Fall Time

I have been super busy this last month between school, skiing, and organizing the winter. The good news is the snow is coming, and its starting to feel like winter here in AK.


It's that time of year.... all the leaves have fallen!


Good thing I know all the trails by heart... sometimes they get hard to find!

I have been lucky to have a training partner this year that I live with, so Rosie and I have been doing lots of crazy fun stuff lately. From hiking Alyeska 3 times, to finding brown bears in the mountains, to swimming laps, to making some uniquely scary buddies on the town trails. It has been fun to switch things up and try some new things though!


Rosie and I headed for a swim


mmmm, cold sunshine!


On top during our Alyeska Adventure.

Unfortunately school has been taking up every second that I have not been out training. The good news is two of my classes I started early in the summer, so finals are coming up here next week, which means I will have them taken care of by the first week of October!! The other two classes will carry on through December though.. making some good past time on the road.


Nice view of Anchorage in the background.

Next week after finals, I will head to PC to join up with the US Team, along with lots of club teams for my final dryland camp before the season starts.


Just chasing around the Kikkan bus :)

Stay tuned for my fall/early winter plans that are quickly coming together here. Just a short update for now.


Cold mornings along the ocean trail

Eagle Glacier Final Training Camp

I just recently came down from my final training camp of the summer up at Eagle Glacier. This camp was a bit different than all the rest... weather wise mostly!


Me on the new beautiful PistenBully

We were fortunate to have the Sun Valley Olympic Development Team come for the week and join us. As always, it was fun to have new blood and new people to ski with on the glacier.


Girls Team on the way down to the trails

This camp was unique in that I skied two of the six days on powder snow! Powder snow in August... how crazy??!! The weather jumped between being warm and foggy to being full blown blizzard, cold, and snowing. I guess its true what they say "august can be anything". We sure got anything! With the powder snow on top of the glacier snow, waxing got a bit tricky. There was one day the snow was so funky that Casey drove the PistenBully around, while all 16 of the skiers were following closely behind on the fresh tracks without powder in them. It was like a mother duck with all her ducklings following close behind... a site to see!! One of those days that makes you tougher though :)



Snow in the morning!


Erik B hammering out some intervals



APU boys during intervals

The final day everything cleared up, so we had an amazing sun set on the mountains the night before, giving us a little preview of the following days weather. It was super pretty and maybe topped one of the prettiest sites I have seen up on Eagle.


Beautiful sunset over Eagle Glacier

APU classes started this week, so between training I was busy doing lots of homework and attending class on my little cell phone connection to the computer. Writing research papers gets a bit challenging up there when you are without internet. I tried to print a bunch of stuff out before going up.... but there always seems to be something missing! I have to say it's a bit less challenging then getting up at 3:30 in the morning to attend class when I am in Europe... so I have to hold myself back from complaining!



Not sunny.... but pretty!

August always brings a change in the Glacier. With lots of warm weather this winter, and a low snow year, there were some new crevasses that opened up a few camps ago. To keep us safe, they started having us ride down to the trails on the PistenBully, instead of skiing the trail down. This made it fun, mostly because I felt like a school kid in the morning trying to catch the bus. Fortunately it made me get going quicker in the mornings and afternoons before training, instead of going out at my own time. It also made it so that all the girls would start at the same time, so I got to do a lot more skiing with the group this camp... which was awesome!


Walking down to the bus in the morning

On my way back into town, I saw my boyfriend and his buddies doing some rock climbing along the ocean- so I quickly ran home and grabbed my harness and shoes... just to top off the week of training and fun. I have never done any rock climbing here in AK, but it was sure awesome. Every time I go climbing with really good climbers, I have this new excitement to get better, because it is so awesome to watch them move up the rock quickly and effortlessly. I love how it is sort of a different challenge than skiing!!


Jo Climbing

For now I am back in full school and a rest week. Following this week I have another good block of training before heading to Park City in October for my final training camp. I looked over my training from the year, and it seems I have trained close to 100 hours on snow this summer!! That is more skiing than I normally did in a winter several years ago. Thanks to APU for making that possible. We are lucky we have this opportunity... I believe there is only one other place in the world where you can live right on the glacier and train!

