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2/28/06
Last day of February, meaning I start my new job tomorrow. I've been working on a low level cold since Sunday, so I haven't been able to enjoy my last two days of freedom. I'm staying inactive in hopes of recovering for the River View Loppet this weekend. If I don't feel any worse tomorrow I think I'll have to go for a ski. I'm definitely rested for racing, but my fitness has to start dropping off pretty soon.
P.M.-Well, I cracked. My mom was going out for a short ski after work today and I couldn't stand being cooped up in the house anymore. So I went for a short 30 minute ski. So far I don't think I'm going to get sicker. We'll see. Full conditions report for the Ashland trails in the snow report. I was looking at the Birkie splits and they back up how I felt in the race. Wicked slow in the first half. Slightly better, but still slow for the next 15-20k or so and my pace from 77 to the finish was only a couple of seconds off of guys that were finishing in the top 200. My biggest loss was going up to the high point where I lost about 15 minutes to the 200th placed skier. That felt like the slowest part of the race to me, so no surprises there I guess. Anyway, I'm done rambling. The splits are pretty cool though.

2/26/06
My Birkie was not impressive at all. You can read my write-up in Racing. It was the easiest race I've done all year, which is not a good thing. The Olympics wrapped up today. Nothing spectacular from the guys, which is a bummer because you know they can do it. Swenson didn't even finish. Ouch.

2/24/06
The Birkie is tomorrow! I had a great trip out west and got a couple nice skis in. I'm tapered and ready for the race tomorrow. Ciao.

2/13/06
Nice easy day off today. I puttered at the bike shop for a while, putting a new handlebar on one of my bikes and checking out the '06 Quality catalog. I also got around to writing up the races for the weekend, so check it out in Racing. I'm off to Washington in a few days for my super-secret Birkie taper AKA barely skiing. It should be fun. I'm also hoping to visit the folks at Fitness Fanatics and talk skis for a bit. Because I don't have enough skis yet... OH, Spokane Langlauf results are linked in. Olympic sprint relay tomorrow. Scott and Renner for gold. I'm sticking with them, they're strong. Anna Dahlberg and Lina Andersson second, with Norway just squeaking in for 3rd. But that 2nd semi is stacked, so its hard to say how it will go. Kikkan and Wendy will either be just in or just out of the final. If they were in the other semi, I would say in for sure. For the men, I'm feeling Svartedal and Hetland from Cook and Newell from Bjoern Lind and Thobias Fredriksson with the Italians pulling one out for the home town crowd with Schweinbo and di Centa for 4th. But again, the 2nd semi seems kind of stacked, so its tough to say who will get through to the final. That's all for now. I'll probably drop another update on here before I take off.

2/12/06
Just a quick update for now. Results from a few races over the weekend are linked in Results. There was a bit going on ranging from the Olympics to people just out for a ski. Read all about it in the weekend racing roundup. I did a couple races, and I'll get a bit about that up soon, but tonight there is a Gonzaga-Stanford basketball game on tape that I missed while I was getting skis ready last night. Overall, the racing went pretty well this weekend, and regardless, it should be good prep for the Birkie.

2/10/06
P.M.-Couple new results links. Results for Lap the Lake for the Library are linked in as are results from the first day of the Wisconsin State High School Championships. Both of those are in the Results section. CANSKI had a great day at state with Cam Wilcox in 8th and Zach Beeksma in 53rd in the boys high school and Catie Cogger in 12th in the girls high school race. Scott Johanik had a nice race in the middle school boys race to take 3rd by less than a second.
A.M.-Time for a quick pre-weekend update. Wisconsin State Championships fire up today and I think the CANSKI team is going to turn some heads. They've got some fast skiers. I'm doing the Pre-Birkie and North End Classic double, which should be entertaining. I've taken the last few days pretty easy and I'm feeling a bit more ready for it as a result. Conditions look like they're going to be perfect (nice and cold), especially for the classic race on Sunday. No waxing nightmares there. The Olympics get started this weekend in Torino (actually, the cross country is in Pragelato). In case you missed the excitement, Kikkan Randall and Lief Zimmerman tested with high hemoglobin levels. They can't compete for a few days, but will only really miss the pursuit. The high readings are probably a result of coming down from an intense altitude camp not the use of EPO or the like. Shoot, I doubt any skier in the US can afford EPO. In other Olympic news, Pragelato contains the word gelato, which is Italian for "the most amazing ice cream you've had in your life." So in honor of our country's Olympians, I'll be eating good ice cream in massive quantities during the Olympics. Sadly, it won't be gelato, but its the thought that counts. That was pretty sweet logic. Well, I suppose I should throw down some medal and results predictions for this weekend. I think we'll see Beckie Scott on the podium, and I'm going to go all out and say the top step. The woman is hot right now. She'll be ahead of Marit Bjoergen and her Canadian teammate Sara Renner. That's right, two Canadian women on the podium. Abby Larson top woman in 15th with Wags in 18th. For the men, I'm thinking Vincent Vittoz followed by Ivan Babikov and Tobias Angerer. Andrew Johnson top American in 14th. If K. Freeman desides to race the pursuit, I think he'll pull off a top 10. You can see full event schedules for the games here. Get pumped up! US skiers are going to best ever!

