Holly Brooks

One person, one pole!

2012-01-20T04:38:00.000-08:00

Well, here I am. Back in Ramsau. This time there are no Christmas trees, no big group meals. It's just me, myself & I! I'm skipping some World Cup action to get some much needed time to heal my wrist. Injuries are just one unavoidable aspect of being an athlete and all & all, I'm just thankful it wasn't worse. I'm hoping to be ready and rearing to go in time for the World Cups in Rybinsk, Russia. (If for no other reason, I have to race in Russia after spending hours on the complicated Visa and paying $400 dollars just to enter the country!)

The gorgeous view out my window one of the few, clear days

There were some people that encouraged me to return to Alaska to rehab my wrist but when it came down to it, the 30+ hours of travel each way & the 10-hour time difference make it nearly impossible to do. So, I am training, resting & rehabbing here at the Kobaldhof, trail side. My days are filled with one pole skiing, icing, stretching, PT exercises, taking vitamins, getting as much sleep as possible (because that's when you heal the best right?) & swimming countless laps in a tiny, tiny hotel pool in a bikini and no cap or googles. (Think swim, turn, swim, turn, swim, turn!!!!) Whenever it gets a bit lonely I just think to myself - "This is where people come for their annual vacations! And I'm here as a part of my everyday life!" Yes, I may be that weird girl that sits by herself in the restaurant for every meal, every day but hey, this is part of the package and I am still living the dream, right? I think so.

On the sunny days tons of colorful hot air ballons dot the landscape!

I've had gorgeous days here in Ramsau and ones that leave a bit to be desired. Two days ago I classic one-pole skied to the other end of the perfectly groomed trail system, sat in the sun & had coffee, and came back, an entirely different way. In contrast, yesterday I ran in the rain and got soaked by ice-slush and Austrian drivers who sped by me, disinterested in the fact that they were full-on spraying me with slop. I guess it's good to keep it real and not get too comfortable right?

Without a roommate, intense travel schedules, team meetings, and ski testing I've actually had some time to do a bit of light reading. Rob gave me Apolo Ohno's book for Christmas and I just finished it. I had to chuckle last night because he referenced a training camp he did by himself in Colorado Springs. He talked about it being a bit lonely:

"It was lonely. But lonely in a good way. It allowed me to reset my mind, to really go deep into my heart and soul and ask myself questions, to remember that champions are made when nobody else is looking. When you're training by yourself, there's an undeniable temptation to let up, even if it's just a little. It's easier to get off the bike, or decrease the pedaling frequency, or run for forty-five minutes instead of the hour and a quarter you had set out to go. I made sure to train just as hard as or harder than ever; that builds so much confidence and reflects your character so much more." (pg 236)

It's a good thing that I have a coach because otherwise, I'd probably train myself into a hole here all alone. Apolo's training camp, was in the middle of the summer where you can afford to run huge hours, and carry some fatigue. However, here I am, just having completed the Tour de Ski - and hoping to race in a short amount of time. Erik (my coach) wrote me a plan and reminded me, "Holly, this is not the time to go out and break records and get glacier tired." (Making reference to the summer months were we pretty much ski ourselves into the ground...) Luckily I have him to provide some perspective for me and keep me on a short leash. Sometimes I fall into the trap of "more is better" and I can certainly tell you, that is not always the case.

So, for now, I will diligently follow my training plan & rest up for Russia. I can't wait to cheer on my teammates in Estonia this weekend. As much as it pains me to not be there, I know they'll represent the US well in the classic double header. Following the races in Otepaa, the team will come here, to Ramsau where we will train until our departure for Russia.

Until RUSSIA!
Ciao & as always, thanks for reading :)

Oh - two completely unrelated things:

First, my brother just departed on another international adventure. He is driving the length of Africa! Yep, Cape Town to Cairo. Maybe I just think his blog is interesting because he's my brother but other people seem to enjoy it as well. You can find it here if you're interested:

http://scottsnextadventure.blogspot.com/

Second, a friend posted this video on facebook earlier today. If you're lacking motivation to get active, check this out...... being active is literally, the single BEST thing you can do for your health! As the video states, you have the remaining 23 1/2 hours of the day to do whatever else you want!

Gunde Svan on Pain......

2012-01-14T21:32:00.000-08:00

One of my friends sent me an incredibly nice email, commenting on my blog and specifically, this line that I used to express my feelings about the Tour:

"The pain of racing is temporary and the pain of quitting lasts forever"

He had a great story about Gunde Svan, a story that I think is worth sharing:

"Many years ago at the Holmenkollen 50k, Gunde Svan fell on the first 25k lap and hurt his arm badly. It turned out it was broken. He could not use the arm, so he skied the rest of the lap with one pole and his hurt arm tucked inside his bib. When he came into the stadium everyone thought he would quit. However, he continued without stopping and completed the 50k with one pole. After the race he was interviewed by the TV guys who asked him why did not quit. He told them if he had done that he would probably do it again and again….and that would surly end his skiing carrier. Good call and you could argue that was his best race ever. Today heprobably still ranks as one of the top 10 XC skiers of all times."

Busy day for me as it's my "travel day" to Ramsau. Traveling outside of the team isn't quite as easy and when you are with the team... I have to take 2 taxis, three trains and one bus in order to get to Ramsau. I'm crossing my fingers it all works out. One pole distance camp starts tomorrow! I hope you all enjoyed your weekends! Ciao! More soon.... Holly :)

Tour de Ski Reflections....

2012-01-13T02:13:00.000-08:00

I MADE IT!

I made it to the top of the Alpes Cermis! Yehaw!

Ten years from now I can just picture myself laughing, in reflection: "Remember the time when I race the entire Tour de Ski with a broken wrist after falling on Christmas Day?!" I can even chuckle at this feat now, as I stare at my computer over a cup of coffee. The dust has finally settled. I have a while before another race attempt. Rob is on a plane home (I hope to see him in April!) I am away from the team for the first time since flying to Europe mid-November.

Teammates and finishers! Me, Kikkan & Liz

Yep. While the Canadian men's team is lying on the beach in the Canary Islands I opted for my own version of R & R. Months ago I remembered getting an email from my friend Kathy announcing that her and her husband were selling everything and moving to Italy. Back in the day I got to know Bill & Kathy when I coached their two kids at West High School. Since then Kathy has been a member of my women's group back in Anchorage. Part way through the Tour I was able to track down some contact info for them (with some help!) and they agreed to let me crash out at their house for a while. I've only been her a few hours but it was incredible to sleep in & walk downstairs and make what I want for breakfast, when I want it. When opening their cupboards I find familiar things like Life Cereal, Organic Valley Milk & El Paso Taco Shells. This funny mixture of Italian and American is a result of Kathy's job working as a school nurse on the Aviano Military Base. They have access to the commissary grocery store where I suppose, they feel the need to offer American things to the Americans working here.

Here is the "traffic circle" in the small town that they live in.... while they've been going non stop since moving here, the pace of Italian life is slow - which is exactly what I need right now....

Kathy & Bill are some of the most gracious, kind people I know I am so grateful to have a "home away from home" here in Italy. There is no snow here in Aviano but funny enough, Kathy brought her roller skis from Alaska so I might take a spin on those later this week! (You've gotta love those Alaska girls!) It's been really fun so far to take a peek into their new lives and I am incredibly thankful that they've accommodated me so much. It's been fun to bit** about the aspects of Europe that are tough - for example, the inability to get anything done. Here in Italy everything is "Domani, Domani" which means, "tomorrow, tomorrow!" When living life on the road (such as I am) you must become accustomed to a lack of productivity. For example, it may take all flipping day to figure out how and where to do a load of laundry. Back home in the states, laundry would be one of 101 things you might get done any given day. They can relate to bad Internet, the ten hour time difference, and the difficulty of staying in touch with loved ones back at home.

Here I am with Kathy on a walk..... mandatory machiatto stop along the way....

Kathy & Bill :)

Kathy is the perfect mixture of mom and friend.... it's so nice to be spending some time with people from home. This night we had Kathy homemade ravioli for dinner - each ravioli made with loving care!

Enough about laundry & ravioli and back to the Tour!!

Finishing the Tour, and reaching the top of the Alpes Cermis with a bib on was a huge goal of mine. I'm not going to lie. It was really, really tough but not as tough as dropping out would have been for me. A friend sent Rob an email telling him about a German saying that basically says, the pain of racing is temporary and the pain of quitting lasts forever. I agree whole heartily with this statement and it became somewhat of a mantra for me during the 11- day tour.

"Cheers to finishing!"

Just a sampling of the food they had in the VIP tent at the top of the Alpes Cermis!

Each day I had to put my ego aside and accept that my results weren't what they had been earlier this season. Each day I questioned myself, trying to figure out if I was doing the right thing. Was I hurting myself by continuing to race? Was turning in sub-par results adding or taking away from my case? All I knew was that I love to race, I have worked my butt off to be over here, racing in Europe. I knew that there were many, many other ski racers who would have loved to be in my position. There were also countless people back at home who had gone above and beyond to help me be here, racing the Tour.

Devon Kershaw powering up the last part of the climb - in places, the grade was 28% which required everyone, even the top men to "granny skate."

Early on, even before I had my proper diagnosis I knew that I would finish the Tour if it killed me. I owed it to myself, my family & friends, my coaches, and my teammates. My visual through all of this is one of those little sea snails that hooks onto a rock and won't let go, despite the crashing waves on it's back. Even though there were some significant odds against me, I got back on the starting line each and everyday.

In the Oberstdorf pursuit I had a bit of bad luck.... I had a great start to the race & my skis were good. Then, literally one minute into the race the group went down a big downhill with a turn at the bottom. All the girls in front of me start "power-plowing" (snow plowing) like mad and I felt like I was going to smash into them. I quickly busted out a snow plow too - but it was too quick. I caught an edge and went down really, really hard. I got up quick but lost all my momentum and the entire field was gone. I was absolutely dead last by 100 meters. I then spent the rest of the race trying to catch the entire field that had one another to work with and draft off of. This picture doesn't quite do my legs justice but needless to say, they were bruised. Liz said I had "alpine bruises!"

Some days I would look at the results, and some days I would simply walk away from the finish line, choosing to reflect on my race via technique, feeling, and subjective analysis. The objective number, place, and time back doesn't always help. I looked at each race as a learning opportunity. I learned a ton about new venues, new formats, and my competitors. Each time someone passed me I would take a mental note of what they were doing differently. The last venue, at Val di Fiemme, is also the site of the 2013 World Championships. While I'm not particularly proud of my individual performance there, I have now raced the course where a new World Champion will be named next year. I now have an intimate and personal knowledge of the hills and how to prepare to take them on next winter.

Petter was tired at the end of the climb.... I have to admit, it was fun watching Hellner pass him!

Cross Country skiing, and really most sports are full of competitive people, people who do each and every little thing in their power to "win" the race or come out on top. While we might not like to dwell on this fact, our goal is to beat our competitors and often a good race necessitates having one's name above that of their competitors on the results sheet.

Dario, the eventual men's winner has quite the fan club that travels from venue to venue. Once the men's race was done his fans marched up the race tracks playing gigantic swiss bells in celebration!

Thanks to Zach Caldwell for helping me with my skis during the Tour

Throughout this whole ordeal, one of my friends sent me a few emails outlining some important facts. First, he told me, "Holly, you are more than your results." While this is an incredibly simple point, sometimes it's easy to forget. I've found myself, and seen some of my teammates fall into a pattern of self worth being directly tied to their placing in races. Did I score World Cup points today or not? Did I have a personal best today or not? Especially for our team (USA) that has what I've called the "proximity disadvantage" (the inability to go home and rest) this can really plague us and if you're not careful, it can be a downward spiral. So. I am more than my results and so are my teammates. We are human and not everything is perfect all the time.

Second, he sent me a link to a speech given by John Wooden, perhaps the most articulate 92 year old on the face of the planet. (Wooden is a retired UCLA basketball coach and professor.) In his speech, Wooden outlines his version of success which he pointedly admits is much different than the Mariam Webster Dictionary definition:

(You can see his whole, 18-minute speech here if you're interested)

I thought about that for quite a spell, and I wanted to come up with my own definition. I thought that might help. And I knew how Mr. Webster defined it: as the accumulation of material possessions or the attainment of a position of power or prestige, or something of that sort -- worthy accomplishments perhaps, but in my opinion not necessarily indicative of success. So I wanted to come up with something of my own.

And I recalled -- I was raised on a small farm in Southern Indiana and Dad tried to teach me and my brothers that you should never try to be better than someone else. I'm sure at the time he did that, I didn't -- it didn't -- well, somewhere, I guess in the hidden recesses of mind, it popped out years later.Never try to be better than someone else, always learn from others. Never cease trying to be the best you can be -- that's under your control. If you get too engrossed and involved and concerned in regard to the things over which you have no control, it will adversely affect the things over which you have control.

From those things, and one other perhaps, I coined my own definition of success, which is: peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you're capable. I believe that's true. If you make the effort to do the best of which you're capable, to try and improve the situation that exists for you, I think that's success. And I don't think others can judge that. I think it's like character and reputation. Your reputation is what you are perceived to be; your character is what you really are. And I think that character is much more important than what you are perceived to be. You'd hope they'd both be good,but they won't necessarily be the same. Well, that was my idea that I was going to try to get across to the youngsters.

This notion became my second mantra of the Tour. My goal was to be the best and do the best that I could do, without comparing myself to others. Now this is much, much harder than it sounds because like I said before, the essence of sports in many people's mind is what page your name falls on for results; or what step of the podium you stand on. However, without doing better than some of my competitors, I wouldn't be here in Europe, having the opportunities that I've had. Sports aren't a big "Kumbaya" where everyone holds hands and tries to cross the finish line for a tie - not even in the slightest. The difference is, however, that when you focus on having a good race for yourself, and do the best that you can do, the results and improvement will come. I believe what John Wooden is saying is that if you focus on what others are doing, rather than trying to improve your own "game" it will work against those measures of success. Instead, if you focus on improving your striding, or your mental game during races, the good results will fall in your lap. Not without effort, of course, but the point being, focus on what you can do, rather than being upset that you cannot do what others have done.

In my specific case moving forward, I need not focus on the races that I'm missing and the World Cup points that my competitors are accumulating but rather, what kind of productive PT can I do for my wrist to heel my injury & how I can stay in shape while doing so.

What is my plan now? My plan consists of skipping the next couple race weekends. As much as it pains me to opt out of racing opportunities, I know the priority needs to be on getting better; on healing. A couple weeks ago I had a quote about how every single second in a race is important; that even wiping the snot off your face could cost a place on the results sheet. The reality is, every decrement in performance, whether it's 1% or 10% will result in a quick slip down the results list. Therefore, my plan is to skip the sprints in Milan this weekend, the classic double header in Oteppa, Estonia next weekend, and the city sprint in Moscow. Most likely, my next world cup starts will be in early February in Rybinsk, Russia. There is a 10k mass start skate race and a 15k pursuit. Following Russia I hope to race in the Czech Republic & Poland as well.

