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April 17, 2000

Things I Am Going to Change in my Training For This Year.

1. More Training At Sea-level - I did a lot of summer and fall training in the east two years ago and had my best season ever. This past year I spent almost no time at sea level and skied poorly. Hmm. . .
2. Travel less - Most of the travel I did was ok, but I think the short trip back to Utah between Canadian races in December was what killed my season.
3. Do more training in the spring - Last year I relaxed a bit too much. Didn't really start training until mid May. This year, I'm getting right on it.
4. Do more dryland training in November and December. I think one of the reasons I skied well early is that I still had the general fitness and strength from dryland. I need to maintain that.
5. Race more in the summer. - Last year I did one road race all summer. I need to race more often to keep myself geared up physically and mentally.

April 3, 2000

Top Songs of Spring Series

1. All the Small Things - Blink 182
2. Sex Machine (Get On Up) - James Brown
3. Root Down - Beastie Boys
4. Ray of Light - Madonna
5. Paradise City - Guns N' Roses
6. Black Sabbath - Ozzy Osbourne

March 27, 2000

Best Places To Eat In Ski Towns on a Racer's Budget

1. Taco Stand - Bend, OR: The best cheap burritos anywhere.
2. Ketchum Burritos - Ketchum, ID: Not as cheap as Taco Stand, but REALLY good.
3. Macaroni Grille - Provo, UT: I think this might be part of a chain, but it is the best pasta place close to the Soldier Hollow trails.
4. Earl's - Calgary, Canada: Again, a chain, but a great restaurant
5. Rocky Mountain Pizza and Pasta - Sun Valley, ID

March 20, 2000

How I Blew My NCAA March Madness Picks
I did awful this year. In fact, there are only three teams left that I picked to make it this far.

1. Picked Temple to win it all.
2. Picked St. John's to lose to Temple in the Final.
3. Also picked Ohio St. to make the Final Four.
4. Picked Samford to make a run to the Sweet Sixteen.
5. Picked UCLA to lose to Ball St. in the first round.

March 13, 2000

What I Like To Do To Shake Off a Bad Race

1. Listen to very loud and heavy music.
2. Look over the results for people who had even worse races!
3. Go for a short run.
4. Start planning for the next race.
5. Go home and go to bed.

March 6, 2000

What Makes The Great Ski Race So Great

1. It is in Tahoe, perhaps my favorite area of the country.
2. The post-race awards party is the best in the business, with a live band and everything.
3. Or you can skip the awards and go teleskiing at one of about six resorts (like I did).
4. The course is tough, but very fun after 10K.
5. The finish - the final hill provides the best skier-to-spectacular-crash ratio you'll find anywhere.

February 28, 2000

Why I'm Happy the Birkie was cancelled
OK, I'm not happy about it, but we need to look on the bright side.

1. I got to listen to certain other elite skiers bitch about yet another bad Birkie experience. And then laugh at them.
2. I didn't have to get up at 5:00 AM on Saturday
3. I would much rather spend $600 on a weekend vacation in Wisconsin than, say, Maui.
4. I didn't have to take out the garden rake in order to put the appropriate structure in my skis.
5. Let's face it, no one was REALLY looking forward to those last 5K when you are so exhausted that you can't see straight, but you still have to push onward so that that big group of skiers behind you doesn't blow by you on Main St. in front of the crowds.

February 20, 2000

Where I might live when I get back to Park City.
While I was gone for a month, my roommates decided to move out of our house. Now I have no place to live. My options:

1. The back of my truck.
2. The storage unit where I am going to put all my stuff.
3. I'll have to hit the bars and find a young lovely who needs company for a few weeks.
4. The wax trailers at Soldier Hollow. They're even heated!
5. I know a great place where I can pitch my tent and use that warm new sleeping bag I got for Christmas.

February 13, 2000

My Five Favorite Non-Conventional Training Activities
Sure, skiing is great, but sometimes it is good to get off the skinny skis and do something different during the winter.

1. Snowshoe up a mountain and snowboard down.
2. Backcountry touring. Just shuffle around and break my own trail. Then carve tele turns on the downhills.
3. Tackle Football in the snow. Provided no one breaks any major bones. Soccer is a good substitute if you value your body the way it is.
4. Weights/Circuits. OK, I'd rather ski than do these, but it is important to maintain strength during the season.
5. Telemark skiing. Even at a resort, this is a great leg workout.

