Hjem are Best!
A run with my darling mother in the Sage hills, the foothills that bound my home town of Wenatchee. The midwest is nice, but home is a completely different kind of beautiful. It’s a good thing I don’t come back often, because it’s a struggle to leave every time.
More Strength Results
…way more than is interesting to anyone, probably. But I spent an absolutely ridiculous amount of time trying to make the table look nice, so it’s going up anyway. And yes, I realize it still looks goofey.
| 3000m | Pul-ups 1 | Pull-ups 2 | Sit-ups 1 | Sit-ups 2 | Push-ups 1 | Push-ups 2 | Dips 1 | Dips2 | Box Jump | ||
| May-09 | Men | ||||||||||
| Gold Standard | 40 | 32 | 75 | 60 | 75 | 60 | 55 | 44 | 90 | ||
| Matt Leibsch | 9:47 | 19 | 11 | 61 | 35 | 82 | 50 | 26 | 14 | 76 | |
| Brian Gregg | 9:36 | 33 | 18 | 73 | 57 | 66 | 36 | 28 | 14 | 99 | |
| Garrott Kuzzy | 9:17 | 18 | 8 | 94 | 80 | 63 | 36 | 17 | 8 | 88 | |
| Bryan Cook | 9:56 | 17 | 11 | 61 | 47 | 62 | 38 | 21 | 9 | 91 | |
| Gus Kaeding | 10:13 | 16 | 8 | 84 | 65 | 59 | 25 | 25 | 12 | ||
| Women | |||||||||||
| Gold Standard | 28 | 22 | 60 | 48 | 60 | 48 | 35 | 28 | 76 | ||
| Jojo Winters | 10:56 | 11 | 5 | 59 | 60 | 58 | 29 | 20 | 9 | 89 | |
| Kristina Owen | 10:58 | 9 | 5 | 78 | 76 | 35 | 36 | 29 | 9 | 64 | |
| Maria Stuber | 11 | 5 | 71 | 67 | 56 | 33 | 24 | 18 | |||
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| Jun-08 | Men | ||||||||||
| Kaeding, Gus | 19 | 8 | 88 | 66 | 66 | 34 | 31 | 19 | 71 | ||
| Gregg, Brian | 21 | 12 | 86 | 69 | 67 | 37 | 38 | 20 | 98 | ||
| Kuzzy, Garrott | 20 | 7 | 85 | 72 | 66 | 42 | 22 | 11 | 95 | ||
| Liebsch, Matt | |||||||||||
| Watt, Andre | 19 | 8 | 60 | 44 | 50 | 24 | 38 | 21 | 84 | ||
| Cook, Bryan | 12 | 8 | 63 | 47 | 79 | 48 | 29 | 12 | 90 | ||
| Duncan, Alastair | 9 | 3 | 64 | 46 | 30 | 10 | 4 | 3 | |||
| Women | |||||||||||
| Compton, Caitlin | 16 | 7 | 67 | 56 | 69 | 45 | 20 | 12 | 72 | ||
| Owen, Kristina | 9 | 6 | 61 | 62 | 40 | 32 | 27 | 15 | 59 | ||
| Winters, Jojo | 9 | 6 | 96 | 89 | 58 | 36 | 25 | 11 | 86 | ||
| Stuber, Maria | 6 | 4 | 72 | 67 | 54 | 34 | 30 | 21 | |||
| Zimmerman, Heather | 2 | 2 | 49 | 42 | 46 | 23 | 16 | 7 | 45 | ||
| Willis, Sarah | 4 | 3 | 76 | 51 | 54 | 25 | 13 | 9 | |||
Strength Assessment
Oh boy, I was right. Legs, soooo sore this morning. And now, after the strength assessment, the arms and abs have joined them. Ahhhhh…feels GOOD!
New Coach Igor! He's Russian, and awesome.
Basically what I got out of the testing was that I need to step up the strength work a bit. I’m definitely the weakling of the team. EXCEPT IN DIPS!!! Oh yea, those dip competitions w/ K-mon totally paid off! I didn’t really pay attention to everyone’s numbers, but I KNOW I girled Gregg and Kuzzy (at least in the first set), so that pretty much rocks.
The other thing that rocks is our new coach Igor. Fish is still the head coach for the Elite team, but Igor is his assistant, and is in charge of the Junior Devo team. And, since I got bumped down to Tier 4 this year (don’t really want to talk about it…but if you find any change in your couch, and wanna send it to me, that’d be great…) Igor will also be my primary coach! I’m excited about this, because Igor brings a decidedly “foreign” perspective, and I’m kinda in the mood to try some crazy new things. First up: He’s told me I have a month to learn to do the splits. I’m on it.
