Second World Championship medal for Alex Harvey

While Norway are still dominating with 11 medals so far, it has been an outstanding competition for Canada's Alex Harvey.  He followed up his sprint silver performance with a bronze in the Skiathlon.  He is the first Canadian ever to win 2 medals at a World Championship.
Faster Skier article - World Championships Skiathlon

World Championsips (Falun) - Men's classic sprint final

3 minutes of lung popping skiing.  Video of final (from Norwegian TV - where else?) at the link below.  Exciting stuff, Northug holding off Harvey at the end.  Race strategy mixed with all out effort to execute.
Men's Classic sprint final Falun
Inches between gold and silver.

Some Loppet comedy

What can happen on downhill sections of mass Loppets.  This example from the recent Tartu Maraton in Estonia, one of the World Loppet series events.
Loppet Comedy Video

First ski of the season!?

Yes it is the 7th of February.  The season can be very short in southern Ontario if there is no skiing between Christmas and New Year.  Happy to be out there.  Lots of the fluffy white stuff now, with more forecast.  I fear a little late to be in any decent shape for the double Loppet weekend in Alberta at the end of the month.  So it goes.  Just need enough legs to make it fun rather than painful.

More on low intensity training

This article (link below) is about building a strong aerobic base through low intensity training before going to higher intensity.  That said, some valid points in the post article comments about available time for building this magical aerobic base.  How may of us city dwellers have the luxury of more than 10 hours per week of on snow training?
More discussion on low intensity training - Faster Skier article

Norway, Canada and Sweden podium in 15km Classic pursuit

Nice to see a Canadian (Alex Harvey) split the Scandinavians with a silver this weekend.  Sounds like the race was decided by an exciting sprint finish.  Who looks happiest on this podium?
Tour-de-ski 15km Classic pursuit Jan 4

Charlotte Kalla is Sweden's sports personality of the year...

...beating out 5 time winner Zlatan Ibrahimovic (who else?).  A series of outstanding performances in an Olympic year secured the votes needed to win the award.  The enduring (growing?) popularity of the Winter Olympics is a definite factor in this.  Story here: Kalla award

Classic Poster Art

Here are some lovely advertising images of skiing in the twenties.  All wood and wool.  These evoke a bygone era of travel and adventure.  See a selection at the link below:
Vintage Ski Resort Posters

Ole Einar just keeps going!

This guy is amazing!  Two weeks after getting back from Bangkok, where he received the award for best male athlete of the 2014 Olympics, he wins the first race of the season.  This wasn't just some preseason warm up, it included many of the best biathlon athletes in the world.
What makes the biathlon unique is the combination of shooting and skiing.  If you miss a target you have to ski farther (a 150m penalty loop per missed target, or a time penalty).  You can see how this would make for an exciting race where positions can shift quite dramatically after each shooting round.  Ski toques off to Ole Einar again!

The easy Loppet training plan - phase 1

I am a decent recreational skier.  I ski for fun (and to keep somewhat fit) and hopefully can reach some milestones from time to time.  My training program takes into account available time, how I feel that day, the weather...in other words it is flexible.
A 5k run with variable intensity (alternatively a hilly 8k when at the cottage) followed by some stretching and strength exercises 45 mins total.  I will try and do this 3 to 5 days per week, although if I miss a day (or two) I don't worry about it.  Leading up to the winter I can usually get a 15km roller-ski in at the weekend.  It would be good to add some intervals to this, but hills included in the run are a good proxy for this.  The fitness level this provides will get me through most Loppets with a smile on my face and no lasting after effects.  I will aim to add some science to this in future posts.
P.S. Never unconditionally believe a post with the words easy, Loppet and training in the same sentence!

Canadian Ski Marathon

This looks like a unique and fun event.  A 160km ski over 2 days between Lachute and Gatineau winding through the picturesque eastern Laurentians.  Almost the equivalent of skiing a Vasaloppet  two days in a row!  There is an overnight stop in Montebello.  It is billed as North America's oldest and longest Nordic ski tour.  You can ski sections, the whole thing or even carry your own gear and camp out overnight.  Always scheduled for the second weekend in February each year.
Canadian Ski Marathon website

Training - quality vs quantity

This is an ongoing debate, but quality is perhaps winning.  What about the 10,000 hour rule?  (You need to put in 10,000 hours in order to become expert at an activity - K. Anders Ericsson, later popularized by Malcolm Gladwell) - How does quality factor in to that study?  Overall, I take this as a good news story for us recreational skiers.  Yes, we all know you need to put in the work to truly master something, but we are all different in terms of  natural abilities and indeed aerobic capacity.  Either way, allows me to believe that if I do the right thing (vs pure volume) I will progress.
Norwegians on volume - Faster Skier article

The jaw dropping benefits of cross country skiing

So we cross country skiers are on the path to immortality (well at least closer to it than non-skiers!).  This article references a study from Scandinavia (where else?) that clearly supports the unique health benefits of cross country skiing.
Globe and Mail article

Early snow. Bodes well for a good ski season - or does it?

