Who are, in fact, even smaller than i am, and some a lot younger, but whatever.

This morning's double pole intervals were super fun, because all the teams currently staying at the Olympic Training Center did them together. CXC (junior devo and Elite), Sun Valley, NENSA, US Ski Team, and a handful of eastern region college skiers, all barreling full bore down the road together.

And i did good! I managed to keep up with the top girls almost every one! And really, the girls here aren't slouches by any means. I'm super excited about this for two reasons: 1. i'm historicaly super bad at sprinting, so keeping up in 3.5min all out intervals is a GREAT sign, and 2. i really, REALLY don't wan't to get passed in the last 100m double pole sprint for the finish of a 30k race at nationals (getting knocked out of the podium in the process) again.

Although, i gotta say, between Lindsay Williams, Lindsey Weir, Morgan Smyth, Maria Stuber, and Caitlin Compton, it kinda felt like one of those good ole NMU/MTU wednesday night time trials. Ahhh....good times.

I've got some clinics coming up in the Madison and Hayward areas. If you're interested, there's more information on the "Clinics" page.

I am tired. Yesterday was hill intervals in the morning, max strength in the afternoon. Today was a 3 hour skate in the morning, and general activity in the afternoon. Tired+general activity=running through the woods pretending to be trolls. Cuz, you know, we're cool like that.

We arrived here in Lake Placid after a pleasant 22 hour van ride yesterday. It was still pleasant despite the length because: a) Fish drove the whole way b) we spent the night somewhere in Canada, and c) there were enough of us in the van to keep it interesting. The whole team wasn't in there, thank god, because the whole team doesn't even really fit anymore. About half coughed up the money for a plane ticket and flew, but we were all in by last night and ready to train this morning.

Level 4 skate intervals, 6-10mml. But we're all really really excited to be here, so that ended up being more like 10-15mml. Ull well. I think you need a little of that every once and a while. Strenght this afternoon, and wooooo-ey, am i pooped now. Good thing tomorrow's easy. Wouldn't be good to go under this early in camp.

I love to race. Love love LOVE it. Skiing's best, of course, but running is a very close second. This past Saturday was the Birkie Trail Run, a sweet event in Hayward on the Birkie trail. There's lots of different categories: a Nordic trek, a marathon length relay, half marathon race, and a 5k race. Something for everyone! Gregg won the half marathon, Kevin Johnson won the 5k men, and i won the 5k female! The relay results were fully stocked with all of our Hayward friends, to many to list. The most enthusiastic about their win were the "Hot Flashers", who went crazy when they heard their name! Not surprising at all, the crazyness or the win, I know these girls from Ski and Tea, and they're AMAZING!

The race was great, but almost better was hanging out with all our friends and supporters afterward! There was food, equipment booths, music, and great company. We ended up sticking around for hours after the race. Fun, but then we had to scramble to pack for our early departure for lake placid the next day.

Wednesday night trail work is pretty much THE social even of the week on the Hayward calendar. Every week, a group of sweet people get together to go over the trail with fine tooth comb. Seriously, i've seen gardens in waaaay worse condition than that trail. Golf courses, even. It all becomes worth it when we have a bad snow year again, and can still race on 5" of snow.
Unfortunately, we finished up the last of the new classic trail this week, so our weekly get to get-togethers are over for now. The classic trail goes all the way to OO now. In addition to making the classic race less crowded, it's also another low snow year precaution. Generally, the north end of the trail gets just a little more snow than the south. If we have another year like 2 years ago (where they had just enough snow to hold the shortened race from telemark to OO) they'll be able to send the entire race out the skate track and back on the classic, for a full marathon lenght. Pretty sweet, eh?
Heather needs a Hayward boy! Unfortunately, this frog did not turn into him...