I'd like to recommend another perspective on the Whistler World Cup races from this weekend. Scott was a course marshal at the races and takes really good photos. So you should check out my favorite two photos from the weekend-- the one that opens the post and the one of the ski jumps at the very end.

Labels: 2010 Venue, photos

Tuesday night there was about five minutes of breathtaking gorgeousness. Actually more than five minutes but there was about five minutes just before it started getting really dark that the ski had the most brilliant hues. I would have given a lot to have a tripod and a nice camera.

Kikkan & Jeff checking out the wear on Kikkan's klister skis. That really is one of the nice things about cross country skiing-- you can easily look at the base of your ski without taking it off.

Labels: 2010 Venue, photos

Sometimes I like a series of images instead of just one image.

"Who wants their phot taken in front of stoney?"

"Hey Anders, stand in front of Stoney."

"Southam, go stand with Anders."


"Knight, get over here."


And then one of the volunteers offered to take our photo & Duser finally finished rumaging around in her bag.



and then I went over to look at what the snow sculpture was turning into.



and then a big charter bus came and took us back up to where our van was parked.

the end.

Labels: 2010 Venue, photos

When we first skied on the Callaghan trails the officials were already out and skiers from other countries were already milling around the trails and wax trailers. Usually, at this point on the World Cup I start getting nervous. I start worrying about how fast I am or how fast I'm not. I get super intimidated by all the other athletes who seem to know exactly what they're doing and have important training and ski testing sessions to accomplish.

I was surprised to notice halfway through my ski that I didn't have any of my usual inclination to hide on the remotest trails of Callaghan's extensive trail system. Other athletes were out training, wax techs were out testing, people in "Whistler Olympic Park" jackets were out stringing out wires to power the video cameras and zooming around on snowmobiles. I finally feel comfortable with all of the hub-bub of World Cup races. I haven't stopped being excited about World Cup races, I've just stopped being intimidated by them.

Labels: 2010 Venue

Training in Whistler went well. So well that I'm taking a break in Wenatchee and spent most of the day napping trying to kick a cold. Although it hasn't been a completely lazy day since I got up at 5:30 (okay, I didn't actually roll out of bed until 5:45) to go hiking with my mom before she went to work & Kathleen Koos. I swear my mom is in better shape now than I've ever seen her before. It's pretty reassuring to see that you can grow up without slowing down. And my sister was doing a cross country running race so I went to cheer, which means that I did one of those sprint-stop-sprint-stop kind of workouts... I think I hit 9 different spots on the 1.5mile loop (2 loops). Although I suspect she may have found me more irritating than helpful. It did make me grateful that I don't have to go to a full day of classes before an afternoon race, that can't help you run fast.

Back in Whistler there was lots of good training happening. I felt like I became a better skier over the past ten days. Having so many coaches watching and taking video makes it easy to think about your technique while you're training. Not to mention doing laps around the sprint loop with Vordenburg standing on a corner saying, "this is where the Olympic games are going to be happening" every time we skied past. Getting to watch video of myself rollerskiing and being able to compare it to my teammates over the same section of road and see what they were doing better than I made it pretty clear where I needed to improve.

I will say that the US men's team looked really good last week in the time trials and speeds. Their skiing wasn't half bad either.

---

guest post by kirsten valaas: "kk is the best ever"

Labels: 2010 Venue, wenatchee

Kikkan & I went for an easy run around the venue on Monday. It was nice to get off the pavement and onto some of the other trails. Although, the trails are such meticulously engineered crushed gravel highways that it didn't really feel like we were trail running. It makes for sweet ski trails but it certainly doesn't do much for the summertime aesthetics.

And despite what the pictures may imply we did spend most of the run actually running.

Labels: 2010 Venue, photos

I discovered the Whistler Public Library the other day. I realize that this isn't the biggest or most exciting discovery but it's making my stay at Whistler way more enjoyable. I come home from training and have lunch and then stroll down through the village to the library. Fifteen minutes-- just enough time to enjoy the sunshine and the scene and shift my focus from skiing to financial mathematics. A couple hours studying and then home for the afternoon practice again with a nice walk to banish equations from my mind and start thinking about what I want to accomplish during the afternoon workout. Chair, desk, window, it's perfect. My textbook even had a footnote saying "the history of statistics is entertainingly related in Bernstein (1996)." I thought that sounded like a book I would like to read and so I looked up and the mathematics section was in the aisle right behind me. Sadly, they only had like 10 books even remotely related to mathematics and definitely not Bernstein's ("Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk" in case you were wondering).

Oh how I miss Penrose Library. I used to do my math homework in the basement at the table by the (extensive) math section. There was something reassuring about having all of the famous and esoteric math books right there. Plus, if I needed a break I could go sit in between the aisles and flip through the works of my favorite mathematicians (Poincare, Leibniz, Pascal, Agnesi, nevermind... the list is too long). Although the philosopher-mathematicians had a lot of their works up on the 4th floor in the philosophy section. Despite the lack of books in the Whistler Library it is really nice to have someplace to study.