2/7/06
Yesterday I did intervals--and they were horrible. I've had issues getting quality interval sessions in lately. The last few times, I was feeling great, but ran out of time. This time, I had all the time I needed, but felt horrible on every single effort, so I bagged it early. Getting sick is not what I need right now. I'm a big believer in the saying "5 days too few is better than one day two many." I have a new saying. "Five intervals too few is better than one too many." Other than that, it was a great ski. Conditions at Valhalla were firm and fast without being icy. Sweet! I'm not even feeling super great today, so I doubt I'll ski hard today. I'll probably just save it for the weekend since I'm doing Pre-Birkie and The North End Classic. In other news, I picked up a copper brush at Riverbrook on Saturday and I'm really digging it. I think I was under-brushing my skis before because they have felt kind of slow most of the season. The new brush is much more effective at wax removal and all of a sudden I have fast skis. Coincidence? I doubt it. One quick rant for this fine Wednesday. The TORINO Olympics crank up with the opening ceremony this weekend. Apparently the world (American?) media can't figure out the name of the town where the Olympics are held. According to my Michelin world map the name of the town is Torino, not Turin, like everyone likes to call it. Its not like they're hosting the olympics in San Gimignano. Then I might understand that the illiterate hacks at network news can't learn to pronounce the name, and they would nickname it St. Jimmy's or something. But Toe-ree-no really isn't all that difficult to learn. Its a bit of a stretch, but it would be like if St. Paul, MN was hosting the Olympics, and the Italians insisted on calling it "l'occhio de maiale imbarcadero" (Pig's Eye Landing). So in my "extensive" coverage of the Olympics, I will be calling it Torino, just in case you were confused.

2/5/06
I've been keeping busy and mostly out of trouble lately. Friday we did a sweet workout at Valhalla working on our sprints. Saturday morning it was up early to get back up to Valhalla for a time trial with some CANSKIers. That went well. After a quick lunch and waxing session at home, I headed down to the Lap the Lake for the Library, which was a great event. You can read all about it in Racing. Today it was back to Valhalla, which was in fabulous shape, for a really light hour of classic technique work. eh?

2/2/06
It was another wonderful day of skiing in the northland. I got out in the morning on the trails in town for a nice double pole workout. The trails here are definitely in the best shape of the winter so far. Read the details in Snow Reports. In the afternoon, I went up for a nice easy ski at Mt. Valhalla and ran into a large crew of folks including the famous Liphart brothers, Catie, Cam and Bill. Conditions up there were nothing short of awesome. The classic tracks looked awesome and Catie seemed to be having a good time kicking. The rest of us were on skate skis, and that was superb as well. My skis were dreadfully slow on the first lap. I'm not sure I got the rill all the way ironed out from Sunday. After that lap, I switched skis and things were much better. Much cooler than the snow in town in the afternoon I think. There are a few pictures up here. The first four are from in town, and the last two are from Valhalla. I'd been planning a day off tomorrow, but with the amazing conditions, I'm tempted to head up to Valhalla again. We'll see. Out.

2/1/06
Great couple of days of skiing at Mt. Valhalla. I did a nice long easy classic ski yesterday and then did some classic intervals with Scott Nesvold this evening. I'd been planning on skating the intervals, but after the snow last night, things hadn't been groomed, so I stuck with the well skied in classic track. Both skis went super well. I took a bunch of pictures yesterday, some of which are up here. The intervals were good, but I got kind of a late start, so it was getting pretty dark by the end. My last interval was kind of slow, but that may have been more of a function of barely being able to see the trail than being worn out... I'm actually feeling pretty good this week after two hard days of racing. I'm training a fair bit (for me) this week, so we'll see how I feel by the end of the week. All of the NorAm pictures are up in Racing Pictures. I was too lazy to make multiple thumbnail pages so those pages may take a bit to load since there are like 100 photos per day. Oh, one last thing. We're doing a nice time trial on Saturday at 9 a.m. at Mt. Valhalla if you're interested. Details such as technique and distance are mostly up to you. Email me if you plan on showing up, just so we have an idea who might be there, you could also include technique and distance so we can try to be democratic before Saturday, because democracy can be slow. Also drop me a line if you need directions or more info. Out.


