Fast Trax Pro Team

Seiser Alm

2012-01-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

After the conclusion of the Tour de Ski, we headed to Seiser Alm (Italy). The team did some training and the staff did some recovering.

We had to take a snowcat up to the hotel. Very cool.

The view that greeted us upon arrival at the Alpen Hotel Panorama.

The lobby was pretty awesome and an awesome place to get some much needed recovery.

This guy was a cook at our hotel. He introduced himself one night when I was down in the garage working. That box you see on the table is a Christmas package from his mom, so we shared some baking.

Perfect morning.

Well, hello!

There was a pool.

I like hanging out at pools.

There was a dessert bar. I like Italian desserts.

One last look at the mountains before heading to Milano.

Tour de Ski - update part 3

2012-01-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

The rest of the pictures that I have.

The waxing cabins in Oberstdorf. Basically a big tent with compartments. Shared air is bad times due to all the powder.

The waxing cabins in Dobbiaco. Much better.

The stadium in Dobbiaco.

The trail goes right over top of the building. Fact.

The stadium at Val di Fiemme several hours before the race. Such a nice day.

The other end of the stadium. So much sunshine.

Just before the start of the women's hill climb. The big jacket was not necessary. Way too hot.

Bjorgen 800m from the top of the climb. Look at the way the people are standing - TV and pictures do this climb no justice. It is STEEP.

Therese Johaug 800m from the top. Paul and Jack - that one is for you.

Men's podium.

That's it folks... tomorrow we drive to Seiser Alm until the weekend. Apparently we have to be driven to the hotel in a snow cat. Pretty cool.

Tomorrow's destination. This will be ok... I guess...

Tour de Ski - update part 2

2012-01-08T10:17:00.002-07:00

A few more pictures from the past few days. Again, all stolen from Zach.

Traffic in Italy, three minutes after crossing the border. We're not in Germany anymore.

There is good skiing in Dobbiaco.

The scene at the Dobbiaco venue upon our arrival. Ski service means early mornings.

Our last morning in Dobbiaco. What a view.

Liz and Kikkan found the world's largest container of nutella. We didn't buy it.

Don't mess with Squadra USA.

The course profile from today. See those little rolling hills at the start? In reality, those are some freaking big climbs that broke a lot of people yesterday. The final climb is just that badass.

Star Map Black; tough as nails, terrible to work with.

TDS update - stage 4 complete

2012-01-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that four stages of the Tour are already over. Tonight we are packing to head to Italy, so here are a few quick pictures (all stolen from Zach).

Foggy Oberhof Stadium. At least it wasn't pouring rain the way it has been in Oberstdorf. The weather in Germany is a major bummer.

Now we work.

The snow situation in Oberhof wasn't good.

This is what the track looked like the day before the race. It was a dirty, soft, rocky mess. The organizers did an amazing job of getting things in top shape for the race.

Zach's comment on this picture: Toque got an all-access pass. That's a lot of zones he can get into. Serious VIP. His reputation must have preceded him.

Lunch in Oberhof. The first and only day we ate lunch at home (or before 5PM).

World Cup ski service is a lot fun, but don't kid yourself - it is work. We are up before the sun and home after dark every day.

Now we burn powder.

Yes, this respirator looks ridiculous but it is a treat to use as compared to my old mask.

New Year's Eve in Oberstdorf. Kikkan had hats and noisemakers to pass out.

All klister all the time.

Ultra pro.

Tour de Ski

2011-12-20T21:21:00.000-07:00

In a little more than five days I will board a flight to Munich on my way to the Tour de Ski. I will be joining four other service staff to make race skis for the US Ski Team. My role in the team will be wax and structure testing. Interestingly, the USST has indicated that the plan for the Tour de Ski is to use it asa test run for the major Championships (Val di Fiemme and Sochi) of the nexttwo seasons. My plan is to work had and see what doors open up down the road!

This will be the fifth edition of Tour de Ski and the event runs December 29 until January 8. The numbers are pretty astonishing:

9 races
in 11 days
at 5 venues
in 2 countries

The overall results are based on the aggregate time for all events, as well as bonus seconds awarded on sprint and mass start stages. The sprint races carry bonus seconds for the finish, which are subtracted from the overall time. In mass start competitions, intermediate points carry bonus seconds as well. The final stage of the race includes a ridiculous climb up to Alpe Cermis. The competitors start with the gaps they have from earlier stages, so the first one on the top is the overall winner.

FIS has produced a really great graphic that shows the route we will follow:

I thought it would be interesting to see what we can learn about each of the venues!

Oberhof, GER - skate prologue, classic pursuit

Oberhof is situated in the middle of the Thuringian Forest (800 m over sea level) in Germany. The town boasts a unique concentration of winter sport facilities and based on its long-term engagement for young athletes it is known as one of the strongest training centers of the German Ski Federation. Top skiers like Axel Teichmann and Ronny Ackermann have their sportive homes in Oberhof.

The DKB Ski Arena is located at the Rennsteig about 2 km outside of Oberhof. At the stadium (814 m over sea level), there is space for about 15,000 spectators in addition to 10,000 more on the course.

Oberstdorf, GER - classic sprint, skiathlon

Oberstdorf is an internationally recognized winter sports resort with one of the most up-to-date and largest ski jumping hills of the world. Together with the neighbouring region of Kleinwalsertal, Oberstdorf is the largest mountain and ski resort on the northern edge of the Alps.

The Cross Country Stadium in Ried is located in the south of Oberstdorf. The Stadium was built up in 2003/2004 for the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2005. The Stadium itself offers space for 10,000 spectators and additional 15,000 spectators on the track. For the sprint races almost the complete slope can be seen from the stadium and in addition the spectators in the stadium have a perfect view on the video wall.

Cortina - Toblach, ITA - classic distance, skate sprint, skate pursuit

Details are a bit slim on this venue...

Val di Fiemme, ITA - classic distance, skate pursuit (final hill climb)

The Cross-Country stadium is situated approx. 5 km east of Cavalese, the main city of Val di Fiemme. The capacity of the stadium is about 8,000 spectators and on the track approximately 20,000 can follow the competitions.

Every January, Cross-Country skiers can take part in the famous ski marathon, "Marcialonga," which starts in Moena and reaches Canazei in Val di Fassa, and then returns to Val di Fiemme while passing by many villages near Cavalese.

The best places to follow along with the results will be Fasterskier, FIS Cross Country, and the FIS Tour de Ski Leader board.

Early Results

2011-12-06T12:49:00.001-07:00

Earlier this year, Fast Trax undertook fleet management projects with Matt Saurette and Ember Large, two of our sponsored athletes. Matt and Ember are both Madshus athletes and each of them have a significant fleet of skis. However, the challenges they were encountering were distinct and worth discussing.

Matt became a Madshus athlete in the 2010-2011 season and his ski bag was full of a lot of good materials. Most of his skis came from Reece at Madshus and were skis that had been passed on from other athletes. A few of the pairs came directly from Beckie and were skis that she had raced on prior to her retirement in 2006. The issue was that while his skis were excellent, Matt's fleet was put together with no overall plan and had some significant holes.

After spending some time with Matt in the spring, I determined that there was room for improvement with respect to both warm and cold skate skis, as well as with respect to hardwax classic skis. Matt's best pair of cold skate skis was a 116 mold from 2010 that I had selected from regular inventory. This skis had worked quite well and Matt was very happy with them, however I suspected there was room for improvement. Matt's only other pair of skate skis was an old 166 mold that had never seen much success (see the discussion on Madshus models here - ski service).

With this in mind, I was able to select some new materials in Norway to help Matt round out his fleet. The addition of a 119 universal warm ski and a 118 universal cold ski means that Matt is well positioned for skating. The addition of a nice 102 universal hardwax classic ski means that Matt now has good options for both hardwax and klister (from his existing fleet).

Testing the new 119 skis in Norway.

Matt's new materials.

Ember, on the other hand, is new to Madshus and inherited a large fleet of skis from Kate Brennan who switched to Fischer for this season. In addition, Ember received a few pairs of new skis that were selected by Reece. As a result, Ember's fleet was nicely put together - she just didn't know what she had or when to use specific skis.

I strongly believe that having a well managed fleet of skis is a crucial asset for any aspiring athlete. There needs to be enough choice in the materials to be able to get the appropriate pair of skis on the snow on the appropriate day. However, the "well managed" part is key. A large, unorganized fleet of skis creates unnecessary stress for both the athlete and the technical staff and makes it virtually impossible to find success. Having a choice in skis should reduce stress rather than create stress!

As there is no snow in Edmonton, the assessment of Ember's fleet was done by hand - literally. I reviewed each pair of skis and identified specific characteristics that indicate under which conditions the skis will be useful. I consider the shape of the running surface, tip/tail pressure, flex, and bridge characteristics as part of the equation.

In the end, I was able to produce a nice summary document for Ember that provides the information she needs to make educated decisions. You can take a look at that document here - Ember Large fleet. I also created some stickers that provided a summary of the same information right on the skis:

Useful information, terrible picture quality.

Now, none of this really means anything until the skis get out on the snow. In his early testing in Lake Louise, Matt's new 119 skis were killing his old warm pair - an excellent sign. More interestingly, however, are the results of competition from the first Alberta Cup in Canmore. Matt handily won both the sprint and distance races using his new 118 and 102 skis. Ember finished first and third in the sprint and distance races respectively. Excellent results!

It should be noted that Ulf, Les, Reid, and Dan put in a ton of work testing wax solutions for the weekend and, by all accounts, the ENSC athletes had amazing skis. Those guys deserve big congratulations - Canmore is usually a pretty easy venue for waxing overall, but a pretty hard venue to make yourself stand out from the crowd. Nicely done!

West Yellowstone - skate race and pictures

2011-11-25T19:33:00.001-07:00

Today was the distance skate race here in West Yellowstone. Conditions were consistent with previous days and the forecast snow from yesterday didn't materialize... until partway through the men's race when there was an utter squall for about ten minutes.

We had really good success with skis today and it was one of those races where you really knock it out of the park. The powder of the week continues to be C105, however the real surprises were in topcoats and hand structure. For topcoats, Ski*Go C44 block was the clear winner. This topcoat is never good - except for when it is. And when it is good, it is really good. For hand structure the Finite V05 won the day, beating out the Holmenkol Cross Structure tool (which was actually pretty bad).

The combination of the C44 block (which is notoriously bad in new snow) and the V05 structure (broken V structures typically are also bad in new snow) had us a bit worried for the men's race. However, the skied in part of the track was glazed and transformed enough so that there was no issue.

Tomorrow is the final race, a distance classic event. Temperatures are forecast to be super cold overnight and then warm rapidly in the morning. Things could get tricky...

In the meantime, here are some pictures.

The scene in West Yellowstone. As per usual, there is a lot of snow.

The team from Sun Valley always organizes a catering company to come and cook. The food is really excellent and a nice change from the usual supper fare of Wendy's.

