Moving Right Along

Brrrrrrrrrr...

Last weekend was too cold for me to race. So cold that they cancelled the sprint and went with the distance race last second (which at that current time was a calculated -21C, which was under legal race temp). I was worried with important races coming up that I wouldn't chance burning my lungs up and so I started our race at Bohart Ranch knowing that if I felt my lungs were working too hard in the cold I was going to pull it. This is never an easy decision for me, but for me, at this point, it just made sense.

After Bozeman we headed up to Rossland, BC for some NorAm races. I love doing these because it is always a good American contingent along with some amazing Canadian skiers. My goals for these races were lofty and after missing two important races in Bozeman, I didn't really want to give up opportunities to score good points and build confidence going into US Nationals.

My goal the first day of racing was to win qualifying. I missed it by .3 seconds over a good friend of mine, Dakota Blackhorse - Von Jess. I was wasn't too upset though because I know how amazing of a skier Dakota is. I skied through the rounds well, got lucky in my semi-final and worked all the way to the finish of the A-Final where I ended up in 4th place, .01 seconds in front of Dakota. Dakota is one of the best sprinters in the nation so I am always humbled when I can grab a hundredth of a second from him.

The second day of racing was a 15k Classic. I have been working on my classic skiing quite a bit this year and especially my herring boning. I am glad I did because our course was on elf the hardest I have ever skied. It skied well but the hill were reminiscent of all the World Cup courses I have skied, where I get to the bottom of it and go, "You're kidding me." I wanted to start off the race conservative and ski into it which is what I did. I had the 4th fastest 1st lap, the fastest 2nd lap, and the fastest 3rd lap. Unfortunately I got beat out by the guy who had the fastest first lap by almost 20 seconds, and he only beat my by 3 seconds but I was happy with it. 

I love Canada and look forward to coming back soon! 

Onto US Nationals!!! And Christmas!!!

In the netting after the sprint!

Here We Go

The season has begun and is going full steam! Last Thursday I came to West Yellowstone to get in some good skiing before our races this past weekend. The skiing was amazing all week, cold but good. We had some successful intervals on Tuesday and then tested before the races.

Friday was an exciting day for our team. We had our teammate, Ryan Scott, win the sprint qualifier and I came in 2nd, just .6 seconds behind Ryan. The next qualifier was 2 seconds back, Skylar Davis. 

I was in the 4th quarterfinal and it was an exciting one to say the least. It was a fast heat and I led 90% of it which may have been my downfall. I know I needed to have a good position going into the last little bit, but I led too much which caused me to big down a bit in the final stretch. It was so close at the finish between me and two others but I missed it by just a small amount. I ended up 12th on the day. Happy but not completely satisfied.

Saturday we had our 15km skate and woke up feeling pretty good. I had a difficult starting position so I had to play my race a little differently than I usually do. I had the first bib in the A seed so I was not able to get any splits off of any of the other higher ranked skiers, so essentially, I wasn't sure where I was in comparison to the field until the whol field came through. My goal was to set a good first lap time to scare the rest of the field without going too deep and not being able to come back. I went out hard and set a good first lap time but struggled to finish the race with a good poppy feeling. I would describe it more as "hanging in there."

I ended up 3rd behind my ITA teammate, Brian Gregg who skied a great race. He paced his race quite well. He started off slower and moved up each lap. Pretty impressive.

Pretty happy with how my ITA teammates are doing! That's it for now.

We are heading to Bozeman and then Roasland in the next two weeks. We'll have some updates in the works!

Below are some photos from last couple of weeks!

My family at a fundraiser for my season.

Our "hamster wheel" at the bottom of Gold Peak.

Our new team suits

Our juniors really socially engaging eachother...not

My grandparents came to watch my races. I also got to spend Thanksgivng with them, which was very nice!

Men's Sprint Podium

Men's Distance podium (me in orange) and Brian Gregg (orange shoelaces).

Home

I am home now until the 20th of November and couldn't be happier. We had a great camp in Canmore and to be back here with good weather and snow skiing, I could be more content. 

