Nordic Nuts-Home

1/30/06
I got up my race report on the weekend. Solid. The pictures are up on skinnyski. I've been having some issues with uploading the picture sets here, but I'll try to get them up later this week. I'm looking forward to a good week of training, and probably heading over to Duluth for some racing this weekend. If not, we'll probably have one of my famous time trials up at Valhalla so that we get some good intensity in. I'm planning on a nice distance session there tomorrow, and I hear the conditions are great, so I'm looking forward to it. Ciao.

1/29/06
I'm just coming up for air after a great weekend of racing down at Telemark for the NorAms. I took over 500 pictures over the weekend, about 200 of which should end up on skinnyski. When I get a chance, I may get them up here. Weather was interesting to say the least, but I had pretty good skis both days. Driving on Sunday was a bit fun. My races went about as I would have expected. I got to see my boy Adam "the crusher" Airoldi and even ski with him for a bit, so that was rad. I'll get more details up soon, probably tomorrow. Now, I think I'll veg out in front of the TV for a bit and then pass out. Ciao.

1/25/06
I headed down to Telemark today with Catie Cogger to preview the courses for this weekend's NorAms and catch the sprint racing action. We showed up about 1 p.m. and skied the Supertour classic (world cup) course as well as the 7 and 5 k freestyle (birkie) courses. They're both in great shape, though the next couple days of tropical temperatures could put a damper on things. I think the courses will be in fine shape though probably either a bit soggy or rock hard depending on the exact temp. The world cup trail is pretty hilly. It should make for a good tough race on Saturday. Most of the 7 k loop for Sunday is the 24T course, so I know it pretty well and feel pretty confident about skiing it well. The sprints were action packed, and I got some good photos, which are up here. Results are linked in as well as a bit of commentary over in the Race News section. If you're in the bay area, tune into True North tomorrow (Thursday)and catch a piece on the race and Chris Cook. I'm getting pumped up for some good racin' this weekend, are you? I'm out.

1/23/06
I had a fun time up at the Copper Island Classic. Read all about it here. In case you've been living under a rock, Newell and Koos threw down at the sprints in Oberstdorf. Newell was 4th and Koos 11th. Solid. Way solid. Rock hard in fact. Full results are linked in. I had a nice ski today in town. Conditions haven't really changed since my last report. I'm heading down to the NorAm sprints on Wednesday, and I'll try to get pictures while I'm there. Out.

1/21/06
P.M. #2-Results for the Mt. Itasca Nor-Am are up. Justin Freeman threw down, in freestyle no less. Maybe the guy was fired up and wanted to prove the doubters on his Olympic Team selection wrong. Maybe he just got lucky, but the bottom line is that he was first, a few seconds of XC-Oregon's Marshall Greene. Dave Chamberlain pulled down a solid third, 8 seconds off the pace. Andre Watt continues to be the fastest Duluthian throwing down a great 14th place. In the women's race, UAF's import Johana Turunen smoked the field taking first over FSX's Kate Whitcomb about 20 seconds back. Jaqui Benson pulled down third another 16 seconds back. Looking at the fields, I should be able to avoid finishing dead last next weekend if more or less the same people show up. Now I have to go and get my skis waxed for my own race tomorrow. Results are linked in.
P.M.-I got out and skied here in town. The trails are in great shape. Two big thumbs up. Check the Snow Report for more.
A.M.-Tough opening day for the US men on the World Cup today. Carl Swenson and Kris Freeman seemed to have trouble shaking off the jetlag and finished 42nd and 43rd, respectively, about 6 minutes off the pace. Andrew Johnson was a DNF. Results are linked in the results section. Action continues tomorrow with some sprints. Newell and Koos will be competing and they've been taking names over in Europe lately so expect a bit better showing from them. I'm headed out skiing later today and I'll try to snap some shots of the Ashland trails and get a nice trail report up.

1/20/06
Beautiful day of skiing over at ABR today. Perfect packed powder conditions. We did two hours easy with CANSKI. Truly awesome ski day. I seemed to have slowish skis, which made no sense really, but whatever. Racing this weekend will rock. I'm hoping to get some photos, but the start times aren't real conducive to that. I think we should have a few photos anyway.

