Hi all, this is Luke Allan, first year member of the BSF pro team, and first time BSF blogger. I come from Ottawa, Canada, and recently finished four years skiing for the Dartmouth Big Green.
This week, the team finished up a great on-snow training camp in Canmore, Alberta. We skied on the Frozen Thunder snow loop at the Canmore Nordic Center, and had some lovely sessions on the Moraine Lake Road Trail near Lake Louise (pictured below).
Photo Cred: Emma Albrecht
The team then packed up the van and drove back to Bozeman on Wednesday, November 12. Now, members of the team are preparing for their respective first races of the season. Erin and Kate leave for World Cup Period 1 on Monday! I’ll be heading to Silverstar, British Columbia on Wednesday for the first Canadian Cup races, and the rest of the team will be heading to Alaska after Thanksgiving for the first Supertours.
Since this week is all about rest and recovery, I figured I'd switch things up with a different kind of update: a linguistic one. As a passionate fan of lore, etymology, and all things skiing and ski training, I’ve put together a list of the latest vocabulary, phrases, and fun facts making the rounds. Consider this your nordic-skiing lexicon upgrade, perfect for keeping up with any Gen Z skiers in your life.
Stop ahead sign: During easy rollerskis, these road signs act as a finish line for an all-out sprint. The champion earns bragging rights.
Hours Farmer: One who deliberately restrains from pausing their watch during an extended water break, in the hope of inflating their overall training hours.
Free Stone Grind: A classic saying for when you are gliding over some rocks. Dropping this phrase is sure to earn you a laugh no matter the crowd.
Master Blaster: A term used for a skier who is over 40, has unnecessarily nice equipment, trains exclusively in Zone 2, and is always “peaking for the Birkie.”
Shadow Grinding: Training off the record. Going out for extra training sessions that aren’t on the training plan, not posting workouts on Strava, and not logging sessions. The goal of shadow grinding is to fly under your competitors’ radar in the off-season, and surprise everyone once the snow flies.
Hay in the Barn: An expression to describe all the training that you’ve completed.
Example:
Luke: “Hey Graham, what’d you get up to on Saturday?”
Graham: “Oh, you know… just put some hay in the barn.”
Points Farmer: A skier who strategically enters soft fields and slow races for the sole purpose of harvesting low FIS points, thereby cultivating an artificially impressive ranking.
Segment Hunter: Skier who methodically studies the Strava maps, plans their intervals to precisely overlap the Strava Segments, and finally goes out and performs these intervals under favorable conditions (ideally a strong tailwind).
A Pair of Lungs / An Engine / A Diesel: Nickname for an athlete with an excellent aerobic capacity and superior stamina. Example: “That guy Krueger is an absolute pair of lungs”.
Lucky Loser: In a sprint race, a skier who moves on to the next round due to their time, despite finishing outside of the top two automatic qualification spots in their heat.
If I missed any good ones, drop them in the comments below. Also, a quick reminder that today is the last day to bid on the BSF Pro team auction to support our season sendoff!
