Training Archive
Mpls
Ski Club President's Letter
September 16, 2004
The Mpls Ski Club has begun their 2004-05 membership drive
with a letter from President Kevin Johnson. Adult XC membership
fees have jumped quite a bit this year ($75), but now include
a ticket to the Nordic Ball. The Nordic Ball will feature
opera star Christina Baldwin, band Power of Ten, and the Cirque
Du Soleil Hand Balancers.
Related:
MSC membership form
Nordic Ball
USST Clinic Coverage
September 13, 2004
US Ski Team coach Pete Vordenberg and athlete Andrew Johnson
led a successful clinic with over 60 participants last weekend
at French Park. Gear West hosted the clinic, a fundraising
event for Team Today. Team
Today is the fundraising and outreach wing of the US XC
Ski Team with a mission of helping fund their athletes and
educating coaches and skiers. Phil Bowen supplied a number
of photos.
Photoset: 
46
photos
St. Paul Classic Bike Tour Coverage
September 12, 2004
Another huge turnout for the St. Paul Classic Bike Tour with
thousands of bikers hitting the quiet streets on Sunday morning
for a tour around St. Paul. We captured a few photos from
the shorter 15 mile route, including some from the infamous
Ramsey Hill climb.
Photoset: 9
photos
Mpls Ski Club Workout Coverage
September 11, 2004
A beautiful fall morning greeted folks for the first Saturday
workout with the Minneapolis Ski Club. After a slight detour
for road construction near the entrance to the ski area, we
joined the group to capture a few photos of Bjorn Lasserud's
legendary drills.
Photoset: 20
photos
Meadman
Hit the Road Again
September 3, 2004
Team Meadman, consisting of Jenni Mead and Amy Wyman, have
begun their transcontinental bike ride. Their launchpoint:
San Francisco, CA. Jenni and Amy will be filing regular updates
as they make their way to Yorktown, VA.
White Noise Nordic Coverage
August 4, 2004
Our coverage of the Twin Cities summer junior programs wraps
up with a look at White Noise Nordic. Coach Randy Gibbs was
leading this west workout at French Park last Saturday. Thanks
to Dani Gardiner for the photos.
Photoset: 27
photos
Sisu Jrs Morning Program Coverage
August 3, 2004
Battle Creek, complete with a full array of wildflowers, was
the site today for the Sisu Jrs Morning program workout. The
group started with pole hiking and technique work before hitting
Ahvo's infamous nordic obstacle course. The workout wrapped
up with some strength drills and sprint relays.
Photoset: 57
photos
Vermillion
HS Nordic Racers Camp Report
July 30, 2004
Mary Klein files a report (w/ photos) on the 2004 Nordic Racers
Camp, held last week in Ely under the direction of Bryan Fish.
MN Valley Juniors Coverage
July 23, 2004
Minnesota Valley XC Ski Club continues to host one of the
largest junior training programs in the US. On Friday, the
group was doing benchmark testing on the Big Rivers trail
near Mendota Heights.
Photoset: 100
photos, 11
photos by Susie Harvey
Mpls Ski Club West Side Coverage
July 15, 2004
French Regional Park is the site for Minneapolis Ski Club
West Side program workouts on Tuesday and Thursdays. On this
Thursday morning, the group worked on classical technique
and finished up with a fun relay event.
Photoset: 47
photos
Sisu Jrs Evening Program Coverage
July 14, 2004
The Sisu Jrs Evening program was out at the Battle Creek Ravine
on Wednesday, working on skating technique with specific drills
and video review, under the direction of coaches Greg Weier
and Per Nelson.
Photoset: 25
photos
Yellowstone
Ski Festival
July 11, 2004
It may be mid-summer, but it's not too early to start thinking
about the fall ski camps. Jamie Greene authors a feature on
the huge West Yellowstone Ski Festival and his own experience
in the popular nordic ski clinics.
CXC
Regional Elite Camp Update
July 11, 2004
Bryan Fish files an update on the CXC Regional Elite Camp
which wrapped up on Saturday. The CXC/Birkie Summer Camp is
coming up in early August.
Related:
Training Calendar
Mpls Ski Club East Side Coverage
July 8, 2004
Kevin Brochman's Minneapolis Ski Club East Side program workouts
from Snail Lake in Shoreview on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
We followed them through a workout of strength drills and
classical rollerski technique on Thursday.
Photoset: 39
photos
Saukko Ski Club Coverage
July 2, 2004
The Saukko Ski Club, under the leadership of Todd Johnson
(TJ) and a number of fine coaches, continues to grow in numbers
and reputation. We followed their workout on Friday morning
as the group broke into three groups for a classical rollerski
workout on the quiet roads near Oakland Jr High.
