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