Perfect Snow in Australia
by Frank Lundeen
August 12, 2002
July 12th Update
Believe it or not, there is what I would call close to perfect
snow in Australia! For the past month, we've been literally
getting hammered by daily snow systems and the occasional
blizzard. This weather pattern has provided an unbelievable
snow base amounting to 1 meter of packed trail base in many
places! This week the stormy weather pattern has finally broke
and we have had an unbelievable week of sun, no wind, and
absolutely unbelievable skiing.
Classic skiing with hard wax is somewhat rare in a normal
year in Australia, but it has been the norm so far this season.
Toko Carbon Dark Red, Yellow, and Silver have been the standard
grip waxes as of lately out in the tracks. Grooming has been
absolutely spectacular lately with a huge Pisten Bully tiller
groomer. What can I say, definitely some of the best skiing
of my life! Weather this week has been getting down to about
-4'C at night and warming up to about 2 or 3'C during the
early afternoon. Beautiful, warm skiing weather, yet not so
warm that the snow melts or even transforms.
Check out some of the following pics to see what I'm talking
about:
[ Perfect Classic Tracks on the Sun Valley
Trail ] [ Thumbs up on an excellent day of skiing! ]
[ The sun going down over a pristine mountain side and
trail. ] |
This weekend is the first race of the Australian Cross Country
season and is being held at Falls Creek, near Howman's Gap
Alpine center where I've been staying. Most of Australia's
top Cross Country athletes will be in attendance for the 10k
skate event on Saturday and the 3 x 5k relay on Sunday. This
will be my first true opportunity to test myself against Australia's
best. Going into the race I'm quite confident as I've been
training a fair bit with most of the races favorites, but
you never can tell what will happen on race day!
Sunday's relay races are quite interesting. In the Australian
Cross Country community, there are many different ski clubs
compromised of all levels of skiers who compete in the coveted
"Inter-Club Relay and the Inter-Club race series". Sunday's
relay is the only relay of the season with several other "series
races" happening throughout the season. At the end of the
season points are tabulated and the leading team wins the
Inter-Club series.
My training has continued to go right according to plan
and extremely well. This 4 week block, which I'm in right
now is the largest training block of the entire year for me
with up to 25 hours training per week with several additional
hours of stretching and basic strength work. Focus areas for
me continue to be technique, one threshold minus workout per
week, and beginning to mix in a few interval workouts for
speed. Lately I've been getting in some great quality workouts
with well known skiers such as Ben Derrick, Paul Murray, Belinda
Phillips, and Dave Hunt. My focus continues to be long distance
events, as they are proving to be my specialty, but in order
to ski 50k fast, one must be able to ski 100 meters fast;
thus speed is an important focus for me.
Truthfully, to attempt competing at the top level, it is
truly a full time job. I know everyone is scoffing at me for
that one, but it is true. Training 4 hours per day requires
lots of rest, huge quanities of food, and in order to race
fast your equipment must be prepped to perfection. For the
past few months, I've spent large amounts of time applying
coat after coat of wax to my 6 pair of racing skis (9 total
pairs with me in Australia) which are all running phenomenally
well. And to think you probably thought I was full of it when
at Riverbrook I was telling you about different Toko waxes,
the latest Madshus skis, and the hot new Stonegrind. Well,
I'm definitely practicing what I was preaching and it is paying
off big time!
It has been a bit strange living my 2nd winter in a 1 year
period. It definitely hit me hard on the 4th of July when
I looked out the window and it was near blizzard conditions
when back home it was probably 90' and brilliant sunshine.
The highlight of the day was when my hosts, Dave and Belinda
came running in to the house with handfuls of sparklers wishing
me a Happy 4th! Maybe not the big fireworks show I'm used
to on that day, but it definitely brightened up my day! With
my background and passion for cycling (and warm weather) I've
been making the occasional trek down to Melbourne to be with
friends, try to catch some rays, and ride the bike a bit.
Last Sunday we entered a cycling road race hill climb and
I ended up doing it on my Mountain Bike with slick 1" road
tyres. I surprised myself and others with a very respectable
time, especially since I was on a MTB. I guess skiing fitness
goes a long way toward cycling fitness and once a cyclist,
always a cyclist!
I'll keep you posted with the latest race results and any
new pictures I get.
[ Action shot: snow flyin' slide stop!
] [ Inspecting the trails: fit for an angel to ski on!
] [ Doing hill repeats on the Alpine runs. ]
|
July 15th Update
How are things back in the states? For the most part, things
couldn't be better for me in Australia! We have excellent
snow, race season has started, and I'm quite happy with my
skiing at the moment.
