• Afternoon times are now 4-6pm 2 days, 4-7pm 2 days
• There will be 2 afternoon rollerski days each week
• Program is open to skiers ages 12 to 21 – a great way to continue training w/a group if you will continue skiing at college
• Will be more variety in training locations
• Coaching: Andre’ will be back plus we have several highly qualified coaches waiting to find out if we need them or not (depends on how many skiers we end up with). Hint: you’ve already worked with 3 of these guys, and new possibilities include a world team biathlete and a CXC elite team racer.

CXC Training Plan for April

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 at the 1993 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun and earned his best individual finishes of 5th twice at the World Championships (1989: 50 km, 1993: 30 km). Igor’s best individual finish at the Winter Olympics was 14th in the 50 km event in 1994.

Igor has a very extensive coaching career working with athletes from US Junior to International Elite while winning at every level; US Junior Olympics, World Cups, World Championships and Olympic Winter Games.

Igor has been coaching at Gunstock Ski Association in New Hampshire for the last 5 years and has been our CXC High Performance Advisor for the last 3 years. Many of his ideas were implemented in the CXC Elite Team training plan by Bryan Fish, CXC Elite Team head coach.

“This is a huge addition in expertise, experience and knowledge to our athletic programs. The CXC Junior Development Program has shown positive growth for the last two years. Each year we have had more coaches, clubs and programs interested in partnering with CXC to provide their athletes the best training opportunities. We have several applications submitted even before the program announcement which is a new and very exciting step for CXC” – commented Yuriy Gusev, CXC Executive & Athletic Director.

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

     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 podium without an extremely high level of fitness.

This physical challenge does not deter me in the slightest, but is rather a long-range goal, a lifestyle that I adopted many years back.  And, while I understand that this is the main component of success in ski racing, I also know that the little, less significant aspects of being a cross-country ski racer are also critically important.

I came to realize this about two months back.  With fall training in high gear, I was experiencing the aches and pains of a demanding workout schedule.  I was sore after bounding intervals and tight after long double poles, and then one day it clicked that I could be doing a better job of addressing recovery.  I was wholeheartedly pursuing training, yet I didn’t follow a stretching routine, seldom attended a yoga class, and never got a massage.  As a child I did gymnastics and dance and would do endless acrobatic routines on my parent’s lawn in the summer.  Now just the thought of a backbend made me cringe.  In fact, my tight hamstrings would yell at me walking up the stairs.

This got me to thinking, no matter how much I worked to develop a high level of fitness, if my body was inhibited by a limited range of motion I would not be able to reach my full potential.  Physical capacity was a necessity if I wanted to stand on the podium, and conversely tight, inflexible muscles could keep me from getting there.  In the scheme of things, flexibility is not a huge part of ski racing.  We need to be able to work well within a certain range of motion.  At the same time, the movement patterns we practice endlessly shouldn’t become more and more restrictive.

It was then that I decided to do something about my hamstrings, lower back, shoulders, neck, lats, and calves.  Perhaps their tightness wouldn’t bother me this season or next, but I knew that some day it would catch up to me, and I didn’t want to take the chance.  If I was to say that I was doing everything I could to succeed, this was as important a task as the workouts in my training plan.

After some research I made an appointment at a sports clinic and met with a doctor.  We fully agreed that the training I was doing was further limiting my range of motion and was concerned that it was generally unhealthy and could increase my risk of injury.  I was fit for sure, but my fitness was not balanced with an acceptable degree flexibility.  I started a daily stretching program, simple and effective, and scheduled one massage a week until I left for racing.

Today I had my last massage before leaving for the SuperTour.  I met with the doctor and he was pleased by the marked improvement.  More importantly, though, I have seen a positive trend in training.  My hamstrings don’t yell at me when I stride or V1 uphill and my shoulders and back complain less from double poling.  My aches and pains are not gone, and I don’t expect them to be.  Training is hard, and stressing the body makes us faster and stronger.  Jackie Joyner-Kersee put it best when she said, “Ask any athlete: We all hurt at times.  I’m asking my body to go through seven different tasks.  To ask it not to ache would be too much.”  What she didn’t say is that we can relieve some of the stress we put on our bodies by simply paying attention to the smaller details.  Whether it’s hydrating better, getting an extra hour sleep, taking a vitamin, or stretching, it’s important to notice the little things.

