Race of Attrition

I guess I am no yet man enough to really race a 50k, here is the recap.

The 50k started out with our typical van ride up to the ski venue (yeah, it's a venue), but this time Kristen was ready with waxing ideas and an iron (we arrived with blank skis, 50k's require binder). It was a tough waxing day (in the sun it was a little slushy in the shade powdery) and Kristen advised using a hardwax binder on our best pair and trying covered klister on a second pair. I was able to get both pairs working pretty well and headed to the start.
The 50k started out well but an early downhill propelled my into the lead of the main group (something that I was trying to avoid) and I stayed towards the front for all too long on the first lap. I then missed my first feed (huge mental blow) and had a slow second lap. Then I got my strongest drink after the second lap (not planned) which wasn't that bad of a thing in the end. The third and fourth laps went very well, but I started feeling a muscle injury that I had suffered from come up again and decided to go in for a ski change (I had great skis, hoped the others were even better) and decided to end my day after 30k. Needless to say my decision to forsake my great skis in hope of even better ones was a terrible decision and i was soon spending time at the top of each hill to kick the clumps off the bottoms of my skis. So coming in for the last lap I switched back to my original pair and finished up. Then after eating and drinking everything in sight I made sure to join in the cheering for the 6 actual finishers (of maybe 15 or so 6 actually did the whole 50k).
It was a very fun day in all and next year there is no way I am not going the whole 50k (though it will be skating).

Mantuition

With 1 day left before the 50k, the question on everyone's mind was "How can I get that last little advantage?" Well, apart from making sure my skis were ready I decided that my refueling strategy would be the best of anyone in tomorrow's race. After about 2 minutes of searching on google for tips on drinking strategies I decided to just use my mantuition (the only method proven to be better than google maps for directions.) The final result was a 5 step drinking progression (new mix for every 10k,) with drinks ranging from salt and sugar water to something you probably wouldn't even feed your neighbors cat.

the prep



the result



the secret ingredient no one else has

Beginning of the End

With April fast approaching the nordic skiing schedule is beginning to look sparse, not due to a lack of snow but rather lack of events, however this year I am looking forward to my first marathon races. First, we are having a school championship 50k classic race on Wednesday after school. It has been decided that we will go 10 x 5k around one of the hardest courses that is still FIS legal. Also, the race will only be approved if Kristen Kjeldal wins with at least 1 lap. After that all that is left is a sprint relay and then the Skarverrenet, a 36k skate race up in the mountains. It is the second most popular race in Norway after the Birkebeiner and always takes place very late in April (the 30th this year).

Finally a real norwegian

As all of you should be well aware, the nordic ski world championships are currently going on in Oslo, Norway. This has created a ton of excitement here in Voss and has caused productivity to drop by 257% when a race is going on (all numbers approximate). It has also turned me into a real Norwegian. Now it isn't what you are thinking, I haven't suddenly been taken by the excitement surrounding the events that is palpable everywhere you look, nor is it the fact that norwegians are dominating (though that has been nice), no, the thing that has made me a real norwegian is my newfound real hatred for swedes. While I had already developed a reasonable (and mostly fake) dislike for swedes (much like my general, mostly fake, disdain for french canadians) watching she who shall not be named (fine Ida Ingemarsdotter) fell America's gold medal favorite Kikkan Randall in the sprint suddenly shifted my attitude. Soon my cheering went in the following order: go America, go Norway, fall Justyna Kowalzcyk, fall on your face swedes. This development was warmly embraced by my norwegian friends, I was watching the sprint with, and we all joined in on a profanity laced tirade at Marcus Hellner for having the audacity to actually win the sprint. I look forward to more of the same in the coming week.

In other news (or rather lack of), I have been rather disappointed by the amount of time it takes fasterskier.com to put up updates about the races so I have created a twitter account where I will when possible enlighten those of us not in Norway as too the happenings in Oslo (editors note: probably something grammatically wrong with this sentence). Just search for Magnus Bigelow on twitter. My handle, to use twitter speek, is MagnusBigelow, bland but to the point.

America 1, Norway 1, Magnus 2

Imagine yourself in a large field filled with spectators of a sporting event. They have run towards a large television screen to witness the finish of an exciting event. The event is over, the result decided, when a young man turns around and surveys the scene. He sees a nation of people with the heads hung low, contemplating their failure. But wait! There in the middle of the field stands a man in a red coat, arms aloft, a sly grin spreading from cheek to cheek.