This past weekend I raced my first 2 races of the season.
Saturday was a 10k Freestyle race while Sunday was a 3 x 5k
relay with 1 classic leg and 2 skate. Both races were at Falls
Creek, 4k up the road from where I'm staying at Howman's Gap.
In Saturday's race, I got off to a good start in the lead
group. About 1k into the race, Australia's #1 ranked skier,
Ben Derrick gapped the group and on a large climb extended
his lead. On this same hill Australian National Team member
Daniel Van Der Pleug tried bridging the gap and I followed.
Daniel passed everyone except a speeding Derrick while I settled
in behind Australian Sprinter Paul Murray. This was the order
for most of the rest of the race until climbing specialist
David Hunt caught me on a climb and brought a flying Nick
Grimmer with him. In the final Kilometer we jockeyed for position
and a flying Grimmer took Dave and I in the sprint. Overall
I was happy with my performance but wish I would have skied
the final kilometers differently.
Reaching the top of an immense climb about
4k into my 5k relay leg.
|
In Sunday's Relay, once again I was happy with my performance
as well as the rest of my team's. Pre-race I was kept busy waxing
for fellow team members as well as testing for grip wax. Grip
wax ended up being Toko Base Green ironed and smoothed with
cork followed by Toko Carbon Orange Klister. This grip wax provided
"Mule Kick" for classic skiers! Kevin Torry started for my relay
team and skied a good leg to finish in 4th place. Kevin tagged
off to Dave Hunt who gained a position and put us into 3rd place.
Dave tagged me in 3rd place, 16 seconds out of 2nd place. I
definitely had my work cut out for me to catch Duane(?last name?)
who is one of Australia's top sprint racers. We yo-yo'ed back
and forth a bit but with my very best effort we ended up with
about the same gap as I started with. A good result for us all
on the team, but as always, you wish you could have gone faster!
As I look back on the races I'm pleased with my performances
considering I've been getting in several big back to back
training weeks and was a bit tired for the races. Also my
training has not been aimed at "shorter races" this time of
year. At the present time, I'm still getting in a large amount
of "LSD" training with 1 - 2 threshold minus workouts per
week. In the next few weeks I'll be mixing in some faster
interval training which will definitely help me in the fast
short races. My focus of the Australian race season will be
the 42k Kangaroo Hoppet, the last weekend in August and the
Australian National Championship series also in August.
That's what's happening on this end of the world. Enjoy
the pictures of the snow!
August 10th Update
All I can say about the past 2 weeks is, I'm glad they're
over! I've been sick with a nasty cold/flu virus (yes, that's
right. it is flu season down here!) that just won't go away!
Today I went on my first ski in 9 days as I've spent most
of my time in bed lately. Moving on from my bad 2 weeks, I'm
looking forward to the next 3 weeks.
This week I'm planning on easing back into skiing and hopefully
will be prepared to race in the Australian Long Distance Championships
at Perisher Mountain, this coming saturday. There are 42k
and 21k races and I'm really excited to get into some marathon
races! The following weekend are 2 more Championship races,
a 15k Skate and 15k Classic, again at Perisher. My plans are
to head to Perisher this Friday night and stay there through
the following weekend to learn the courses and get some more
skiing time in. Finally on Saturday, August 31 is the Kangaroo
Hoppet, the biggest Australian race of them all! With recent
snow falls, the Hoppet course should be in spectacular condition.
This year's field is expected to be the strongest it has been
in quite some time with many International skiers planning
on attending.
Keep in touch, and Best Regards, Francko
| About the author, Frank Lundeen:
It has always been my dream to train and race full
time. Several years ago, it would have been road racing
(cycling), but of course now, skiing is my passion. I've
always known that I stand huge room for improvement but
like most skiers was limited by responsibilities (ie:
work, mortgage, car loan, etc, etc). After several very
encouraging performances in the past few ski seasons in
the Midwest, I decided I was going to try to take the
next step.
Basically I am on indefinite leave from work (but
am still a very enthusiastic member of the Toko Tech
Team), sold my house, sold my car; I basically liquidated
most of my stuff to fund myself for a year of training
and racing. My goal is to become as good as I can possibly
be, which is yet to be seen. I know I have immense room
for improvement, the question is just how much and it
is my mission to see how far I can go. I can say that
in the short time I've been training full time (which
means training, recovering properly, getting adequate
sleep, eating properly, etc.) I have seen huge improvement
and am skiing by far the best I ever have!
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