Last post was a short but funny video.  I a little more info on that:  This ski flying trip has been a dream shared by every ski jumper to be able to take som jumps on the biggest hill in the world.  Planica is an HS215 compared to the Olympic large hill which was a HS140.  The longest jump yesterday was 230 meters by Bjorn Romoren who also holds the world record at 239 meters!  As for Johnny and I are personal bests after 2 jumps (only one a day for forejumpers) is around 170-175. This is like the ultimate vacation for us with no pressure just fun and tens of thousands of enthusiastic fans.  A nice end to a great season.

Please enjoy this little video, it is a compilation of pure flying footage!

Ski Flying Vacation! II

It has always been tough for me to write about myself during the season, and although I try not to have any rituals about luck I do believe in keeping my mind focused on the task at hand and not revealing too much (mostly to myself).  I have this fear that in trying to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) I will bring out issues I’d rather leave alone (in my own mind).  Besides, at the end of the day it is about performance on skis and that is most certainly a mental task.

All that being said, the last week of my life, as hectic as it has been, has been underscored by a feeling of deep satisfaction.  Winning medals at the games was an important goal, but more so it was a reward for all the hard work we’ve done.  It brought back memories of all the mistakes, failures, successes, close calls, decisions, and lessons learned.  It is an incredible feeling to know that all of those things in the long run paid their dividends these past weeks.

In this first cameo back on FS I just want to take a minute to thank everyone along the way who has helped me and my team achieve these results.  And I want to point out that while we might be the ones who get to take the medals home, I know that we are merely the medium which channeled all the effort and vision of coaches, volunteers,  and athletes from the US for such a long time.

On the way to the Holmenkollen

This summer has been going well.  I had an extremely busy spring but am now falling into a good training rhythm  and for the past two weeks have been enjoying a great training camp in Europe.  The camp started in Ramsau, Austria with some good jumping there and in nearby Bischofshofen.  We also did our first visit to Atomic for the year to pick up some new Jumping boards and get squared away with our needs for the coming season.  As always Roman and crew were very helpful and suffice it to say I think Atomic will be coming out with some really exciting XC weapons this winter for Vancouver!

After Ramsau we booked it to Courchevel, France and for the past ten days have been jumping with the French skiers and riding in the afternoons.  With the tour coming nearby we took the opportunity to bring our bikes on this trip and for several of the days we were able to ride out onto the course and watch the circus go through.  Over the past few years we have ridden more and more during the summer and a bit to our surprise discovered that riding seems to complement on the hill training nicely.  I think it has to do with the quick recovery and low impact inherent of cycling.  With this in mind we have put in some pretty big miles and taken quite a few jumps.  Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Johnny approaches the head-wall on Col du MadeleineJohnny, Todd and I near the finish of stage 16

Brett and Dj cheer on The God of Thunder near the summit of Col de Saisies

The Ski Jumps in Courchevel

Everything was going great until Todd got into a bad accident on the descent from Le Saisies…

Todd wins battle againist Renault

In an unreal stroke of luck Todd managed to walk away from this merely banged up and a bit bruised!  His bike was a bit less fortunate.

Todd is back home but doing great and will no doubt rejoin us in superior form again soon.

Finally we had our own race yesterday up Alpe d’Huez.  When I used to compare climbs from the tour vs climbs in the US it seemed like no big deal. Big Cottonwood is like Galibier, Rabbit ears is Roselend, Little Cottonwood is Alpe d’Huez… at least on paper.   But when you square up to these serpentine behemoths and switchback after unrelenting switchback you sit and spin your 26 you realize that these are in fact a different animal!  And having ridden Alpe d’Huez at about 175bpm and seemingly pacing it quite well finding out that my 49 min effort was about 12 min slower than Pantani and Lance’s record was a bit disappointing.  Oh well, I still have my day job.

