Nordic Nuts-Home

3/18/07 - Racing's Over?
This week of skiing has been great. It started off slowly on Monday with a day off after I absolutely destroyed myself at the Bear Chase. Tuesday and Wednesday were both really easy short skis in the tropical temps. Wednesday was a ski here on the trails in town and barring a significant snowfall they are done for the season. Thursday I got things cranking with a two hour cruise at Valhalla with Haltvick and Tom Steckling. It was snowing pretty hard the whole time I was up there with a couple of inches accumulating during the ski. Friday I jumped on the opportunity to sneak in another hardwax classic ski this year and just kept cruising for longer than I probably should have. I took a pretty leisurely Saturday morning, including pulling the fork on my mountain bike so I could send it in for an overhaul, followed by a nice trip to the Black Cat for biscuits and gravy and a delicious mocha. In the middle of the afternoon I finally got my act together and headed up to Ashwabay for my first skate ski there this year. They had things groomed up really nicely and I had a wonderful ski and I probably skied too long again. Sunday morning dawned bright and early as I headed over to the ABR Spring Race. After registering, I checked out a couple pairs of skis and decided that my new World Cups were close enough to go on them. My RS11s from Mike Haag actually seemed about as fast, but my theory was that the World Cups would do better as it warmed, since they were waxed warmer, plus, I just really wanted to finally race on my new skis. I started hard out of my age group of three and took the lead. The snow was ridiculously fast and I was V2ing everything. About three k in I started passing people from the groups that had started ahead of me. Around 10k it started to hurt a little bit, but then I hit some easier sections and got back into a rhythym. From there I pushed it in hard and felt pretty good. I think I felt better this race than I have for a while despite (because of?) training harder this week than I had in a while. If anyone else is up for it, I'm thinking the first annual Valhalla Rock Ski Extravaganza is coming up this weekend. Hook up the email if you're interested.

3/14/07-The Great Squirrel Chase
Word on the street is that someone ran over a squirrel during the race this weekend. I wouldn't be real surprised because I saw two or three run across the trail during the race. Personally, I didn't run down any squirrels. I drove up for the race with my roommate's cousin, Andrew. I got up to Houghton Saturday around noon and went for a nice ski on the tech trails. The conditions were much nicer and much faster than last year. After the ski, Andrew and I checked in at Adam's house and watched some basketball. Then we headed up to pick up packets in Calumet. Mission complete, I tried on a pair of the Atomic skate boots. They were small, but showed promise. I will have to compare them to the Salomons next year. I think my boots are just about worn out because they are starting to feel a bit sloppy and give me a pressure point in one foot. And in some places the material is just flat out wearing out. I chatted mountain biking a bit with Tony, one of the men behind the madness at the Keweenaw Chain Drive gravity events last year. He says they are building lots of fun stuff in Copper Harbor. Rock on! We cruised back to Adam's and watched some more basketball. After a while, Coach Cogger showed up and we kicked it old school until we headed out for dinner at her uncle's place. Ma Cogger whipped up a feast fit for kings and somehow I managed to waddle home. With the whole time change and time zone change, I was a very confused boy on Sunday morning. I laid around in bed for a little too long, and ate my oatmeal wicked late. Andrew and I drove over to Houghton and checked out a couple pairs of skis. I had a couple of pairs that felt ok and decided to go with the warmer pair because I remembered my skis losing insane amounts of speed at the end of the race last year. I went out for a nice warmup, but couldn't quite shake a weird feeling in my stomach. I got back to the start a bit late and lined up third row right behind Scott. We had a decent start and got positioned pretty well on the first couple of hills and settled into a massive lead pack heading down the gradual downhill for the first 8 k of the race. No one really seemed to want to race hard into the headwind... Once we turned around and caught the wind, things started to crank up and I kicked in with Borg and some folks. I was feeling ok. Definitely not superstar fast and my skis didn't seem to be doing me any favors. The lead group was skiing away from us and I didn't feel like I could do much about it. Borg was shortly hanging on the back and threw up about 18 k in or so and then recovered. I more or less skied the rest of the race with Borg and Dave Mayo-Kiely. We caught a person or two and dropped them right away. We were also caught by a few people who gapped us pretty straight away. About 5 k out, Borg went to the front and I just couldn't follow him. The good news was that I was getting a bit of a gap on Dave. About 3k out, Scott pulls in and I let him go to the front. I hung out in his draft all the way and threw down a weak attempt at a sprint to the line. After the race I felt absolutely horrible, so I guess I put in a pretty good effort, which was good for 35th about 16 minutes back. Andrew turned in a solid first marathon at 2:46. We headed over and got our delicious pasties, and I did a much better job of eating mine this year without feeling like I was going to die. We hung with the Duluth crew, Eric North, and Owen Hanley, who ran with Andrew in college. Swank called it and Owen won the door prize skis and gave them to Andrew, who was looking for a new pair of boards. Andrew and I cruised back to Houghton and I took a shower and we watched the rest of the first half of the Big 10 championship game. After a quick stop for some fuel at Cyberia on the way out of town, we hit the road and cruised back to Ashland. Tuesday, my roommate and I skied at Valhalla in the 50 degree temps, which was delightful. Today I made an attempt to ski in Ashland. It was not happening. It was much worse than I expected. I would put conditions at poor on my scale and there are lots of good sized streams running through the trails. Barring further snow, we're done in town for the year.
