Hayward Primary School Visit

I got the chance to be in Hayward, WI leading up to the American Birkebeiner and witness the anticipation and excitement around the race-- also termed the "Birkie Fever". Even though this is the largest ski race in the country, there are still many young children who haven't been exposed to cross country skiing. Brian Gregg of CXC organized an school visit to Hayward Primary school that was aimed at educating and inspiring the local youth about our sport. Kristina Owen, Heather Zimmerman and I had the opportunity to be included in the excitement. Ronsse getting to play ski "show and tell".
Kristina telling the history of how the American Birkebeiner race began while Brian and I "skiing" around the room with young "Prince Haakon" in tow.
Heather and Kristina racing around the room with a few volunteers while Brian and I joined the rest of the students in the traditional "Heiya" ski chant.

I was impressed with each of the 19 different classes that we saw-- the kids were very well behaved, considerate, and asked thoughtful questions. It looks like there was a successful Barnebirkie and there was some enthusiastic spectating.
APUNSC's Holly Brooks finishes runner up in the American Birkie by a fraction of a second. Photo courtesy of Andy Canniff at Swix Sport. Way to go Holly! Also, congrats to Carolyn (my host in Madison, WI) for completing her 30th Birkie.
The wide and pristine Birkie trail could be accessed from the the back door of Julie and Tom's house, where I stayed in Seeley. The Birkie will be an event I will definitely have to include in my racing schedule for an upcoming season. For now, I am home in Alaska where I am re-grouping after spending 5+ weeks on the road. The skiing, weather, and time I've been able to spend with family and friends couldn't be better.

Ice Caves

While in northern Wisconsin, Donovan, Heather and I got a chance to venture up toward the Apostle Islands to check out the ice caves on the coast of Lake Superior. It's a phenomenal place.
H. Zimmerfest
Dun Dun Don Dums
Ronskizzle and orange icicle
Dums in his element. This guy used to chill in Antarctica-- no joke! Ronse, Ronsee, Ronsse, Ronnse, or Ronski?

Feather-less flying kiwi Heather

If you're one of the 7,000+ competitors that will be in Northern Wisconsin for the Birkie this weekend, then I highly recommend checking this place out if you get the chance!

City Sprints in Madison, WI

The city sprints in downtown Madison were all that I had hoped they would be. Some people had their doubts that the races would happen, because the temperature was in the mid-50's prior to the races, and when we showed up on Friday afternoon there wasn't any snow in sight. But, due to the hard work of Yuriy Gusev and all the volunteers, the "impossible" became POSSIBLE. Maria Stuber cruising around one of the 180 degree turns below the Madison's capitol building. The races were a total success and exposed many non-skiers and aspiring young skiers to elite-level racing.
Lars Flora sliding in the slush. We raced on snow that was stock piled and trucked into the city. We raced a 100m World Record attempt and two team sprints where athletes alternated racing 1k...3-4 times.
First leg leaders in the women's classic race. The course was fast and relatively flat, so it turned into a double-pole derby on skate skis and boots. Thanks to Renee Callaway for captivating the scene with her wonderful photos of the races!
3rd and final tag off in the ladies classic race.
Women's podium for classic team sprint. Strandberg/Deyoung (Saab/Salomon/Fischer), Dehlin/Williams (USST), Ronsse/Stursova (APUNSC/Rossignol). My APUNSC teammates are either home in AK or at World Championships, so I paired up with Stursova of Rossignol-- we made a great duo!
"Experienced" Strandberg vs. "rookie" Ronsse battling it out to the line-- experience was final victor.
Ladies podium for the skate team sprint. Stursova/Ronsse, Deyoung/Strandberg, Zimmerman/Owens.
Brian Gregg bringing home the win for CXC.
Dennis Kruse usually gave us something to laugh about when he was announcing at the Supertour races. The American skiing community is fortunate to have a guy like Kruse, who goes out of his way to support athletes in reaching their goals. Kruse built an additional cabin for his visiting friends to stay in. I get the impression that getting to stay there is right of passage for aspiring athletes since "all" the big time American skiers and cyclists have stayed in Kruse's cabin. Heather and I got to stay there during our week in Cable, WI...does this means we're going to be legit skiers now?
Exploring the capitol building after the race-- definitely the most scenic post-race warm-down I've ever done!

