Today marks the day before I participate in one of the most famous ski races in the world. The infamous Birkebeiner is a 54k classic "marathon" race. It starts in a town called Rena with a continuous, no breaks, 13k uphill. After that, it is a series up rolling hills and a lot of flat for about 15k or so. You may think "Wow, it must be downhill now!", but don't be confused... There is another challenging hill lasting for another 5 kilometers. This 5k uphill has been described to me as the hill that separates the men from the boys. It is very challenging, and marks the highest point on the course. At this point you have climbed over 600 meters, however on this particular climb you go from 650 meters to 900. There is a flat after this hill lasting for about 7k or so before the final decent lasting 15k to the finish in Lillehammer.
I am extremely excited to have the opportunity to race this event that every skier dreams about doing. It is simply a must do as a cross country skier. I will be starting in the 3rd heat of about 25 heats due to a pretty good finish in a 42k classic seeding race earlier this season. I'm hoping to ski it in under 3:10. The conditions call for minus degrees the whole race, sunshine, and there should be a ton of people spectating! My skis are ready, I am in great shape after junior national championships, and waxing conditions should be pretty simple for kick!
More later after the race! Time to stuff myself to maximum capacity with steak, rice, and veggies!
Friday, March 18, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
World Championships Continued.
It's been a busy few days recently with all of the races. After the sprint races was the women's 15k pursuit race, where they make a change in skis. I had plans to go and watch this race saturday, but unfortunately, there were so many people taking the metro up to Holmenkollen it was impossible to take the metro up... That should give you a pretty good indication of how many people are watching these races. None the less it was great to see on TV too, because we could see the skiers the whole time in HD. It was a fantastic day for Norway with Marit Bjørgen taking her 2nd gold, making it 2 for 2 and Therese Johaug finishing 3rd behind Justyna Kowalczyk, who also had a fantastic race. That night we went down into the city, watched the awards ceremony, and went out to a sushi dinner. Fantastic.
Sunday, I met up with another American from New Hampshire who is also doing a year abroad in Norway named Anna Breu. We met up in the morning, took a 2 and a half hour skate ski and watched the race from various places in the woods which was fun. After that, Anna went back down to Oslo and I stayed with some friends and watched some ski jumping on the smaller hill. It was a long day of spectating and I was very tired after, but it was totally worth it. I was able to take some decent pictures sunday, and it was really cool to take a picture with the Swede, Marcus Hellner. For those of you that don't know him he is one of the best skiers on the world cup circuit and has the ability to challenge Petter Northug when he's in good shape. He was the winner of the sprint last Thursday.
I don't like to talk about Monday. I spent 3 hours waiting to get my passport stamped. I finally got it stamped, which don't get me wrong, it's a good thing, however I missed Marit Bjørgen winning her 3rd! (that's right 3rd) gold medal. That makes her 3 for 3 for gold medals here at the world championships.
Today, Marianne and I cut out of school early to watch the mens individual start 15k classic race. It was a great day for Norway once again with Eldar Rønning getting silver, and Martin Johnsrud Sundby getting bronse. It was exciting to see Sundby do so well because he is an Oslo skier. Petter Northug did not race today to conserve energy for upcoming events.
Tomorrow I will be forerunning and course patrol for the mens and womens team sprint event. It should be very exciting to watch, and one of the big events at world champs. After that, also tomorrow, I have to do the same for the nordic combined race. It should be a few hours of skiing.
Now for some of the pictures from this week.
Sunday, I met up with another American from New Hampshire who is also doing a year abroad in Norway named Anna Breu. We met up in the morning, took a 2 and a half hour skate ski and watched the race from various places in the woods which was fun. After that, Anna went back down to Oslo and I stayed with some friends and watched some ski jumping on the smaller hill. It was a long day of spectating and I was very tired after, but it was totally worth it. I was able to take some decent pictures sunday, and it was really cool to take a picture with the Swede, Marcus Hellner. For those of you that don't know him he is one of the best skiers on the world cup circuit and has the ability to challenge Petter Northug when he's in good shape. He was the winner of the sprint last Thursday.
I don't like to talk about Monday. I spent 3 hours waiting to get my passport stamped. I finally got it stamped, which don't get me wrong, it's a good thing, however I missed Marit Bjørgen winning her 3rd! (that's right 3rd) gold medal. That makes her 3 for 3 for gold medals here at the world championships.