Early snow (seems very early!), freezing all week and more in the forecast here on the east coast.  An early taste of winter in the west.  Looks good.  A good snow year last year in North America yet poor in Europe.  Can anyone really predict?  This year, the Birkebeiner was cancelled on the morning of the race because of dangerously high winds in the mountains rather than lack of snow.  How often does that happen?  Serious enough that they are making contingency plans for this year.  Either way, just be ready!
Birkerbeiner announces contingency plan

Evaluating this "content marketing" experiment

This blog is really a "content marketing" experiment.  In quotation marks because I would deem that to be marketing jargon.  Also something that is very much in vogue right now.  Not that I am marketing any specific product, more referencing products that I use, like or may like.  To date, that has included roller skis, GPS watches, cars and a cross country skiing app.  I will get to other gear in future posts.  In any event, it is still useful to evaluate this exercise against the framework below.  How am I doing?

Ole Einar Bjørndalen recognised as best male athlete at 2014 Olympics

Now the most decorated winter Olympian ever, Bjørndalen won 2 Gold medals in Sochi.  He has a career total of 13 medals (8 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze).  Worth noting that he won 2 golds this year at the age of 40.  Canadian hockey teams won both the team awards (men and women).  Hockey is to Canada what cross country skiing is to Norway what speed skating is to the Netherlands.  Best female athlete was speed skater Irene Wust, from the Netherlands, with 3 gold and 2 silver medals in Sochi.
Bjørndalen - Best male athlete at 2014 Olympics award (Faster Skier)

Technique, waxing and fitness - there's an app for that!

In this sport, how fast (and far) you go is dependent on:
 1. Technique, 2. Waxing, and 3. Fitness, in that order.  Most people have the impression that these are reversed.  Not so, assuming a base level of fitness.  The efficiencies required to go fast (and long) are very much driven by technique.  More so in classic than freestyle, which seems physically harder for the recreational skier but is easier to master.  It is also easier to wax for, as there is no grip wax component. One could always go with waxless skis for classic (and believe me, on some days this feels like the only option!), but this really compromises the glide component of the motion.  There is a great app complete with excellent video breakdowns of all components of technique for both classic and skating.  Demos are done by members of the Swiss national team.  Cross Country Skiing - Technique (produced by Bundesamt für Sport BASPO) available for IOS and Android.  Well worth $4.99.

Sprinting for 50 km!

What to make of a sport where the "sprint" distance is 1.5km, and the average speed of a skier can be quicker for a 50km race!  Cross-country skiers do generally have the highest VO2 max of any endurance athletes.  For comparison, the average speed for an Olympic level 100m runner is around 37 kph.  The average speed for the Olympic cross country skiing sprint champion in Sochi this year was around 26 kph (1.5 km in 3:28).  That is pretty quick.  Perhaps surprisingly, the average speeds for 15 km and 50 km races are slightly lower and slightly higher respectively (23 kph for the 15 km race and 28 kph for the 50 km race).  Average speed is dependent on the course, snow conditions and ski technique (classic vs. freestyle/skate).  However, for the 50 km average speed to be quicker than the sprint is a real eye opener.

Road trip car - Volvo V60 Polestar

This is definitely the car for the epic Loppet road trip, right down to the colour.  Looks, power, comfort and all wheel drive.  Love it!
Right on brand for the outdoor healthy Scandinavian living lifestyle!  Read more here:
Volvo V60 Polestar test drive

The price of a logo

The cost for Chevrolet to be on the front of Manchester United's shirt = £47 million per year for 10 years (£470 million commitment).  On the same shirt, Adidas recently signed a deal to replace Nike = £750 million over 10 years.  That is without a doubt the most valuable shirt in sport.  To have an American car brand on the front of this iconic shirt seems a little incongruous.  The marketer who made the deal has since been fired to further support this view of the deal.  For Adidas, expensive, but likely to pay back.
By way of contrast, the AltaGas sponsorship deal with the Canadian National Ski Team is valued at "over $1 million" spanning four years (2012-15). This includes prominent logo placement on team outfits and headgear.  As you can see from the pictures below, it is more difficult to stand out in the "higher density" logo world of cross-country skiing.