Getting set up to test for the sprint race. The stadium is about 1.5km from the nearest parking and all the gear has to be shuttled in and out each day.

Now we test.

When the sun is out and the weather is nice, this job is pretty amazing.

Getting some sun at the wax trailer.

The West Yellowstone trail head. Pretty famous.

Cherry Coke. Fuel when waxing in America.

Yesterday I had a chance to ski for fun and check out the distance course.

Seriously granular snow. This is the reason that the C44 block was good today.

Checking out the skate race and trying to stay warm.

Now Shane and I burn powder. We are super cool guys.

Finally, if you check out the top left part of the site you will see a part called "FOLLOW BY EMAIL". If you fill this part in you can subscribe to the updates.

West Yellowstone

2011-11-24T17:37:00.001-07:00

I have been in West Yellowstone since Monday working with some of my American friends at the Super Tour opener. There is a ton of snow and the conditions are amazing. I even managed to get out for a great ski both yesterday and today.

Our days have been filled with testing, working on test skis, and making race skis. The weather has been warm (highs well above zero) and the sun has been shining bright. This has made for glazed conditions and hard tracks. In terms of materials, we have been liking the following:

Paraffin - Swix HF8
Powder - Ski*Go C105

Yesterday was the sprint race and tomorrow there is an individual start skate. I skied the course today and it looks to be a lot of fun with rolling sections, some big climbs, and some ridiculously fast downhills.

I don't have any pictures to post just yet, but here is a stolen photo from the Middlebury team. Needless to say the skiing is decent!

Amazing Conditions.

Brushes - powder

2011-11-09T17:47:00.000-07:00

The second instalment in our mini-series on brushes. Tonight we talk about brushing powder. As a best practice, it is a good idea (although not crucial) to have a set of powder brushes and a set of paraffin brushes.

1) Swix Stiff Black Nylon (T0194O) - You only need this brush if you are burning FC7 or FC78. Useful to brush up (but not brush away) the powder before ironing for a second time. Gently scrub back and forth. For all other powders skip to #2.

2) Swix Wild Boar (T0164O) - After lightly scraping, use this brush to clear away the powder. This is easily the best brush for the task and it works quickly and efficiently. Make 5-10 strokes.

3) Swix Fine Blue Nylon (T0160O) - The best finishing brush out there. Scrub back and forth to bring a nice polish to the base.

Brushes - paraffin

2011-11-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

On the weekend I had a request for a post about brushes. We will start with paraffins in this post and review powder brushes next time.

1) Swix medium steel brush (T0179O) - The best all around brush you can own. If you only have one brush, it should be this one. Use in one direction only and requires a break-in period to soften up. Make 5-6 strokes before waxing to clean and open the base.

2) Swix medium steel brush (T0179O) - After ironing and scraping, make 10-12 strokes to remove the majority of the wax.

3) Holmenkol Steel Micro Finish - Ultra fine steel brush to remove any remaining wax and to clean out the structure. Especially important in cold conditions. Use in one direction only. Make 4-5 strokes to remove the remaining wax.

4) Swix Fine Blue Nylon (T0160O) - The best finishing brush out there. Scrub back and forth to bring a nice polish to the base.

Binding Wedges - a literature review

2011-10-14T19:52:00.000-06:00

Disclaimer

Thiswrite-up is intended as a literature review and, as such, does not include anynew or original work. See the list of works cited at the end for sources.

Introduction

Lastwinter, Salomon introduced a binding wedge to the retail market. This productis installed under the skate binding and provides a 5mm lift to the toerelative to the back of the foot. This translates to approximately one degreeof lift. For the 2011-2012 season, Rottefella has released a NIS compatibleversion of this product for retail sale. There has been a lot of confusionwithin both the racer and consumer population as to what this product ispurported to do, what the actual testing results show, and what is recommended interms of whether or not this is a good product. Accordingly, a lot has beenwritten on this topic and we have compiled a review of the current literature.

Advertised Benefits

Accordingto both Salomon and Rottefella, the binding wedge improves ski acceleration andedge control by increasing the efficiency, power, and length of each skatestride (Salomon, Product News). In a February 2010 blog post, Salomonnotes that this is accomplished as the wedge increases ankle flexion, thusallowing for a more powerful beginning of each skate stoke - In other words, byincreasing the angle the ankle, the ski 'squirts' ahead, up the hill (orahead), increasing the 'free-glide' feeling (Salomon, Product News).Neither manufacturer recommends the use of the wedge in any specificconditions. Rather, both binding companies simply indicate an overall netbenefit to the athlete.

Testing Experience

Aswith any technical ski product, it has rapidly become clear that the advertisedbenefits are not nearly so obvious when out on the trails. Mark Waechter ofNordic Ultra Tune notes that for a few sessions the effect is somewhat noticeable,but eventually good skiers will adapt and the wedge may not offer a long termbenefit (Waechter, NIS Xcelerator Wedge). Similarly, Zach Caldwell ofCaldwell Sport notes that after some early testing, his results were notconclusive (Caldwell, Binding Wedges).

Giventhe inconclusive nature of the early testing results, we must look to recentWorld Cup racing as the proving ground for this product. At the 2011 Tour DeSki, Zach was able to test multiple pairs of race skis, on race day, with andwithout wedges (Caldwell, Binding Wedges). In this article, Zachindicates that this was the first time the addition of binding wedges obviouslyresulted in faster skis. Therefore, it is evident that the wedges offer abenefit in certain situations and Zach suggests that we must consider theathlete, the ski, and the conditions in the determination of those situations (Caldwell,Oslo WM Tech Notes).

The Athlete

Unquestionably,the addition of binding wedges changes the geometry of the binding platform.Further, it is clear that some athletes like this change and some do not. Utilizingthe pause button while watching some World Cup footage will quickly reveal thatLukas Bauer does not like the wedge, while Ivan Babikov has it installed invirtually all of his skis. Given the increased ankle flexion generated by thewedge (Salomon, Product News), it appears that skiers with goodflexibility will adapt with relative ease (Caldwell, Oslo WM Tech Notes).On the other hand, athletes who have some stiffness may find their technique disruptedin an undesirable way and their shins getting sore (Caldwell, Oslo WM TechNotes).

The Ski

Byencouraging the athlete to weight the foot a bit further back (Waechter, NISXcelerator Wedge), wedges may reduce the load on the forebody of the ski.For those ski models that carry significant tension in the forebody (FischerCarbonlite Skate, Madshus 118 Hard Pack), wedges may have a noticeable impacton the feel of the ski. This could be especially useful in softer conditions toreduce the ploughing effect these models can sometimes have.

The Conditions

Basedon testing results, Zach has indicated that the wedges generally result in animproved feel in soft, wet snow (Caldwell, Oslo WM Tech Notes). In conversationsI have had with Mark Waechter, it appears that he is of the same opinion. Inaddition, there are indications that the wedges may cause a reduction instability in hard packed conditions. This is logical given the reduced forebodyload noted above.

Thisposition is consistent with the findings of the Fischer racing department.Frequently, the Fischer service staff have not seen a benefit from the wedges,however in soft and wet conditions they have found installing the wedges tomake a significant difference (Caldwell, Oslo WM Tech Notes).

Conversely,Knut Nystad, chief of the Norwegian Ski Federation Service Team, has anentirely different experience. Knut indicates that it seems like binding wedgesmake the ski perform better, particularly in hard conditions (Nystad, Knut’sCorner). This position, however, is not consistent with the generalconsensus as most testing indicates that the harder the snow, and the fasterthe conditions, the less difference the wedges seem to make (Cramer, What’s the deal with binding wedges?)

Conclusion

Thebottom line conclusion is this:

-In soft, warm conditions it is generally accepted that the wedges will improveperformance and will not be a liability. We would recommend installing thewedges on skate skis intended for warm conditions.

-In colder, harder conditions it is not clear that the wedges will improveperformance and they may result in reduced stability. We would approach wedgeson skate skis intended for cold, hard conditions with caution.

However,as Mark points out, given the modest price of the wedges and the minimal impacton ski setup (installation is fast, easy, and non-invasive), this is a productthat anyone could try (Waechter, Weighing in on Wing Wedges).

Works Cited

Caldwell,Zach. "Boulder Nordic Sport - Binding Wedges." Boulder NordicSport Home. 18 Jan. 2011. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. -http://www.bouldernordicsport.com/Home/tabid/164/itemid/254/amid/2000/Default.aspx-.

Caldwell,Zach. "Boulder Nordic Sport - Oslo WM Tech Notes #4." BoulderNordic Sport Home. 15 Mar. 2011. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. -http://www.bouldernordicsport.com/Home/tabid/164/itemid/316/amid/2000/Default.aspx-.

Cramer,Bruce. "What’s the deal with binding wedges?" Editorial. BoulderNordic Sport Catalog - Winter 2011-12 Oct. 2011: 6. Boulder Nordic Sport,Oct. 2011. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. -http://www.bouldernordicsport.com/images/catalog/BNS_1112_web.pdf-.

Nystad,Knut. "Knut's Corner." Editorial. Boulder Nordic Sport Catalog -Winter 2011-12 Oct. 2011: 3. Boulder Nordic Sport, Oct. 2011. Web. 14 Oct.2011. -http://www.bouldernordicsport.com/images/catalog/BNS_1112_web.pdf-.

Salomon."Product News: SNS Wedge." Salomon Nordic News. 18 Feb. 2010.Web. 14 Oct. 2011. -http://salomonnordic.blogspot.com/2010/02/product-news-sns-wedge.html-.

Waechter,Mark. "NIS Xcelerator Wedge - Details and Photos." NordicUltratune Blog. 2 Mar. 2011. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. -http://blog.ultratune.net/2011/03/nis-xcelerator-wedge-details-and-photos.html-.

Waechter, Mark. "Weighing in on Wing Wedges." NordicUltratune Blog. 1 Feb. 2011. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. -http://blog.ultratune.net/2011/02/weighing-in-on-wing-wedges.html-.

Fall Update

2011-10-12T22:23:00.001-06:00

As has become the tradition, fall maintenance on the site is now complete. This year the updates were minor, but there are a few things to note as winter approaches:

1) The "Where's Patrick" schedule information on the left side of the page has been updated for the current season. This year my season features dramatically less domestic racing in favour of two significant European trips in January and February. Check the schedule out... there is some cool stuff there and this winter looks to be filled with amazing opportunities.

2) There is a new page titled, "Skis - what you need to know". You can find this link on the top right hand side of the site. Once you click on the link you can scroll down for detailed descriptions of the materials that Fast Trax carries. It is worth a read.

3) The shop has a new blog. Here you can find training ideas, technique and waxing advice as well as wax clinics out of the shop and technique clinics out of Crossfit Armoury. I'll be authoring content for that site as well, but will make sure to post it in both places.

4) Earlier in the fall, Fasterskier asked me to be part of a podcast with some pretty awesome ski techs. This will be a multi part series and you can check out the first instalment here - podcast.

