Jan. 27, 2008-Pia's 30k Classic Race, Anchorage

Today we had a nice, sweet, cold, and long classic race. Pia's Classic is one of the greatest distance races in the state for the year. It is a 30k mass start classic race around the hilly trails of Kincaid Park. When we started today it was about 2 degrees F, so it was just perfect for a good hard classic race. The tracks were groomed to perfection throughout the whole course which was amazing. I had one of my best 30k of my life today. I was able to lead the first 11k roughly, I did not want to but nobody would pass me, so I just kept on going. Then about half way through the second of 4 laps Thomas Oyberg, Trond Flagstad, and Brent Knight all mad a small acceleration and dropped me. So for the rest of the second lap I was just chasing them still very close but not with them yet. By then end of the lap through another few hills I was able to catch back up to them and I was feeling ok, a little tired though. I did not stay with them for long and soon I was skiing by myself again. I ended up skiing the whole 3rd lap just 30-40 seconds behind the leading three guys, they were still in sight, but I just could not seem to make up the time on them. It was a hard lap on me, I was starting to feel my arms getting very tired, it was hard to get over the tops of the hills with good speed. By the last lap I was just suffering in my own world. I was trying to ski the best I could, but at the end of a 30k it was hard to put forth a real hard effort. I was hurting pretty much everywhere on the course. I ended up in 4th at just over a minute out of 3rd and a minute ahead of 5th so I really was just out there by myself. I am happy with the day. Last year in the same race I was 7th and 4 minutes back from the winner.

This next weekend I am heading up to Fairbanks for the final 2 races of the Besh Cup series. We will have a 10k classic and a 10k skate, both races should be hard and hilly so that will be fun. It will be great racing in Fairbanks again, I love racing at home...

till next time, Tyson...

Maybe some pictures of some randomonium later and some new web sites to check out:

Paul Schauer, a great friend of mine and an excellent skier:

A Day In A Life

Michael Matteson, a fellow skier at APU and a super fast junior racer: www.michaelmatteson.net

Jan. 21, 2008-Homer Besh Cups

The Besh Cups in Homer Alaska this weekend were held under exciting weather and lots of good competition...(read more)

Jan. 14, 2008-Update on the day and a life of Tyson...

I am now in Anchorage just hanging out and getting set for the next period of racing and training. The skiing has been great here. We finally have plenty of snow to make everyone happy. Now it is about -10F and everyone is complaining, I can't figure it all out. It seems really nice here. I am enjoying my time in Alaska right now. Yesterday I got to compete in the Hickok Pursuit which is a 10k duathalon where we ski the first 5k classic and then switch skis and poles midway through the race to do a 5k skate. I was feeling really good for the classic and won that without too much trouble, then came the skating. I found out that my skate skis were very very slow. I was watching the Darrin (the winner) just glide past me. It was kind of tough watching him ski away from me like that when I knew it was mainly because my skis were going slow. Oh well that is racing. My classic skis with the same grind were flying.

I am currently preparing for Besh Cups on the 19th and 20th in Homer, where I will get a classic sprint and a 10k individual classic race. It should be a lot of fun.

On the 28th I will get to depart for Krakow Poland, for the U23 World Championships. I am super excited to race in Poland, it is one place I have not been. I have been trying to brush up on some Polish lately, but I have realized that it is not an easy language. I am very confused about pretty much all of it. The letters in the words don't mean the same thing as I am used to and they don't sound the same either. Hmmmm.... I think it is a good thing that most of the Polish folk probably speak some English. Well I do not have much more to report on for now. After the Besh Cups and Poland I don't have a lot of races till the end of the season where I shall be heading to Canadian Nationals somewhere in BC. The week after the Canadian races I will be shooting straight up to Fairbanks for US Distance Nationals. All in all I should have an exciting rest of my season....later...

Jan. 7, 2008-US Nationals Day 3 and 4: skate sprint / classic sprint relay....

The sprint weekend is now over and it is time for the next period of training and racing. I had a good weekend. It could have always been better, I was feeling very good and knew that I have what it takes to be on top. I had a couple of tactical errors in the skate sprint on saturday. Then on sunday Anders Haugen and I started out great by winning our semifinal heat without trying too hard. In the final we were in a good position, but on the first lap we had some wax issues and fell behind and could never really bring it back.....

Jan. 4, 2008-US Nationals Day 2: Distance Classic...

We have just had our second race of this years US National Championships. Them men went 15k while the women went 10k. The day before the race the snow was coming down like there was no tomorrow, it was crazy. On race day the sky had stopped snowing and cooled down enough for the organizers to groom some perfect tracks that held up through hundreds of racers...

(Photo by Karl Schauer)

Jan. 1, 2008-Happy New Year and USA National Ski Championships...DAY 1...

Nationals day 1 is over now and it was a good start to the week for me. We have been here in Houghton for a few days now waiting to race. Today we finaly got that chance to show what we have. Today we raced a 10k skate for the men and a 5k for the women....