I am still in the process of planning my fall of racing- but whatever it be, I think it will be new and exciting!! With the weather already starting to change here in AK... the racing excitement and feelings are starting to wake from hibernation!!!

Thomas Training Center Video

Mark Lester of Alaska Daily News put together a great Video from the Glacier with some explanations by Erik Flora. Check it out along with the article:

Eagle Glacier Training Camp from Marc Lester on Vimeo.

NAWTA Glacier Camp

I apologize for my late post for the glacier. Immediately following the last week of the NAWTA (North American Woman Training Alliance) training week, I took off on a plane for my five day summer vacation at home. Since getting here I have been packing in as much activities and sunshine as possible, so I haven't yet taken the time to get on my computer.


Kikkan showing what a lot of muscles looks like last week

The last week of the training camp was amazing. We got so lucky with our weather, 1.5 weeks of sunshine in town and a solid week of weather on the glacier. This is the "Alaska" I knew and wished was coming!! Between the six days on the glacier we hammered out some great intervals, speed relays, distance training, core and strength, and lots of technique work as we followed around the best skiers in North America.


Skiing many k's with Olympic Gold Medalist- Chandra Crawford


Taking our first laps ever on the glacier in our sports bras


Kikkan Chandra and I working on skiing fast :)

By the end of the week we were all dragging our tails around as we struggled to finish every workout. 2.5 weeks of super solid training leaves you a bit tired by the end. It didn't help that between training sessions we did what girls love to do.... dance, sing, play guitar, read cosmo, watch lots of chick flicks, bake cookies, run around outside in the sunshine, and lots of girl talk. Between all the energy spent on the trails and all the energy I spent being a girl with 15 other skiers.... I think that was my hardest block of training ever!



Pure Exhaustion!


Lots of skiers!


"NAWTA"


Post Interval Celebration


DANCE, DANCE!

It was awesome to have a bunch of new faces training up in AK and then on the Glacier. After my fifth glacier camp ever, I was beginning to forget to appreciate the small things. I like having new people up there, because their excitement reminds me just how lucky I am. With a male coaching group, we managed to balance things out and everything was super successful. I am super pumped to see where this excitement and motivation is going to bring the North American woman. Not only the group that was at this training camp, but all the other girls out there in the US and Canada getting it done. We just recently finished our Video Challenge that the US Ski Team ladies put out, and I was amazed at how much enthusiasm woman training groups have, and just how many of them there are. It's an exciting time.


Kikkan making some dinner in the rain

I am posting the APU ladies video, because I am not sure I have posted it yet. Check it out- lots of fun at APU!



Pain Face!- this is what it's about.


More updates from my week in Winthrop, but for now... here is to the sunshine and some family time!! Yehaaa


Thanks to Matt Whitcomb for many of these great photos!



Thanks Grover, Matt and Erik for an awesome Training Camp. Also thanks Mikey and Casey for all the hard work. SWEEEEET grooming with the new PB!!!

US Ski Team Camp- Town Training in AK

For this past week we have been training in town with a massive group of top ladies from US and Canada. We have now been renamed the "North American Training Alliance". It has been so much fun though, around 20 girls a day rippin around on the rollerski paths, running trails, and gyms.


North American Training Alliance


Double Pole durability on the way out to Girdwood




Focusing in behind Olympic Medalist, Chandra Crawford

With all our fluorescent Rudy Helmets and bright Bjorn Daehlie clothing we have been making quite the scene coming down the trail. The benefits you get from doing speed workouts and intervals with all your closest competitors is endless. It is fun to see how much more you can accomplish as a group. Our first interval workout of the camp APU girls were cutting 30 seconds off our fastest times..... magic of a group.


Team bringing it in after intervals


Massive group hammering out some skate intervals


TRUE group training!