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2/28/06 Last day of February, meaning I start my new job tomorrow. I've been working on a low level cold since Sunday, so I haven't been able to enjoy my last two days of freedom. I'm staying inactive in hopes of recovering for the River View Loppet this weekend. If I don't feel any worse tomorrow I think I'll have to go for a ski. I'm definitely rested for racing, but my fitness has to start dropping off pretty soon. P.M.-Well, I cracked. My mom was going out for a short ski after work today and I couldn't stand being cooped up in the house anymore. So I went for a short 30 minute ski. So far I don't think I'm going to get sicker. We'll see. Full conditions report for the Ashland trails in the snow report. I was looking at the Birkie splits and they back up how I felt in the race. Wicked slow in the first half. Slightly better, but still slow for the next 15-20k or so and my pace from 77 to the finish was only a couple of seconds off of guys that were finishing in the top 200. My biggest loss was going up to the high point where I lost about 15 minutes to the 200th placed skier. That felt like the slowest part of the race to me, so no surprises there I guess. Anyway, I'm done rambling. The splits are pretty cool though.
2/26/06 My Birkie was not impressive at all. You can read my write-up in Racing. It was the easiest race I've done all year, which is not a good thing. The Olympics wrapped up today. Nothing spectacular from the guys, which is a bummer because you know they can do it. Swenson didn't even finish. Ouch.
2/24/06 The Birkie is tomorrow! I had a great trip out west and got a couple nice skis in. I'm tapered and ready for the race tomorrow. Ciao.
2/13/06 Nice easy day off today. I puttered at the bike shop for a while, putting a new handlebar on one of my bikes and checking out the '06 Quality catalog. I also got around to writing up the races for the weekend, so check it out in Racing. I'm off to Washington in a few days for my super-secret Birkie taper AKA barely skiing. It should be fun. I'm also hoping to visit the folks at Fitness Fanatics and talk skis for a bit. Because I don't have enough skis yet... OH, Spokane Langlauf results are linked in. Olympic sprint relay tomorrow. Scott and Renner for gold. I'm sticking with them, they're strong. Anna Dahlberg and Lina Andersson second, with Norway just squeaking in for 3rd. But that 2nd semi is stacked, so its hard to say how it will go. Kikkan and Wendy will either be just in or just out of the final. If they were in the other semi, I would say in for sure. For the men, I'm feeling Svartedal and Hetland from Cook and Newell from Bjoern Lind and Thobias Fredriksson with the Italians pulling one out for the home town crowd with Schweinbo and di Centa for 4th. But again, the 2nd semi seems kind of stacked, so its tough to say who will get through to the final. That's all for now. I'll probably drop another update on here before I take off.
2/12/06 Just a quick update for now. Results from a few races over the weekend are linked in Results. There was a bit going on ranging from the Olympics to people just out for a ski. Read all about it in the weekend racing roundup. I did a couple races, and I'll get a bit about that up soon, but tonight there is a Gonzaga-Stanford basketball game on tape that I missed while I was getting skis ready last night. Overall, the racing went pretty well this weekend, and regardless, it should be good prep for the Birkie.
2/10/06 P.M.-Couple new results links. Results for Lap the Lake for the Library are linked in as are results from the first day of the Wisconsin State High School Championships. Both of those are in the Results section. CANSKI had a great day at state with Cam Wilcox in 8th and Zach Beeksma in 53rd in the boys high school and Catie Cogger in 12th in the girls high school race. Scott Johanik had a nice race in the middle school boys race to take 3rd by less than a second. A.M.-Time for a quick pre-weekend update. Wisconsin State Championships fire up today and I think the CANSKI team is going to turn some heads. They've got some fast skiers. I'm doing the Pre-Birkie and North End Classic double, which should be entertaining. I've taken the last few days pretty easy and I'm feeling a bit more ready for it as a result. Conditions look like they're going to be perfect (nice and cold), especially for the classic race on Sunday. No waxing nightmares there. The Olympics get started this weekend in Torino (actually, the cross country is in Pragelato). In case you missed the excitement, Kikkan Randall and Lief Zimmerman tested with high hemoglobin levels. They can't compete for a few days, but will only really miss the pursuit. The high readings are probably a result of coming down from an intense altitude camp not the use of EPO or the like. Shoot, I doubt any skier in the US can afford EPO. In other Olympic news, Pragelato contains the word gelato, which is Italian for "the most amazing ice cream you've had in your life." So in honor of our country's Olympians, I'll be eating good ice cream in massive quantities during the Olympics. Sadly, it won't be gelato, but its the thought that counts. That was pretty sweet logic. Well, I suppose I should throw down some medal and results predictions for this weekend. I think we'll see Beckie Scott on the podium, and I'm going to go all out and say the top step. The woman is hot right now. She'll be ahead of Marit Bjoergen and her Canadian teammate Sara Renner. That's right, two Canadian women on the podium. Abby Larson top woman in 15th with Wags in 18th. For the men, I'm thinking Vincent Vittoz followed by Ivan Babikov and Tobias Angerer. Andrew Johnson top American in 14th. If K. Freeman desides to race the pursuit, I think he'll pull off a top 10. You can see full event schedules for the games here. Get pumped up! US skiers are going to best ever!
