Typical Scottish weather

Its a typical Scottish day outside, grey and wet with low lying cloud. It may look a bit miserable but to be honest its quite nice to train in because its nice and cool but not cold enough that you have to wear thermals. This morning I went for a run with poles up the Clashmach which usually offers a panoramic view across Huntly and the surrounding hills however this morning......

View from the top of the Clashmach

Its a really nice run and ideal for using poles because its either climbing uphill or downhill. For the last few days I have been glued to the Sjusjoen web cam to see how there getting on in preparing for the World cup this weekend. http://sionvalais.com/review/sjusjoen/133567. Can't wait till I can spend half the weekend watching skiing on TV again, its what I live for really. 

Near the top of the Clashmach there is a very important Stile that has to be crossed. It has been truly blessed by somebody very special.

The blessed stile

This stile has been blessed my none other than the special one, Andrew Young. A couple of years ago the special one decided it would a great idea to try out his amazing hurdling skills over the stile. He tried to jump from the second step over onto the grass below however as you can see his plan didn't quite go to plan. It resulted in a broken step,a tumbling Andrew and me laughing my head off.

Half way down and you can just about see Huntly.

Any way I hope you'll all be watching the world cup this weekend and cheering on Andrew Musgrave in his first World cup of the season. My pick for the podium this weekend is Tarjei Bø but it is so hard to predict early season results and there are always a few surprises.

cheers

Alex Standen

Barn Gym

Strength sessions are of course a important part of training for cross country skiing but finding a decent gym in a small town like Huntly isn't so easy. There is a small gym at the swimming pool but it only has machines and has no free weights making it unsuitable for a decent strength session.

With this in mind we've had a set of free weights and platform in a local unused school for the last year or so which has been great having our own gym. Unfortunately we've had to move and the Newmans have gratefully stepped up and beyond the plate to let us use a part of their barn slash very big shed.

High performance gym.

Always good to have an emergency exit

Did this evenings session of pumping iron with the well renowned lanky man, Ruaridh Newman. It was a good session which included officially the worst exercise of all time, overhead lunges.

lanky man doing chins

wide grip chins, so much harder

Even managed to get one of the young twins, Oliver to do some chins and he is already better than his older brother. I should probably watch out and make sure they don't start beating me any time soon.

Cheers
Alex

First Blog

I've decided to start a wee blog mainly for a bit of banter but also because Mr Young, A.K.A http://ayoungxcskier.blogspot.com/, has one and some people actually seem to read it.

I'm currently in my home town of Huntly which for those who have never been it is the happening place of Scotland. Wikipedia has some very interesting facts about the town especially about fellow team mate Andrew Musgrave (pictured left). who apparently has been given the keys to the town and is know as the "Fabula" which is latin for "The Legend". 

Huntly does apparently have more than just a famous son and for more interesting facts about the town visit the ever reliable Wikipedia.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntly,_Aberdeenshire

I was suppose to be doing my first race in 11 months this weekend but with hardly any snow anywhere in Scandinavia or Europe this hasn't happened. Living in Scotland I am use to skiing on some dodgy snow and trails but this year the Russian team have taken the term "marginal conditions" to a whole new level .

Russian team attempting to ski at Natrudstilen, Norway

They are officially my new heroes because its bad enough skiing round and round a 1km loop never mind with  the added danger of face planting on tarmac. Heroes!

Any way I can't wait to get back onto some snow because there's nothing like the real thing! Hopefully there will be snow here in scotland soon but I am desperate to get on some skiing trails anywhere in world. Anybody got any good ideas of where to ski at the moment?

Bye for now

Alex Standen