Today, Marianne and I cut out of school early to watch the mens individual start 15k classic race. It was a great day for Norway once again with Eldar Rønning getting silver, and Martin Johnsrud Sundby getting bronse. It was exciting to see Sundby do so well because he is an Oslo skier. Petter Northug did not race today to conserve energy for upcoming events.
Tomorrow I will be forerunning and course patrol for the mens and womens team sprint event. It should be very exciting to watch, and one of the big events at world champs. After that, also tomorrow, I have to do the same for the nordic combined race. It should be a few hours of skiing.
Now for some of the pictures from this week.
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| Marit Bjørgen with gold again. Not to mention a nice gold jacket. |
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| Alex Harvey is the man. |
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| Marcus Hellner! (Picture with the enemy) |
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| Some of my friends watching ski jumping. |
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| The small ski jump. |
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| I had to try it on... |
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| Today's fans with Holmenkollen in the background. |
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Start of the World Championships!
Right now, here in Oslo, marks one of the biggest events in the nordic world, the world championships. There are painted faces, norwegian flags, tents out in the woods, and just about every TV in Norway is tuned into NRK 1 for the next week and a half. Since I am skiing for team kollen I get to be løypepatrulje (course control and forerunner) for three races. I also get to see all of the races inside the private workers, athletes only places which is really cool! When I arrived there today we were kitted out in new craft racing suits, jacket, pants, and hat all with the world championships logo. It's pretty cool to have and a great memory of the event.
I have been able to take some pretty cool pictures from today, the sprint race. It wasn't the best day for Norway with some unlucky falls on the women's side, and the men not skiing so strong. But, Marit Bjørgen of Norway held everything together well throughout the rounds and won the world championship sprint gold medal. Petter Northug was 2nd today behind the Swede, Marcus Hellner. It was fantastic to ski the course in between rounds, but even cooler to see everything up so close and be around the athletes. You'll see I snapped a few pictures where I was very close up! Sorry some of them are a bit blurry, it's hard to get such clear pictures when they are moving so fast!
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| Dario Cologna. |
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| Part of our løypepatrulje crew taking some dips. |
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| Everyone loves Alex Harvey |
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| The King himself, Petter Northug qualifying |
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| Petter Northug focused as hell as you can see. |
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| I just had to take another picture of the King. |
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| Me and some of the guys watching. |
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| Semi finals mens sprint. |
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| The ski jump. |
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| You can see there are a few fans here. 20,000 today watching the sprint race! |
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| Norwegian Spectators and Holmenkollen ski jump. |
This was just the first day. I plan on trying to get up to watch all the races for the next week and a half so there should be many more pictures to come!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
It's been a busy last month or so with ski season underway, college applications, and the holidays. I'm excited it's now 2011! I've taken some pictures over the past month or two or whatever it has been since I last updated my blog.
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| The camera doesn't capture the amazing view of Oslo from the ski trail. |
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| Marianne, Anders and I skiing Christmas Eve |
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| Santa and Santa's helper for Ragnar's brother's children. Comical. |
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| A view from the Metro that goes past Holmenkollen ski jump to Frognerseteren. |
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| New Years Eve with some of the boys. |
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| January 1st we went for a hike and the view of Holmenkollen ski jump was pretty cool. |
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| Trying to get the picture of Oslo from the short hike we went. |
This weekend I have my first Norgescup races. I'll be going 10k skate friday, classic sprint saturday, followed by a 15k classic race sunday. I hope it will be a good weekend of racing. I think the Norgescup is home to the highest level of Junior racing in the world along with World Juniors. This will be a good experience and it is still early in the winter so I'm not too worried about top results yet.
I head back to school Wednesday which will be okay. I guess I'm looking forward to getting back into a routine after the holidays.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Winter is here!
Hey everyone
It has been far too long since I've made a blog post on here and I've been putting it off for literally over a month (or two). So much has happened since my last post. School is going really well, I have made some more friends, and skiing of course has been great!
The season has changed from fall to winter now. Days are getting shorter and shorter. Right now it is light around 8:30 in the morning and it gets dark at around 3:30 or 3:40 in the afternoon. Definitely something that has taken a bit of getting used to. Thankfully on Mondays, like today I finish school at 9:30 in the morning so I do get to be around and outside a bit when its sunny. We received our first snow around 3 weeks ago which was really cool! I took a picture when I woke up of it for documentation reasons which you'll see below.
