Besh Cup races 3 and 4 were very successful for the FXC athletes down in Homer.  Along with excellent results we were also rewarded with lots of sun and temperatures we haven’t felt in Fairbanks since October!  While there were many PRs set at these races our “top 10″ results came from Jade (2 4th place finishes for J3s), Claire (4th J2 in the sprint), Mikayla (9th J2 in the sprint), Skeeto ( 3rd sprint), Hannah (3rd distance), Heather (10th sprint, 8th distance) and Ian (5th sprint).

Upwards of 2000 pictures were snapped over the weekend by FXC parents, staff and athletes and you can find some of them here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/nick.ferree/Homer12210#

http://bertboyer.zenfolio.com/

I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures from my perspective though

A view from the hotel

The wax crew in action

For some reason I’m not as exhausted as I was last year at this point.  Rest days are wholly appreciated here.

It was another good day at the races for us.  Hannah was the 6th J1 and Skeeto had her best finish of the week.  Heather scratched to get over the cold she’s been fighting all week.  Kelsey stepped up his game and qualified for the Junior rounds and rallied to win the B final after looking whupped in the semis.  Jordan fought with skis a bit in the qualifier but sprang back in the junior rounds to finish second (6th junior overall).  Lots of positives and a nice note to end on.

Kelsey in his Semi

Jordan in a blur of semifinal action

Kelsey started toward the back in his B final

Moved his way up through the field

And then charged through the field for the win...

Jordan in the A final

That's a race face

Most of what was going to be decided for us over the week of nationals was decided yesterday in the 5 and 10 km classic races.  This is my third national championship week at Kincaid since moving to Alaska three and a half years ago, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Kincaid Park in that time it is to not trust the forecast.  This was again the case on Wednesday when the snowflakes began falling as Nick and I drove up at 7 AM.  Thinking it might just be a squall before the predicted precip in the late afternoon we didn’t pay much attention to it for a little while until it didn’t let up all day long.

Now the trails may have needed the snow, but classic kick waxing can be a little dicey in fresh snow around freezing.  It was a little drier and a little colder than what could have been wildly variable and rapidly changing conditions, but it still wasn’t as straightforward as your normal classic race is.  Nevertheless, it seemed like most every team was able to find an adequate combination for the conditions, and the kids were happy with their skis.

While results may not have been at the same level as earlier in the week, in three out of four cases we set out to accomplish what we wrote down as goals last spring.  These were some tough goals and a lot needed to be accomplished in terms of training and race day execution, so we are stoked with what we accomplished!  Jordan and Heather were both among the top 20 juniors on the World Junior Championships qualifying list, automatically qualifying them for JOs in March.  Hannah came here to gain experience and did that and as she nearly ended up making the J1 trip, finishing just two places shy of the final position for that trip - she’ll have some great experience under her belt when she heads to Rumford, ME next January.  Skeeto raced her best race of the week and still has more to come.  Kelsey, who is working himself back into fitness after a rough bout with multiple sicknesses this fall had a far more positive distance race than Monday, and a much improved classic distance race over Besh Cup 2.

It has been a positive week and we have one more race to go: tomorrow’s classic sprint.  For now, it’s off to bed for me, but I’ll leave you with a photo each of Skeeto and Kelsey from Wednesday (again courtesy of Bert Boyer).

Another race eve update and the excitement continues…

Another exciting day on Monday, more solid racing from the crew.  Jordan was 13th Junior and now sits in the top 10 on the World Junior qualification list (they plan on taking 6, but the top 20 automatically qualify for JOs in March), Hannah finished as the 6th Junior and now sits 8th on the list for the J1 trip (6 make that one too), and Heather finished as the 12th junior overall and is in that spot on the ladies’ world junior list.

Tomorrow is the last race that will count as a qualifier and we switch techniques to classic skiing for another interval start race of 5 and 10 km for girls and boys, respectively.  Since we are racing later in the day we spent a leisurely morning (the kids mostly slept in, this coach caught up on work elsewhere) before heading to the venue in the early afternoon to test skis for the conditions and get a better understanding of both what each athlete had available to them and what was running well.  It was a reminder for me how valuable it can be to spend some time really working with your skis and understand their ins and outs, and while we don’t experience this type of conditions much, we left the venue in a comfortable place and ready to roll tomorrow.

We finished off the day with some naps (ski waxing and coaches meeting for the support staff), a dinner of ravioli with meat sauce, salad, pineapple, and forgotten and overcooked broccoli, followed by a showing of the Tom Cruise classic Days of Thunder.  Not exactly Oscar material, but a racing-themed film to get the stoke up with a good line or two.  Plus, it was 100 minutes of entertainment for $0.99…

Some pictures of Monday (courtesy of Bert Boyer - I was the guy holding the split sheet in a couple of these):

Kelsey skiing strong on Lap 1

Jordo

Heather getting first lap splits

Hannah: second lap splits

Skeeto pressing into the hill

Well, we’re on the eve of Day 2 and the weather has warmed significantly.  It’s currently 19 at the airport with a 5 mph wind from the north (a good omen for Fairbanks skiers?).   Everyone is resting in their beds while I type this, dreaming of skipping up the hills and rocketing down them.

