k: Russia and Beyond

SInce arriving in Russia January 21st, it has been a serious series of events. Beginning with a bumpy plane ride, a marginally sketchy landing down into Moscow Russia, a patient trip through Customs, where you cross your fingers and just hope your Visa was done correctly as the Border Control Officers seem to stare at your passport for way too long…. and finishes with a long and seriously bumpy 6 hour bus ride up to the famous Rybinsk, Russia. Arriving and traveling in Russia is always unique. It is very different than your normal experience, and requires a fair amount of patience. Somewhere during this unusually long plane, customs, bags, sketchy bumpy bus experience I noticed I no longer had my phone…. so to make this wonderful travel day even better, my drowsy state of travel allowed me to leave my phone on the airplane seat, only to be snatched up by someone immediately. That is a good way to turn "tired Sadie" into an emotional downward spiral! For the six hour bumpy bus ride driving across roads that resemble bumpy fields rather than highways…. I went through this airplane ride, reliving my responsible self… just wishing I had used my brain a little bit more than I had chosen to. In the US, the flight attendants often say in English "please check your seat and make sure you haven't left any belongings". Something I may have brainlessly blocked out in the past…. will now become the true reminder every time I exit the plane!

OK…. it may suck to lose a phone when you are in Europe because retrieving another US Sim Card, and buying a new phone from afar is not that easy…. but at least I didn't lose my Passport!! That would have been a lot worse! So, I tried to just relax, and finish this long day without getting too bent out of shape.

The next six days it was back to business…. training well, recovering well, finding some Russian food to fill me up, staying warm in the frigid cold temps of Rybinsk, and racing hard! I quickly gathered my focused self after an early bump during the travel and dove back into the racing focus. As temperatures hovered below zero degrees F, combined with super high humidity… staying warm was the focus. Breathing masks, kinesio tape, and 3 layers of pants, 5 layers on top, two buffs…. and down pants were the solution. Spending time racing in Europe this winter has meant that we are often above 32 degrees…. with this funky warm winter. So, it took a bit to adjust to these freezing cold temperatures. Not only is the temperature different, but the skiing is very different as well. The snow becomes much slower to ski on, and even trickier to kick classic skis on.

Staying warm and looking silly.

Mass Start Race- USSA photo

The weekend ended up going well, as I made it into the semi finals, finally, only my second time ever on the World Cup. Rybinsk is challenging racing, even if a huge portion of the World Cup Field is missing. Somehow, 20 Russian woman fill in the empty spots and keep the competition level high! There were so many highlights from the weekend including Liz on the podium, Rosie scoring her first World Cup points (13th!!!!), Jessie matching her individual best, both in the sprint and the skiathlon (5th!!!!!!!), and MY BROTHER SCORING HIS FIRST SPRINT POINTS in 19th. Super cool, and super fun weekend!

celebrating Ida's birthday with some Russian made goodies.

Link to some quarterfinals that you can watch both Erik and I. (My heat starts at 7:50)

Next stop, back to central Europe, and a little preparation time before World Championships. Somehow I convinced Jo to come visit for a little 10 day break from work, and a 10 day break from "focus" for me. So, Jo got to join me for my "World Champ pre-camp". He did a good job of keeping me training hard, and keeping me happy. Even though he hasn't cross country skied so much in the past 10 years of his life… somehow he can still manage to stay in front of me… darn!! We managed to fit a few days of "less skinny skis" into the preparation schedule, which was a fun little treat. Jo just finished his full licensing in ski instructing, so I always love to see a different side of him when we go out into the mountains and he goes into his ski instructor mode!

Enjoying the powder from a higher place.

Awesome to have my wonderful Physical Therapist from home, Zuzana Rodgers, on the road for 5 weeks! She used to be an amazing alpine skier in her past life... so her and Jo were keeping each other good company on the down!

The APU Crew.

12 great days of recovering, training, recovering, training, and we are back at it. We just arrived in Sweden for our final World Cup Weekend before World Championships begins, February 19th in Falun, Sweden. There will be live streaming available, so be sure to tune in.