Since my last post I have still been doing great training. The difference now is I'm skiing on snow! I went to an on snow camp last weekend in a place called Beitostølen. This was pretty good skiing. It was on man made snow, so not quite the same as real snow, but nonetheless skiing! We had some workouts just to break in the skiing legs, some sprint practice, a 10k classic time trial, and some i3 intervals to top it all off. I think in the Friday afternoon, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning I had about 8.5-9 hours of training which isn't too bad. One of the coolest parts of Beito was the whole Norwegian national ski team was there. I said hi to Petter Northug and we skied by eachother a few times. I skied a lap behind Marit Bjørgen. I hope one day I can be as manly as she is... (she has bigger legs than half the men's national team) and took a picture with the guy who wore aviator glasses in the Olympics and worldcups. It was pretty inspiring to train around some of the best in the world.
Last week was a pretty hard training week after back from Beitostølen. I had a rest day Tuesday, easy workout Wednesday, hard uphill running sprinting intervals Thursday, strength Friday, more uphill intervals Saturday, and yesterday, to top the week off, a 2.5 hour ski on snow! There is pretty good classic skiing just 20 minutes away by car or bus down in the valley. I suspect I'll end up there again this week sometime.
This weekend I have another 4 day ski camp on snow at a place called Nordseter. This camp with be with the whole team kollen, so I will be skiing with around 80 people my age. It will be a really hard camp but I'm really looking forward to this.
I have been taking a few pictures from the camp, some more of fall, and what it looks like outside my house right now. Check them out.
It has been far too long since I've made a blog post on here and I've been putting it off for literally over a month (or two). So much has happened since my last post. School is going really well, I have made some more friends, and skiing of course has been great!
The season has changed from fall to winter now. Days are getting shorter and shorter. Right now it is light around 8:30 in the morning and it gets dark at around 3:30 or 3:40 in the afternoon. Definitely something that has taken a bit of getting used to. Thankfully on Mondays, like today I finish school at 9:30 in the morning so I do get to be around and outside a bit when its sunny. We received our first snow around 3 weeks ago which was really cool! I took a picture when I woke up of it for documentation reasons which you'll see below.
Since my last post I have still been doing great training. The difference now is I'm skiing on snow! I went to an on snow camp last weekend in a place called Beitostølen. This was pretty good skiing. It was on man made snow, so not quite the same as real snow, but nonetheless skiing! We had some workouts just to break in the skiing legs, some sprint practice, a 10k classic time trial, and some i3 intervals to top it all off. I think in the Friday afternoon, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning I had about 8.5-9 hours of training which isn't too bad. One of the coolest parts of Beito was the whole Norwegian national ski team was there. I said hi to Petter Northug and we skied by eachother a few times. I skied a lap behind Marit Bjørgen. I hope one day I can be as manly as she is... (she has bigger legs than half the men's national team) and took a picture with the guy who wore aviator glasses in the Olympics and worldcups. It was pretty inspiring to train around some of the best in the world.
Last week was a pretty hard training week after back from Beitostølen. I had a rest day Tuesday, easy workout Wednesday, hard uphill running sprinting intervals Thursday, strength Friday, more uphill intervals Saturday, and yesterday, to top the week off, a 2.5 hour ski on snow! There is pretty good classic skiing just 20 minutes away by car or bus down in the valley. I suspect I'll end up there again this week sometime.
This weekend I have another 4 day ski camp on snow at a place called Nordseter. This camp with be with the whole team kollen, so I will be skiing with around 80 people my age. It will be a really hard camp but I'm really looking forward to this.
I have been taking a few pictures from the camp, some more of fall, and what it looks like outside my house right now. Check them out.
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| A nice shot from October |
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| Same day as the last one |
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| Welcome to Norway |
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| I was sitting on a stone wall taking this picture |
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| Our first snow of the year some 3 weeks ago |
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| Our Heming ski camp at Beitostølen. Many people missing in this photo. |
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| Another shot. |
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| This guy was the man. He races in those glasses in Worldcup. |
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| What our house looks like today. It snowed today and last night. |
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| Another view of the house from today. Ignore the time stamp it's wrong. |
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Some pictures
This week has been an easy week for training, but I will not talk about it so much as I have been lately...
I've felt good, but a bit tired this week. Raced Friday, but didn't feel very fresh. It is okay though because last week was very hard. I rested yesterday and today because I have a cold and my coach Sverre Walter Kaas said it would be a good idea.
