Computer Problems...

I made it back to AK with just hours to spare before jumping into meetings for our annual fundraiser. I spent 3 days putting together the finishing touches on the fundraiser with the rest of my team. While no one likes doing these things, it is of course important to our team and being able to do the things we do best, skiing. Everything went well and we raised some good money!

Then we jumped right into training...Luckily AK is cold so there was still some skiing to be had so we did a mix of running and skiing and I have also taken up swimming this spring. I even bought myself a swim cap, making me the real deal...NOT. But I have found that mixing up the activities I do for training really helps my back stay in a less painful state and swimming of course involves little risk of further injury so I have been taking tips from my teammates that are really good at swimming and trying to improve.

We had just one week of training in Anchorage before we were off again. I headed to Bend, Oregon for a US Ski Team camp. I love Bend! It is a very hip outdoorsy town and it is the West. The cool part about Bend is that there is still skiing late into the summer up on Mt. Bachelor, a giant volcano. So, we ski in the morning and then head back into town where it is warm and summer-like for a dryland session in the afternoon. This is a great way to ease into dryland activities. When we can use our familiar skiing muscles on snow in the morning and then start to get our running, rollerskiing, adn biking muscles into shape in the afternoon, we help prevent injury while still training a high number of hours.

Just before I headed south, I made the bozo move of spilling on my computer...It still worked so I brought it and a day into the trip it suddenly failed on me. There was a bunch of mishaps during the fixing process so three weeks later I am still without a computer and really behind on everything because of it. Turns out I am really dependent not only on a computer, but also the internet! I am now back in Anchorage so I have the ability to use the computer lab at APU so I am slowly catching up. Creating a blog was one of the many things I am catching up on. Here are some pictures from the last month of my life.

In order to prevent this from happening again and to keep you all well informed, I am going to write a weekly blog on Sunday so please look for that!

The boys after an awesome ski with fresh snow at Hatcher's Pass, AK

The unwanted storm that brought half a foot of snow in town the day before we left for Bend

Skiing in Bend

At camp, we do lots and lots of following trying to pick up technique from others.  

Bend has awesome trails for running and biking. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a bike  to do some afternoon riding! 

Back in Anchorage, which I survived my first rollerski of the season on June 2nd!

 I did my first rollerski this week on June 2nd! Most people are probably thinking, what you only started rollerskiing now, you're behind. But I like to brag about this for a couple of reasons. First, I have really taken an effort to be more controlled in my training to try to eliminate my back injury for good and I feel I am accomplishing this. Second, I have been able to ski on snow until this week and we all know snow skiing is WAY better than road skiing. Lastly, it is easy to burn out on rollerskiing come October so the later the start the later the burnout so I should make it a long time this fall before I am dragging my feet to get out the door.

Look for Sunday Blogs from here on out! Enjoy Summer!