Besides being intense it has been tons of fun. Everyone is staying on the row in Univeristy Housing, so for the first time ever we have been cooking BBQ's in my front driveway and hanging out on the streets. Lucky for all of us the sun hasn't stopped shinning, so this has become my all time best week in Alaska. I am beginning to really fall in love with this place.


3hrs into our OD... still smiling!


Skate Speed



The Fluorescent Bunch taking up the road

Yesterday I set a rollerski distance PR. We decided to do "The Tour de Anchorage" where we ski down the chester creek trail, down into the heart of the city, along the ocean coast line, through Kincaid, past all the shopping centers, up along Campbell Creek, and finishing off at the University just under 51 kilometers and 3.5 hours later. Along the way we ran into some wildlife, spent at least 1 mile on a single track dirty trail, and crawled under five bridges.... all with our rollerskis on. My old roommate started the challenge of doing the Tour of Anchorage without taking your skis off, so I had to top him, and I made sure that everyone else did too :) I caught some hilarious pictures of the group climbing along the boulders and river bed with our skis on.


The group off-roading under the bridge


Ida and Jessie living the "alaska adventure" to its fullest!

We have one more day of training, which includes a time trial and strength before heading to the Glacier for the week.


Getting chased by the Crawf during skate intervals

Knock on wood, but with the weather we have been having, the glacier is going to be amazing!



Too fun!!

Thanks to Lauren Loberg, Matt Whitcomb and Holly Brooks for many of the photos

July Glacier Camp

Just returned late last night from my second glacier camp of the summer. This camp was a bit different than usual for several reasons.

1) New faces- we had lots of new team members, skiers from other teams, and outsiders coming to join us for this camp. New people means new training partners, new skills and strengths, and new jokes. It's fun to mix it up every once in a while.






2) Good weather- this is the first camp I have been never been to Eagle Glacier when we have had so much good weather. The first two days I skid in shorts and a tank top. The final days were a bit darker with some wind and overcast... but not too much fog and not very much rain.






and sometimes the weather is not so nice......

3) Soft Snow- I think my "soft snow skiing" improved 300% over the course of the week. July is always a transition between glacier snow and winter snow, so we get some super soft days. With only one clear night, things weren't really freezing at night. I think I had my hardest 3 hour workout of my life mid-week when we had a 3 hour skate ski in the slush. I felt like I was swimming through a pond! At 2.5 hours I was seeing metallic colors and going down fast. Old school HUGE ski baskets were the money this week!

4) New Pisten Bully- Gradually throughout the week parts of the new PB were being flown up to the Glacier. The final day this huge chopper flew up the body of the machine... it was amazing to watch. That thing is heavy! Next camp should be awesome. I don't think I have ever seen Casey and Erik so happy in their life!


PB waiting to come up at the beginning of the week


The parts coming in at the end of the week

5) Coming Away Alive- for the first time in the four camps I have attended, I came off the week glacier camp with the wheels still attached. Normally by day four or five, I begin fading, and fading fast. Thats what its all about though- training and getting faster! GOOD FUN.




Don laying down the law.... trash your trash right!

6) Speed Ball Championships of the World- for the first time I played speed ball with the APU team up on the Glacier. Last year I was dealing with some bad knee injuries.. so I sat inside for this session, but this camp I got to join in. I had no idea! This team plays more aggressively than a football team! Biting, tackling, kicking, heckling.... all things allowed. It was HILARIOUS! Between chasing the soccer ball from one side to the other, I couldn't stop laughing at this hilarious game. Look for Reese's video to come out soon with what exactly it looks like.




7) Erik Flora Cooking- Enough said- that man can do more than coach.... turns out he can make a mean gravy and pot roast as well.



The rest of the week was full of school work, lots of training, resting and technique analysis. I now have a couple days rest before jumping into the Alaska REG Time Trial. Following that, the US Ski Team camp starts. One week of training in town and then one more week on the glacier. Should be some good training and good fun coming soon!

Also- one more week for the Womans Video Challenge!! Submit your videos. APU womans coming soon!