2008 National Championships

Anja Jokela and I are out here in Houghton, MI now. Relaxing, all we did today was go for a short am wake up jog, ate breakfast, went skiing than came home, and ate lunch. After lunch I did a little work on the computer while she practiced her violin, I have to say it was very pleasant to listen to her play while I was working. Anja was practicing Shostacovich, she says: "It's an AWESOME piece!" I would have to say I concur. Shostacovich, wrote a lot of his great music in a concentration camp in Germany...amazing!

I am very lucky with all the support I have this year with Madshus, currently while I am sitting here drinking hot chocolate, and typing way in the warm house Perter Hale, the Madshus rep. is out waxing my skis.

First race is tomorrow, 5k skate. This is the biggest nationals has ever been with a whopping 450 people here. I am very excited to race tomorrow with the great course that we have. There are a few technical turns at the bottom of some long downhills which I like, my skis seem work really well for me when it gets technical!

Well it's New Years Eve and I will keep everyone posted on how the first races goes for 2008! Nothing like the first races of 2008 being the hardest!

EPIC

First I want to say that there is something to be said about getting up really early in the morning to go skiing. To start in the pitch dark and ski in the valleys surrounded by mountains while the sun comes up. The sky looks like it is on fire, the snow is a bright white that starts to sparkle in the sun, you can see your breath, you can hear everything you around. It's just me, my skis and the snow! Amazing!

Second I should tell you about a great weekend! Saturday it was cold, very cold; the race started at 10am, it was 3 loops, so very spectator friendly, which was nice because it was so cold that the snow was squeaking under my skis. I think in some sections I could have started running up the hill with my skis...it was that slow! I remember thinking to myself that I had to have very fast tempo on the uphills cause there was so little glide...my turn over was very high, I motored myself around the loop three times for first place. Anja Jokela was second just 12 seconds behind me. It was a very tight race for the two of us. After the race I headed to Stowe to get in some good skiing before the storm...WHAT YOU SAY...STORM?

Sunday was AMAZING we got another foot of snow. It was important for me to train on Sunday, I had an OD planned of three hours. When it gets tough the tough get going , is what I had to tell myself in the morning. It was really cold, WINDY and snowing hard. I believe I was the only one out at Catamount skiing. For a good reason, the wind was so strong that it blew me over three times. I decided it would be best to stay in the woods...it was cool, I was skiing along in the light ungroomed fresh snow, at some points it was up to my knees and all I could hear the wind.

Monday I got to take the day off from training and go work...I love my new job.

Tuesday a massive truck t-bones me on my way into work...the good news is I got my training in first and no one is hurt (good thing the truck driver was four times my size, when I got out of my truck the first thing the driver said to me was: "happy holidays"). I had another early morning ski with Anja, at one point we could see the hills sparkling with the sun rising...boy I wish I had my camera for that one!

Winter, race season...ahhh

Sorry it has been so long. My last post I complained about all the lack of snow and our endless summer. A few weeks later I find myself sitting on the couch exhausted from some of the best skiing I have ever had in the state of Vermont this early in the winter.

My Madshus sponsors have done a GREAT job taking care of me, I have a lot of new equipment that I am very excited to use in this weekends coming race...there is a lot on the line...DINNER! I have to beat Josh by 2.5min for dinner, otherwise I owe him dinner!

Another note, since my last post. I got a new job at Dealer.com...it rocks, I have learned so much about computers, the Internet and car dealerships in the past two weeks! I find that with my love for skiing and racing I have a hard time keeping a well leveled balance without a job; not to mention I work best with more! The more I have on my plate the better I do with everything. So far everything has been great at Dealer.com, I am SO EXTREMELY happy to be working there.

As for the ski season, it has officially begun! I had the Atomic Sprints last Saturday that went well, we ran out of daylight so from 4th-8th position we were not able to race...I guess this ties for 5th with three other people? The snow condition was very bad to say the least, everyone there went straight through the snow and into the gravel...I think I took two good size chunks out of me ski, and one hard digger, into the dirt...of course I did this while giving it all I had, so I had some good speed. As long as no one caught this on camera I am all set!

