Marshall Nordic Ski Team Athletes

It is the evening before the big meet and you are scrambling around the house looking for that right hand glove that you wore at practice three days ago.  In your search your mind begins to wander and you ask yourself, “How do I know that I have everything I need to be a successful nordic ski racer at tomorrow’s race?”  What a great question to ask.  Let me share with you my strategy for being ready for the next day’s events.  The system that works best for me is the the floor layout.

Here is how it works.  Think of all the different things that you need to accomplish during the day and what is needed to accomplish them.  Then find a clean area on a floor close to your gear.  Layout your stuff as if you were dressing a manikin that is laying on the floor.  Start with the feet and work your way up to your head.  For an away ski meet involving a bus trip I would make three separate clothing figures.  You need clothing for the bus ride there and back, clothing for warm-up and racing and clothing for being out on the trail cheering.

Once all of your gear is laid out you should also think of food and water.  When will you eat?  What should you bring?  What is available at the event?  Prepare that the afternoon or evening before and you can be nice and relaxed in the morning as you take your gear to the bus, confident that you have everything you need to be dressed for success.

For those of you who like lists here is a sample list to get you started:

Warm-up and race clothing
Socks
Ski Boots
Long Underwear Bottoms
Wind Briefs for boys
Race Suit Bottom
Warm-up Pants
Long Underwear Top
Race Suit Top
Fleece Jacket
Ski Jacket
Gloves, Race and Warm-up
Hats
Buff or neck warmer

After Race on the Trail Cheering Clothing (To change into after racing)
Clean Socks
Winter Boots (Super important!!!!)
Clean and dry Long Underwear bottoms
Warm-up Ski Pants
Clean and dry Long Underwear Top
Insulating Layer, fleece
Warm Jacket
Warm Gloves
Warm and dry hat

Bus Clothing
Comfortable yet warm clothes
Warm Jacket for those buses with poor heaters
School work

Food and Drink
2 liters of water
Healthy real food, avoiding anything that is pre-packaged.

If you’d like to get a leg up on your competition this year, there are a handful of things you should do before you even grab your skis and head out to the trail.  To start with, you need to get at least eight hours of sleep (ten hours is better yet). Also, it is imperative that you’ve got a water bottle with you throughout the day so you can get down the 40 or so ounces of water the body demands (even more after races or hard workouts).  Your performance decreases SIGNIFICANTLY if you are even slightly dehydrated.

Thanks to the generosity of amazing parents and the leadership of Kelly Coughlan, Marshall Nordic now has a brand new Concept 2 Ski Erg.  The Marshall Erg will be located in Mr. DJ’s room D110 until the start of ski season.  After that the Erg will be placed in it’s new home the Marshall Nordic Team / Wax Room. (look for a post soon on this exciting new space!)  All members of Marshall Nordic are invited to check out the erg!  It will soon become your best friend and the key to improved performance.

Nick on the Erg!

For members of Marshall Nordic not participating in a spring sport or a training plan through MN Biathlon, please consider following the CXC training plan that can be found here:

CXC Training Plan for April

Marshall Nordic was honored to host CXC Coach Igor Badamshin as our guest coach on Wednesday, Jan 20, 2010.  Igo lead a great workshop with the Marshall Nordic Team.  Igor had us focusing on skate technique for the afternoon session.   The skiers favorite drill was a tie between the leap frog and pull a skier through your legs drill.  The coaches especially liked how Igor had the skiers use thera-bands on their legs to work on the leg muscles used in skate skiing.

Thanks for a great day Igor!  Link to more pictures of the day

Here is what the CXC Website has to say about Igor’s skiing resume

This year the CXC Junior Development Program will be led by Igor Badamshin. Igor (born 1966) is a former Soviet/Russia cross country ski racer who competed from 1989 to 1997. He won a bronze medal Read the rest of this entry »

Register Now for Summer Youth Training Program

Registration Form and Parental Waiver

Registration is now open for the 2009 Summer Youth Training program. Coaches Andre Watt, Anders Osthus and Nikolai Anikin, Jr return along with Jenna Dickinson to lead high school aged athletes and recent high school grads in ski-specific strength and endurance, conditioning and rollerskiing. DXC has some rollerskis available to borrow.

The 8 week program begins June 8th and will meet from 5-7pm Monday through Thursday evenings in addition to at least 2 morning sessions per week (to be determined by registration numbers and requests). Participants are welcome to attend as many of the sessions as they’d like. Workouts will take place at various Duluth parks and trails including Chester Bowl, Park Point, Spirit Mountain, Lakewalk, Rock Pond and the Superior Hiking Trail.

The Duluth XC Ski Club is able to offer this high quality program at a very low rate, in part, thanks to proceeds from the Banff Mountain Film Festival hosted in November. The summer program fee is $90. Scholarships are available.

Register early to help us determine our schedule and staffing needs.

Remember, skiers are made in the summer! June…July….August!

More on the Summer Youth Training Program
Link to photosets from the Summer Training Program
Registration form for the 2009 program

By: Tazlina Mannix
Salomon Athlete Force, APU Ski Team
First published in Ski Post

     I hear my coaches say it time and time again, “ski racing is about fitness.”  “We need to be the fittest people in the world,” and they’re right.  Our sport is one of the most cardiovascularly and muscularly demanding endeavors possible, and there’s no doubt in my mind that fitness is the key to world class performance.  We need strength, endurance, speed, coordination, and physical awareness.  We race short distances and long, classic and skate, and on varying terrain and cannot reach the Read the rest of this entry »

Imagery and visualization…some thoughts for a stronger you.