5) If you typically only get the site updates by email (ie, my family), don't forget to check out the actual site from time to time. There are often content updates here that may not come out via email. Check it out here - http://fasttraxproteam.blogspot.com/

6) For the first time in two seasons, I have my own poles - both skate and classic. Don't ask to buy them, they are not for sale. Pretty excited about this!

That is enough for tonight. You can expect to see some more interesting and meaningful content soon.

Maui - my new best thing

2011-09-04T02:06:00.000-06:00

Paul and I are in Maui. This might just be my new favourite place to visit.

Side note --> a lot of the pictures loaded sideways. Sorry, that's just the way it is. To see them properly, right click on those images and save to your computer. When you open them from there you will be able to rotate.

Also, you can click on any of the images and a larger version will open in a new window with more detail.

Our view is not bad.

Here is what has gone down so far.

Day 1:

We spent most of the first day at Kahekili Beach Park. It is only a five minute walk down the beach from our hotel and it has calm, clear water and is fantastic for snorkeling. Despite the fact that all three of our books list this as the best beach in all of Maui, it seems to mostly be populated by locals. Most of the tourists stick to the big beaches and for most of the morning we had the entire place to ourselves. Decent.


Sunset run.

Day 2:
Today we woke up at 6:30 to head to the north part of the island. The Road to Hana is a crazy highway that is super narrow and twisty. It's also one of the main tourists attractions, but we decided to skip it because it means spending an entire day in the car. Nevertheless, we ended up taking the Hana Highway for a while this morning to end up at our hike.

It was early in the morning and pouring rain when we arrived. That turned out to be a good thing because we ended up having this amazing spot to ourselves.

The trail head: 6/10ths of a mile past mile marker 6 at a small turnout with a wire fence. Kind of like the entrance to the wizarding world in Harry Potter, this would be impossible to spot if you weren't specifically looking for it.

The first part of the trail was through a bamboo forest.

There were four waterfalls on the hike. There was some climbing involved to get to the second one. This climbing later turned out to be insignificant compared to what was to come.

The second waterfall. Sweet.


Right before this is when the sketchy climbing happened. A 12 metre sheer rock face with some dodgey ropes and a rickety old ladder to make it up. Yikes. This is Paul at the top of the second waterfall.

Eventually we got to a point where the trail seemed to disappear. I tried to follow it up. This turned out to not be correct.

The reason my climbing turned out to be incorrect was that to get to the next part of the trail you actually had to get in and swim. So, that's what we did.

Paul swimming.

The swimming is done, so the hard part must be over, right? Wrong. The last obstacle is the third waterfall - which you have to scale. Luckily, we had our Roclite 230s on (which were also good for swimming).

Now Paul climbs.

At the top of the third waterfall, looking back on where we just swam. We came from around that corner.

This is why is was all worthwhile. Amazing.

Now Paul swims.

Here we are!

Graceful.

This place is cool.

Now Paul swims again.

One last look. The fact that we had this whole place to our self makes no sense at all.

Death Race

2011-07-28T17:37:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow the Fast Trax crew heads to Grande Cache for the Death Race - Death Race website. This will be our fifth year entering the race, and with the exception of 2008 (when I got lost on stage 4), we've typically done quite well.

This year's lineup will be as follows:

1. Paul Moore
2. Reid Hosford
3. Tyla Cooper
4. Will Critchley
5. Patrick Moore

Our best times for this race were in 2007 and 2009 - both years we finished the 125km even in 12:12:00. I'm pretty proud of those results, but with our crew this year I think we'll be able to take a run at them.

Unfortunately, there are no live results for the Death Race and the official results typically take weeks to get posted. In the meantime, the best way to follow our progress throughout the day is on the Fast Trax Facebook page - FT on FB. We'll be live blogging throughout the day as the relay and solo events go down.

In addition, Jack (a legend of the Death Race, literally), Marcelo (a legend in his own way), and Claire (a first time soloist) will be tackling the whole event on their own. We'll keep you posted on their progress as well.

Let's get dangerous.

Patrick, Robin, Will, and Paul getting dangerous.

Sinister 7

2011-07-10T21:23:00.000-06:00

This weekend the Fast Trax shop team, consisting of Tyla, me, Will, Paul, Reid, Kristen, and Maryann, headed to Blairemore for the Sinister 7 trail race. This is a 148km trail race comprising seven stages ranging from 12km to 35km. The scenery is beautiful, but the terrain is tough. You can check out more details here - Sinister 7.

We did a pretty good job of live blogging the race to Facebook, but for those of you who don't following the shop (Fast Trax on Facebook), here is what went down. There are a [very] few pictures as well.

The weekend started at Wok Box in Leduc. Whether skiing or running, this is how I like to start my trips.

Saturday, 12:48PM: Tyla had a strong run and powered through Leg 1 to finish in 1:40. Patrick floated up and down the technical Leg 2 to finish in 1:40. Will out on Leg 3 now, we expect him to finish around 1:20PM.

Saturday, 1:52PM: Will utterly slays Leg 3 in ~2:45. Paul has now been out on Leg 4 for about 45 minutes.

Saturday, 4:22PM: Stage 4 over. Paul kills it in 3:13. Team Fast Trax comfortably in fourth overall.

"That bottle of cola was one of the best things I've ever put to my lips. Straight up." Paul Moore

"They say that you feel most alive when you're close to dying. I guess I felt pretty alive for those final few kilometres then." Paul Moore

Saturday, 6:49PM: Reid done Leg 5 in 2:05. Fast Trax now second overall, at least 8 minutes up on third. Kristen out on course.

Saturday, 8:13PM: Kristen through Leg 6 in 1:25. Fast Trax now in fourth overall. Maryann out on course with two teams hot on her heels. This is going to be close.

Saturday, 9:00PM(ish): Fast Trax finishes fourth! Maryann held off hard charging teams for a sweet run!

A fun weekend with an awesome team. You can check out full results here later in the week - results. Also, you can check out my GPS download of Leg 2 here - Patrick Garmin Connect. Click on "Player" in the upper-right of the screen and then click the "Toggle FullScreen" button once it loads. If you check out the hybrid view you can see a map of where I went. Hitting the "play" button will give you real time speed, heart rate, and elevation data. Pretty cool.

Next up is the Death Race on July 30th. The first five members of our Sinister team make up the Fast Trax Death Race squad. As Paul said, "we are going to have a phenomenon of a Death Race team." He is correct - I think we're going to be pretty darn good!

Huge thanks to Jack for arranging the race entry, smokin' team kits, and accommodation! The whole team is ultra proud to represent the shop!

Warning - not skiing related

2011-07-02T21:57:00.000-06:00

This is mostly for Grandma.

Maryann and I made cookies! I accidentally ate a couple out of the batch on the right. They turned out really well!

Quick update

2011-06-20T13:17:00.000-06:00

After tours at both Fischer and Madshus, tomorrow is my last day in Europe. I will spend the night with a friend in Oslo and then fly home to Edmonton.

Here are a few pictures - I will post a few more when I get home.

This is where we live.

The main square in our little town; Ried, Austria

Now we have cappos.

Grillteller - Google it.

Fischer is one of my best things.

Now we ski at Sognefjellet, Norway.

Ski testing. We are always testing, even in June.

Prototypes.

We played in a trivia tournament in Lilihammer. Team BNS did not place well.

In London

2011-06-11T11:23:00.000-06:00

As always international travel is an adventure. The trip started off super well with supper with Maryann at Famoso in Edmonton. Then, my flight was delayed by 50 minutes for some mysterious reason, but that was OK as Maryann and I got to hang out a little longer.

That's when things started to go downhill. As the departure time approached, a massive thunderstorm arrived in Edmonton. Lightening activity meant that all airline operations were stopped - bummer. Eventually we were allowed to board, but by this time it was even later.

Enter the next complication - the electrical storm had fried the plane's computer and a technician had to come get that fixed. Luckily, they didn't figure that out until we had boarded so we got to sit on the plane at the gate for a while sweet.

Finally, we pushed back from the gate and started to taxi to the runway. Enter complication numero deux - a fuel pump was now broken. So, again, we sat on the tarmac for a while and eventually Air Canada decided we should go back to the gate. We didn't get to leave the plane however, we just sat there while the fuel pump was fixed.

Once those two issues got worked out it was 1AM and our flight was 2.5 hours late. The sweet part about that is that it means that I missed my connection in London to head to Munich. That wasn't a big deal though, and I'm on a later flight.

So, for now I'm chilling in a Servisair lounge that has snacks, drinks, wifi, and a private bathroom - decent.

The plan is to sleep in Munich tonight and then meet up with Nathan and Roger tomorrow. That could be interesting as the current level of detail is to meet at the Munich Airport. Paul and I tried that once at the train station and it was interesting to say the least!

Now we go to Europe.

2011-06-10T19:00:00.000-06:00

See you in Austria.

Perspective

2011-04-27T20:00:00.000-06:00

About three weeks ago, I was passed over for a major promotion at work due to the time I have dedicated to pursuing the sport of cross country skiing. While this was not unexpected, it didn't make the announcement any easier to swallow; that was a tough day. My plans for next year with respect to skiing have been weighing heavily on my mind - until today. An email from Madeleine really put things in perspective and caused me to consider the past several years. And you know what? I wouldn't trade the opportunities I've had for anything in the world.

I've been part of some pretty big races - the Olympics, several World Cups, races in Europe. But none of that really matters. What matters is that I've had an opportunity to spend a lot of time with people I now consider to be close family - Madeline, Lorris, Graham, Emily, and Jack. Here are some examples, in now particular order:

The Olympics with Madeleine and Jack. Fact.

If someone asked me what has been the happiest moment of my life, without question it was being there when Madeleine crossed the finish line to qualify for the Olympics. My grin was a mile wide for days!

Team Fast Trax. We are awesome.

Pushing out a very stuck car in Quebec with Graham and Lorris. Graham had to get his pushing pants on.

Lorris and I have spent a lot of time travelling together.

Probably my favourite picture of all.

So what happens now? It's time to up my ski service game to the next level. There are going to be some exciting national team announcements in the next few weeks and I want to be part of it. It's time to get awesome.

And Madeleine - thanks for making me feel better.

Time to get after it.

Fuel

2011-03-21T19:08:00.000-06:00

Admittedly, I am well behind the times on this post as Jack has been writing articles about food as fuel for some time. You can check a couple of those out here (you'll have to scroll a bit) - What am I eating and Proper Nutrition. At any rate, I came across this video a few days ago and found it interesting. It's a bit old school, but I'm kind of into that.

Fundamentally, it appears to be exactly the same thing that Jack has been advocating for some time. In other words, the food that you put in your body makes you what you are. Inferior food leads to an inferior body and inferior performance.