It has been great being able to spend some more QT with my wife, Sarah. She is now working in Vail at Howard Head for her clinical rotation. It takes some time to get used to living with one another again. I'm always asking myself questions like: Does the fan go on high or low? Should dinner be ready when you came home at 8? How is the toilet paper disappearing so fast? How come my towel is so wet?

It is so nice to see her everyday though and not every weekend for 8 hours.

Training has been great! I have been skiing out my backyard a bit and even did some intervals there the other day. Just skied in a track and then just kept skiing over it. It was amazing how it held up and I could actually get a decent workout in.

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of my two weeks! Just pumped to be home again!

Tunnel to where we were skiing in Canmore!

 

A shot my buddy Russell Kennedy got during our sprint in Canmore.

Sarah and I at Rocky Mountain National Park.

Biking in Fruita during my two days off.

Good times!

Snow in our yard!

Skiing at Rabbit Ears Pass near Steamboat.

Back to Canmore

I just returned to the beautiful Canmore, Alberta. I trained here last year for 2 weeks and then competed in the World Cups here last December. It is always such a treat to come back here and ski. The people are so nice, the ski trails are amazing, and the camp itself is going well.

This past week I was in Park City at another ski camp so this camp is pretty much a continuation of that camp. Out schedule here is pretty much the same every day: wake up, train, eat, rest, train, eat, sleep. Repeat.

This will be my last volume block before I start hitting it hard before our first races in Weat Yellowstone in a month. I can't wait for the rest of the training here this week. It looks like we are going to have a classic sprint and a time trial one day after the other, right before we leave. It'll be a good way to end the camp.

When we return home, I get to jump in the classroom again and Ski and Snowboard Club Vail has blown snow at the bottom of the mountain for us to ski on before our first competitions. This is really nice because we can't assume we will receive natural snow before our first races, so to guarantee snow to have so we don't have to spend the first week before those races getting out "ski legs" ready, is amazing.

Below are some pictures from the past week!

Until then,

S

Matt Liebsch riding the kids airplane in Midway, UT

After workout smoothie

Rollerskiing in Utah up Wolf Creek Pass

More rollerskiing with the camp

Running with the crew

Golfing with my buddy Nate on the last day. He out me up for the week which was generous and we got to catch up after not seeing him for awhile. We went to Bates College together.

Canmore this morning. So beautiful!

The trails we are skiing on. Frozen Thunder the Canadians call it.

Camp Time

The past two weeks have been great. My teammate, Tad Elliott, came up to Vail for two weeks of training before we headed towards Park City for a US Ski Team camp. We had a very productive two weeks. We got in some great intervals and some long good sessions as well. 

Last weekend, Sarah ran her very first 50k trail run! Super cool and to top it all off she ended up getting 3rd place among all the women and even got 9th overall. I was so proud of her. She worked so hard for that race and I'm so happy to see her so proud of her effort as well. Super well deserved.

I sniped a picture of Sarah as she was hiking up a steeper part of the trail.

Sarah racing across the back bowls of Vail.

Sarah crossing the finish line in 5:48. About 1.5 hours ahead of the time she had hoped to finish in.

My buddy Josh and I ran with her for part of the way to give her some encouragement. We had some fun along the beautiful route.

I finally got a picture with my new 4th grade class at Red Sandstone Elementary School! Such a great class and I look forward to more great times later in the season when the skiing schedule settles down. 

Lastly, I reunited with a friend of mine this past weekend, Taylor Shelden, to race a race in Pagosa Springs, CO called the Epic Mountain Challenge. It was an amazing innagural year for the event with over $60,000 in cash purse which naturally attracted the likes of the nations top runner and mountain runners. 

I honestly think I had one of my best half marathon mountain races and I was almost 8 minutes behind the winning time. Amazing talent here which was really cool. 

Taylor during the 3km uphill mountain bike TT today in which he placed 2nd. 

Me (in the white) at the beginning of the 10km mountain running criterium.

I had so much fun racing with Taylor. We hope to go back next year and battle it out again!

Onto Park City!