This scene was maybe the best part of my dad's visit to Norway. After the women's sprint final in Drammen (we were watching from a little ways above the stadium and watched much of the race on the massive screen they had set up) I turned around and saw tons of norwegians looking glumly towards the screen and then my dad the only person celebrating with his arms up in the air. It was pretty sweet. Overall having my dad visit and watching the world cups was awesome the only negative was our not seeing America's top ski journalist, Nat Hertz (does he have a facebook fanpage yet?). Now I can't wait now to watch to the last weekend of the world champs. In the meantime watching on TV should do just fine.



Now for a small complaint about Norway (no, not their terrible selection of breakfast cereal, but good guess). On the 20th of February NRK the main norwegian television company (run by the state) had a feature on Bill Koch which it seems everyone in my class except me got to see. Now, I know what channel it was on, the date, and the approximate time it aired yet have been unable to watch it online. This should not be possible. While NRK has a fully operation website where one can watch many of there programs for some reason I can't watch the Bill Koch feature. Very unsatisfactory.

Guest Blogger!

No one would believe me for a second if I said that I had hacked Magnus's blog--he allowed me in. I am here for a week visit during my February break from BBA. Hopefully Magnus will post a fabulous blog next week after we go to the Drammen Sprints, where Andy Newell got a silver last year!

The rest of Europe might question it, but Norway is truly European. The evidence of this is everywhere:

1. All workers wear matching suits (top and bottoms) with dozens of pockets and reflective stripes everywhere.
2. People of every age bike in mid-winter.
3. Norwegians are mad about soccer.
4. The chocolate is ridiculously expensive AND good.
5. Mild disdain (hiding a healthy dose of jealousy), typically masked as straightforward condescension, for all things American.

And yet, Norway is definitely a world apart:

1.

People, ok, old folks, actually use these around town. The sidewalks are so icy, who can blame them?

2.






This excavator was "plowing" a 100 meter section of road in front of the apartment for four hours the other day. The ice was a foot thick. EVERYONE (except for your's truly in his rental car) has studded snows.

3.






Checkout lady at the grocery store wearing her VM 2011 t-shirt. For every medal that a Norwegian skier wins, the customers get a 1% rebate. Norwegians may love soccer, but Nordic skiing is serious!









4. Voss has a population of 14,000 and 5 Nordic areas. You can also choose from approximately 10 ski clubs! Magnus belongs to Voss IL. Voss's Wikipedia page features all the famous people from Voss; they are all skiers.

5. Did I mention the Nordic ski culture here?

Years ago I made some pathetic comment to my Mom about not liking Europe because all I did was go to museums. She told me to go out and do the things that I liked doing in the States and stop worrying about trying to be cultured. So, I make it a point to find the best used stores wherever I go. Believe me, NOTHING compares to the Thrifty Attic in Londonderry.


Your correspondent at the Voss Fretex.

Culture Center and Russerevy

In Norway there is an unwritten rule that all town with any sort of pride have there own culture center. In Voss they have just finished building a new one that is really quite impressive. For one it is now the town movie theater, which I found out while also finding out that Norwegians can crank out movies (already a new Varg Veum movie, despite filming the last two Harry Potters at the same time there is no way those movies will come out that close to each other). Personally I watched the movie in the "intimate" theater (seats about 50 back row has only love seats) as I believe the main big theater is yet to be finished. They also have a pretty large library and a good stable of semi functioning "artistic" chairs. Another exciting feature is the grass roof which is made to be climbed up. It slopes up at a gentle angle from the ground with a flat area on top that looks out over the lake (nice view, not a photogenic view, at least at night).

As part of my ongoing Magnus Bigelow become a real norwegian transformation I interrupted an epic weekend of killing Nazi Zombies to watch Russerevy at the old theater. It is an event like no other (except all the other ones going on around Norway), basically Saturday Night Live put on by the Norwegian seniors (Russ). There were monologues, skits, dancing, and singing. There was funny stuff, there was bad stuff and there was funnily bad stuff. On the whole it was a fun performance and afterwards the kids my age were talking big about what we are going to do next year. While it doesn't really fit well with the "sports line" schedule (as shown by the lack of toppidrett kids) I personally think my talents would best be put to use singing (as my dad says "it takes a special voice to be told to lip sync by your choir teacher"). While my fist choice of song would obviously be "Love Me Sexy" from Semi Pro, the norwegians are unaware of Will Ferrels brilliance so I am currently leaning towards "Human" by The Killers (if there has ever been a more appropriate time for the button all the way down the side pants and tights combo I can't think of it).

