Kongsberger Classic Races

We lucked out on Saturday, with the feared rainshowers holding off until after we finished our post-race warmdown ski.  Nice job racers, as you will see from the timing analysis below, everyone improved over their previous year's time (when we only skied one lap instead of two).

Racer         2011 4k        2010 2k      (2010 4k est.)
Elise           23:01             n/a               n/a
Natasha      23:41            12:10           24:20
RuthMabel  24:02            12:30           25:00
Amelia M.   29:55            13:51           27:42  [but there was some skating last year :) ]
Emma         32:20             n/a               n/a

Racer          2011 2k        2010 2k
Hanne         11:38            12:36

and for Sunday's race

Racer       2011 10k      2010 10k
Elise         50:22            50:59
Hanne      1:03:28          n/a

As you can see, with just doubling the time from last year and not considering any 2nd lap dropoff, everyone STILL beat their time from last year!  Way to go!

Amelia charging for the finish

Emma getting into perfect
double pole position

Elise, Natasha, and RuthMabel
cruising on the 2nd lap

Mazama Ski Rodeo!

Howdy racers!

We had a great turnout in the Methow over New Years, with many team members and SNC friends in the valley. It seemed like every other person that Shannon and I saw on the trails or at the race was a friend from teaching or racing. We had some fun get togethers, including a New Years Eve potluck, a swim session at the River Run pool, two nights of Sticks 'n Pucks at the Winthrop ice rink (what a blast!), and of course ski outings and the race on Saturday morning. Congratulations to all the SNC racers, some of whom skied a full 9km on Friday and then raced 5km on Saturday!

Full results can be found at this link: http://www.mvsta.com/winter/results.html

5km race results for the SNC team were:
FJ3
1 330 Carolyn Lober Seattle 0:31:55
FJ2
1 319 Andi Zontek Wenatchee 0:16:56
2 315 Olivia Ekblad Winthrop 0:17:38
3 310 Elise Putnam Winthrop 0:17:56
4 322 Kealani Paton Cashmere 0:18:52
5 302 Meg Englert Seattle 0:25:31
6 306 RuthMabel Boytz Seattle 0:27:40
7 323 Amelia Miller Seattle 0:28:54
8 313 Sarah Lober Seattle 0:30:14
FJ1
1 307 Helen Miller Seattle 0:25:34
MM3/MM4
1 305 Paul Nelson Carnation 0:31:55


Everyone turned in a great effort and laid down some base times to shoot for over the rest of the season. It was cold, about +10F at race time, and the snow was a little slow and scratchy, but what a beautiful day for racing! We waxed up six pair of skis with blue glide wax the night before, and that helped get us a little better glide than we had the day before during the workout. I was very proud of all our racers, and also the family members that braved standing around in cold weather to ring cowbells, hold jackets, and take pictures!

There are lots more photos available at the MVSTA website, and we'll get a few more up on the blog later. Thanks for a great pre-season outing, and I'm looking forward to our official Week 1 workout this Saturday. Updated schedule post will be up later tonight (this morning?).

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!