St. Olaf Nordic Team

By late Sunday, it was clear that last weekend's Supertour was instrumental in preparing our team for the races we tackled this weekend. Everyone improved upon their results and races this weekend, whether at the Scholastica Invite or at Theodore Wirth. Not only that, but never before have we had such a smooth travel/race weekend. Attitudes were positive, we were organized, on time, motivated, and ready to go. Everyone had goals and strategies to work on.  To quote Coach Tom :  " I think this was and is a major key to success in racing: Ski with focus and a goal or plan in mind. It doesn't necessarily have to involve results--it's often better if you focus on something that you and you alone can control. It can involve technique, pacing, tactics, sections of the race course to emphasize, elements of your fitness to draw upon, a mental attitude to maintain, anything."  All-in-all, it was a fantastic weekend that boosted everyone's confidence in themselv...

I'm writing from the lovely Pine View Motel in Virginia, Minnesota, as the StOLAF team gets ready for their second race of the weekend at the Scholastica Invite. Everyone fights through sickness and training at some point in their lives, and sometimes you just need a little motivation to be patient. Hopefully this blog post acts as a tool for getting through the hard days. Being diagnosed with mononucleosis the week before the racing season started was absolutely devastating.  No one plans on getting sick, especially with something that will take you out of the season we train literally hundreds of hours a year for.  Any elite athlete can tell you that when you do everything right; sacrifice social plans on weekends for getting to bed on time (college students, you know how hard this can be), wake up for early morning strength workouts, balance a healthy diet, and manage your schedule so you have time for 3 hours of practice every day, things that get in your way become ext...

Hello! Sorry for being behind on posting, race season is now in full swing. Last weekend we hit up Theodore Wirth for the Supertour/CCSA races in the Tour de Twin Cities. It was a rough weekend for the Oles, but it was a good first big race weekend to start and the first 15/20k mass start for a lot of the team. The weather was frigid and the course was a difficult one, so the whole weekend was a learning experience for everyone. We came out of the weekend excited for the next one. Results: 5k/10k Skate 15k/20k Classic Today we split the team, with the travel team heading to Giant's Ridge for the St. Scholastica Invitational (CCSA) and the D-team heading back to Theodore Wirth for the last stages of the Tour de Twin Cities. Varsity : After last weekend, today was a good chance to get our feet underneath us. We feel more comfortable at the races, know where we belong in the results, and we were confident, organized, and excited to race on fantastic trails. Everyone had a st...

While Tom, Nora, and Elise were out at Soldier Hollow for Senior Nationals, the rest of the team hit up Battle Creek and Theodore Wirth for some citizen races. Thankfully, Coach Zach Hudson, Mark Skildum, and helper Ian Gunsolus were able to assist in waxing and coaching for the weekend. The team raced strong. For many of the freshmen, this was the first time they had raced 25k in one weekend! We pulled off some strong results, with both Liam John and Evan Kendall finishing in the top 10 in their age group men's pursuit, and Emma Lee finishing 2nd for the F19-29 women and 5th overall. We had an insanely large number of people racing- 18 on Saturday! Pretty sure this beats any attendance record St. Olaf has ever had. It was a good weekend. (Pictures and results below). Next up is an alumni race this weekend, and then back to Battle Creek for the first college races. RESULTS Men's 10K Classic Women's 10K Classic Men's 15K Skate  Women's 15K Skate Overall Men...

I started writing this in the Phoenix airport, of all places, on the way back from US Nationals at Soldier Hollow in Utah. It's a strange feeling to have skied in 11 degree weather on perfect corduroy not 6 hours ago, and now look out the window to see dusty red mountains and transplanted palm trees. Definitely made us wish we could find a way to transplant St. Olaf out to Midway and not have to leave the frosty mornings and perfect skiing among SoHo's twisted scrub oak and sagebrush.  Nora and I (Tom) left MSP on Sunday the 30th and spent a couple days getting comfortable with the conditions at SoHo. Elise flew in from Wyoming on New Year's Day, just in time for the first race, a classic sprint on Wednesday.  Nora, in short, absolutely crushed it in the sprint. She qualified in 55th overall, good enough for a 9 seed in the junior heats. She used a monster double pole and some very smart tactical racing to ski her way through her quarter and semi into the A final along...

Hello! First off, sorry about the absence of posts. Finals hit us all hard toward the end of December, and then it was off to the land of homemade food, family, and our own beds at home. But not before a few of the freshman got some racing in at the Wausau JNQ sprints!  Results HERE.  They battled rain and warm temperatures, but still managed to pull of some good races. Nora starting off  Nora  Evan in the quarterfinals Meanwhile, the rest of the team had our annual Elf Party hosted by Nels. We watched the movie, exchanged Secret Santa gifts, and bonded over delicious spaghetti... with candy. Yum. Nels and his spaghetti Sophie, Ruth, Amelia, Amy, Rachel Allie, Julia, Kristen, Paige Alumni! Anders, Zach, and Gus  Freshmen ladies: Julia, Allie, Amelia, Ruth  Christian, Kai, Nate, Anders Andy, Nels, Robert In other wonderful news, St. Olaf now has real grooming with a real snowmobile and a real groomer with real track ...