February 6, 2000

The Things I'll Miss Most In My Lost Luggage
On my return trip from Switzerland, the airline lost one of my bags. Still no word on it. At least it wasn't my ski bag, but it still contained some vital stuff.

1. My ski boots, both pairs.
2. My checkbook!
3. My winter jacket.
4. My Swiss chocolate
5. My hats, gloves, pole straps, Solda wax, etc., etc.

January 31, 2000

The Coolest Things About Switzerland

1. Mountains.
2. Chocolate.
3. Cheese.
4. Steep, Windy Roads
5. The small villages built at the top of steep, windy roads.

January 24, 2000

The Best Videos For Improving Your Skiing

1. Norwegian Coaches Club Videos - the best advanced technique videos ever made.
2. Days of Thunder and/or Top Gun
3. The 1999 World Championship Relay and/or Pursuit - Both amazing races.
4. Any video taken of you, which you can analyze with a coach.
5. "Crazy" - Britney Spears - it seemed to work for a few people in Canmore.

January 17, 2000

The Best Things About The New Soldier Hollow Ski Trails

1. They are an equal opportunity punisher.
2. They are exactly 3 minutes and 22 seconds from my house by car.
3. You can watch almost the whole race from one view point
4. The parking lot is great for muddin' in the 4x4.
5. The snow lasted until exactly one day after the last Nationals race.

January 10, 2000

Best Songs of 1999

1. Malibu - by Hole
2. The Kids Aren't Alright - The Offspring
3. The Great Beyond - R.E.M.
4. The Rockefeller Skank - Fat Boy Slim
5. Dragula - Rob Zombie

January 3, 2000

My New Year's Resolutions

1. Ski Faster.
2. Stop writing "99" when writing down today's date.
3. Floss more.
4. Defeat "La Nina" winter.
5. Watch more "Jerry Springer."

December 27, 1999

The Best Things About My Latest Trip To Canada
I realize that most of the other stuff on the site with regards to this trip is pretty negative. But I did manage to have some fun along the way. This stuff was the best.

1. The train that ran past our room in Canmore - sure it woke us up at night, but it also provided great entertainment.
2. Earl's Restaurant in Calgary - Quite possibly the best waitresses in the world
3. The fact that I got to go back to Silver Star
4. The spectacular mountains in Canmore
5. The feet and feet of snow in Silver Star

December 20, 1999

The Best Books I Have Ever Read

1. The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
2. Don't Look Back - John Morton
3. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
4. Into The Wild - Jon Krakauer
5. It Crawled From The South - Marcus Gray

December 13, 1999

My Advice For Junior Skiers

1. Have Fun - Never, ever lose sight of the fact that skiing is, first and foremost, fun.
2. Enjoy the company and competition of your teammates. There is a special chemistry to high school and college teams that cannot be found anywhere else in life. These memories will last much longer than your race results.
3. Set goals, write them down, and tell at least one person.
4. Do other sports - there is plenty of time to specialize when you get out of high school. I did four sports in high school and I wish I could have done more.
5. Avoid "Paralysis Through Analysis," to quote a highly esteemed coach (Ruff). Don't over analyze things like heartrate, race results, and training hours. Take stuff like that for what it's worth, but don't dwell on it.

December 6, 1999

My Christmas Wish List or "What I Would Buy If I Won The Lottery"

1. Nissan X-Terra
2. Apple G4 Computer
3. Digital Video Camera for same day website pictures and race video
4. Cannondale Raven 4000SX w/ Lefty Shock
5. A new Barfoot Snowboard

November 29, 1999

My Goals For The 1999-2000 Season
Everyone needs to have goals. The best way to make your goals effective is to write them down. I wrote these goals down a couple months ago, but this week I decided that if I let everyone else know what they are, then I will have a greater desire (and more pressure) to achieve them. I have set the bar a little high this year, but it's better to set it too high than too low.

1. To qualify for the sprint team for the Goodwill Games.
2. To have a top three finish at U.S. Nationals.
3. To consistently place in the top five in national FIS races
   (U.S. Nationals and Continental Cup Series).
4. To win a race in the American Ski Marathon Series.
5. To end the season with FIS points under 60 (I'm currently at
   70) and be ranked in the top eight in the country.

November 22, 1999

With all the people here in Silver Star, I have had a few close encounters with other skiers (primarily participants in Marty Hall's Master camp). Some of this is my fault because of my addiction to fast downhills, but I am always in control and can easily pass other skiers if they don't make any sudden moves. But having narrowly avoided numerous collisions, I figured it was time to list my Top Five Rules of Ski Etiquette.

1. Stay to the right! This seems obvious but I am always amazed at the people who jump right into my path as I am screaming down a hill.
2. If you are skating down a hill and someone else is skating uphill, pull to the side and just glide in the tracks to get by. It is much easier for you to glide and maintain momentum than someone who is trying to get up the hill.
3. Don't ski two abreast up a turny downhill. This almost cost some poor frightened lady her life the other day.
4. Don't stop a big group to do technique work on a busy section of trail or a treacherous corner. As much as I love playing human slalom, I have been known to hit a few gates now and then.
5. Don't wear neon clothing. Especially those old Fischer/Salomon suits from 10 years ago or so. For your sake and mine.

November 15, 1999

R.E.M. is coming out with a new album next week. Well, actually it is the soundtrack to the movie "Man on the Moon." To this point I have only heard one song. "The Great Beyond," but it was enough to get me really excited, as if I wouldn't be excited for a new R.E.M. album anyway. Now in celebration of this, I thought I might rank my five favorite R.E.M. songs. So I sat down to do the list and I just couldn't. Considering that I once set out to make a mix of their best songs and it turned out to be two 90 minute cassettes long and I still didn't fit every song I wanted on there, there was no way I could narrow it to just five. Because all of their songs are incredible, it depends too much on what mood I am in. I am pretty sure that "Fall On Me" would be on any list I come up with, but thats all I can agree on. So instead I will post a list submitted by another R.E.M. fan. I am not sure what order they were intended to go in, but it doesn't really matter because they could all be #1 at any given moment.

1. South Central Rain
2. Man on the Moon
3. Radio Free Europe
4. Walk Unafraid
5. Driver 8

November 8, 1999

The Five Warmest Mornings in Fairbanks This Week

1. -3º F
2. -5º F
3. -5º F
4. -8º F
5. -11º F

The Coldest: -18º F

October 31, 1999

My Five Favorite Halloween Candies

1. Any candy within reach, and as much of it as I can get.
2. Snickers - and not those tiny ones, you need to at least have "Fun Size."
3. Those green-apple-flavored lollipops with caramel over them. Really good until you pull out a tooth try to eat them.
4. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Here's how I eat a Reese's: By the handful.
5. M&Ms. My Dad has one of those M&M dispensers that you pull "Red"'s arm and candies pour out. For some reason it always ends up empty when I'm home.

October 25, 1999

The Five Best Things About The Fairbanks Training Camp

1. I'm not at work.
2. It's usually above 0º F at least half the time.
3. I can actually take naps after hard workouts, rather go straight to work.
4. I feel like such an overachiever when I am up before the sun, even though the sun doesn't come up until 9:30 or so.
5. I am part of about 1% of the ski world that is skiing right now.

October 18, 1999

Well, it appears that a few people have taken me up on my list requests. I chose this one because it is so intellectually stimulating. Submitted by Paul Stone, a three year captain of the Dartmouth Ski Team. Paul, I appreciate your input and will do my best to address your concerns. Dartmouth is proud to have people like you as alumni.

The top five reasons why xcskiracer.com sucks.

1. it's about cory smith.
2. [A certain other skier] [edited for all audiences] more often than this page gets updated.
3. not enough naked women.
4. a free donation isn't made to fight world hunger everyday i check this sight
   like there is at "http://www.thehungersite.com."
5. i couldn't think of another one cause Pat [Cote] gave up on me and went to sleep.

October 11, 1999

The Five Stupidest Comments We've Ever Heard While Rollerskiing

1. Made by a child when I was wearing my heart-rate monitor (and no shirt) -- "Nice bra!"
2. "Are you allowed to do that here with those, those...deadly weapons?!" -- yes, she meant my ski poles
3. "Are you going to be in the Olympics?"
4. (encouraging?) words given by a 250lb man on a showroom-new, shiny bike -- "You're doing great!"
5. "Doesn't that work better with snow?"

October 4, 1999

My Favorite Spice Girls

1. Posh - too bad she's married.
2. Sporty - any athlete has to dig her.
3. Baby - she's kind of just there.
4. Scary - her name says it all.
5. Ginger - good riddance.

September 27, 1999

The Reasons I moved my website.

1. To ditch my less intelligent viewers.
2. So I could sell the xcskiracer.com domain name for $1 million dollars when Bjorn Daehlie wants it.
3. I was bored.
4. So those of you who don't use Bookmarks can still look me up and harrass me for not posting something new everyday.
5. So I could have a "yournamehere.com" address like all the cool kids

September 20, 1999

The Best Workouts of the Summer.

1. Kings Peak Hike
2. The Mt. Bachelor Bachelor's Cup
3. Trying out for the US Bobsled Team
4. Timpanogos Hike
5. Mountain biking the Porcupine Rim trail

September 13, 1999

The Worst Things About Fall.

1. Football is only on three days a week.
2. I have to put the top back on my truck.
   
3. Cold, but no snow.
4. I realize all the things I wanted to do this summer that never got done.
5. Training in the dark.

September 6, 1999

The Five Best Things About Fall.

1. Pro Football Season
   
2. College Football Season
   
3. Foliage - Utah gets a little
4. Winter isn't far away
5. More Football

August 30, 1999

My Favorite movies of the summer.

1. Star Wars - The Phantom Menace
   
2. The Matrix
   
3. Bowfinger

The worst movie of the summer.

1. Austin Powers - The SPy Who Shagged Me

August 23, 1999

My favorite running shoes I've ever had. I know that a lot of serious runners look down on Nike as running shoe you buy to walk around hte mall, but I've always run in Nike's and they have always fit well and kept me from getting injured, so why switch? Plus their ads are much cooler.

1. Air Huarache - 1991
   
2. Air Terra Tor - 1996
   
3. Air Revaderchi II - 1993
4. Air Terra Goatek - 1999
   
5. Air Terra Humara - 1998
   

August 16, 1999

The worst times I have gotten lost in the woods.

1. 9/94 Went mountain biking late in the day on a loop that was too long. Got caught in the dark. Lost the trail and tried to follow a streambed to safety but I kept falling in the water. It was cold and I was afraid of getting hypothermia. Had to ditch the bike and feel my way out. Finally found a house at almost 10 pm. By then, my parents were already looking for me and a small army was gearing up for a search. The next morning my dad and I hiked in to get the bike.
   
2. 10/87? My brother and I rode over to a friends house on our bikes and tried to find a shortcut back through the woods. By the time we made it out of the woods, it was dark and our mom was on her way in to find us.
   
3. 7/99 - The epic three hour long turn that Scott and I took last month.
4. 9/93 - Colter Leys and I were 11 hours into a 54 mile trail run when we took a wrong turn. It only cost us a half hour, but when you are already hallucinating and only an hour from done, every minute counts.
   
5. 7/82? - Before I went for this run, my parents gave me directions to turn left towards Holderness when the trail ended and I hit the road. I was exhausted when I hit the road and was sure that I was supposed to turn right towards Sandwich. Only after a two mile detour, I realized that I had screwed up and began walking home. I was too tired to run. Fortunately my parents drove out and got me.
   

My Five Most Recent Training-Related Injuries - no matter how minor.

1. 8/6/99 Took a shoulder to the ribs in a soccer game. Still hurts a bit when I breathe hard.
   
2. 8/2/99 Dropped a table on my foot at work. It wasn't too bad until I went running that evening and turned a minor scrape into a painful cut and bruise that rubbed against my shoe on each stride.
   
3. 7/24/99 - Whacked my knee on my shifters in a gnarly mountain bike crash. Bent my shifters completely out of whack. Only hurts now if I land on my knee when I jump into bed. Don't ask.
4. 7/24/99 - Same mountain bike ride, I cut a corner too close around a tree. Got a nice gash on my arm. Almost healed now, but I might get yet another cool scar.
   
5. 7/24/99 - Yet again - the same ride. I cut another corner too close and nailed a tree with my hip and crashed. This was one of those days I should have stayed in bed.
   

August 2, 1999

My Favorite Cross Training Activities

1. Mountain Biking - The trails here are incredible, and I believe that mountain biking's value as a training method is severely under-rated. Look at guys like Carl Swenson and Nathan Schultz.
2. White Water Kayaking - I'm not great, but I'm learning.
   
3. Ultimate Frisbee - I can't throw. But if you throw it long, I'll catch it.
   
4. Rock Climbing - OK, I admit, I've never been climbing in my life. But I'm sure I'd love it if I did!
5. Soccer - Even though I must have two left feet.

July 26, 1999

My Favorite Trail Runs

1. The Presidential Range - White Mountains, NH Crowded and developed, but there is a reason everyone wants to go up there (Besides the chilidogs on top of Mt. Washington).
   
2. Mount Timpanogos - Wasatch Mountains, UT Snow, wildflowers, waterfalls, Mountain Goats, and beautiful views of the Mormon Temple in Provo.
   
3. Rattlesnake Mountain,- Squam Lake, NH - The best views-to-effort ratio in the world. I'm sure of it. Plus you can jump into the most beautiful lake in the world when you are done.
4. Franconia Ridge - White Mountains, NH I grew up twenty minutes from this hike and it is still one of the best.
   
5. (tie) Mt. Watson Loop, Unita Mountains, UT I didn't get lost on this one.
   Pomfret to Killington on the Appalachian Trail Especially fun in 6 inches of new snow.

July 19, 1999

The thoughts that went through my mind on Sunday when Scott and I figured out that we were still 3 hours from our car. See my July journal if you don't know what I am talking about.

1. I could just sit down by this beautiful lake and wait for a search party.
   
2. I'm sure that if we just cut through the woods right here it will bring us right to the parking lot in no time.
   
3. These hikers that we are passing again on our way back must think we are either hardcore or really stupid. Stupid probably.
   
4. I wonder if those campers would notice if I borrowed their horse.
   
5. I am such an idiot.

Why I'm Glad I Didn't Make The US Bobsled Team .

Sure, we all complain about the way USSA runs things once in a while, but they are the epitome of an organized program compared with the bobsled team. The following examples are all taken from Wina Sturgeon's article in the June 24 issue of the Mountain Times.

1. The sport's most famous team - the Jamaicans - have never won a race.
   
2. Auditors found money that was supposed to go to athletes stashed in 12 different bank accounts, including some in Switzerland and no one was able to account for a half million dollars in USOC funding.
   
3. Helmets that were donated by a sponsor were later SOLD to the US Team athletes.
   
4. The authority of the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation is being challenged by a 45 year old man who believes he should be on the National Team even though he doesn't exercise, hasn't done a sport since junior high, has ridden in a bobsled twice but never raced, refuses to take the six-event standardized test, and failed a driver's course .
   
5. This same man has started his own bobsled federation and has honed his coaching skills by "what I have learned about bobsledding, what I have experienced in bobsled."
6. At the 1990 World Championships in Switzerland, federation officials commandeered the team van to go sightseeing [or to take the stolen money to the bank?], leaving the team's racers to travel to and from the track in an open truck.
7. Also at the 1990 World Championships, the team was told that they weren't going to get their uniforms because the plane bringing them from Japan has flown over the Mount St. Helen's volcano and had taken in some ash. The uniforms had been dumped into the volcano to prevent the plane from going down.

The Reasons why Park City is Ideal for Summer Training .

1. I haven't seen a cloud in weeks.
   
2. New running and biking trails pop up almost as quickly as the old ones are developed into condos.
   
3. One of the largest populations of elite xc skiers in the country.
   
4. Because it is fast becoming an overdeveloped, superrich, plastic, tourist town with 8 golf courses and no wilderness, so you better enjoy what little authenticity it has left while you still can.
   
5. The ski trail systems are pathetic, so you should train here in the summer instead of the winter.

The CD's that are in my stereo right now.

1. Hole- Celebrity Skin
   
2. Poison's Greatest Hits
   
3. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
   
4. R.E.M. - Up
   
5. Fat Boy Slim - You've Come a Long Way, Baby

The best reasons to do the I.R.S. this summer.

1. Bente Martinsen is rumored to be there
   
2. Scott Loomis is rumored to be there
   
3. Tartar sauce is a sponsor
   
4. Any resemblance between the I.R.S. logo and the record company logo on the back of R.E.M.'s album Reckoning is strictly coincidental.
   
5. So that you too can have complete strangers pull up beside you and ask, "Are you training for the Olympics?"

The highlights from last week in Bend.

1. Colter & Annie's Slideshow of South America
   
2. Dave's spectacular mt. bike crash
   
3. The crust skiing by Broken Top
   
4. The Mount Bachelor Bachelor's Cup
   
5. The run at Smith Rock

1. The Taco Stand
   
2. The excellent singletrack mountain biking
   
3. The ten feet of snow
   
4. Ultimate Frisbee
   
5. Getting a tan while skiing in shorts and a t-shirt
   

1. I finally realized that my life wasn't worth broadcasting
   
2. I was too busy waiting in line for Star Wars tickets
   
3. I've been too busy counting my millions in prize money from last season.
   
4. I'm still recovering from Spring Series
   
5. I was too busy watching the Jazz go down in flames in the playoffs