Consider the following ideas:

Breakfast

Fresh fruit
Eggs
Whole wheat toast
Skim milk
Jack might also add an avocado or berries

Lunch

Raw vegetable salad; lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, celery, peppers, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini
Meat or fish or low calorie cottage cheese
Jack would use hemp oil as dressing on the salad

Supper

Raw vegetable salad, as above
Two or more crispy cooked vegetables
Meat or chicken
Fresh fruit and yogurt

Dessert

You wish

2010 Nationals - Canmore

2011-03-20T21:06:00.000-06:00

With the completion of National Championships in Canmore on Saturday, the season is officially over for me. Here are a few images from the week.

Testing for the team sprint. When the weather is nice, there are some serious upsides to this job!

Main street, Canmore - groomed for skate and classic skiing.

On our way to get cappos at Communitea. Hands down the best cappo in Canmore. We ran matching Holbrooks, no big deal.

Now we burn powder wearing the famous toque, hood, mask combo. Some would say infamous...

Sometimes you have to make repairs on the fly. Eric has never claimed to be an electrician.

Now we fuel up. Only high octane for these performance engines.

There were no races on Thursday or Friday, so obviously I drove back to Edmonton on Wednesday night to work the next day. The roads were sketchy.

Brainstorming ideas for a powder test.

Stopping in Red Deer for a break. My car only got dirtier from here. Again, terrible roads.

Overall, I feel like we made some really excellent skis this week. Our performances for the women's sprint on Sunday afternoon and the long distance 50km on the final day really stand out.

We also made some really terrible skis, particularly for the classic sprint. When the tracks are glazed, keep that klister thin.

In terms of wax we ran on Ski*Go paraffins for the entire week - primarily HF green for the morning events and HF orange for the afternoon. For powders, Swix FC710, Vauhti Zerofox, Vauhti Goldfox, and Holmekol Mid all made appearances. Swix K22 klister was consistently the best kickwax, as long as it was applied properly.

Big ups to Jack for killing it in the 50km and to the team of Jack/Will for killing it in the team sprint!

At this point, it is back to real life to get down to the business of accounting. Game on.

The Life Cycle of Skis

2011-03-07T23:02:00.001-07:00

Making fast skis for our athletes on the World Cup is hard work. Luckily, we do good work and lots of it. I thought it would be interesting to provide a glimpse into the life cycle of a pair of World Cup skis.

Picking skis makes me tired.

June - Most race skis are selected directly from the factory in Europe. The race room is a magical place, filled with amazing skis as far as the eye can ski. World cup skis are produced by a different group of workers using special layups and materials. This results in skis with a more lively feel and incredible speed. The skis are selected entirely by hand, which is a slow, expensive process. An incredible amount of time is spent assessing camber action, dampening characteristics, bridge length and position, etc. to find those special pairs (Caldwellsport).


The Fischer race room (Zach Caldwell's photo).

Early fall - Once the skis arrive in North America they are always stone ground to impart a structure particular to the characteristics of that pair. At the same time, older skis may also be ground to flatten the base and remove burned and damaged base material. The best grinders conduct non-stop research and development to stay ahead of the competition and invent new grinds. Immediately following grinding the bases are very soft and delicate. To saturate the bases with wax the skis are placed in a heat box at a low temperature (50C) for 6-12 hours using a very specific paraffin. Next, the skis are scraped and a harder paraffin wax is applied followed by the heat box at 60C for approximately one hour. This treatment will saturate the base and then harden it to a level where it can be race-waxed with high-temperature fluoros and cold waxes. (BNS)

Wintersteiger grinding machines.

Late fall - For classic skis, the wax pocket is fully analyzed and marked. It is important that the technicians know not only how many layers to put on each ski, but where those layers should be positioned (caldwellsport).

Winter - At this point, the skis are ready to rock! Most athletes travel with twenty or so pairs of skis, each of which have been tuned to a specific set of conditions. This means that certain skis will get used a lot, while others might spend most of their life in the bag. When the skis are not in use, they are always covered in travel wax (usually Swix LF6, Star LA6, or Sold Performance Red). On race day, the skis will be prepared with paraffin base layers, paraffin race layers, pure flouro powders, topcoats, and hand structure. Immediately following the race the bases are cleaned with solvent (grip zones) or fluoro cleaner (glide zones) and covered in travel wax. In other words, World Cup skis are always waxed when they are not in use.

Now we wax.

Spring - Once the season is over the technicians help the athletes evaluate their skis and look to identify holes in the fleet. Orders are placed with the ski companies in terms of quantities, and the whole process begins again. All the skis are double checked to ensure that they are clean and wax is applied as necessary for storage over the summer.

As spotted at the Fischer factory in Austria. These will not be slow skis

Early in my career as a wax technician someone told me, "Accepting dorkiness is the first step to embracing dorkiness. Without embracing dorkiness you can't make fast skis." I've been accused of being a pretty big dork from time to time. Maybe, in this context, that's not the worst thing.

Dorkiness = fast skis. Boom.

Canadian Natinonals - Glide Wax

2011-03-05T19:52:00.000-07:00

Canadian Nationals begin on March 12 (my birthday!) with the skate team sprint. I have already received questions about glide waxing for Canmore, so here are a few early tips.

1. Base Layers
No matter what the air temperature is in Canmore, the snow is always aggressive. The snowpack tends to stay cold and it is very important to harden the bases sufficiently. My favourite choices are Swix LF4 or Solda S30.

2. Paraffin
In general, Canmore requires paraffins that are colder than you might initially think. Swix LF4, Solda S30, Ski*Go Violet, and Solda F31 Violet, and Holmenkol Matrix Blue consistently test well.

Additionally, during the 2010 and 2008 World Cups in Canmore, I picked up some recipes for paraffin mixes that are tuned specifically to the Nordic Centre Conditions. While I am not at liberty to reveal the ingredients, these recipes are the real thing and have been used with great success by the Canadian, American, Finn, and Swedish teams. I have prepared a limited batch of these mixes, which are available at Fast Trax. Given the relatively stable forecast (TWN - 14 day outlook) and standard expectations for Nordic Centre snow, mixes 1, 2, and 4 should be particularly interesting.

World Cup mixes.

Please note that you will need to test these mixes, just as you would with any paraffin solution.

4. Powder
There are a variety of powders to consider for Nationals. Good choices to test will likely include Swix FC7, Swix FC78, Swix FC7/FC10 mixed 50/50, Solda HP04, Solda HP05, Holmenkol Cold, Holmenkol Mid, Vauhti Goldfox, Briko 10.1, and Ski*Go C44/7.

5. Topcoats
As always with topcoats, it is best to test on the day of the race. In general, look to relatively cold solutions.

6. Hand Structure
A medium v-structure from any of the tools almost always improves feeling at the Nordic Centre. However, my hands down favourite modification is the Holmenkol Cross tool with one roller removed. These tools are hard to come by, but Fast Trax has ONE left.

Given my affiliation with the Alberta World Cup Academy, I won't be posting any additional details with respect to waxes for Nationals. However, if you have additional questions, don't hesitate to contact Jack at Fast Trax.

See you in Canmore!

Sunday Throwdown

2011-03-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

So this email came out last night:
-----------
Team time trial. 6 to 8km skate swc 10am. Meet swc 930am. Pick course. Ski course. Individual start every 1min. Two loop course. Warm down. Depart 11am. Starbucks 11:30am. Shop 12pm.

Be there. Boom
-----------

Projected temperature at 10AM: -18C (hour by hour chart)

This will be my second race of the year. What the heck... I'm in.

A Tale of Two Birkies

2011-02-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is the rest of the update from the previous post.

Upon arriving home from Sweden, it was back to work for a few days and then straight into Birkie Week here in Edmonton. If you are not familiar with the Birkie legend (and associated Birkie fever) you can check out some additional info here - legend info; fever info.

The Canadian Birkie
Conditions for the Canadian Birkie were ideal with warm air temperatures and rocket fast, glazed tracks. Klister was the order of the day and our solution was as follows:

Base - Swix LF4 (huge ups to Will and Tyla for laying down nearly all of the base work)

Race paraffin - Solda F31 Violet (despite the warm temperatures, this was killing everything else as a result of the ultra transformed snow)

Powder - Swix FC78

Top Coat - Ski*Go C44 solid (hand corked)

Structure - Holmenkol cross tool (both drums in)

Kickwax binder - Guru green klister, ultra thin

Kickwax - Guru Extreme klister / Rode Fast Violet klister, mixed 50/50

Ultimately, if Fast Trax didn't make your race skis, they weren't as fast as they could have been. I have quantifiable evidence that this is the case. Fact.

The American Birkie

Earlier this week I headed to Hayward, WI to do ski service at the American Birkie. Guys, I hate to say it, but their version of the race destroys ours. Smoother organization, a killer expo that the ski companies actually attend, live coverage of the race as it unfolds on the radio, and ten times (literally) as many participants.

Conditions for this Birkie were very different than the Canadian edition. Temperatures were in the -20 range with a fine layer of new snow.

Base - Ski*Go LF graphite

Race paraffin - Holemnkol Matrix Black/Blue

Powder - Holmenkol mid/mid 02, mixed 70/30

Top Coat - Ski*Go C105 solid (hand corked)

Kickwax binder - Guru green klister, ultra thin

Once again, I'm confident that the skis were ridiculous. Actually, based on the number of beers people bought as at the after party, I'd say there is no possible way they weren't fantastic. Overall, a great trip.

One of the coolest things about the American Birkie is the fact that it finishes on the main street of Hayward. Yup, they groom right into town - so cool. Also, the crowds are out of control and line the entire street (both sides) four people deep. Such huge support for the Birkie here.

Our accommodations for the weekend - not a military hostel!

Nope, not a military hostel at all.

Wrap-up
Finally you are all up to speed as to what has gone on. From here I head back on the road with the AWCA to take in the Sharkfest Alberta Cups (Canmore), Canadian Nationals (Canmore), and the US Super Tour finals (Sun Valley, ID).

Patrick, Madeleine, and Jack - Team Fast Trax at the Olympics. This is what all the work is for.

The Rest of Sweden and two Birkies

2011-02-27T19:30:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened since we left off. At that point, I had just arrived in Sweden after having powered through some travel difficulties. Let's pick it up there...

The Rest of Sweden
All of the best parts of the Sweden trip happened after my last post. The race service was a lot of fun and we had some excellent results.

By the time we started driving to Sundsvall, I had been up for a long time and was pretty tired. I guess sleep came pretty quickly in the car.

Robin Bryntesson and Fredrik Bystrom skied fast in the team sprint (see below).

The arrival in Sweden was a whirlwind. After finally getting my bag, Erik and I drove for two hours to Sundsvall where the races were held (that was Tuesday, I think). The next day was the team sprint and being that we hadn't done any testing or set up the wax cabin, we were on site early. Luckily, the race was in the afternoon so we had time to get organized, test, and make race skis. That was a really great night as our two athletes, Robin Bryntesson and Fredrik Bystrom, won the race. As a prize, they brought us princess cake, which is a typical Swedish dessert. We didn't have knives, so we cut it with a scraper. This cake is amazing - you should Google it and be impressed.

