Training this time of year is bitter sweet… You are motivated to ski faster than ever but tired from training all summer.  The weather can suck for running/rollerskiing but there’s not enough snow to ski.  Athletes start traveling to get on snow and most everyone else tries to maintain fitness waiting for the white stuff or at least the sun to come out.  My life is defined by trying to balance getting enough on snow training before the opener in Kuusamo and not spending to much time on the road before the first comps getting stale.  Though it might sound weird two weeks in europe before a race can be bad if you’ve been doing this game for over a decade.  I’m going to chance it this year and as a result I find myself anxiously hoping to back country ski or skate or jump soon but in the meantime killing time and making my workouts by improv as illustrated below:

Best punch line for:

What do you get when you put a Biathlete and a Nordic Combiner side by side on a treadmill doing classic?

Win’s a 2010 Bjorn Dahlie jacket from me and some kind of squarehead triple stripped Adidas thing from Teela.

Just finished up an action packed weekend here in Chicago for the 2012 US National Nordic Combined Championships.  Yep, Chicago.  Betcha ya did not know there was a jump here but there is and it is one of the oldest ski clubs in the country!  The Norge Ski Club of Fox River Grove, Il was founded in 1904 and has been hosting some very popular ski jumping events ever since.  But only once before has Norge hosted the national championships so it was pretty exciting to see it come back. 

Ever since we switched our nationals to fall it has become a more serious competition as it is the first test heading into winter for all the new found form instead of an april after-thought.  It has also opened the door for us to put the event in some places that could not typically host a spring tourney.  Norge proved to be a great host club and saturday was a really successful event.  We kicked off with the small hill jumping championships and with over 75 competitors it took some time to get through 3 rounds.  During which hundreds of people came to partake in the festival atmosphere around the base of the ski jump.  Though not the crowds of 5k+ they command in the winter it was pretty good for football season!  

Bryan Fletcher really showed his strength on the jumphill outdistancing Johnny Spillane and I by enough to get a 30 sec head start for the XC race.  And though I was sure we could catch him in the challenging 10km, which wound relentlessly up and over the back of the jumping hill, he managed to increase his lead by 10 sec over the first 5km.  So with half the race over and nearly a 40sec advantage I thought Bryan would take the title easily but Johnny and I were able to pick it up enough as Bryan faded to make contact with just a km remaining.  From there we all backed off a bit to try and recover for a move and in the end it was a 3 way dash for the last 200m.  I managed to edge out Johnny at the line!  Its a good motivation for the beggining of the last prep phase to know you are close to where you want to be.  What was really great about the weekend was seeing the strength of our up and coming junior squad.  Alec Gantic of Steamboat jumped to 2nd place in Nordic Combined and 17 year old Eric Lynch had a great jump and a fast race managing to outsprint Taylor Fletcher to take 5th place right behind Todd.  

In any case a former Nordic Combined Development athlete Dan Englund has put together a really neat video of the weekend.  His companyAerial Vantage Productions gets some really unique shots using a remote control helicopter to to follow jumpers through the air and skiers on the course.  Enjoy!

Well seeing as I could not make it to Lake Placid for the annual Climb to the Castle event this year and nothing real exciting has happened in my life in the last week or so I going to share a story about this years race up Whiteface Mountain.  Ussually we all look to the stories of the race to see how the top guys played their cards and learn the perspective of how the win transpired to the winner.  Sometimes it is nice to hear a tale of what how the experience plays out for others in the race.  As such I am posting the tale of the Big Dog, a man of many talents, a myth among some circles and a knack for engaging in challenges with people he could not possibly win (as per his own admission) but saavy enough to dominate the Hoff in ping-pong.  That being said he’s a heck of a guy and an engaging tale weaver. 

As per Twitter I’ve logged last week as 43228.  The code can be broken down as follows: 4 races in 3 countries on 2 continents in 2 disciplines over 8 days.

 It started saturday August 27th in Oberwiesenthal, Germany with my first Summer Grand Prix Nordic Combined event in a couple years.  A normal gundersen competition with one jump on the k-90 followed by a 10km pursuit.  I finished a lackluster 30th after blowing up mid-race trying to keep up with Taylor Fletcher but the day was highlighted by older brother Bryan’s 8th place and near podium.  Also we had a youngster Eric Lynch a second generation Nordic Combined talent ski in his first A level competition in which he really held his own with a solid performance.  