2/7/06 Yesterday I did intervals--and they were horrible. I've had issues getting quality interval sessions in lately. The last few times, I was feeling great, but ran out of time. This time, I had all the time I needed, but felt horrible on every single effort, so I bagged it early. Getting sick is not what I need right now. I'm a big believer in the saying "5 days too few is better than one day two many." I have a new saying. "Five intervals too few is better than one too many." Other than that, it was a great ski. Conditions at Valhalla were firm and fast without being icy. Sweet! I'm not even feeling super great today, so I doubt I'll ski hard today. I'll probably just save it for the weekend since I'm doing Pre-Birkie and The North End Classic. In other news, I picked up a copper brush at Riverbrook on Saturday and I'm really digging it. I think I was under-brushing my skis before because they have felt kind of slow most of the season. The new brush is much more effective at wax removal and all of a sudden I have fast skis. Coincidence? I doubt it. One quick rant for this fine Wednesday. The TORINO Olympics crank up with the opening ceremony this weekend. Apparently the world (American?) media can't figure out the name of the town where the Olympics are held. According to my Michelin world map the name of the town is Torino, not Turin, like everyone likes to call it. Its not like they're hosting the olympics in San Gimignano. Then I might understand that the illiterate hacks at network news can't learn to pronounce the name, and they would nickname it St. Jimmy's or something. But Toe-ree-no really isn't all that difficult to learn. Its a bit of a stretch, but it would be like if St. Paul, MN was hosting the Olympics, and the Italians insisted on calling it "l'occhio de maiale imbarcadero" (Pig's Eye Landing). So in my "extensive" coverage of the Olympics, I will be calling it Torino, just in case you were confused.
2/5/06 I've been keeping busy and mostly out of trouble lately. Friday we did a sweet workout at Valhalla working on our sprints. Saturday morning it was up early to get back up to Valhalla for a time trial with some CANSKIers. That went well. After a quick lunch and waxing session at home, I headed down to the Lap the Lake for the Library, which was a great event. You can read all about it in Racing. Today it was back to Valhalla, which was in fabulous shape, for a really light hour of classic technique work. eh?
2/2/06 It was another wonderful day of skiing in the northland. I got out in the morning on the trails in town for a nice double pole workout. The trails here are definitely in the best shape of the winter so far. Read the details in Snow Reports. In the afternoon, I went up for a nice easy ski at Mt. Valhalla and ran into a large crew of folks including the famous Liphart brothers, Catie, Cam and Bill. Conditions up there were nothing short of awesome. The classic tracks looked awesome and Catie seemed to be having a good time kicking. The rest of us were on skate skis, and that was superb as well. My skis were dreadfully slow on the first lap. I'm not sure I got the rill all the way ironed out from Sunday. After that lap, I switched skis and things were much better. Much cooler than the snow in town in the afternoon I think. There are a few pictures up here. The first four are from in town, and the last two are from Valhalla. I'd been planning a day off tomorrow, but with the amazing conditions, I'm tempted to head up to Valhalla again. We'll see. Out.
2/1/06 Great couple of days of skiing at Mt. Valhalla. I did a nice long easy classic ski yesterday and then did some classic intervals with Scott Nesvold this evening. I'd been planning on skating the intervals, but after the snow last night, things hadn't been groomed, so I stuck with the well skied in classic track. Both skis went super well. I took a bunch of pictures yesterday, some of which are up here. The intervals were good, but I got kind of a late start, so it was getting pretty dark by the end. My last interval was kind of slow, but that may have been more of a function of barely being able to see the trail than being worn out... I'm actually feeling pretty good this week after two hard days of racing. I'm training a fair bit (for me) this week, so we'll see how I feel by the end of the week. All of the NorAm pictures are up in Racing Pictures. I was too lazy to make multiple thumbnail pages so those pages may take a bit to load since there are like 100 photos per day. Oh, one last thing. We're doing a nice time trial on Saturday at 9 a.m. at Mt. Valhalla if you're interested. Details such as technique and distance are mostly up to you. Email me if you plan on showing up, just so we have an idea who might be there, you could also include technique and distance so we can try to be democratic before Saturday, because democracy can be slow. Also drop me a line if you need directions or more info. 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. :)