Footage from this weekend's time trail for APU. I was not partaking.

Sprint on trail along access road into Kincaid Park:

I will help you out and say that there's no skiing between 1:23-1:36, 1:56-2:36, and 2:57-3:41.



Sprinters were: Anders Haugen, Bart Dengel, Mike HInckley, Katie Ronsse, Greta Anderson.

The distance course was about 1hr and did loops around the Sandlake/Jodhpur/SkyMountain neighborhood before finishing near the Kincaid chalet.

part 1:



Part 2:



Distance racers were: Brent Knight, Mark Iverson, Dylan Watts, Erin Phillips, Holly Brooks, Becca Rorabaugh, Kate Fitzgerald, and Kate Arduser.

Labels: race, rollerskiing, video

So I was out for a rollerski...

And a deer darted out from my left and sprinted across the road with a nice low start from standing to get up to speed which I admired, having been working on that myself recently. The deer, however, failed to realize that there was a fence along the right hand side of the road, plowed head first into it and its hindquarters crumpled into its head from the momentum.

So I stood there watching this deer jerk its entire body around trying to free its head from a barbed wire fence, completely at a loss over what I should be doing in such a situation. I was still trying to figure it out when the deer freed itself and bolted down the road away from me.

Right about this time I noticed that it had turned from dusk to full nighttime and I interpreted almost getting run over by a deer to be a sign that I should turn around and ski home. When a car comes at you with its brights on it's just as blinding when you're rollerskiing as when you're driving, just saying. No wonder the deer freeze in the middle of the road and get hit. I felt like a blinded deer a couple of times on the way home.

By the time I got back it was dark enough that I could hardly see the road surface. I felt like I was floating as I skied. Which is a feeling I prefer to have on snow in the dark when falling has fewer consequences.

Why I am in Kentucky is a back story for another day. I will say that the rollerskiing here is phenomenal. Imagine winding blacktop back roads along a lakeside through old southern homes. Imagine tree-lined lanes and perfect temperatures. Imagine no traffic and hills where every down smoothly transitions into another up.

Labels: Kentucky, rollerskiing

We had our first rollerski race on Saturday. Even though it was super low key I realized that it had been forever since I'd put on a race bib. All this training sometimes gets in the way of racing! I set a PR by three seconds. Which is a very small PR, but still my fastest time over this course so far! I would also like to point out that there were more girls racing than boys. I'm liking the gender equality that I'm seeing these days in skiing.

Labels: race, rollerskiing

KINCAID STAMPEDE RESULTS

Labels: race, rollerskiing

Laura Valaas followed closely by Katie Ronsse.
Bart leading out the men's race.

I'm in a rush so you'll have to decipher Rob Whitney's chicken scratch. Full results will probably be posted on the APUNSC website soon. Thanks to Taz for taking the photos!

Labels: kincaid, race, rollerskiing

Labels: race, rollerskiing

As I approached the cluster of traffic cones I was pretty sure I'd have to turn around and find another route back to my car but I decided to check with the flagger dude anyway. Before I could even say anything he assured me I could go on through, they were only closing one lane so car traffic couldn't go westbound but I would be fine, just watch out. (I was heading down from O'Malley/Hillside Dr. or whatever it's called back to the Hillside parking lot.)

The only question I had was, "are there any unpaved sections?"

"What? Oh, no, just watch out, you'll be fine."

As soon as I'd really irrevocably committed to descending I spotted a very nice trough across the road where they had dug up the pavement. I though, "oh dear, this is not ideal" and then I stabbed my poles into the trough and jumped over it. I made it, but I wouldn't choose to try it again.

The moral of the story is definitely double check before going down any hills when there's road construction underway.

Labels: rollerskiing

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

1. Kikkan Randall 23:20
2. Laura Valaas 23:36
3. Kristina Strandberg 23:46
4. Taz Mannix 24:57
5. Becca Rorabaugh 25:03
6. Katie Ronsse 25:21
7. Kate Fitzgerald 25:56
8. Jamie Bronga 27:14
9. Rachelle 27:32
10. Caitlin 27:37
11.
12. Greta
13. Ali Ross 29:21
14. Kalysta Schmidt 29:39
15. Mackenzie 29:50
16. Becca Mamrol 30:34
17. Sarah Tegeler 30:50
18. Emily R 31:00
19. Celia Haering 31:16
20. Annie 31:19

Sorry about the last names... I don't know them all. And I also took two different pictures of the women's result list and missed no. 11 and Greta's time. I'm sure official results with teams and ski types will be up soon on the APUNSC website. Almost all the racers were APU, AK WinterStars or UAA athletes.

I felt solid. Skied hard the whole time. I will say that although I have Marwes like everyone else was using, mine do seem to be a lot faster.

Labels: race, rollerskiing

1. Lars Flora 27:49
2. Jeff Ellis 28:10
3. Anders Haugen 28:21
4. Maz Treinen 28:39
5. Lex Treinen 28:40
6. Bart Dengel 28:50
7. Mike 28:51
8. Erik Packer 29:01
9. Mark Iverson 29:25
10. Raph Wunderle 31:19
11. Don Haering 31:20
12. Cole 31:41
13. Scott 32:29
14. Noah 35:09
15. Rich 35:20
16. Neal 36:12
17. Dan 38:41
18. Kyle 39:22
19. Silas 40:08

There was also a 6k race for the sport category or whatever you want to call it but I didn't take a picture of those results.

Labels: race, rollerskiing

I was driving over to meet Ronsse to carpool to practice the other morning. It was 49°F and raining, I would even go so far as to say pouring. I was far from excited at the prospect of putting on my ski boots and watching the rain drip off my helmet in front of my face for two hours. It seemed like maybe a good morning to stay home and read some of Nabokov's delightfully morbid short stories. But Ronsse was waiting to carpool and the rest of the team was waiting at Potter marsh and it was probably going to be raining the next day too so it's not like waiting for good weather was an option.

Ronsse got in the car and said, "it's been forever since I've been rollerskiing in the rain.."

"me too," I replied glumly before she could finish with,

"I'm excited about it!"

as much as I hate admitting that my mom is ever right there's something to be said for attitude.

Labels: rollerskiing

APU had a time trial this morning up Potter Valley Rd. (Started at the marsh parking lot, out & back on Old Seward Hwy, up the hill.) Even though it was a small field and very low key it was good to do a "ski" race again. I felt pretty consistently strong through the whole thing, not quite hanging on to Kristina Strandberg toward the end of the climb.

Kikkan pulled off the front early and won with Strandberg in 2nd and then myself. I can tell you that my time was 24:05 and that the last time I did this course on 8/4/08 it was 25:07. Being able to compare times over the years is a good endorsement for keeping a thorough training log. The course record is 23-something.

Southam won the men's race and Jeff Ellis was second. Strandberg's sidekick didn't come out to race. I was pleased to see Southam and Ellis racing so well today since they both had off season's last year. My hope with Southam is that since he trained so hard last year (and believe me, he did) he set himself up to come into this year with a huge base and ready to race fast this season. And with Ellis, obviously, now that he's skiing with both arms again he should have a better season.

I really didn't do a very good job as a note-taker and can't tell you much more about the results than that.

Labels: race, rollerskiing

Getting in some rollerskiing on Hillside Drive on Friday and watching the snow line creep down the mountainsides.

photo by Miss Ronsse.

Labels: photos, rollerskiing

The start of the women's race at Kincaid Park.

This afternoon was nice and clear for the Kincaid stampede mass start classical rollerski race. There was a 6km race and a 12km race. For some reason they always want the women to do the shorter races. Not something I understand, but that's how "they" do it.

Taz Mannix was my obliging photographer today so all of these photos are thanks to her. Taz only recently has returned to Anchorage from being home recovering from appendicitis so she wasn't racing and got to hone her photography skills instead of her double-pole today. We missed her terribly while she was gone and are very glad to have her back at practice. I'm sure that Mishka was glad to have her home in Talkeetna for awhile though. Mishka is Taz's pet polar bear and hasn't gotten ridden much since Taz moved to Anchorage to train and attend APU.

Kate "I'm tougher than you and you know it" Arduser

Brent "At some point in my career I want to be a male model" Knight

Kalysta "I'm going to beat you and look hot doing it" Schmidt

Mikey "Chuck Norris" Matteson

Katie "You only think I'm cute until I pass you" Ronsse

Labels: photos, race, rollerskiing