Kikkan, James, Holly, and I have settled in our “Olympic” home in the athlete village. Today we had our first interval session on the Olympic courses. I love the skiing here! The climbs are long, the downhills are fast, and most importantly the snow is just like our glacier facility on the Thomas Training Center. The session was very good. It is fun to see the athletes looking good and skiing very well on the tricky conditions. The more experience we gain the better we are! There are a lot of thoughts on how to develop a US skier, my belief is that you have to train hard and train hard at skiing. The complexity of our the movements in cross country skiing favors those who cover a lot of km’s so you can learn the 1000 different ways to kick a ski. Last week we skied in the pristine conditions of Canmore, where the track was hard and the kick was easy. Here at the Olympics the snow is like soup. It is hard to believe it is even the same sport as Canmore. The surface is extremely variable and the kick has to be precise. In Canmore you feel like a technical expert with an easy kick, where in Vancouver you have to be a technical expert to even find the kick. This is a very cool sport. I can’t wait to start rolling!

-Erik Flora

To follow us closer check out our facebook page “APU Olympic Skiers Rock!”

Just a quick update:

We are here in Canmore, and the first day of classic sprinting is over.  We had a decent day, with both of the first Americans being APU skiers.  The day was not quite so good for Americans overall however, with quite a few of them sitting out of the rounds. Full results are on Zone 4. Laura Valaas from APU was 6th, and 1st American.  Mark Iverson was 7th, and 1st American.  I had a great time cheering them on, and we are all proud of their results today.  It was also a great day to learn more about tactics and watch some really fast skiers doing their thing.

Tomorrow we have another identical classic sprint race, so it’s a chance for some of us to improve on todays result.

Here are some pre-race photos:

This is a truly world class venue.

Our coaches are out waxing almost all of the time, here they are taking a rare break.

Katie Ronsse and Kassandra Rice skiing thursday morning, enjoying the snow speed and scenery.

Canmore is a really beautiful area

The last ski in Silver Star, it was a super fun distance ski with awesome teammates and an alpine run finish.

We are psyched about the upcoming racing season…

Throughout the year we train our bodies to cover a race course as quickly as possible, and skis are what we count on to carry us from start to finish.

As our program has developed, we have created a system of ski management.  We have 20 athletes, each with a fleet of skis designed to accommodate all the variable conditions we encounter.

We employ a wax tech/fleet manager year round to help each of our athletes continually develop, maintain and test their fleets. During the summer months we are fortunate to be able to test skis at the Thomas Training Center on Eagle Glacier.   In the fall, we ski at Hatcher Pass on early season snow, where we refine our fleets before the race season.

During the  season we take advantage of each race venue and their unique conditions to test wax, grinds, structure and all of our skis.  Last year we had 47 testing days while on the road.  We tested 5 different complete lines of kick wax, 5 different lines of glide wax, 50 grinds and over 300 pairs of skis.  We tested the effects of different binding placements, different ways to mark kick zones, and different ways to make hairies.

Using the data we have gathered, we have been able to fine tune our system.  Each athlete now has a fleet of skis that consists of 10-15 pairs of skis all picked for different conditions.  All of our bindings are mounted based on each skis characteristics, and every pair of classic skis has kick zones based on weight, body proportions.

Last year we found Swix waxes to consistently be amongst the fastest waxes we tested.  For that reason, we will be racing on Swix exclusively this year.

Today was our official start to the race season! Today our women’s team leader Kikkan Randall, kicked off a great start in Beitostolen with a seventh place in the qualifier and ninth overall. Training and preparations are on track with Kikkan’s skiing strong and making good developments over the training year.

Here at home we have had a good start to the season with a good balance of on snow training and dry land. In the last two weeks, we have had 2 sprint time trails for our Sprint Team and our Distance team completed a good 10/15km classic and 21/28km skate time trials. Fun to see the improvements over the training year.

Today we hit a solid interval training with repeats on our favorite loop. Depending on the athletes goals and body type work outs were designed from L3,L4,L5, and L6. Video is included. Conditions were sweet with 20 deg F and Swix LF7 as the choice of the day.

Here is the video and some pictures:

This is a double pole session. Glenn Alps has been really sweet. I think this is some of the best early season terrain with gradual rolling terrain. It is inspiring to ski at Glenn Alps with the mountain right at your side!

Brent Knight shaking it out before a hard charge

Happy after laying down some mean times…It looks fun to go that fast!

Holly Brooks ripping up the first climb…One fast coach!

APU Women's Team enjoying their cool down

Yeah…That was sweet!

A little team fun…

Look forward to seeing everyone in West Yellowstone!

Erik

We skied today. It was awesome. Swix VR 50, 38 moose, two trophy bulls sparring, and perfect early season skiing. I can’t wait for the race season to begin! Erik.

Ky Eiben, Erik Flora, Don Haering, and Kikkan Randall enjoy a ski at Glenn Alps, only 10 minutes from Erik's house. Pretty sweet!

September and October are great months in Anchorage for training. The fall provides a perfect environment to ski train with cool temps, spectacular mountains, and endless adventures. Our Elite team has been busy in the last weeks getting ready for the season. During the last period we focused on power. Our recent test results are unparalleled with 19/20 positive adaptations. Here are a few pictures. Train hard and enjoy. Erik.

Kikkan Randall building power in uphill V2

Tazlina Mannix cranking it up Potter 1km for stage 2 of testing.

Mark Iverson laying down a top time for L4 course and just getting fast!

Good day of testing. Train, measure, assess, plan, repeat…

The test results are in and they are good…Yeah!!

APU operates Thomas Training on Eagle Glacier. It is a summer ski facility. Coaches had a little work to finish before ski season started, so we started in the clouds and ended up in the sunshine at 6,000 feet. Gorgeous October sun!

Just beautiful. This is looking East off the porch at the Thomas Training Center.

APU Women's team getting stronger everyday, as a team!

APU coaches doing everything they can to get the season started with fresh tracks! We look forward to seeing you on the trails this winter.

This weekend we were able to attend and presented at the USSA Coaches Education Conference. It was a great conference. The presentations of the various speakers was a great way to learn about what is happening in the US, plus learn about what research is being done in Norway and Sweden. Really cool. Much of the information shared by HC Holmberg confirmed that we are on the right track both with efficiency and training. We are definitely excited and committed to having all of our coaches with 100 level certificate. I like the message in the conference that we as a country can be successful and are having success by putting athletes on the podium on the World Cup and other international events. APU has built a system to develop skiers. We would love to help the process! If you are interested, contact me.

Great conference, definitely worth the trip!

Welcome to the APU Nordic Ski Center’s Elite team blog. APUNSC is focused on Developing US athletes for international competition and promoting cross country skiing in the community. We are excited to share our experiences with you. Enjoy.

Ready to train hard for their goal. May 1 "Start-up" Camp. Skookum Glacier

Our 09-10 Team Roster:

Women: Kikkan Randall, Tazlina Mannix, Laura Valaas, Katie Ronsse, Becca Rorabaugh, Kate Arduser, Kasandra Rice, Kate “The Fitz” Fitzgerald, Erika Klaar, and Ky Eiben.

Men: James Southam, Brent Knight, Anders Haugen, Mike Hinckley, Bart Dengel, Mark Iverson, Lars Flora, Peter Kling, Erin Phillips, Don Haering, and Bobby “Killer” Miller.

Coaches of APU Program including Junior, Elite, and Master Programs: Erik Flora, Eric Strabel, Casey Fagerquist, Holly Brooks, Dylan Watts, Rob Whitney, and Charlie Renfro.