1/19/06
A couple good days of training. We did a 5k time trial yesterday up at Valhalla. It went pretty well, though my kick was marginal. Today I did some intervals 5x4:45 for those that care. They felt good. I would have kept going, but for once this year I drove up with my parents and we had to leave. We picked up like 4" of snow here in town, so the trails are actually looking pretty nice. I haven't been out, but I talked to the groomer who said they're looking fab. That'll be all for now. We're heading to ABR tomorrow afternoon for a nice chill skate ski. I'll try to snag some pictures. People seem to be getting their knickers in a bunch over the Olympic team selection over at Team Today. Personally, I got no problem with it. Yeah, some decent skiers got left off the team, but its not like they're leaving any of the really fast guys or gals home. I guess if my boy Adam "2010" Airoldi just misses the team for Vancouver, I'll be pissed. But these folks make it sound like this giant conspiracy to keep certain folks down. We seem to have real trust issues with our coaching staff, which from talking to a lot of people is best in ages. Now I haven't been around forever, but I think the current crop of US ski team coaches have done everything they can for everyone, including "bubble" guys that missed the team. I think people forget that there were a bunch of guys that just missed the cut who've been in on USST camps and such. I guess what I don't understand is why we can't get along better. We've got to. As a ski nation tiny in comparison to a lot of nations, especially budget wise. If we could freaking work together and not sit around nitpicking, we might actually get somewhere. I look at mountain biking and message boards there. I mean, guys flame from time to time, but it is possible to find active, civil discussions of mountain biking. Whenever a ski forum is active, people are just pointing fingers. Maybe not enough nordic skiers rock the ganj. :) Just playin' Sorry to ramble on, but I just don't get why we can't get along a bit better. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for constructive criticism, but most of the dialogue amongst skiers seems to be less than constructive, it seems more like personal attacks. Ok. I'm really done now. If I've offended you email me. I'd really like to hear your thoughts. Before I take off, there's a shout-out that I missed. Sadie Bjornsen-Enjoy Slovenia, knock 'em out. I've never met this young lady, but everything I've heard is that she's 100% awesome all the time. Good luck to all the juniors for that matter.

1/17/06
Ooops, just realized I've been dating these last year. It is fixed now. We picked up four inches of beautiful snow last night here in town, and I went out to check things out at the Ashland trails. They're looking pretty good, possibly the best they've been all year. Check the Snow Report for more. I did some no-poles skating and it felt really good. The Olympic teams were announced today and I think they'll be great. Read all about it at Team Today. I really do think that this team can turn in the best results in history. I'm looking forward to seeing them bring it in February. Special shout outs: Chris Cook-Cheeseheads represent! Abby-Throw down, and if you ever want to ski another 24T, you know who to call. Oh, and more Midwest love to both the L-dubyas. Solid. To the rest of the country and the world:This is just the beginning, the Midwest is coming, watch yourself! I'll leave you with a little something inspired by the great Elwood Blues, "No pharmaceutical product could ever equal the rush you get when you hit that groove; the heart is pumpin', lungs are burnin', the skis are glidin'; and you are flyin'!" Edit:Apparently I'm incompetent and the last bit was wrong. Well, not wrong, just not what I meant to put there. It is right now.

1/16/06
Good weekend. I did the 42k at Seeley Hills and it was great. The course was rock solid, if a bit dirty and I managed to hold onto my kick wax the whole time. Read all about it in Racing. I was definitely happy with my results. Sunday, my mom and I drove my brother down to St. Johns to move him in for the new semester. The deal was that I would help move him in if I got to ski on the trails there while they were doing some shopping. I was doing a "long easy" 1:45. I mainly stuck to the race course from Saturday which was HILLY. I was definitely feeling the effort from Saturday. It was a nice ski and the trails flowed nicely, some of the uphills were just a bit steep for doing an easy ski. It would be a great venue for a hard bounding session. Ithink today may be a recovery day, though I may sneak out for a short easy ski or something.