Best,

S

Back Home

I'm back in Colorado for awhile after having a great camp in Lake Placid. We had an awesome and productive camp. It is always very important for me to get some good sea level training in because it allows me to work on my speed. You develop fast twitch muscles better at lower altitudes and while I choose to focus my skiing on distance skiing where I'm not using my fast twitch muscles, you need them for when you do need that extra little sprint.

We had a team sprint, two speed workouts, a L4 hard bounding workout,  threshold bounding session, and a very hard, camp-ending, uphill rollerski race to the top of Whiteface Mountain. While this race isn't necessarily my favorite, it is a great race out on by NYSEF. Reminds you of what it's like to really make your thighs burn.

I am back now, able to spend some time with Sarah and have a little rest week before Tad makes it to town for another good, productive week of training. The weather has been a little funny here but the running has been great because the leaves are beginning to fall.

I will be in a supportive role next weekend helping out Sarah in her 50k race in Vail. She will be racing up Vail, down the backside into Minturn, around Minturn, back up to the top of Vail, and then down Vail to the finish. About 32 miles and I think about 12,000 feet vertical. Woof.

I'm excited for her and she's been training really hard for it so I know she wants to do well. I know she will.

Heading out to Park City next. That's where I'll be checking in from. 

S

US Ski Team Camp - Lake Placid Edition

Hey all-

I arrived this past Wednesday in Lake Placid, New York which to me is the beginning of the season. From this point on, I am going from camp to camp to camp to race to race to race to race.

My schedule until January 2014:

Lake Placid: September 1st - September 16th

Vail, CO: September 17th - October 5th

Park City: October 6 - October 16th

Canmore, Alberta: October 17th - October 28th

Vail, CO: October 29th - November 19th

West Yellowstone, WY: November 20th - December 1st

Bozeman, WY: December 2nd - December 8th

Silver Star, BC: December 9th - December 15th 

Rossland, BC: December 16th - December 22nd

US Nationals/Olympic Trials (Soldier Hollow, UT):

- Skate Sprint on January 4th

- 15km Classic on January 6th

- 30km Skate Mass Start on January 8th

- Classic Sprint on January 10th

Also here is out National Calendar for the year:

http://my.ussa.org/sites/default/files/documents/athletics/nordic/2013-14/documents/2013-2014%20SuperTour%20Schedule.pdf

I am so excited to be on this track. It will go by quick but I will be taking all of it in. It is so exciting to competing for the top spots in the US.

As for Lake Placid, things here have been amazing. The weather has been great and it is always a great time to catch up with old friends and get some really solid training in with the best skiers in the country. We have had many interval sessions so far and I have been feeling great through them so far. 

The one big difference between my training last summer and this summer is that I have been able to run more this summer. Running during the summer is very important to me and I believe gets me into better shape. Two years ago before I qualified for my first World Cups I was able to run a lot, but last summer I had to resort to biking because of my foot injury. Biking was a great alternative but I requires a much different kind of fitness.

Here is some video from the week if you have any interest:

Classic speeds (blue shirt, green gloves, white helmet): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx-k8PoJtIM

Bounding and Double Pole (no shirt, grey shorts): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugzKADdGiJs

Easy Skate Ski (very colorful shorts, black t-shirt, white helmet): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m0jAHiwhTg

Skate Intervals (no shirt, maroon spandex shorts, white helmet): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVOaBD4xxIs

Also last and probably most important (two things): 

1) I began a Facebook Fan Page and you DO NOT have to have Facebook to see the page but will probably be the best way to keep up, visually, with where I am and what I am seeing:

www.facebook.com/sylvanellefsonathlete

2) As I mentioned before my brother has been putting together amazing footage of the trail to Sochi and you can view the first episode here, with many more to come:

http://vimeo.com/71831390

Hope all is well!

Best,

Sylvan

Another year with HWK (www.hwk-skiwax.us)

Brother-in-law's new puppy

Surfing boat wakes

Lake Champlain

Double Pole Speeds

Start Speeds

Bounding Intervals

Never lose sight