Because of his excellent results, and some time of odd bet, Robin's teammates made him race in a wig. Apparently last year Britta had to race with her wind briefs outside of her race suit. Awesome.

This picture is from the women's pursuit race on the following day (click to zoom in). These are the leaders of the race with Anna Haag (202), Charlotte Kalla (201), and Britta Norgren-Johansson (204) - all Swedish Olympians in 2010. This was not a soft field. Britta was one of my athletes for the week and she went on to be named to the Swedish World Championships team and is racing in Oslo this week.

We stayed in this sort of odd military hostel for the week. It's been a while since I've slept in a dorm room, especially at a race! However, we were the only ones in the place and the kitchen facilities were excellent (see later picture).

This is where we slept.

We didn't go hungry. This was lunch.

Despite my caption above, everyone was worried that I was going hungry. This is my third helping of eggs and potatoes and the crew wouldn't have it any other way. Ski racing is terrible for my shape.

The cool thing about being at Swedish nationals is that the whole event is exactly like a World Cup. All of the same athletes are there and the manufacturers all have a massive presence.

2011-2012 Salomon skate skis as spotted outside the Salomon wax cabin. Very cool

This is where we worked for the week. Just enough space for three technicians and four athletes.

We tested some wax from time to time. Actually, we tested a lot of wax, all of the time. Here is the download from my heart rate monitor - Garmin Connect. Click on the "player" link on the top-right and you will see what I mean.

Swix test powders. Most of the powders we tested are not available for retail purchase.

Fluro products.

Jack's Pack - AT work (in Sweden).

The weekend races were broadcast live on national television.

There were TV cables all over the place. For an interesting read on the logistics of broadcasting a ski race, check out this article - 19 Miles of Cable.

People didn't just watch the races on TV. I couldn't believe the size of the crowds lining the trails. Admission to get into the races was about $15 CAD per day.

The crowd streaming towards the stadium.

Sweden has a massive truck that travels to the races to support the national team. Super cool.

This is what the inside of the truck looks like. It wasn't clear to me that taking a photo was allowed, so this is a promotional shot from Craft.

Fast Trax in Sweden. No big deal.

And again...

Race service is hard work. You do get to wear these sweet pants, though.

The final night in Sundsvall. The prospect of more princess cake (and a shower) woke me right up. Boom.

Nearly done packing the wax cabin at the end. Sweet trip.

There were no travel mishaps on the way home. Also, the Stockholm airport has hardwood floors - fact.

Trans Atlantic flights with Air Canada now feature mood lighting that changes colour. The purple version is illustrated here to mediocre effect.

The flight home. See that empty seat beside me? It stayed that way the entire time. Optimal for best sleeping.

Are you still with me? This turned out to be a big post, so I decided to move the Birkie discussion into the next instalment. You should check it out.

Made it to Sweden - just barely

2011-02-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

It's been about 25 hours since I left my house and I finally just made it to Ostersund, more or less on schedule.

Here is a bit of what happened so far:

My test fleet with bindings finally mounted and stickers applied. Looking forward to getting these on the snow.

The temperature in Edmonton this morning. It is currently +1C in Ostersund.

The morning started off really well. After an easy trip to the airport, I checked in with tons of time. Air Canada was able to check my bags all the way through to Ostersund, despite this requiring two baggage tags.

My ride to Calgary. Loud, but pretty fast.

I put my compression socks on in Calgary. This was the first time I've travelled with them, and I'd say they worked really well. Marcelo is not crazy,

My ride to Frankfurt. I love flying Lufthansa.

So... things were going well, right up until I got on the plane in Calgary. There was a kid in my seat who wanted to trade for his spot in the middle of the big centre row. I had a window seat, which I prefer for sleeping. Obviously, I was having none of his plan and evicted him promptly. Boom.

The flight to Frankfurt was smooth and I had tons of time to make my connection to Stockholm. Sadly, however, this is where things really went wrong. I sat down at my gate and started to read. Eventally, everyone stood up to get on the plane, so I did too. Unfortunatley, I noticed that the sign read "Oslo" and not Stockholm - disaster. Upon checking my boarding pass, I was to be at gate A38 for my flight. I had been sitting at A40 the next one over.

I raced to the counter but it was too late. Apparently, they had called my name and everything, but between my tired state, the reading, and the accents, I just didn't notice.

After a little bit of sorting out issues (and catching a train to another terminal), I spent 75 tense minutes with the Air Canada people while they attempted to switch my flight. It was complicated as I had a connection to make in Stockholm that left little room for error.

Once the lady got everything sorted out, I had to sprint to securtiy, get whisked to the front of the line, and then sprint to the gate.

Due to the tight timeline in Stockholm, the process basically repeated. I sprinted through security and was the last one on the plane.

The bottom line is that I am here, but my bags definitely are not. It sounds like they should show up tonight, so fingers crossed!

Tomorrow is a team sprint (classic) so that should lead to some good adventures. Not sure what my internet situation will be going forward, but I'll try to keep everyone up to date.

(sorry about the terrible spelling in this post - I had to do this in a huge hurry and the Swedish spell check is not helpful)

Athabasca Loppet

2011-01-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

What's that, you say? A post about a loppet here? That's right my friends - tomorrow I am donning a bib (if there actually are bibs) and toeing the line at the Athabasca Loppet.

It's been a long time since I actually raced, at least since March 2009. That day ended in a Simple Jack performance with a lot of heartache and woe, but all in all was a fun time and made for good stories. You can refresh yourself on the details here - heart rate graph - and here - more details.

Ski selection for these events is critical, which is why, with absolutely zero testing, I settled on my pair with a CFC2 grind.

Hilariously, ski servicemen are somewhat renowned for entering races while having poor shape. There is even a championship race at the World Cup - relay video. I'd recommend checking this out.

I'll be sure to post an update tomorrow after the race. This is going to get worse before it gets better.

Birkie Fever?

2011-01-16T11:46:00.000-07:00

With about a month to go until the Birkie it seems appropriate to dust off a few old gems from FakeFasterSkier and Johnny Klister.

It has been stated that, "the Birkie is what happens when you decide to do a lot of something really poorly." (Hopefully they remember to open the gate this year...)

Excerpts from the 1973 AD diary of the patron (and spiritual guide) of the Birkie - Saint Masterblastus:

1. "He who raceth the first kilometeric length in the most aggressive fashion shall be the victor."

2. "If though stompith thy neighbors pole into bits and pieces, eternal glory is assured."

3. "Should your waxations prove ineffective, 'tis always best to blameth their failings first, for surely it is their fault."

4. Toko kick wax has been fast exactly never.

I really wish FakeFasterSkier would start posting again.

Edmonton Alberta Cups - it's going to be cold

2011-01-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend Edmonton Nordic will be hosting Alberta Cups 3 and 4. Here are a few thoughts on the race:

Weather

In general, the situation is not looking good. The high for Saturday is somewhere between -20C and -25C and the high for Sunday is somewhere between -18C and -30C. The bottom line is that it will be cold. You can check the Edmonton forecast from my two favourite weather sites here: The Weather Network, yr.no.

Rules

Often there is some confusion about what the official rules are with respect to cold weather. Let me enlighten you, as per the rule book:

Rule 303.2.2

With air temperatures below -20°C (temperature measured at the coldest point of the course and without wind factor) and competition distances less than or equal to 15 km, the Jury must postpone or cancel the competition. With competition distances greater than 15 km and temperature less than -18°C without wind factor, the Jury must postpone or cancel the competition.

Based on that, things are not looking so good...

Glide Wax

Just in case the TD decides to keep the race thermometer under their arm, it's a good idea to start thinking about your race skis.

The bottom line is that you need to get the bases hard - really, really hard. I would suggest the following treatment:

Base wax: apply Swix LF4, iron, cool, scrape and repeat - in other words, two layers.

Race wax: apply Solda S30, iron, cool, scrape, brush - if you have a fine steel brush, now is the time to pull that out. The more wax you can remove from your skis the better!

Top coats: you might consider testing Solda PJ3 the morning of the race, but that's probably about it.

Structure: for the classic race consider lightly applying a fine linear structure to the tails only. For the skate race consider lightly applying a fine V structure. Both should be pressed only very lightly.

Kick Wax

It is unlikely that getting kick is going to be a problem. Focus on finding waxes that maximize free glide. You should consider Swix VR30, Guru green, Star Blue, Magnar 1, and other similar waxes in your test.

Good luck this weekend! It's going to be a cold one!

Cold.

Thunder Bay - a success

2011-01-10T18:10:00.000-07:00

The team is home from Thunder Bay now and the trip was a resounding success. We are sending a total of nine people to World Junior and U23 Championships. See the full list here - CCC Team Announcement.

The trip home from the airport was perhaps the most epic part of this adventure, but more on that to follow.

Heidi killing it in the pursuit race. She punched her ticket to World Juniors.

Adding top coats to the skis. Even at -19C some top coats were making things better. Do you have Solda products in your box? You should.

The junior men's pursuit race was utter carnage. A massive crash 200m into the race resulted in four pairs of broken skis, including this one belonging to Bob. He proceeded to race back to the wax cabin, grab a warm-up ski, hang on through the classic portion, and then throw down the fastest skate time on the day. Gutsy performance.

A poster we found in Thunder Bay. I don't even know what to say about this. Read the DJ names who were playing at this gig.

Our furnace eventually stopped working. At many venues, this would have been a disaster. However, because we were at Lappe this was promptly rectified and an oil heater provided in the meantime!

Working.

Gord Jewett - 2010 Olympian and new recruit to the AWCA service squad. He survived, but he's very tired. Really excellent to have Gord along.

Further evidence that Thunder Bay is not good for my shape.

We had Thai food one night. Chris struggled with the spiciness a bit.

Flying home. I've read this issue quite a few times. Also, anyone who says that West Jet is better than Air Canada simply hasn't spent much time on airplanes.

Standard view.

The pickup lane at YEG. Apparently I live in the Tundra.

There is a lot of snow in Edmonton.

The next three weeks will be spent to Edmonton and then it is straight back into racing. I head to Sweden at the end of the month before jetting back just in time for the Canadian Birkie.

Game on!

Thunder Bay - the reason why winter is my fat season

2011-01-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

I've been in Thunder Bay for a little more than a day now. Here is what you need to know so far:

The domestic Air Canada terminal in the Toronto Airport. I seem to have spent a lot of time here over the years, including one memorable half-day with Lorris. The smell of Lush in this terminal is overwhelming.

The Hoito - apparently an institution in Thunder Bay. This city is filled with Finns and they like to hang out here. Going here for breakfast today reminded me of being in Europe - not much English spoken inside this place.

When you eat at the Hoito you get Finnish pancakes, either alone, with eggs, or with eggs and sausage. I opted for eggs. The sheer size of this breakfast is hard to convey and is a perfect example of why skiing makes me fat.

The outside of the restaurant. There was a bouncer, seriously! Upon entering you descend into a different world that reminds me of what Ikea must have been like in the '60s.

