March 11, 2014 – These Are For NENSA – In the marathon series some things for you guys to talk about come this spring when you have your meetings to make plans for next year. A couple of issues are out there and I’m going to give my opinion as a racer as to how I think these should be resolved.

The easy one first – 10-year age brackets need to be adjusted to 5-year age brackets. Sorry, I know this doubles the number of prizes the organizers have to buy, but this is the standard for masters skiing and I am paying the same entry fee. The 10-year bracket takes the older skiers right out of the results and I think it is a deterrent to keeping older racers in the sport.

Once NENSA adopts 5-year brackets as their standard, I think all NENSA-sanctioned loppets and marathons should be required to follow those standards.

The 2nd item is the changing of skis – NENSA allows it under their rules/standards but here again we have some races dictating that this is not allowed. Every racer has a lot invested in these races – entry fee, travel, food, equipment/wax, accommodations and most importantly training hours over long periods of time – quite an investment. Then the race gets underway and my skis are really out of it with no kick and no glide…so I have to suffer through the whole race on bad skis? Also, conditions could change – at this point I think the option to change skis should be allowed. The TDs who oversee the race should be directed to make sure the rules are carried out or change the rule.

Lahti World Cups – surprised at the sparse crowds at the Sunday WC races and the Euro Sport announcers alluded to this fact.

Big Games Waxing – there has been a lot of commenting on the waxing of skis this year – especially with all the weird conditions that took place, with Sochi being a real test. The everyday WC racer is carrying at least 15 pairs of classic and 15 pairs of skate skis with a constant endeavor to always be replacing or upgrading the fleet. I am assuming some things here and there are some things I know.

I assume that each skier has a ski log so that they can keep track of all the pertinent info accumulated on these skis i.e. conditions etc. Written details would provide records of which skis fit which conditions, making it a lot easier and more accurate than trying to recall what skis worked three days ago. Also these records will keep you a breast of any structure changes that may be made to skis.

The relationship between the skier and the technician or technicians in making the ski selection for any particular race day relies heavily on the exchange and knowledge about the skis being selected for testing and waxing. It’s a very intricate process.

Skis are first off selected for a skiers weight for starters – and then everything multiplies as you are now considering flexes and cambers, the base materials, structure in the base materials, wax pocket identification and the glide and kick waxes. Hopefully, all of this comes together to put each and every skier on the best pair of skis for the day.

Here is a breakdown in numbers of how a ski performs – base material, grind (structure) and waxes provide 5-7% of the speed while 93-95% of the speed factor is the ski. I’m sure this will cause debate but these numbers are in the ball park.

Another factor is the technician to athlete ratio for the waxing, prep and selection of the skis i.e. one techie to three skiers, two skiers or one skier, how many skis can you deal with, are all are factors.

Oh, one thing I forgot that is also in the formula – skis can be reground or they can have a new and different grind and thus have a new personality the next day and be ready to race on.

There’s a lot is going on here! The last person on the skis before they go to the start is the racer and I think it is important that they understand that when they get in the start gate with a pair of skis it means they have given the thumbs up and that these skis are ready to go. This is a team effort so don’t throw your techies under the bus – remember WE chose the skis.

End of the Year Decisions – Is it time to start to guess what KIkkan Randall will do? Is her career over or will it go on? Is 2018 in the cards? I say YES! Here is her schedule for the next 4 years:

– 2015 – FIS World Championships – Falun, Sweden
– 2016 – No skiing – the baby bell is ringing – Anchorage, Alaska
– 2017 – FIS World Championships – Lahti, Finland
– 2018 – Olympic Winter Games – PyeongChang, Korea

One of the things she has to be careful of is what happened to the Nordic Combined group as they tried to bridge from Vancouver 2010 to Sochi 2014 as they held it together pretty well until the last year. If she does go for the next four years she might want to touch base with Bill Demong or Todd Lodwick and see how they lost it.

I think those years she is skiing 2015-2017 and 2018 she has to keep the pedal at full throttle doing each year completely – no hedging any competitions, doing all of the camps, etc. Watch out for compromises.