Training is good, more on actually skiing later.

Labels: 2010 Venue

Morgan Smyth about to fall back.

Rosie Brennan ready to go.

Vordenburg getting the video camera secured to his hand.



We went down to Whistler Bungee Friday afternoon for an off-day activity. Most of the team had previously been bungee jumping but it was my first experience. Not gonna lie, I was a little concerned that I would be too scared to actually jump off the bridge but I managed.



Thanks to RosieB for taking the vid.

Check out TeamToday.org for more sweet photos.

Also there's a way better video on Newell's fasterskier blog.

Labels: 2010 Venue, photos, video

Map of the village (version 3, although now they're working with version 5 so it may be slightly outdated).

We had the good fortune to run into the XC Director for the Olympics at Callaghan Thursday and he got us an invite to check out the Whistler Athlete Village today. It's still off the tourist track-- they did a background check on Vordy to make sure we were really legit and had to get permission from some Olympic Committee in Beijing. They also claim that we're the first athletes other than the Canadian sliding team to check out the village. Being here definitely makes me psyched to come back and race. I want to see the finished product of all this construction!

I was entertained (and actually quite grateful) by the attention the are giving to the needs of the athlete. Listening to our guides I felt like "the athletes" were a sort of different breed with special needs and a finicky temperament. The athletes get there own entrance to the village, here's the main dining hall where the athletes can get whatever they want, we're not going to allow self-serving of food because the athletes we consulted were worried about cross-contamination...

Makes me glad I don't have to cater to any of those spoiled athletes, geez.

Labels: 2010 Venue, photos

Stoney-- the 2010 Olympic mascot seems to have gathered a lot of mini-stoneys around him.

Actually I was glad I stopped yesterday to take a photo because when I skied up the road this morning they were in the process of bulldozing all the little inukshuks. I'm guessing because they were planning on landscaping. By the time we started our team sprint there were no more inukshuks sprouting around Stoney's feet.

Labels: 2010 Venue, photos

We all started each leg together so there was no hand-offs or anything, more like a 2x(3x3min) interval set.

Women
Semi:
Kikkan Randall 3:24, 3:20, 3:14
Lindsay Williams 3:25, 3:21, 3:18
Lindsey Dehlin 3:26, 3:23, 3:27
Liz Stephen 3:26, 3:23, 3:27
Morgan Smyth 3:27, 3:27, 3:27
Laura Valaas 3:28, 3:23, 3:29
Taz Mannix 3:26, 3:27, 3:29
Morgan Arritola 3:27, 3:31, 3:33

Final:
Kikkan Randall 3:14, 3:10, 3:09
Lindsay Williams 3:17, 3:13, 3:17
Liz Stephan 3:19, 3:18, 3:18
Morgan Smyth 3:27, 3:18, 3:18
Lindsey Dehlin 3:21, 3:20, 3:20
Laura Valaas 3:23, 3:31, 3:21
Morgan Arritola 3:31, 3:29, 3:25
Taz Mannix 3:27, 3:29, 3:27

Men
Semi:
Andy Newell 3:21, 3:18, 3:10
Mike Argue 3:24, 3:18, 3:17
Kris Freeman 3:21, 3:18, 3:17
Fred Bailey 3:24, 3:18, 3:17
Dan Roycroft 3:25, 3:19, 3:18
Pat O'Brien 3:21, 3:20, 3:18
Noah Hoffman 3:39, 4:00*, 3:20
Torin Koos 3:23, 3:19, 3:20
Dave Chamberlain 3:27, 3:21, 3:24
Chris Cook 3:25, 3:21, 3:26
Simi Hamilton 3:23, 3:19, --

Final:
Andy Newell 3:13, * , 3:06
Noah Hoffmann 3:15, 3:12, 3:12
Kris Freeman 3:13, 3:11, 3:13
Fred Bailey 3:16, 3:12, 3:15
Chris Cook 3:16, 3:17, 3:15
Pat O'Brien 3:10, 3:11, 3:15
Dan Roycroft 3:16, 3:19, 3:17
Mike Argue 3:16, 3:11, 3:17
Torin Koos 3:14, 3:12, 3:18
Nick Klein 3:14, 3:13, 3:21
Dave Chamberlain 3:18, 3:12, 3:32*

*broke something
--crashed

The results are probably more accurate for the women's race since we all had similar speed rollerskis. The men had a selection of rollerskis plus they finished in a big pack so all of the splits might not be accurate. Team sprinting makes for a long morning.

Labels: 2010 Venue, race, rollerskiing

Torin Koos practicing starts in the Callaghan stadium

Labels: 2010 Venue, photos, rollerskiing

Monday we did a mock Classic sprint. The whole point of training is to get faster at racing and practicing races is a good way to do that.

The qualifier and quarter everyone double poled and in the semi & final heats it was all techniques in the classical genre. Not everyone raced.

