Kristina Smigun(-Vaehi) is back
 

After taking a couple of years off to get married and have a child,
it's nice to see Smigun is back and nearing the top. In her first
race two weeks ago at Kuusamo, she finished in the mid 20s and today
3rd at Davos in the 10k skate, beating Marit Bjoergen by three seconds
and losing second to Charlotte Kalla by a few tenths. To my mind,
Smigun has always been one of the more sensible skiers out there,
taking breaks during the season on Egyptian beaches and spending
recovery time on Florida ones. She had one unfortunate break several
years ago, as I recall: she was set up to train in the off season with
Bente Skaari, only to have the plug pulled when Skaari decided to
retire.

Gene

Kristina Smigun(-Vaehi) is back
 

On Dec 12, 9:57*pm, wrote:

After taking a couple of years off to get married and have a child,
it's nice to see Smigun is back and nearing the top. *In her first
race two weeks ago at Kuusamo, she finished in the mid 20s and today
3rd at Davos in the 10k skate, beating Marit Bjoergen by three seconds
and losing second to Charlotte Kalla by a few tenths. *To my mind,
Smigun has always been one of the more sensible skiers out there,
taking breaks during the season on Egyptian beaches and spending
recovery time on Florida ones. She had one unfortunate break several
years ago, as I recall: she was set up to train in the off season with
Bente Skari, only to have the plug pulled when Skari decided to
retire.

A sample of Norwegian humor: http://www.nrk.no/magasin/humor/1.3185249

IIRC last season there were rumours that she was back in training and
would be back in time for some late season races, but she never
showed up. Apparently she had forgotten that according to the doping
rules she couldn't start before she had been on the official WADA list
of active athletes for six months.

I'm glad to see her, but there are those who believe that she may have
benefitted from "unfair advantages" gained during the time she was off
the list (and therefore not subject to doping tests) and especially
those who believe that she wasn't innocent in the notorious "negative
B-sample" case are just as unpleased to see her do well as they are
when Irina Khazova (who has just returned from, a two-year doping
ban, during which she reportedly wasn't tested even once) steps on the
podium.


Since Terje is mysteriously silent despite Petter Northug having the
best distance race of his life in Davos, I'll take this opportunity to
boast that Matti Heikkinen is here to stay and to express my
astonishment at the very "Norwegian (in a wet classic race)" team
result: no less than four Frenchmen in the top six and five in the top
eight! Oh la la!


Anders

Kristina Smigun(-Vaehi) is back
 

On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:49:25 -0800 (PST)
Anders wrote:

A sample of Norwegian humor: http://www.nrk.no/magasin/humor/1.3185249

The animation is funny, but please translate the text.

Gene

Kristina Smigun(-Vaehi) is back
 

Anders wrote:
Since Terje is mysteriously silent despite Petter Northug having the
best distance race of his life in Davos, I'll take this opportunity to

"Best distance race of his life", after winning the previous world cup
race in Finland?

What do you mean?

boast that Matti Heikkinen is here to stay and to express my

Heikkinen was _very_ impressive, I got to watch just the last parts of
his race after skiing the longest round so far this season.

Rauland has 1m snow depth, and beautifully set tracks on pretty mch all
the trails. :-)

We're going back up this weekend, spending 2 weeks skiing over Christmas
& New Year:

http://visitrauland.com/

astonishment at the very "Norwegian (in a wet classic race)" team
result: no less than four Frenchmen in the top six and five in the top
eight! Oh la la!

Seems like one of those "one country hit the wax, the others didn't"
races, and most of those have indeed been in favor of Norway.

Terje
--
- Terje.Mathisen at tmsw.no
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"

Kristina Smigun(-Vaehi) is back
 

On Dec 15, 7:10*pm, wrote:


A sample of Norwegian humor:http://www.nrk.no/magasin/humor/1.3185249

The animation is funny, but please translate the text.

"What Bente really did BEFORE the race, and why it only figures that
she beat Smigun."

