I don't know if it's just me, but I'm finding it impossible not to be
inspired by the Olympics. After three days, we have two golds in
cycling road racing and swimming, a silver in canoeing, and things are
looking good in rowing too.

These sports have much in common with cross-country skiing: they all
combine strength and endurance with technique and tactics, and it's
great to see GB doing so well in these sports.

Having the Olympics in August is great for skiers - it gives us a real
motivation for to get stronger, faster and fitter in the autumn - when
the weather is cooler, and the time comes to set new challenges for
the winter.

It's a good time to set a challenge - be it a ski holiday, ski
marathon, rollerski race or fitness goal. Anyone can do this, and we
currently have skiers preparing for all of these, plus running
marathons, races to the South Pole and various other things. Whatever
your challenge, we welcome you to our autumn programme.


IMPROVE YOUR CLASSIC IN HYDE PARK

We have a classic Wednesday evening course starting on 10th September
in Hyde Park. In fact, two courses, a 4-week beginners' course and a
6-week advanced course. For more information, go to:
Level 1 (beginners) - http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events1.html
Level 2 - http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events10.html
Full course listing - http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events.html


DORNEY DAY

Our next Dorney course is on Sunday 24th August, the August Bank
Holiday. For the Level 2 course, we have new instructor, Karolina
Bicova, who will bring with her a wealth of experience from XC ski and
rollerski racing, and a lifetime of skiing. For more about Karolina,
read on. For more information on Dorney, go to:
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events3.html


JOIN US IN SEEFELD, 2009

We can now reveal our ski trip for 2009. We're going to the Austrian
village of Mosern, in the heart of the ski trails around Seefeld.
This is a fantastic place to cross-country ski, and the setting for
the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympic games.

If you would like to join us for a week of skiing, instruction and the
chance to take part in the Ganghofer ski marathon, take a look at:
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/cross.html


KAROLINA BICOVA - NEW INSTRUCTOR

Karolina Bicova joins the coaching team - athlete, instructor, nanny
and extreme athlete, Karolina is the top rated British rollerskier,
and you can read more about her here:
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/profilekarolina.html


JOIN THE CLUB TEAM

Our rollerski club continues to gather momentum. A lot of members
took part in last Saturday's Snowsport England course in London, and
we will shortly be announcing a new club name, logo and club kit. We
hope to affiliate to Snowsport England and create a new force in
British cross-country skiing.
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/club.html


AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE OF SPORT - RECIPE IDEAS

Healthy eating is a hugely important element of sporting life, and the
Australian Institute of Sport website is a great resource with
hundreds of free recipes to try, from 3 'Survival' cookbooks. You
will need an Australian-English dictionary for some words (and if
anyone can find tinned baby corn, let me know!), but this is well
worth using -
http://www.ausport.gov.au/ais/nutrition/recipes


YOUTUBE - IVAN GORBENKO

Ivan Gorbenko has produced the following YouTube video, created from
classic rollerskiing on and off road in Greenwich Park. It's well
worth a look and you can check this out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTZQXUnPHrg


ROLLERSKI RACING

The 5th race in the GB Rollerski Race Series took place on Saturday in
London. Official results have yet to be released, but the mens race
was won by Mike Dixon, followed by Ivan Gorbenko and Iain Ballentine.
The ladies race was won by Karolina Bicova, followed by Fiona
Crossley and Rachel Buttery. Well done to all who took part.


PS ALAN CAMPBELL, OLYMPIC ROWER

The following article is well worth a read -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/rowing/7511981.stm

Alan Campbell's story is a good one - he started rowing at 'Coleraine
Inst', one of Northern Ireland's four rowing schools (the others being
Belfast Inst (RBAI), Portora and Methody). I rowed at Methody and we
were always spiring with Coleraine Inst at regattas and head of the
river races across Ireland - some races they were better than us
although, at the time, we mostly beat them!

But the competition was good, and if we had egos, we always had a
laugh with the lads from Coleraine Inst. Both schools had
inspirational, outstanding coaches, who got us to work incredibly hard
on the river and in the gym, at the same time as we were working hard
to pass exams. We were successful on the water and made it to good
universities, against the odds. One mother said that if it hadn't
been for rowing, her son would be on drugs - in fact he made it to
Cambridge and rowed in Goldie, the Cambridge reserve boat, in 2000.
Such is the power of sport.

A fellow rower from Methody, and neighbour from home, Roger Pim, made
it to the Cambridge crew in 1997 and won over Oxford (at 6'3+ he was
one of the smallest in the boat!). I made it to Cambridge, but not
into any of the University crews - I trialled for the lightweight team
in 1998-9, but my hopes were dealt a blow through a broken collarbone,
suffered cycling with Roger back in NI. Still, we all got a huge
amount out of rowing at school and beyond.

But Alan Campbell is clearly in a different league, and I hope he wins
the sculling gold at Beijing - and if he doesn't, he is still a
legend! I think we haven't heard the last of him.





--
Iain Ballentine

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Roller ski instruction & rollerski shop

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W: http://www.rollerski.co.uk

E: iain@...
M: 07968 286129
T: 020 8348 2540

Rollerskiing in Health & Fitness magazine -
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/nr057.html

Rollerski courses coming up -
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events.html

Save on rollerski packages -
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/buypackages.html


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The Rollerski Co & Rollerski Instruction 2008

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