This weekend we'll be rocking the ABR race. No word on the relays yet. Go Zags!

3/5/07- Double Trouble
Two races in one day sounds like a good idea up front. I started the day off right with the River View Loppet in Brule. I did the 12k classic for the sake of tradition. They did a terrific job of packing down 2 feet of fresh snow into a nice solid classic track and skate lane. I started last in the field on the rusty but trusty ARCs with some really super secret blue extra. They felt ok, with great kick and marginal glide. I went out pretty hard and started seeing glimpses of Mark Howard, who had started 30 seconds up, around 4 k in. I brought him back slowly and passed him around 7 k. Just after that we started to hit the hills. I skied hard, but in control and on top of my technique the whole way through to the finish. When the times came in, I'd beaten everyone except Terry Tansey, who got me by about 50 seconds. After a delightful bowl of wild rice soup, I headed down to Hayward and kicked it old school style at New Moon for a while. For the first time in a while, I managed to not spend any money there. Just before 5 I headed up to the race and got registered. I grabbed some skis and got in a nice warm up. From the gun I hit it hard, but got boxed out of the spot I wanted on Chapin's tail. After I cleared traffic I went after the lead pack with Kelly Skillicorn on my tail. About 2k in, I realized it wasn't happening and backed off to let Kelly take a pull. She cranked it up and I spent the rest of the race just trying to stay in her draft. She was a total machine, holding the gap to the lead pack, who were more or less working together, steady the entire race. She pushed in for a strong finish. I was happy with a 5th overall, 4th male. After the race I hung out with Andrew, my interval partner from Wednesday. Had a brat and a hotdog. After the non-awards ceremony, we went down to Anglers in Hayward for some chow. Solid.
Sunday I got out for the best ski in recent memory on the Ashland trail system. Following a good foot and a half of snow, things are looking pretty nice out there. I took the opportunity to compare a couple of pairs of skis and put in some nice easy ks.
In other news, the Gonzaga men AND women are going dancing. Congratulations to my ladies, its been a long road. Pumped up for the boys as well.
We're goin' chasin' bears this weekend. Rock. Out.

3/1/07- Holy Guacamole
So apparently now that the Birkie is over its ok for us to have ridiculous amounts of snow. Not that I'm really complaining. I'll take snow pretty much any time I can get it. Like in June. I'm looking forward to rallying Lem to work to tomorrow if this keeps up. As we all know, only the cool kids got to really race the Birkie. I hung with the bros Tyler and Adam down at Telemark on Friday. During the day I talked Tyler and Eric North into skiing to Hayward with me after the race on Saturday, which really seemed like the only appropriate thing to do. Saturday dawned bright and cheerful and I was rocking the zebra spandex on loan from Catie Cogger. I watched the elite wave go and by the time I lined up, way too many motivated people were already there. Kind of sad really. I skied pretty hard until about 20k in, when I ran into Mark Howard and Matt Aro. I skied with those two for a k or so before we lost each other. From there on in I just cruised. When Tyler got to 00, he broke the news that he wasn't skiing to Hayward with me. I was sad, but my dreams we're crushed yet because I figured Eric would come through. And hour and a half later, I hadn't seen Eric and Tyler finally convinced me to get on the bus and go to Seeley. Sunday I woke up to plenty of new snow, so I drove up to Valhalla where I classic skied for a couple of hours, mostly breaking trail. It was a really nice ski even though I was breaking trail in a foot of fresh powder on race skis. Yesterday I cranked out the last interval session of the season, and it hurt like a bad mother. I'm planning on cruising to the River View Loppet and Lap the Lake this weekend. A nice double should be fun. Keep thinking snow because our current weather pattern rocks. Out.