Yesterday was a promotional event for nordic skiing put on by some of the Norwegian national team, the coach, and some of the wax techs for the national team. It was very cool. The highlight for me was taking a few pictures with Olympic team sprint gold medalist Øystein "Pølsa" Pettersen. The missing member of the gold medal sprint team was Petter Northug. He did not make it unfortunately... Maybe next time.
The biggest news is I have finally started school! I started school in Friday. I am starting in the 2nd out of 3 classes or 12 grade out of 12 grades because of my age. I was a bit disappointed I couldn't start in the 3rd class but I suppose I will get over it. It was a good first day. I met some of the kids in my class 2-A who seemed pretty nice. There were a few girls who were very welcoming and showed me around the school and some of my other classes a bit. I saw and talked with many people I already know at school as well, and met a bunch more people. I am really looking forward to school because I know I will be making many more friends other than skiers and I will also learn Norwegian faster. A good start to a good school year.
Today I went to the ocean with Marianne because we wanted a bit of easy exercise and fresh air since we both have a cold. I took some decent pictures down by the ocean. Here are a bunch of the pictures...
To conclude our outing, Marianne and I went to a Bakery and had an espresso and chocolate chip scone each and biked home. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.
I've felt good, but a bit tired this week. Raced Friday, but didn't feel very fresh. It is okay though because last week was very hard. I rested yesterday and today because I have a cold and my coach Sverre Walter Kaas said it would be a good idea.
Yesterday was a promotional event for nordic skiing put on by some of the Norwegian national team, the coach, and some of the wax techs for the national team. It was very cool. The highlight for me was taking a few pictures with Olympic team sprint gold medalist Øystein "Pølsa" Pettersen. The missing member of the gold medal sprint team was Petter Northug. He did not make it unfortunately... Maybe next time.
The biggest news is I have finally started school! I started school in Friday. I am starting in the 2nd out of 3 classes or 12 grade out of 12 grades because of my age. I was a bit disappointed I couldn't start in the 3rd class but I suppose I will get over it. It was a good first day. I met some of the kids in my class 2-A who seemed pretty nice. There were a few girls who were very welcoming and showed me around the school and some of my other classes a bit. I saw and talked with many people I already know at school as well, and met a bunch more people. I am really looking forward to school because I know I will be making many more friends other than skiers and I will also learn Norwegian faster. A good start to a good school year.
Today I went to the ocean with Marianne because we wanted a bit of easy exercise and fresh air since we both have a cold. I took some decent pictures down by the ocean. Here are a bunch of the pictures...
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| Some of the members of the Norwegian national team |
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| me with olympic gold medalist Øystein "Pølsa" Pettersen |
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| Me, Pølse, Marianne, and Victoria |
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| Promotional waxing bus for the national team. Pretty cool I think... |
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| Again... Pretty Badass trailer... |
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| Ocean in Oslo |
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| Looking towards the city |
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| Where many people are keeping their boats. Probably coming out soon I might add |
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| Pretty sunny and nice out today. Maybe the last real summery day |
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| End of the peninsula |
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| There were many other people out enjoying the sunny day as well. |
To conclude our outing, Marianne and I went to a Bakery and had an espresso and chocolate chip scone each and biked home. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Ski Ski Ski
First, I would like to say sorry for not posting on my blog for so long. I suppose sometimes I forget I actually have a blog going on and some people that are interested in seeing what I am doing. I will be better about this from now on.
Last week was a very hard week for training. It was a true Norwegian "hard" week. Two Saturdays ago I did a 4-5k uphill skating time trial from the very bottom of the hill, all the way finishing at Holmenkollen. On that sunday I had a 2 hour distance workout. Monday was an hour of biking in the morning, followed by a 45 minute run in the evening, then an hour of strength in the gym. Tuesday we had an uphill running time trial. It was 3.5k and I ran it in 14:21. I felt pretty good and could definitely feel the lactic acid building up about half way and on. There were 3 guys that finished ahead of me in this and some others a bit behind. On wednesday I did an hour skate rollerski in the pouring rain and felt pretty tired (I wonder why...). Thursday was an easy day. Just kidding... We had a 3+k uphill double pole time trial from Holmenkollen to the very top of the hill at the cell phone tower. I felt pretty good in this as well. I've consistently been feeling good in every test which has been great. Friday I had to take the day off because or the race on Saturday.