Until later & thanks so much for all the support!

Love,

Holly :)

PS.

I had one day after the Tour to spend with Rob before his departure. Considering I am here in Europe November - March it's tough missing loved ones. My mom actually inspired and treated us to this wonderful "date." We took the gondola up Latemar, a big ski area and took the Alpine slide, had lunch, etc. We were celebrating New Years, Valentine's Day & his birthday since I won't see him again until spring :(

(Thanks Mom!)

Going up the Alpine Slide

Rob with our Italian Pizza

Sitting in front of the Dolomites

The Penultimate Race.... TDS/Italy

2012-01-07T04:11:00.000-08:00

Oh Italy..... I am finally back in connectivity after no Internet for days. There is a theory that Internet is especially sparse in Italy due to some Mafia thing but that has yet to be confirmed. Alas, my apologies for those of you that have checked back only to find my blog without recent updates. It's been out of my control, for sure! (This also creates a huge back log in correspondence so if I haven't written you back yet, this is why!)

This afternoon we have our second to last race of the Tour, a 10k classic mass start race at Val di Fiemme. I will make this post brief because I need to get ready but I really want to get something up to let you all know what has been going on.

Racing in Toblach....

As I'm sure some of you have seen or read in other publications, I took a slip on the ice Christmas day while running in Ramsau, Austria. It's taken a while to get a proper diagnosis.... this has included lots of fitful reading on wikipedia, Web MD, and all of those other scary Internet sources where you diagnose yourself and then continue to have nightmares.... However, I was finally able to get both an x-ray and MRI, mid-tour in Oberstdorf, Germany. We were able to deal with an Orthopedic specialist but lots of the medical lingo was lost in translation and there was a fair amount of uncertainty- plus, we were literally trying to get on the road to arrive at the next stage of the Tour. It was quite a debacle of a day but more on that later.

These nice men, Herbert and Stephan made me a custom cast which is hard on one side, and soft on the other side. They were even nice enough to do this for FREE! I am extremely grateful for their kindness - and was happy to hook them up with an Oberstdorf race bib :)

I have been told usually Drs would put a non-removable cast on for six weeks....instead I have this awesome removable, cleanable cast!

Hard on top, soft on the bottom

The conclusion from the MRI is/was that I have a non-dislocated fracture of the distal radius bone. They were initially worried about the scaphoid-lunate ligament as well but that appears to be okay which is terrific news.

I was happy & surprised to make the sprint heats in Toblach. Everything was going well until I got tripped up on the last uphill.... darn!

The second I fell on the ice I knew that something was terribly wrong. My hand was extremely swollen and my range of motion was poor. Christmas was literally 4 days before the beginning of the Tour and it was hard to know what to do. Since then, I have been racing every day, doing my best to compete. While my results have been extremely sub-par, I feel the need to complete the Tour. I've worked so hard to get here - and there are so many people who have helped me out along the way. I know there are a handful of other skiers from the US who would have loved to have the start opportunity and I feel the need to represent the US. I often wonder if the decision to keep racing is tough or just plain stupid. I was concerned about the potential of permanent damage to my arm but have been told since that it's probably just pro-longing my recovery period.

Here's a good motto - from my coach Erik :)

Coming into the Tour my goals included fighting for a top ten stage results and finishing in the top 20 overall. While those goals are completely out of the question now, I continue to race because each time I put a bib on, I learn something valuable. With each stage of the Tour has come another World Cup start, another experience at a new venue, and some pointers and direction towards my results here (hopefully) next year, not to mention later this season.

Also, Val di Fiemme, (where we are now) is the site of the 2013 World Championships so while I'm racing today, I will literally be trying out the course for next year's Championships. After yesterday's "inspection ski" I was really psyched - I think the courses suit me well and it gives me a ton of direction for summer and fall training.

Tour de Ski here and now - World Champs next year!

I could go on and on but it's off to lunch, then a quick view of the men's race, time to get ready - and bring on the pain train!

I promise a more complete update with tons of pictures soon. In the meantime, THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED MY JOURNEY!!!! YOU ALL MEAN THE WORLD TO ME AND I WILL BE FOREVER GRATEFUL! This injury has been especially difficult in that part of me feels like I've let some of you down but I've been told that I cannot think that way... and I know I can't. Nonetheless, THANK YOU and I will continue to do my best to represent you all and get some stories and photos as soon as I possibly can!

Cheers!

Holly:)

I am so happy and thankful to have Rob, my husband here with me.... he's working with both Fasterskier and Salomon

The Church at the Val di Fiemme race venue - trail side

Italians lining up for all kinds of meat..... they like their salami here!

Tour de Ski - Day one

2011-12-29T08:47:00.000-08:00

I figure that a short post is better than none at all.... so here it is: The Tour de Ski started today. While I had a poor result - by far, my worst "distance race" since being in Europe, I have to happy in that I felt as if I could ski. Yesterday, in the training day, my wrist was incredibly painful and I have to admit; I was worried to say the least. Today I had a top-notch tape job done by Steph, our massage therapist and a double dose of pain meds. The duo seemed to do the trick!

Conditions today were icy, squirrely & fast - not my favorite. But, it's snowing outside right now which makes me happy. Klister covered conditions are some of my favorite and I have an awesome pair of skis if the waxing goes that way. I'll have plenty of girls to chase tomorrow in the pursuit start so it should be fun to "hunt some down" and try and improve my overall placing, not to mention, aim for a solid "day of" result.

Other than that, one of the big themes of the Tour is RECOVERY. With nine races in eleven days, proactive recovery becomes imperative.

Here is the plan: after the race, reach for my Boost - yep, the "old folks drink." I may be the only person on the US team that likes the stuff. Me and maybe my grandma :) Change clothes afterwards... get a good, short cool down, ice my hand, change into dry clothes, hustle back to the hotel for a shower, put my feet up. I'm sure we'll start using the mobile ice bath as fatigue builds up. Also, Kikkan and Bird did a bit of personal fundraiser to bring Steph Caverhill, a massage therapist over for the team. Most teams travel with a massage therapist everywhere. While we normally do not have one, we're excited to have Steph here to help us out over the next week and a half. As I said above, she did an awesome job of taping my hand. It's cool to have a female on staff.... I can tell with the little things like the fact that she used pre-rap on my tape job so I don't have to pull of 1/2 of my arm hair when de-taping. Thanks for that Steph!

Here's the only picture I have of today so far. Check back later and perhaps I'll have more posted? Thanks for everyone's encouragement! Go team USA!

Re-fueling with the Swedes in the athlete tent after the race: Me, Liz, Anna Haag & Charlotte Kalla. (Kikkan was taking the pic)

Holly :)

The Eve of the big day...

2011-12-28T14:15:00.000-08:00

Team USA at the "opening ceremonies/team introduction" for the Tour

So.... I haven't said much on my blog yet about the Tour de Ski but here it is - starting TOMORROW! As there is no World Champs or Olympics this year, the Tour is kind of the pinnacle of the race year. Many of the top athletes have been aiming to perform well here all year. I was a last minute addition to the US Tour roster after having performances during period one of the World Cup this fall.

Skiing in Ramsau, Austria on one of the few clear days

I am ecstatic to have the opportunity to race this event. As a distance skier and high volume trainer, I absolutely LOVE the thought of racing day in and day out, challenging myself physically, mentally, and emotionally. I have no idea how I'll do or what will happen to by body as the days of fatigue add up but this is a great time to try it and I couldn't be more excited for the challenge.

There are a ton of friends, family, and even people I don't know that have helped make it possible for me to be here. As many of you know, I responsible for providing my own funding and I wouldn't have been able to do it without the generous support and enthusiasm of many of YOU. I hesitate to name anyone personally because there are so many of you and I don't want to leave anyone out but you know who you are. The experience of needing support and needing it fast has really been really moving. I only hope that I can repay many of you back with the generosity someday be it in the form of a ski lesson, athletic inspiration, a smile, or perhaps one day, dollars to a cause important to you. I know that tomorrow, when I put a bib on, I will feel like I'm racing with the support of people from Washington and Alaska; Kongsberger Ski Club, Alaska Pacific University, and Snoqualmie Nordic Team. THANK YOU so much to ALL of you!

This is simply the best and most wonderful thing I have seen at a breakfast buffet ever - fresh, local honeycomb.

As far as challenges go, I feel the need to share something that's been on the fore front of my mind lately.... Christmas Day I decided to go for a short run before dinner. It was dark out and icy in places. Just as I was about to turn around and head back to the Kobaldhof, I slipped on the ice, falling back, and caught myself with my left hand. I knew instantly that it was not good.... but I wasn't sure how bad. And I still don't know. The plan for tomorrow, and each day afterwards is to ice, tape, take some anti-immflatatory medication and go for it. The US team doesn't have a doctor here at the moment so this morning I went and saw the Norwegian Team's Doctor and "Physio." (The Euro name for PT) They were incredibly generous to see me and were encouraging in that they do not think my wrist has a scaphoid fracture - my greatest worry via a couple hours on email and web MD. (Always a bad idea and also guaranteed to give you nightmares). If Petra Madjic can win a bronze medal at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games with broken ribs and a punctured lung, perhaps I can race the tour, and excel in the Tour with whatever injury my wrist may have sustained. It's not ideal but I'm certainly not the first athlete who has gotten a bit beat up.

Time for bed as often rest provides one with the best healing and rejuvenation powers! Thank you everyone for everything and I'll do my best to keep you posted through this incredible journey!

Sincerely,

Holly :)

Back in Business!

2011-12-24T06:36:00.000-08:00

Last night (and for the past 48+ hours) I watched a movie because the Internet crashed in the entire Ramsau Valley. I couldn't get much work done or respond to all my unanswered emails but it wasn't for lack of trying, that's for sure! So... I finally allowed myself to enjoy "Water for Elephants" a movie about the Circus and really, life on the road or better yet, a train. I had to laugh because afterwards, I realized that a friend of mine had referred to the World Cup as the "White Circus." Ever since she brought the term up, It's been surfacing everywhere. (Funny how that always works, isn't it?)

The girls squad competing in Rogla, Slovenia

While we don't have acrobats, lions, tiger, and an elephant named Rosie (if you've seen the movie you know what I mean) we do travel like vagabonds and spend a lot of time on the road. The athletes, the mondo Norwegian wax truck, the blow-up WC Craft arch, the entourage of massage therapists, sports psychologists, wax techs, and VW vans full of skis bounce from one end of Europe to the other, unpacking and repacking every weekend in a different locale. People are good at opening up the show and closing it down when it's time to leave and move on. As for my road trip with the White Circus? Well, it looks as though my original 6-week stint in Europe has turned into much more - potentially even an entire World Cup season.

Ida kickin some butt and scoring her first legit World Cup points!

Throughout the past training season (April-November) I was worried about the 2011-2012 season. Without an Olympic Games or World Championships to qualify for and race in, what in the world was I going to do? I had a couple different brainstorms up my sleeve but the plan has morphed into Plan A+ or better than I had expected. Where shall I race this season? Why, the World Cup of course! Months ago my coach at APU, Erik Flora, told me: "Train hard, train well and good things will happen to you. Opportunities will present themselves." He was right. Here I am in Ramsau, Austria, spending Christmas and getting ready to compete in my first Tour de Ski!!!!! But more on that later... REWIND!

In the Rogla press conference last week the women's sprint winner, Maiken Casperson Falla stated that she couldn't wait to go home because "they had been on the road since December 2nd" and it was "hard." To that I say: "Try five months on the road!"

Liz and the Hoff chillin on the Pisten Bully, Rogla Stadium

North Americans definitely have the proximity disadvantage when it comes to being a Cross Country World Cup ski racer. From Alaska it takes close to 36 hours of travel to get to Europe and another 8+ days to "acclimate" to the ten hour time difference and feel like my body was in a place where it could perform well. Realistically, any trip "home for a break" would take me a week to adjust to home, then another week upon my return here. Maybe that is an unrealistic amount of time if I'm chasing points and trying to improve my world rank???

Simi after a great sprint in Rogla - qualified 7th, finished 10th!!!!

What I've realized, through intimate realization is that living on the road and the "lifestyle" of the White Circus is a true skill; one that takes a long time to perfect. Our team moves and makes decisions as a group; there is no "I" in we. With limited transportation options and resources, compromise and working together is the name of the game.

Rest and rejuvenation is an essential skill: how can one make a new hotel room every couple of days "homey?" Some of you may be envious of not having to cook for yourself (ever) but it can be tiring to eat from endless buffets or sit through another 2-hour three course lunch when all you want is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich - on your own clock. Speaking of peanut butter, it's only available in select countries and certain stores. Your eyes have to scan at least 356 kinds of preserves, 87 kinds of honey and 34 varieties of nutella to potentially find a lone jar of the good stuff. Then, once you find it, you'd better buy a bunch, save it, cherish it, and make sure it doesn't get lost in the bowels of the cargo van - you never know when the next opportunity to purchase it will be. Being a traveler requires proactive planning you see!

Noah and I using the "contrast bath"...... one minute in the blow up cold tub, the other person in a warm shower, then switch. (x4!)

The Internet is a topic in and of itself. I could write a book on my frustrations with this form of communication and my hours spent trying to get online embarrassingly outweigh my winter training log hours. The Internet in many ways is my only true lifeline to family, friends, coaches, the US, Washington, and Alaska. I don't have a phone that works in Europe - I can't place or receive calls. So when the Internet doesn't work, which is about 1/2 of the time, I feel like my limbs have been cut off. Lame, I know. It's not the end of the world to read a book instead but with Christmas just a couple days away, numerous plane tickets to buy for the next period, and countless emails to write, this is a problem.

"Friends of Liz" are good people....

While technology frustrations are endless and I love peanut butter which is hard to find, the White Circus is well worth the buffet lines and occasional frustration. As a relative World Cup novice I am experiencing "firsts" on a daily basis. New countries I've checked off my list so far this trip include Austria, Slovenia & Switzerland. Next are Italy, Czech, Poland, Russia (if my complicated VISA comes through!) & Estonia. The travel from place to place is so swift that I find once I have finally learned the basics of one language: "Hello, Please, Thank You, Good bye" we're already moving onto another place altogether!

Good buddy and "North American teammate" Chandra Crawford, a minute before stepping on the Rogla sprint podium!

Me in Rogla!

Thinking ahead, knowing what to expect, but also having the ability to be flexible is SO important when you are living your life out of a duffel bag. In terms of spontaneity, I try to find small, spontaneous & novel things that add to my travel experiences here. My best example, by far, is the local, organic milk vending machine that we found while out on a run in Slovenia. One can buy reusable plastic or glass milk bottles from a vending machine and fill them up from a "milk spicket." The milk shack is stand-alone and when you step up to purchase milk, or even to examine what in the heck is going on, the lights turn on and soothing music starts to play. I decided fresh milk was a must - and I had to get one of the glass milk jars in honor all of my friends (and family!) that have any association with Williams College. (For those that don't know, the Williams Ski team competes in purple spandex cow suits.) Check out pictures from this small adventure here:

That's it for now! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Cheers,

Holly :)

Darling Davos and Beyond….

