GEAR WEST 2009 CATALOG

Gear West has gone GREEN. Ok…that’s not totally true, but we are making an effort to cut down on paper product this season. We have gone to extreme lengths to convert our catalog to an electronic catalog. The online version allows one to either view online or download it in PDF form at your own convenience.

Time Management by Jenny

Jenny is a junior at Saint Cloud State University and is majoring in communication studies and marketing. She is the captain of the Nordic ski team, and is also a member of the cycling team.

This last month has been really hectic with adjusting to new classes and scheduling practice time outside of it. Training wise, the program here at SCSU is very much what you make of it. We’re a women’s only team and there are thirteen skiers total, three of whom are freshman and one a junior transfer from the University of Wyoming. We practice 5 days a week as a team; weekends are usually on your own. This year thus far we’ve had a few team time trials on rollerskis to simulate a race situation and to keep our racing mentality intact. Much of our technical focus has been on improving double pole technique, working on a dynamic arm swing. As for strength, we average around 2-2.5 hours of strength training per week. Many exercises we do are body-weight exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups, dips, and lunges.

Recently we‘ve had some great upgrades to our ski room, which is an old racquetball court in the basement of our athletic facility. Fifteen new cubbies designed to hold our equipment! Hopefully the October snow was a positive indicator of what’s in store for the future, in the mean time, think snow!

-Jenny

October Skis by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering.He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion.When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife, one-year-old son and new baby girl Samantha.

It snowed last night and this morning in the Twin Cities and we received enough snow for me to venture out on an anonymous golf course in the western suburbs. The skiing was great with a little silicon spray on the entire length of a pair of rock crown skis. I just got back from an intense camp at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, NY so I didn't ski for very long… just enough rekindle the fire for real snow!

Train hard, train smart

Matt

Golf Tourney Fun!

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering.He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion.When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife, one-year-old son and new baby girl Samantha.

This past Sunday was the 4th Annual Matt Liebsch Golf Tournament. This year we had 45 golfers and many of them were skiers (and they can even golf!). The event raised some money to help fund my Olympic aspirations and everyone had a great time.

Congratulations to the Gear West foursome of Tom, Drew, Speedy and Stu on your 3rd place finish. The Gear West team had tied for 3rd but won in a putt off. I know you guys were super excited to win those Gear West Gift cards=)

This week I am training hard and will run the 1/2 marathon Trail Loppet this coming Saturday. Also, I’ll be in at Gear West for the Salomon SuperFit weekend.

To Ski or Not To Ski: Making the Decision after High-School

Jenny is a junior at Saint Cloud State University and is majoring in communication studies and marketing. She is the captain of the Nordic ski team, and is also a member of the cycling team.

One of the most challenging things for a college-bound, high school athlete to decide at the end of their secondary education is if they want to continue on to compete at the collegiate level. For me there were no questions asked; skiing has always been a passion of mine. I love to compete and plan on continuing for as long as I live.

I feel that participating in a sport was advantageous to me in several different ways.

One of the benefits as an incoming freshman was that I instantly had a core group of people that I knew I had something in common with. It helped in easing the anxiety of being away from home and all of the sudden changes that occur as a result of adjusting to a new life at school.

Secondly I consider having constraints on my time to be an advantage. This may sound weird at first, but having to balance my class schedule with practice, training camps, and race weekends has helped me become very efficient when it comes to time management.

Also, as result of traveling, I’ve found that it is imperative to establish relationships with your professors. By communicating with them, they will be more likely to help you with assignments outside of class time and more understand when you need to miss class for a competition.

Bottom line- if you or someone you know is on the fence about college sports, I say take the plunge, it’s worth it.

- Jenny

Matt Liebsch's Top Ten

Matt Liebsch's Top 10 Basic Dryland/ Rollerski Tips

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering.He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion.When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife, one-year-old son and new baby girl Samantha.

1) No-poles skating: Skate roller skiing without poles is great for technique and for specific strength. Focus on pushing side to side and not back. Make sure to transfer weight 100%. Eliminate stepping up but rather focus on having the feeling of falling forward on your skis… free speed. Be symmetric in the lower body… have a friend video so you can watch yourself.

