Skate Speed in the Pit

Here is some video from yesterdays speed workout. It is hard to tell because all the girls are wearing pink and black. I have on white boots and 2xu pants if that makes it easier.

SUN!

Yes, this is Morgan and I sun bathing after training in AK! We may have missed our summer but it sure is showing the potential for a nice fall. The ten day forecast shows sun every single day for the next ten days. Now don't let this fool you, temperatures aren't normally breaking 65 ever- but it makes for incredible training.

APU just finished recover week, so we are back to business now for a three week block. Hard to believe we may be skiing in close to a month! Days are getting shorter and mornings are starting to remind me of winter- cold and clear. This is the time when everyone starts shifting gears and begins spending more and more time thinking about the the fun part approaching soon!

I will be starting school next week, so things will start picking up pretty quickly. Time to learn again!

Anchorage Training

Not a whole lot has changed in the past couple of weeks of training in Anchorage with APU. Summer has finally come at the perfect time to throw down lots of hard training.  Here is a video of APU boys and girls, distance skiers and sprinters, putting in some hard double pole intervals out at Kincaid. Last week we had testing series to find out where our training sits at this point- and what areas we need to work in for the next month of training. Time for some power training for most of us!

Training in Washington

I just recently spent the last week hanging out and training at home in the Methow. Every week after returning from the glacier APU has a recovery week where we get to do whatever type of non-specific training on our own, with no team training for the week. Erik likes to look at it as a mental and physical break throughout the periods of training. This week break is a good opportunity to either take a vacation or take advantage of getting in some good quality hours of work. After July glacier camp I opted to stay in Anchorage and work really hard for the week while enjoying doing other activities like swimming and rollerskiing with some UAA buddies. This August though, I decided to get the best of both worlds so I came home and did some work for my dad while getting in a little "vacationing" time as well. It was nice to spend some time with the family while soaking in a little heat and sun. Yesterday was record breaking for the most rain ever in Alaska.... so I think it is safe to say we don't get a whole lot of summer in AK. I am headed back to AK tonight, as we start testing week tomorrow. Time to test and asses our progress so far this summer!!

Rollerski up to the Lake- swim across the lake three times... typical methow training.

Glacier Camp 2

I just recently returned from my second trip up to the Eagle Glacier for a week. This trip was just as fun.... but I must say much more intense. Less snow, more pink algae, and lots more cracks running across the glacier. I came into this period with a lot more training under my belt from the previous three weeks so I got to tap the tank for the last couple of days. We were lucky enough to have two sunny days the first couple of days on the glacier- so I am proud to say I got to ski in a tank top and shorts one day! We had some non APU skiers with us this trip, one of which a fellow methow valley boy, Brian Gregg. It was fun to mix it up and do some workouts with some different athletes.

Lots of kilometer, lots of klister, lots of technique work, and lots of eating and sleeping pretty much sums up my my second Eagle Glacier week.

Thanks to Erik Flora and Casey Fagerquist for the hours of hard work!

Second workout of the camp was with Holly Brooks.... that woman is speedy!

Holly pumping out some squats- keeping the strength training up while we are at the glacier.

Morning ski in the sun... doesn't get much better.

Holly Brooks, myself, and Nicole Deyong (Sun Valley skier)

APU womans team post L4 interval session.

One of the juniors on the team putting in some kilometers.

Our trip across the glacier to meet the helicopter on our way out looked a little something like this... plus snow flying everywhere!

Thanks to Alpine Air- the group waiting for our ride up to the glacier

Cuddy Park Rollerski Race

Last weekend we had a classic team sprint race downtown Anchorage. We put together two pretty competitive APU woman's teams that battled head to head between the rounds. Becca and I were teamed up against team pink- Katie Ronsee and Greta Anderson. In the semi-finals Katie and Greta finished a strong 16 seconds ahead of us, so Becca and I were forced to readjust our strategy. We decided to just go like hell from the gun for the two laps each of the Final round and not worry about conserving energy. Fortunately our plan worked out, this time taking the win and crossing the finish line 44 seconds ahead of team pink. 

The boys race was fun to watch as well. National Champ, Tyler Kornfield, and David Norris went up against the Hanneman brothers who held their ground quite nicely. With a tight race up until the last lap where Reese Hanneman put down some quick pulling- the Hannemans pulled through ahead. 

It was fun to see the people putting it on get so into it. They even had an announcer for the finishing area.! Fun stuff. One of the mothers at the race caught some shots below.

One more week of training in town and then we head up to the glacier for our last on snow training camp.

Racing around the 1.3km loop

Tag off exchanges between partners

More Photos

More photos as promised. Erik took some pictures with a "good" camera.

Reese Hanneman and I enjoying a nice L1 ski

GO HAMMER NUTRITION!