Sunday was the real test to see how much I improved after my summer of training. Right now it looks like a 10% improvement! Not bad, I must be doing something right, next race I will wax my skis and I will do even better. That's right, I went into the first race of the season on unwaxed skis! Boy they were SLOW! It was a great day and a great race. The snow, the grooming and trails were perfect as always at the Craftsbury Outdoor center. I would say I went out way to hard, though I didn't really think about the side effect of going out too hard until the second lap...oops! I was just so happy to be racing that I stopped thinking about what I was doing! I am very happy with Sundays result, I had a lot of fun beating Josh by a mere 5 seconds...wait...did I say seconds? I mean minutes.

Here are some photos I stole from Alex (without permission). One of the reasons I have been lazy in the updates is because I lost my camera charger :-( We all know English is not a strength of mine, so I try to post pictures to distract people from the writing.

UHHHH

In the training funk...I so need some consistent cold weather and some snow! I don't want to see another person in shorts and a tee shirt while training, I NEED SOME SIGNS OF WINTER!

It has been a really long time! I hit the wall last week Sunday and tried to plow through it...that didn't work! Now I am going to try and solve to problem by taking a few days off from work and training. A nice short vay cay is in order I would say. Relax and recompose myself do work 110% instead of working 75%.

Stupid is as stupid does!

That was the only thing I could think to myself half way up Bolton for the Catamount trail hill climb race: "stupid is as stupid does."

Two weeks prior to racing I sprained my ankle, and it was doing much better until I decided I was healed enough (after only two weeks...come on) to run up 7k on a trail with big lose rocks. I did however make it to the top, or what other people who were able to race call the "finish"

I did it in a very slow fashion, after sitting on the side of the trail for 5 min with thoughts on how the hell am I going to let my mom, whom is at the top know I am really ok, that the only thing that hurts is my ankle. After I got up I decided to try and run it off towards the lift, if the pain was going to get worse I was going to get on the lift and ride up to the finish. The pain didn't get worse so I decided to keep running!

I have been an athlete my entire life, and this has by far been one of the stupidest things I have ever done. Doing a running race on a sprained ankle; so of course all I could think to myself the rest of the way up is: "stupid is as stupid does!" All and all I am lucky that I am doing better today a week later, but it was still VERY stupid.

Training even with the sprained ankle has been going well, this week I am doing my hard week of my cycle. Last week I trained a little too much intensity to keep my hours up so this week I have to keep that in mind. I find it VERY hard to train lots of intensity along with high hours, so I better do a good job fallowing my "program" this week.

Something to be excited about, winter is coming and I have seen a few pictures with some new snow. All from out west but snow is snow, hopefully since they are starting to get it out west we will start getting snow here out east soon.

MT. MANSFIELF HIKE WITH ANJA

Yesterday was a great sunny day, there was rain expected in the afternoon but we were very lucky and never quite got it. It was however so humid that everything was wet all day. My day started with an AM roller ski race at the range in Jericho with some of the best Skiers and Biathletes in the country. The race was VERY tough and very fun, V2 Jenix did a very good job putting together the races this summer and Ethan Allen Biathlon Club did a very good job cleaning up the course to make it safe for the skiers.

I had a little bad luck the day before and while I was roller skiing out in Jericho, my ski broke! Than while I was warming up my pole broke. Luckily Pat Coffee was there to find me a spare pole, and I made him hold onto another pole for me just in case I broke another one during my race. After two things happening in two days I was worried that something else was going to happen because they say things come in threes. So I figured better to be safe than sorry.

In the afternoon after some awards and socializing with the other athletes I went for a very fun nice Hike on Mt. Mansfield with Anja who just got back from biking all around Europe.

Anja at the top of Mt. Mansfield

Me pushing up a boulder on our way down, my strength training must be paying off.

The hike was very slick, not to mention it was very steep; there was a few times that we were bouldering over up some steep sections of rock, and other times that were where crawling under some big boulders. All and all very cool, but once we were at the top we had to find another "easier" way down. We decided to take the long trail back down to buttlers lodge, once we got to butters lodge I let my guard down figuring we where safe and slipped off a rock and rolled my ankle pretty good. I am sure I only have a grade 1 sprain and it should be better in a few days, but for a few minutes I was a little worried, and upset cause I only had one day left in my training cycle, all I could think to myself is: "why did this have to happen today, one workout left!"

