Norge

We made our way back to Norway, this time to Lillehammer for the 2nd weekend of World Cup racing. Norwegians are very proud of their home and are fond of telling us that everything is better in Norway. While we love to make fun of this, there is some truth in it, despite the astronomical cost of anything.

The travel day landed on my 25th birthday this year and needless to say, I wasn't super excited to be traveling on my birthday, but it turned out to be not so bad of a day.

Jessie made me brownies and delivered them on the plane. The plane sang to me and I even got a card from the pilot!

The great thing about flying this time of year is that we get up above the clouds and get to experience some extreme sunlight for the duration of the flight. I just put my head right up against the window and took a nap in the warm sunlight!

When we got to the hotel, I couldn't believe my eyes. The buffet was incredible, shrimp, mussels, 3 types of fish, 2 tables full of dessert options, anything you can dream of and more. Despite all the dessert options, the kitchen made me a special piece of chocolate cake that was just my kind of chocolately delight!

 When we arrived there was no snow! They had a man made loop on the race trail, but it didn't look much like winter or Christmas time around the town.

The manmade loop (hoff Photo)

Downtown Lillehammer

The race trails are quite challenging so in order to avoid exhausting ourselves, we traveled up to Sjusjoen, a town on top of the hill with some natural snow, to get some more skiing in. The conditions weren't ideal, but it sure was pretty!

Skiing at Sjusjoen (hoff photo)

 We were welcomed by a big storm later in the week. It was one of those magical storms that turns an otherwise dull gray town into a picturesque scene from any Christmas movie you can think of.

Winter!

 We also got the opportunity to visit the Swix factory that is in Lillehammer. It is the factory for all Swix waxes, some plastic parts, the distribution center for all Norway, and the factory for many Toko waxes as well. I had never seen a wax factory so I was quite fascinated by the whole process.

Missing some lids to your kick wax?

The kick wax machine

Grips for the poles 

The warehouse, so much wax!

We got to see the klister being processed. 

The empty tubes roll down

And get filled with the sticky stuff and pinched shut. 

There was a cool display of wax through the ages. 

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 Now to the racing. We raced a 10km classic race on Saturday. This is one of my favorites so I was pretty excited. The course was very challenging, there was only about 300 meters that was flat, most of which was in the stadium. I started off strong, but struggled a little the 2nd half and finished the day in 54th. It was not exactly what I was hoping for, but I did feel better than last weekend so maybe things are coming along slowly. Sadie had another amazing race finishing the day in 7th. When I crossed the line, there she was still in the leaders chair wrapped in some fur until some faster ladies came in moments later.

Another storm came just in time for the relay day. It made for some challenging conditions... the U.S. ladies got to start two teams for the first time ever, which was pretty cool. And the first team crushed it, skiing strong through the slop to a 3rd place! My team finished 12th, some of us had great legs, others didn't ski as well as they were hoping. I was one of the later, feeling my legs from the previous days race and struggling with the soft snow made for not my best day. It was pretty neat to get to be part of a relay on the World Cup and I am certainly inspired by the other girls' performances!

Start of the men's relay in the blizzard.

I am rather impatiently waiting for everything to come together for me so I too can have a great World Cup race and I am hoping that the mountains and sunshine of Switzerland can do just that for me.

Finally, Racing!

I started my season this past weekend at the Ruka Triple World Cup outside on Kuusamo, Finland at a resort village called Ruka. It is very close to the Arctic circle and also very close to the Russian border. The Ruka Triple is a mini tour which consists of 3 races: a sprint, a 5k classic individual start, and lastly a pursuit start 10k skate. The pursuit start means that you start based off of your combined time back from the previous 2 races so the first person across the line is the overall tour winner.

The weekend was far from what I was hoping for, I placed between 67-77 in all three races. However, the good news is that each race felt a little better. I believe that my preparations for coming over here were less than ideal and that I am just now starting to be in the place I wanted to be in 2 weeks ago. Of course, it never helps to think retroactively and regret the things I did, but it is also important to acknowledge them and move forward, so here I go, forward!

There were some great results from the rest of the team however, my Anchorage roomie, Sadie, had her best weekend ever, getting some top 10s and hanging tough with the big guns. Kikkan got her best ever classic sprint result, Noah had the fastest time of the day in the skate pursuit, and the other girls scored some top 10s in the skate. Go USA!

I enjoyed Ruka a lot. It was very wintery, snowy, and had lots of skiing. It is unique in that we stay in little condos by the race course so we have our own space with a mini kitchen, personal sauna, and wood stove. It was a World Cup so we do get a meal plan so we didn't use our kitchens other than to fix the occasional snack, instead we climbed up a big hill to the dinning hall with all the other teams. Despite the fact that it is a large hill, I enjoyed getting out and walking 3x a day; it helps to not get cabin fever. Ruka is also know for being very cold and while I will say it was cold, we lucked out and it never got below zero and I don't even think we raced in below 10F temps.