Home	racing	Links	snow report	etc.
3/18/07 - Racing's Over? This week of skiing has been great. It started off slowly on Monday with a day off after I absolutely destroyed myself at the Bear Chase. Tuesday and Wednesday were both really easy short skis in the tropical temps. Wednesday was a ski here on the trails in town and barring a significant snowfall they are done for the season. Thursday I got things cranking with a two hour cruise at Valhalla with Haltvick and Tom Steckling. It was snowing pretty hard the whole time I was up there with a couple of inches accumulating during the ski. Friday I jumped on the opportunity to sneak in another hardwax classic ski this year and just kept cruising for longer than I probably should have. I took a pretty leisurely Saturday morning, including pulling the fork on my mountain bike so I could send it in for an overhaul, followed by a nice trip to the Black Cat for biscuits and gravy and a delicious mocha. In the middle of the afternoon I finally got my act together and headed up to Ashwabay for my first skate ski there this year. They had things groomed up really nicely and I had a wonderful ski and I probably skied too long again. Sunday morning dawned bright and early as I headed over to the ABR Spring Race. After registering, I checked out a couple pairs of skis and decided that my new World Cups were close enough to go on them. My RS11s from Mike Haag actually seemed about as fast, but my theory was that the World Cups would do better as it warmed, since they were waxed warmer, plus, I just really wanted to finally race on my new skis. I started hard out of my age group of three and took the lead. The snow was ridiculously fast and I was V2ing everything. About three k in I started passing people from the groups that had started ahead of me. Around 10k it started to hurt a little bit, but then I hit some easier sections and got back into a rhythym. From there I pushed it in hard and felt pretty good. I think I felt better this race than I have for a while despite (because of?) training harder this week than I had in a while. If anyone else is up for it, I'm thinking the first annual Valhalla Rock Ski Extravaganza is coming up this weekend. Hook up the email if you're interested.
3/14/07-The Great Squirrel Chase Word on the street is that someone ran over a squirrel during the race this weekend. I wouldn't be real surprised because I saw two or three run across the trail during the race. Personally, I didn't run down any squirrels. I drove up for the race with my roommate's cousin, Andrew. I got up to Houghton Saturday around noon and went for a nice ski on the tech trails. The conditions were much nicer and much faster than last year. After the ski, Andrew and I checked in at Adam's house and watched some basketball. Then we headed up to pick up packets in Calumet. Mission complete, I tried on a pair of the Atomic skate boots. They were small, but showed promise. I will have to compare them to the Salomons next year. I think my boots are just about worn out because they are starting to feel a bit sloppy and give me a pressure point in one foot. And in some places the material is just flat out wearing out. I chatted mountain biking a bit with Tony, one of the men behind the madness at the Keweenaw Chain Drive gravity events last year. He says they are building lots of fun stuff in Copper Harbor. Rock on! We cruised back to Adam's and watched some more basketball. After a while, Coach Cogger showed up and we kicked it old school until we headed out for dinner at her uncle's place. Ma Cogger whipped up a feast fit for kings and somehow I managed to waddle home. With the whole time change and time zone change, I was a very confused boy on Sunday morning. I laid around in bed for a little too long, and ate my oatmeal wicked late. Andrew and I drove over to Houghton and checked out a couple pairs of skis. I had a couple of pairs that felt ok and decided to go with the warmer pair because I remembered my skis losing insane amounts of speed at the end of the race last year. I went out for a nice warmup, but couldn't quite shake a weird feeling in my stomach. I got back to the start a bit late and lined up third row right behind Scott. We had a decent start and got positioned pretty well on the first couple of hills and settled into a massive lead pack heading down the gradual downhill for the first 8 k of the race. No one really seemed to want to race hard into the headwind... Once we turned around and caught the wind, things started to crank up and I kicked in with Borg and some folks. I was feeling ok. Definitely not superstar fast and my skis didn't seem to be doing me any favors. The lead group was skiing away from us and I didn't feel like I could do much about it. Borg was shortly hanging on the back and threw up about 18 k in or so and then recovered. I more or less skied the rest of the race with Borg and Dave Mayo-Kiely. We caught a person or two and dropped them right away. We were also caught by a few people who gapped us pretty straight away. About 5 k out, Borg went to the front and I just couldn't follow him. The good news was that I was getting a bit of a gap on Dave. About 3k out, Scott pulls in and I let him go to the front. I hung out in his draft all the way and threw down a weak attempt at a sprint to the line. After the race I felt absolutely horrible, so I guess I put in a pretty good effort, which was good for 35th about 16 minutes back. Andrew turned in a solid first marathon at 2:46. We headed over and got our delicious pasties, and I did a much better job of eating mine this year without feeling like I was going to die. We hung with the Duluth crew, Eric North, and Owen Hanley, who ran with Andrew in college. Swank called it and Owen won the door prize skis and gave them to Andrew, who was looking for a new pair of boards. Andrew and I cruised back to Houghton and I took a shower and we watched the rest of the first half of the Big 10 championship game. After a quick stop for some fuel at Cyberia on the way out of town, we hit the road and cruised back to Ashland. Tuesday, my roommate and I skied at Valhalla in the 50 degree temps, which was delightful. Today I made an attempt to ski in Ashland. It was not happening. It was much worse than I expected. I would put conditions at poor on my scale and there are lots of good sized streams running through the trails. Barring further snow, we're done in town for the year. This weekend we'll be rocking the ABR race. No word on the relays yet. Go Zags!
