Good day for Sun Valley Olympic Development Team yesterday in the sprint.  Best finish for the day was Simi Hamilton with an impressive 2nd place.  More to come in the distance races!!!

Here are some pics from the camp so far.

Good Friends out on the trail-from left: Ian Mallams, Marshal Opel, Eliot Neal, Me

An artsy shot by Travis Jones

There is much love among the waxing staff.  I apologize to both Chris and Travis for posting this.

Colin Rodgers getting his contrast bath on.

Erik Fagerstrom chillin in our room with some Midwest girls.

There’s a Storm Coming……

For a new blog post!!!!

“You must keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man.”

-Hemingway

It has been way too long since I have written, and I am excited to get back into the blogging world.  My ski season started with the NEG (National Elite Group) camp in Whistler, BC this August.  The camp was composed of five junior men and women.  We were able to train with the National team every morning and spend our afternoons doing strength, playing soccer, and/or running and hiking with Ben Husaby and Chris Mallory.  The camp was a great way to get fully acquainted with the other junior skiers and obtain a few good Ben Husaby quotes.

My next camp was in Lake Placid, New York.   Lake Placid is a great place to train and again it was awesome to get some sessions in with the National team.   While Lake Placid turned out to be a lot of fun, it was a very bittersweet experience for me.  Last year, I had a wonderful time in Lake Placid with my teammate Willie Neal.

Willie was such an amazing skier, friend, son, brother, and so much more.  His passing this summer was devastating and still hurts.   I take a picture of Willie with me on trips now, because his big smiling face reminds me to never loose enthusiasm and strive to be better.  I hope to ski fast enough for the two of us this year.  I know that he will be out on my race courses cheering me on and I look forward to it.

I have now been home for quite some time.  It has been really nice to fall into the rhythm of training, eating my mom’s food, playing with my dogs, seeing high school friends, enjoying evening mountain bike rides with my sensei Chris Mallory, and dabbling in some wiffle ball with Ricky K.  I cannot deny that, while I have enjoyed all of the camps there is nothing like running around the good old Rockies with tights and poles until fitness is achieved.   There are few things in the world like getting picked up by Rick Kapala early in the morning, listening to some good music, driving 17 miles out a dirt road, and getting dropped off with Rick’s age old wisdom ringing in your ears, “alright now run back.  If you see a wolf, be a man and square up to it.”

Now the snow has started to fall in Sun Valley and I have gotten some great skiing in.  Yesterday, I was able to go out with Colin Rodgers.  It is always great to ski with Colin; he has great technique and many good stories to tell.  Next we travel to West Yellowstone.    I will keep you updated.  Also check out Sun Valley Olympic Development Team’s Twitter:  http://twitter.com/svsefxcodt.

p.s.- it is Rick ’s Birthday tomorrow.  Be sure to send him a Happy Birthday note!

Colin Rodgers getting his stretch on.  You should never mess with Colin, but take extra caution after he gets loose.

Those ain’t rollerskis on my feet?

“Where Amazing Happens”

While the Norwegians are busy dancing around like Michael Jackson, making really, really bad lip syncing performances, Colin Rodger is ice bathing in a trash can, in the snow.

2009/10 FANTASY CROSS-COUNTRY WORLD CUP SKI LEAGUE

Get into the World Cup this winter, win some bragging rights, and play Fantasy XC!

League Fee: $40 (50% goes towards payouts to Top 3 teams, 50% fundraises for Sun Valley Olympic Development Team)

NCAA athletes and coaches: sorry league is not for you, NCAA rules.

Teams must be emailed to Chris Mallory ( mallory_chris at hotmail.com) by Friday, November 20th to be eligible in the league.

The league will be capped at the first 40 teams to join. Send the eight skiers you’ve selected to be on your ‘team,’ a team name, along with your name.

Rules:

• Each team selects 4 men and 4 women
• Teams may have the same athletes on their rosters
• Points are accumulated from World Cup points your athletes score inindividual World Cup races this season, as well as the Olympic Games.
  • Top 30 in each race score World Cup points
  • First place= 100pts, Second= 80pts, third=60pts, fourth= 50pts, etc.

• The object is for your team to score the most World Cup points.

• Each team must be kept under the salary cap.  Each athlete is given a dollar value based off their final World Cup points from the 08/09 season.
  • Here is a link to find the 08/09 Cup standings:
  • http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/disciplines/cross-country/cupstandings.html
• The salary cap for each gender is $2,000
  • Ex: Sara Renner scored 333 World Cup points last season, therefore she is worth $333.
  • An example of an eligible female team could be:
  Follis – $1,135
  Renner – $333
  Haag – $413
  Randall – $102
  Total = $1983

*Any Americans not on the WC Points list may be added to your team for $1.

• The season will be broken up into 4 periods.
  • Period 1 consists of the 8 races between Nov 11th -Dec 12
  • Period 2 consists of the 12 races between Jan 1st- Jan 24th
  • Period 3 consists of the 6 races starting Feb 2nd thru the Olympics (the Games will count towards the standings)
  • Period 4 consists of the 8 races Mar 3rd - Mar 21st

• Add/Drops:  Each team is allowed 2 Add/Drops to their roster each period.  Ex:  Picking up Boehler and dropping Follis would be counted as one Add/Drop.
  • Rosters must remain under the $2,000 limit after Add/Drops.
  • Athletes $ value are kept the same all season long (off of the 08/09 WC Pts list).
  • Email your Add/Drops to mallory_chris@hotmail.com prior to the start of the next period in order for those changes to be made.

• Standings will be emailed out to teams twice each period.
• If any of your athletes are caught doping during the season, you loose any and all points they accumulated.
• Payouts:  If we get a full league of 40 teams the payouts to top 3 will look like this:  1st - $400  2nd - $250  3rd - $150

Make checks payable to Chris Mallory.
Send To:
Chris Mallory
PO Box 5173
Ketchum, ID 83340