Sam's Ski Races

Sunday Sam did a prep race at William O'Brian to get ready for the 35km City of the Lakes Loppet next weekend and the 58km Mora Vasaloppet the week after. Not too shabby for his second race. He took 12th out of 81 starters. But to get beat by a 50 year old right in front of him, I don't know. There was also a 19 year old up in the top 5 I think. Now that I think of it, he did ski the City of the Lakes Loppet course out and back, and followed that up with a lap around Lebanon on the mtb afterward the day before. As you can see in the picture Sam does not follow the traditionalist mountain biker ritual of indulging in appetites that are otherwise shunned during the peak training season. His brain has been calloused to the temptations of delicacies that involve boiling vats of oil, sweet decadence, or anything that you can refer to as thick and juicy. His appetite for the premo in clean burning carbohydrates, proprietary blended branched-chain amino acids, and high quality protien isolates, cannot be curbed by anything that would normally make any mortal man weak in the knees. I don't know how he does it.
OH MAMA!
My Chipotle Burrito:

Chipotle Fan.com

Star Tribune

Last wednesday a columnist came out to the oval to try out skating and write a story for the Star Tribune. The article came out today click here to see it. My head made it in one of the pictures in the paper but that was it. I bet Floyd gave him plenty to write about. Mr Anderson made up the big picture, and rightly so, he is one of the best masters in the country right now. Mike Anderson was a winner of the Chequamegon and was also on the US National road team. He told me that the Chequamegon was one of the hardest races he ever did. He is an animal. Picture provided by the Star Tribune.

Back in Business

I finally got my new bridge for my skates in yesterday. I was using Floyds old ones which were first generation clap skates. I never really felt comfortable on them especially on the corners. They also had a soft feel to them. The frames have an aluminum tube instead of a steel like mine. Mine seem to find an edge better too.

I also put a link to Scott Haroldsons page on the side. I worked with Scott back in the day at Rice Street Bike. He is a photographer and produces some excellent photos. He still works at midwest bicycle supply with the former owner of RSB, ED. Nice guy and loves bikes. If you need any photography done give him a try. I can remember making potato guns in the shop when Stuart (works now at Gear West),the manager, left. Scott, Andy Palmer (Bike Tech for REI Roseville now), Eric Kroise (Lives in Montana Now),and John (aka Slim, who works at the Hub) would launch spuds over an abandoned loading dock across the ally. Good times.

Started school this week. I love the schedual. All morning classes so I'm out by 11:00 at the latest every day. I'm taking my second english class online so we'll se how that goes. Its the same teacher as I had for the first part so I know how she runs things. Math, C++,and Geography, make up the rest.
Hope you like the new addition of music =)

Winter Wonderland

Sam and I did a little skiing this weekend. We hit Itasca first on friday. Conditions were all over the place. some trails were groomed which were soft, some weren't and were icy(but not as bad as here in the cities). Good snow coverage though and very nice scenery with well flowing trails. About 50km total friday


Driving to Maplelag friday after Itasca we drove past Rainbow resort and saw they had some racing this weekend. We were going to race if it was early morning but it was afternoon so no dice. After spaghetti we went for a short night time ski with head lights.
Sat morning we loaded up on crapes and snausages and headed out on the classics. Jay took some time to join us for a while and did some of the western loops and my favorite Luckys loype. Jay showed us how its done going down suicide hill with a little tele.
For lunch we had chicken dumpling soup, with ham and cheese sandwiches, then it was out for round 2. We broke out the skate skis and did skaters waltz a few times and North Loup. We ended the day with beef brisket, au gratin potatoes, salad and Russian custard. Tough I know. About 50km on the day.
Sunday morning was smorgasbord with Norwegian racing soup (as Jim called it) Norwegian wedding cake, scandinavian cheeses, breakfast potatoes, quiche, pickled harring, kipper snacks, oysters, and a variety of other stuff. Maplelag expects there guests to do alot of skiing to burn off the food. After breakfast we did another 20km.
The weather was perfect for skiing. Teens for highs and an inch or two of fresh powder sat night. everthing had a white coat on it. Grooming was of coarse world class. Jib or fly shown in the picture, likes to wander around the trails and run along the skiers. He showed up twice on our journeys. Thanks to the Richards and the maplelag staff for a great time.




This is the start of the trails in Itasca going south on the east entrance road from the visitor center. Fresh cord and no poles.

Sam and I have been enjoying the FIS Tour de Ski on WCSN lately. Go Norway! Yesterday were the sprints and things were heated up. Talk about exciting finishes. They also have mtb,cyclocross, and track coverage. I caught some glimpses of Jeff Hall in the field. They have a nice shot of him going through the feed zone all muddy at Offenberg Germany.
Sam raced his first xc-ski race sat at the pre-loppet. Took 32nd. Just did it to get the feel for it. Said it feels like a mtb race with the chaos at the start to get positions before the narrows.
I raced the blades sat morning. Not very good. There was only 3 of us in my race one was a girl. My goal...don't get beat by the girl. I didn't but I did crash in the 500 and hurt my ego. Took second in the 800 and 1000. After the morning races we hooked up with Eric Thompson for some skiing at William O'Brian. Eric is like 18 or 19, 6'-3", 185lbs that is one big dude that can go fast. Sam and I called it after one lap and some broken boots.

Bandy

Floyd called me up Sunday night and invited me over to the oval for some bandy action. I've never heard of bandy. Its a popular sport over in the northern scandinavian countries and Russia. Its a mix between hockey and soccer. The rink is the size of a soccer field and players hit a baseball sized ball around with shorter hockey sticks and try to put the ball into goal net. This was an international Jr's game so I had to go watch. Sweden vs USA. We lost 3-5. Those kids can really skate.






Sam and I did the Loppet course again yesterday. The glide was fantastic. I got some new Excel quick release straps and grips which I really like. Lake of the Isles is still not groomed yet. Very fun course though. The video is in the flower garden section just before the quacking bog. Steep hill