Placid Prologue

We have had a week of unbelievable and uncharacteristically weather here in the Adirondacks. The weather here in October is typically rainy and cold, yet this week we have been fortunate enough to experience only sunshine and warm mid-day temps. Unfortunately I think our luck has come to an end. A NorEaster is heading up the coast and is scheduled to hit the area tonight and all day tomorrow. I'm not complaining, it will make tomorrow's classic sprint that much more exciting.

Today was a prologue. For those that don't know, prologues are becoming very popular on the international scene. Therefore, we are practicing them more and more so that we can get better at them. It is a very difficult distance to ski. It is not long enough to conserve your energy and not short enough to go all out. Regardless, it is a race that is in my "Not-So-Favorite" book. Here are some pictures from the day





Alsao here is a link to the pictures to yesterday's bounding by clicking here.

What a second........ this is starting to look like a real ski blog

Well as my partner in crime is off in the land of the Miracle Team training his tail off, I went to visit the GF's parents in Hot-Lanta. Though the trip there was a touch stressfull the entire weekend was amazing. The weather could not have been any better, infact I am convinced that October is the only month to go visit Georgia. The water is still plenty warm, by Colorado standards that is, it gets cool enough over night to keep the snakes down....... Yeah that's right I said SNAKES!!! So I crossed a couple of things of my bucket list that I didn't even know I had on my bucket list. During a couple hundred pulls out of the water and plenty of Lake Tobesofkee water up the nose, I was able to get the illusive slalom ski start, mastered (well kind of) the AirChair see picture bellow. And all in all had a very relaxing weekend in the sun and water. But now it is back to business.

There was a hard frost this moorning with temps almost getting low enough to make snow in the Gold Peak venue. So Close but it looks like early next week things get colder and the fan guns will probably start to spin. Here's for hoping I can ski my new Fischer Skis prior to leaving for Norway.

Bounding Intervals = Not a walk in the park

Just finished up some bounding intervals this morning with the US Ski Team crew. Another tough workout (6 x 6min at VO max) up Whiteface Mountain. Again such a great crew and general crew to surround yourself with if you want to get fast. Here are some pictures from the day:

Morgan Arritola (US Ski Team)


The Sylvan and Tim Show (Part 1)


The Sylvan and Tim Show (Part 2)


I guess it won't let me upload any more pictures.

NY livin'

Sylvan and honorary Team Homegrown member, Tim Reynolds, here just resting on the McClelland's couch. Quite a day here in Placid and it was only the first of five more days of intensity. We were up early this morning climbing Shaeffer Rd. near Keene Valley. We had about 30 rollerskiers heading up the road. Needless to say, the absurdity of the 6 x 4min VO Max intervals accompanied with mass amount of skiers well. The intervals were tough, but not impossible. There were alctually only 6 of us that ended up doing all 6 intervals. Below are pictures of the day.

The men's group (I am in garnet colored shorts and no shirt...too hot!)


After our last hill climb. Tim, Pat, and I crushing it to the top.


Any questions...leave some comments.

USST Camp - Lake Placid Edition

Hey from New York-

My time out here has been great so far. Dan and I flew out on Wednesday and while the weather was not so pleasant when we got here, it has made a change for the best since we have been in Keene Valley. We have had glorious blue sky days with temperatures being in the 50s and 60s.

We have been training in Lake Placid for the last two days now and things have been great. Yesterday we did the Climb to the Castle which is a skate rollerski to the top of Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid. It is 5 miles long and goes up about 2000 vertical feet. In short, it hurts, a lot. And not only does it hurt your muscles, it hurts your sweat glands, your fingers, toes, ears, nose, and lips. Everything hurts. And as if it wasn't hard enough to ski up an average 8% incline, the last 2 kilometers is headwind which they calculated at about 50 MPH. Enough to make a 6'1" man like myself stop mid-stride and go, " maybe it would be faster to walk." Regardless, my race was great compared to the last time I did it. I felt much stronger and fit. If it hadn't been for a lapse of about a minute where I thought my left leg was going to detach from my body, I would have finished with the likes of Billy Demong (Olympic gold medalist), Garrot Kuzzy, (former US Ski Team member), Tim Reynolds (just some guy), and Mike Sinnott.

I am attaching an article from Fasterskier.com about the race because I want people to see how fired up people get about this race. If you look at the comments at the bottom there are excuses and after accusations. It's mostly about rollerski speed going up to the castle. Every year, no matter what, people always say that someone did a better or worse job because of the speed of their rollerskis. I just find it entertaining because of how riled up people get. If you look close you'll see my comment. I like to true and loosen the tension with sarcasm.

We will have photos up soon and will let everyone know about the remainder of the camp. I miss all of you. Dearly.

Sylvan

Help a Brotha' Out

First, I wanted to put this video up because I freeking love it. Second, I'm trying to figure out how to embed videos. Lets see if this works.

Kjell Ellefson Self Edit 09-10 from Kjell Ellefson on Vimeo.

This is brother Kjell Ellefson by the way. Free heeling, its how the Ellefsons roll.

Catching Pavement Swells

I just found out the term "frube" is used to describe a person who is surfing and doesn't catch a wave the whole day. Tonight, there were no "frubes" on our trip down valley. A couple of us took an hour trip from Eagle Vail to Edwards on the Street Swell boards. Look for a video in a couple days. We are heading out to venture in the Gore Range tomorrow. Love.