June 14, 2009 – Here a couple of news items from NENSA, the New England Nordic Ski Association, including an announcement about NENSA VO2/LT Testing Day #1 hosted by UNH. Also, check out this great opportunity for a special offer for hand-picked skis through Roger Knight and BNS. Read on for more details.

UNH hosts NENSA VO2/LT Testing Day #1
The first testing day will take place June 26th. Lactate and VO2 Max Testing will be conducted by Dain and UNH staff at the University of NH campus. The second testing day will take place August 3rd.

Testing spots are limited. NENSA Elite and Development team members have first priority. Any remaining spots will be filled on a first come first served basis. Cost will be $160 for NENSA members; $190 for non- members.Price includes LT strips, masks, and training zone interpretation. This is significantly reduced from the standard testing costs! Athletes are encouraged to test both in June (for baseline) and again in August to use data as validation of effective training.

Dain LaRoche skied for the University of New Hampshire from ’92-’96 and raced biathlon at the national level after that. He has a master’s and Ph.D in exercise physiology from the University of Utah. Dain was a Biathlon development coach and physiologist with the U.S. Biathlon national team for five years and is currently working at UNH.

Registration: Online registration is available here for June testing and here for August testing. Contact Janice Sibilia at janice@nensa.net with any questions.

Special Offer for Hand-Picked Skis through Roger Knight and BNS
Deadline to place orders is June 16th!

Roger Knight, Peak Performance Sports is working with Boulder Nordic Sport to offer this opportunity to the public. These are all hand selected and give you the absolute best way to dial in your specific condition and flex request. New for this year you can also choose to have the skis ground and heat boxed before you receive them! Link to the Request form here. For help or if you have questions, please call or email Roger Knight at 207-780-8200; roger@mypeakmultisport.com

These skis will all be delivered in the late summer or early fall. Here is more info:

Race Stock Skis available from Rossignol, the Official Ski of NENSA, and Atomic

Zach Caldwell and Nathan Schultz start a busy trip on June 16 to Austria and Norway to visit the factories and hand-select skis from Atomic, Madshus and Fischer. This trip is always one of the highlights of the year as we get to meet with the World Cup Race Department from each brand, learn what is new and what is in development, and then dig in and pick skis from the enormous selection that is only available at the Factory.

This is the best opportunity to get the perfect ski hand-selected for you, so call or email us now so we can get you on our pick list before we leave June 16!

One of the most informative parts of the trip is sitting down with the race guys and ski engineers without the pressure of a World Cup going on. We review what they have seen in the past year at the races, what they are developing in terms of new equipment and how this year’s ski production has changed.

Armed with this knowledge we can pick skis specifically for our clients and our inventory from the vast stock that is only available at the Factories. This access allows us to find exactly the flex and characteristics we are looking for, while evaluating the new production in context of thousands of pairs of skis, instead of hundreds when we pick from warehouses in the US. The huge quantities of skis available not only gives us unlimited options in flex ranges, but also allows us to be much more discerning in terms of overall ski quality.

Additionally, we are very excited to have worked out access to race stock skis from Atomic and Rossignol this year. These skis are tweaked for the highest level of performance, and often have unique characteristics that make them hard to find in normal production.