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!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 16, 2007
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!
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!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
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.
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.
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