Top of Alpe d'Huez

Nina Lussi with NYSEF coach Matt Cook

After a short rest week where I put my bike away and dusted off my rollerskis, the US Combined team headed to Lillehammer, Norway. This camp was planned to bring together the US, Norwegian, and French teams for some training and some friendly comps to “check the level.”

It was a huge success from the start since we were able to bring some additional athletes and coaches to bring our total to 22 people and 16 athletes! This included the 10 members of the US Nordic Combined squad, comeback kid Todd Lodwick, and a promising group of junior skiers from across the US. France brought a four member A-team squad and Norway brought their entire NC nation with around 65 athletes! For the camp we stayed together with the Norwegians up in the mountains at Sjusjoen. Although a drive to the ski jumps, it was near the new roller ski loop that offers nearly 5km of challenging courses. Sjusjoen also has some great trails across the high open alpine hills and bogs for some fun workouts as well.

During the second week of our stay we had four competitions. Three of which were designed to mimic the new Nordic combined format for this season, a one jump and 10km pursuit race. The 4^th was an annual event in downtown Lillehammer called the “Super Sprint,” and consisted of a 200m all out uphill sprint where competitors were seeded on qualification times and went head to head through rounds of 16, 8, 4, and a final 2. These comps were a serious test for me since I have been spending a lot of time focused on cycling lately and I was eager to see how the fitness would transfer over to skiing again.

In the first event I managed to jump to 2^nd behind Havard Klemetson and just ahead of Petter Tande and Jan Schmid all from Norway. I started the race with a solid tempo and started taking the time out of Havard at 15 sec per lap but Petter and Jan were also catching me. This surprised me but as we all came together at 3km to go I relaxed and started preparing for the sprint. Jan took off at the 1km to go mark but I was able to pull him back and gap off Petter, and managed to eke it out at the line. Day two was a bit harder, Magnus Moan had missed day one but came out strong in the second comp tieing with me for second place in the jumping. As we started the race he went out pretty easy, but began to up the pace each lap until with a km to go he put in a hard acceleration which left me with nothing but to follow him in for second. The final 10km comp Johnny Spillane nailed down a 100 meter ride to take the top spot and was followed by Havard, Magnus, Petter, and I, respectively. I started about 10sec behind Magnus and Petter and though I caught Petter quickly Magnus was skiing fast and by the 7.5k mark he had reeled in Johnny and Havard and left them to go on for the win. I skied in for 5^th and was followed in by Todd Lodwick who had his top showing of the series with a 6^th place. For complete results go to www.usnoco.com

The Street Sprint was probably the most exciting comp of the week. Although I finished my day 11^th getting knocked out in the first round of 16, Todd Lodwick showed off his “old-man” strength by defeating each of his opponents handily seeming to cruise in. In the Semi-final he went up against the three-time defending champion Magnus Moan and managed to take him down to enter the finals, which he also won against Havard.

All in all it was an awesome camp in which we had a great showing, and it more importantly it gave some younger skiers from both country’s a chance to meet and compete with each other and with some of the top NC skiers in the World. I want to especially thank Erik Sandoy of Norway for helping facilitate such a big crew and also Dave Jarrett for putting together this awesome trip!

    Day one was a flat 100 mile stage with “only” 5,000′ of climb.  We rolled out easy and it was not long before my eager teammate Luis Zamudio (check out his version of the races at www.luiszamudio.com) attacked the field and began an arduous 20 minutes of establishing the break as the field chased all the moves and finally let three guys slip off the front.  As the break rolled away I was feeling good having prepared well for one good day and I took off hoping that they might let up as the field backed down.  I stuck the move but started an hour and a half effort where I chased solo for awhile and eventually with two companions until we got caught just past the halfway mark.  After that attempt I sat in to finish with the main field while the break stuck it for the podium by a mere 20 secs! 