Here are a few pictures of the culture center (the seats recline!!!)

Einar Trefall becomes Petter Northug, with your help!

Sadly I do not have an update for you as I am trying to accumulate some pictures of the newly opened culture center in Voss before I write about it.
However, you will help me get some street cred in the nordic world of Voss if you help out a friend of mine. Just follow the steps below.

1) Follow this link: http://www.terratalenter.no/ (opening a second window probably would be best)
2) Click the button that says "Start her" (also laugh at how it looks stupid that the "h" is not capitalized)
3) In the "søk" box copy and paste "Einar Trefall" and then press "søk" (then ponder his last name which essentially means "Tree Fall")
4) Click on the only entry given to you on the next page that looks much like an open manilla folder (I guess it is actually more of a "norwegian manilla" much like one finds "indian white"(memo within memo: white is white))
5) Look towards the bottom of the page and click "Stem på meg!" (yes, he did use one of his 3 alloted to pictures to show the tractor he has back home)
6) Pat yourself on the back. Hopefully you have helped Einar win a 15,000 kroner training scholarship and a workout with Petter Northug.

Einar Trefall



Petter Northug



Thanks a ton!

Always lock the door

This week we have another training week, this time Litoppen, the place we had wanted to go in the previous weeks. It has been a fantastic week with great skiing, food and chocolate ice cream that is almost chocolaty (almost chocolaty is a huge improvement as far as norwegian ice cream). Also in a learning moment I finally found out what is meant when one says "single bed" and it sure is an apt name as it just barely fits my dimensions (not just length buts width as well, try cutting a twin in half and you will understand). However, it has not been a perfect week as I found out the hard way why norwegians lock there hotel doors. YOu can find the story bellow.

Our tale begins with an innocent young boy who has inherited his mothers stubbornness and his fathers taste in tooth paste (pure baking soda). As is often in such cases, our young hero (I hope you don't mind if I just call the innocent young boy "hero" for simplicities sake) develops an attachment to said toothpaste (Arm & Hammer) and begins to make it his only choice. Years later extenuating circumstances will force our hero to a distant land across the ocean where said toothpaste cannot be bought. He is able to make do until Christmas when he returns to America and makes sure to stash up for the return to the distant land. There at a training camp he has naturally taken his toothpaste with him and forgets to lock his hotel door. He goes out to enjoy a ski in the untamed wilderness only to return to a disaster. Upon entering his room it is clear something is wrong, his bed covered in his own pink duct tape, our hero searches his room and is knocked speechless when he looks into the bathroom. His toothpaste is everywhere except in the tube, his precious supply gone, his brilliant plan undone by vandals. Our hero is innocent no longer, his mind has been opened to what a cruel place the world can be, he will never leave a hotel door unlocked again.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Sorry for my large break between posts, I went home for Christmas and while I am loving my time in Norway I was in need of a cleansing to reload for the next period (until April). As for the title of this post, if you have not seen current RNC Chairman Michael Steele's misquote of the first line of his favorite book (granted he was probably thrown off his game since Reagan Diaries had already been chosen) at the RNC debate for the next chairman you should (granted I would have had trouble coming up with the first line of my favorite book, which is why I wouldn't have tried). The question brought up some great responses though, as already been pointed out by John Stewart, should not prove as pivotal as the "How many guns do you own" question.

As for my time back in America it somewhat followed the above referenced first line to A Tale of Two Cities (minus the superlatives). While I for the most part I had a fantastic time the races that I partook in went really badly, so I will enlighten you on happier happenings (though not those that were to be expected i.e. seeing family, friends, great food etc.).

That leaves me with essentially on happening, the addition of a TV and XBox 360 to my family (I believe they were acknowledged as family members faster than I was as a child) during the Christmas festivities. It was a sad day when I had to leave them (Is it better to have loved and lost (for a few months then to regain) or to never have loved at all? I'm holding out that #1 will be true but everyday without the XBox and TV brings me closer to #2). This should also serve as proof that my parents still have the ability to astound everyone that knows them while also maintaining a little of our "no TV clique" status (we don't have cable so we can keep our feet in both camps).

I will leave you today with a picture of the greatest gaming controller you have ever seen.