1/12/06
My recovery this week has been absolutely pathetic. I got pretty good sleep Monday night, then had to get up early to drive my mom to work so I could use the car for a job interview on Tuesday. Right after the job interview, I took off for Minneapolis and hung out with friends watching movies until like 5 a.m. Did I mention they were both rocking colds? Got up, picked up the bro at the airport drove most of the way home (though I did convince him to drive for a while) and went for my first ski of the week. Finally on Wednesday night I got a solid night of sleep at somewhere around 10 hours. I was real smart today and did intervals even though I've got Seeley Hills Classic coming up this weekend. I'm calling it a calculated risk. If I can stay healthy, I think I'm going to be as ready as possible to rock for the Telemark Nor-Ams in two weeks. Speaking of intervals today, they were ok quality. I was out on KR-70 (the warmest klister I have) and I was still getting marginal kick. What's up with that? I am really gunning for decent kick waxing conditions this weekend for the race. If I can have solid kick, I'm feeling pretty good about my form going into the race, considering that I'm not peaking for it. There is a sweet blog entry by Renee Callaway about 24T here. There are some sweet pics and a write up that makes me feel a bit better about how lengthy mine is. Oh, and finally, there is a podium shot of our team on the 24T page, czech it.

1/9/06
24T was a blast and we managed to sneak onto the podium to boot! I had an awesome time. Check the 24T page for details. Yeah, the write-up is long, the race is long. Enjoy.

1/6/06
We're down atTelemark for the 24 Hours of Telemark right now. Check in on the 24T page for updates this weekend. I'll try to get one posted tomorrow night if I'm feeling up to it.

1/5/06
Quick check in before heading off to 24T this weekend. Still not sure if I'll be updating during the weekend or not. Conditions are sounding real nice down at Telemark, so it should be a good weekend. Nationals sprint race today. Chris Cook and Kikkan Randall threw down on all comers. Shout out-Chris Cook. Way to represent!

1/4/06
We had a nice interval session today. The conditions were much like what they seem to be dealing with out at nationals right now. Slow and soupy. Except we weren't racing for national titles at thousands of feet, we were doing intervals at 800 feet. It still hurt. On the topic of nationals. I think decimated is a good description of that the course did to lots of racers yesterday. What, like a third of the field finished? Anyone that finished deserves a huge pat on the back. Frankly, I think anyone that pushed it until they got lapped deserves props. Shout outs to my boy Adam Airoldi-way to be tough, Abigail Larson-Wow, nice skiing! We're a couple of days out from 24 hours of Telemark and things are pretty sweet. Tyler and I will be headed down Friday night, while Doug and Dennis will join us on Saturday morning. I think we're all feeling pretty ready to rock, so it should be fun. I'm going to drag the laptop down with me, so I might do an update Friday night or sometime Saturday if the feeling strikes. That's all for now.

1/3/06
Nationals fired up today, starting with the Women's 15k Freestyle mass start race with the men to follow shortly. I'll have results links and or recaps up pretty fast this week. Check the racing section for more.

1/2/06
Happy New Year! Its been a great couple of days. The first ever Valhalla Vasa took place on Saturday morning with a nice turnout. A good time was had by all. You can read more about it over in the Race Reports section. That evening, Tyler and I headed to the Deepwater with some friends, saw some other ones, and danced the night away with Seahag. Rock on! My new years almost never got off the ground as the first bartender wasn't real hot on the condition of my driver's license. After showing a couple alternate forms of ID, we convinced them that it was really me, and not a fake. I made it to bed before the sun came up, and got up and did a nice long ski at Valhalla on Sunday with Catie and Hans. There are a few pictures here. The skiing was superb on Sunday and the Sunbowl is shaping up nicely. All of the trails were rock solid. That finished off a pretty high volume month of training. Today I have been taking a day off and getting some stuff done around the house. Even though this is my long week for the month of January, I still have very few workouts with 24 Hours of Telemark coming up this weekend giving me six hours of skiing.