We did some team disco bowling, it's a good thing we are skiers, not bowlers...

Mikey, looking fine. 

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Wintery, dark Ruka. The sun rose about 10AM and set about 2PM and I thought Anchorage was dark. 

We celebrated Hanukkah. Noah made us latkes and they were delicious!

Our personal saunas, so nice after a cold race.

We celebrated Andy Newell's 30th birthday party with homemade bolle from our wax tech Peter's wife.

Some of the Norwegian girls team came to sing to Andy and deliver some gifts!

Ida gave me an advent calendar with a chocolate for everyday! I am excited to countdown til home, family, and xmas!

Back in Europe, where the weekend consists of watching skiing on TV instead of Football...Love it!

We have moved on to Lillehammer, Norway, where snow is scarce, but the sun is shinning a little more and the food is superb.

Beitostolen, Norway

After a full day of traveling, I was greeted in Norway by some pesky little virus, which is to say, every Nordic skier's worst nightmare. So, I was put into isolation with little internet. As a result, I got bored very quickly. I would read until I could feel my eyes shutting, trying my best to adapt to the time change, I wasn't allowing myself to nap. Fortunately, I was still able to get out and ski a little bit. Unfortunately, I had to make the tough decision to sit out the races over the weekend. The good news is that those races weren't World Cups, but some tune up races to prepare for the World Cup. The bad news is that now my first race of the season will be a World Cup sprint, which is not a place to get your feet under you, it is a place to ski perfectly and really quickly. While this was really less than ideal, I learned a good lesson about traveling. You can't expect good things to happen when you are stressed to the max, not sleeping much and then travel for 24hrs and try to adapt to a 10 hour time change. Something had to give. I know now, I cannot handle this and will have to rethink my plans the next time I am trying to fly to Europe.

Out for a morning jog in the crisp, clear air. 

Enjoying a late sunrise. 

The town of Beitostolen is a small resort like town with lots of Nordic trails and a small alpine hill. It is filled with sports shops, hotel and lots of these little cabins. They all have sod roofs and are very cute! There is a big lake nearby so I imagine it is a popular place in the summer as well.  

Lighted ski trails everywhere!

Looking at the mountains off yonder

It was Sadie's 24th birthday and we got her 24 presents that she received throughout the day.

XC skiing is a BIG deal in Norway, the stars of the national team are National  Heros and are found in pictures everywhere. Promoting cereal, sports juice, gloves, you name it. At the check-out in the grocery store, next to the candy lies ski wax and supplies. Most people in the U.S. couldn't even tell you what Swix is, let alone what extra blue hard wax is. 

I did manage to get out and ski. Here Sadie and I pause on the big uphill with the lake in the background. 

Now, we are off to Ruka, Finland, another resort village very close to the Arctic circle. The sun rose about 10AM today and is setting as I write, 2PM. I don't know how the elves in the North Pole can work when its so dark all the time!

Meet Teddy

This is Teddy:

Teddy was given to me by a dear family friend, Kathy Sturgis, when I was born. Teddy must have exuded the passionate and loving characteristics of Kathy because I chose him out of all the stuffed animals and other baby gifts I (WE, I also had to fight over a few with Charlie) received to be my right hand man. Teddy traveled everywhere with me for the first half of my life and loosing Teddy at any given moment was beyond a crisis. As you can tell, he has seen better days and Mom spent a fair bit of time trying to patch him up from time to time. Teddy survived, barely, that traumatic childhood and was sent to the retirement shelf in my bedroom when I finally decided I was too old for a stuffed animal. 

Fast forward to 2013, I find myself reconnecting with Teddy. Last year, I was introduced to all the other girls' stuffed animals when I raced the period 4 World Cups in the spring. At first, I laughed, really a stuffed animal...and then I too got homesick and longed for a comfort reminding me of home, suddenly, I understood. So when I returned to Utah in October, I decided I would grab a stuffed friend to join me. However, all my stuffed animals were a little big and not that cuddly, and then I walked past that special shelf were Teddy has sat for years and knew, I must take Teddy. 

So, tomorrow, Teddy and I embark on a big adventure, flying from Anchorage all the way to Oslo where I will meet the rest of the U.S. Ski Team and we will start the season of racing! I will be traveling to Norway (2x), Finland, Switzerland, and lastly Italy before heading back to Utah for Christmas. I am very thankful for this perfect opportunity to advance myself and attempt to accomplish some big goals. This last week, I have become increasingly overwhelmed with the support I have received from family, friends, classmates, professors, teammates, coaches, and PTs. I am heading out with more people behind me than I ever realized and I can't thank people enough. So, here's to an amazing 2013/14 ski season! 

