everyone. I caught a little grief for not keeping up with the blog but i'm not going to mention any names (Gabby)!

Sunday was the 15k mass start classic race. It was a quality suffer-fest for most. There was an early move by the boys from Craftsbury and the rest of us were forced to give chase. We had a good chase pack of 8-10 unfortunately Chad and I fell of the back on the second lap. I’m not exactly sure how everyone ended up overall as the results have not been posted on-line. Post race reports were mostly positive except for Adam who decided he would try out his wax-less skis. Needless to say it was not a good day for that!

As usual the NYSEF crew put on a great event and it was hard to leave and make the trip south. What was even worse than leaving Lake Placid was what I awoke to this morning 55 degrees and pouring rain, needless to say the skiing in Rochester at the moment is questionable at best. Not good.

(Some were more tired than others on the trip home "Big Baby a.k.a Coin Game Winner")

The Mark of The Beast !?!?

The snow has finally arrived here in Western NY and as usual the race season has arrived with it. This past weekend most of the crew made the trip to Glens Falls for the second JO Qualifier of the year. There were over 500 racers that took part in the festivities. Yea you read that correctly over 500!! That is a big race in any neck of the woods but for NY thats HUGE!!

I could not think of a better place for this race to be either! With that many racers you really want to be sure to have narrow trails, and one big steep hill !!!! It adds to the excitement and to the memories for sure! I do have to give to the entire Underwood family and all of the volunteers big props for pulling the race off and to Reliable Racing who supplied some great gifts to the winners!!

As for the race it went well for everyone. We really had some good results. In the J2 girls race Alyssa continued her excellent season with a solid 2nd place finish just 8 seconds back. In the J1 girls race Amy also had an excellent race finishing 5th. Not to be out done the boy's went off in the J1 race and all finished in the top 10 with Reed leading the way in 4th, Adam in 5th, and Stefan in 10th.

With all the talking that has been taking place on the NYSSRA Blog I decided it was time for Chad, Marty and I to strap on the skis and get after it as well. I'm not going to lie we had one mission and that was to go 1,2,3 and sweep the podium. The plan did not play out as I had hoped but we were able to go 2,3,6 so it was not a total loss. Thankfully we brought along Steve as he provided our only victory on the day winning the M5 race!!!

Congratulations to Charlie Bencze and Carly Wynn for taking home the J1/OJ boys and girls races!!

On a interesting side note R.N.R is now in 3rd place in the 2009-2010 NYSSRA Club Championship Series. I'm not exactly sure how this whole point thing works but it seems as though it is based on participants not actual results. Meaning if your team has 100 skiers and mine has 10 even if we go 1-10 we still lose?!?! Interesting? Even more interesting is that face that R.N.R current point total is 666.

Beware of the BEAST!!! We are after you all!!!!!

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!