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1/8/07-Happy New Year!
My new years resolution is to update this site more often. We'll see if that lasts longer than a girl that just got dumped giving up chocolate. The new year has brought plenty of skiing, but not much in the racing action category. Nationals went down (barely) up in Houghton. When Houghton doesn't have ridiculous snow, you know things are messed up. I've been mostly fitting in the skis with a dryland bit here and there. Valhalla was good for a couple of days, now is only ok. With the cancelation of 24T this past weekend (tear) I got talked into racing Stormy Kromer. Because I was a lazy bum and registered at 9 p.m. on Friday night, I got to start pretty far back, but not as far back as Nicolai and Adam Swank, who were like the last 2 people on course. Pre-race, the new atomic multis were working admirably and kick wax was seeming a bit tricky, so I went with the multis. In truely awesome form, I missed my second straight start this year and lost abut 10 seconds. The single track course was really cool and fast with tons of transitions and tight sections. Out on the course things were fast and furious and I was passing people left and right while trying to be relatively courteous. Hans started about a minute back on me and passed me on a long flat section. We hit some hills and I went past him pretty fast, but he got me back before the finish. The race in the bag, Scott Nesvold and I took and innappropriately long warm-down (the whole course) with the Duluth crew. Actually Scott skied with them and I hung around off the back. They were nice and waited a couple of times. My fumbling about was good for 32nd on the day. We cruised back to Ashland, and then Dennis and I headed down for the 24T party. The party was rockin' and all of the cool kids were there. They gave away a bunch of good stuff, though with my typical amazing luck, I walked away with a pair of socks. You can always use more socks though. Plans are already in the works for 24 Hours of Lappe in April. Back up and at 'em way too early the next morning, we got over to Montreal and tested skis. My favorite pair of RS11s felt good, but the pair I just picked up from Mike Haag were feeling more stable, so I decided to stick with those. We skied about 5k of the course and it was in really nice shape. People had been whining about how horribly narrow it was going to be the day before, but they did a realy nice job widening it a bit and it skied really nicely. I made the start on time, but fumbled around like a fool going out. Pretty quickly I had three guys on my tail, heading down a railroad grade, into the wind. Paul Haltvick pulled through with Mike Haag and Jeff Tumbleson on his tail. While we were still on the railroad grade, Mike pulled through and started hammering. The guys in front of me were popping off and I had no way to get through. Jeff made a pretty big effort to chase but it wasn't happening. I got past the boys and took off after Mike, but on the next downhill, which I had been sketchy on all weekend, I took a bit of a dive. I got back up and charged hard but Mike was totally gone. I passed another person or two on the way in, and definitely felt like I had a gear that wasn't there on Saturday. Oh, and I caught sweet air off of a couple of jumps! When the dust settled, I had picked up a couple of spots in the skate leg, which is pretty rare for me. Results are on Skinnyski along with a sweet photo set from Andre Watt. We chilled out a bit and then Scott, Borg and I took a nice warm down lap. Following awards, Scott and I flailed around on classic skis for an hour at Wolverine. We tried every kick wax in the box and had good kick for exactly one hill. Next up is hopefully Seeley classic. Since that is looking really likely to not happen, we're planning on a time trial at Wolverine this Saturday. 2:15 for a 5k time trial. 3:00 for a 20k. There will probably be sweet awards, so show up. Skating (or classic if you're feeling rebellious). Email me for more details. I'll try to post a bit of an update Thursday. Out.


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1/28/07-Back in da house! I didn't get a chance to get an update in because I had a nice long week of training this past week. We'll rewind to last weekend for a quick recap. I'd been planning head up to Houghton for the races up that way, but since the snow wasn't much better than here, I stayed home and raced the Seeley Cheap Skate and Double Pole Derby. Saturday morning Scott Nesvold and I drove down to Seeley and got registered. After a nice long warm-up I started out pretty hard right behind Tom Meyer and Scott with a group including Tim Swift, Hans Wildebush and Mike Haag off the front. Tom was pulling most of the way heading south, which was surprising as Scott normally isn't shy about pulling. I was hanging on and not feeling super comfortable. At the turn around point I skied past Scott as he took a feed and Tom kept going. The next thing I knew, I looked back and Scott was gone. Tom was setting a pretty tough pace and I was content to just chill on his tails, but he had other ideas. He was sick of my pansy skiing not taking any pulls and pulled over at the top of hill and made me lead. After a while, Tom came past on a hill and I pushed it to hold on. He took the lead the rest of the way to the finish, and I tried pretty hard to sprint with him, but didn't really have the juice. But it was good for 7th. Not shabby. Hans picked up a sweet pair of Atomic classic skis in the door prize drawing. Fast forward to Sunday. Double pole derby. I line up front row with Mike, John Bauer, Matt Aro, and some other folks. Off the line Mike was right on Bauers tails, but decided after a few hundred yards that it might not be a hot plan. I skied a few k with him before he dropped me pretty hard and I skied the rest of the way solo. It was good for 5th. No complaints. I had a sweet week of training this week, getting in some good volume and strength work. This weekend was the Telemark NorAms. I was hoping to improve a bit on my performance from last year. For the Saturday skate race, I got in nice and early and tested out some skis. My favorite pair of RS11s was feeling nice, but talking with Craig Kalscheur, things were sounding a little rough out there with people doing some damage to the skis. Never one to believe rumors, I cornered Nikolai after his race and he confirmed that I probably didn't want to use my good skis. So I made my apologies to my trusty Peltonens and headed out. I went pretty hard out of the start, but couldn't seem to really get things moving. That trend continued for most of the race. My not "on" day, coupled with the uneven course conditions threw me off and I managed to coast home in about 125th. Not great, but I didn't really feel like I'd gone that hard, but didn't feel like I could have gone any harder. Sunday's classic race went much better. We were on man made snow and there was plenty of it, so I could use my trusty ARCs. I started hard and then just tried to keep the technique snappy. Today's race hurt a lot more, but I felt a lot faster. My ski today was good for 85th. It was nice to turn in a solid classic result because my classic has seemed a step off the past season or so. The CANSKI kids rocked it both afternoons. Pictures of them are up. Good stuff. In other news, I saw THE Adam Airoldi this weekend. He turned in a couple of sweet races. Valhalla Summit is next weekend. The course is looking great and it should be a fun race. I'm volunteering for that and then heading to either City of Lakes or Lap the Lake for the Library. All for now. I'm out.
