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Team Reconvenes in Park City
This article was written last week
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\r\nTeam Reconvenes in Park City
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\r\nBy Andrew Johnson
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\r\nBy the middle of last week the whole of the US Cross-Country National and Development teams reconvened in Park City for a summer of serious training.
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\r\nBy last weekend all the athletes and coaches were organized enough to start group training with a skate rollerski up Mirror Lake Highway. Mirror Lake is a gradually climbing ski that winds up into the Uintah Mountains, just east of Kamas, UT. The team wasted no time getting down to business; that afternoon the team did a fun spenst workout in Park City and the following morning the team did a variety of level three classic intervals on the rollerski loop at Soldier Hollow.
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A little volleyball action...
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\r\nPete Vordenberg and Trond Nystad are in town and working hard. The development team is currently running loose with the recent departure of Chris Grover. However, Pete and Trond are doing a good job coaching the four d-team athletes as they await the arrival of new development coach Vidar – of Norway.
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\r\nTraining is off to a good start. All the athletes are healthy and looking strong. “Last year at this time all the athletes looked good. This year everyone looks even better. It’s ‘all systems go’ right now” said Trond Nystad.
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\r\nThis week the emphasis has been on a heavy dose of testing. All the tests are designed to have relatively little impact on normal training, therefore the athletes are able to keep up with the “meat and potatoes” of their weekly routines. The week started with a functional screening of agility, balance, and body awareness components. This morning athletes completed a sub-max threshold test. This test was done running on a treadmill and was broken into several 3 minute blocks of increasing speed. One minute breaks between these blocks were utilized by the sports science staff to take blood for lactate analysis, heart rate readings, and other observations. The data from this test should provide good information regarding training zones, areas of training deficiency, as well as providing a good marker when compared with past and future test results.
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Coach Nystad ran the 10K time trail with a wager that he wouldn't loose more than 3:45 min. to Kris Freeman. Trond lost the bet...by a lot...
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\r\nTomorrow morning the team will do the first-ever USST x-c strength test. Exact details of this test are as of yet unavailable, but results are supposed to help coaches and athletes gauge where their strengths and weaknesses lie in regards to strength training. A major deviation from the age-old Medals Test, this new test is supposed to be heavy on computer analysis and observation from highly skilled sport science professionals.
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\r\n“We’re hoping that this battery of testing will bring the x-c team to a more professional level” said Trond. “Each test and its results gives the athlete and the coach one more weapon to make right decisions regarding training and racing. Previously we’ve kind of been shooting blind in a couple areas, and these tests should give us specific markers and references to help firm up our preparation”.
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\r\nThe team is also enjoying the presence of several visiting athletes who are training with the group. Hilary Patzer of Sun Valley is picking up where she left off last year, living in Park City and participating with the team. Lars Flora, 2002 Olympian and 2003 World Championship team member is visiting for a couple weeks from his home in Alaska. “Since I couldn’t join ex-teammate Scott Loomis (Subaru Factory Team) on Alp d’Huez this week for the Tour de France, training in Utah was the next best option” says Lars.
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\r\nThe women’s team is also benefiting from the presence of German national team member and top ten overall World Cup skier Claudia Kuenzal, as well as a visit from Norwegian national team member and ex-UAF skier Siegrid Aas. “It’s nice to have Rebecca Dussault, Hilary Patzer, Lindsey Weier and the other girls in town. Having women to train with who are excited and gung-ho is a tremendous help for me, and hopefully for them. Hopefully more women will feel welcome to come to town and train with us…the more the merrier!” said women’s team captain Wendy Wagner. Wendy has spent much of the past several years as the lone member of the women’s team and is excited to have a teammate in Rebecca Dussault this year.
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\r\nNext Tuesday the team will run the infamous Soldier Hollow time trial. This ten kilometer foot race is one of the hardest workouts of the year and will be run three times by most of the athletes throughout the summer and fall. The rest of the week will be spent focusing on rest and recovery in anticipation of the long trip to New Zealand on August third.
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\r\nLook for many updates and photos from New Zealand throughout August.
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Left to right: Casey Simons, Sigrid Aas, Barb Jones.
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\r\nTeam Today is a non-profit organization run by, and for, the athletes of the US Cross-country team. The USST is run on a shoestring budget, and our increasing success at the international level is making for increasing demand on our ever-limited resources. To find out how you can join Team Today, visit www.teamtoday.org, or contact Andrew Johnson bode1978@yahoo.com, or Pete Vordenberg pvordenberg@ussa.org. With your assistance, we will be THE BEST IN THE WORLD!
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Written By: andrewjDate Posted: 7/28/2004Number of Views: 350
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