Photoset: 44
photos
Nordicwerks Coverage
June 28, 2004
The Nordicwerks Summer Program was rollerskiing on Monday
evening, fighting off the swarms of mosquitoes while working
on technique and logging K's on the Hardwood Creek trail near
Forest Lake. Some of the Nordicwerks skiers come from as far
away as Mora to participate in the summer-long program.
Photoset: 29
photos
Meadman:
Days 6-7 Report
May 20, 2004
The Meadman Rollerski Across Minnesota wrapped up last weekend.
We've got their final report, plus a bunch of photos from
their adventure.
Meadman:
Days 2-5 Report
May 16, 2004
An update on Team Meadman's rollerski across Minnesota, including
number of adventures like skiing in the rain, straight line
winds, and rollerskiing through Mankato, along with a few
photos.
Meadman:
Day 1 Report
May 11, 2004
A full report from Team Meadman on their first day of rollerskiing
across Minnesota, complete with a few photos.
Meadman:
Pre-Trip Planning
May 7, 2004
With the start of their rollerski across Minnesota just a
few days away, Team Meadman finalizes their route and stocks
up for the trip.
Rollerskiing
Across Minnesota
May 2, 2004
A group of St. Cloud State skiers, along with a support crew
and some cycling friends, plan to rollerski across Minnesota
starting next week. The rollerskiers include Amy Wyman, Jenni
Mead, Julie Warneke and Marie Jordan. Watch for updates from
the road next week!
NCCSEF
Announces North American Ski Gymnasium
April 27, 2004
The National Cross-Country Ski Education Foundation (NCCSEF)
has formed a partnership with Solleftea Ski Gymnasium in Sweden
to bring six cross-country skiers to Sweden to live and train
for the school year. Application deadline is May 21st.
Summer Programs
March 10, 2004
The Training Calendar has been updated with the latest information
on summer training programs. The Twin Cities metro area offers
more than a half dozen training programs for juniors and there
will be a number of sessions around the region this summer.
You can also checkout spotlight features on a number of programs
from last summer below.
Chad Giese, Owen Hanley Interval Workouts
October 16, 2003
Elite skiers Chad Giese and Owen Hanley have formed a sort
of "dynamic duo" partnership this summer and fall,
pushing each other to train smarter and ski faster. We checked
out one of their workouts on Thursday morning: a set of nasty
8-10 minute intervals up some hilly roads near Newport, MN.
Photoset: 
17
photos
City of Lakes Roller Rally Coverage
September 14, 2003
Nearly 100 rollerskiers and inline skaters turned out on Sunday
morning for the 1st annual City of Lakes Roller Rally. The
tour went off smoothly, with participants enjoying the perfect
weather and some great prize drawings from Hoigaards and Alpina/Madshus.
Photoset: 42
photos
Gear West Wed Night Workouts Coverage
September 10, 2003
The Gear
West workouts have begun at French Regional Park and will
continue right through the winter. We caught up with this
group Wednesday evening for some photos of their dryland and
rollerski drills.
Photoset: 24
photos
Mpls Ski Club Workouts Coverage
September 6, 2003
The Minneapolis Ski Club fall dryland workouts began on Saturday
morning at Hyland Hills in Bloomington. We collected a few
../images from this traditional "kickoff" to the cross-country
skiing season.
Photoset: 10
photos
One Epic
Ride
September 5, 2003
Last fall, John Schmidt completed one epic day of mountain
biking, hitting nearly all the major MTB venues in the Twin
Cities in a complete circuit ride. He repeated the adventure
again last weekend and lived to write about it.
Spotlight: Nordicwerks
September 2, 2003
Deno Johnson and Kathy Wright have submitted photos from some
early August workouts of the Nordicwerks program, based out
of the Forest Lake area.
Photoset: 46
photos
Spotlight: Minnesota Valley Juniors
August 8, 2003
The Minnesota Valley Juniors Program is one of the largest
with over 90 skiers participating this summer. MN Valley director
Reid Lutter snapped a number of photos of the groups last
day, joined by some of the White Noise Nordic program.
Photoset: 94
photos
Spotlight: Sisu Juniors - Evening
Session
July 30, 2003
The Sisu Juniors Evening Session was working out at the Battle
Creek Ravine on Wednesday. Coaches Ahvo Taipale and Greg Weier
lead the group through V1, V2 and double poling technique
drills on the quiet, smooth sloping roadway.