Women:

Qualifier:
Kikkan Randall 4:18
Morgan Smyth 4:28
Lindsay Williams 4:32
Laura Valaas 4:34

Quarter (shorter course):
Kikkan Randall 2:50
Laura Valaas 2:55
Lindsay Williams 2:56
Morgan Smyth 2:57

Semi:
Kikkan Randall 2:44
Laura Valaas 2:45
Morgan Smyth 2:51
Lindsay Williams 2:52

Final:
Kikkan Randall 2:42
Laura Valaas 2:44
Lindsay Williams 2:49
Morgan Smyth 2:51

Men:

Qualifier:
Torin Koos 3:49
Andy Newell 3:51
Dan Roycroft 3:57
Pat O'Brien 4:01
Kris Freeman 4:07 (s)
Dave Chamberlain 4:15 (s)
Simi Hamilton 4:20
Mike Argue 4:29
Nick Klein 4:29

Quarter (shorter course):
Torin Koos 3:27
Andy Newell 3:27
Dan Roycroft 3:29
Pat O'Brien 3:33
Kris Freeman 3:44 (s)
Dave Chamberlain 3:49 (s)
Mike Argue 3:54
Simi Hamilton 3:55
Nick Klein 4:02

Semi:
Torin Koos 3:21
Andy Newell 3:21
Kris Freeman 3:23
Pat O'Brien 3:29
Dave Chamberlain 3:33
Simi Hamilton 3:43
Mike Argue 3:50
Dan Roycroft 3:51 (s)
Nick Klein 3:52

Final:
Kris Freeman 3:25
Torin Koos 3:25
Andy Newell 3:25
Dave Chamberlain 3:31
Pat O'Brien 3:32
Dan Roycroft 3:44 (s)
Simi Hamilton 3:44
Mike Argue 3:46
Nick Klein 3:49

Unfortunately, we weren't on the actual sprint course since they haven't finished paving it. Thursday we're doing a Skate Team Sprint in the morning so check in for that. Freeman switched skis with Roycroft after the quarter and the (s) means that person was on noticeably slow rollerskis.

Clearly, I need to work on my qualifying. I've known this for awhile. Goal no. 1 for the 08-09 season.

Labels: 2010 Venue, race, rollerskiing

The fence near the biathlon stadium has been populated with inukshuks by visitors.

Kikkan, Taz & I joined the rest of the US Ski Team in Whistler Saturday afternoon (well, most of the team) for a training camp. We had a nice easy classic ski this morning up the access road to the venue and around some of the paved rollerski trails. It's good to check back in with the US Ski Team coaches and get some more perspectives on technique and training. It does take me a little bit to get accustomed to such close perusal from multiple coaches-- it seemed like a fair bit of time today that either Wadsworth or Whitcomb was pacing me either in a car or on a bike once we got to the trails.

Labels: 2010 Venue, photos

It was a big day for the stadium this morning. We did a mock team sprint, basically 2x3 laps of the sprint course except that we tried to emulate a team sprint so we had about equal rest between intervals and 30minutes between sets. (We all started each interval together instead of tagging off.) It was a good workout, Manu did all of them with us and Mali Noyes jumped in for two near the end also. The boys had a little bigger field which included some of the Sun Valley boys for one set. (Sun Valley is driving home today so they didn't want to do the full workout.)

Garrott Kuzzy



It feels like we have a lot of spectators when we're training around here with all the coaches from our teams and others milling around taking lactate and video and timing. This was the first time I've done lactate this year and if you're into the number here they are:

pre first set: 1.1mmol
post first set: 9.3mmol
pre second set: 1.4mmol
post second set: 9.0mmol
15min post second set: 2.0mmol

I'm no physiologist but I would say that I was recovering well but hopefully with some more speed training my post-interval lactates should increase.

Labels: 2010 Venue, photos

The internet is sketchy so I'm way behind on posting photos-- here are some good ones of Kikkan and me from the team sprint last Sunday.

Labels: 2010 Venue, photos

Another shot of the stadium, a little busier this time. I even caught the infamous Scott on camera (with his back to me in the green jacket) before I found out that it was Scott.

Labels: 2010 Venue, photos

I am certain there's going to be a lot of photographs of this inuksuk pretty soon, but I thought I'd add to the pile. Although I think that this guy might technically be an inunnguaq. Inuksuk are used as directional markers and inunnguaq means an imitation of a person. This is at the entryway to the Nordic/Biathlon/Jumping venue.

Labels: 2010 Venue, photos

My analysis of Squamish is that if you were into real estate speculation and had some capital this would be a good place to purchase. It's got a lot going for it and with the Olympics being held here it's going to start getting a lot more international exposure. There's something about having good rocks in a place that makes that place seem so comforting.

(and, yes, I KNOW that there are no rocks in these pictures, you'll have to trust me for now when I say there are good rocks here.)

Labels: 2010 Venue, photos