Home	racing	Links	snow report	etc.
1/30/06 I got up my race report on the weekend. Solid. The pictures are up on skinnyski. I've been having some issues with uploading the picture sets here, but I'll try to get them up later this week. I'm looking forward to a good week of training, and probably heading over to Duluth for some racing this weekend. If not, we'll probably have one of my famous time trials up at Valhalla so that we get some good intensity in. I'm planning on a nice distance session there tomorrow, and I hear the conditions are great, so I'm looking forward to it. Ciao.
1/29/06 I'm just coming up for air after a great weekend of racing down at Telemark for the NorAms. I took over 500 pictures over the weekend, about 200 of which should end up on skinnyski. When I get a chance, I may get them up here. Weather was interesting to say the least, but I had pretty good skis both days. Driving on Sunday was a bit fun. My races went about as I would have expected. I got to see my boy Adam "the crusher" Airoldi and even ski with him for a bit, so that was rad. I'll get more details up soon, probably tomorrow. Now, I think I'll veg out in front of the TV for a bit and then pass out. Ciao.
1/25/06 I headed down to Telemark today with Catie Cogger to preview the courses for this weekend's NorAms and catch the sprint racing action. We showed up about 1 p.m. and skied the Supertour classic (world cup) course as well as the 7 and 5 k freestyle (birkie) courses. They're both in great shape, though the next couple days of tropical temperatures could put a damper on things. I think the courses will be in fine shape though probably either a bit soggy or rock hard depending on the exact temp. The world cup trail is pretty hilly. It should make for a good tough race on Saturday. Most of the 7 k loop for Sunday is the 24T course, so I know it pretty well and feel pretty confident about skiing it well. The sprints were action packed, and I got some good photos, which are up here. Results are linked in as well as a bit of commentary over in the Race News section. If you're in the bay area, tune into True North tomorrow (Thursday)and catch a piece on the race and Chris Cook. I'm getting pumped up for some good racin' this weekend, are you? I'm out.
1/23/06 I had a fun time up at the Copper Island Classic. Read all about it here. In case you've been living under a rock, Newell and Koos threw down at the sprints in Oberstdorf. Newell was 4th and Koos 11th. Solid. Way solid. Rock hard in fact. Full results are linked in. I had a nice ski today in town. Conditions haven't really changed since my last report. I'm heading down to the NorAm sprints on Wednesday, and I'll try to get pictures while I'm there. Out.
1/21/06 P.M. #2-Results for the Mt. Itasca Nor-Am are up. Justin Freeman threw down, in freestyle no less. Maybe the guy was fired up and wanted to prove the doubters on his Olympic Team selection wrong. Maybe he just got lucky, but the bottom line is that he was first, a few seconds of XC-Oregon's Marshall Greene. Dave Chamberlain pulled down a solid third, 8 seconds off the pace. Andre Watt continues to be the fastest Duluthian throwing down a great 14th place. In the women's race, UAF's import Johana Turunen smoked the field taking first over FSX's Kate Whitcomb about 20 seconds back. Jaqui Benson pulled down third another 16 seconds back. Looking at the fields, I should be able to avoid finishing dead last next weekend if more or less the same people show up. Now I have to go and get my skis waxed for my own race tomorrow. Results are linked in. P.M.-I got out and skied here in town. The trails are in great shape. Two big thumbs up. Check the Snow Report for more. A.M.-Tough opening day for the US men on the World Cup today. Carl Swenson and Kris Freeman seemed to have trouble shaking off the jetlag and finished 42nd and 43rd, respectively, about 6 minutes off the pace. Andrew Johnson was a DNF. Results are linked in the results section. Action continues tomorrow with some sprints. Newell and Koos will be competing and they've been taking names over in Europe lately so expect a bit better showing from them. I'm headed out skiing later today and I'll try to snap some shots of the Ashland trails and get a nice trail report up.
1/20/06 Beautiful day of skiing over at ABR today. Perfect packed powder conditions. We did two hours easy with CANSKI. Truly awesome ski day. I seemed to have slowish skis, which made no sense really, but whatever. Racing this weekend will rock. I'm hoping to get some photos, but the start times aren't real conducive to that. I think we should have a few photos anyway.
