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.