Photoset: 85
photos
Spotlight: Mpls Ski Club - West Side
July 29, 2003
We checked in on the Minneapolis Ski Club's West Side Junior
Training program at French Regional park on Tuesday morning.
Coach Kevin Johnson, along with assistants Larry Myers and
Josh Korn were leading the skiers in some classic technique
drills, including video analysis.
Photoset: 66
photos
Spotlight: Saukko Ski Club
July 23, 2003
The Saukko Ski Club, led by Todd Johnson (TJ) and his crew,
were out Wednesday evening doing interval tests on the famed
Afton coulee. The weather was nearly perfect, dampened only
by slightly higher traffic than usual along with some visits
from the local authorities. Kevin Brochman and the Mpls Ski
Club group were also running drills on the big monster.
Photoset: 79
photos
Spotlight: Minnesota Biathlon - West
Side
July 10, 2003
Minnesota Biathlon is running a number of summer training
programs around the metro again this year. We battled the
swarms of mosquitoes (and a few drops of moisture) at Elm
Creek on Thursday morning to check in on their west side training
group. Piotr Bednarski was leading the group in workouts centered
around classic rollerskiing.
Photoset: 47
photos
Duluth
Rowing
July 7, 2003
Duluth Marshall Nordic coach Dave Johnson has spent the early
summer training with the Duluth Rowing Club and compares the
experience to cross-country skiing.
Spotlight: Mpls Ski Club Juniors
- East Side
July 1, 2003
We caught up with the East side group of the Minneapolis Ski
Club's summer juniors program on Tuesday morning at Snail
Lake. Ben Dubay, Liz Parke and Lindsay Williams put the group
of about 30 juniors through a number of classical rollerskiing
drills and some distance workouts.
Photoset: 88
photos
Spotlight: Sisu Juniors
June 21, 2003
In the first of our summer programs spotlights, we caught
up with the Sisu Juniors program at Afton State Park on Saturday
morning. There were 30-40 skiers out for an hour and a half
pole hike up the St. Croix river valley hills and over the
bluff top prairies.
Photoset: 20
photos
Interview:
Claire Wilson, City of Lakes Nordic Ski Foundation
June 12, 2003
Get Outside! is a new summer youth program aimed at
introducing more Minneapolis youth to endurance sports. Started
by the City of Lakes Nordic Ski Foundation, the program is
being run by Claire Wilson.
Rollerskiing
101: Skating Technique
May 29, 2003
June is here this weekend, marking the unofficial start to
the rollerskiing season. Chad Giese of the Subaru Factory
Team allowed us some camera time to capture a video review
of the various skating techniques.
Related:
Rollerskiing 101: Stopping
Techniques
Atomic
Jr Camp at Ramsau
April 3, 2003
Atomic will be hosting a 10-day juniors camp in late June on the
Dachstein Glacier in Ramsau, Austria. Sign up soon, space is limited.
Field
Trip with SnowTrax
March 6, 2003
Skinnyski.com Race Team member Sonja Bostrom files a report on a
SnowTrax field day in Maple Grove in early March. SnowTrax is a
program that provides a one-day cross-country skiing experience
for school kids.
Waxing
for Artificial Snow
December 12, 2002
Skiing on man-made snow has become a more frequent occurance in
recent years. But just how do you wax, both for glide and kick,
under these special conditions?
Brochman:
Training of an Olympian
December 11, 2002
Kevin Brochman outlines his experiences working with Olympian Lindsey
Weier and a number of other top Midwest juniors, and offers a perspective
on what it takes to compete with the best.
Mpls
Ski Club Thanksgiving Camp Coverage
December 4, 2002
Kim and Craig Rudd have supplied a brief write up and some nice
photos from this year's ski camp at Giants Ridge.
Brochman:
Notes on High School Training
December 3, 2002
Olympian Kevin Brochman offers his unique perspective in a summary
of general thoughts on training for high school and college age
skiers.
Hall of Fame Gala Coverage
November 15, 2002
The Minnepolis
Ski Club Hall of Fame Gala was a big success, with a large crowd
turning out Friday evening for the inaugural event.
Photoset:
White Afton Rollerski
October 20, 2002
Over 20 rollerskiers came out under less than optimal conditions
to help raise some funds for Chad Giese's training, as well as take
part in some FIT Systems lactate testing. Mysterious white wet stuff
fell from the sky during most of the 2-3 hour workout.
Photoset (48 images):
Snowy Afton Rollerski - 19 seconds, 3.6MB
Related:
FIT Systems
Pete Thurmes: First Metro Ski!