Today I can hobble around and my ankle is a little swollen but I should be better in a few days, I am doing a good job with RICE. So I start my recovery week on day early, at least it wasn't a week or two early. Training is going really well and I am feeling very strong so there is no dought in my mind that I won't be able to recover fast.

Hazzy, hot and humid...not much to see from the top!

GMSR weekend!

Let The Race’s begin, Green Mountain Stage Race that is! A nice long weekend for us, we had some of the Fiordifrutta team staying at our house and racing, while I worked the feed zone and jammed my training in during the early morning and late afternoon. Josh and his team did REALLY well, you can see from a line in the Burlington Free Press that read:

"Josh Dillon of Essex Junction picked up a sixth-place finish and was the only

male Vermonter to crack the top 10."

(talking about his overall result)

It was a great race to watch, they boys really pushed the race and worked very well as a team. It was great to have them at our house, everyone was so polite! We spent our days outside in the sun and Saturday night inside eating Josh's great chicken parm. On Sunday night we had a huge bbq at my parents house in Colchester which was a big hit, the bugs weren't out the food was amazing and we had a little fire going outside under the stars.

During Saturday’s circuit race I worked the feed zone, for some reason I wasn’t on my game, ended up losing my keys to the TEAM car (the only car we brought to the race). I knew I lost them somewhere from the feed zone to the car, I would say it was about 300 meters, 300 meters that I searched up and down for an hour and a half! I ended up missing the finish which was 13 miles away. The boys did really well, sprinting for the finish, but most important all of them were very excited for Sundays long hard stage. They did a really good job pushing the pace of the race, and tired out a lot of other riders.

Josh Dillon waiting for the start

And the race starts (Monday)

Sunday’s race proved to be very tough and the team did really well, Josh raced really well coming in 8th looking very strong at the top of the gap. Again I worked the feed zones for the team along with Meg, Mike Stauton, and Jamie Driscoll’s parents…we had a stacked team, and a stacked group in the feed zone. The team had three finishers in the top 20!

Monday’s race VERY exciting as usual, and I didn’t have to do anything besides walk Benny around Burlington, get some coffee and have some fun. This years race Josh was out in front quite a bit, and stayed strong for a fourth place finish in the break away group. Everyone in the team did a lot of work, Roz, Toby, and Josh L. where out in front pushing the pace for awhile so Josh and Jamie could sit back and rest for a little while, since we know drafting and resting in the group helps a lot in bike racing. The Fiordifrutta team certainly proved again that they are one of the strongest teams, they always had a move covered and there was always someone up in the front group.

Jamie Driscoll leading out the pack

The team, from left right we have Jamie, Roz, Josh L, Toby, and Josh. Hanging out after the finish and no one looks to be that tired!

from left to right, Josh L, Josh D, and Roz just attacking it.

Toby at the start of the race. Toby raced really well this weekend finishing in the top 15 overall.

Benny, he was my buddy Monday we walked church street, got some coffee and sat in the shade waiting for the race to start.

Josh Dillon leading out the break

You can check out the news, results and information about the GMSR at this website:


http://www.gmsr.info/

Training break at the Cape :-)

After a lot of hard training and getting sick for two weeks I came to the conclusion that it was time for a little break. As you can see form the ample about of pictures it was a really relaxing break at the Cape. We went on a whale watch, where the whales where so close sometimes that I could have jumped off the boat and landed on them, we also ate TONS of lobster rolls and ice cream...great recovery food for the brain. It was a good few days off, and now I am very excited to be training again.

sick and racing?

As an athlete you are always on that edge. On the edge of injury and illness and not only am I always on the edge, I am also in denial. This weeks training started really well, until I started getting the post nasal drip sore throat. Of course I told myself it was due to allergies and I was fine to keep going, until Friday night when I couldn't turn my head cause my glands where so swollen it was making my entire neck sore. Not to mention I thought I was swallowing glass.