Mora Vasaloppet USA

This past weekend I got to race in the Minnesota's largest ski race, the USA Mora Vasaloppet. The event was incredibly well organized and exciting to be apart of. They also awarded the best prizes that I've ever seen-- including intricately painted Dala horses to age group winners and gigantic fresh wreaths for the overall race winners. Skatie Ronski post 35k skate race.
Linda (Spring Brook, WI) and Gretchen (St. Cloud, MN) of the "Ski and Tea" women's group were all smiles after winning their respective age classes. These ladies took care of Heather and I for the weekend-- we had a blast with them and spent much of the weekend in laughter.
Here's the lead pack pack during the 35k skate race. I loved getting to cruise around in a pack of skiers, where we took turns cycling through in the pace line. Thanks to skinnyski for the above racing photos. I hope to make it back to Mora for the featured event one of these days, the 58k skate race.

Supertour Races at Telemark Resort

Last week's Supertour races featured a 1.2k sprint, a short distance classic, and a distance skate race.
Katie Ronsse(USA), Nicole Deyong(USA), Martina Stursova (CZE), Christina Groulx (CAN) in the semi-final.

The sprint was on one of the most excruciating courses I have done so far. We made a sustained climb up part of Telemark mountain, swept down for a hairpin turn, went up a toilsome climb to the high point of the course, rocketed down, and went over a steep bump before the finishing stretch. This race felt more like a V02max interval rather than a short "sprint", but grueling sprint courses seem to be the trend in World Cup races these days too.
Katie Ronsse (#2), Kristina Trygstad-Saari (#1), Kristina Strandberg (#3) on the ladies podium.

Trygstad was definitely the strongest lady of the day. She dominated the prelim and lead most of the final. I hung on for dear life until the high point in the climb, and then slung-shot around on the last long downhill after sitting in the draft; but in the lunge for the line she got me, along with the $900 in prize money. A well deserved win for Trygstad! The $425 for 2nd was still an exciting award for me, since it marked my first time winning prize money that I was allowed to accept and it is going to buy me A LOT of oatmeal! Colin Rodgers (#2), Leif Zimmerman (#1), Garrott Kuzzy (#3) on the men's podium.

The classic course was held old World Cup courses that were designed before skate skiing was invented-- which meant numerous steep herringbone hills and several narrow winding downhills.

The highlight of the races for me personally was NOT getting 2nd in the sprint as an onlooker might predict, but rather finishing THIRD in the Saturday's 5k Classic race! I have struggled so much with my distance racing in the past 4 years, so to make the podium in a Supertour distance race was a welcomed surprise. Men's and women's classic results can be found HERE.

Also, a HUGE thanks to Brian Fish and the CXC waxing team for assisting me with waxing. To have a rival team offer to help me while my coaches are unable to be here speaks of the character of CXC. Finding the perfect wax is a time consuming and secretive thing and without the help of CXC, I wouldn't have had a top coat. I could've easily been floundering in a assortment of kick wax where my "secret" would have been to pick the prettiest color (...joke)!
The men's mass start pack-- thanks to Tom Dunaway for the great photos.

The distance Supertour races were also collegiate races and Junior Olympic qualifying races for the central region, which meant there was a chaotic stampede of hundreds of skiers to get to the finish line as fast as possible. There were skis and poles flying in all directions at times...pretty sweet! Men's and women's skate results can be found HERE.

From Rossland, BC to the Midwest, US

Perfect skiing in Rossland, BC-- a town built in the crater of an extinct volcano of the Monashee Range. I'm told that Rossland has the highest per capita of doctors in Canada because the skiing, mt biking trails, and active community is so hard to beat.