WAM-XC Workouts
August 20, 2002
WAM-XC continues their Saturday morning long, slow, distance workouts
around the Twin Cities, along with the traditional post-hike coffee
stop. Dennis Nelson covers this group in an article originally submitted
at the end of July.
Cycling Across
America: Menk Journal Wrap-Up
August 5, 2002
After 39 days and over 3,400 miles, the Menk family cycling adventure
across the United States is complete. In their final journal, discover
Jeremiah's roadside "rash", a final top ten from Steve, and the
last set of photos.
Related:
Previous journals: #1, #2,
#3 #4
#5 #6
#7
Summer Vacation: Cycling Across America
Summer Training Groups Coverage
July 31, 2002
Over the past three weeks we've been out to a majority of the summer
training groups in the Twin Cities. Here's a recap:
Jul 9 - Sisu Juniors (40 photos):
Jul 15 - White Noise/MN Biathlon (33 photos):
Jul 16 - Mpls Ski Club/Brochman (79 photos):
Jul 17 - MN Valley (68 photos):
Jul 18 - Metro Elite (53 photos):
Jul 19 - Nordicwerks (38 photos):
Jul 25 - Sisu Skiers (60 photos):
Jul 31 - Afton Coulee groups (74 photos):
Skiing Down
Under
June 11, 2002
Frank Lundeen is living out a dream: training and racing in Australia
this summer, working full-time at developing his full potential
as a skier.
Nordic
Coaching Lecture Series
May 12, 2002
The Nordic Coaches
Education Association is putting on a series of lectures, featuring
some of the top coaches and health professionals in the region.
Twin Cities native Janelle Jurek has spent the last year living and working in Sweden and has contributed a great article on her experiences, complete with photos.
Macalester alumni and assistant coach, Jesse Crandall, is spending Christmas in Hawaii -- and he's not letting up on his 'on snow' time. Crandall gives us a first-hand report on his sand skiing experience.
In a rare December dryland workout, the Minneapolis Ski Club used the hills (and stairs) next to Bush Lake to keep fit for the upcoming ski season. We grabbed a few photos from the chilly workout.
Photoset:
Steve Thatcher filed a short report, along with some photos, on the PSIA Fundamentals of Teaching clinic at Trollhaugen last weekend.
Members of Minnesota Biathlon have traveled north of the border in search of snow and some early season racing. Article by Gary Colliander.
Midwest Juniors on Haig
Glacier
With the winter storm last week, most skiers got their first real chance to get on snow this season. However, members of the Saukko Ski Club were on snow as far back as late July. Each summer, Todd Johnson (TJ) takes his junior skiers to the Haig Glacier in Canada. One of the "senior" members, Eric Meyer has written an article on the trip this summer as well as his experience of the years. TJ also borrowed us his digital video tape, allowing us to peel off some cool video clips and over 60 still images.
The "Lapham Ladies", an informal training group consisting of many ladies and a few guys (who are great sports), have been meeting for the past three years. This time of year, the group meets on Saturday morning at 8 am for roller skiing at the Waterville Road/Hwy.ZZ DNR parking lot and at 4pm Tuesdays in the Lapham Peak parking lot for dryland. They welcome both male and female newcomers. Donna Hoelz sent in 11 photos from a recent workout:
In this special report, Will Nicholson interviews Nikolai and Antonina Anikin on their recent trip out to Soldier Hollow to work with the Russian National Team. There are a dozen photos as well.
Sisu Skier Saturday Morning Workouts
The Sisu Skier Saturday morning workouts are in full swing at Battle Creek. Bruce Fielder leads the group in pole hiking and various strength and technique drills. We've posted over two dozen photos from the workouts.
Photoset:
Tom Walsh, organizer of last weekend's Rockford Rollerski Rally sent in a report on the rather wet event. There's a great group photo as well.
The Mpls Ski Club Workouts at Hyland Hills kicked off on Saturday morning under gray but rain-free skies. Bjorn Lasserud and Pete Moran once again led the workouts, with a strong turnout for the first session this season. We took two dozen photos from the workouts.
Photoset:
Video:
Hill sprint, 4.3MB
We followed the Minnesota Valley Masters workout group, lead by Coach Andy Turnbull, on Wednesday night as they tried to keep cool with an easy rollerski cruise on the beautiful Cedar Lake and Kenilworth trails in Minneapolis. 17 photos from the workout.
Photoset:
White Noise Nordic is wrapping up their junior training group this week. On Wednesday they did their last workout at Hyland Hills (Minneapolis Ski Club Hyland Workouts start up next month!) Over 25 photos from the White Noise workouts.