Saturday I raced a duathlon consisting of a 8k classic ski, followed by a 6k run. I thought maybe we would ski fairly fast, then run also pretty fast. I was wrong. The 8k classic race was an 8k classic race. The 6k run was a 6k running race. I skied very hard in the 8k classic and I can say I have never skied with quicker tempo in such a long race. The norwegians are really fast! After the ski race was the running race. The first lap was horribly painful with tons of lactic acid. The next two laps were much better. I finished the race exhausted and did pretty well against the other boys.
Sunday we did a 3.5 hour workout. 1:45 skate skiing, 1:45 running. I was already tired from having 3 races earlier in the week but this workout finished me off. The rest of the day for me consisted of eating Kebab with some other skiers after the race, then going to Jørgen Grav's place with another friend Kasper Stadaas. There we ate ice cream, watched TV, and played a bit of super smash brothers. Good relaxation! I went out to dinner with the Madsens and had a great dinner.
This week is a bit easier on training for the first half. Yesterday, I had a strength test followed by a strength workout. It was good but I can definitely improve. Today we went for an easy classic ski with some double pole specific strength and sprinting practice. Not bad... I'm looking forward to the planned day off tomorrow given to us by Sverre Walter Kaas (my coach).
Here are a few pictures I've taken lately and others from facebook.
This coming weekend I will be doing the Tour de Lyn. This will consist of an 8k skate time trial Friday, a 20k classic race on Saturday, and a 7.5k classic time trial Sunday to finish it off. This should be fun, and I will have lots of as the Norwegians say... syre (lactic acid). Hopefully I keep feeling stronger and stronger!
Last week was a very hard week for training. It was a true Norwegian "hard" week. Two Saturdays ago I did a 4-5k uphill skating time trial from the very bottom of the hill, all the way finishing at Holmenkollen. On that sunday I had a 2 hour distance workout. Monday was an hour of biking in the morning, followed by a 45 minute run in the evening, then an hour of strength in the gym. Tuesday we had an uphill running time trial. It was 3.5k and I ran it in 14:21. I felt pretty good and could definitely feel the lactic acid building up about half way and on. There were 3 guys that finished ahead of me in this and some others a bit behind. On wednesday I did an hour skate rollerski in the pouring rain and felt pretty tired (I wonder why...). Thursday was an easy day. Just kidding... We had a 3+k uphill double pole time trial from Holmenkollen to the very top of the hill at the cell phone tower. I felt pretty good in this as well. I've consistently been feeling good in every test which has been great. Friday I had to take the day off because or the race on Saturday.
Saturday I raced a duathlon consisting of a 8k classic ski, followed by a 6k run. I thought maybe we would ski fairly fast, then run also pretty fast. I was wrong. The 8k classic race was an 8k classic race. The 6k run was a 6k running race. I skied very hard in the 8k classic and I can say I have never skied with quicker tempo in such a long race. The norwegians are really fast! After the ski race was the running race. The first lap was horribly painful with tons of lactic acid. The next two laps were much better. I finished the race exhausted and did pretty well against the other boys.
Sunday we did a 3.5 hour workout. 1:45 skate skiing, 1:45 running. I was already tired from having 3 races earlier in the week but this workout finished me off. The rest of the day for me consisted of eating Kebab with some other skiers after the race, then going to Jørgen Grav's place with another friend Kasper Stadaas. There we ate ice cream, watched TV, and played a bit of super smash brothers. Good relaxation! I went out to dinner with the Madsens and had a great dinner.
This week is a bit easier on training for the first half. Yesterday, I had a strength test followed by a strength workout. It was good but I can definitely improve. Today we went for an easy classic ski with some double pole specific strength and sprinting practice. Not bad... I'm looking forward to the planned day off tomorrow given to us by Sverre Walter Kaas (my coach).
Here are a few pictures I've taken lately and others from facebook.
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| A picture of my friends Kasper Stadaas (left) and Mathias Borgnes (right) and me at the birthday party Friday night. |
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| Mathias Borgnes, Jørgen Grav, and me. |
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| Another picture of some of the guys after the double pole time trial. |
This coming weekend I will be doing the Tour de Lyn. This will consist of an 8k skate time trial Friday, a 20k classic race on Saturday, and a 7.5k classic time trial Sunday to finish it off. This should be fun, and I will have lots of as the Norwegians say... syre (lactic acid). Hopefully I keep feeling stronger and stronger!
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