2) Increased Core Strength: We can all improve here! The stronger your core, the faster you will ski. Sit-ups, sit-ups with weight, medicine ball work, russian twists, planks, core braces, back braces, side braces, back-ups, inverted sit-ups, side sit-ups, rows, half rows, book slaps, leg throws, leg lifts… get the idea?

3) Poling Specific Strength: I have found great gains in doing this type of training. Single stick, up-hill, try it. As you get better at it you will be faster. Also, double poling and core only double poling up steep hills will improve ski fitness and strength.

4) Take lessons/Get a coach: Training below or above your target intensity is a good way to over-train or miss training opportunities. You should have a V02max test or lactate profile test completed to set your training zones. A coach can offer invaluable advice when it comes to training and technique. Ski lessons are another means to increase efficiency, especially if you take lessons from someone with a keen eye for technique.

5) Eat smart and get fit: A solid diet will give you the proper nutrition to feel great when training and throughout the day. Also, exercise and a proper diet will help one achieve an ideal weight. Let's face it, our sport is power endurance based. Increase the power and decrease the weight and you'll go faster for a given effort.

6) Use poles for Dry-land: Incorporate poles as often as possible when you are dry-land training specifically on foot. If you are going on a run, bring your poles and use them. Ski walking and ski bounding are great activities while using poles. Really think about activating the core and engaging the poles. Drive the arms and don't just use your legs.

7) Get stronger: Get to the gym or run to the nearest playground. Can you do 10 pull-ups? Not easy? Then strength is probably an area you can improve on and see gains in your skiing. This is where a training group/coach can be helpful. If you are going to be spending time in the gym you want to make sure you are working on exercises that will translate to your skiing. Working up to 50lb curls will probably not help you ski faster. Dips, pull-ups, one legged squats, lat pull-downs, over-head triceps extension, and lunges are all good ski specific exercises.

8) Plyos: Great for working on quickness, explosiveness, and speed… all things that we want to see in our skiing. Be careful if you have sensitive knees when attempting any of the one-leg exercises. Try the following during dryland sessions; Two-leg vertical jumps, standing broad jumps, one-leg vertical hops, one-leg vertical bounds, classic box jumps, skate box jumps, vertical bounds, lunge jumps, one-leg squat jumps, classic jumps, stationary lateral bounds, uphill lateral bounds, uphill striding bounds, skipping, standard box jumps, cross-over jumps, hurdles, and vertical displacement jumps to name a few.

9) Go fast on rollerskis: If you move slowly all the time on your roller skis that could become your style on snow skis. Go fast! Anything from 10 second speed bursts to 20 min threshold intervals is great. If you want to be a fast skier you have to train it. I really like threshold intervals for good fitness gains and moving at a speed that allows you to think about good technique without going in the tank.

10) Go long or hard – not both: I see many master skiers training at L2+ pace much of the time. You can only train hard or long… not both, so you need to differentiate. Going L2+ all the time will result in your ability to race at L2+ very well but what happens when the racers next to you moves into L3 or worse yet, L4 for the uphill? You are done. Make sure to incorporate intervals and distance in your training. If you don't feel good on your interval days it means you went too hard on your distance days. Also, if you feel super duper great on your distance days it probably means your body is ready to handle more intensity.

Update from the Haig Glacier

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering.He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion.When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife, one-year-old son and new baby girl Samantha.

Hey All, Just a quick update. I am on the Haig Glacier outside of Canmore, Alberta for an on-snow camp this week. I am training with my teammate, Brian Gregg, and we are tagging along with a couple ski clubs from Canada. We are training big hours and getting our ski legs back. Skiing on the glacier is up high, around 9000ft. Weather has been a mixed bag but this afternoon was beautiful. Check out my website and Brian Gregg’s website for more pictures and updates. www.mattliebsch.com www.xcskilife.com

Train hard, train smart (especially when at altitude)

Matt

New boots, training camp and now recovery

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife, one-year-old son and new baby girl Samantha.

