January 08, 2016 – Sophie Caldwell – YES!!!- Beautiful effort, it looked so measured, like you were totally in control, but only you know. The way you slid from location to location and then just pushed like hell to the end. SUPREMO!!!!!

I thought you were done after that on the TdS as you were talking about being tired and that was the plan, or did I read that wrong. The sprint might of been a surprise – that’s why we go to the starting line – you never know what is going to happen.

TdS Schedule For The Future – There needs to be more balance in the overall schedule for sprinting – a 50/50 schedule between sprinting and distance races. Keeps the fields larger, spreads the money around among more racers and brings a new level of focus and attention for the spectators and most importantly for the racers. I would have thought the FIS Athletes Commission would have long ago brought this forward. Fields are really slimming down as Men we at 100 for the 1st race of TdS but down to 60 after Obertsdorf and Women had 71 for the 1st race down to 41 with three races to go. Survival of the fittest is what it looks like – not racing.

Johaug – Impressive is what I call it. In watching the 15km race in Lenzerheide, the standout feature of her race and she got a ton of coverage, was her double poling. Every double poling motion had the heels up every time! Height of heel lift dependent on resistance or speed – every time – never failed. Most, if not all other racers did this only at higher speeds. Again, she did it every time she double poled.

Johaug/Oestberg-5km Lenzerheide – They skied this race together all 5 km – the separation in the beginning – 4 sec. – the spread at the end was 9 sec. – so there was a lot of together skiing. Johaug became clear as the tempo lady while Oestberg displayed herself as the glider. XC skiing technique – both of them – is about the summation of forces towards creating the best GLIDE. Glide won the race this time.

Downhills and Falling – Wrote about this last time. Here is more, as it keeps coming up, which means people are talking about it. BAD!!! You are just re-enforcing it – opening the door wider to your fear of falling – and there were some many doozies yesterday in Obertsdorf.

When I was in college, I was a having a bad year with way too many falls. Before every carnival I would warm up with my best friend – he was at Dartmouth and I went to UNH – and I told him as we were skiing along before the Middlebury race that I was falling a lot and did he have any advice. He said that he and his coach, Al Merrill, had just had this discussion. The message was – you had to make a contract with yourself – that you would do everything in your power NOT TO FALL!!!

Low and behold the contract was made and I never fell again that year – there  were some episodes, that I am glad we did not have TV coverage, that were amazing saves – but I stood up. It’s all mental – stop talking about the negatives and accentuate the positives.

The main downhill in yesterday’s ladies race looked substantially longer and more technical then any in the men’s race…but that could have been the TV camera angles.

Valjas – saw the Lenny of a couple years ago, hang around the back of the pack and near the end of the heat, just work his way forward and qualify to advance, COOL. He had to race the long races – this is a must at the TdS – but it will take that to get his racing form.

Talk to You Next Time!