1/19/06 A couple good days of training. We did a 5k time trial yesterday up at Valhalla. It went pretty well, though my kick was marginal. Today I did some intervals 5x4:45 for those that care. They felt good. I would have kept going, but for once this year I drove up with my parents and we had to leave. We picked up like 4" of snow here in town, so the trails are actually looking pretty nice. I haven't been out, but I talked to the groomer who said they're looking fab. That'll be all for now. We're heading to ABR tomorrow afternoon for a nice chill skate ski. I'll try to snag some pictures. People seem to be getting their knickers in a bunch over the Olympic team selection over at Team Today. Personally, I got no problem with it. Yeah, some decent skiers got left off the team, but its not like they're leaving any of the really fast guys or gals home. I guess if my boy Adam "2010" Airoldi just misses the team for Vancouver, I'll be pissed. But these folks make it sound like this giant conspiracy to keep certain folks down. We seem to have real trust issues with our coaching staff, which from talking to a lot of people is best in ages. Now I haven't been around forever, but I think the current crop of US ski team coaches have done everything they can for everyone, including "bubble" guys that missed the team. I think people forget that there were a bunch of guys that just missed the cut who've been in on USST camps and such. I guess what I don't understand is why we can't get along better. We've got to. As a ski nation tiny in comparison to a lot of nations, especially budget wise. If we could freaking work together and not sit around nitpicking, we might actually get somewhere. I look at mountain biking and message boards there. I mean, guys flame from time to time, but it is possible to find active, civil discussions of mountain biking. Whenever a ski forum is active, people are just pointing fingers. Maybe not enough nordic skiers rock the ganj. :) Just playin' Sorry to ramble on, but I just don't get why we can't get along a bit better. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for constructive criticism, but most of the dialogue amongst skiers seems to be less than constructive, it seems more like personal attacks. Ok. I'm really done now. If I've offended you email me. I'd really like to hear your thoughts. Before I take off, there's a shout-out that I missed. Sadie Bjornsen-Enjoy Slovenia, knock 'em out. I've never met this young lady, but everything I've heard is that she's 100% awesome all the time. Good luck to all the juniors for that matter.
1/17/06 Ooops, just realized I've been dating these last year. It is fixed now. We picked up four inches of beautiful snow last night here in town, and I went out to check things out at the Ashland trails. They're looking pretty good, possibly the best they've been all year. Check the Snow Report for more. I did some no-poles skating and it felt really good. The Olympic teams were announced today and I think they'll be great. Read all about it at Team Today. I really do think that this team can turn in the best results in history. I'm looking forward to seeing them bring it in February. Special shout outs: Chris Cook-Cheeseheads represent! Abby-Throw down, and if you ever want to ski another 24T, you know who to call. Oh, and more Midwest love to both the L-dubyas. Solid. To the rest of the country and the world:This is just the beginning, the Midwest is coming, watch yourself! I'll leave you with a little something inspired by the great Elwood Blues, "No pharmaceutical product could ever equal the rush you get when you hit that groove; the heart is pumpin', lungs are burnin', the skis are glidin'; and you are flyin'!" Edit:Apparently I'm incompetent and the last bit was wrong. Well, not wrong, just not what I meant to put there. It is right now.
1/16/06 Good weekend. I did the 42k at Seeley Hills and it was great. The course was rock solid, if a bit dirty and I managed to hold onto my kick wax the whole time. Read all about it in Racing. I was definitely happy with my results. Sunday, my mom and I drove my brother down to St. Johns to move him in for the new semester. The deal was that I would help move him in if I got to ski on the trails there while they were doing some shopping. I was doing a "long easy" 1:45. I mainly stuck to the race course from Saturday which was HILLY. I was definitely feeling the effort from Saturday. It was a nice ski and the trails flowed nicely, some of the uphills were just a bit steep for doing an easy ski. It would be a great venue for a hard bounding session. Ithink today may be a recovery day, though I may sneak out for a short easy ski or something.