    Day two was a serious race with over 10,000′ of climb and the first of three climb was the steep and sustained North Ogden Pass.  By mile four of the race I was hanging on 15th wheel with my heart rate climbing over 180 and I knew I was in for a long day.  Sure enough after the 5 mile climb I was in a chase group of 25, and as soon as we rolled down the descent an eager chase ensued which took the rest of my energy.  After an hour and a half well over threshold I finally bit it on the second climb of the day.  It was a shattering moment to be 50 miles from the finish line with the field going out of sight and noone in view behind.  For awhile I eased up and entertained thoughts of not finishing, I wondered why I was even racing, but after a few minutes I regained the chase taking it one mile at a time.  To my suprise a group of 30 riders came up on me after about 40 minutes and I jumped on the back as they sped by.  Looking around I saw “fast” Freddie and a host of other big names just rolling through obviously striking a good tempo with the time-cut in mind.  It was hard to pick it up and continue at 30 mph but it was the only option.  Two excruciating hours later we rolled in together, happy to be done.

     After that the Tour of Utah became a challenge to finish.  I hate to admit and it is not often that I feel helpless in a race situation, but that is the honest truth.  I have been racing on the road for a couple years, but this year I took it a bit more seriously and upgraded from a cat 3 in April to a 1 by mid-june, and enjoyed some really good days this year.  I love the sport and I really love the challenge of trying to improve at something new, while also working hard at rollerskiing and jumping.  This past week was a good lesson on the boundarys that I talk about with my coach Dave Jarrett everyday.  We are always analyzing what we can do better/different and what we can change.

     This year Dave agreed to work a bunch of cycling training and races into my schedule and we both have done our best to tweak the approach to keep Nordic Combined as the number one goal.  Although last week was a harsh lesson, I can say from heart rate files and feeling I was not on my game.  I am eager to see how all this will affect my season, and I am convinced that cycling has offered some of the most quality training sessions I have had this summer.  So despite having a rough week I am anxious to get back on rollerskis and start to specify all the stress I have put on my heart this summer for Nordic Combined.  This week is all about rest and next week we head to Norway for a great training camp in Lillehammer with the NC teams from Norway, Finland, and France!

Oberstdorf start

Einsiedeln was a bit of the same, after a nice trial jump a thunderstorm rolled in and as the rain poured down the jumping tower was amidst a show of electric bolts.  So again we reverted to the qualification round for our start times.  Having learned my lesson in Oberstdorf I had a pretty good jump in the quali and was sitting 9th position about :42 down on Finlands Janne Rynanen.  I was feeling pretty good about this until I started warming up, and as the rain poured down the streets became a mess of slick paint, cobblestones, and standing water.  I kind of had a plan of “safety blading” this final race, but of course when the gun went off I charged out and after 3 of 8 laps was pulling into a lead group of five that included Austrians Mario Stecher and David Kreiner, Finn Annsi Koivuranta, and Switzerlands Ronny Heer.  From that point on it became a race of hard attacks, but no one was able to make a move that stuck despite the sketchy course conditions and long steep climb.  After my futile attempt on the 6th lap I was really tired and when Ronny began his assualt on the final climb to the finish I could not keep up, and coasted in for a 5th place.  Hats off to Ronny for his first victory, and especially at home on Switzerlands independence day!

So back to the serious business today.  Now that I am about 10 days out from the start of the Tour of Utah, I need to get back into a semblance of cycling shape.  Johnny Spillane and I hit the road this morning for an epic little Tour de Suisse that took us from Einsiedeln to the Austrian border at Mader.  A 4hr adventure with some long steep climbs and beautiful views.  Luckily the team van was arriving at the border about the same time we came down the final descent with some fresh clothes and lunch.  On that note I hope to have some great updates from TofU, and the return to Nordic Combined the weeks after.

Chris Gilbertson, Johnny Spillane, Billy Demong on top of the Ibergeregg

Saturday’s event was a single jump followed by a 15km inline race. This was meant to simulate in time the new format we will be using this winter: a one-jump 10km. The jumping was a great comp with long jumps from all and David Zauner emerged the victor with a huge leap of 106.5 meters on the k95 hill. I jumped 99, which placed me in 7^th position going into the race and starting 56 seconds behind the young Austrian.