By the time I had come to terms with being "sick" I was already in Rutland, Vt. getting ready for my roller ski race. I did end up racing...I know very bad idea...but once the race was done I started resting; I spent the rest of the weekend reading Harry Potter and sleeping.

Training is going very well, the race went well even though I was a little under the weather. It was a mass start and my plan was to fall behind whom ever wanted to lead the race out, and draft off of them until the final two K. The problem was at the start we had a 200m controlled start and I was already in front! Something about putting that number on just makes me feel so good!

Here is the link to NENSA news on the story of the race:

http://www.nensa.net/news/news_more.php?id=2174

Roller-ski race photos

Katrina Howe in Second and Danielle Baron in 3rd
1.5k...or 2k from the finish

Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome

A fancy way of saying I have overuse/overload symptoms in my knee. My knees hurt and crack like no other right now...at night when I sneak down the stairs for a glass of water (or a bowl of cereal) when all else is quite, you can hear my knees crackle, they are so loud sometimes I am worried it will wake everyone in the neighbor hood up.

I decided this pain, and cracking was becoming a serious issue and decided to go and see our physical therapists, there is hope at the end of the tunnel, with lots of stretching, ice, taping and orthotics...not to mention rest (rest for me means I will do everything besides running for the next six weeks). I am very bummed about not being able to run, means I will miss my camp at the Olympic Training Center at the end of this month, I have been looking forward to going to this camp all summer long!

On a good note, I will be biking and roller-skiing up a storm, I still have the best days of summer ahead of me. Talking about roller-skiing, I did my first roller-ski race this past weekend. The first of the NENSA roller ski race series in New Durham, NH. The course was GREAT, very tough with a few hills at 12%, I had a great time, got in a very good workout and got to take home a Blue Berry pie...it was the BEST pie I have ever had in my life!

McDonald's...WHAT!?

I can say I haven't been to McDonald's in YEARS, and I was planning on keeping it that way for the rest of my life! Until this past Tuesday.
Last week Wednesday I left Vermont for PA, Josh had Elite Nationals and I wanted to go and help out his team, along with get some good training on the "mountain" there (It's really a small hill). I have to say you would think PA is FLAT, but I was very wrong. The condo that we stayed at was almost at the base of the "mountain" which was after a steady seven mile climb. Everyday for training I would get a ride down this 7 miles and roller ski back to the condo for another ride down to the bottom to start round two. It was a very tough week to say the least, I was very excited my last time up the hill, very excited not to be skating my way up that 7 mile climb to seven springs, knowing the fallowing day would be a nice long rolling day on the trails and finally the big race.
My roller skiing in PA was adventurous to say the least, there were a lot of elite level athletes there that just soaked it all in, cheered me on during the way up, some even pacing me when the climbs got so steep that biking wasn't faster. Than we had our locals who would have ran me off the road if they could have, one guy asked me if I needed help.
Let me paint you a picture of this man, he had a rusty white Ford SUV, so fat that he didn't have a chin, and he was asking ME if I needed help...if he wasn't so big and in a car I would have told him he should worry about himself first, but what can you do, there is always harassment on the road when you are biking, running and especially roller skiing.
After this great weekend of racing, Josh's team is now the best non-pro team on the UCI rankings. Josh and his teammates did REALLY well, it was very impressive to watch him and his team in action, they covered every move, worked together really well. They made a plan and they stuck with it...I know I was impressed.
Once the racing and my training week was done it was time to head home...problem being we were hungry ever two hours, and in the morning for some reason it's worse for me. I get so hungry sometimes that I feel sick. So we had to stop...we ended up stopping at McDonald's...very sad I know. But let me tell you a little about what I had: the Egg McMuffin;
a crazy idea—a breakfast sandwich. Consisting of an egg that had been formed in a Teflon circle with the yolk broken, with a slice of cheese (American cheese is really plastic) and a slice of grilled Canadian bacon (grilled, what are we kidding? it was microwaved). Served on a toasted English Muffin. It was the best thing I could get, it took me awhile to take the first bite; I couldn't get over the idea of the egg being cooked and shipped all over the country...how old was this egg? and this shape...I wonder if it's real? In the end I ate it, and it seemed real...I can only hope that I never have to go back there again. My McDonalds strike has to start all over again!