Our waxing cabin at Lappe. Very comfortable, except that the furnace constantly stops. Overall, a great place to work.

Getting set up this morning.

Now we have lunch. Yes, that would be round two of pancakes on the day, this time served up at the Lappe cafeteria. Some argue that these are even better than the Hoito. We did not go hungry.

Things getting serious.

Our hotel: The Prince Arthur. The 2.5/5 average customer rating on Google seems about right. This place was built in 1911 as a CNR hotel and to be honest I don't think much has changed. Hands down the darkest hotel room I've ever occupied.

Anyway, you're probably wondering how it can be just 10PM and yet we're already home. It turns out that the venue is 35 minutes from town, which is pretty inconvenient in terms of team meetings and supper. We decided that everything was in a good place for morning and headed home a little while ago. Boom.

As for wax today let me just say this - multiple layers of cold wax is what makes skis fast when the weather is cold. That and certain powders, which we applied.

Results will be on zone4.ca tomorrow. Lately the results have been posted live, and with many laps tomorrow there will be lots of action to follow.

Thunder Bay

2011-01-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

The holiday break is officially over and it is time to get back at it. Tomorrow I head to the office for one day and on Tuesday we fly to Thunder Bay. The races are on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday with a lot on the line; these are the selection races for the World Junior and U23 team, as well as the distance team for Senior World Championships. This is the big time.

The races will be held at the Lappe Nordic Ski Centre and you can check out a webcam here - webcam. I've heard nothing but great things about this venue and there is even a sauna (not that we will have time to use it...)!

Sauna

In other news, it's going to be cold in Thunder Bay, like really cold. Stay on top of the forecast here - the Weather Network. As Paul once said, that forecast is colder than Old Man Winter's crotch.

Old Man Winter?

That's all for now. We'll catch up from Thunder Bay.

Rossland - wrap up

2010-12-19T17:31:00.000-07:00

I am currently sitting in the YXC airport (aka Cranbrook) waiting for my flight to Calgary and then on to Edmonton. The last couple of days have been a whirlwind with an awesome skate race and then the pursuit start classic race today.

One of the other wax team members was kind enough to drive me to Cranbrook and due to uncertainty with the weather, we actually left before today's race was even finished.

Here are some highlights from the past couple of days:

The inside of our wax tent for the skate distance race.

My office for the week was on the far left. It is nice when there are indoor waxing facilities, but these tents were a good compromise and trapped the sun well.

The ski depot - skate race. Nice and sunny, great weather again!

Two of our crates of equipment. These are what followed us up to the race site each day, however there are a lot more of these back at the hotel. It takes a lot of equipment to service twenty athletes.

At work.

Looking out the window of our kitchen. Some of the nice accommodations we've enjoyed.

Getting ready to harden bases for today's classic race.

Ready to make the powder application. As an interesting side note, I just came through security at YXC. Having that mask in my carry-on luggage caused me to be the subject of one of the most intensive airport searches I have ever had the pleasure of enduring.

The same ski depot from the picture above. Snowy today though, but still warm.

The women's field getting organized for the pursuit start.

Fuel for wax techs. It got pretty ugly last night - to bed at 1:00AM and up not many hours later.

Overall, it's been an awesome trips but I'm excited to get home and see everyone.

FT peeps.


Head FT peep.

We're on a boat.

My flight is about to board at any moment, but I'd like to address an issue that I noticed on Facebook. There appears to be some suggestion that I can't grow a beard:

Proof of beard growing abilities. Boom.

That's all for now from BC. Check zone4.ca for the final mini-tour results.

Rossland - stage 1

2010-12-17T23:50:00.000-07:00

Today was the first stage of the Rossland mini-tour. We had a great day with many strong results. Just like at the Tour de France, the results of this set of races are decided by the cumulative time for all three days, with certain time bonuses for different placings.

Tomorrow is the skate race - 5km for the ladies and 10km for the men. With such a short race the intensity will be high.

Looking backwards on the sprint course into the stadium. We've been incredibly lucky with weather so far this year!

Rossland - part deux

2010-12-16T00:32:00.000-07:00

Today was our first full day here in Rossland. The athletes did an intensity session on classic skis and we tested grip and glide solutions.

The morning started out by frantically making a few more klister skis for athletes who forgot to put their gear on the wall last night. For those who don't know, the heel of your hand + your thumb is the best tool for spreading klister. This is what happens after a few dozen pairs.

The venue at Rossland. Beautiful day for testing skis. The forecast is looking slightly colder for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (race days), but not too bad.

Dan, our awesome ski tester and an Olympian. He has 1,000 x 30 seconds dialed - the quintessential ski testing workout.


Our afternoon project was getting skate skis ready for athletes to test tomorrow. That pile is several layers deep.

Chris and me in the wax room. We've spent more than a few hours in similar rooms over the past few weeks.

Powder test - not actually from this race, but I don't want to give away all of our secrets.

Tomorrow we'll be at the venue early to finish dialling in our paraffin, powder, and structure calls. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are all race days, so updates may not be forthcoming until I am home next week. Stay tuned to zone4.ca for results.

Rossland - Nous sommes arrivés.

2010-12-15T00:14:00.000-07:00

After a lot of loading up vans and a bit of driving, we are in Rossland. Here is the rundown.

We stopped for lunch at a little town called Greenwood. Super cool coffee shop, sunshine, and +7C made for good times.

As we got higher into the mountains things got snowy...

... and by snowy, I mean kind of sketchy.

Our accommodations in Rossland. Very decent.

Living room and dining room.

Now we eat supper. Again, very decent.

Test skis - powder, classic, paraffin, structure.

After supper we made twenty pairs of klister skis for the athletes to train on tomorrow. My plan is to check out the course, investigate snow, and have some fun.

Now we sleep.

Decent Day at the Office

2010-12-13T13:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a week of hard work, but this morning we got to sleep in a bit and go for a ski. Conditions were amazing - the sun was out (first time this week) and it was about -1. The trails were immaculate and it was awesome to just ski for fun!

This is what we woke up to see out our kitchen window - amazing view.

Skiing, just for fun - no testing this morning. Conditions were amazing. Ironically, I was skiing on test skis as I didn't bring any of my own boards.

We skied up to the summit of Silver Star Mountain where we found the highest chairlift. The trails were totally deserted on the way up.

Once at the top, there was some question as to how we should get down. We settled on skiing down the alpine runs. Total time to the top - about 1hr. Total time to the bottom - about 10 minutes.

That building on the left is where we've been staying this week. Those trails on the right are where we skied. Decent!

Apres ski lunch on the patio at Bugaboos in the village. I know that normally I don't like eating outside, but today it was warm (but not hot), no wind, and no bugs (because it is winter, obviously). Amazing lunch on the mountain.

Now we have dessert. Apple strudel.

The athletes are just starting to get back from their training for the day and soon we will start getting things organized to pack up. We still need to put our test skis away and clean up all of our equipment. You could liken our team's travel to when the Canadian forces enter or leave a theatre - just loading and unloading the gear is a major operation on its own.

As a side note, don't forget that you can check out the website (http://fasttraxproteam.blogspot.com) to see everything else that is there.

More to follow tomorrow when we get to Rossland.

Peace out.

Silver Star

2010-12-12T14:46:00.001-07:00

Today we wrapped up the last race in Silver Star. After arriving on Wednesday, it's been a busy week. Here are a few pictures of the goings on. Note - the pictures are from my phone so they are a little ghetto.

This is what it looks like when we unload the ski bags for twenty athletes and a bunch of service staff. We travel with a LOT of skis.


I love finding Fast Trax ski ties in random ski bags. Fast Trax is everywhere.

Getting ready to test. The stadium up here is super nice - West Yellowstone, you should take note.

It is snowy here.

Homemade powder mix. This looks like Holmenkol cold, but that is just a container. Mixing your own wax is the new cool.

The "Performance Team" at work. Race skis to the max.


Sometimes in snows in Silver Star. Usually it snows a lot. This is what we drove through to get to the venue this morning.

Main street Silver Star. This place is like the inside of a snow globe.

On the technical front, we tested a lot of wax over the past few days and liked the following things:

Paraffins: Swix LF6 (always low liability and will never hurt you, may not win the test but never far out)

Powders: Vauhit Goldfox, Homemade mix

Top Coats: Swix FC7WS, Holmenkol Cold block

Grip: Swix VR 40 (binder), Magnar 2.5 (main), Magnar 3.5 (cushion), Star Blue (cover)

Tonight I'll head into Vernon to have supper with the Williams. Tomorrow is a training day for the athletes and on Tuesday we drive to Rossland for the next set of races. Next week is a mini-tour (where there are results for both individual races and also cumulative results, like the Tour de Ski), so that will be a new experience.

Now we shower. I haven't had time to do that since Friday evening.

As promised

2010-12-04T18:34:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day at the office. The team swept the medals in open men, had four in the top six in open women (including second and third), and our four juniors took first and third for men and first and second for women. Great day - full results.

On the skis front, speed was better in the afternoon for the heats. The service team did a great job completing a methodical test and settled on an awesome combination. We won't give away all the secrets, but Mike tweeted a big part of it:

Part of the recipe.

Tomorrow is a short classic race - 9km for everyone. The loop is tough, but not crazy hard. The key for that course is having classic skis that get consistent grip as the climbs are significant.

We are done eerily early tonight - Dieter and Peter finished up the base on the classic skis while we were testing so all that remains is to finalize topcoats, structure, and kick wax. We'll take care of that bright and early tomorrow morning.

Check Zone4 later for tomorrow's start list.

Canmore - testing day update

2010-12-03T20:11:00.001-07:00

Here is the lowdown as to what we did today:

1. Tested five paraffins for feel. Eliminated the worst two and retested.

2. Tested five powders for feel. Eliminated the worst three and retested.

3. Tested the powders included in #2 in the speed trap. Highly conclusive results validated feel test.

4. Tested the paraffins included in #1 in the speed trap. Highly conclusive results validated feel test.

5. Tested hand structure for feel.

6. Now we have lunch.

7. Made a call on paraffins. One of them was ludicrously fast.

8. Repeated powder and structure tests in the afternoon. As expected hand structure was far more useful in the afternoon.

9. Conducted initial top coat tests.

10. Applied paraffins to race skis and made test skis for tomorrow.

11. Tidy up work area.

12. Now we have supper.

Tomorrow is a skate sprint. Stay tuned to Zone 4 for results. Qualification starts at 9:15 for men and 9:29 for the women. Heats should happen sometime around 4:15 (crazy late). You can check out the startlist here - startlist.

Quick Canmore Update

2010-12-02T23:43:00.000-07:00

Tonight I made the regular trek to Canmore to meet up with the team for this weekend's Alberta Cups. This drive seems to be getting shorter every time!

Chris and I met up at his house and headed up to the wax room to make test skis for tomorrow. He already had our three test fleets waxed, scraped, and brushed so it was a simple matter of settling on the powder test to make. We put together five great options and made the test skis. Holmenkol, Ski*Go, Toko, Vauhti, and Solda are in the mix.