Photoset:
Last summer, Bruce Adelsman reported on his V02 maximal testing. This summer, we invited Birkie top 100 skier Jay Wenner to the St. Thomas labs for a look at VO2 max testing on a top-level citizen skier. Wenner has written a full report on his experience.
Minnesota Biathlon has used lactate testing as a development tool for a number of years. Friday was a testing day out at Elk River for some of the Juniors. Over 25 photos from the testing, along with range practice.
Photoset:
Chad Giese, metro area based elite skier, is hard at work again this season. We shot some photos of Chad and Erik Stange as Chad did some lactate testing runs on the Afton coulee.
Photoset:
Video clips:
Striding,
2.6MBKick
Double, 3.5MBDownhilling,
4.8MB
The Brochman-Wilson and Saukko Nordic training groups were working out on the Afton coulee on Wednesday night. Some of the top Minnesota high school skiers were flying up (and down!) the long hill. Over 30 photos online.
Photoset:
Video clip:
Lindsey
& Lindsay, 2.8MB
Central Cross-Country Skiing has been holding camps all week at the Telemark Resort, in Cable, WI. We caught up with them Thursday afternoon, in a middle of a major downpour.
Photoset:
Video clip:
Rollerski
Highlights, 4.7MB
On Tuesday evenings, Gear West hosts a two-mile timed run on the Luce Line trail. Last Tuesday was a scorcher, but four women avoided melting down in the 90F+ temperatures.
Photoset:
The 2001 Nordic Racing Dryland Camp wraps up today down at Gustavus, in St. Peter, MN. Scott Jerome and Sten Fjeldheim lead the four day camp for high school skiers. 35 photos from their rollerski workouts on Wednesday.
Photoset:
Video clips:
"Dancing",
2.1MBDouble
Pole Demo, 3.3MB
Junior programs are all underway now that July has arrived. We checked out the Finn Sisu Junior Program early Tuesday morning, as they worked on strength and endurance drills.
Photoset:
Video clips:
Happy
Feet, 2.4MBGoooaall!,
1.9MBJen McGill explores an interesting aspect of biathlete Jill Troutner's training program: ice treadmill workouts. By utilizing Frappier Acceleration sports training, Jill has made big gains in speed, agility and power.
The 50K club is an informal group of skiers who generally do long workouts together. In the spring/early summer, the key workout is a long rollerski on the Gateway Trail on Sunday mornings. The Gateway Trail, running out of the northeast metro area, is famous for its long, flat grade. Here are a dozen photos from an early June workout. Contact Jay Tegeder for more details on where and when the group meets.
Photoset:
The Sisu Skier programs kicked off in a new season in May. This spring they've been making use of medicine balls for strength and flexibility training. They also do a field "VO2 max" test, consisting of three short laps of increasing effort. We captured over 40 photos from one of the recent workout sessions.
Photoset:
Ken Salzberg submitted this report on his experiences at a Nikolai Anikin clinic at Maplelag, with photos from Jay Richards.
Mpls Ski Club Thanksgiving
Camp
One of the annual transistions to snow, the Mpls Ski Club Thanksgiving Camp traditional has a strong drawing and guaranteed snow. Also, links to photos from the Telemark Anikin Clinic.
GGSA Elk River Ski Clinic
Photos
Gitchi Gummi Sports Association held a two day weekend clinic on October 14-15 in Elk River for high school skiers and coaches. Check out photos and videos from the Saturday skate portion of the clinic.
Gear West Fall/Winter
Training Program
MN Biathlon and Olympian Andy Erickson was a guest coach at the recent Wednesday night session of the Gear West Fall/Winter Technique/Training Program.
A sure sign of fall and the start of the fall cross-country ski training season: The Mpls Ski Club workouts at Hyland Hills with Bjorn Lasserud.
Saukko Ski Club Haig
Glacier Camp Report
The Saukko Ski Club of St. Paul held a camp up on the Haig Glacier in the Canandian Rockies in mid-August. Report by Todd Johnson.
First Afton 50K rollerski
of the season
Photos and video clips from the first 50K club rollerski on the famous Afton 50K course.
MN Valley Rollerski
Invite Photos and Results
Photos and results from the juniors rollerski race held out at Hyland on Friday, July 28th.
WAM-XC Rollerski
Workout Photos
The WAM-XC group had a rollerski workout on Saturday, July 22nd, at Elm Creek. Here are some photos from that event.
VO2 max testing and Hydrostatic
weighing
Read the feature on our recent testing at the University of St. Thomas.
All the entries from the June Dream Tips Contest.
Subaru Factory Team
Nordic Academy Photos
See photos from the July 7-8th clinic in the Twin Cities.