Jeff Ellis, Laura Valaas, and I made our way over to Rossland for some NorAm races for Canada's final World Championship qualifier-- where the field was small but stacked with many of the nation's fastest skiers. (#1)Phil Widmer, (#2) APUNSC teammate Jeff Ellis, and (#3) hometown hero George Grey on the men's sprint podium. Laura also made the podium in both the skate sprint AND the classic distance race. Good luck to Laura at World Championships!

I was not sure how traveling and racing on my own would logistically work out, but so far I have been absolutely blown away by the support of other skiers. A HUGE THANKS to John Jaques and Dan Madlung of the Rocky Mountain Racers for the waxing support, Chris and Taneel for letting us stay in their home even though they were away for the weekend, Jonas for the use of a wax bench, Skeets for the ride to Vernon, and Andi for the hospitality in Silverstar! One of my favorite parts of being a nordic skier is all the incredible and friendly people you come across...I'm feeling lucky to be apart of North America's incredible skiing community.

The generosity of other skiers and coaches didn't end when I left Canada. I am currently in the Midwest racing on the Supertour circuit where I would not have had such a successful week of racing without the support of the people here. A Supertour update coming soon! An urban run from Jojo's apartment in Minneapolis-- the trail system and artwork that I saw in the city was quite impressive.

Vagabond

When the Whistler World Cups concluded, my teammates and I picked our own paths that would suit our individual training and racing needs. Each one of our paths will overlap but no one's will be exactly the same.

In the past 2 weeks I have had the opportunity to stay in Whistler, Seattle, Wenatchee (WA), Rossland (BC), Silver Star (BC), Minneapolis, and Seeley (WI), so I'm starting to feel like a vagabond. Here are snap shots of my recent adventures...
Exploring the additional trails at the Callahan Valley. An Alaskan girl soaking up the Vitamin D after the climb up to Callahan Lake. My pole basket came un-glued, so I got some extra practice with V1-ing to my right side. As a lefty, I'm glad I had that extra practice because in the past Supertour, parts of the hill were slanted, so it was more efficient to V1 to the right side.
Indubitably the best ski of the year so far.
An Aussie, a Kiwi, Alaskans, a Washington-ite, and z-German out for Sushi.
Here's the Greyhound bus I was on after we rammed into the back of a semi truck. No one was seriously injured but a handful of riders went away in an Ambulance. I consider myself lucky not to have any broken bones or lasting injuries. In the hours we spent somewhere between Steven's Pass and Leavenworth I got to know many of the characters on the bus. It was the first day out of jail for several of my fellow passengers, including the man in front of me who had been in and out of jail for 20 years, but was "really going to try to stay out this time!"
Here's Laura Valaas when we got to canoe part of the Columbia and Wenatchee Rivers and then ski in THE SAME MORNING! The Valaas family generously adopted me as one of their own for a few days. They even let us borrow their car to drive into Canada for the NorAm races.

It's time to ski right now but I do have more photos to share, so this post will just have to be continued soon...

Wow...Those World Cuppers Are FAST

My weekend at the Whistler World Cups ski races has left me in awe of the fitness of the world's top skiers. If I compare myself to the podium finishers, I am lead to the conclusion that I got my butt kicked. I've made improvements to my racing, but I still have a long way to go up...

It was inspiring to see how it is possible to ski much faster through enough hard work, patience...and more hard work.
#2- Justyna Kowalczyk: Number of previous World Cup starts? 100
#1- Alena Prochazkova: U23 Sprint Champion... when Valaas was 2nd
#3- Anna (Dahlberg) Olsson: First World Cup start? 1997
Ola Vigen Hattestad (2nd), Emil Joensson (1st), Josef Wenzl (3rd) Norway's Hattestad was undefeated in WC sprints this season until Joensson took the cake on this one.

Becoming a World Class skier does not happen over night. The Olympics are just over a year away. Evelyn Dong and I are up for the challenge. Let the climb to the top begin TODAY...