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 negative, such as anxiety of meeting a quota, a coming speech, job related anxiety, etc. Unharnessed, a steady dose of worry and other negative images can alter your physiology and make you more susceptible to a variety of ailments, ranging from acne to arthritis, headaches to heart disease, and ulcers to urinary tract infections.

Your thoughts have a direct influence on the way you feel and behave. If you tend to dwell on sad or negative thoughts, you most likely are not a very happy person. Likewise, if you think that your schooling is enough to give you a headache, you probably will come home with throbbing temples each day. This is just another clear example of the power the mind exerts over the body.

But if you can learn to direct and control the images in your head, you can help your body heal itself. Our imagination is like a spirited, powerful horse. If it’s untamed, it can be dangerous and run you over. But if you learn to use your imagination in a way that is purposeful and directed, it can be a tremendously powerful vehicle to get you where you want to go, including to better health.

Visualization and imagery has applications in sports, leadership training, possibility thinking and others…affirmations and visualizations are used by athletes everyday. A golfer may form a mental map of the fairway, imagining precisely where he will place the ball on each shot; a high jumper may visualize every split second of his approach to and leap over the bar; a baseball pitcher may run a mental film of the ball from the time it leaves his hand until it lands in the catcher’s glove. Think about the possibilities for your Nordic skiing season. I am a strong advocate of these ideas; especially on long cold ski’s- I strengthen my self with positive reaffirmation and visualizations!

More from Linda Mackenzie:

Visualization puts your intention of what you want to work. The more specific the intention, the more specific the results. Remember: whatever you believe is what your body will do. So when you are thinking of your intention make sure it is:

Clear

Specific

Achievable

You feel, know and trust it is being accomplished.

Visualization exercises can be done once in the morning and before bedtime. Some people do see or feel results the very first time but remember everyone’s body and mind are different and so is the way they process information so have patience.

Responsibility is:

Be accountable to and for yourself

Make a commitment

Do visualization regularly

Be persistent and patient

Keep positive

Get Mentally Relaxed

A relaxed state puts allows you direct access to your subconscious mind. Here are some steps to help you relax:

Find a quiet place. Relax in a favorite chair or lie down.  

Get comfortable and loosen clothing

Uncross your arms and legs

Get centered by focusing on the breath and breathing (this activates the vagus nerve which is the major quieting nerve in the body)

Totally relax your body and mind

Visualize

Things we did today:

Breathing: cleansing, settling, mountain.

Strike a Pose: invoking your space, rooting, pyramid, mountain and corpse.

Mind Work/Discussion: Visualization: “the Path”

Thoughts to consider for the week:

Drink more water! Cleanse and purify your body & mind.

Know yourself. Focusing on energy sources within you (don’t forget about your chakra system; we will get back to more chakra work next time.) and strengthening your mind through visualization techniques that you create will empower you and help you learn to focus your force to specificity. (spes-i-fisity)

Consider choice. Think about choosing love over fear, and asking yourself what it is you fear. Why do you fear? Make moves in your life to empower yourself with choice. Always hold close to your heart that you make choices for yourself emotionally; take power over these choice opportunities! Be responsible for your emotional health and wash a lot of dishes….until next time, you are a super star- live it! Shine!!

~ ms.meisinger ~

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

2008 Program Coached by André Watt, Anders Osthus, and Nikolai Anikin

The Duluth Cross Country Ski Club (DXC) is excited to announce its 2008 (third annual!) Summer Youth Training Program. An important component of DXC’s educational mission, the summer training program provides a low-cost opportunity for high school athletes to learn about technique, conditioning and other components of Nordic skiing from experienced coaches. The program is funded in part by proceeds from the Banff Mountain Film Festival, which DXC hosts each November (scholarships are available). Summer 2007 participants included skiers from Marshall, East, and Central high schools; we hope to have even more schools represented this summer!

Activities

Rollerskiing, ski-walking, and ski-specific strength and endurance (rollerskis are not required to participate; alternate activities will be offered and we will have a few pairs of rollerskis to borrow). We will also be running Duluth sections of the Superior Hiking Trail for our distance runs/hikes. The coaches will be happy to help program participants plan workouts for days that the training group does not meet. The schedule of training locations & activities will be posted on the DXC website; any changes due to weather will also be posted there (or you can call one of the coaches).

Who May Participate?

Any Duluth area student entering the 10th through 12th grade. Students entering the 9th grade who skied on a high school team during the 2007-2008 season are also eligible.