The rath of Mt. Washington!

Oh how beautiful the White Mountain Range is! This past weekend we went to Jackson, NH for the Mt. Washington Auto road hill climb. Josh and his teammate Todd were going to race but unfortunately the race was postponed on Saturday until Sunday, and than Sunday morning it was cancelled. My dad and I however still got in some good running on some very nice rolling terrain. All the hill climbing and descending left my dad and I a little sore, so we went to some falls to sit in the freezing rushing water.
For the first time ever I did a "Vermonters" strength workout, once stuck in NH I had to find a way to get my training done, with no gym I ended up doing my strength workout in the rain on a porch with logs of wood. I found myself to be very sore once I was done, either I am not working as hard in the gym or my logs of wood were heavier than my weights.

Above you can see some pictures at the falls and a really cool looking moth that my dad found.

Sad that the race was cancelled, but the four of us still had a really good weekend with lots of fun down time and great food.

95 degrees...HOT!

Summer is here, we have lots of sun and 95 degree heat, which means it's time to drink a lot of Cliff Shot! This is a huge change from Saturdays weather, I woke up Saturday morning to a brisk 54 degrees. The cooler weather however made my training session much more enjoyable, and Saturdays training was something I had been looking forward to all week. I started my run at 7:30 in the morning, ran from Bolton to Waterbury and back, to meet with my dad, together my dad and I ran up Bolton.
For a few years now my dad and I have been battling it out at Bolton, my dad however trains to race up Bolton as where I train to race in the winter. This was the first Bolton climb of the season for the both of us, we both did really well and ran the entire way. The first climb of the year is always a little bit daunting, and usually makes you feel defeated. Nothing gets to me more than having to walk during one of my "runs".
As for Josh, he is racing really well and getting ready for some really big races. Here is a post about a race he did last week, you can check out other posts at this website: http://www.rigoniusa.com/team/blog/email.shtml

"Dillon Wins Housatonic Classic Road Race, June 17
Josh Dillon was determined to make Sunday’s race the second team win in a row, and he bided his time before putting in a powerful race-winning attack on the final climb. The plan for the 80 mile race was be attentive at the front to make sure nothing escaped without representation from the team. Will Rifflemacher and Todd Nordblom were the most aggressive riders for Fiordifrutta, but despite numerous attempts a break would not succeed on the day.
In the final downhill miles before the finishing climb, Rifflemacher pushed a group to a small advantage, but the race came back together and Josh Lipka hit the front to bring Dillon into the finishing climb. Once the climb began, Dillon immediately attacked solo, while Marzot and Driscoll marked the chasing group. Dillon stayed away for a solo victory, with Driscoll sprinting in for 2nd and Marzot in 4th. It was a dominating performance for Fiordifrutta with 3 other riders in the top twenty as well: Brooks-12th, Peck-15th, Rifflemacher-18th."

Tired? Me? NEVER!

So what do you do when you feel that you might be over training just a little bit? Rest maybe, just a little, just to see how it feels!
ahhhhh...who needs rest when there is all this sun and warm weather. Saturday I got out to Catamount for a nice long run before heading out on the boat for the day....it was an amazing day on the boat, with lots of time in the water. Sunday I got up early, ran an hour before doing a fathers day 5k race with my dad....my dad (51 years old) is still really fast...he beat me. This is when I am reminded that even though I am tired, and sometimes worry that I might be over training that I better work on the training a little harder.

A few pictures from Oregon

Josh Dillon, who had a few great races in Oregon
my ski trail after a few days at 80 degrees on the mountain

The Beginning of 2008

One month into my 2008 season, training is going very well; doing a lot of running, mt. biking and of course roller skiing. I just got back from Hood River, Oregon where I got some good summer skiing in, not to mention a great tan and summer highlights.
Some of my summer training adventures that I am looking forward to are all of my mt. bike races, and getting in some good training hours with Catlin Compton. This past weekend I finished off my training week with a Root 66 mt. bike race, not bad 4th place overall (since overall is really the ONLY result that matters). This race got me quite excited to continue with the mt. bike racing scene, though tonight I have my 5k Catamount run and my legs still feel a little heavy.