Pre-season ski get together on Dec. 18th

Howdy racers!

Let's get together for a pre-season ski workout/tour on Sat. 12/18. We can ski at the Hyak snopark or at the Summit Nordic trails, depending on what's open (probably the snopark, since the chair will not be running yet - unless the rain this weekend wrecks the track at the snopark).

Food/videos/equipment-care/fun later on at our cabin in Alpental.

Email to follow, let me know if you can make it up! Time TBD, probably 9am or 10am?

email is paul2tele@yahoo.com

2011 Season!!

It's late June October, and time to get serious panic about the upcoming ski season.

It's been a busy year for me, and I am looking forward to "getting back to normal" with the SNC Race Team this year. The attached event calendar will give you an idea of the schedule, with plenty of race events both near (Cabin Creek) and far (Bend).

There are three Junior Olympic Qualifier (JOQ) races in the division this year, and I plan to travel to all three if there are racers interested in competing. They are well spaced on the calendar, and offer an excellent chance to participate with the other division clubs in some first-class competitive and festive events. JOQ weekends are:

Jan. 8/9 Bend, OR
Feb. 5/6 Winthrop, WA
Feb. 19/20 Cabin Creek, Snoq. Pass WA

The JOQ races are GREAT events, and offer a chance to ski with and against some of the best skiers in the Northwest - that includes YOU! There are also several "local" races at Cabin Creek and Leavenworth that we can participate in.

The (more or less) complete event calendar looks like this:

Possible Club/Team trips might include:

- Silver Star at Thanksgiving ** update, doesn't look like I'll be there **
- Methow between Xmas and New Year's (Ski Rodeo is on 1/1/11, I'll be there 12/29-1/2).
- Bend JOQ on Jan. 8/9
- Skirennen on Jan. 15 - Leavenworth Golf Course
- Gunnar Hagen classic race on Jan. 16 - Cabin Creek
- Jenteloppet on Jan. 23 - Hyak/IronHorse?
- Bavarian Cup on Jan. 29/30 (overnight in Leavenworth?)
- Methow JOQ on Feb. 5/6
- Chicks on Sticks on Feb. 6 - Leavenworth Fish Hatchery
- Kongsberger JOQ on Feb. 19/20 (overnight at WAC, our chalet?)
- J3 Championships at Whitefish, MT on Feb. 26/27
- wouldn't it be great is someone qualified for JO's in Minnesota??!!

More to come on program details, uniforms, and ski gear - watch this space!

Jente Loppet info

Race starts at 10am, so let's plan to meet at 9am for our usual warmup and course preview.



The 5km group will start just after the mass start for the 10km group.



plan to arrive a little early if you are registering day-of-race.

Chicks on Sticks preliminary results and report

Well, wasn't that fun!!!

Official results are not posted yet, but I have some estimates based on accurate first lap splits, and estimated finish times (I have Robin finishing as the sweeper in a total time of 44:08, so everyone beat the 45 minute mark!).  My map software doesn't show the river, but my crude first attempt at measuring the course comes out at 3.5km per lap.  So these are GREAT TIMES for a 7km race, and on par with the times we saw at the Ski Hill trails a month ago for just 5km.  Here's what my estimates look like:

Racer Lap One Lap Two Total


Galen 0:12:05 0:13:22 0:25:27

Elise 0:12:37 0:14:53 0:27:30

Meg 0:13:30 0:16:00 0:29:30

RuthMabel 0:16:40 0:17:10 0:33:50

Emma 0:19:10 0:20:05 0:39:15

Amelia 0:20:08 0:23:56 0:44:04

Robin 0:20:10 0:23:58 0:44:08

On a flat course like this, you can see how important it is to have good V2 and V2alt technique so you can get efficient long glide at a decent pace, but without running out of steam.  Keep thinking about getting the poles lined up down the track, instead of out to the sides - you want all the effort going in the direction of travel.

Next week at Cabin Creek will be another 5km freestyle race, we skied the first half of the loop at the classic race in January, so we all know that portion.  The rest of the course is similar, and the 5km distance is one lap.  Total elevation profile will be similar to the Leavenworth Ski Hill course.  We'll work on some V1 before the race during our warmup.  Pre-race blog post will go up on Thursday.  I'll try to get some of the video I've taken posted during the week.

Photos are up on Picasa at: http://picasaweb.google.com/paul2tele/ChicksOnSticks2010#

Don't forget to watch for Holly at the Olympics!  You could all be there someday too!