1/13/07-Ouch We raced today at Wolverine. The high school race was awesome and CANSKI skiers did a great job, with Zach Beeksma taking the W on a pair of my skis, because I left his in Washburn. Right after that about 10 of us lined up for a 18ish k time trial. Full results are up and my race report is here. Not a bad day of racing, probably the most pain I caused myself in a race this year. It was exquisite. Good training with the loss of Seeley this weekend. Tomorrow its off for a nice LSD classic ski. Rockin'. Valhalla is pretty nice right now. Somewhere between rock skis and good skis depending on how picky you are. Out.
1/11/07-Racin' at Wolverine Just a confirmation that the time trial will go down as planned at Wolverine this weekend. 2:15 for the 5k, 3:00 for the 20k. Pick your technique as long as you don't expect me to help you kick wax your skis. Conditions should be awesome, as they were awesome for my night ski on Tuesday and they've gotten more snow since then. Speaking of snow, there's a wee bit coming down outside right now. Will it amount to anything? We'll see. Just saw Borat with THE Adam Airoldi, Coach Cogger, her bro Ben and crew. Wow, that four would be a killer 24 hour team. Until this weekend, I'm out.
1/8/07-Happy New Year! My new years resolution is to update this site more often. We'll see if that lasts longer than a girl that just got dumped giving up chocolate. The new year has brought plenty of skiing, but not much in the racing action category. Nationals went down (barely) up in Houghton. When Houghton doesn't have ridiculous snow, you know things are messed up. I've been mostly fitting in the skis with a dryland bit here and there. Valhalla was good for a couple of days, now is only ok. With the cancelation of 24T this past weekend (tear) I got talked into racing Stormy Kromer. Because I was a lazy bum and registered at 9 p.m. on Friday night, I got to start pretty far back, but not as far back as Nicolai and Adam Swank, who were like the last 2 people on course. Pre-race, the new atomic multis were working admirably and kick wax was seeming a bit tricky, so I went with the multis. In truely awesome form, I missed my second straight start this year and lost abut 10 seconds. The single track course was really cool and fast with tons of transitions and tight sections. Out on the course things were fast and furious and I was passing people left and right while trying to be relatively courteous. Hans started about a minute back on me and passed me on a long flat section. We hit some hills and I went past him pretty fast, but he got me back before the finish. The race in the bag, Scott Nesvold and I took and innappropriately long warm-down (the whole course) with the Duluth crew. Actually Scott skied with them and I hung around off the back. They were nice and waited a couple of times. My fumbling about was good for 32nd on the day. We cruised back to Ashland, and then Dennis and I headed down for the 24T party. The party was rockin' and all of the cool kids were there. They gave away a bunch of good stuff, though with my typical amazing luck, I walked away with a pair of socks. You can always use more socks though. Plans are already in the works for 24 Hours of Lappe in April. Back up and at 'em way too early the next morning, we got over to Montreal and tested skis. My favorite pair of RS11s felt good, but the pair I just picked up from Mike Haag were feeling more stable, so I decided to stick with those. We skied about 5k of the course and it was in really nice shape. People had been whining about how horribly narrow it was going to be the day before, but they did a realy nice job widening it a bit and it skied really nicely. I made the start on time, but fumbled around like a fool going out. Pretty quickly I had three guys on my tail, heading down a railroad grade, into the wind. Paul Haltvick pulled through with Mike Haag and Jeff Tumbleson on his tail. While we were still on the railroad grade, Mike pulled through and started hammering. The guys in front of me were popping off and I had no way to get through. Jeff made a pretty big effort to chase but it wasn't happening. I got past the boys and took off after Mike, but on the next downhill, which I had been sketchy on all weekend, I took a bit of a dive. I got back up and charged hard but Mike was totally gone. I passed another person or two on the way in, and definitely felt like I had a gear that wasn't there on Saturday. Oh, and I caught sweet air off of a couple of jumps! When the dust settled, I had picked up a couple of spots in the skate leg, which is pretty rare for me. Results are on Skinnyski along with a sweet photo set from Andre Watt. We chilled out a bit and then Scott, Borg and I took a nice warm down lap. Following awards, Scott and I flailed around on classic skis for an hour at Wolverine. We tried every kick wax in the box and had good kick for exactly one hill. Next up is hopefully Seeley classic. Since that is looking really likely to not happen, we're planning on a time trial at Wolverine this Saturday. 2:15 for a 5k time trial. 3:00 for a 20k. There will probably be sweet awards, so show up. Skating (or classic if you're feeling rebellious). Email me for more details. I'll try to post a bit of an update Thursday. Out.
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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. :)