Strength Assessment Numbers:
Pull-ups: 9, 5
Sit-ups: 59, 60
Push-ups: 35, 36
Dips: 29, 9
Box Jump: 58
(2 sets, 60sec on, 60sec recovery, except box jumps, 1set of 90 sec)
Gettin On It!
First training day of the first week of the new training year. And what do we do? A 3,000m time trial on the track. Yea…that’s going to hurt tomorrow, for sure. Which, nice enough, is when we have our strength assessment. Nothing like kicking the year off with a bang!
I’m actually really happy with how the TT went. I ran a 10:58, which is waaaaaay slower than I used to when I was running track in college, but I’m not exactly a runner anymore. Plus, that’s the exact same time I ran last year, when we did this in June, after a month of training. So all in all, not bad!
<-The team, hanging out post race
Snow?
(Webcam on MTU Ski trails. Click on image to go to site, and motion)
Looks like Houghton might be close to being skiable again? They’re forcasted for 2-4″ today, another 1-3″ tonight, and possibly a few more tomorrow. I’d be tempted for a little roadtrip, if the rest of the week after that wasn’t suposed to be rain. But maybe it’ll clear up by the weekend, and some of this snow will remain for crust skiing!
Article Worth Reading
The US Doper Problem by Zach Caldwell
I think Zack’s right on with some of the things in this article. Not necessarily how much of an impact doping makes on performance, because to be honest, I’ve never been around that sort of thing, and I have no clue. But what he’s saying about how there’s gotta be something more than just fitness to peak performance? That’s something I’ve been grappling with myself. What makes one race better than another? Why do I tend to place so much higher twards the end of the season? What makes one race fun, and one race miserable?
Zack talks about energetic racing, and I like that thought. When I’m good, fast, and having fun, I’m definetly energetic. The question is, what can I do to make every race “energetic”? I’m not sure. But to be energetic racing, I suspect you’ve got to be energetic about life.
So for me, my upcoming move might be a good first step. Sometimes it gets so lonely in Hayward that life just isn’t very exciting anymore, and I go for long stretches of time, just floating from one workout to another, without really experiencing them. I want to ski because I love skiing again! I want to be halfway through a workout and realize that my teeth are aching, because my lips have been curled in a grin the whole time and they’re half frozen! I want to look over, and share that grin with someone else! And I am very, very excited, because I think that Houghton will be the place to remember how to do all this!
My new home!
I just signed the lease, so it’s official, I’ll be spending the next year of my life living back in Houghton! I am ridiculously excited about this. The training here is amazing. I’ve been skiing everyday, and the TechTrails are still in bombproof condition. Plus, people my age!
Packing!
Well…been here for two days now, and they’ve been very nice, very relaxing days…buuuuttttt…it’s time to go. I got word that my old college team is having an end of the season time trial tomorrow morning, and since I was planning on heading up that way this weekend anyways, I’m going to take off a little early. So I’m off! To Houghton I go!
Dunzo!
A great season for the CXC Elite Ladies!
The last races are done and the 2008/2009 season is officially over. I’m back in Hayward, chilling out for a few days before I get seriously mobilized to organize a move this spring. I like Hayward, and it’s got some great things going for it, but I think I need to move somewhere with a slightly bigger social scene to stay sane. Houghton is top on my list, but I’m still considering Duluth or Marquette too. Just somewhere with good training, and people in the 20-30 year age bracket.
Hidden words…make the break look pretty?
Even with the volcano, my trip back was uneventful, although my teammate Heather ran into some issues. And by issues…I mean she was taken off our plane from Fairbanks in a stretcher. She’s OK, thank god. I’m not really clear on what happened (you don’t have to take biology for an engineering degree), but the docs are thinking that maybe the last concussion she got may have affected more than they thought, especially when pressure builds up. Like, say, in a plane at altitude. Yikes. Send good thoughts her way, for sure.
The last few races went well for me, although not as spectacular as last year. I got a 10th in the 15k pursuit, and another 13th in the 30k classic. Good, solid races, and nothing to sneeze at, although it’s still off of where I need to be if I want a legitimate chance of making the Olympic team next year. I did beat a lot of people in the red suits of the US ski team though, and that always feels good.
Results HERE.
Race of the day: Glen Randall, 3rd American in the Men's 50k.
Click Here!