1/12/06 My recovery this week has been absolutely pathetic. I got pretty good sleep Monday night, then had to get up early to drive my mom to work so I could use the car for a job interview on Tuesday. Right after the job interview, I took off for Minneapolis and hung out with friends watching movies until like 5 a.m. Did I mention they were both rocking colds? Got up, picked up the bro at the airport drove most of the way home (though I did convince him to drive for a while) and went for my first ski of the week. Finally on Wednesday night I got a solid night of sleep at somewhere around 10 hours. I was real smart today and did intervals even though I've got Seeley Hills Classic coming up this weekend. I'm calling it a calculated risk. If I can stay healthy, I think I'm going to be as ready as possible to rock for the Telemark Nor-Ams in two weeks. Speaking of intervals today, they were ok quality. I was out on KR-70 (the warmest klister I have) and I was still getting marginal kick. What's up with that? I am really gunning for decent kick waxing conditions this weekend for the race. If I can have solid kick, I'm feeling pretty good about my form going into the race, considering that I'm not peaking for it. There is a sweet blog entry by Renee Callaway about 24T here. There are some sweet pics and a write up that makes me feel a bit better about how lengthy mine is. Oh, and finally, there is a podium shot of our team on the 24T page, czech it.
1/9/06 24T was a blast and we managed to sneak onto the podium to boot! I had an awesome time. Check the 24T page for details. Yeah, the write-up is long, the race is long. Enjoy.
1/6/06 We're down atTelemark for the 24 Hours of Telemark right now. Check in on the 24T page for updates this weekend. I'll try to get one posted tomorrow night if I'm feeling up to it.
1/5/06 Quick check in before heading off to 24T this weekend. Still not sure if I'll be updating during the weekend or not. Conditions are sounding real nice down at Telemark, so it should be a good weekend. Nationals sprint race today. Chris Cook and Kikkan Randall threw down on all comers. Shout out-Chris Cook. Way to represent!
1/4/06 We had a nice interval session today. The conditions were much like what they seem to be dealing with out at nationals right now. Slow and soupy. Except we weren't racing for national titles at thousands of feet, we were doing intervals at 800 feet. It still hurt. On the topic of nationals. I think decimated is a good description of that the course did to lots of racers yesterday. What, like a third of the field finished? Anyone that finished deserves a huge pat on the back. Frankly, I think anyone that pushed it until they got lapped deserves props. Shout outs to my boy Adam Airoldi-way to be tough, Abigail Larson-Wow, nice skiing! We're a couple of days out from 24 hours of Telemark and things are pretty sweet. Tyler and I will be headed down Friday night, while Doug and Dennis will join us on Saturday morning. I think we're all feeling pretty ready to rock, so it should be fun. I'm going to drag the laptop down with me, so I might do an update Friday night or sometime Saturday if the feeling strikes. That's all for now.
1/3/06 Nationals fired up today, starting with the Women's 15k Freestyle mass start race with the men to follow shortly. I'll have results links and or recaps up pretty fast this week. Check the racing section for more.
1/2/06 Happy New Year! Its been a great couple of days. The first ever Valhalla Vasa took place on Saturday morning with a nice turnout. A good time was had by all. You can read more about it over in the Race Reports section. That evening, Tyler and I headed to the Deepwater with some friends, saw some other ones, and danced the night away with Seahag. Rock on! My new years almost never got off the ground as the first bartender wasn't real hot on the condition of my driver's license. After showing a couple alternate forms of ID, we convinced them that it was really me, and not a fake. I made it to bed before the sun came up, and got up and did a nice long ski at Valhalla on Sunday with Catie and Hans. There are a few pictures here. The skiing was superb on Sunday and the Sunbowl is shaping up nicely. All of the trails were rock solid. That finished off a pretty high volume month of training. Today I have been taking a day off and getting some stuff done around the house. Even though this is my long week for the month of January, I still have very few workouts with 24 Hours of Telemark coming up this weekend giving me six hours of skiing.
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©2005 Paul Belknap All rights reserved. Why do I do this? Check out About Contact Me My disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this website are mine and mine alone and they do not reflect the position of Gonzaga University, if they did, you would be hearing as much about their nordic ski team as their men's basketball team. :)