Archive for Uncategorized
First Race Down
I’m a little disappointed with how i did. Sprint races generally aren’t my best, but this one was classic, long, and fairly hilly, which i thought could work to my advantage. Unfortunately, there were also two pretty wicked downhill hairpins, and i wussed out big time and snowplowed the heck out of them. Not cool. Not cool at all. At this stage in my career i shouldn’t still be getting scared of a corner, no matter how fast and icy. On the plus side though, i managed to stay on my feet, which sounds like is more than about half my team can say. Other than that, it went fairly well. I though i did a pretty good job of striding bigger up the hills. There was one downhill right before the finish that i may have relaxed on a little too early, but i snapped myself out of it and hammered home. All in all, my first race is in the books, and i’m super psyched for the ones comming up this weekend.
“Ski with the Stars” Clinic
Little Ms. J. Diggs and i had an awesome group of ladies from Duluth East and the Wenatchee Valley SEF for today’s “Ski with the Stars” clinic. They were so much fun! It was a slightly “seat of the pants” style clinic, but i think we still taught them some valuable skate technique. We covered bending your ankles and knees (and why that makes you faster), weight transfer (from the hips, not rotation), powerful push-offs and long glides (with a little “fewest strides” competition), and a bit of v1 specific stuff. Then we were done with the serious, and ready to play some games! You’re never to old to play games on skis. It teaches great balance, agility, and coordination…plus it keeps things fun!
The Wenatchee Valley SEF is my mothers team...they had the best technique!
What a great group of ladies!
Our cheer was in Norwegian...and when translated, not entirely appropriate. Thanks Mom!
The Whole Family!
With the Juniors, Masters, Elite, and Marathon teams all here in West Yellowstone, our little family has gotten a bit..well..not so little! It’s great to be part of such an amazing organization, which has programs and opportunities for so many different levels. We all inspire each other!
West Yellowstone
Audrey, me, and Kelly!
The skiing in West Yellowstone has been absolutely phenomenal! The coverage isn’t quite 100% yet, but there’s more than enough to ski on, our new skis are superfast, the weather’s great, the sky is blue, and the company can’t be beat. So far we’ve been alone on the trails, but starting tonight other teams are going to be trickling in. This is the second greatest part about the fall festival: getting to see everybody again. The first, of course, is finally getting off rollerskis and onto the real stuff!
Kelly, Stubs, and Audrey enjoying the sunshine!
Working Girl
I think I’ve found my calling in life…and it’s retail.
We (Stuber, Cook, and I) are down in Dousman, WI working the Superfit event at the Bicycle Doctor. Superfits are kinda a cool little program that’s new to the midwest. Stores sign up for a weekend, and we send a couple of coaches and athletes down to give a few clinics, a lecture or two, and lend our expertise fitting skis. It’s actually really fun. I kinda like walking up to random people and striking up a conversation…and from what i can tell, that’s about 90% of what it takes to convince someone to buy a pair of skis.
Another nice part is that working in a shop gives us a little more of a connection to the monetary worth of all the fabulous equiptment we use. Like, we’re selling new Salomon Equipe 10 skis at a special weekend price of $429 (reg ~$500ish). That’s a lot of money for a pair of skis, but when i think about how much i love my Salomons, it seems totally worth it. In contrast, the new Fischer hole skis are going for $649. Holey Moses! They’re both top of the line skis, so they’re roughly equivalent, but Fischer’s charging $150 to drill a hole in the tip? That seems ridiculous, and i’m not just saying that cuz i’m CXC.
I have to wake up early tomorrow morning to help out at the coaches clinic. Cook handled the one this morning, but I chatted a little with the participants beforehand. One of them came up to me and informed me that the Halloween picture is getting way old. I was under the impression that the only people who read this site are my mom and various friends..but as i’ve never met this guy before, i’m taking it as motivation to to do a little better job on updating. So i’m tired, and i need to get to bed, but for that guy, i figured i should manage to put a little something up tonight. Better on monday, I promise! (Sunday will be spent clinic, training, selling stuff, and driving back up to houghton to prepare to fly out to Yelly.)
Love Love
The athletic department here at Tech has this new thing going, where they send a camera along with traveling teams, and have them produce a little “vblog”. The men’s cross country one turned out really well, and I want to share it with you, so you get a little taste of why I love working and training with these guys so much. I’m not sure how to embed a video from facebook, but if you click the picture, it’ll take you to the right page.
Basically, I love these guys, and this is why:
Michigan Tech Mens Cross Country Team Travel Video (click the pic)
Annndd…the Muck Run is this weekend! It’s a Tech tradition, and a huge fundraiser for the Cross-Country teams. If you’re anywhere in the area, it’s seriously worth showing up for. Here’s the description:
5K trail race through mud, muck, and mire. Maybe even snow.
ALL PROCEEDS BENEFIT THE MEN’S AND WOMEN’S MICHIGAN TECH CROSS COUNTRY TEAM
Come on out to the annual Muck Run and support your Michigan Tech cross-country running team. It’s a Saturday morning full of fun, mud, muck, and costumes!
COURSE: Challenging trail 5K with rolling hills on the Tech Trails
PRIZES: for Best Halloween Costume, Best Residence Hall, Fastest overall Male, Fastest Overall Female, Age group winners, and Muddiest Runner! Plus, there will be great door prizes from local businesses.
T-SHIRT: T-shirts are available while supplies last!!!
RACE DAY REGISTRATION- Come to the trails between 8:30 and 9:30 am, be there by 9:30 am, RACE STARTS at 10 am.
Cost: individual (UPRRC, high school and college students)-$10, general public-$15, Team (minimum of 4 people)- $8 per person.
NEED A FORM? Contact any member of the Michigan Tech CC team or Joe Haggenmiller for a downloadable pfd…otherwise there will be forms available at various locations around campus.
It’s cheap, fun, great prizes, and a great cause! Really….why wouldn’t you come?
Minor Site Updates
Two little tweaks to the site today: The “Photos” and “Schedule” pages now have content on them. Whew! Only took two years to get those working….feels good to check that off the “to do” list.
Click Here!