Fun in the Neighborhood

Today I put on a little neighborhood clinic so friends around the area could take advantage of the growing number of trails in the area. It was quite frosty out, reaching only about 10 degrees. We had a fun time nonetheless.

Follow the leader

Working on some good technique

Enjoying a tasty treat of Powerbar gummies!!! Thanks for keeping us going Powerbar

I think it might be winter!

My mom and I have been enjoying the many new trails options for skiing around Park City. I think we have over 40k in town plus Soldier Hollow, Mill Creek, Mirror Lake, Mountain Dell, and Solitude. Park City is quickly becoming a nordic hot bed!!! Even though all this skiing is close by, it is very important to get food in you within 15 minutes of finishing a workout to keep your metabolism high and to make sure you start recovering as soon as you finish. I have been enjoying the Harvest PowerBars and my mom has really taken a liking to the Nut Naturals. Either way, they all do a great job of providing not only some calories, but important vitamins and minerals needed for a faster recovery.

ahhh School!

Getting back into the grove of school has been rough! Classes take up a good deal of time, something I clearly forgot about! It has been spectacular getting back into training with a team again though. I have even been able to push it a little and do some time trials. I was just coming along great until I got a nagging cold that just doesn't want to go away... The east has provided me with more than my fair share of rain too, something that really gets to me being a mountain girl. I suppose its only making me tougher...This week we have our first rollerski time trial, a ropes course, Ke$ha concert, and the homecoming bonfire so I think its going to be a good week! Hopefully I can get some pictures of all the festivities this week and makes this thing a little more interesting. til next time

Summer

Without too much excitement this summer, the days have just rolled in and out with some teaching, some training, and lots of physical therapy. I did get a nice vacation in Cape Cod with all my family. I even met many family members I have never met before. I was able to spend some time with my brother and enjoy the ocean. Afterward, I head north to Craftsbury, VT to visit the boyfriend and some friends from school. I was able to do some rollerski speeds which was a first so things seem to be coming around. I spent a few days at school visiting with the coaches and teammates that stuck around for the summer. Now, I'm back to the PC livin'. Fall seems to be rapidly approaching which is great for training. I think I will go on 1 last adventure somewhere not too far before I have to head back to school.

I'm Back!

Having a nagging knee and getting surgery is pure torture for a nordic skier, so to ease the pain I chose not to reflect on it and stay away from the blogging world, but I'm back at it now and ready to share! So, first a quick recap on the past 5 months.

After returning from U23 World Championships, grass and dirt and a few patches of ice were all I found in Hanover. This was also a depressing notion for all of us and a first for me. In retrospect, it probably was for the better as I laid off the training and just raced hoping my knee would not worsen.

Finally, I headed home to meet with a third doctor about my knee. We decided surgery was the best option so I packed up the car and drove to Steamboat, CO to meet the rest of my team for NCAAs. It was beautiful spring skiing and some tricky wax conditions, but we made due and I ended up having my best races of the year. I was 2nd in the classic 5k and 5th in the mass start 15k freestyle.




Next, I decided I needed to have some fun before going under the knife so some teammates and I headed to Moab for some spring adventuring.


Cruisin' on the Slick Rock Trail

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Checkin' out Arches Nat'l Park

Then surgery, yuck!


Now, I am back home trying to get back into training. My knee seems to have healed for the most part, so the focus is on strengthening my leg. I am also interning at the Winter Sports School, doing some student teaching in a World History class. It has been wonderful and I am really enjoying teaching.

I plan to get back into doing updates so check back every so often. Last year of school! and then the real, well sorta real, world so hopefully I can keep you updated on some of my decisions over the year.
Thanks for all the support!

