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!

Glacier Camp 1

I just returned from my first week of on snow training up on Eagle Glacier, about 40 miles outside of Anchorage, and 6000 feet up from the city. We were scheduled to helicopter up last monday, but due to some crazy weather and bad flying conditions, we were postponed until tuesday afternoon. Finally a little hole opened and we were able to zip up to the mountains on one of Alpine Air's helicopters. 

Looking down on Girdwood and the ocean from our house.

For six days I lived the "eat, sleep, train" life up on the glacier with 16 other APU athletes. From the second I was dropped off from the helicopter that first day, I spent the next six days in a sort of awe/daze. It was unbelievable to me that we could jump in a helicopter at sea level, and five minutes later live like we were in the middle of the winter.

the youngest bunch of the team.

The weather was a little funky most the time- rain/hail/snow mixed with super strong winds, which made for some hard core training. I spent the entire week in my rain jacket with exception to one day when the sun came out. When the sun did shine though, it really couldn't have gotten better! There is nothing like skiing in a t-shirt and seeing mountains for miles and miles.

Mountains and more mountains!

 It was actually good it was only sunny one day, because I would get so distracted looking around and snapping pictures constantly that I would forget that I was supposed to be skiing.

Erika and I soaking in some vitamin D

Our two interval days were by far the worst weather- which was a little ironic.  Nicely enough we were thinking about going hard, so we were forgetting about the winds that you would occasionally need to duck down in order to keep yourself from blowing over, or the rain that seemed to soak you to the core within the first five minutes on snow. But at the end of the workout you always came in feeling like one hard core bad-ass! Our coach Erik was constantly reminding us these are the days that make the champions.

Amazing trails- thanks to Casey's bomb grooming!

The 16 athletes and the two coaches lived in this little house perched on the side of the glacier, right on the top of a huge cliff down to Girdwood. Living conditions are great up there.

Eagle Glacier Holiday Inn and Suites

 Plenty of drinking water, plenty of food, plenty of books and movies, and plenty of heat. The house has this sweet drying room set up where you hang your boots and all your clothes right when you walk in the door- and then everywhere else in the house stays dry and warm. 

brilliant drying system in the entry way filled with clothes and boots.

The upstairs has a bunch of bunk rooms that everyone lives in and then this little strength area where we knocked off some dead lift, squats and pull-ups halfway through the week. We spent a lot of time in those bunk rooms- sleeping 10 hours a night and 2 hour naps in the day.

my bunk room- we do make our beds sometimes

Our weight room designed for keeping up on the beach muscles!

One thing you have to get used to is sleeping in the light though. Perched on the top of a glacier in Alaska means it never gets dark at night! 

10 PM on our roof. Too excited about the blue sky to go to bed!

I have never realized how lucky it is to ski during the summer. It is just a nice way to break up all your dryland training and rollerskiing as well as keeping a constant check on your winter skiing technique. Erik spent a lot of time going over technique videos as well as filming out on the snow and reviewing during the day.

Erik working with other new team member, Reese Hanneman during training.

 I have never seen two people work their butts off so hard in my life. The coaches, Erik and Casey, were constantly on the run grooming, hauling gear around the glacier, talking with athletes, and fixing everything so everyone was comfortable. It was amazing to see how hard they worked, and how much fun they had doing it. Super great!

Klister, Klister and more Klister. Everything in this little waxroom is sticky!

Patrick Johnson busting out the kilometers- on average I think he passed me three times a day!

I am back in Anchorage training now for three weeks before I head up to the Glacier again for my last camp of the summer. Looks like I will be participating in the Alaska REG uphill time trial this friday so check for more updates. I have added some photos from the glacier- but more to come! I only took out my camera on the nice days- so don't let it fool you :)

Washington to Alaska Adventure

For the past five days my brother and I have been road tripping from Washington, across Canada, and up into Alaska. I must say, I now have a new appreciation for how far north Alaska is. A three hour flight over the ocean from Seattle to Anchorage just doesn't really define the reality of it.

Beginning of road trip

Sun roof allowing me to keep constant check on my bikes above.

Radar detector, CD's, rear view mirror that you can't see with because my car is so full... set to go!

The first night we didn't get very far, just across the canadian border where we visited one of my good friends in Summerland. I was set on spending the afternoon on Lake Okanogan because I figured it was the last time I was going to feel 90 degree weather like that in a long time!!! 

Lunch of a Road Tripin' CHAMP!

Summerland Sun

The next morning we woke up early and drove hard for 15 hours across B.C. to Fort St. John where we spent the night in a pretty sketchy one star hotel. We were there enough time to cook a bowl of canned chili in the microwave and get in six hours of sleep before we hit the road early again  for the 15 hour section to Whitehorse. From then we spent the next day relaxing in Whitehorse with another college buddy- walking around town and getting a workout in. It was super nice to have the day off after two long days of being cramped in the car.

One rule of thumb- when you see gas.... you get gas! Not many places to stop in the middle of no-where. Here a small gas station right as our gas light went on.