Tomorrow morning I will coordinate the wax testing and assist the athletes with race ski selection. We have a skate sprint on Saturday that is qualifying for Canada Games, so things are serious.


The ski depot at a Canmore World Cup. With all our athletes and test skis, it's going to look something like this tomorrow.

Do this NOW

2010-11-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

You should all help out my friend, Marcelo Lafuente!

1. Go to Salomon Nordic on Facebook and like their page.

2. Scroll down and find his comment it should involve Fast Trax Run & Ski Shop.

3. Like his comment.

This will win him a pair of skis, the race is ridiculously close.

A prize to the first person to do this....

Small print --> there isn't actually a prize.

West Yellowstone - A Better Update

2010-11-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

After a ridiculous day of travel (see update here - By the Numbers) on Monday, I finally made it to Bozeman. As I had missed my ride due to the debacles with flights, I arranged a shuttle into West Yellowstone. That actually worked out quite well as the roads were terrible. Highways were shut down everywhere, and in fact the race originally scheduled for Wednesday had to be moved to Thursday; partially because it was brutally cold, but mostly because the timing crew and equipment got stranded in Idaho (see article on Faster Skier - article). Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself...

Monday night in West Yellowstone consisted of getting the Boulder Nordic Sport trailer organized and ready to work. For those of you who remember the xc.com trailer, this is very similar. Unfortunately, moving the trailer to the front of the hotel, where it would sit for the week, meant that we immediately got stuck. There was a lot of snow.

Tuesday we were up early and out testing skis. With temperatures hovering around -23C and howling winds, it wasn't looking promising for the race. Nevertheless, we braved the cold and went out to test some wax (Tuesday results). Given the wind and falling snow, using the speed trap was out of the question and we resorted to testing by feel. Ski*Go was running well and Chris and I decided to go with a base of Swix LF4 covered by Ski*Go C380 on the race skis. In the end it wasn't relevant and the race got moved to Thursday. Boom.

Wednesday was more of the same - cold temperatures and blowing snow. We ran some more tests and C380 continued to run well (Wednesday results). We continued with the same setup and spent the evening working up race skis for Drew.

Thursday was race day and Drew stomped the field. This race was basically just a points grab to help the US sprint field improve their FIS rankings. It's an odd event, but the organizers held two sprint qualifiers (classic then skate) back to back with no heats. Weird. We were on old school Ski*Go -2 - -15 kick wax and Holmenkol Cold powder.

Friday was the skate race - generally a good day but room for improvement. Moving on...

Saturday was probably the most interesting race day of all. The field was super tight with the leaders changing throughout the race. Drew had some tough luck breaking a pole and probably would have challenged for the win otherwise. Nish and Graham Kilick were right in the mix too. Really great.

Is there more to report on the weekend? Probably, but I'm getting hungry and the all day breakfast upstairs at BZN is calling. Here are some pictures, stolen from Drew, to give you an idea of just how much snow there was.

Jeffries, Butler and Nish check out one of the many snowed in team vehicles.

A Yellowstone Parks building - mad snow.

Downtown West Yellowstone looking more like the Antarctic than Montana.

West Yellowstone - non-update

2010-11-26T23:30:00.000-07:00

It has been brought to my attention that my frequency of updates from West Yellowstone has been poor at best. In my defence, it's been really busy and the internet connection is like something out of the early '90s. The good news is that I'll have the pleasure of spending five hours at the Bozeman airport on Sunday. Look for something good to come out then.

In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures of us making race skis for tomorrow's classic race.

By the Numbers

2010-11-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that this is not what I envisioned for the first update of the season. Nevertheless, here is a summary of today, but the numbers:

3:30 - the time my alarm went off this morning

-16 - the temperature in Edmonton

1,000 - the number of questions asked by the friendly US customs agent

3 - the number of times we had to "reboot" the plane to try and clear a warning light.

110 - the number of minutes we sat on the tarmac in Edmonton

450 - the estimated weight in pounds of the lady across the aisle from me. Seriously, this was legendary.

27 - the number of times the guy in front of me loudly announced he could call AMA to boost the plane while we waited.

2.5 - the number of hours my flight to Denver was late

30 - the number of minutes for which we sat on the tarmac in Denver waiting for a gate

30 - the number of seconds by which I missed my Bozeman connection

70 - the number of dollars it cost me to book a shuttle from Bozeman to West Yellowstone due to having missed my ride

0 - the amount of compensation in dollars offered by United to pay for my lunch

So, in summary, it's been a bit of a rough one so far. More to follow...

Paraffin

2010-11-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

Since it's come up a number of times at the shop lately, I thought I'd put together a short list of some of my favourite glide waxes. I've also included notes from discussions that Zach and Nathan and I have had on the topic. Note, the waxes aren't listed in any particular order - I think that all of these are excellent.

Base Layers

1. Ski*Go LF graphite - If you want your skis to be fast, the bases need to be hard and the wax needs to be durable. This product is one of the easiest ways to make that happen.

2. Solda S30 - Go out right now and buy ten containers of S30. It sells out every year and I promise you will use it up. Amazing in new snow, old snow, cold, warm - always worth testing as a base layer.

Cold Paraffins

1. Swix LF4 - One of the two best glide waxes from Swix. Always a safe bet when it's cold.

2. Holmenkol Matrix Green - Zach and Nathan's runaway favourite among cold paraffins last year. Consistently killed everything in testing. Runs quite a bit warmer than might be expected

Medium Paraffins

1. Swix LF6 - The other excellent glide wax from Swix. Low liability - if LF6 doesn't win the test it is never far out. Runs a lot warmer than you'd think.

2. Solda F31 Violet - The temperature range on the box says -4C to -14C. In reality, the range is probably even wider. Any time the temperature is below zero but not squeaky cold, F31 violet is worth testing.

3. Holmenkol Matrix Blue - Picks up where Matrix Green leaves off. Similar temperature range, but for higher humidity.

4. Ski*Go Violet - This was called Ultima under the old Ski*Go naming convention. Wicked fast in aggressive or man made snow. Mix it with Ski*Go yellow (242 under the old naming convention) in greasy snow.

Warm Paraffins
In these conditions, the paraffins usually make less of a difference.

1. Solda F40 Yellow - Amazing when it is super wet.

2. Holmenkol Matrix Yellow/Black - when the crystals are course or the snow is dirty, get this in a test.

3. Swix HF8 - Runs warmer than most other reds. Good stuff.

4. Holmenkol Matrix Red - Runs colder than HF8, more universal. Really nice.

Other Stuff

1. Ski*Go Green - Sometimes crazy fast, sometimes not. Too inconsistent to use without testing.

2. Swix HF6 - Inconsistent. LF6 is a much safer choice and rarely far out.

3. Swix HF7 - Seems to prefer newer snow, but don't use it if you can't test it.

Fleet Evaluation

2010-11-12T21:29:00.000-07:00

I spent the past two days in Canmore working with Kate Brennan on her fleet of skis. Kate is a Madshus sponsored athlete and has amassed an impressively large ski bag over the past few seasons. However, having a large fleet brings inherent challenges and Kate has experienced frustrations in deciding as to which skis to test and ultimately race on for a particular day. Come along for the ride and see what we determined...

One more thing before we get started - as many of you know, I am terrible when it comes to taking pictures. I brought my camera with me to Canmore this weekend with the best of intentions and proceeded to take precisely no photographs. However, using the magic of the internet I have pieced together a few photos of what this process looked like.

Let us begin (for real this time)...

The first step in the process was to spend some time with Kate discussing her fleet. We focused on the general feeling of the skis, when certain pairs worked or didn't work, what she like about her favourites, etc. It is important to understand what the athlete thinks about their skis and what they like. They might not be correct, but it is still important to know :)

(Patrick and Lorris discussing preferences in skis)

Next, each pair of skis was scraped and evaluated. All the skis were first measured by hand to check overall quality and a number of other characteristics. The classic skis were also put up on the flex tester and the pockets marked.

(This isn't actually the flex tester in question, but you get the idea - photo Nordic UltraTune)

With all the information now in hand, I began to make notes on each pair of skis. Thoughts on when to pull them out of the bag, skis to test in conjunction with, etc. Ultimately, a couple of pairs were removed from the fleet either because they were just plain bad or duplicates of other skis. All of this information was summarized on a sheet and Kate and I met again to discuss my findings.

(This is Zach and Noah discussing skis in West Yellowstone last year. Kate and I looked exactly like this, only I am taller than Zach and Kate is different than Noah. - photo Nathan Schultz)

At this point, things took a turn for the worst. Everything we have done so far is purely academic - speculation based on the best information we have available. While we can do a pretty good job at this, ultimately the results of our discussions will need to be corroborated using on snow testing. However, given that Canmore's Frozen Thunder is nothing more than a 1km loop covered in tons of people, on snow testing wasn't really possible this weekend.

(Had there been an opportunity for on snow testing, it would have looked like this. - photo Zach Caldwell)

By now you are probably asking yourself what is the point of this whole process. There are a few mains goals. Obviously, the first goal is to ensure that the athlete's ski bag is complete and that there are satisfactory skis for a variety of conditions. Perhaps more importantly, however, we are attempting to provide the athlete with some information to reduce race day stress. Kate's situation is not uncommon and frequently athletes are unsure as to what they should do with their skis. It is the job of the technical staff to work with the athletes to provide clarity and ensure that they have confidence in their equipment.

Next week I head to West Yellowstone for the opening races of the season. West Yellowstone looks like this:

(West Yellowstone, 2009 - photo Erik Nilsson)

While I'm in West Yellowstone I will pick up my fleet of test skis, as well and Reid's and Paul's new skis. They look like this:

(Yes, those are our actual skis. Only six pairs are mine and the rest are Reid's and Paul's. - photo Erik Nilsson)

Not a bad update for a guy who didn't take a single picture!

---
http://fasttraxproteam.blogspot.com

Site Changes Complete

2010-11-07T20:25:00.003-07:00

It’s been a long time coming, but with the race season just two weeks away there have been some nice changes to the website. Of note, there is some new and added functionality, including the following:

A search field to find that valuable nugget buried in a previous post
Link on the left sidebar to send me a message
Link on the left sidebar to subscribe to updates (if you received this email then you are already subscribed)
Updated schedule of winter trips
Links to both Facebook and Twitter profiles
Slide show of pictures near the bottom of the page

Now that the technical house is in order we can move on to the business of authoring actual content.

Updates coming

2010-10-31T23:00:00.001-06:00

Hi everyone...

Nothing much has happened on here in a very long time.

Stay tuned for some changes to the site and updates to come in the very near future.

Patrick

Trials Month

2010-01-05T15:36:00.002-07:00

I'm in the Quebec airport right now waiting for my delayed flight. I guess this is the reality of air travel in Canada. In other news, the Quebec airport is more or less brand new and is phenomenal. Other airports should take note: free wireless internet, high backed chairs in the waiting area, power for laptops integrated in the the chairs, food options on the secure side of the departure area. Boom.