Chicks on Sticks this Saturday

Details for the race on Saturday at Leavenworth: http://www.skileavenworth.com/event/chicks

Let's meet at the registration area at 8:30am (I'll be shooting to get there at 8:00).  We'll need to pick up bibs and get out on the trails for a preview and warmup.  The course is on the Fish Hatchery portion of the Icicle Creek trails, which is nearly dead-flat.  We'll all be skating, unless someone just HAS to do classic.  This will be an 8K race, which will likely take us between 45 minutes to an hour.  This is a great distance to work on pacing and trying to keep good V2 and V2alt technique together over a longer ski time.  Just remember that the Mt. Catherine Loop is a longer, more difficult ski, and we've all done that just fine!  Plan to ski with a water bottle or camelback, and we'll see about coordinating water/snacks near the lap/finish area for those not carrying with them.

By my count, we have seven racers participating, and I think you're all staying over in Leavenworth on Friday night (?): Galen, Amelia B., Amelia M., Elise, Emma, Meg, and RuthMabel.

This is a Women-only event, so I won't be able to sweep this week, or next week either.  But I will be moving around the edges of the course a bit to offer encouragement and pester you (depending on your point of view), and hopefully get some more good video that we can break down later.

The weather forecast looks good, overcast and above freezing - probably in the mid-30s at race time.  So red/pink glide wax again for anyone fine-tuning their skis tomorrow night.

I can't wait!

Updated Schedule

Re-posting to get the edited schedule at the top of the pile.

Updated Schedule (edited 1/27/10)
Jan. 2--Kick-off Workout--Summit Nordic Center (Hyak)
Jan. 9--Skirennen race--Leavenworth
Jan. 16--Workout--Hyak--Iron Horse
Jan. 23--Gunnar Hagen Kids' Races--Cabin Creek
Jan 24--Gunnar Hagen race--Cabin Creek
Jan. 30--Workout--Summit Nordic Center (Hyak)
Feb. 6--Chicks on Sticks race--Leavenworth
Feb. 13--Jente Loppet race (women)--Cabin Creek
Feb. 20--Workout or JOQ Weekend--TBD or Spokane
Feb. 27--Workout or Hogloppet--TBD or Mission Ridge
Mar. 6--End of season workout--Hyak (Summit or Iron Horse)

Supertour Pictures

Here's a few shots of Snoqualmie Nordic racers at the Methow Supertour classic race on 1/17

Galen!

Nathalie!

Jeff Borg!













Way to go, racers!

Cabin Creek videos from 1/23

I can't for the life of me figure out how to post videos to the blog page (yeah, I know I managed to do it on my VERY FIRST POST...button seems to be missing now - maddening).  So, it's YouTube time!

Here is the double pole drill.  We're looking for good forward lean at initiation, driving the poles into the snow and through with an agressive move, starting with the abdominal crunch, proper pole angle, follow through, flat back at finish, recovery and smooth transition to the next stroke.
Double Pole Drill 1/23/10

And the striding drill.  We're looking for kick DOWN (not back) good reach and forward lean to the gliding ski, balancing on each new ski, proper pole angle, and delayed pole timing to get the 4-count.
Diagonal Stride Drill 1/23/10

2K Race Start!
Cabin Creek 2K Race Start 1/23/10

2K Race Finish Part A (Natasha, RuthMabel, Meg)
2K Race Finish part A

2K Race Finish Part B (Amelia & Amelia)
2K Race Finish part B

Gunnar Hagen race report

We had a great time last Saturday at the Kongsberger Ski Club hosted classic races!  The weather held off, and when the groomer made his pre-race pass over the course we had perfect classic track conditions.  We started the day with some technique work on double-poling and stride timing, and were able to preview the course during our warmup.  After lunch we were ready to go!  Despite a slight mishap at the start line, everyone did great!  I forgot to re-iterate that there is NO SKATING in a classic race (sorry Amelia!), but no harm done.  Kudos to Amelia Brown for skiing the entire race with a twisted ankle after the start-line crash.  I was very proud of everyone's effort, and we saw some great results (and here they are...):