Day 2 was Sunday another competition in the same venue but instead of a pursuit race we did the first ever Nordic Combined “Penalty” race.  in this format the winner of the jumping got a 10 sec head start on the field and the other 70 of us mass started for 6 laps around the 1.75km cobble stoned hilly nightmare around downtown.  The kicker is that depending on how you jumped you had to do a certain number of Penalty laps during the race as such: jump 101 or farther: 0 penalties  

jump 96-101: 1 penalty

jump 91-96: 2 penalty

and so on up to 6 laps!  Oh, and if you fail to have a telemark landing add one penalty or worse crash, add 3!

The penalty was a lap around the inside of an outdoor hocket rink off to the side of the course just past the cobbled section and you could choose when to do your laps 1 at a time or all at once on any lap.  

I wanted to hate this race when I heard about it but honestly it was pretty interesting and the tactic of when to take the penalties added alot to the race.  I had 1 penalty and I chose the 3rd lap to do it, I went from leading to 5th about 25 sec back.  After a couple more guys took their penalties I was in 3rd and there I stayed danging 25-30 sec behind the leading duo and pulling away from the field slowly.  Ultimately I finished on the podium my first since 2010.  

It was off to Czech Republic from there to play 18 holes of golf (walking with my clubs on my back) in a little NC get together on monday followed by another competition in Liberec on Wednesday where I skied a strong race but finished in 24th.  All in all it was some solid contact with the other teams and decent results in a very strong field.  After the race I beat for the Prague Airport to try and make it home in time for race #4.

Thursdays travel was long but I made it home by mid-afternoon after catching the Paris-Salt Lake direct.  And Friday I was back on my bike for the 2nd time since Leadville to preride the opening 10 miles of Park City’s infamous Point 2 Point race.  Brutal! Those opening 10 were mostly hard single track and I hoped that later in the race it might ease up….

Saturday morning I walked outside at 5:45am after a mostly sleepless night (indigestion, baby up, etc…) to find that my windshield was iced over and it was pitch dark.  I rallied with my buddy Bryson Perry to get everything ready and out the door to get to the start line.  We were lucky that we could park at the US Ski Team training center by the start because most of the field had to ride out in the dark from town!  And seeing as it was 36 degrees at 6:30am it was not that nice to be sitting around in spandex.  We lined up at 6:55 and race director Jay Burke informed us that the race would commence after 100m of neutral around a gate.  With that said it was on and though I tried to move up the strong group of frontrunners quickly had the race going full gas onto the single mile of 2-track. After hitting the single track of rusty shovel in about 30th I knew my chances of winning were about done which I quickly became pretty happy about.

PCP2P, if you haven’t heard of it, is about as pure a mountain bike race as you’d (n)ever want to do.  Among it’s 78 or so miles is about 76 miles of singletrack and 14,000 ft of climbing (and gnar-kill descending).  It will beat you up, make you cry, and when it turns uphill once more 3 miles from the finish line will make you murderously unhappy at the volunteers pointing you up and away from the finish line.  

It requires the utmost fitness and focus and ton of food and drink.  Without getting overly detailed into my own personal religious experience I’ll tell you this:  I consumed a camelback of water, 4 bottle of sports drink, 4 bottles of water, 2 cokes, 3 probars, a sandwich, a HoneyStinger Waffle, multiple handfuls of Stinger chews, 20+salt pills and a 7-11 Hotdog with ketchup.  All of which and especially the hot dog I aquired from my good friend Jeremy Teela, who I anxiously await feeding in next years PCP2P.  I rode for 8 hours and 17 minutes rarely stopping except to eat/drink and stave off cramps.  And I felt GOOD most of the time!  Good being a relative term, but since I did not chase down the likes of Alex Grant and Tinker Juarez I settled into my own pace thereby eliminating a lot of pain.  In short I thought people were crazy when they called the Leadville 100 a “road race,” but now I’m definetly gonna say “Leadville is a (really hard) total road race!”

Needless to say I took 3 days completely off and just now am considering getting off the couch to try and start putting the pieces back together for next winter! 