This past week I was in Hayward for an intensity block of training with the CXC team. For me, the week involved 9 hard workouts over the course of 5 days… 3 VO2max workouts, 2 time trials, 3 strength workouts and a threshold session. I am a little tired to say the least. Luckily I have been working with Larry Foss at "The Fix Studio" … http://www.thefixmassage.com. Larry is great at putting me back together after I break down my body with hard training. This coming week is a well deserved recovery week as I allow my body to absorb all the training I have completed over the past few weeks.

When I arrived at camp in Hayward I was greeted with a gift… new boots – Salomon S-Lab Skate Boot! I think it may be my engineering background but I love any new techie stuff. Kevin Johnson of Salomon sports sent me a pair of next seasons boot. I didn't think the new boots could be more comfy than my current Salomon S-Lab boots but I was wrong. It feels like Salomon improved the overall fit, especially the arch and last. Kevin also sent me 2 cuffs to play around with; the standard cuff and new Carbon Energyzer cuff. Initial testing has me very excited with the carbon cuff. It seems to keep you in a better skiing position than the standard cuff. One last item I noticed was the pin on the boot is moved further under the foot. This definitely gives a better feeling of control and pushing off the ski seems a little more natural. Additionally, the boots are just as water proof as last years boots, I would know as we did a lot of rollerskiing in the rain last week at camp.

Train hard, train smart!

Busy Week by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

So this past week was quite eventful. I started the second week of training camp only to get a call from Marybeth after the first workout. She was heading to the hospital with her mom to check things out… she stated that she didn't think she was in labor and said I should stay at camp and finish my second workout with the team… I ignored her and got in my car went to meet her in labor assessment.

Good thing I did because we had a little girl later that evening. Check out my website www.mattliebsch.com for her picture and stats. She is a mellow baby compared to Grant and is very sleepy. Marybeth is recovering quickly and our parents have been helping out a lot… I even got in a few workouts last week.

I'll be hanging low for the next few weeks as our family adjusts to a new little one but then the training hours will get ramped back up. It's not worth training hard if the sleep (recovery) isn't there. Remember it is the recovery that makes us faster and stronger. I learned this the hard way when Grant was born.

Train hard, train smart

Matt

Training Hard by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

I am currently one week into the 2^nd CXC training camp of the year. Last week my training load was the largest I've done in quite awhile… 24hrs of rollerskiing, weight lifting, running, intervals and some paddling. Sunday my team concluded the training week with a 4 hour classic rollerski… lots of double poling and about 45 miles covered. I am surprised at how well my body reacted to the training load. Usually after a week of high level training I am ready for a message and a few days off.

Right now I am enjoying my Monday (off/rest day) without any excessive tiredness or soreness. I attribute this to tapering a bit coming into camp and carrying out my passive and active recovery methods daily. I've been doing some active recovery jogs, stretching and self message along with proper nutrition during and after workouts.

This week is the last week of camp and won't involve quite as many training hours. Hopefully the weather stays nice.

Also, our baby girl should be arriving any day now. Soon I'll have two kiddies to chase around!

Best Cool Down – 55/5’s by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

This past year I have been following a cool-down procedure used by the USST sprinters. I only do this cool-down after lactate acid accumulating workouts. The goal of this specific cool-down is to flush as much lactate out of the muscles as possible so I can recover faster. After I finish my last set of intervals I let my heart rate get back to Level 1 by walking around a bit or if the last interval was really hard, I pass out on the ground. After reaching L1 heart rate I move back into L2 for 10 minutes. Next comes the 55/5’s which involve 55 seconds at sub L1/ recovery pace followed by 5 seconds of all out L5 speed. This super slow pace followed by super fast speed does a wonderful job of squeezing lactate acid out of the muscles and flushing it out of the system.

Some key points of doing this correctly are that the 5 seconds of on-time need to be very hard. It should feel like all the muscles in your body are contracting at maximum. Also, you don’t have to start the 5 second speed from a dead stop. You can workup to high pace and then back down slowly as well… should be around 15 seconds total with the middle 5 seconds being at maximal effort. This buffer in and out of the speed will lessen any chances of injury. Last year I injured my ankle doing 55/5’s via running by starting and stopping too soon. There is a lot of force produced from going 0-100% effort but if you go from 60%-100% you lessen some of that extreme acceleration stress.

Train hard, train smart

Matt

Lactate Testing and Finding LT by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

The past Tuesday I meet up with my good friend and club coach, Piotr Bednarski, for some baseline lactate testing. I had already V02max tested with my program coach Bryan Fish, but I wanted to check some lactates to make sure everything matched up and get my training zones squared away.

The protocol we used involved skate skiing up the 3-5min hill along East River Road which goes underneath East Franklin Street. Every time I rollerskied up the hill I would try to bump up my heart rate into the next perceived training zone. Here are my results.

HR	Lactate	Time
129	1.0	4:28
149	2.1	4:06
163	3.9	3:38
168	5.1	3:01
172	7.8	2:43

After discussing the results with Piotr, we were able to nail down my current training zones. There are a lot of theories on defining training zones but the most important point to know is your lactate threshold (LT). LT is the pace at which accumulation of lactate acid matches the bodies ability to remove it from the body… this LT zone is usually the pace one could hold for about a 1hr all out effort. Lactate threshold is usually right around 4mM for most individuals but can vary in between 2.5mM and 6mM for some people. Based on this test data, my LT zone would be between 164-166 BPM (a little lower than normal but hey, its spring time and I have not be training a ton of intensity yet). It is important to remember that LT is different for each exercise so my LT could be higher or lower depending on whether I was double polling, running, biking, swimming or striding. Now that I know my LT zone I can training at my LT pace and make solid gains. I find that LT training gives me the most "bang-for-the-buck" with regards to fitness gains. A favorite workout of mine is 3by15min at LT; with proper warm-up and cool-down of course.

If you're interested in having a lactate profil done contact Piotr via http://gotraining.us/

Train hard, train smart

Matt

Gear West Duathlon Race Report by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering.  He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion.  When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

Well, my legs never came back 100% from my overzealous week of training but the race went well regardless.  Race day started out a little hectic; I noticed on my way to the venue that my rear tire was flat.  Luckily, the Gear West mechanics were able to find a tiny tack in my tire and then replaced my tube in short order.  My next item of business was to choose the right clothing… it was a chilly morning and the day started around 32F.  I ended up racing in shorts and a thin long sleeve top and I'm glad because if I had gone in tights I would have died from overheating.

            The first 5k run was great and I came into the transition in 6^th place.  Once I got on the bike, I steadily lost time.  My legs were a little sore from the past week of hard intervals and my dad's old road bike was no match for the time trial rockets that came cruising by me.  Getting off the bike and transiting back to running sparked one of the weirdest feelings… it was as if I was trying to learn to run all over again.  My legs felt like jelly and my hamstrings felt like strings ready to snap.  I thought I was going to be walking it in, but after a mile my legs loosed up a bit and I finished strong in 10^th place.

            Post race has left me with some lingering soreness… having a little trouble walking down stairs.   I did a proper cool down and have been stretching and rolling the last two days but I don’t think I had enough time on the bike to condition the muscles for the abuse I put them through.

            The GW Dualthon was a fun event and I will definitely be back next year to improve my time and place… maybe I'll try to track down some aero bars next time around.

Train hard, train smart!!!

Matt

Overreached vs. Over-Trained by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

I think I may be a little overreached at the moment, but that is OK. Overreached is a state of fatigue that our body can recover from and compensate as we get faster/ fitter. This week I got a little keyed up and did back-to-back-to-back intervals on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Plus, on Friday I went on nearly a 3.5 hr bike with Garrott Kuzzy. Needless to say, my legs are feeling a little coiled up at the moment. I am optimistic that by Sunday my legs will bounce back from an overreached state and I will be feeling 100% for the Gear West Duathlon. However, I am hoping to have a good result. It will require me to listen to my body and take the next few days easy.

Over-trained, on the other hand, is not a good place for an athlete to be. Over-training is a condition that comes about from continually overreaching again-and-again. I have been in this state before and it is not enjoyable. The signs of over-training are different for each athlete, but for me it includes loss of body mass, suppressed immune function, along with up and down results. Needless to say, I had a frustrating season when I was over-trained.

There are a few key things I believe can prevent over-training and they include listening to your body, good nutrition, supplementation, benchmark testing and good hygiene. I believe the most important of these is listening to your body. The year I over-trained, I got caught up in total training hours and I even managed to over-train while using resting HR to evaluate physical stress. I should have done a better job of listening to my body vs. what the numbers were telling me. By the time the numbers were showing that I was over-trained, I was already up to my eyeballs in fatigue.

Train hard, train smart!!!

Matt

Strength for the Nordic skier by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

It's that time of year… everyone wants to get their beach muscles in shape. This is true for the causal individual and serious skiers alike. It is a great time of year to work on overall toning and conditioning. Skiers tend to get muscle imbalances from doing too much ski specific activity over the winter so working neglected muscle is essential.

Strength can be as simple as doing some pushups, sit-ups and crunches, or as complicated as Single-Leg Good Mornings and Romanian Dead-Lifts. It is important for skiers to remember that the goal in strength training is to get faster at ski racing. Putting on 10lbs of muscle will probably not help you ski faster but getting stronger without excessive weight gain will translate to skiing faster and a higher level of injury prevention. A common question I get is… "How strong is strong enough for skiing?" I had a very good ski coach once tell me "If you can do 10 pull-ups you are probably strong enough to ski." This is a bit overly simplistic but I think a very true statement.

If you have some questions about the kind of exercises to do for skiing I would recommend looking at www.cxcacademy.com on how to incorporate strength into a training plan for skiers.

Train hard, train smart

Matt

Hit the Ground Running by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

The 2008-2009 training year ended this past Sunday and the 2009-2010 year started a day later on Monday the 27th of April. CXC has wasted no time at all and our first training camp started this week. We have been doing some baseline testing along with some light workouts and individual/team meetings.

For those that are interested our team’s results from our testing and a great write-up by Garrott Kuzzy can be found here…

http://www.cxcskiing.org/site_pages/news/newstring6.htm

As camp wraps up in the next few days I am energized to start the next year of training as our team prepares for the Olympics. We have been goal setting this camp and I believe it is an important step for every athlete, regardless of ability or age. Before you set out training for your next event or season, take some time to think critically about your goals and the steps necessary to make progress towards those goals.

Train hard, train smart

Matt

Rollerskiing by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

For me, the rollerski season is about to begin. I know many skiers will wait a lot longer to get out on the rolling boards but I like to get going by May 1^st. A good idea before your first roll should include a look at your equipment. Are your wheels falling apart, how is the shaft structural stability, are your bindings working properly, do the wheels and bearing flow or is there grinding? Once you give all your gear a good look over make sure to replace anything that is worn or broken. Also, I highly recommend wearing a helmet in regards to safety equipment, and I will give you my rollerski story about what scared me into always wearing a helmet.

Last summer I was in Marquette, MI at the Olympic Education Center (OEC) for a training camp. For some reason Michigan Law requires rollerskiers to travel into on coming traffic; my guess is they classify roller skiers as pedestrian. Well that was fine because the shoulders were very large and I felt very comfortable.

So… I was in a 25+ mph tuck going downhill on highway near Marquette Mountain. While in my tuck I had a small flat rock kick up and jam in my front right wheel. As you imagine this caused my right ski to act as an anchor and towed me out into on coming traffic. I was starring down a logging truck coming uphill and managed to dive back into the shoulder before getting smashed. I was very happy to have my helmet on as I used it as a break pad.

Moral of the story… use a helmet while rollerskiing.

Best,

Matt

www.gearwest.com

www.cxcskiing.org

Lost in the Woods by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

Hi All,

I am the newest addition to the staff at Gear West so feel free to drop me a line or let me know if you would like to see any writing on a specific subject. Contact me at Liebsch@gearwest.com.

This past weekend included my annual participation in the Trail Mix 50k Team relay. I have raced with my team, the Nordic Ninjas, for the past two years. Each year the Nordic Ninjas manage to win the overall team event. This happens for two reasons. One, we are all decent runners. Two and probably more important, all the really fast runners pair up with some less speedy folks or do the individual events.