2K course – up road, around Berg course, PK loop
Place Bib # Name Age Time

1 5 Lydia Youkey 11 10:49
2 16 Liam Voorhees 11 12:07
3 18 Natasha Dietz 12 12:10
4 30 RuthMabel Boyntz 13 12:30
5 22 Hanne Boveng 11 12:36
6 23 Uhuru Hashimoto 10 12:37
7 32 Meg Englert 13 12:46
8 31 Amelia Miller 13 13:51 some skate?
9 29 Amelia Brown 13 13:57
10 21 Karsten Hendrickson 12 14:01
11 1 Magnus Melbourne 10 14:39
12 2 Nils Melbourne 8 14:40
13 17 Blair Vorhees 9 14:46
14 15 Dominic Mathias 10 15:04
15 19 Katrina Hendrickson 9 15:26
16 6 Arryn Owens 9 15:36
17 9 Heidi Seemiller 9 15:59
18 25 Apollo Hashimoto 6 16:15
19 12 Annika Repsher 9 16:18
20 10 Isak Larson 8 16:39
21 37 Max Hanscomb 8 18:45

Galen's brother Liam and cousin Blair also had great races.

On Sunday, Nathalie and Elise raced in the 10km division, and both placed 1st in their age groups!  Here are their results:

10k Womens - Overall Results

Class Place BIB Name Hometown Finish Overall

J2 1 137 Andi Zontek Wenatchee 0:33:09 1
SR 1 113 Kira Peterson Walla Walla 0:34:13 2
OJ 1 107 Aurora Bowers Walla Walla 0:35:01 3
M4 1 117 Lisa Newton Seattle 0:36:23 4
J1 1 116 Nathalie Cushing Shoreline 0:37:06 5
J2 2 133 Becca Wells Leavenworth 0:37:40 6
M1 1 110 Jessica Kleiss Seattle 0:39:30 7
M5 1 118 Joy Cordell Seattle 0:42:41 8
J1 2 153 Jennifer Schmidt Seattle 0:42:58 9
J1 3 155 Rebecca Myhre Seattle 0:46:02 10
M2 1 121 Ida Ottesen Seattle 0:48:50 11
M3 1 135 Anne Johansen Ellensburg 0:48:57 12
J2 3 146 Jillian Gerke Seattle 0:49:59 13
J3 1 127 Elise Stacy Seattle 0:50:59 14
J2 4 157 Riley Mehring Seattle 0:51:33 15
M5 2 111 Susan Main Bothell 0:52:23 16
M3 2 131 Cindy Tsuji Kirkland 1:04:46 17
M1 2 128 Danielle Wain Seattle 1:04:51 18
M3 3 126 Jennifer Lucas Kirkland 1:07:06 19
M3 4 120 Ellen Aagaard Seattle 1:19:04 20
M3 138 Sevin Bilir Seattle DNF
J2 152 Grace Stonecipher Seattle DQ

Congratulations to everyone!

Updated schedule for the next 3 weeks

Here is our updated schedule (I will also be editing the original schedule posting to match):

Jan. 30th - team workout at the Summit Nordic Center (Hyak) - meet in the lodge at 9:30am, bring both skate and classic gear.  We will be starting on skate gear on the upper trails, unless conditions warrant a change.

Feb. 6th - Chicks on Sticks race in Leavenworth (8km skate) Event details and registration:
http://www.skileavenworth.com/event/chicks
This will be a great opportunity to ski a slightly longer distance race, on a relatively flat course that will allow us to focus on technique and pacing.

Feb. 13th - Jente Loppet race at Cabin Creek (5km skate) Event details and registration:
http://www.kongsbergers.org/Jente%202010a.html
There is also a 10km option for older kids who want to do two laps instead of one.

See you all on Saturday!

Holly makes it!

Holly Brooks was added to the US Olympic Team yesterday, and is on her way to Canmore for world cup racing this Friday and training for the Olympics.  Woo Hoo!  No word yet on which events she might be skiing in, but as an all-distance performer this season she could be on the start list for any/all events.

Story in the Anchorage Daily News is here:

http://www.adn.com/sports/olympics/story/1110936.html

Way to go Holly!

US Olympic Team Announced

Here's a story in the Anchorage Daily News about the ski team selection

http://www.adn.com/sports/olympics/story/1100366.html

Cross your fingers that Holly Brooks can still get a spot on the team!

Interesting article at FasterSkier about the possibility of extra US team spots

http://fasterskier.com/2010/01/additional-quota-analysis-us-and-canada-to-gain-spots/

Survey says?

I sent an email to the group to see if we want to hit the kids' CLASSIC race this Saturday at Kongsbergers instead of skiing at the Hyak nordic center.  Please send me an email back or leave a comment here on the blog.  Race info at http://www.kongsbergers.org/.  I have copies of the waiver form that I will email out shortly.

Congratulations to Nathalie and Galen for their race performances at the Methow Super Tour this past weekend, and also for skiing the headlamp race at K-berg this week.  Can't wait to hear the stories!