Day 1 was a great day for our crew.  Jordan, now racing in a Burke suit, finished in the low 20s overall and was the 5th junior.  Heather skied aggressively in the junior rounds and moved from 15th to 10th Junior overall, and Hannah had a strong qualifier to end up 10th on the list for the J1 Scando trip.  Very, very solid races from the group.  It was also fun to help out a former athlete of mine in Lake Placid, Liza Goodwin, who finished 1st in the girls junior finals and 6th junior overall.

On the girls side in particular, we’re generally a stronger distance team, so you can imagine that I’m quite excited to see how well the group can do tomorrow.

Some pictures from Saturday:

Jordan starting his quarterfinal next to a guy who just finished racing the first period of the world cup, and two over from the current supertour leader

Heather on the line for the junior semi

And off!

Edging out a couple of other skiers for third

Start of the Junior Final: Heather next to Liza

Cranking up the hill behind the scoreboard

Liza G crosses the line first in the Jr. Final

Heather finishes fifth for the tenth junior

Probably my favorite picture of the day: Burke coach Matt Johnson and the wax bench he set up in the stadium...

Wax Techs need their strength too: Nick and his lunchtime Eggs a la Rocky

First, a few more pictures of our classic speed work on Thursday AM:

Brandon

Girls team sprint (note the fact that Heather can't avoid laughing/smiling)

Pat

Nick F getting in on the action

Skeeto's new drink belt fashion statement

As mentioned in the previous post, most of the group double poled from Kincaid to Downtown along the coastal trail on Thursday afternoon, while those racing at Nationals prepared pizza (from scratch of course!) for a New Year’s Eve feast.  In all we made 11 pizzas and most of them turned out quite well.

For pictures from the coastal trail check out Nick F’s gallery.

Pizza making pictures:

Making that much dough requires a big mixing bowl and using that mixing bowl requires that one obtain a certain height

press, fold, knead...

and do it some more

Double pole technique? Beginning to 2001: A Space Odyssey? Or just fun to pound a mound of dough?

After dinner we headed downtown to watch the Anchorage town square New Year’s festivities that had a Hawaiian theme and fire twirlers and some sort of dancing singing group (why one would want to be shirtless twirling fire in single digits I’m not sure).  The festivities concluded at about 8 with some fireworks that were partially obscured by smoke.  Still, it was good to get out and do something besides sit inside and train.

Pat up in a tree, setting a bad example for the younger children around

Friday the two groups went their separate ways: the nationals racers went to the venue and prepped for Saturday’s race while the camp group met for a brunch before heading up to Hillside for a 3 hr overdistance ski.

I’m up early this morning… guess I’m excited for the first day of Nationals to get underway.

Here are some pictures from Thursday morning - a classic speed workout we did as a team up at Hillside.  After Wednesday’s intervals and specific strength it was meant as a light, quick workout where we could get what we needed out of it.  Everyone seemed pretty energized after it.

Thursday PM the group split into two focuses - those racing at nationals took the afternoon off and made some pizza, while the training camp group went on what sounded and looked like a pretty awesome double pole workout from Kincaid Park to Downtown Anchorage (where the pizza was baking) before we went to see some smoky fireworks to celebrate new year’s eve.

Pictures from the classic speed:

Nick F and Bob

The boys crew

The Nuge

KB and Vanya

David

Special K

Coaching speed

Stef and Pat

Brandon

Kelsey, Van-Van

Kipp

Skeeto and Heather

(Claire), Megan, Helen

Hannah and Eliza

Mikayla and Rachael (Bundled up on an easy ski as the unfortunate ones who have gotten sick)

Nicky C with the Video Camera

The Fellas

Willie

That’s all for now - time to go have some breakfast and prep some race skis!

After a little kick double-pole and distance work up at hillside on Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning brought us back to Kincaid for some skate intervals.  We focused on interval modes that were high speed, high intensity and would hone our competition skills (making passes in tight spaces, drafting, etc.).  Specifically that meant a couple of downhill intervals followed by 4 or 5 x 400-500 meter intervals on the Kincaid sprint course.  We looked a little sloppy at first, but by the end things were looking quite a bit better.  A bit of video in the evening helped with the review.

A few shots from the end of the downhill intervals (AKA kamikaze downhills):

The low-angle moon made some pretty wild shapes as it refracted and reflected

Mountains over Stadium

OK, so this post is a little late, but here are a bunch of pictures from Tuesday morning’s first session of the camp.  We started with some no-pole and V1 technique work on Eliot’s climb and then finished the day with some speedball in the stadium, drawing looks from a number of the athletes here for nationals.

A good note to kick things off on.

My only goal-in-action shot (although blurry)

Kick-off!

Warm down jog