2011-12-14T14:29:00.000-08:00

We’re currently speeding away, the opposite direction of Davos, headed to Rogla, Slovenia for the upcoming weekend’s World Cup races. So far we’ve spent what seems like ½ of Austria in a series of tunnels, the last of which was 15 kilometers long. I’ve always heard about the amazing transportation feats accomplished over here and yes, I must admit, I am impressed. The other day I heard a rumor about a Russian business man who wants to build a tunnel from Russia to Alaska and you know what, I wouldn’t put it past them (in a non Sarah Palin way of course!)

With Sadie!

Casey's been my tax tech for World Cup period 1 and he's been doing an awesome job - thanks Casey for all the hard work and fast boards!

But back to Davos. I had an awesome weekend of races, one that by far surpassed my personal expectations. In Saturday’s distance race I began getting splits that I was leading the race – and I thought they were wrong. On Sunday, when I qualified 18^th for the sprint heats, I expected to get “bumped out” by later starters. While I was far from winnig the race on Saturday I experienced a World Cup best and on Sunday, I qualified and participated in my first European World Cup sprint heat!

Coaches from four different countries ready to go at the "broken pole coaches zone"

I won’t belabor all the boring details of each race but there are a few things worth noting. First, I love skiing on real snow, and I love racing at altitude! Altitude can be incredibly deceiving because it actually has a horrible “race feel.” For those that can drive manual transmission cars, I liken it to driving on the highway in third gear when you should undoubtably be in fifth. You feel like you should be going faster, you know you can, but the car is stuck – and won’t shift. Perhaps you could force it but then you run the chance of ending up as that car on the side of the highway mountain pass smoking in the ditch as all the other cars speed by thinking, “Geez! Look at that sorry soul!” After crossing the finish line in second place the stadium announcer interviewed me and asked for my impression of the course. I think I said something like, “I loved it – you have to go as fast as you possibly can without going too fast!” At the completion of the race I finished a World Cup best of 13^th place, only 5 seconds down to 10^th. It’s my nature to always want more (that tenth place!) but I forced myself to be patient, and to be satisfied with the result that I turned in.

Podium poles, ready to go!

After each World Cup race we receive a “competition analysis.” This analysis is complete with each intermediate split and ranks each section of the course and how you skied it compared to the rest of the field. I had some sections that were as good as 6^th or 7^th place overall and my last two, I really tanked it at 35^th place! While I couldn’t hold my pace the entire time, I took a risk and skied the race at a pace that I would ideally like to hold. My coach Erik, and I have talked about this as I have tanked races before, going out too hard and they dying in the end. He’s always been encouraging and said to me, “Someday Holly, you will go out fast and be able to hold onto the pace – and THAT, will be a good race!”

Picture from Men's race...

Coming off the high of my World Cup best on Saturday, Sunday I was determined to qualify for the heats. The sprint course was unique in that the Davos course is a two-lap race. Its one of the only courses where the men and women compete on the same distance. Going into it, I knew that the course fit my strengths and I was hoping for a good day. And a good day it was! Even after a few fumbles I crossed the line in 18^th! On top of that, Kikkan, my teammate at APU won the sprint qualifier, a feat that she’s never accomplished despite her list of World Cup victories!

Fun to finally meet Skyler Davis!

Once heats were sorted out I found out that I would be racing the quarterfinal with none other than Olympic and World Champion, Norway’s Marit Bjorgen. Also in my heat were my Canadian friends, Chandra Crawford and Perianne Jones. Both Chandra and Peri joined us up in Alaska this past summer for the first annual “NAWTA Camp” or the “North American Women’s Training Alliance Camp.” The camp included one week of skiing on APU’s Eagle Glacier where we got the chance to work together and race around the top of the glacier head-to-head!

Training on APU's Eagle Glacier earlier this summer - USA & Canada!

Before starting we had a quick North-American “power-pound” and lined up for the gun. I reminded myself, this is just like the glacier! J Skate sprint starts now consist of a short double pole before you are allowed to skate. The tracks are short, allowing for little to no time to spread the field. Consequently, Bjorgen and I started next to each other and upon exiting the track, almost took each other out. Unfortunately I missed some key steps and was forced into a position near the back of the group. Unfortunately I wasn’t quite fast enough to move onto the next heat but the race was SO MUCH FUN. I couldn’t be disappointed. At the end I didn’t even feel tired. Instead, it was some kind of weird euphoria that left me wishing and wanting to try it again! But, the day was over for me and my consolation prize was a prime spot on the course to take photos and watch Kikkan absolutely destroy the rest of the women’s field!

Kikkan in the final, lap one

A happy coach

In all of this I keep returning to the same theme: Confidence and Interface or aka, “Opportunity.” It’s priceless to know that we CAN compete with these girls and each weekend of head-to-head racing I learn something new and get better. Now that’s not to say my results will continue to improve each and every weekend. (A bad day on the World Cup can easily result in a 70^th place finish.) If that were the case, I’d be winning World Cup races come February. I am optimistic by nature and don’t believe in putting limitations on dreams but I don’t think that will be happening – not quite yet at least!

That’s it for now – time to get settled into Rogla.

Have a great week, take care of yourself, and find a reason to be thankful for all life’s blessings! (There are so many!)

Sincerely,

Holly :)

A Stone in the Road + Images of Davos

2011-12-10T00:44:00.000-08:00

The internet is finally working this morning - I'll post this quickly as it's t-1hr before leaving for the race this morning! Check out the pics of Davos.... it's literally transformed since we've been here. Below all the pictures is a short story that my mom sent me last week. It has nothing to do with skiing but harbors a great message - read it if you have time. As always, thanks for all the words of encouragement!

Holly ;)

This is one of the tiny man-made loops that we skied on for the first couple of days here.

Another man made loop we traveled too..... Pontresina, Switzerland. Fun to think that Rob, my husband competed in World Juniors here in 1998!

Pontresina again...

Huge groups of Nordic walkers all around Davos.

Snow guns were pumping at full tilt for days on end to provide an excellent base!

Finally - it SNOWED!

This is Jesper Modin - a 6'6" Swedish Sprinter rocking a tiny unicylce with a flat tire in the closet-sized gym in downtown Davos!

Outside our hotel

The Swiss gas stations have a well-stocked, gormet selection of Swiss chocolate - always!

The first natural snow we skied on since arriving in Europe almost a month ago.... a couple of us got in the habit of getting up really early to get first tracks :)

APU girls, Davos, Stadium

I love the Swiss wood work....

A cup of love at the famous "Clatch" coffee house

Took a tram up the side of the mountain one day for a gorgeous view

Tad reading a poem on his love for the state of Alaska!

A couple nights ago we had the second annual secret santa gift exchange. Everyone gets a gift and writes a poem about someone on the team. As you can imagine, it was hilarious!

More later - off to the 15k this morning! Have a great weekend everyone and congrats to the Alaska high school skiers who had their first day of Lynx Loppet!

Holly ;)

The stone in the road

There is a story told of a king who lived long ago in a country across the sea. He was a

very wise king, and spared no effort to teach his people good habits. Often he did things

which seemed to them strange and useless; but all that he did, he did to teach his people to

be industrious and careful.

“Nothing good can come to a nation,” he said, “whose people complain and expect

others to fix their problems for them. The good things of life are given to those who take

matters into their own hands.”

One night, while everyone else slept, he placed a large stone in the road that led past

his palace. Then he hid behind a hedge, and waited to see what would happen.

First came a farmer with his wagon heavily loaded with grain, which he was taking to

the mill to be ground.

“Well, whoever saw such carelessness?” he said crossly, as he turned his team and

drove around the stone. “Why don’t these lazy people have that rock taken from the road?”

And so he went on complaining of the uselessness of others, but not touching the stone

himself.Soon afterward, a young soldier came singing along the road. The long plume of his

cap waved in the breeze, and a bright sword hung at his side. He was thinking of the

wonderful bravery he would show in the war.

The soldier did not see the stone, but struck his foot against it and went sprawling in

the dust. He rose to his feet, shook the dust from his clothes, picked up his sword, and

stormed angrily about the lazy people who had no more sense than to leave such a huge

rock in the road. Then he, too, walked away, not once thinking that he might move it

himself.

So the day passed. Everyone who came by complained and whined because the stone

lay in the road, but no one touched it.

At last, just at nightfall, the miller’s daughter came past. She was a hard-working girl,

and was very tired, because she had been busy since early morning at the mill.

But she said to herself, “It is almost dark. Somebody may fall over this stone in the

night, and perhaps he could be badly hurt. I will move it out of the way.”

So she tugged at the heavy stone. It was hard to move, but she pulled and pulled, and

pushed, and lifted until at last she moved it from its place. To her surprise, she found a box

underneath.

She lifted the box. It was heavy, for it was filled with something. Upon it was written:

“This box belongs to the one who moves the stone.”

She opened the lid, and found it was full of gold!

The miller’s daughter went home with a happy heart. When the farmer and the

soldier and all the others heard what had happened, they gathered around the spot in the

road where the stone had been. They scratched at the dust with their feet, hoping to turn up

a piece of gold.

“My friends,” said the king, “we often find obstacles and burdens in our way. We may

complain out loud while we walk around them if we choose, or we can lift them and find

out what they mean. Disappointment is usually the price of laziness.”

Then the wise king mounted his horse and, with a polite “Good evening,” rode away.

W. J. B.

....

Celebrating the Success of Teammates and Thoughts on a Coach

2011-12-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

I just returned to "home away from home" hotel Kulm from an exciting, high-paced World Cup weekend in Dusseldorf, Germany. While the weekend's racing format didn't explicitly compliment my skill set it was a great experience and more importantly, I was there to witness my teammates stand on a World Cup podium.

If you've been living under a rock (or perhaps you aren't a ski news junkie and that's perfectly okay) Kikkan and Sadie won a silver medal in the team sprint yesterday on the city streets of Dusseldorf, Germany. Ida Sargent and I teamed up for the sprint as well and unfortunately we were 2 seconds from making it through to the finals as "lucky losers." Although I was disappointed, it provided us with great viewing and cheering opportunities for the other girls. Funny thing was, amongst the crowds, Sadie and Kikkan both said they could hear us screaming for them on course!!!!

The women's start, next to the Rhine River in Downtown Dusseldorf, Germany

Yesterday was an incredible day for my teammates and for all of US Skiing. Once again, we have shown the Euros that WE can be in there. That we are competitors, and even though we live out of a suitcase for months on end to do it, they should not discount our fitness, courage or tenacity.

The men's race

I have to admit, when it comes to taking pictures, I have no problem pushing to the front of crowds and getting my canon "powershot SD1300" out there amongst the 3-foot long lenses. Also, perhaps I'm a horrible person for doing this but I may or may not have stepped in front of a small child to get some great shots! I couldn't help it - how often do the girls you roller ski in the rain with (while everyone else is still sleeping off hangovers) stand on World Cup podiums? I mean, really?! Can you say Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center ROCKS?! I can!

Flower ceremony, team sprint D-Dorf!

YEHAW APU!

While it's easy to give all the congratulations to Kikkan and Sadie - and of course they deserve every ounce of it..... I'd like to acknowledge the coaches and particularly one person, Erik Flora for helping make this happen. As a competitor that's also been a coach and a wax tech, my perspective stems from all angles. While there were only two people standing on the podium yesterday in D-dorf, Erik Flora has gone above and beyond to make that silver medal possible, not to mention, my success over here too....

Myself, Erik & Kikkan at Super Tour finals in Sun Valley, March 2011

I don't know anyone else in the world that loves skiing more than Erik does. The guy could literally inspire a rock to get up off the ground and do some burpees. (A really hard exercise that combines a push up and a jump.) He is a student of the sport spending his night-time hours watching the latest video, corresponding with other coaches from around the world on theories, testing our skis by headlamp once everyone else has gone home..... some may say he's crazy but isn't there some kind of saying that says something like, "Great things happen when people break the norm" or something to that effect?

Erik & Casey waxing at NorAms in Silver Star last year...

In 2006, the APU program was in transition. Erik saw the opportunity to create a World-class ski team in a setting where the time was right. He seized the opportunity. Since then, everyday for the last five years he's been working 12-23 hours a day to make us fast. To make us competitive. To give us every advantage he possibly can.

Erik on Eagle Glacier this past summer...

Erik turns any hardship into an opportunity (it may be white-out fog and blowing wind but THIS could be CHAMPIONSHIP conditions one day!) and exudes the excitement of a 6-year old on Christmas morning on a DAILY basis. His work ethic and his dedication to the betterment of the sport and to the athletes he coaches is impressive and admirable. When times are tough and confidence is low he has a special ability to find the bright side of any situation. He never underestimates anyone or tells them they can't or they won't or they shouldn't.

Look at this enthusiasm!

Yesterday, when I was standing in the crowd looking up at my teammates on the podium I was envisioning three people up there: leg one and two of the team sprint relay along with their coach who had the biggest grin from ear to ear that you've ever seen.

Thanks to Erik Flora for his dedication and to all the coaches and support stuff out there that help athletes realize their dreams and inspire others to do so as well.

Oh - and here are a couple of other shots from D-Dorf.... the Germany Christmas bazaar was amazing! I wish I had more than 1/2 hour to check it out.

Christmas trees everywhere - oh so festive, even in sweaty spandex!

Hard to be on a low-carb diet in Germany..... the bakeries are intense!

Sharing a fresh German street pretzel with my team sprint teammate, Ida!

Thanks for reading and thanks again for the words of support and encouragement!

Holly :)

Rocking Ruka & thoughts on confidence

2011-12-01T12:24:00.000-08:00

I'm behind on my blog posts but what can I say? My senses have been completely overwhelmed with Swiss scenery, 1k, 2k & 3k man-made loops of snow (this morning we did 30 looks of an 800 meter track) and new varieties of stinky cheese! So far, so much of my European skiing experience has been concentrated around Scandinavia and it's been a while (try 1998) since I've been to Central Europe!

Big machinery has been making skiing in Europe happen.... dum trucks, back hoes, snow guns, etc

But, to rewind to last weekend - the Ruka Triple! Racing the mini-tour in Ruka (outside Kuusamo, Finland) way, way, way up north.... check it out on a map here ..... was an absolute blast. I had a semi non-spectacular start to me World Cup season in Sjujsoen and was looking to clock a more satisfying result. Because really, shouldn't 3 x 25 hours of summer glacier skiing and giving up endless backpacking trips and late nights equate athletic improvement? Ideally, yes! And thankfully, my results (and improvements) from last weekend made it all worth it. Now the hard part comes: Can I do it again?!

If you're not a Nordic skiing junkie, (which not everyone is!) you may be thinking, what happened? What did she do? Well, the Ruka Triple consists of three days of back-to-back races with cumulative results. Think Tour de France but Nordic skiing style in Lapland. First of all, I kicked off the day with a World Cup WORST. The first race was a classic sprint and I was horrible. I was 70th place! I almost fell on a huge downhill leaving the stadium and the conditions were ice-hard and squirrely, my least favorite. Anyways, I figured that it had to get better from there and it did!