3/5/07- Double Trouble Two races in one day sounds like a good idea up front. I started the day off right with the River View Loppet in Brule. I did the 12k classic for the sake of tradition. They did a terrific job of packing down 2 feet of fresh snow into a nice solid classic track and skate lane. I started last in the field on the rusty but trusty ARCs with some really super secret blue extra. They felt ok, with great kick and marginal glide. I went out pretty hard and started seeing glimpses of Mark Howard, who had started 30 seconds up, around 4 k in. I brought him back slowly and passed him around 7 k. Just after that we started to hit the hills. I skied hard, but in control and on top of my technique the whole way through to the finish. When the times came in, I'd beaten everyone except Terry Tansey, who got me by about 50 seconds. After a delightful bowl of wild rice soup, I headed down to Hayward and kicked it old school style at New Moon for a while. For the first time in a while, I managed to not spend any money there. Just before 5 I headed up to the race and got registered. I grabbed some skis and got in a nice warm up. From the gun I hit it hard, but got boxed out of the spot I wanted on Chapin's tail. After I cleared traffic I went after the lead pack with Kelly Skillicorn on my tail. About 2k in, I realized it wasn't happening and backed off to let Kelly take a pull. She cranked it up and I spent the rest of the race just trying to stay in her draft. She was a total machine, holding the gap to the lead pack, who were more or less working together, steady the entire race. She pushed in for a strong finish. I was happy with a 5th overall, 4th male. After the race I hung out with Andrew, my interval partner from Wednesday. Had a brat and a hotdog. After the non-awards ceremony, we went down to Anglers in Hayward for some chow. Solid. Sunday I got out for the best ski in recent memory on the Ashland trail system. Following a good foot and a half of snow, things are looking pretty nice out there. I took the opportunity to compare a couple of pairs of skis and put in some nice easy ks. In other news, the Gonzaga men AND women are going dancing. Congratulations to my ladies, its been a long road. Pumped up for the boys as well. We're goin' chasin' bears this weekend. Rock. Out.
3/1/07- Holy Guacamole So apparently now that the Birkie is over its ok for us to have ridiculous amounts of snow. Not that I'm really complaining. I'll take snow pretty much any time I can get it. Like in June. I'm looking forward to rallying Lem to work to tomorrow if this keeps up. As we all know, only the cool kids got to really race the Birkie. I hung with the bros Tyler and Adam down at Telemark on Friday. During the day I talked Tyler and Eric North into skiing to Hayward with me after the race on Saturday, which really seemed like the only appropriate thing to do. Saturday dawned bright and cheerful and I was rocking the zebra spandex on loan from Catie Cogger. I watched the elite wave go and by the time I lined up, way too many motivated people were already there. Kind of sad really. I skied pretty hard until about 20k in, when I ran into Mark Howard and Matt Aro. I skied with those two for a k or so before we lost each other. From there on in I just cruised. When Tyler got to 00, he broke the news that he wasn't skiing to Hayward with me. I was sad, but my dreams we're crushed yet because I figured Eric would come through. And hour and a half later, I hadn't seen Eric and Tyler finally convinced me to get on the bus and go to Seeley. Sunday I woke up to plenty of new snow, so I drove up to Valhalla where I classic skied for a couple of hours, mostly breaking trail. It was a really nice ski even though I was breaking trail in a foot of fresh powder on race skis. Yesterday I cranked out the last interval session of the season, and it hurt like a bad mother. I'm planning on cruising to the River View Loppet and Lap the Lake this weekend. A nice double should be fun. Keep thinking snow because our current weather pattern rocks. 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. :)