The racecourse was a straightforward 2.2 km lap with a few corners and two short punchy climbs. The only hitch was a thunderstorm that rolled in 5 minutes before the slated start time. After a 15 min delay the jury decided to roll it and we all prepared to spend some time on the ground. Early in the race I caught 10 seconds on David Kreiner, another Austrian and winner of the SGP series in 2007. Because of the high speed on inlines drafting plays a huge role, and we quickly formed a swift pack with Peter Tande of Norway, Jason Lamy Chapuis of France, and Anssi Koivuranta of Finland all rotating at the front. The time gaps to the lead dropped quickly at about 15 seconds a lap, and by the 4^th of 7 laps we moved into the lead. Now it seemed we simply needed to hash it out amongst ourselves but it rapidly became apparent that a second group of 15 more was gaining ground at a furious pace. With that information we continued our pace line which culminated in a blistering last two laps with each of the contenders trying to make last ditch break away efforts. Entering the final kilometer I found myself trying to edge out Anssi on the inside of the last corner, he kept me honest pushing me into the cobblestone street border which resulted in a slippery split second confusion. This was all Georg Hettich of Germany needed to make his move putting on a burst of speed putting him ahead of his pursuants by several lengths. After recovering from the near crash I started a no poles all-out sprint past Anssi and David Kreiner, but could not close the final gap and finished 2^nd place about a second behind.

All in all I was pretty satisfied with the day, especially the jump result. The ability to improve my jumping and thus my starting position will result in much better chances on snow. Alright now time to get ready for a couple more. Thanks for reading!

PS: A funtastic fact about germany… I wrote this on sunday and could not find wireless internet until we got to switzerland this afternoon (wed) to post it.

Well first off, I am psyched to be a part of the blogroll on FasterSkier! I aim to entertain and keep those interested apprised of the current events on the Nordic Combined circuit, and especially give everyone an idea of how we train for our multifarious disciplines.

Being an NCer in the summer is a difficult balance of power and technical training on the ski jumping side and an appropriate volume and specificity of endurance training for cross-country. On the US team we have adopted a philosophy of “cross country skiers who jump” prioritizing the development of our engines over the long term meanwhile continually seeking to improve our jumping prowess. I personally spend a ton of time on the bike in the earlier part of the summer getting long hours and quality intensity in the form of races. But in general we run, roller ski, hike, bike, double pole and lift like cross country skiers. On top of that we spend 2-3 days a week doing plyometric exercises aimed at developing the neuromuscular snap requisite of good ski jumping, and another 3-4 sessions jumping on the plastic. Much like cross country skiing summer is the time to make technical changes and hone them into habits.

We have a unique way of getting some intensity training in the summer which is to have Grand Prix events which are basically world cups held on plastic for jumping and inlines for the XC. Weird. Every year we get together with 50 other NCers and hold a weeks worth of comps on a tough multi-town circuit, and every year we go “why inlines?!” But the bottom line is these events offer everyone (especially those of us from a different continent) a chance to touch base and see the level to help focus our training through the fall. They also draw great crowds as the races are held downtown similar to a cycling criterium format, the courses being short laps of 1.5km with steep power climbs to make the utilization of poles necessary.

Which brings us to where I am now… in the Thurner Wirtshaus im Hinterzarten, DE. I’ve finally got a morning off to recoup before some jumping this afternoon. Our first event is on Saturday in coop with the Ski Jumping Sommer Grand Prix. After the comp which is a one jump 15km event, we will drive to Oberstdorf for a comp on Tuesday, and finally to Einsiedeln, CH for the final comp on Saturday. We’ve got an eager crew here with Johnny Spillane, Eric Camerota, Alex Glueck, and myself and will hopefully have some exciting updates for you as soon as I can get back online!