Warning to Avid Skiers

Greetings DNer's,

I've been asked to make a few posts by Coach Steve leading up to the season.

For those of you that haven't met me yet, I'm excited to be one of the Athletic Beginner ski coaches again this year, so I'll have you doing some goofy (but productive!) classic drills on the snow as soon as we can get a track out there.

For my first post, I wanted to feature this cautionary tale from CBC Radio about what can happen if you get too involved with the cross-country skiing community.

Is cross-country skiing Canada's most morally corrupt sport?

Thanks to Geoff Gibson for sharing this gem.

SnowSisters ski race

Information for this year's SnowSisters Ski Race can be found here:  http://snowsistersski.blogspot.ca/

Also, you can check out the video from last year!

Tentative Adult Schedule

Hey everyone,
Here is our tentative schedule for the year.  There may be a bit of fine-tuning, but this is generally what we have planned for our adult programs.

If you want to register for the adult programs, go here: DN Zone4 registration

Registration closes December 4th!

Also, dryland training continues at Westview Park on the north side on Thurdays at 7PM

Click on each calendar to enlarge it

Quite the graphic of double pole technique:

Found it here: http://www.langrenn.com/grundig-og-vitenskapelig-gjennomgang-hva-er-egentlig-effekten-av-lengre-staver-i-staking.5914485-1743.html

Found this video in Norwegian -- these are drills to improve your running:

Blink roller ski festival:

http://www.blinkfestivalen.no/home

women's roller ski sprint from last year -- watch the double poling at 3:15 of this video:

Men's roller-ski pursuit highlights



A great series of training & technique videos

https://www.ski-lines.com/articles/21488-sprinting-with-roman-schaad

https://www.ski-lines.com/articles/21324-double-pole-sprints-with-pellegrino

https://www.ski-lines.com/articles/21245-double-pole-technique-with-stian-hoelgaard-of-team-leaseplan

https://www.ski-lines.com/articles/20871-team-leaseplan-sprint-training

https://www.ski-lines.com/articles/20849-strength-training-with-team-leasplan

Ski Tour Canada - the full recap

Well the daily blogging didn't quite work out, but here is the full recap of what went down in Canmore.

The first day I was there was a training day for the athletes.  I spent the day watching athletes (noting how none of them quite had the technique of our very own Jacek), texting people to brag about how awesome this was, and then spent a few hours at the local business supplies store trying to make ... The Northug:

The first day of racing was the classic sprint and Floyd joined me and The Northug.

Wax techs testing out the skis:

Jessie Diggins getting ready:

 

Jessie is actually a dual citizen of Canada and the US.  Her parents were both Canadian (and actually lived in Winnipeg for a short while).  As the day wore on, I was referring to her as "Canada's own Jessie Diggins ..."

 

Floyd, a fellow from Long Island, and myself got a "Jessie, Jessie, ..." chant going in the finals.  This was what Jessie recently wrote on her blog:

"And in Canmore, it was such a rush of adrenaline when the entire sprint hill started chanting my name during the final. That was, at the risk of sounding totally cheesy, a magical moment for me. "

Once again, Downtown Nordic dominating the world one chant at a time.

Sundby leading out his heat double-poling the first climb - not bad:

 

Northug decided to ease up in the sprint.  Here he is pausing on the hill to turn around and watch the finish of his own race. ... or perhaps he just wanted to get a closer look at The Northug

 

Here's the Northug trying to get an autograph:

The crystal globe presentation for the sprint world cup was done right after the race.

 

One thing that I noticed is the winner of the crystal globe gets this special carrying case for it ...

 

Evening awards ceremony in downtown Canmore

 

They did the presentation of the crystal globe again -- there the special case!

 

Start of the skiathlon on Wedneday

 

Tim and Jeff sprinting for the time bonus

 

Jeff takes it!

 

Jeff now driving to the line ...

 

 

Completely collapses at the finish ...

 Jeff wearing the bib he got from Devon Keshaw (Jeff had this neat trick where he was telling people that "I told my son/daugheter that I would (put significant demand of star athlete here)".  It worked brilliantly.

I wanted to try the same trick so I told Sundby that I told my nephew that I would get a video for him of  Sndby singing Bon Jovi's "You give love a bad name" at the top of his lungs.  For some reason this trick did not work for me.

Jeff also got to spend one day helping out the National Team Coaching staff ... (yes he really did)

 

Alex Harvey going to the start of the Individual Skate race

 

Northug collapsed at the finish -- he sat there for a good 4 or 5 minutes.

Now this is the picture Jeff took of Sergei Ustigov (the overall tour leader at this point) just before the picture he missed taking of me high-fiving Sergei.  Thanks Jeff.

Heidi Weng warming up with her wax tech
 

And here's The Northug driving the bus

Magnificat at the point were he drops Harvey on the climb out of the stadium

 

Start of the skiathlon -- looks like your average Downtown Nordic Interval practice!

 

Johaug making the pass that would give her the overall title at the Ski Tour

More crystal globes at the prize ceremony

 

... and more special carrying cases!

 

Here I'm trying to find an optimal angle to get on TV

 

And there we go:

Jeff making the dash to get a picture with Johaug

 Yes, cutting in front of 50 kids waiting to get their autograph with Johaug does payoff ...

 Me and The Northug:

Sundby getting a picture with Tim

 

As the event drew to a close, The Northug was passed on to some rather lively Swedish fans ...

 

 

  

And finally, here is Justyna K asking where her idol Jacek is

Thanks Canmore for an amazing week -- see you soon! 

Ski Tour Canada - day 1 in Canmore

Just arrived in Canmore for the first training day in Canmore for the Ski Tour Canada.  There are 4 days left of racing in the ski tour and all of those are here.  I hope to do a daily report here on the blog ...

The training days are often the best days to watch the skiers.  There are almost no spectators so you can really watch each athlete and how they ski.  I got to watch Martin Sundby double pole a steep hill while having a casual conversation with another skier!

Here's a few photos:

10 feet away from the best skiers in the world

Justyna K

Just a small sample of the ski wax testing happening today!

Johaug

Trying to make a giant head cutout for tomorrow's race - watch for it on the uphill!

DN Calendar - Adult programs

Hi everyone, here is our event calendar for our adult programs for the rest of January and February.

A couple of important notes:

1) We have added a Thursday evening Group Skis led by Laena & Freddie.  Here is the exciting description:

Starting Thursday, January 21st, join Downtown Nordic on Thursday evenings at Windsor Park for a group ski and post-ski snack and social in the clubhouse. We'll meet every Thursday in the Windsor Park clubhouse and then head out for a ski at 7pm. We'll have a Downtown Nordic Thursday Night Ski Log posted in the clubhouse where you can log your kilometres post-ski. At the end of ski season, all Thursday night DN skiers will be entered into a draw for a prize. We will have one “surprise" Thursday ski event - will keep you posted on the day and details!

2) We have added in several trips that are being coordinated by Katrina:

#1 The 40th Manitoba Loppet in Pinawa: January 23rd. Registration on Zone4 is up on their website now: http://www.whiteshellskiclub.com/news/40thannualmanitobaloppet

The Wilderness Edge retreat centre and has lots of availability for a variety of different rooms if folks would like to stay for the evening banquet and stick around on the Sunday to ski the course at a slower pace (as I would like to): https://my.wildernessedge.com/rooms. You can also reserve breakfast there, or get rooms with kitchen facilities.


#2 Pumpkin Creek Mystery Tour, Feb 7th

#3 Birch Open, Feb 21st (Zone4)

#4 Distance Day, Burwalde Trails, Feb 27th



By the way, you can click on the calendars below to get a larger image of them!