Coaching

André Watt:

Currently a skier on the elite CXC Development Ski Team, 10th place in the 2007 Birkie, 2 time silver medalist at US Junior Olympics, 1998 Minnesota State HS Champion in Nordic skiing. André has an exercise science degree from UMD and works at Continental Ski & Bike.

Anders Osthus:

NCAA skier for the University of Vermont, serving as captain and earning All-East Conference honors. Former member of the US Junior National Biathlon Team; skied for four Duluth East State Championship teams and took first place individually in 2000 and 2001. Employed at Ski Hut.

Nikolai Anikin:

A former Duluth East skier who coaches adult skiers in the winter with his parents, Nikolai Sr. and Antonina. Has a full schedule of ski and bike racing and has won several local ski marathons. Currently employed at Continental Ski & Bike.

Fitness Requirements

Participants are expected to begin the program able to sustain moderate exercise (easy running, fast hiking) for at least one hour. If you are doing an aerobic spring sport you should be fine; if not, start running now to improve your fitness by June 9th.

Equipment Requirements

Participants must have appropriate clothing for exercising outside in a variety of weather conditions, running shoes, a watch (preferably w/stopwatch), water bottle w/waistbelt, and ski poles (for pole-hiking/hill bounding). Roller skis are encouraged but not required; there will be an alternate activity on roller ski days. Helmets required for roller skiing or biking.

Space is limited! Register early to guarantee a spot in the program.

Send the following to: DXC Summer Youth Program, 1346 W. Arrowhead Rd. PMB 344, Duluth MN 55811

• Athlete Information Form
• Parental Permission Form/Waiver
• Check for $75 made out to Duluth XC Ski Club

St. John’s University Nordic Ski Camp Brochure

Details for the camp can be found at:   www.skinnyski.com/ or http://www.csbsju.edu/summercamps/sju.htm

David A. Johnson M.S.
Head Nordic Ski Coach
College of Saint Benedict &
St. John’s University
(Office) 320-363-3296
(Home) 320-253-6452

“We do not remember days, we remember moments.”

                                                                             Cesare Pavese

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. Despite being physically tired and mentally drained after a long racing season it is now when I start to get excited for next season. During these low key weeks of running, biking, relaxing, and working, I generally just do whatever my body feels like it wants to do each day and sometimes that 1 hour workout turns into a 4 hour tour. So I don’t want to rain on anyone’s party, but May 1st is here just like it is every year. This is the traditional start of the training year and we want to be ready, not just for the first week of training, but with our plan for the coming year.

I worked with Ahvo Taipale throughout my entire ski career and we had a Plan, Execute, Analyze approach to things. We are at the end of this sequence and now is the time to analyze how things went this year and create your goals for next year. It doesn’t have to be anything too sophisticated, in fact for most of us it is pretty easy to figure out how the year went, and for some, it is painfully obvious. Part of this process is to evaluate our strengths and weaknesses. This is something that most of us are constantly doing throughout the season, but now is the time to actually figure out how to do something about them. Make sure to set short term and long term goals to help guide your training and planning.

Next, we need to put our plan in place and figure out what we need to do and when in order to reach our goals. This is a very important part of the training process and is where a coach can really be useful. There are a lot of new ideas floating around out there, new training techniques, new strength routines, new periodization ideas, etc. etc. etc. and having someone to help sort through these ideas to come up with something that will work for YOU is invaluable. Look back on what you have done that has worked and try not to make drastic changes from year to year. I have made the mistake of changing too many things at once and never could put my finger on what was helpful and what wasn’t. The plan should provide you with a good framework to start from. It should not be a rigid document, but something that changes as you do throughout the year. Make sure it includes all of the major elements: Strength, Endurance, Speed, Intensity, and Rest. Once you have something that looks good and you think will get you closer to your goals, the last thing to do is to execute the plan.

This is where the rubber meets the road. Execution of our plan is ultimately the most important piece of this puzzle. You can have the best training plan in the world, the best coach, and the most resources but if you don’t get out the door and train it won’t win you any medals. Follow the plan and listen to your body. Use periodic tests to assess your progress towards your goals. Change the plan if you need to, but if you keep moving, and keep working you will make progress. It is the most fun part of the process anyway. Who can complain about having an office without walls? As I have made the transition to a new career I am reminded of this on a daily basis. Take advantage of that office that is sometimes cold, sometimes windy, sometimes hot, sometimes wet, but always incredibly beautiful.

Enjoy the process. It is never ending in the best way. Make a plan to meet your goals and then just get out the door and make it happen.

Train on