Lots of pretty views

Erik and I hanging out in the sun at Whitehorse

Soon enough we were back in the car for the last section of the trip- the 13 hours from Whitehorse to Anchorage. I was pre-warned about this section, so I had an idea of what was coming- but I didn't really realize the degree of craziness. Right before you cross the border, back into the US there is about a 100 mile section of huge frost heaves that could very possibly swallow your car. I actually couldn't even believe they considered it a road. It was almost as if a river ran down the middle of the road at one point. After the huge ruts and bumps, the next hour was on dirt roads, where they were doing a bunch of road construction. After driving the crazy bumpy pavement- the dirt road actually seemed like a relief.

Sign Post Forest. We actually found a Bjornson Street.

lots of wildlife right beside the road.

The trip was super long, but also very pretty. Lots of wildlife, lots of road construction, lots of RV's, lots of people living in the bush, and lots of open land.  I have to say one of the craziest things we saw during the trip was on the last day, when we were driving through the upper yukon, we passed a large native, walking a baby in a stroller down the side of the highway, with a huge gun wrapped around his back. If I wasn't scared of the man's intentions, I would have stopped and taken a picture- because it was sure a sight to see. I have come to realize there is a reason people are out in the bush- not necessarily a bad reason- just a reason... and its better to not ask.

Glacier we drove by near Anchorage

I have some pictures from the trip- Erik and I decided to randomly take pictures along the way. We were switching driving a lot, and Erik was too lazy to pull out the camera- so we missed some of the super cool sections.... but still some shots to explain the trip.

Lots of Road Construction!

Hanging out waiting for pilot car.

Oh yeah.... we hit a moose twenty miles from Anchorage on the way into town and crushed my car. It was raining hard and the dang thing came out from behind the overpass at a pretty good speed. Luckily neither of us were hurt.... but my car was. 2400 miles of road tripping... and the last twenty minutes "the shit hits the fan".  BIG BUMMER. I guess it makes for a good "You know your in Alaska when....." story. I took my car into the shop and it looks like it is supposed to take three to four weeks to fix. I suppose its back to the "These boots are made for walking".

And its off to my first Glacier camp with APU this weekend!

National Training Group

The past 9 days I have been training and hanging out in Park City, Utah for the National Training Group Camp. Earlier this spring 25 promising top U23 and Junior athletes were named to this group. This is a new addition to the US Ski Teams "Pipeline", and so far it has been super fun and beneficial. 6 girls and 9 boys traveled up, down, or across the US to join the ten days of training with the US Ski Team coaches. It has been tons of fun but super hard work. Many of these athletes I have never gotten a chance to train with during the summer, I just meet head to head with them on the race trails, so it has been fun training along side them. The coaching has been great as well. We have gotten lots of feedback on technique, training, and just simply our goals in the sport.

Me, Sophie and Kate working on Double Pole

It has been great to train along with Andy Newell and Liz Stephen. Just raises the bar a bit during training. Not only have I been training alongside top nordy athletes, but also other big shots. Yesterday I was walking backwards on the treadmill (an activity that seems to have no stress on my knee) while watching Ted Ligety speed squat what looked like three times his body weight. I also got to watch Lindsey Vonn, an incredible alpine skier, bust out various weight training exercises. It's funny how you make out these ski heroes to be these supernatural people- but then you train alongside or with them and they are normal humans. It sure has a way of firing you up!

Me, Sophie Caldwell and Kate Dolan on an OD workout.

The goal for this camp has been to "Improve our STRIKE rate", so it has remained very focused the entire time. Most days we have hit the pavement or the trails at 8:30, training for a couple hours before returning home for some down time, and then heading out again for an afternoon workout. After getting some dinner in, we return to the "Center of Excellence" for a meeting focused on various aspects of being a ski racer. These meetings have included talks from top athletes like Andy Newell, US Ski team nutritionists, Video Review, Relaxation and Visualization, World Cup Video Reviews, and Pipeline talks. 

Working on striding with the coaches.

In the ten days we have hit almost all angles of training. The camp started out with an uphill running time trail and then was followed four days later with a sprint race simulation. I have been struggling with knee issues so I had to replace all the running workouts with swimming. I used to be a racer during my younger years... but the long break has made me realize how hard of work it is. It is a great way to increase your upper body strength for sure! The rest of the workouts have either been distance, speed, strength or interval work. This morning I finally felt the fatigue catching up to me when we did a level three interval workout, 3x14mins around a loop in town. One more strength workout and then a distance workout in the morning before I head home to Washington for a couple of days.

Sophie and I

The weather has greatly improved over the course of the camp. The first couple of days were rainy and cold, so we have gotten overly excited about the sun coming out these past couple of days. Yesterday, on our afternoon off, we decided to lie by the pool for no more than an hour and came home a little more sunburnt than expected. Turns out you get burned, even when its cold out :) I am trying to soak up every last bit of sun and heat before I move up to Alaska next week.

Sophie, me and Alexa resembling tomatoes.

Another update will come as I get everything together for my drive up to AK next week. Until then.... keep the sun shining!