Whirlwind

I have just 4 short days left in the U.S.! I won't be returning to AK until the end of March for our last races of the year, fortunately I will be going to Utah for Christmas. However, since returning from Utah I have been training hard, studying a lot, teaching a lot, and trying to tie up loose ends in AK while preparing to hit the road. All those little (big) things like calling your credit card company, finding car storage, cleaning out your car, and figuring out phone service seem to just sneak up on me day after day causing a full string of panic attacks, one right after the next. Here is the last few weeks in pictures to let you know what I have been up to:

We did an Anchorage Fast and Female. Here I am teaching a cutie how to double pole on the ski erg.

We had some UAA athletes come and they were great additions. The gymnast were busting out flips and the basketball players were pretty good and making baskets. Here they are doing the Macarena 

We had a fabulous team lunch at Sarah Cresap's house. She has an amazing garden so we ate lots of fresh veggies. 

It was Halloween! and we hosted a Halloween 5k fundraiser for the National Nordic Foundation.

Sadie is the frog and her boyfriend Jo is a Russian Priest and yes, he ran an entire 5k in that fur coat...

Lex ran the whole 5k with this chicken and yes it is alive!
If you are still interested in donating to the National Nordic Foundation, here is the link: https://www.grouprev.com/rosieb
The fundraiser ends the same day I leave, Friday!

Sadie and I, frog and pig. I was actually a pig once before and I am sad to say I don't have the costume making skills my mother does, but fortunately every piece of our uniform is pink this year so that was not a problem. 

The days have been real short up here and a little on the grey side with no snow in town so I have been doing my studying in front of Sunny, our happy light. 

This is high noon! I have been teaching the 2nd grade about soils so I went on a soil sample collecting mission. It was a beautiful day, but the ground was a little frozen making it a little interesting getting some of the samples. But I am excited to say my lesson went so well!

Collecting my clay sample

There is snow at Hatcher's Pass and the local ski club has been grooming it to perfection everyday! I am very thankful for that!

It's about a 1.5 hr drive to get there so it takes up a good chunk of the day, but skiing is so fun!

Being a weirdo, loving the snow

Yesterday when we returned from skiing at Hatcher's, it was 27 degrees and raining, which I didn't even think was possible. It was dismal and the roads were horrific. It continued to rain all night and then magically, it turned to snow while I was sitting at the table doing my homework in front of Sunny. We now have close to a foot in our yard and I will get to ski in town today! Yippppppeeeee Winter is here and I'm on my way to go racing!

National Nordic Foundation

I leave for Europe in just a short two weeks! Paying for the World Cup is no easy task and the National Nordic Foundation helps support Juniors, U23s, and other athletes not supported by the U.S. Ski Team. Their annual fundraiser, Drive for 25, has just two weeks left. They are asking all cross country supporters to give a $25.00 donation because every little bit helps us out! Please consider a donation. Here is the link to my personal Fundraising Page:

https://www.grouprev.com/rosieb

Thanks for all your Support!

P.S. I went skiing today and it was great! More on that later...

Home Again

After catching some deadly disease from the 2nd graders I work with, I was more than ready to come home, both sick and homesick. Needless to say, I spent most of the past week trying to recover so life wasn't very exciting. Fortunately, I more or less recovered by the time camp started here in Park City. There are skiers from all over the nation here for this camp. It makes the logistics challenging for everyone, but we are making do and enjoying the plethora of training partners on any given day.

Awesome Ambassadors

All the girls! I think it was close to 150 in the end!

It was great to have that exhausting afternoon happen before the camp officially started. We got to be full of energy, get some inspiration for the other amazing ambassadors, and hopefully inspire a few girls to stay involved in sport. Then we got right to training.

The mass of skiers starting in SLC on our ski all the way to the top of the canyon. 

Sadie leading the train of girls (I'm third)

Switching to running shoes at the top of the canyon. I have been increasing my running and its been going well! 

 Our Physical Therapist, Zuzana Rogers, came down to help us out this week, on her own time! It is an incredible asset to our training to have her. She allows me to train more than I could ever dream of and also allows me to just live with so much less pain.

We have our magic Physical Therapist Zuzana Rogers here to help us! 

And...because she is so amazing I did my first classic ski in some time and my first time going fast on classic skis all summer this week and I'm still alive so it all went well. 

Here she is being amazing during our hill bounding workout. Thanks Zuzana!

We have seen sun, snow, rain and everything in between, but it's hard to beat those awesome sunny clear fall days!

 It was also Dartmouth Homecoming this weekend and of course I wasn't in Hanover, but it turns out that Dartmouth produces some pretty fast skiers so there are over 15 of us here training right now so we had our own little homecoming get together today!

Go Big Green!