This year I was a little more prepared than last year and had about 30 miles on my legs since the ski season ended. Last year I went out conservative and felt good for my 8 miles but this year my plan was to hang onto the lead for as along as possible. This leader was the speedy Gear West runner, Brooks Grossinger. By 2 miles into the race my eyes were already rolling into the back of my head… did I mention Brooks beat me by over 3 minutes last year! About the time I was ready to blow up Brooks slowed way down and stopped. We looked around and realized we had missed a turn. After standing around and trying to decide what next, a runner from behind passed by and yelled "didn’t you hear this is an orienteering race?" About 15-20 of us followed him as we bushwhacked through the woods and we eventually found our way back to the racecourse.

Once back on course the race finished well. Every year I forget how sore I can get after my first running race. Yesterday I couldn't move and today I skipped my normal bike ride into work. Maybe next year I'll learn and do a few running intervals before I jump into racing!

Best,

Matt

80th Birthday Party for Bjorn Lasserud

On Wednesday, April 15th, Gear West hosted an 80th Birthday Party Celebration for local skier Bjorn Lasserud. There was over 60 people in attendance for food, drinks, and stories to celebrate this renowned local skier.

A little about Bjorn. He is a World Master Champion many times and National Master Champion. He has lead the Minneapolis Ski Club workouts for decades. With 2 new knees, he is out on the trails every day, every season, biking, roller skiing, pole hiking, and of course snow skiing. ALWAYS with a smile on his face and more enthusiasm than most of us - for sport and for life.

Special thanks to Robin Thomas for the great photos!

Gear West's Dirtiest Event Yet

Earlier this month, Gear West hosted a fantastic Mud Run. 40 brave souls ran through ski trails on a balmy 30 degree April 4 morning and managed to find a bit of mud. Prizes were awareded to the dirtiest female and male runner. This was a low key event and no time were taken (unless you took note of your own time).

Special thanks to Robin Thomas for the great pictures!

Really cool Giro Eyewear

Every once in a while a product comes along that has the cool looks but doesn't sacrifice on form, fit, and function. Gear West's new eyewear line from Giro (http://www.gearwest.com/giro-c-2846.html) fills the gap on the best in multi-sport eye wear. Originally designed for integrated use with Giro's bike helmets, these sunglasses are snug, light, and have unbelievable clear lenses.

Thanks to a great partnership with Zeiss, Giro is able to come out with the best in a clear and non-deforming lens. The lenses on all Giro glasses are cut to perfect standards to eliminate any distortion when looking through the lens. Some lenses can deform what you're looking at usually around the edges. Images can become squashed or weird looking, but with the Zeiss cut lens (same technology used in binoculars and rifle scopes), there is no distortion or anything weird going on.

Another really cool feature of Giro eye wear is their lightness on the face. Sometimes when wearing sunglasses, there can be weird pressure points or they feel heavy, but with Giro, there is no strange pressure points. The temples sit nicely on the ears without pushing the ears out and down. Not only are there no pressure points, they are so light that it's hard to tell that they're even on your head!

I've had the chance to try out the Giro Filter and Semi Full sunglasses. With superb fit and comfort, these sunglasses are a good option when looking for a multi-use eye wear.

The Filters are a medium sized piece and fits many face sizes. What sets the Filters apart from all the other multi-lens/multi-sport glasses is the ease of changing lenses. Giro has created the Pop Top. This is the simplest way to change lenses. Never again will you have to try and rip your frames apart and leave fingerprints all over the place just to change your lenses. Simply just flip the Pop Top on the side of the Filters' frame and the lenses are free. Insert the new lens and flip the Pop Top back down. It's just that simple. Check out this link for more on Giro's Pop Top technology http://www.giro.com/site/#/technology/sunglasses/pop_top_technology/pop_top_technology/.

The Semi comes in a full or a compact lens size. The frame sizes are the same between the two, but the lens size is a different size. The Semi Full have a bigger lens shape for medium to larger heads. The Semi Compact work really well for medium to smaller head sizes. At a competitive price point, the Semis are the way to go. The lenses can be changed with a simple amount of pressure applied on the frames. I was really impressed by how easy changing the lenses were as compared to other glasses. The Semis are light and look great on or off the field.

To see more Giro Eyewear, visit http://www.gearwest.com/.