November 26, 2008 (Ostersund, Sweden) – I left Idre last Thursday and made the three-hour drive to Ostersund, Sweden. Ostersund will host the first World Cup races this year, and our team will be making our final preparations here. Although Ostersund is lacking much natural snow, the organizers have done a phenomenal job preparing the tracks with man-made snow and snow saved over from last winter. 

Upon arriving in Ostersund last Friday, I had the opportunity to do a VO2 max and lactate profile testing at the University here. This is one of the best sports science labs in the world and they test many of the world’s best Nordic athletes. This was my sixth time testing in Ostersund so it was great to compare Friday’s test with my previous five. I was very pleased to post both my best numbers and longest time to exhaustion. This definitely gives me a really good confidence boost heading into the season but I realize that no medals are handed out for good lab tests… It’s all about performing on race day.

Only one week to the start of the Word Cup! Here’s is a link from an interview I did after testing. My interview is the only part in English but I thought it might be interesting to get a quick view of the testing process and to see some of the venue.