Sprinting in Fog

Our first race was yesterday, the skate sprint! It was basically raining when we showed up, almost like I never left New England, except it turns out if was POURING there.....Fortunately the rain let up but the fog stayed in making it so you couldn't even see across the stadium. It made the snow pretty fast because even though it was raining, it was cold so it made a nice frozen layer on top of the snow. I had a decent qualifying round, finishing in 16th which was the number I started so I guess FIS points aren't totally bullshit. The course was so fast and short, it was hard for me to get going, I like the more grueling courses as I tend to get faster as the day goes on. I had some serious nerves on the line of my quarterfinal as every racer has a laser in front of them, but you can't see it and if you break it, its a false start and you get DQed. They don't use these in the US or even on the World Cup so it was nerve racking and the girl next to me false started our heat and had to just walk away from the start line leaving just 5 in my heat. Despite all this, I actually managed to get off the line pretty quick but the trail is so wide, its hard to tell what position you are in going up the first hill and unfortunately by the time we started up the next hill I was in the back. Knowing that hill was the last good place to make a big move, I pushed a little harder and passed a few girls. Then comes this twisty turny finishing section that makes it a challenge to pass people. I was duking it out for third with this Norweigen girl and she snuck around me on the last curve, but i hung on her and swung wide into the finish and manage to pass her in the finishing lanes, finishing 3rd in my heat. The top 2 automatically move on to the semis and 2 of the 3rd place finishers to based on their heat time. My time wasn't quite fast enough so my day ended there and I finished in 15th. I was pleased with that and it may have been a blessing in disguise as my knee was very sore after the aggressive skiing required in sprint heats. It was a very exciting day though as Ida was racing great and made it to the A-final, finishing in 4th! It was exciting to cheer her on through the rest of the heats.


My quarterfinal heat. I'm on the far left, Canadian Kate Brennan (of no relation) is next to me, a norweigen next to her, another norweigen is behind me and a slovenian next to her.

We returned to the hotel to learn that they had turned the internet off because too many people were downloading illegally. As that is my only form of communication, I was devastated! Fortunately, they just decided to put a password on the browser so things not directly connected to the browser (Blitzmail, skype) worked so I was at least able to check my email this morning and skype with people. Ida then figured out how to hack into the internet so now its our little secret! Tomorrow is the 10k Classic race, which is my favorite event so I am looking forward to that, although the weather looks like it could be quite the adventure tomorrow.....

The Black Forest

I arrived in the Black Forest Wednesday morning after just a quick 6 hour flight over the big pond. We were all wishing the flight was longer as after just 4 hours of sleep the flight attendants were offering up breakfast! It was an empty flight which was nice so we all got to spread out and get a little shut eye. The black forest reminds me a lot of New England with bigger mountains. It is a little more humid here and well forested than the Alps or the western US. We are staying in a nice hotel in a valley. It is actually part of the Best Western Chain, but it totally european, complete with tinny beds! Ida and I lucked out and got the biggest room in the place which has been nice. A few other teams arrived yesterday and ever since the internet has been on the fritz with so many people trying to connect and skype and whatever else people do these days. To get to the ski venue we drive up some curvy roads to the top of a mountain. The trails are very hilly and by far the widest nordic trails I have ever seen. The biggest loop is only 3.75km so we will be racing lots of loops but it makes learning the courses pretty easy. All the teams were out there skiing today. Even though i have been to a few big international races, it still intimidates me to be skiing around with so many good skiers all decked out in their team uniforms. Russians scare me the most. Their coaches yell the most and are always smoking, ironic for an endurance sport, but thats how they role in Russia. Big events like this are great, everything gets taken care of for you. Athletes are responsible for very little. I tell the coaches which skis I want to ski on the night before and they are ready to go when I get there, then I bring them back after my ski and they clean them and wax them for me! The event is also catered so they have tents with all kinds of yummy baked food and hot drinks for us. The US jumpers and Nordic combiners are also competing here this weeks so I always look forward to seeing some PC friends on the road! I will try to upload a few pics, but I may get frustrated with the SLOW internet here.


The venue we train at when we can't get to the race venue


WIDE trails at the race venue. Yes thats 4 classic tracks and 2 skate lanes


The biggest city nearby, Freiberg


Sprint practice


Shout out to the Dartmouth Ski Team that won the carnival this weekend despite being down 6 nordic skiers that are over here racing!!!