The following day I had my best World Cup result ever, 17th place! I was so fired up! I was one of the earlier finishers (Thanks to Friday's poor result) so I had time to hike over to the large hill to watch the top seeded girls attack the finish. While I don't know what I looked like skiing up the final decent many of the girls looked surprisingly unspectacular. I was literally holding my breath as the results flashed by on the huge megatron, 9 skiers at a time. I made the second "screen flash" and finished EIGHT seconds out of tenth place!

A picture of me racing the sprint - compliments of Nordic Focus

This race was certainly a breakthrough for me. The crazy part it that it felt like a decent race but if you were to ask me how it went at the end without telling me I would say, "Okay." But here's the important part, I went for it, received a promising result and consequently, gained a MONUMENTAL boost of confidence. Thank you so much to many of you who have sent congratulatory emails and written on my face book wall! One email, in particular, really hit home for me. The email was concise and really hit the nail on the head. This accomplished athlete said, "Yeah! Good job :) A little confidence goes a long way. Often times that's all that separates you :)" And you know what? This is so true! Once you've done it once, it becomes real. It becomes a possibility each time you toe the line. Now that I've been top twenty once I know that on a great day, I can be top twenty again. No, not every time. Competition here on the World Cup is tough and as I was quoted saying, "It’s amazing how here, a bad day can be REALLY bad. For example, take 1 second to wipe the snot off your face and you lose two places. Lesson learned: don’t wipe the snot off your face!”

What have I learned? As a country I think we can do this. We simply need more interface and more confidence. Yes, cross country skiers in Europe are on milk cartons, some drive sports cars, and it's not unusual to see one of our competitors on the cover of a tabloid. But, Kikkan has shown that she can beat them and I learned last weekend that I can be in there.

My very first college coach, Eli Brown had this theory.... it went something like this: I beat such and such once and they beat this other person - and the other person won an Olympic Gold Medal. Therefore, I can win an Olympic Gold Medal! Well..... It doesn't quite work that way but I think there are some good lessons to be taken from such a statement. If I can be top twenty on the World Cup so can many other girls in the US. Caitlin is an amazing skate climber, Jennie Bender can double pole like a crazy women, Kate Fitz can ski "threshold" till the sun goes down and Digger ski races until she cries (literally - DURING races) and I believe that Sadie Bjornsen to this day holds the 100m World Record! As a nation we are tough, we have talent. Now we need the opportunity and just a pinch of confidence! Watch out World! Team USA is coming on strong!

In the meantime, here are some pics from Ruka:

This is absolutely INSANE. For only 80 Euros you can float down a river in the middle of winter for TWO and a HALF hours. WOW.

Saying hi to the Finnish boys....

The Ruka Jump - at night

Finns love their saunas. This was in our room - and took up a lot of square footage... unfortunately we didn't have a great opportunity to use it with all the racing on the schedule.

In the wax room, in front of the flag!

We celebrated Casey's B-Day in Ruka!

I absolutely love Ruka. Maybe it's the fact that I'm from Alaska and the darkness doesn't bother me but I loved staying in small apartments literally overlooking the course. Although we were on a meal plan here we had the opportunity to do laundry (which is rare) make hot drinks, and put food in a fridge! It was glorious.

Here's the view the other way. On Thanksgiving we celebrated with a FIRE!

Here we are after the the last race... left to right: Me, Kikkan, Charlotte Kalla, Anna Haag & Chandra!

Sadie, Casey & Holly in the wax room!

Trying on some funny hats with Lars!

The "World Cup Version" of the Alaskan packraft. This is a portable cold tub that fits in a backpack - used for recovery.

Liz and Kikkan making it a Ruka QUADRUPLE! We went to lift after the third race.....

Hauling our stuff up to the World Cup transit bus..... Bye Ruka!

Thanks for reading :)

Holly

Sjujsoen World Cup Opener - in Pictures!

2011-11-20T09:44:00.000-08:00

The first stop on the World Cup is over and this makes one week that I've been in Europe. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Walking into the venue the first day we weren't quite sure what to expect...

But Marit does... basically tons & tons of press and attention - check out the Norwegian ski paparazzi - simply on a training day! What is super impressive is that yesterday was Marit's 47th World Cup win where she finally surpassed the "king" of Cross Country Skiing, for the most World Cup wins by any athlete (I believe....)

Tad Elliot, my Salomon Complete buddy....

Every morning and night the ground here in Lillehammer has been completely COVERED in ice making it really difficult to run, even treacherous. I'm hoping to get a pair of Salomon's new "Spike Cross" running shoes that have spikes drilled into the soles. It's literally the only way to run over here right now! They look sweet too:

Salomon Spike Cross

The bottom of the shoe

Canada's van for the season with the famous picture from World Champs - these guys have gotten a ton of mileage out of this picture, rightly so.

Two of the three nights at the hotel we've been served "Christmas Dinner" in an ornate buffet. As far as we can tell, the World Cup coincided with some super fancy function. The result, we got to "experience" the buffet too. And, an experience it was.... I've never seen anything like it. The food really seemed like art, rather than edible, nutritious food. Check out some of the crazy pictures below.... I think there must have been close to 50 different kinds of meat when you include all the seafood, sausages and even lutefisk - basically rotten fish....

The Norwegian wedding cake rocked my world as two years ago, Rob and I had one at our wedding made by our good friend Ase Haugen:

Back to the "God Jul"......

Sadie and Ida with the crustaceans....

Saturday night was Graham Nish's Birthday - Happy Birthday Graham!

And now.... it's relay day!

USA face painting, pre-race

Here I am rounding the final corner anchoring the women's relay. The other teams are Italy, Russia, Germany & Poland. Out of this five I won a photo finish for second place! Good sprint action and a great result for our team! (photo courtesy of Kikkan!)

The women's team: Ida, myself, Kikkan, Sadie & Liz

(photo from Kikkan)

The men's start

Ski race, typical Norwegian style: "Hey, do you want to go sit on the frozen ground, light a fire, drink bad black coffee and watch people ski circles in spandex?" (The answer - YES!)

Casey and Sadie spectating....

Bird followed closely by the Russians

Hey!

The men's lead pack, leg 3

APU Girls: Holly, Kikkan & Sadie

Tad Elliot (center of the picture) skiing at great leg 3 for the US men's team

Kris Freeman, Andy Newell & Tad Elliot while waiting for men's anchor, Simi Hamilton

The whole men's team

Last but not least, an anonymous plate that was filled with food for no less than one minute - before being inhaled with not one, but TWO forks. It was impressive.

One more day training here in Lillehammer and then the journey to Kuusamo, Finland for the Ruka triple! I can't wait!

Thanks for reading!!!! More soon!

Holly :)

Bye bye Torsby Tunnel!

2011-11-17T03:03:00.000-08:00

Three days in Torsby and two training sessions on the 1.3k loop in the tunnel proved to be just about perfect. While the tunnel is a huge asset at the disposal of the athletes that use it (particularly in the summer) I prefer skiing on natural snow! It is however, easy to see why so many skiers from this area have had International success. The ski tunnel which is open year round is also connected to paved roller ski loops, winter race trails, complete with a large spider web of single track, dorm rooms, and a cafeteria. In essence, you can snow ski, roller ski, run, lift, eat and sleep just a couple of steps away.....

In just a couple of minutes we're going to load our gear and head to Sjujsoen where the 2k loop is rumored to grow to 3.75k in time for this weekend's World Cup opener. It's been really nice to have some piece and quiet in Torsby before diving head first into the chaos. Coming over one week later than originally planned I was worried whether I'd have enough time to adjust to the time change. My second night here in Sweden was a bit rough (I wrote a 7-page paper in the middle of the night) but overall, the transition has been smooth.

I'm excited to drive to Sjujsoen, stoked to race and ready for the adventure which is the next five weeks! Bring it!

My last, nostalgic 20oz Pumpkin Spice Latte I treated myself to in Seattle.... I knew it would be a while before my next opportunity - and if it did arise, it would probably cost $15!

Sadie and I took a roller ski tour of Torsby for our "break-in" workout... this included a bike path through the local cemetary.

In Sweden they are serious about their marathons. In fact, Sandra Hansson and Daniel Tyndal (sp?) recent Vasa Champs are both here training in the tunnel too!

For a 1.3k loop the tunnel actually has some good terrain with two relatively large hills. The "snow" here is wild. It feels like true styrofoam and when there is lots of traffic, like quick sand. Apparently the "snow" is changed 1x per year so in real life it has a nice yellowish tinge to it. I can't help but wonder what percentage of the surface is comprised of snot-rockets!

Sadie and I in our Fast and Female bandit-buffs!

Yesterday there was almost enough frost to ski!

That's it for now! Thanks for reading and check back soon!

Sincerely,

Holly :)

Lack of Snow, Tons of Snow & Sjujsoen!

2011-11-10T08:44:00.000-08:00

We just got word that the World Cup races scheduled for next weekend in Norway are on! The only caveat.... there is currently bare ground at the chosen venue, Sjujsoen! But, leave it up to the Norwegians to pull off a ski race in sub-par conditions! This morning over a cup of coffee Rob likened it to the US cancelling the Super Bowl. While the first World Cups of the season aren't a championship event, maybe this is better compared to a regular season NFL game....

The cool thing is that I am familiar with Sjujsoen. Last season a bunch of us chose Sjujsoen to conduct our pre-World Champs training camp. Sjujsoen is a small ski resort located right outside (above) Lillehammer. When we were there they had AWESOME skiing and great trails. The groomers groomed constantly so there were always fresh tracks. The Norwegian Birkebeiner course also goes through this area.

I am certain that this trip to Sjujsoen will be a bit different. We were just instructed in an email from Chris Grover, the US Ski Team Coach to organize bringing roller skis for training. Apparently the snow situation in Kuusamo, Finland, the next stop on the World Cup is bare at the moment as well.

As difficult as it is to leave Alaska where there is plenty of snow and the conditions are quite literally PERFECT I'm excited to go. I certainly don't train my butt off year round to stay at home and train! If only the World Cup could come to Alaska!

More soon - we have a classic sprint time trial ON SNOW this morning!

Cheers,

Holly :)

APU Program Wide Update....

2011-11-03T13:28:00.000-07:00

People often ask: What is APU? How does it work? You're a University team that isn't NCAA - What does that mean? These are all good questions and yes, the format (if you will) of APU can tend to be confusing to people looking in on us from the outside. However, here it is in a nutshell: We are community ski club based within a University such that skiers of collegiate age can attend school (undergrad or graduate) while pursuing ski racing at a high level. Our community program is then built both below and above the University-based team in age. We have APU skiers as young as 11 and as "senior" (!) as their mid-eighties! In all, our total program membership involves over 200+ people directly on a regular basis. It's RAD.

My sunrise ski at Glen Alps yesterday morning

Here we are, a small club in Anchorage, AK that has duel goals of winning Olympic medals and teaching 11 year old how to huck jumps! Or, making it possible for University students to attend online classes while at training camp on Eagle Glacier and teaching a mother of four to V2 alternate.

Erik Flora, the APU elite team head coach and APUNSC Director wrote a great update to our programs at 3am this morning - I thought it was worth sharing. It explains what each group has been up to the past couple of weeks!

APU Program Members

Winter is off to a great start! We have already had groups skiing at Glenn Alps, Hillside, Hatcher Pass, and Russian Jack. Glenn Alps and Hatcher Pass have mid-winter conditions. With snow in the air, it is a good time for program update. Of course there are 100 more items, here are a few.

Junior Program has had a strong off-season of training. We have had full programs with lots of new faces and athletes reaching a new level of fitness. Part of the group participated in last weeks camp in Fairbanks. Next up is an early season snow camp in Hatcher Pass where they will focus on volume and technique (plus a whole lot of fun!). High School skiing started this week. Impressive as two junior team members were named to US National Training Groups Tarynn Hunt-Smith and Thomas O'Harra.

Devo's have been ripping up with coach Charlie, Erin, and Dylan. This group keeps on getting faster and faster. It is amazing to watch this group as they continue to have fun and explore the joys of ski training. Keep an eye out, if you see a group of unusually fast moving-jumping-excited kids blasting through the woods and across the trails. It is a good chance it is the Devo's!

Master Programs are in full-swing with Noon, Evening, and One-day Women Groups. Winter session has started off well with mix of dry-land and skiing at Hatcher Pass. The move to 2 and 5 day options has been a great way to get more people involved and enjoying ski training. We are excited to add a coach to the Master Programs this winter. Calisa Schouweiler is going to join Dylan and Sam for Evening Masters, Noon Master, and Women's One-day. Calisa has a strong background in coaching. She will start in mid-November. More to follow.

The Elite team is getting ready to travel. We have had a good summer with most athletes setting record amounts of training and new PR's on interval courses. APU members Kikkan Randall, Holly Brooks, Sadie Bjornsen, and Lars Flora are heading to Norway next week to compete on World Cup. The rest of the team will focus on early winter domestic race series starting in Fairbanks, racing West Yellowstone, Bozeman, SilverStar BC, ending at Kincaid at Besh cup 1 and 2. After Christmas we are competing in Maine at the US Nationals, World cups, Alaska Races, and World Junior and U23 World Championships in Turkey. APU added more athletes to US Ski Team programs: Kikkan, Sadie, Erik Bjornsen, Kinsey Loan, and Celia Haering. Plus Men and Women current Super Tour Leaders Lars and Holly. The Elite team was on tonight's 10 o'clock news, click here<http://www.ktva.com/home/outbound-xml-feeds/APU-Ski-Team-Preps-For-International-Competition-133115253.html> to watch. Best community outreach ye
ar to date with athletes really busy hosting Fast and Female events, helping at kids events, and working at junior camps.

Coaches have stepped up community support of nordic programs. Two of our coaches, Dylan Watts and Sam Sterling, are going to help with local high school programs. Dylan at West HS and Sam at East HS. Eric Strabel at Regional Elite Group camp at Hatcher Pass. Eric and Charlie will coach at Junior Nationals. Casey Fagerquist stepping up this fall to help World Cup waxing during fall schedule. Erik Flora coached 3 US ski team camps and First Tracks High School camp in Fairbanks. Plus we hosted a new Alaska "open" Junior Glacier Camp. This is a good year for coaches to extend their experience to help strengthen Alaska and US skiing.

Good for our programs, Anchorage skiing is really good for early season right now. Glenn Alps and Hatcher Pass are race ski ready with good coverage. Russian Jack and Hilltop are skiable, but quite a few rocks/grass. The NSAA did a great job rolling Hilltop today. Let's help Nordic Ski Club of Anchorage set record sales of trail pins. The more support they get, the better grooming we will see! click here<http://www.anchoragenordicski.com/membership.htm> to join.

This is a great club to be a part of. I look forward to seeing everyone on the trails!

Sincerely
Erik

Erik Flora
Director
APU Nordic Ski Center

Down with the Monster!

2011-11-02T08:18:00.000-07:00

Monster Blog Posts that is..... I'll admit: I have been procrastinating with my posting because I have a nasty habit of being all-inclusive with my posts. I won't write unless I have time to do a really, really good job and honestly, I'm crazy busy and those ultra productive long time windows don't present themselves very often. So, my goal is to make smaller posts more often - let's see if I can do it?

Hatcher's Pass, AK (this season!)

In theory I'll have more time for blogging & tweeting in just a few days. My initial plane ticket departs from Anchorage late Saturday night and I'm scheduled to arrive in Oslo, Norway shortly thereafter. However, the word on the street is that Beitostolen and really, all of Europe are suffering from lack of snow. The entire US team is scheduled to compete in FIS opening races November 11-13 but they are threatening cancellation due to lack of snow. Apparently just about every skier in Europe has flocked to Munio, Finland where organizers managed to save 3k's worth of snow from last year (!) to roll out for training. No offense to Munio, Finland, or the entire continent of Europe but I'm happy to be in Alaska rather than battling it out on a small gerbil loop with everyone else and their mom!

Enough about that though - here are some pictures from the lack couple of weeks.... in reverse chronological order, ENJOY!

Our neighborhood get OVER RUN with kids on Halloween - plus we had a sweet snow storm. Here I am with Ariana, my neighbor who dressed up as ME for Halloween. (I was super touched!) Oh, and our snow/pumpkin man was a popular part of the night as well. Lots of trick-or-treaters got their pics taken with him!

We (as in a big part of the APU crew) spent the last couple of days up in Fairbanks getting some quality time on-snow and helping out with the first annual "First Tracks" state-wide high school ski camp. Approximately 65 kids from around the state received coaching from our coach, Erik Flora, and got to chase the APU elite team around Birch Hill for four hours per day. There were some tired pups at the end of this camp, including me! I was really impressed by the level of fitness that many of the skiers in the group had - plus, everyone had a fantastic attitude!

As if the First Tracks camp wasn't enough busyness we capped off the long weekend with the first ever Fast and Female Fairbanks. Big props to Becca Rorabaugh for making it happen in her home town. It was a blast!

Erica led an awesome yoga session

Erik Flora giving technique pointers early in the am, Birch Hill/Fairbanks

Me and Ana, my team sprint partner! Ana's fitness and toughness was especially impressive. Last Saturday she skied with Kikkan, Becca, and myself for hour 4 on the day - after our team sprint relay. We weren't skiing slow and this first year J2 hung with us for the last hour of the day! Watch out for her in the races this year girls!

Hanging with some of the APU junior girls :)

Tired junior girls putting their feet up after a hard day's training:

On top of high quality skiing and coaching this camp was top-notch in the fun factor as well. Friday night featured a Halloween dance complete with DJs and an official photographer. The APU junior girls went all-out 80's for the event! A big shout out to Mike Hajdukovich and his organization, Challenge Life for doing a KILLER job in organizing the camp! (Check out his awesome website to learn about the cool basketball camps he hosts in remote Alaskan villages and towns).

I had to add some pictures of the APU junior boys who have also been rocking it at training. These boys made L5 bounding look easy the other day!

So fast the camera can hardly capture it!

Here's a token shot of my Halloween costume. I wore it for a running race last week and for the entire three hour OD in Fairbanks on Sunday!

Last week we also had an APU/AMH night were athletes and coaches help our juniors and masters hand-pick new set ups for the upcoming season. Here I am with the Albo sisters and Salomon Complete packages! SWEET!

********

There is a saying that is repeated often on our team: "If you want to be a swimmer, swim. If you want to be a skier, ski!" Well, that is exactly what we have been doing! Even though it's only the second day of November my timing has been on step this year as skiing at Hatchers was ready the day after I returned from Park City and skiing here in town at Glen Alps just got good - the day after returning from Fairbanks. So far this fall alone I've logged 25 quality hours on snow. Add that the 75 hours of glacier skiing I did this summer and I've been SKIING!

Here are a couple shots of Hatcher's Pass, an incredibly dependable early season ski spot for South Central, AK. (Special thanks to the Strabel family for doing a KILLER job with the grooming up there too!)

Lovin the skis!

Erik and Reese - not sure what's going on here?

The team skiing in tracks, on Swix extra blue!

My friend Linda has a beautiful garden and she hooked me up with these brussel sprouts (my favorite veggie!) that she grew!

On the way home from the Park City altitude camp I had a quick layover in Seattle to see my family. Here I am with my dad, Farmor (grandmother in Swedish) cousin Zahra & my mom. In our family we had four separate trips to the airport in one day.... a bunch of jet-setters!

Last but not least, I have to include some pictures from a weekend trip I took at the end of the altitude camp to Bryce Canyon, Utah. When I made arrangements to attend the PC camp I knew I would be tired and ready for a change of pace at the end of a solid two week block. This summer my training has been incredibly ski-focused and I knew that I could benefit from spending a day in the red rocks with some good girlfriends!

The spectacular Bryce Canyon with the moon overhead!

That's a wrap for now.... I certainly didn't succeed in killing the monster - (the post ended up huge as always!) but I'll post again in the next couple days. In the meantime, cross your fingers for snow in Norway & thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Holly :)

The Countdown Begins!

2011-10-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

It all starts one month from NOW. From TOMORROW! November 6th I will jump on a plane and be racing in Europe until Christmas. This will be my first time racing World Cup period 1 and it's going to a be a whirlwind tour with up to 14 race starts in FIVE different countries including Norway, Finland, Germany, Switzerland & Slovenia. I am pretty pumped for new race venues and an opportunity to test myself against Marit Bjorgen from day one. Last year I learned that there is certainly a learning curve to being on the World Cup and I'm hoping that my experience last year has given me some confidence and knowledge for this trip knowing that I've done it before and the girls are totally human.... except for (maybe) these two:

Props to my teammate Sadie for finding this pic online somewhere....

With only a month or so to go until the official race season kicks off I'm sure that skiers everywhere, in the US and abroad, harbor some similar feelings and questions:

"Where is my fitness?"

"How will I perform this year?"

At this point in the fall (at a certain level) you've either done the hard work or you haven't. October is a great time to ask yourself: "Have I done every possible thing I could to be as fast as I can be this upcoming winter?" Personally, I find that at this time of year my problem isn't finding the time or motivation to train. Instead the hard part is to know when to stop or when enough is enough. If it were up to me and personal enjoyment I would probably train 40 hours/week! It's easy to think, oh.... if my roller ski interval times aren't getting better right now I need to train more.... when really, the opposite might be true and what your body really needs is rest. My coach Erik brought up an interesting point the other day at practice. He said that he doesn't believe there has ever been an Olympic or World Champion that's been self coached. I haven't fact-checked this but it makes sense when I consider the value of having someone see you at training - an objective eye to sense fatigue or a downward spiral.

But, enough about that! Where am I right now and what am I doing for training? Right now I'm at a big dry land camp in Park City Utah! I've never trained in Utah for dry land and this camp is the perfect opportunity to get my feet underneath me before the season. Skiers from all over the country are here to train together. Yesterday we did intervals at Soldier Hollow, the 2002 Winter Olympic venue. The US Ski Team is also based out of Park City so we have lots of resources at our disposal.

I find that the fall is always a really great time to get out of Alaska and do something. During the summer months I have a tendency to stay really close to home and come October, skiing the same roller ski loop for the 59th time becomes less appealing. It's nice to get out and explore different places - this is a big part of what I love about Utah or skiing or anything else. Last year I wasn't presented with the Utah training camp option so I created a training camp of my own in Hawaii, and specifically Kona. Last summer in Alaska was one of the worst weather summers in the books and it rained for FORTY DAYS straight. Because of that Hawaii wasn't a luxury but rather became a necessity. When I planned the trip I had NO IDEA that our stay would overlap with one of the MOST AWESOME athletic events I have ever watched: Ironman World Championships! The race is actually this upcoming Saturday October 8th and a small part of me is sad to be missing the even this year. In fact, here I am roller skiing on the Queen K highway posing with a bike team from the Netherlands. Yes, the dude in the arrow helmet is kissing my check while my husband takes the picture!

Ironman Time!

After taking a red eye flight direct from AK my good friend Alison from Whitman College days picked me up in Salt Lake City and we ended up here:

Gorgeous sunshine, trails & my personal favorite, yellow fall leaves!

This forest looks like a work of art in and of itself. I LOVE it!

The trail system here is absolutely AMAZING. I am so impressed and I have to say, a bit envious. The mountain biking here looks phenomenal with over 200+ miles of single track in the great Park City area alone! On our hike we randomly found this in the woods:

Speaking of mountain bike trails and single track, there is a great trail building effort in Anchorage building a new set of single tracks at Kincaid Park! For folks in Anchorage I encourage you to attend the work parties that happen every Monday and Wednesday nights from 6-8pm. (Meeting in the Jodphur parking lot) No experience is necessary and they have all the tools. Here is a pic of a bunch of us post-work party a couple of weeks ago. Anchorage will never be the mtn biking mecca that Park City is but these new trails are AWESOME.

If you want to see the new trails in motion, check out my teammate Reese Hanneman's blog here for a YouTube video

To continue with Park City....

A cool sticker I saw on a car in the parking lot...

Some one tell these coaches that the "boot" isn't in! Three coaches from three different programs all with foot injuries!

Cheering on the boys at Soldier Hollow yesterday in our threshold intervals

Me and Kikkan post workout

I think our boots got dirtier here in Utah than they do in Alaska!

This picture shows the dedication of a starving skier... he is eating raw Top Ramen noodles for his post workout recovery food because (and I quote) "You can get 20 of these for five bucks!" Someone get this kid a bar sponsorship, quick!

After posting some pretty gorgeous pictures of Utah I feel obligated to show a couple recent pictures of my home, Alaska and our beautiful fall colors:

Rob and I went on a hike and found this thing on the top of a mountain. We think it's some kind of air traffic control repeater but we're not sure?

Over looking Hope, Alaska and Turnagain Arm

Last but not least, a fun picture of my great host, Morgan Smyth! (Hopefully she won't kill me for putting this up on my blog!) While at training camp down here I am staying at Morgan and Deb's house. Morgan is even letting me borrow her car to get to workouts while she bikes to work. Morgan and Deb's awesome hospitality is making it financially possible for me to be here at this camp. Thanks so much you two! If you're ever in Park City and looking for an awesome place to stay check out Deb's B&B called Old Town Guesthouse!

Oh! And one more thing! Because there are so many of us in town we're hosting a Fast and Female event here in Park City! It's this Saturday and will be held at the COE, AKA, Center of Excellence. I'm sure I'll have an entire post of it but if you know of anyone in town, sign up because this event is going to be great! Also, for Alaskans, save the date Sunday, October 30th for a Fast and Female event in Fairbanks, AK!

Fast and Female Park City, Utah

Registration Link: http://ffparkcityoct2011.eventbrite.com/

NEW EVENT ADDED!

Fast and Female Fairbanks, Alaska

Registration link: http://ffoct30fairbanks.eventbrite.com/

More to come and as always, thanks for reading! Make today AWESOME because as I like to say, "you have so much to be thankful for!"

Holly :)

Precip: first SNOW, then RAIN!

2011-09-07T00:44:00.000-07:00

The August glacier camp was the latest camp our team has ever attempted. At some point during the “summer” the glacier transitions from melting away under the sunshine and/or rain (ablation) and begins the annual accumulation process of collecting snow and refilling crevasses. The blue ice temporarily disappears and once again, the surface of the glacier is covered in a fresh, white blanket.

That said, if you have no expectations about the weather, you cannot be disappointed. The typical first move on Eagle is to climb out of bed and pull the blanket covering the window tacked to the wall away and see what you’re in for that day…. "Is it blue bird and sports bra or is it ice-pellet shrapnel and windbreakers?" This camp was the later.... Because I knew the forecast going into it, I thought this was necessary:

Casey and Erik enjoying a rare moment of relaxation with espresso in the afternoon.

The bergschrund that forms every year at the top of the glacier, near the facility.

While the “pure enjoyment” part of me wishes that we had sunshine everyday, or even for ONE DAY, I know that we gained MORE by skiing in challenging conditions...... by doing intervals when it was 32 degrees and snowing…. (Poor Pete iced so bad he fell on his face and broke his ski).

When the going gets tough there are two options: you can give up and create excuses or you can work with and overcome the situation. You can tough it out. No, the skiing may not be pretty… you may not be proud of it but maybe you’re even the fastest one out there that day? Who knows….

Erik Flora, our coach is famous for all kinds of lines and points. He emphasizes and re-emphasizes things with new found enthusiasm all the time. One of his favorite talking points on the glacier is to speak favorably about the “difficult weather.” He makes the point that Eagle features conditions that are similar to the last three championship cycles. He has a good point:

1) In Oslo/2011 we raced World Championships in front of tens of thousands of spectators in pea-soup fog; Conditions often found on Eagle Glacier.

2) At the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver we raced in our fair share of either rain or slush up above our boots; Conditions often found on Eagle Glacier.

3) In the 2009 Liberec (Czech Republic) World Championships they raced in poor conditions and wild grooming; Luckily our grooming is mostly awesome these days thanks to our new Pisten Bully! However, there was one day that the wind drifts were so bad that all twenty of us completed our training session “tailing” the Pisten Bully so we could ski in the tracks before they “blew in” with fresh snow!

Here are a couple of pictures of the blue ice/fresh snow glacier on our single "sun-break"

This camp, due to the low snow, the skiers enjoyed a daily commute on the Pisten Bully down to skiing. One of my teammates likened it to riding the school bus to school; our skis and poles were our books, our workouts our assignments, and our post-training granola bar our “sack lunch.”

Another sweet picture of Casey and the new PB. Thanks so much to all the supporters who chipped in!!!

This is the post-training traffic jam in the glacier kitchen that is LUNCH!

One of the many products of the "traffic jam"

Some of you may wonder what we do all day, everyday during our glacier training camps. The schedule is surprisingly jam-packed and I rarely find myself with much extra time. Here is what the general schedule looks like:

6:30am – wake up/breakfast/dress/last minute ski changes & adjustments

7:45am – “pre-game meeting” Description of workout, technique examples, daily training volume assignments, waxing recommendations.

8am – Board Pisten Bully to “commute to training”

8:30-11am – train & ride PB back to facility

11am-noon – Lunch #1

Noon – 3pm – Afternoon chores, pm ski prep (klister!) & technique review from the morning session, dinner prep – some athletes are able to nap. (This is where my sleep envy comes in…. ) + Lunch #2

3:15 – 4pm: Afternoon “pre-game meeting” , PB transport, etc.

4-6:30pm – Afternoon training, ride PB home

Post-afternoon ski core or strength routine.

7pm – Dinner

Dinner clean

Training talk

10pm – lights out/quiet time….. get ready to wake up and do it all again the next day.

Erik graciously goes over technique with anyone who wants it for hours and hours....

Matt Gelso putting peanut butter on his burger? Hum... can't knock it until I try it and well, I didn't try it.

Was this really necessary?

Okay, this was HILARIOUS. Right before we left, Eric and Reese made a deal: Reese could smash a rotten tomato in Erik's face and Erik would earn $5. An amount, which he pointed out would otherwise take him 30 minutes to earn at his $10/hr job. This situation goes to show that we’re not a rich sport, but what we lack in dollars, we make up for in passion!

The Sun Valley crew missed the tomato incident but luckily Reese caught it on film....

Speaking of Reese, check out his latest video account of our final glacier camp of the year (including the tomato incident) here:

Hiking off the glacier on the first beautiful day...

It was great having Sun Valley (SVSEF) join us for this camp. Top l-r: Mike Sinnott, Matt Gelso, Chelsea Holmes. Bottom l-r: Morgan Arritola & Colin Rodgers.

Of course the APU crew needed a team shot too. (The rest of our folks flew down... ) Fitz, me, Erik BJ, Pat PJ, Reese and E-Flora

Gelso sports his plastic bag "diper-slide" for Gus's Crack, the infamous steep pitch of heather which is often easier to slide on your butt than try to hike...

In the car we found this waiting! Not necessarily standard fair but it sure tasted good at the moment!

And then there was JUNEAU......

After this structured, ski-only schedule it was time to get out of the Anchorage Bowl and see some new territory. I realized that between summer school, glacier skiing, and intensive training I haven’t left South Central Alaska since May. While I enjoy being home, the redundancy of my days, (especially when it’s bad weather) starts to get to me and I need a change of pace. So, a couple of weeks ago I booked a mileage ticket to visit my good friend Sarah Schoen in Juneau. While I have lived in Alaska for six years now there are still many, many parts that I hadn’t seen and I was curious to explore the South East.

Now, I know that the weather in the South East is unpredictable at ANY time of the year but after spending almost a week there I am AMAZED at how much it rained. In many ways, it made ol’ANC look like dry Arizona in comparison. I resorted to borrowing Sarah’s “Rain Moo-moo” which was actually a rubber Helly Hansen rain jacket that went down to my mid-shin. On Friday night we attended Juneau’s First Friday event, an art opening where all the downtown galleries and shops have open houses to display local artist’s pieces. At least half of everyone in attendance were wearing Xtratufs, (brown rubber boots) even at the wine tasting event: Rubber in Juneau is a Nordic Skier’s Spandex, a surfer’s board shorts or a Seattleite’s favorite coffee mug.

Check out this AWESOME fence!

Despite the dismal weather (I experienced THREE whole hours of visibility during my six day stay) I had a great time visiting with Sarah and she was as always, a wonderful, gracious host.

Sarah picked and pickled "fiddle heads" which I've always wanted to try. They are young fern sprouts and an Alaskan delicacy.

Here I am with the Mendenhall glacier in the background during our 3 hours of clear weather!

My visit to Juneau also gave me a chance to catch up with my friend Abby Lowell (McCallister). Abby and I raced for PNSA, Pacific Northwest together. In fact, we raced the J2 relay together back in the day. In this picture Abby is actually 8.5 months pregnant. Up until last week she had been running an average of 35 miles/week while pregnant! Abby is actually the editor for the Juneau Empire and blogged about the experience. Perhaps the most interesting blog title is called, "No, it does not bounce all over the place." Check out Abby's blog about running pregnant HERE.

It’s funny what people do in order to adapt to bad weather. Juneau folks definitely have the creative bug….. Theme parties are big: one night there was a fried chicken party at a bar. Sarah also told me about a theme party her parents attended in Juneau when they were young where everyone showed up in their swim suits with a lawn chair…… the heat was turned up and they sipped on Margaritas; all the while it was pissing rain and perpetually 50 degrees outside. Instead of either of these options we chose to pick blueberries in a downpour:

The LOOT!

Now it’s time to head back to ANC to get back to work. I have a busy couple of weeks ahead of me with fall classes, a 2.5 week visit from my brother, a three-week block of power training and then it’s off to Park City for a two-week altitude/sunshine training camp. Two months of preparation left and it’s off to Europe for race season! It’s going to happen quickly!! Tighten your seat belts!

My Labor-Day ski from the end-of-the-road to Sarah's office in Auke Bay...

Also, if you’re looking for something to do (!) check out this recent “Pro-Workout” I did with Faster Skier the other day here:

"Over Under Workout"

Until later, enjoy the fall and thanks for reading and following along!

Sincerely,

Holly :)

Just another reason to be an XC skier in Alaska!

2011-08-08T08:31:00.000-07:00

Summer glacier skiing can make the front page of the SUNDAY Anchorage Daily News! Check it out here:

http://www.adn.com/2011/08/06/2003773/mountaintop-training-helps-athletes.html

Marc Lester, ADN photographer came up and joined us for the first night of our glacier camp. When he wasn't taking pictures he even joined us in the kitchen and assisted our cook crew. (Thanks Marc!) Check out this awesome six minute video that he made about us:

Eagle Glacier Training Camp from Marc Lester on Vimeo.

Here is the text of the article in case the link isn't working for you:

Mountaintop training leads to medals podiums

By MARC LESTER and BETH BRAGG
sports@adn.com

Published: August 7th, 2011 09:42 PM
Last Modified: August 8th, 2011 06:50 AM

EAGLE GLACIER -- It's always winter at Eagle Glacier, perhaps never more so than in the summer. June, July and August mark the cross-country ski season at the Thomas Training Center, the facility that sits high on a ridge above Girdwood in the Chugach Mountains.

This is where the best skiers in Alaska come to get better. Sometimes, like at a recent training camp that featured an Olympic gold medalist from Canada and a World Championship silver medalist from Alaska, it's where the best skiers on the continent come to get better.

Here, skiers find an endless winter -- even when skiing in shorts and T-shirts under a blazing summer sun -- that is helping them gain ground in a sport long dominated by Europeans.

"We kind of went across the world and looked at all the different programs that were having high-level success and looked for the different things they used in their training," said Erik Flora, head coach of the Alaska Pacific University nordic ski program, which runs the Thomas Training Center. "The first thing that became apparent is that as a country, we didn't ski as much as the rest of the world. The world leaders, that is."

APU didn't need to search the world for a solution to that shortcoming. It needed only to look up.

LONG DAYS OF SKIING

A mile high in the mountains and about a 10-minute helicopter ride from Girdwood, Eagle Glacier has long drawn skiers jonesing for snow during an Alaska summer.

A photo album in the two-story training center shows scenes from the 1980s, when Olympic skiers Jim Galanes and Bill Spencer used a wall tent for a base camp while glacier training. Even before that, in the 1960s, Lowell Thomas Jr., the famed Alaska bush pilot and former lieutenant governor who donated $1 million to the APU nordic program in 1999, brought his kids here to ski in the summer.

These days, skiers usually arrive in an Alpine Air helicopter and can look forward to hot food and warm beds after long days of glacier skiing. They sleep in bunk beds, cook meals together and hang clothes -- some damp with sweat, some damp with the rain that occasionally pelts the glacier -- on indoor clotheslines that become colorful displays of gloves, hats and socks.

At the end of July, the training center was the scene of a week-long slumber party for some of the world's top women. Among the 14 skiers from the United States and Canada who shared close quarters -- and maybe some training secrets -- were Chandra Crawford, an Olympic champion from Canada, and Kikkan Randall, a World Championship silver medalist from Anchorage.

"We're geographically isolated from our competitors, so it's really great to have the Canadians up here," said APU skier Holly Brooks, a 2010 Olympian who will compete for the U.S. Ski Team at the first series of World Cup races this winter. "They can bring in their strengths and their ideas, and what they've seen from the international field.

"I think that we've realized that in order to get better and to improve, we have to work together. We have to share some of our ideas and some of our quote-unquote trade secrets."

Not that all of the sharing involves skiing.

Crawford, who won the sprint race at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, spent some of her downtime playing the guitar, teaching chords and organizing a three-part-harmony sing-along with APU skiers Becca Rorabaugh and Kinsey Loan.

MISERY LEADS TO MEDALS

At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, after posting the then-best finish in history by an American woman, Anchorage's Nina Kemppel paid tribute to Eagle Glacier. She had skied to 15th place in the women's 30-kilometer classic, a race made messy and difficult by wet, falling snow and 33-degree temperatures.

"Thank you, Jim Galanes, for making me ski on all of those horrible, ucky days with no kick wax up at Eagle Glacier," she said.

At a 2007 sprint race in Rybinsk, Russia, after becoming the first American woman to win a World Cup medal, Randall gave credit to the glacier. She had placed third on a sprint course pieced together with crushed ice.

"Conditions were what you might see on a glacier in Alaska during the summer," she said. "I've asked myself (at Eagle Glacier), 'When am I ever gonna race on this?' It was good today to have that experience."

At last season's national championships in Maine, the APU ski team turned heads with its domination of the awards podium -- and again the glacier earned praise.

"Eagle Glacier is a critical component in that we're able to come up here once a month and ski for seven days," Flora said. "And so you never lose that snow feel."

'A LOT OF MILES'

Because this is a glacier, there are hazards.

Crevasses are a concern, so tracks are set in areas with low probability of crevasses and the course is marked by wands.

The two-story building is bolted to an outcrop of rocks between the glacier and a cliff. The cliff features a nearly vertical drop and yellow tape warns people to keep their distance. If anyone is caught beyond the yellow tape, a helicopter is called and the person is kicked out of the camp.

A staff of three, including Flora, runs the center but athletes are expected to pitch in. The staff is in charge of setting and grooming trails -- a job made more pleasant this summer with the arrival of a new PistenBully -- but athletes help with maintenance and by taking care of the cooking.

Meals served at the recent women's camp can best be described as heaping: a mound of food for every plate, with appetites to match -- the result of two long workouts a day.

"We're expecting them to ski a whole lot," Flora said. "We use this camp to build endurance. One of the ways to build endurance is to ski a lot. Ski a lot, a lot, a lot of miles."

Flora estimated skiers at the women's camp put in 60 to 75 kilometers a day on an 8-kilometer loop. For the entire week, that added up to about 25 hours of skiing.

Between workouts and in the evening, athletes enjoy living arrangements that are communal but quite civilized.

There are composting toilets and a supply of water from a nearby pond. There's a dresser filled with old VHS tapes and newer DVDs and a television to watch them on. There's a big freezer stocked with food and an exercise room equipped with a stationary bicycle -- and decorated with a poster of four-time Olympian Kemppel.

"I love it," Randall said. "It's a great chance to eat, sleep and train. And the good camaraderie of everybody just working hard and suffering through some tough conditions and also celebrating some just absolutely beautiful days. We laugh a lot. We have fun a lot."

And best of all, the glacier is just an hour away from Anchorage, a trip that includes a quick helicopter ride to the training center.

"This is a huge advantage," Randall said. "I mean, it's almost ridiculous when you can be at your house one minute and an hour later you're up here skiing on the glacier. It's an incredible facility, really."

NAWTA - CHECK!

2011-08-05T02:22:00.000-07:00

"NAWTA".... yep, you read it, "North American Women's Training Alliance!!!!" We recently finished our two week camp here in AK and it was awesome. My previous post chronicled some of our dryland activities and the second week we took our non-Alaskan friends to "Eagle," our glacier training facility just outside of Girdwood. I can't tell you how cool it is to have a world class facility less than an hour away from where we live - at our disposal! It was great to get to share it with other girls from around the country - not forgetting Canada too. They seemed to think it was a special place as well :)

We love our friends at Alpine Air!

The skiing last week couldn't have been much better. First of all, the weather cooperated. If you know anything about glacial weather systems or Eagle in particular - we hit the jackpot. I didn't have a single ski where it felt like I was continuously getting shot in the face with a pellet gun. The coaches didn't have to spend 5 hours in the middle of the night fixing the Pisten Bully (Groomer) ...why? Because after years and years of fundraising we got a new one! And finally, the last thing that made this camp unique is that there were no boys to complain about the plethora of vegetables or immense amounts of salad we made at meal times! Because, with the exception of the coaches, this was an all-girl's camp!

I could write about the training detail of the camp but I what I think is more notable is the "NAWTA" Alliance aspect of the camp. This camp represented all the top girls in North America coming together for one, okay, maybe TWO causes. To work on skiing faster and to have a GOOD time. We had girls from many different teams..... we are certainly friends but when the gun goes off, we are also fierce competitors - both with each other but more importantly, with the rest of the world. The unifying factor in the girls that attended this camp is that we all have one thing in common - to improve our results on the International circuit. Yes, it's true that in the past, the World Cup has been dominated by Europeans, particularly Scandinavians. They enjoy the luxury of living in a society that embraces our sport; they are the NFL players of Sweden or Norway. The girls over there have role models with Olympic Gold Medals around their necks, strong teams, and even stronger infrastructure to be a cross country (ski) athlete. An example of this is a story that Kikkan told about her recent trip to Sweden to train with Anna Haag.......apparently many of the restaurants in their town "Sponsor" the athletes such that after long training sessions, athletes can simply stop at a restaurant and eat/re-fuel, free of charge!

Anyways, the cool part about this camp and this group of ladies is that (I think) we all realize that we need to come together, and work together if we're going to be able to compete against the European girls. They have a geographic advantage - they enjoy short travel to races, going home on weekends or when they're sick. Racing each other throughout the summer and fall. Meanwhile, we're thousands of miles away in North America.

The first night's cook crew - check out Liz (on the left!)

Bringing a group of girls like this together does many things - first, it gives you a zap of energy and inspiration. It's great to compare roller ski blisters or commiserate about missing another concert with your friends or family reunion. We also have the opportunity to ski with each other, a lot. As Erik, my coach says, "steal some of their secrets and share some of yours." If someone else is really good at something that you need to improve, go ski 20k behind them and see what you can pick up. Then, let someone else follow you and do the same. In order to get better, we have to do this. We have to get better together, boosting each other to new heights. There are tons of other benefits... for example, getting to spend some quality time together in a low-stress environment. None of us are racing against each other tomorrow for the last spot on the Olympic team so we can do things like make cookies together or in some cases, watch a Justin Bieber movie..... (I choose ski work during this bonding opportunity)

Kikkan breaking in the new grill

Days and weeks on the road can get long and lonely and the ability to enjoy and relate to those you're traveling with is crucial. While these girls won't replace my husband or my mom or dad, after this two week period together they'll be better "Stand-Ins" than ever before!

I can't say enough good things about this experience so I think I'll just let the pictures tell the rest of the story. Enjoy!

Me and Diggins, making cookies... loads and loads of cookies...

Core/planks, etc - even on the glacier...

We rewarded Mikey for all his hard work and help with a big smiley-face cookie! Mike Rocks!

Turns out Jessie was using the cookie as a bribe for her first snow machine ride - ever. For the ride she got to use one of the coach's sweet onesies.

Need I say more?

The Rhyneer Clinic, my AWESOME sponsor. Check Dr. Rhyneer out for Orthopedic needs in Anchorage - He is "old school" in his approach to personalized attention and "new school" with techniques and procedures.

Go RUDY!

Crucial glacier equipment - the drying room

The facility is literally on the edge of the cliff, literally. One morning we actually experienced a 5. something earthquake. Funny enough, many of the Alaskans slept through it!

How CUTE!

Me with Canadian Olympic Gold Medalist (2006, Torino) Chandra Crawford. Also, the brains and spirit behind Fast and Female!

Our best Lady GAGA or Michael Jackson Thriller pose... Fitz, Chandra, me & Kikkan with the White Out Glacier in the background

Skiing in shorts and a t-shirt - not a bad day!

Finally! Our new PB!!!! After years of fundraising and thanks to many generous gifts from the community we were able make this happen. Good thing our coaches are all around useful dudes.... to get the PB up to the glacier they took it apart, it was flown in via 6 (?) helicopter loads, then they put it back together. These guys have skills way beyond applying extra blue....

Mikey approves of the new PB

And so do we! (Holly, Kikkan & Kinsey)

The new PB makes awesome tracks. On Skate days the snow was as firm as it could be and we could skate two abreast. On classic interval day we had three tracks side by side! Thanks to Casey for his hard work and long nights driving the machine!

The facility from above.

Liz being contemplative...

Okay, this picture takes some explaining.... but here we are on one afternoon watching footage from World Champs in Oslo, Norway this past February. Almost the entire World Champs team was sitting in this room... we were sharing notes. For the first week of World Champs it was so foggy that there was literally 10-50 feet of visibility for the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP races. If you look at the windows, we were experiencing the exact same conditions on Eagle that very day! As Erik likes to say, Eagle Glacier provides us with all the conditions that we've recently found at World Champs and the Olympics: Raining, foggy, slushy - and sometimes bluebird.

The Alpine Air helicopter brings a re-supply of food for the "boy's camp" that started the night we left..... can you see the bacon?

Mikey and Casey detach the sling-load from the helicopter. Costco is our best friend!

We spent quite some times trying to get all the freezer and refrigerator good squeezed into storage. It's amazing how much FUEL a group of hard working athletes can go through when we're skiing 4-5 hours a day, everyday.

Here I am on the last day, the last ski with my NUUN bottle. These guys make some great sugar-free electrolyte fizzy drink mix. Check it out HERE. It's amazing how hydrated you have to be for optimal performance, even when you're surrounded by snow...

The Boss :)

Fitz and Becca excited about our new stationary bike! It's sweet to have an alternative exercise option up there. Your legs can get pretty stiff from the repetitive motion of only skiing - plus, if you're sick or if the weather is blowing 60 MPH, the stationary bike is a great option. Thanks so much to the ALASKA CLUB and Robert Brewster for this generous donation! We are eternally grateful!

On the last day of camp some folks opt to fly down while others opt to hike (Me, Jessie & Sophie)

Casey, Becca & Fitz hiking through the ferns, Fireweed, and Salmon Berries towards the end of the hike

And finally, here we are taking an "ice bath" trying to reduce the soreness from the 5,000 foot decent back into civilization!

This week is active recovery and I'm taking the opportunity to mix it up with training - some mountain runs, time on my bike, and maybe some yoga. We'll be back up on the glacier for August camp before we know it! Thanks for reading and have an AWESOME day!

Sincerely,

Holly :)

July in pictures - Fish, fun & North American Girls!

2011-07-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday morning and I'm on my fourth cup on coffee waiting for the "weather's clear, let's go!" call to head to Eagle Glacier.

We're currently half way through a two week training camp here in Anchorage where all the top ladies in North America have gathered to spend two weeks training together. We just finished a great week of dryland training in Anchorage full of roller skiing, running, and lifting weights. Now we're waiting for the weather to clear so we can fly up to the training facility at Eagle Glacier to spend the next week on snow. Luckily the weather has cooperated the last week and Alaska's redeemed itself for many of our visitors. (Three years ago when Nationals were here we had an extreme cold spell and the ski races were postponed/cancelled which didn't leave a good taste in anyone's mouth....)

It's great to train with all these ladies in a low-pressure environment and learn from one-another. Our competitors in Europe have the advantage of seeing eachother frequently and if we're going to compete with them, we need to work together to get better. I feel fortunate to constantly be surrounded by a strong women's team but it's a bonus to have the other US Ski team girls here as well as the Canadian girls including 2006 Olympic Gold Medalist, Chandra Crawford.

Before I share pictures from the training camp so far, here are a couple of other (overdue) shots from this month:

Yes, Mt. Marathon came and went..... my APU teammate Kikkan and I battled it out in the ladies race and I came up short once again getting passed on the same stretch of pavement a couple of blocks from the finish line. I was a bit disappointed with my performance, not having had the time to put into mountain training but I've been working on my double pole and upper body strength this summer so hopefully that will make up for my continuous second place finishes in this race!

Rob, my husband has his rookie year in Mt. Marathon..... here he is the day before the race in the "gut" which is part of the downhill race section.

At the finish line with my APU girls - Lydia, Ana, Alex, Hannah & Taryn. These girls are awesome athletes themselves and cheered hard in the race too!

A special thanks to my headgear sponsor, the Rhyneer Clinic (Orthopedics) for their continual support and my teammate, Erika Klaar for hooking me up with sweet headbands - check out her site for cool, Alaskan-made stuff HERE.

The men's race was particularly exciting seeing that any one of six men had the potential to take the win. Here is a picture of the guys at the beginning of the race - ironically in the order that they finished!

My co-worker at APU, Eric Strabel taking the win after a blazing downhill! This was something like Eric's 15th or 18th time racing Mt. Marathon (?) Crazy fun to see him so excited.....

In fact, APU SKI athletes ended up sweeping both the men's and women's podiums at Mt. Marathon which is rare - a testament to the time and energy we put into our fitness, even if it isn't running specific.

Fatigue sets in at the end of the race..... APU skier Jack Novak finished TENTH place in the men's division in his first race to the top of the mountain. Super impressive!

A great highlight of July was a visit from Rob's sister, Erin, her husband Frank, and getting to meet our niece, Rienzi for the first time. Erin and Frank came down for Mt. Marathon while Grandpa and Grandma babysat in Anchorage. (Thanks for the feeds and cheering you two!)

A now pictures from our training camp....

It's always fun to take folks from out of town around our training stomping-grounds. Alaska is a great place to be a Nordic Skier and it's fun to have other people come to that realization too! (Bird to Gird trail)

Running Rabbit Lakes - Me & Chandra

Rabbit Lakes once again

Jessie pre-belly-flop

Running down valley

Girls bringing it in with our neon Rudy helmets....

Kikkan showing the sweatshirts made for the camp - "North American Women's Training Alliance!"

Meanwhile, the middle of July is always Kenai dip-netting season and a chance for all Alaskan's to fill their freezers for the upcoming year. I wasn't able to help fishing this year because of the camp but luckily Rob and my in-laws headed down to Kenai and returned with a full quota of Red Salmon - 70 fish!

Taking a small break in the filleting process - TONS of work but well worth it

Gorgeous red fish steaks!

Rob holding a red salmon

In addition to filleting and vacuuming packing, we also take the time to smoke fish for the up-coming year. Here is Rob with our home-made smoker (that yes, looks like at outhouse)

Yesterday we had a roller ski time trial at Potter Valley with the camp girls... I've run this race many times as a coach but somehow, this was my first shot at competing in the time trial. We had a great group out on the road and three of us ended up breaking the course record!

Camp girls left to right: Ida Sargeant, Sadie Bjornsen, Sarah Cresap, Perianne Jones, Me, Kate Fitz, Becca Rorabaugh, Jessie Diggins, Chandra Crawford, Sophie Caldwell & Liz Stephan

Jessie with her congratulatory flower for the time trial win and new course record of 22:59! Good job Jess! (Don't let this innocent picture fool you! This girl is TOUGH out on the race course....)

Nothing like re-hydrating with post time trial watermelon!

Today is a recovery day and weather permitting, we'll fly up to Eagle Glacier where the plan is to ski 4-5 hours per day. We'll focus on technique, learning tricks from each other, talk about the season to come and put in a really, hard, solid block of training. I'll update from the glacier at least once so check back soon! Thanks for reading and I hope you all are having a great summer!

Sincerely,

Holly :)

Here is a quick video of the APU girl's team training to leave you with.....

On the Eve of the Big Day!

2011-07-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Holidays Everyone!

I hope that everyone is reading this post in hind sight after having a fabulous July 4th holiday weekend!

Well.... this is it, the Eve of the "Big Day." The "Big Day" meaning, July 4th, or better yet, known in Alaska as "Mt. Marathon Day." Every year up to 40,000 people converge on the small town of Seward, Alaska to partake in Independence Day activities, the center spectacle being a foot race, Mt. Marathon. This year will be the 84th running of the race and organizers claim it to be the second oldest foot race in the nation behind the Boston Marathon.

The top 1/2 of Mt. Marathon

For those of you living outside of Alaska and not familiar with the race, this event is CRAZY. For some reason, this race, beyond all others transcends fans interested in sports, or running for that matter. Maybe it's because of the Seward party atmosphere or maybe it's because you have to race down cliffs and waterfalls but this race is notorious and in my mind, represents Alaska and it's rugged ideals to a "T."

This guy, Fred Moore, has completed the race 40 times to hold the all-time record. Here he is with the jacket and patches to prove it!

The race begins on Main Street in downtown Seward and runs approximately four minutes to the base of the "Mountain." Once there, the climb starts with a class five-esque scramble up some tree roots before settling into a consistent, steep grade. Racers climb a total of 3022 feet to the summit before beginning a perilous RUN back down the entire 3,022 feet. The top women climb up in 38 minutes and descend in less than 12, count them, TWELVE minutes. People run onto main street for the finishing home stretch covered in blood and mud - usually with huge smiles on their faces. The icing on the cake is that the night before, the organizing committee holds an auction for entrance into the crazy race and participants have been known to drop close to $2,000 dollars just to run uphill and downhill in the mud!

Friend and co-worked Eric Strabel is a beast on the downhill. Check him out here, sliding down a waterfall!

Beyond the crazy nature of the race, this event has special meaning to me. I've run the race three times now and each time I had a memorable experience to associated with the race.

2008 was my rookie year and I somehow busted out a second place performance. I had gotten engaged two days before the race and our "Save the Date" magnet was from the finish line in Seward. This was my first experience at Mt. Marathon and I was hooked.

Me (Holly) following Cedar with the town of Seward in the background

Then, in 2009 I had grand ambitions and extra incentive because my entire immediate family was in Seward to watch my race because my WEDDING was the following weekend. The conditions this year turned out to be extremely hot and I entered the race slightly dehydrated. I led until 4/5 of the race was complete and then collapsed of extreme dehydration and was taken directly into the Emergency Room that is appropriately placed at the bottom of the "Cliff." I know it sounds cliche but laying in the ER was where I had my epiphany that I needed and WANTED to try and make the 2010 Winter Olympics. After taking nearly two months off to recover from my Mt. Marathon injury, somehow the following winter I landed on the start line in Vancouver.

Racing downhill, moments before collapse

In the ER....

Much to the disgruntle of the Seward ER Drs I checked myself out of the ER to cross the finish line before checking myself back in (I promised them!) until my blood work had stabilized. Here I am walking down Main Street with my husband, Rob, long after the majority of the races had finished.

Only one week until our wedding!

Success! Officially checked out of the ER at 8pm after an 11am race start.....

Last year, in 2010, I set a great pace to the top and had a two minute lead over race veteran, Seward hometown hero and six-time Mt. Marathon Champion, Cedar B only to blow it by getting passed on Main Street in front of 10,000 screaming fans. Our ten second gap was one of the, if not THE closest race in Mt. Marathon history. Last year's loss had a particular sting when Cedar announced her retirement and I was bummed about the fact that I wouldn't be able to race against the Mt. Marathon legend ever again. Alas, her times will have to do! :)

On the way down, still in the lead...

Here I am being passed by Cedar literally 1.5 blocks from the finish line

That brings me to this year, 2011 and TOMORROW. Every year I have grand intentions of training specifically for this race and specifically HARD for this race. However, each spring and early summer it becomes impossible to train specifically for Mt. Running while maintaining and prioritizing ski racing goals. So much of my training consists of ski specific stuff such as roller skiing, glacier skiing, and strength training. Sure, there is a huge amount of carry-over fitness. That's what's propelled me to two runner up finishes and the pain tolerance and ability to push myself into the ER. Alas, ski training is not Mt. running training and I find myself going into this year's race feeling under prepared. Do I wish I had done anything differently? No, not really. Skiing is my main focus and I am preparing to hit five consecutive World Cup weekends in five different countries in November and December. I need to be in ski shape from the get-go!

That said, bring on Seward and bring on the race! See you'll down there!
Thanks for reading and thanks for your moral support. Have a great, safe weekend!
Sincerely,
Holly :)

If you're interested......

The local Seward, Alaska paper posted this article titled, "Is this the year for Brooks?" This article also has a run down of other female contenders.

After all this, if you're interested in watching the race on the "Live Feed" (I don't promise anything!) check out this link to the local news station, KTUU, Channel 2.

The Anchorage Daily News always has nice coverage of the race as well... check HERE for info.

Eagle Glacier in photos

2011-06-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

Our team recently finished an on-snow camp at the Thomas Training Center on Eagle Glacier outside of Girdwood, AK. Here are a couple of pictures and a quick review of the week:

Lift off in the helicopter....

Keith Essex of Alpine Air is one of the best pilots around. He gets us to the glacier quickly but more importantly, SAFELY. I highly recommend Alpine for anyone visiting AK who is looking for a cool sight-seeing opportunity.....

Lifting up above the clouds.....

Home sweet home

Touch down on Eagle

Unloading and waving goodbye to Keith

Erik's excited to be on the glacier for the first trip of the summer!

Technique advice from an "AK style onesie"

APU Girls: Holly, Fitz, Tax, Sadie, GA, Wrecka

Most of the pictures are the glorious days but the majority of our sessions looked exactly like THIS. Glamorous huh?

Then these are the days we live for.... and enjoy even more

Becca and Fitz putting in their time

Skiing into a glacier cloud

Me :)

Casey Fagerquist - our ski tech/glacier manager/all around good guy

Our ever-enthusiastic leader, Erik Flora

Our old teammate and new glacier assistant, Mikey Matteson!

The staff :)

Me putting in the Ks!

One of the beautiful snow features on the glacier..... a really big hole you DON'T want to ski into.

OMG. Is that a FOOT massage?

Planks and core work up on the glacier

A shameless plug for Swix - the best wax/ski pole brand!

Fitz squatting it up!

Reese!

One of our new teammates, Erik Bjornsen

Alpine flowers found at the beginning of the hike down

Slightly picturesque

Literally sliding back into reality and life off the glacier.

Until next time!

Thanks for reading,

Holly :)

As much or more, As good or better.....

2011-06-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

Funny title to a blog post, I know. It's amazing what weird stuff enters your mind when you're skiing circles on a glacier in whiteout conditions. But, the title is simple, and it refers to my job as a ski racer. In a competitive sport where you're literally trying to beat the competition, you must be prepared to do so. If my competitors are training 1 hour per day (to make a simple example) and I train 30 minutes per day can I realistically expect to beat them? Probably not. Of course winning isn't all about training volume.... there are so many factors. Upper body endurance, the capacity of your heart, the strength of your trunk.... your mental fortitude.... your ability to hold it together and excel in tough conditions. There are many aspects and traits that must come together to make a World-class athlete.

APU girls post interval session - training 3-5 hours per day on Eagle Glacier, June 2011

I have been thinking a lot about my ski racing goals for the next season and many of them involve beating a large chunk of the World Cup field. My preliminary plans have me starting off the season with FIVE consecutive World Cup weekends and preparation for that is now, today, tomorrow, and the next. In order to be competitive in the World Cup field - (and hopefully to beat many of them!) I NEED to work as hard or harder than they are. My training needs to be of similar quality or better yet, HIGHER quality than theirs. Now, that's no easy feat! Consider the fact that the World Cup is a special collection of athletes that all probably harbor the same goal. That is, to be the best. I guarantee that there isn't a single athlete out there that hasn't dreamed about standing on top of a World Cup, World Championship, or Olympic podium. That said, the WC is comprised of athletes doing anything and everything in their power to achieve those goals. Some of those things include spending half their "off-season" away from home in training camps, making social and monetary sacrifices in their lives, walking out the door to train when the weather is horrible, harboring injuries, aches, and pains that come with pushing your body to it's limits. When you’re trying to be really, really good at something, often other things take a hit.

That said, it’s time to go out training again. I’m trying to hit 4-5 hours per day of training on the glacier. Sounds like a lot, I know. But how will I know if I can do it or not if I don’t try? Here are a few pictures from the week so far:

Sadie fired up in the helicopter

View from the Helicopter, approaching the training facility

Alpine Air gets us here safely...

Welcome to camp! Goodbye heli...

The first session was sunny...

Boys team leaning on their poles after a hard interval set in the clouds

Most of the pictures published are of the gorgeous days.... many days look exactly like this. Where is the track? Or if it's a downhill - "WHERE IS THE NEXT WAND!?"

Forty loafs of bread for carbo loading athletes!

…. As much or more, as good or better! Think about it!

Sometimes taking a step forward means taking a step back

2011-06-03T00:06:00.000-07:00

My new-found athletic career started off as being a coach for Alaska Pacific University's Nordic Ski Center. I was offered the job after a successful interaction working with Erik Flora (now Program Director) at Junior Olympics in Houghton, Michigan. At the time I was working as a part time coach for an Anchorage High School program and part time at an Environmental Consulting Agency in downtown Anchorage. When I was offered the job to be a full time ski coach I jumped at the opportunity. Although it had it's inherent risks (would I like it? Did I want to take a pay cut?) I left the company I worked for on good terms and was assured that if my life on skis didn't work out I would be welcomed back to the office anytime. Five years later here I am still at APU. However, my capacity has changed. As I've explained it before I went from a full time coach to a full time coach, part time athlete, to a full time athlete, part time coach to where I am today... A full time athlete and a part, part, part time coach.

The year that I made the Olympics (2009-2010 season) I didn't even have a full training log to show. Last year was my first full year chasing the ski dream and I was able to improve upon my International results from the Olympics at World Championships in Oslo.

I plan to begin racing the 2011-2012 season in Europe rather than West Yellowstone taking advantage of my Period 1 World Cup start rights earned from last season's overall Super Tour win. My travels will start off in Beitestolen, Norway and continue onto racing weekends in Kuusamo Finland, Dusseldorf Germany, Davos Switzerland, and Rogla Slovenia. My goal, naturally, is to improve upon my International results thus far; in order to do so, I've taken a look at my training and had made some personal evaluations as to what I can do better - what I can do more of, how I can improve and consequently, accomplish my goals. Last year I attended two glacier camps, this year, the plan is to attend four. The obvious goal is more time on snow but the supplemental goal is to improve my efficiency in soft and tricky snow conditions.

In addition to ski racing goals, I have slowly and quietly been chasing another goal - that is, a master's degree. Yes, even ski racers need outside stimulus :) I, for one, have never been someone who has too much of a narrow focus. If anything I am the opposite - I like to do too many things. I am an expert multi-tasker. That said, I realize this and have fully come to terms with the fact that it could take me 6 years to get a 1.75 year degree. Right now I am in the beginning of an accelerated summer semester where I am taking two courses. The classes end July 11th but that is not without attending two weeks of online class from Eagle Glacier! I may need to hide out in the waxing connex to get some piece and quiet but I will make it happen! Needless to say, my goals for the next six weeks are training and school. I don't expect to have much time for anything else.

You may ask, "What gives?" I am not a dumb person. I know that I can't do it all. While I am taking a step forward in my ski training and in my education, I must take a step back in some other aspects of life. For the time being, I have decided that the cut has to come in the form of coaching. It's painful to say and even more painful to do but I know that I can't do it all, even if I'd like to believe that I can. In some ways, I often wonder if coaching is my calling beyond that of being a professional ski racer. I love interacting with kids and adults on a daily basis, teaching something I am passionate about. In Fast and Female terms we would call this, "Spreading the Love!" My coaching style has always been to lead by example and I've had a great time leading the charge up the sand dunes at Kincaid, teaching someone how to V2 and having it "click" for them, and most of all, getting to know people athletically but also emotionally. I can attest to the fact that coaching is a labor of love and it takes a lot of energy. I can also vouch for the fact that the energy I expended was returned to me - coaching invigorates me. When I wasn't having a good day I would lead a session and go home in a better mood than what I started with.

So how did I make my decision? I love ski racing too. As I've said before, my job's my passion and my passion is my job. If there is one thing that my parents have taught me, it's that; to pursue your passions. Many (wiser) people have told me and I believe them - the opportunity to pursue World Cup ski racing and another Olympic cycle is now. I will not get a second chance. Despite what some people would like to believe, I will not have a second chance when I'm fifty :) Will I be able to coach when I'm fifty? Heck yes! As much as it pains me to not physically be there for the kids now I know that my heart will always be in it and that I will return to coaching sooner rather than later. In some form or another, I expect to be coaching, or teaching, for the rest of my life. Thus, my roles at APU have changed from that as "Holly the head Junior coach and Noon Masters coach" to "Holly the ski racer who helps out with APU events drops in on APU groups for surprise visits when she can."

I know I've been long winded with this description of my new role.... what does this really mean? In order to take steps forward in my ski performance and in personal development, ie my education, I must take a step back with my coaching responsibilities at APU. No, I will not be at practice everyday, or even every week. I will drop by to say hello when I can and encourage from afar. I already miss coaching and those that I've worked with dearly but life is full of adventures and for now, they are calling me.

My Hiatus (is over!)

2011-04-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

Yes it is spring time and yes, I took a HUGE break from my blog - larger than ever before. I suppose that I needed a break from documenting my ski adventures. In fact, I think that my great aunt called other members of my family to make sure I was still alive (she follows all of the family member's blogs religiously).

APU Girls team in Sun Valley... what else is there to say?

While I've been taking a break from my blog, I've only taken a little break from skiing & training. Life has actually been busier than I ever thought possible since arriving home the second week of April. Don't worry, I'm not complaining. I actually like having appointments, phones ringing & emails stacking up.... When you love what you do, it's easy to get up in the morning.

My time in Alaska has been split between work for APU, maintain some semblance of training, paperwork (taxes!) reuniting with friends that I haven't seen all winter, planning for the upcoming summer & season, housework..... the list goes on and on as I'm sure you can imagine.

Skiing with the APU devos and juniors is always a blast. Here I am with the girls!

Perhaps the largest chunk of my time is going into organizing our second annual APU end of season celebration/fundraising auction on Tuesday May 10th. All of the funds raised go directly towards offsetting training and travel expenses for the athletes. The event was a blast last year and super successful in helping to subsidize ever-climbing ski racing expenses. For example, this year it cost me $200 each way to fly my ski bags to Nationals in Rumford, Maine (yikes!)

There is no admission charge, we'll have free food and drinks and lots of AWESOME auction items. Businesses in town have been WONDERFUL to us and their generosity is going to help keep us skiing and skiing fast. The support of the community up here is just another reason why I love Alaska. (I will post a list of auction items and donors shortly!)

But back to the actual skiing....

We had a beautiful stretch of weather mid-April and I did my best to take advantage of the high pressure system. Alaska in the spring can be an AMAZING place and I have pictures to prove it:

Skiing Portage with Chrissy!

Chrissy May :)

Looking at Portage Glacier and friends skiing in the distance

Looking over Passage Canal, Prince William Sound

Beautiful Alaskan Glacier Ice

Me, Kikkan & Jeff + some Norwegian visitors

Lots of Alaskans were able to accomplish the "crust-corn" double this year.... crust ski in the morning and then corn ski in the afternoon either at Alyeska or BC. It's simply the best!

We also had some other adventures trying to ski Moose Pass to Whittier but the conditions shut us down. The low snow year didn't help...

We did have one of the more gorgeous camp sites though!

Holly, Rob & Dylan

Grant Lake in the background - a great place to ski if you've never done so

The end of the trip

Unstructured skiing has been a blast but here are a couple of key shots from the end of the races in Sun Valley. Rick & the crew did an outstanding job of hosting Distance Nationals/Super Tour Finals this year - I know that everyone is hoping that they'll host again next year!

The one and only Chandra "GaGa" Crawford!

My sister Robin was an awesome cheer leader - thanks Robs!

APU casualities after the hill climb up Dollar Mountain!

Here I am with flowers and pottery at the rainy awards ceremony!

Sun Valley also represented the end of the season and I skied to and held onto some decent awards, all of which were firsts for me! Those include Super Tour Overall Champion, Super Tour Distance/Sprint Champion & Grand National Champion (when all five US Championship races are combined) ... then I was able to secure second place in the overall mini-tour with a good hill climb on the last day.

..... that's it for now! I'll be back to regular blogs, I promise! Lots of fun exciting stuff coming up in the next couple of months! As my friend Lori says, "Do what you love, love what you do!"

~Holly :)

Back to back mini-tours is a LOT of racing!

2011-03-30T21:08:00.000-07:00

It's the eve of the "off day" in Sun Valley and I am half way through my second straight mini-tour. What is a mini-tour? It's basically a series of races packed into a small amount of time. The results from each day are cumulative and time bonuses are awarded for performances in different formats.

A fun, fast girl's team in Sun Valley!

This is the end of my two-month stint away from home and at the end of this mini tour, I will be headed back to Alaska. My European tour ended with a mini-tour in Sweden which also doubled as World Cup Finals. The Sweden Mini-Tour featured a classic sprint around the King's Palace in downtown Stockholm followed by three consecutive hard days of racing in a smaller town up North called Falun.

With Thomas Wassberg, the official "groomer" for the city palace sprint.... Wassberg is also a multiple time Swedish Olympic and World Champion. Nice to have someone that knows what's up setting the tracks!

Trucked in snow around the King's Palace

A special thanks to my Swedish cousin Lars Arvidsson and his company, VP Diagnose for being my European "headgear" during my five week racing stint in Scandinavia.

I earned my right to race in Falun by being the "Continental Cup Leader" based on my early season Super Tour performance. I felt lucky to be there as many World Cup regulars ended their seasons with the Lahti (Finland) World Cups as they didn't qualify for Falun.

Signature Lahti, Finland ski jumps.... funny fact - Rob raced in Lahti in 2001 for World Champs!

Basically, this meant that I had to race with the "elite of the elite." While I wasn't ecstatic about my results, I had to remind myself that it was an accomplishment to beat ANYONE there, let alone have a good day.

Men's race, Falun

Me and Kikkan at the finish line on the last day of the mini-tour

It was sweet to have APU wax tech, Casey Fagerquist join us for World Cup Finals!

World Cup Finals also features the end of the season awards, ie - overall World Cup, Distance World Cup, Sprint World Cup, etc. It was sweet to see these huge crystal globes in person!

Congrats to Kikkan on her third place, podium finish in the overall World Cup sprint. Crazy enough, the women in first and second are both retiring after this season so Kikkan is probabaly a favorite for the highest spot on the sprint podium next year!

After the last race the German women's team invited us to their wax trailer for brats - brought all the way from Germany! (Swedish sausages apparently aren't acceptable!)

At the end of the World Cup season there is always a really fun dance party. Not only can these athletes ski fast but they can get down on the dance floor as well. This photos is of Lars, myself and Lucas Bauer - Czech Olympic and World Champion

I plan to do a more inclusive recap of my European racing experience, World Champs included after I get home and allow some time for introspection...... in the meantime, It's amazing how tired racing can make you - even if it's just short races such as 2.8k prologues!

Directly after the mini-tour in Falun I traveled two and a half days back to the US to meet my APU teammates in Sun Valley. The first couple of days here were spent trying to track down my ski bag which was missing for five days. This included 2-3 hours on the phone with United, getting different answers from everyone I spoke with. Not having your skis for a ski race is like a race car driver without a steering wheel, a chef without a frying pan or Sue Sylvester, the Cheer leading coach from Glee without a track suit. (Kikkan successfully got the whole women's team hooked on Glee!) Needless to say, it was a super stressful experience and one that I didn't need considered how tired and jet-lagged I was from the high density racing and International travel.

I LOVE my skis....

Alas, I got my skis and everything is good here in Sun Valley. We're had three races including the National Championship 30k, a 2.8k skate prologue, and a 10k Classic Mass start race. We have two races left including a classic sprint and an uphill race up the local downhill area, Dollar Mountain. I'm looking forward to the last races and at the same time, looking forward to going home for some rest.

My sister Robin is here to watch, ski & hang out!

At altitiude hydration is even more important. Yesterday we had a sport's drink tasting which included a "NUUN" sampling. If you haven't tried this stuff, it ROCKS. No sugar, electrolyte replacement, and it tastes GOOD.

Lars Flora

APU Girls team pyramid!

Podium girls and flower girls!

Dylan's Birthday!

Skate prologue podium

Me and Kikkan with Erik (our coach!)

One of the sacrifices skiers make is missing out on quality time with our families and friends. Today is Rob's 32nd Birthday and the third or fourth year in a row where I haven't been able to spend it with him doing something fun. Happy Birthday to Rob!!!

More later/thanks for reading,

Holly :)

Fired up!

2011-03-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

Our crew arrived in Stockholm today in preparation for Wednesday's city sprint. While Lahti was a fun experience, it's great to be in Stockholm were the sun is shining and the coffee is excellent! This will be my first city sprint and what better place than the World Cup Finals around the royal palace. It certainly doesn't feel like a ski venue - and that's because it's not!

Here is a video of the women's final last year:

Also, Casey Fagerquist, APU wax tech has joined our small crew straight from working OPA cup finals. I'm really looking forward to the next couple of days!

Until then, have a good one,

Holly :)

PB at the top of the hill pushing snow around in the front of the palace!

The narrow, cobblestone streets of Stockholm are awesome!