The photograph was taken after the 15 km classic mass start, the
second of the two races in the World Championships (Val di Fiemme in
2003) in which Skari and Smigun finished 1-2.


Anders

Kristina Smigun(-Vaehi) is back
 

On Dec 15, 8:47*pm, Terje Mathisen wrote:


Since Terje is mysteriously silent despite Petter Northug having the
best distance race of his life in Davos, I'll take this opportunity to

"Best distance race of his life", after winning the previous world cup
race in Finland?
What do you mean?

"The best distance race of his life in Davos." Do you say "en hund
begraven" in Norwegian, too?

His previous best in Davos was a 34th and last year he finished 55th.
It could be that he doesn't really thrive in such mid-season, non-
championship altitude races and that the course in Davos doesn't suit
him because its potentially lethal "first up until you're dead after
the first loop if you're not careful, then down but without any real
recovery" nature hits his physique, physiology and psyche harder than
some others.





Heikkinen was _very_ impressive, I got to watch just the last parts of
his race after skiing the longest round so far this season.

His lap times were within 10 s and his last lap was the fastest.
Reportedly he kept his HR to about 170 (when his HRmax is 190) for the
first three kilometers. His technique during the third lap was
certainly much nicer to watch than that of some other skiers.

It probably also helped that he knew from last year that Davos suited
him. It remains to be seen, though, how well he will be able to do in
Whistler where the course and the conditions may not play to his
strengths - but our hopes certainly didn't take a nosedive!


Rauland has 1m snow depth, and beautifully set tracks on pretty much all
the trails. :-)

For a little bit of Schadenfreude of sorts, view http://www.fmi.fi/?map=lumi

Until Monday we in the south hadn't had any sub-zero (C) temperatures
to speak of, either, and the snow cannons that are used to make the
two pre-natural snow tracks in the greater Helsinki area have stood
idle. Now that they are working full time, skiing enthusiasts know to
begin expecting warming temperatures and rain...

The tracks in the "Arctic Sport Center" that opened in August have
been a bit of a disappointment and quite frankly I don't enjoy skiing
there so much that I could do it more than once a week and my
competitive instincts have grown so weak that I really don't see the
point of going there more often.

(BTW although the "ski hall" seems to be popular - there are 30-60
cars parked outside during all opening hours - the company is already
in need of refinancing its loans due to higher than planned building
costs. The "ski tunnel" in Torslanda, Sweden, has similar
difficulties.)


Seems like one of those "one country hit the wax, the others didn't"
races, and most of those have indeed been in favor of Norway.

It also took some unexpected depth of field to get a result like that,
IMHO.


Anders

Kristina Smigun(-Vaehi) is back
 

Anders wrote:
On Dec 15, 8:47 pm, Terje wrote:


Since Terje is mysteriously silent despite Petter Northug having the
best distance race of his life in Davos, I'll take this opportunity to

"Best distance race of his life", after winning the previous world cup
race in Finland?
What do you mean?

"The best distance race of his life in Davos." Do you say "en hund
begraven" in Norwegian, too?

His previous best in Davos was a 34th and last year he finished 55th.

OK, here's the problem!

You really should have written "best Davos distance race of his life" if
that was what you meant, instead of the way you wrote it which really
implies that it was his best race ever, and just happened to take place
in Davos. :-)

It could be that he doesn't really thrive in such mid-season, non-
championship altitude races and that the course in Davos doesn't suit
him because its potentially lethal "first up until you're dead after
the first loop if you're not careful, then down but without any real
recovery" nature hits his physique, physiology and psyche harder than
some others.

That's very probable, Petter is not what the Norwegian commentators call
a "capacity skier", i.e. someone with a huge Max O2 who likes to press
very hard the entire race. Instead he has the ability to tolerate
extremely varied speeds, which implies that he does better with
short-term anaerobic overload, allowing very quick recovery afterwards.

Seems like one of those "one country hit the wax, the others didn't"
races, and most of those have indeed been in favor of Norway.

It also took some unexpected depth of field to get a result like that,

Sure.

Terje

--
- Terje.Mathisen at tmsw.no
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"