It's been an intense but awesome month. It looks like the academy has qualified nine athletes for international trips including the Olympics. U23 and World Junior championships, and the OPA tour. Considering that our team includes twenty athletes that seems like success.

There have for sure been a few highlights so far:

- Gord's win in the skate at Sovereign Lakes, so close right up to the end

- Madeleine's win in the classic race in Canmore, honestly the best day of my life to date. That is not a joke.

- Heidi's utter domination of the junior sprints in Quebec

- Emily's final heat where everything finally just clicked and her skis were "so much faster".

- Marlis' decisive victory in the 10km classic to stamp her ticket to worlds

There have also been lots of success stories from a technical point of view. Overall, we've made really great skis and on a few days really stood out from the crowd. Out of all the races I'd say we only missed the mark once so far (skate sprint at Sovereign). The testing has generally gone smoothly and we've executed the plan.

There has for sure been some learning along the way and areas for improvement:

- Ski selection is huge. For sure the most important factor in overall speed. That has become more apparent to me than ever in the context of a large team.

- Hand structure is huge as well. Probably the most important factor that we can change after ski selection.

- Camber height and and closing weight are two different things. In other words it is quite possible that a 0.5mm ski could be softer than a 0.3mm ski. Something to keep in mind when selecting race skis.

Congratulations to all the Academy athletes. It's been a pleasure so far and I'm excited for more.

Force fate. Game on.

Testing

2010-01-01T19:43:00.003-07:00

Total athletes: 19
Tomorrow's race: Pursuit
Total skis tested this morning: 97 pairs
Average per athlete: 5.1 pairs

Here is what that looks like laid out on the snow:

The Code

2009-12-31T15:56:00.002-07:00

"Accepting dorkiness is the first step to embracing dorkiness. Without embracing dorkiness you can't make fast skis" Z. Caldwell, 2010

In other news, and in case you missed the grin on my face that was several kilometres wide, Madeleine is going to the Olympics and that is pretty cool. You should read her update here - Madeleine's update.

Today we had a great day of testing at Valcartier with some really conclusive results.

I'm heading out tonight with Julie, Catherine, and Paul here in Quebec. It'll have to be pretty chill as tomorrow is another big day of testing and ski prep.

Things are looking good.

Olympic Trials - Sprint - Boom

2009-12-19T22:10:00.003-07:00

That's what I'm talking about!

PS - I realize the quality is kind of bad, but you get the idea. Final results are here - results.

Silverstar - wrap-up report

2009-12-13T18:59:00.002-07:00

Good news: I'm sitting in the Kelowna airport enjoying the observation tower. In a sweet turn of events the temperature as dropped to -173°C across the Canadian west. As a result, my flight back to Edmonton has been delayed by two hours or so. Pretty standard for a Canadian race trip.

The flight to Kelowna was uneventful and arrived on time. Christian picked me up and after negotiating some intense traffic we made it to Silverstar (see 2008 post for pictures of this place - it is amazing - Silverstar). We got right to work that night and made a powder test on the Fischer test fleet. This consisted of ten varieties of powders from Solda, Swix, Holmenkol, and Vauhti. The snow was cold and new and we quickly began to see some patterns in our testing.

From there we moved on to paraffins - a quick test of five options revealed a clear winner and we made the call. The real differentiating factor in making skis in on the powders and topcoats, so no need to waste too much time on paraffins.

End of day one. Boom.

Nope... that was a false alarm. Making fast skis is all about hard work so when we got home we had some supper and moved on to the night shift. Thursday night was all about setting up the test skis (11 pairs) for Friday to maximize our efficiency. At this point we narrowed our focus to a few powders and focused on topcoats (too many to count) and hand structure. As it turned out the hand structure was not making a difference.

Ok... real end of day one. Boom.

Day Two - repeat day one but with refined variables. We also did a second session of testing in the afternoon as the changes in temperature offered another window from 4:00 - 6:00.

Friday night was all about setting up race skis for Saturday. We were feeling confident in our plan and the team executed it perfectly.

End of day two.

Day three - As someone once told me, "eat a double helping of Wheaties because you'll be dragging ass by now and we're just getting started." Race day. Game on.

We were at the race site early to focus on testing topcoats to make a final call. Sweet, but not very interesting. What was interesting is that Gord Jewett qualified for the Olympics in one of the most gutsy performances I have seen in a long time. It was amazing to be out on the race course and listen to the splits come in over the radio as things unfolded. Truly inspiring.

Madeleine also had a wicked race to finish as the second Canadian. This leaves her in a very good position going into Canmore and the Olympic dream is very much alive. I'm feeling very confident as to how things will unfold.

End of day three.

Today was our last day and consisted of a skate sprint. Conditions were classic Sovereign Lakes for sprint races - ridiculously cold, windy, and snowy. I don't think there has ever been a sprint here that didn't fit that bill.

It was a mixed bag in terms of team results with some athletes not starting the race and others using it as a training event.

Next week we are off to Canmore for the final bout of Olympic trials. It is going to be an exciting weekend.

End of day four - nope. False alarm. The end of day four will depend on West Jet. Stay tuned here (WS422) - flight time and click here for a live map - flight map.

More this week...

Update - Canmore

2009-12-04T22:22:00.005-07:00

Tired after a long week and a crazy night of packing. L-R: Zach, Miller, Patrick, Nathan, Swede

Swede - offset technique

This was after the sprint race, which was entirely in the shade. It was cold in the trees and we were happy to get back in the sun.

Making race skis. 15 minutes to start.

Patrick - one skate.

More one skate.

I am awesome. Boom.

Testing isn't all about wax. The skis are the most important.

Making a powder test. Regretfully, my mask was back at the hotel. Self-boom.

The contents of the infamous satchel.

Kickwax.

All set up and ready to rock.

Upon arrival.

I am in Canmore now at the Alberta Cup event. The Academy is using this as a tune up race to get ready for the trials races over the next couple of weeks. It's cold here - really cold. Tomorrow's race will go ahead but Sunday is not looking good.

Here are some pictures from West. Some of them you have seen already and all are courtesy of the Swede.

Also, the pictures went up in a random order and above the text. Sorry - it's too late to fix it.

West Yellowstone - updated number one

2009-11-24T00:17:00.002-07:00

Day 1: Wake up at 4:50AM, travel all day, work until 11PM. Check.
Day 2: Test skis like a madman, work until 12:50PM. Check.
Day 3: Repeat day 2.

Too tired to provide a better update for now. Nathan Schultz has crafted some details here - BNS update.

Only thing that's on my mind...

2009-11-20T17:02:00.003-07:00

... is who's gonna run this town tonight.

Hints:

- We are.
- This town = West Yellowstone
- Tonight = this week

It begins - 2009 Edition

2009-11-19T23:22:00.006-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen...

Welcome to the 2009 cross-country ski season. In reality, the 2009 season began in May or so, but this is a good time to catch up.

First, a few housekeeping things to take care of:

1. I've updated the "Where's Patrick" section on the right hand side of the page. So, if you're a family member wondering where I'm at or when I'll be in Vermilion, etc., that is a good way to check.

2. Things are going to be a little bit different on this blog for the upcoming year - In the past I've been very open about our testing results as well as race updates. For this year you will notice that the posts will still include lots of testing results (just not in as much detail) but will focus more on the races themselves.

The reason for this is simple - over the past couple of years we have been working hard to develop advantages in the preparation of fast skis. This is something that we've actually done a pretty good job of and people are starting to take notice. Given that this is a qualification year for the Olympics, world junior championships, and U23 world championships we're just not in quite the same sharing mood.

Additionally, I have had several opportunities to work with Zach Caldwell of Boulder Nordic Sport and the USST as well as Mike Mappin of the Alberta World Cup Academy. In fact, I've been absorbed into the AWCA along with the Fast Trax Pro Team. Both of these guys are respected members of the service community and it's only fair that I protect their intellectual capital.

Anyway, enough about that...

This weekend I am off to West Yellowstone to work with Boulder Nordic Sport for eight full days. This is going to be a fantastic learning opportunity and I can't wait. There is a good picture on the BNS website that shows what I'm in for - picture. A little while ago Zach sent me an email outlining my agenda as follows:

Day 1
Locate good spot for speed trap, set up for testing.
Zero test new Madshus wax testing fleet.
Run grind test on old Madshus "APU" fleet.
Rewax the wax fleet with Paraffins after consultation.
Run wax test.

Day 2
More or less the same thing with interchangeable fleets and test
variables.

Day 3
Eat a double-helping of Wheaties because you'll be dragging ass and
we're only just getting started!
Repeat day 2.

Day 4
Etc.

It really doesn't get much better than that.

At this point it is way past my bedtime and I have an audit committee meeting first thing in the morning (we've got auditing dialed). More updates to follow. Stay tuned.

PS --> Did I mention that I got some new skis? Pretty sweet :)

Oh baby...

2009-10-22T00:05:00.002-06:00

Six pairs, hand picked direct from Austria. At least I can concentrate at work again now.

Boom - part 2

2009-08-27T22:40:00.002-06:00

Tonight's workout - by the numbers:

Number of intervals - 15
Total amount of intensity - 10 min (it felt like a lot more)
Number of consecutive intervals with max heart rate greater than 190 bpm - 8
Last time my heart rate was above 190 bpm - May 31, 2008
Last time my heart rate was elevated to any meaningful sort of level - August 1, 2009 (not proud of that one)
Number of slices of post-workout birthday cake consumed - 1.5
Number of marathon club members at the run - 23

It was a great run tonight. Wicked weather, awesome crew. Perfect.

Boom

2009-08-27T19:36:00.000-06:00

Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Late summer

2009-08-07T20:37:00.001-06:00

Driving to canmore, alone with my thoughts. Trading emails with zach. Pearl jam tomorrow.

Life is very good.

Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

An Open Letter to Cyclists (and runners)

2009-07-20T19:31:00.002-06:00

Dear Cyclists:

You smell bad. Cycling and running shorts are uniquely positioned among clothing in their ability to take on an unpleasant odour within 37 seconds of being on your person. The implication of this is that if you get lazy and decide to two-jack your shorts and wear them out for a second workout, an article of clothing that normally does not smell good actually becomes toxic and requires a WHMIS label.

This is an easy rule to remember: it does not matter how long you wore your shorts for the first time (three minutes or three hours - it does not matter), they need to be washed before you wear them again. This is not negotiable.

Further, bicycles are uniquely positioned in their ability to travel over pavement at incredibly high speeds in near silence. The implication of this is that if you are approaching someone from behind and your bike is well tuned (your bike is well tuned, right?) they cannot hear you coming.

This is also an easy rule to remember: get a bell, sing a song, just do something to let people in front of you know that you are coming well in advance.

PS --> runners, the above rules apply equally to you. Wash your shorts and let cyclists know when you are passing.

That feels better. Thank you for your attention.