November 20

Meisinger yoga day

 Imagery can relieve pain, speed healing and help the body subdue hundreds of ailments, including depression, impotence, allergies and asthma.

Images aren’t necessarily limited to visual but can be sounds, tastes, smells or a combination of sensations. A certain smell, for example, may invoke either pleasant or bad memories in you.

Think, for example, of holding a fresh, juicy lemon in your hand. Perhaps you can feel its texture or see the vividness of its yellow skin. As you slice it open, you see the juice squirt out of it. The lemon’s tart aroma is overwhelming. Finally, you stick it in your mouth, suck on it and taste the sour flavor as the juices roll over your tongue.

More than likely, your body reacted in some way to that image. For example, you may have begun to salivate. Or maybe you’ll run home and put lemons on the shopping list!

Imagery is the language that the mind uses to communicate with the body. You can’t really talk to a wart and say ‘Hey, go away,’ because that’s not the language that the brain uses to communicate with the body. You need to imagine that wart and see it shrinking. Imagery is the biological connection between the mind and body. As we will see, this is extremely useful in mind body healing.

It is estimated that an average person has 10,000 thoughts or images flashing through his mind each day. At least half of those thoughts are Read the rest of this entry »

Abigail Larson MS, CSCS, 2006 Olympian

Editors note: This article used by permission. First published in the August 11, 2008 Issue of SkiPost Volume 8 Number 28

You’ve heard it before, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”. But if you are like many athletes breakfast is a mere afterthought if even a thought at all. But you are different than most people; you are an athlete and that makes breakfast not just important but essential for success in sport, work and/or school. Skipping breakfast slows your body’s ability to burn calories (metabolism) and brain function, and you set yourself up to raid the school vending machine by midmorning.

When your blood sugar crashes you’re not likely to make nutritionally wise choices and it’s easy to go for a quick “fix” that will send you crashing again later in the day. This “crash” will cause your training and sports performance to suffer because you won’t have the energy necessary to keep up with your well-nourished teammates and competitors. To train and compete optimally you must eat optimally from start to finish everyday. Lots of research has shown that people who eat breakfast score better on tests, perform better at work, weigh less, and have less body fat than people who don’t normally consume breakfast.

As a doctoral student in exercise physiology and nutrition and an Olympic cross-country skier, I know how hard it can be to make time for breakfast. However, without good nutritional habits I never would have had the energy to train all the hours required to make the 2006 US Olympic Cross Country Ski Team.

It’s easy to overlook breakfast when you are rushing from training to work/class, or trying to get a few extra minutes of sleep. But this bad habit can have lots of negative consequences; you will probably make poorer food choices later in the day when you get overly hungry. Also, recovery from morning training sessions is much slower without good nutrition and hydration and you risk becoming glycogen depleted (low carbohydrate stores). All this leads to less energy for training later in the day. From personal experience, I’ve found that with a little planning I can have a quick and nutritious breakfast that will kick-start my day and prepare me for my next workout.

What and how much you eat for breakfast are also important. Highly refined convenience foods such as Poptarts, sugared cereals, and Nutrigrain bars are not adequate or wholesome fuel for athletes! Every morning you should treat your body to the fuel it needs to support all the hard training you have done and will be doing later in the day. A healthy breakfast consists of a good balance among sources of carbohydrate, protein, and fat. This includes fresh fruit, whole grains, and a serving of dairy, soy, or eggs. Whole wheat bread, oatmeal, raisin bran, low-fat milk, yogurt, soy milk, and scrambled eggs can all be part of a healthy breakfast. A balance of these ingredients will ensure adequate intake of vitamins, minerals, and help you to feel full and energized throughout the morning.

It’s best to eat at least 2 hours before practice or working out. This is because after you eat, blood pools to the stomach to help you digest but when you exercise, your working muscles need that blood too. To get the most out of your workouts you want to be able to supply your muscles with the blood and oxygen they need. If you only have an hour before practice, grab something light, such as a banana, and eat your main meal within an hour of finishing your workout. Your main breakfast meal after training should be adequate to replenish muscle carbohydrate stores and help to repair muscle tissue that may have been damaged. Muscle protein breakdown often happens with resistance and intense training; this breakdown is decreased if you eat a combination of protein and carbohydrate after training. The exact amount of carbohydrate and protein needed depends on the amount of training you do and your body size.

A Few of Abby’s Breakfast Options

Abby’s Power Breakfast (also my pre-race breakfast!)

½ cup whole oats
½ cup 1% milk (or soy milk)
1 egg
½ banana, ½ cup frozen berries or ¼ cup dried fruit
Walnuts or other nuts as topping
Brown sugar or honey (optional)

Place the oats, milk, egg, and any frozen fruit in a microwave-safe bowl and mix well. Microwave on high for 1 minute, stir and microwave for an additional minute. Let sit for one minute, top with dried fruit, nuts, and add additional milk or sweetener if desired.

Abby’s Crunch-Time Breakfast (also great for post-workouts)

1 cup 1% milk, soy milk, or yogurt
1 scoop protein powder (I use soy or whey protein)
1 frozen banana and/or ½ cup frozen berries
1-2 Tbs wheat germ
3-4 ice cubes