It’s that time of July again when the world turns it’s attention to the roads and mountains of France to see whose legs can sustain the pace necessary to win Le Tour.  While my own aspirations of bike racing are dwindling I still love the riding and especially our soiree’s to Courchevel for jumping and cycling.  This years edition of the Nordic Combined TDF includes the Swiss team who accompanied us on what indeed proved to be the longest ride of my life yesterday.  A 7:30 hr adventure from the Le Praz (Courchevel 1300) to the top of the Alp’s 2nd highest paved road atop the Col de L’Iseran… and back.  In all we covered 182km and 3490m of climb.  The real kicker of the day came in a fairly sustained effort from lowly (480m) Moutiers for over 70km to the top of the Col, a mere 2500m (8200′) higher.  Probably the most ardouous, albeit scenic, 3:30 hr effort I’ve undertaken.  After arriving at the summit we learned that the new snow adorning the surrounding peaks had indeed chilled the air to a balmy 4c (40f) and would chill any cyclist silly enough to sweat all the way back down to Val D’Isere.  Despite the “free” ride downhill the final 20km back up to Le Praz was a real hoot.  Not sure it will make me any faster come february but it sure as hell will make me tougher!  And I’ll be smiling all the way to Galibier on Thursday when we watch the racers churn it to the top of this Tours decisive HC finish… or will it be L’Alpe on Friday?!

Jeremy’s rendition of our last BC trip before heading to Europe.  I’m going to Lillehammer on Thursday and he is headed to Ostersund.  Gonna miss this:

Don’t worry we’ve being doing our intervals on rollerski’s.

Jeremy’s rendition of our last BC trip before heading to Europe.  I’m going to Lillehammer on Thursday and he is headed to Ostersund.  Gonna miss this:

Don’t worry we’ve being doing our intervals on rollerski’s.

   So as the winter rapidly approaches I’m counting down the days to Kuusamo like every year.  Normally I’m looking forward to jet setting off to a nice cozy spot on the Arctic Circle just west of the Russian border.  Ok maybe not exactly looking forward to going to a place where the sun literally does not shine.  But normally I’d be looking forward to getting started on the new season and jumping the biggest hill (outside of skflying) and racing some of the toughest courses.  This year though I keep hoping to buy a few extra days…

   Truth is that as much fun as this summer has been I’m truely looking forward to skiing for a living again.  I’m hankering for Sochi and everything that lies between now and then.  Long ass bus rides, strange hotels, ridiculous foriegners yelling at you about something in another language and you have no idea what?!  Then the good stuff, awesome days racing, training, just out and about in other cultures.  I want it all (for at least a few more years) but right now I need like two extra weeks before Suomi. 

    This past summer I rebuilt my WHOLE(of a) house in Park City.  Somehow managing to toss that in between post Olympic madness on the road, a few NRC stage races, and of course slowing down for just a few to marry my sweet heart Katie Koczynski Demong!  New windows, doors, floors, additions, decks  all day everyday for many many days.

In any case, we finally got on snow.  5 days in a row even!  After doing a fair bit of skating out at Whitepine, a back country day at Alta and some intervals I’m starting to finally feel a flow that has been missing of late.  

Hopefully the snow holds up, I’ll do the best with the time I’ve got before heading out.  Regardless, I am amped about Worlds in Oslo and especially the prospect of skiing for four more years!

Enjoy this:

   So as the winter rapidly approaches I’m counting down the days to Kuusamo like every year.  Normally I’m looking forward to jet setting off to a nice cozy spot on the Arctic Circle just west of the Russian border.  Ok maybe not exactly looking forward to going to a place where the sun literally does not shine.  But normally I’d be looking forward to getting started on the new season and jumping the biggest hill (outside of skflying) and racing some of the toughest courses.  This year though I keep hoping to buy a few extra days…

   Truth is that as much fun as this summer has been I’m truely looking forward to skiing for a living again.  I’m hankering for Sochi and everything that lies between now and then.  Long ass bus rides, strange hotels, ridiculous foriegners yelling at you about something in another language and you have no idea what?!  Then the good stuff, awesome days racing, training, just out and about in other cultures.  I want it all (for at least a few more years) but right now I need like two extra weeks before Suomi. 

    This past summer I rebuilt my WHOLE(of a) house in Park City.  Somehow managing to toss that in between post Olympic madness on the road, a few NRC stage races, and of course slowing down for just a few to marry my sweet heart Katie Koczynski Demong!  New windows, doors, floors, additions, decks  all day everyday for many many days.

In any case, we finally got on snow.  5 days in a row even!  After doing a fair bit of skating out at Whitepine, a back country day at Alta and some intervals I’m starting to finally feel a flow that has been missing of late.  

Hopefully the snow holds up, I’ll do the best with the time I’ve got before heading out.  Regardless, I am amped about Worlds in Oslo and especially the prospect of skiing for four more years!

Enjoy this: