What a taxing week I’ve had… Ha ha. Very funny. (It’s tax day in the US, for you foreign readers.) Thanks once again to Skaði Nordic for sponsoring this week in review: A two part series examining the question of ‘home snow advantage’. The short answer is that while overall there is generally no (statistically) […]
Tagged week in reviewSeveral talented sprinters are retiring this year, among them Arianna Follis. While she’s known as a sprinter, her results indicate that she wasn’t a terribly slow distance skier either, particularly later in her career: This suggests that it’s been the previous four seasons where her distance racing has really been fairly strong, and in fact […]
Tagged arianna follis, retirment, retrospectiveLast time we tackled the question of ‘home snow advantage’, but only for distance events. The methodology I’m going to follow for sprinting is nearly the same, though obviously we can’t use the same performance measure. I’m not going to repeat myself much, so go back and read Monday’s post if you think you need […]
Tagged Analysis, home snow advantageThe folks at Nordic Commentary Project were kind enough to point me towards an interesting book that raises the issue of ‘home snow advantage’. I actually haven’t had a chance to read the book yet, but the question of a home snow advantage is certainly an interesting one and it’s one that I haven’t talked […]
Tagged Analysis, home snow advantageGee, I wonder what the big news in XC skiing this week could be? It sounds from the translated reports from Norway and Estonia that I’ve read that Andrus Veerpalu tested positive (both A and B samples) for human growth hormone, but is denying any wrongdoing. Naturally, this means I started the week off with: […]
Tagged doping, week in reviewFinnish sprinter Pirjo Muranen is one of several skiers hanging up their skis for good this year. I’ll be devoting a post to each of them over the next few Fridays, but first the Finnish sprinter. Muranen was certainly a successful skier, though not an overpowering one. She has an individual Gold and Bronze from […]
Tagged finland, pirjo muranen, retrospective, skier retirementPacing is a frequent topic of conversation in skiing, or really any endurance sport. Typically, the refrain is ‘don’t start to fast‘. In fact, I feel like I hardly ever hear people recommending that one should start a race harder. It must happen occasionally (and I’ll share a story about this later), but I suspect […]
Tagged pacing, splits