We went for a little adventure today. Start on the catch trail that runs from the start of the PPP course down to Northwest Express. Then start up the other side, stay on the catch trail until it calls it quits. After that we just kept the mountain on our left. It got a little soft after noon, but for an adventure, really, really, really hard to beat. On the crust from 11-noon was as perfect as it gets. Who wants to ski to Broken Top next?

And the postcard shots

Shane, Ben, and I got out for a short ski today.  A little soft but pretty hard to complain, really since it’s the end of April now.

The 6 days were my off-time for the year, more or less. Other than coaching the XC-Oregon Springfest camp, I haven’t been taking advantage of our late season snow. A couple mountain bike rides (technical stuff, at least for me, so I’m not tempted to hammer…but that did mean bloody shins both times) and some climbing are all I’ve done in addition to coaching. (more…)

Yeah this may qualify as shameless self-promotion of our team, but you are reading our blog after all.

XC Oregon has become one of the strongest cross-country ski teams in the country.  How do we do it?  With financial help from many people like you thru what we call the “Friends” program.  In essence, you help out the team while also getting valuable training advice from JD, XC Oregon’s coach.  While we do have some important corporate sponsors, the majority of our team budget comes from this program.

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Zach dragged me out climbing again yesterday, this time with Evelyn too. We played around on some short lava walls on what was mostly crack climbing. I’m not real good at it yet, and was really shocked at how quickly my forearm strength just gave out. I went from fine to incapable in a matter of minutes. And I’m minus a layer or two of skin on my knuckles. Ah well. (more…)

Spring is a great season. After more than 5 months of constant travel and racing, it’s hard not to be a little burnt out. In a good year, it’s only mental. You need some time to get the race desire back. In a bad year, your body is crying out for rest: sleep and massage are all the training you need for a couple of weeks. (more…)

Life post ski-season in Bend: (more…)

Yesterday I was sitting in the backyard lounging around in shorts and a T-shirt with a warm sun at somewhere around 60 degrees.

Right now it is snowing in Bend and yet I can still see the sun. (more…)

Just a bit of a late wrap up from Spring Series and then some. (more…)

Excepting the spring winter multi-event races, the ski race season is over.  So here’s an objective look at the team’s results over the winter.

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