Skirennen Race Photos!

Thanks to Robin for taking these great photos at the race last week!  I'm going through the video snippets that John took, and will get those up soon.

http://picasaweb.google.com/sncpix/Skirennen201002#

Galen and Nathalie will be at the Methow Super Tour this weekend - good luck and have fun!

Skirennen Recap

We had a great day for racing yesterday in Leavenworth, with some recent snow, excellent grooming, and cooperative weather. I was really proud of all the girls and the way they skied. This was the first 5km race ever for several, and the first of the season for all. I thought everyone paced themselves pretty well, and we learned how it feels to ski hard for 25-30 minutes in the midst of a swirling competitive atmosphere. I haven't been able to download the video yet (still looking for my datacard reader), but will put a few of those up on the blog with comments later on.

Here are the age group results for the 5km:

F 12-13 (J3)
1) 0:20:34 Charlotte Massey
2) 0:20:36 Kate Whitten
3) 0:23:15 Elise Stacy
4) 0:26:23 Meg Englert
5) 0:33:52 Amelia Miller
6) 0:34:23 Emma Thomas

F 14-15 (J2)
1) 0:16:49 Andi Zontek
2) 0:17:33 Kealani Paton
3) 0:19:31 Rebecca Wells
4) 0:21:11 bettye eifert
5) 0:24:51 Galen Voorhees


It's expected that the Leavenworth and Methow kids will be faster than us, especially at this time of year, as they can ski 7 days a week and have much more on-snow time than we do at this point. But as you can see, we are not that far off - shaving just 10 seconds per km would improve everyone's time by nearly a full minute, and 20-25 seconds per km would put us right in the mix. Think about it this way: 25min for 5km is 5min/km (=300sec/km), so knocking off 20sec/km is a reduction of only 7%, yet this would result in an overall time of about 23:20, a reduction of 1min 40sec.

I hope you all had as much fun as I did yesterday, congratulations to you all! Watch for some video later on, and notes on the upcoming schedule.

Holly Brooks 2nd at Nationals today in the 20k Classic!

Following up her 4th in the freestyle sprints, and 7th in the 10k freestyle, former SNC racer Holly Brooks made the podium today at the US Nationals and Olympic Trials! Will this be enough to get her on the US Olympic Team, coupled with her "second by a boot length" finish at last year's Birkie, and outstanding showing at the West Yellowstone races?

Official website and results at: http://www.anchoragenordicski.com/nationals10/results.html

V1 Take two - 1/2/10

Here's the second video session from Saturday, after we worked on pole position and duration (rotation and move to the recovery ski while the poles are still in contact). Notice how much more continuous glide is happening, without the loss of momentum that we saw some of in take one. This is the kind of thing that makes our skiing more efficient, free extra glide as a result of proper positioning - and no additional energy required to do it!



A few more tweaks (reach up, step up, skis and hands closer depending on terrain), and then repeat, repeat, repeat....

Snoqualmie Nordic Club Jr. Racing Program!

SNC Junior Racing is a 10-week program designed to allow the continued development of young skiers age 13-19 who are interested in high performance technique and racing. Workouts will include instruction in both skating and classic techniques, some work with waxing and equipment care, and video analysis. We will take advantage of some of the local races, so those who are interested can participate. The goal of the program is to be fun, instructive, and challenging, so that young skiers will find something new and exciting about Nordic skiing every year.

Updated Schedule (edited 1/27/10)

Jan. 2--Kick-off Workout--Hyak—Summit Nordic
Jan. 9--Skirennen race--Leavenworth
Jan. 16--Workout--Hyak (Summit or Iron Horse)
Jan. 23--Gunnar Hagen Kids' Races--Cabin Creek
Jan 24--Gunnar Hagen race--Cabin Creek
Jan. 30--Workout--Summit Nordic Center (Hyak)
Feb. 6--Chicks on Sticks race--Leavenworth
Feb. 13--Jente Loppet race (women)--Cabin Creek
Feb. 20--Workout or JOQ Weekend--TBD or Spokane
Feb. 27--Workout or Hogloppet--TBD or Mission Ridge
Mar. 6--End of season workout--Hyak (Summit or Iron Horse)

V1, take one - 1/2/10

Here's the first video I shot of our V1 technique early in the workout. Pretty good base technique (especially after a long off-season). Some small timing issues and some "arm swim", and a bit of grinding down (loss of glide). Compare this to the 2nd take, which was about 45 minutes later.