The West!

Snow is awesome, even when there isn't much of it.  Mainly I like snow because that means I don't have to roller ski anymore.  That's what I kept telling myself on my last roller ski at home, where it was cold and hilly and I'm pretty sure I managed to find a headwind going both directions (yuck).  But I got myself through it (mental battle) and the next day I flew West to meet up with the rest of the SMS team in Bozeman!  It was so nice seeing everyone, and Erika's dad and his fiance were kind enough to let us bum at their house in Bozeman before we headed West. Highlights of our time in Bozeman:

Well technically this wasn't in Bozeman yet, but on the airplane Taylor Swift was the featured celebrity in Sky Magazine (BIG deal).  Her new album recently came out, if you haven't heard it, well get on it.

This dog.  This is Lucy, one of Erika's puppies.  She is big and goofy but really nice.  She sort of has a hurt paw so she has to be careful, and we have to be sure that she doesn't try to eat the bandage off. 

This was on the first run we did on our first afternoon in Bozeman.  It was COLD.  I had forgotten how cold the winter is, and I was only wearing ankle socks.  Ankles were not pleased.

This.

The HUGE teddy bear from Costco, where everything is bigger.  And where pictures are not allowed as we found out later.  Whoopsies.

This.

Other highlights of Bozeman not photographed included shopping with Sophie.  We went to this really cute store, both went in saying we were not going to get anything but both came out with some choice purchases.  Also we saw the new James Bond movie which was exceptional.  Although the first time we went to go see it I was the only one who got a ticket because then the movie sold out.  I felt like Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory because I had the golden ticket, but I gave it back so I could see it with everyone.  I don't see myself ever really enjoying going to the movie theater by myself. Skiing wise, we skied most days up at Bohart (where NCAAs was and my favorite place to ski), and then one day in town we did "L3" intervals.  The "L3" was more like low level 4, but we all learned about pacing and recovering at altitude, which I still need some work on.

I learned that lesson again today while doing some L4 intervals up at the Plateau in West Yellowstone.  Recovering up high is not easy, and that is a good thing to get ingrained in my mind before the first set of races.  Pacing has never really been my thing, but definitely worth trying to improve.

Turns out being photogenic isn't really one of my skills either.  Soph and I preparing to take what was supposed to be a nice picture.  Unclear what I'm doing (maybe giving a half hearted thumbs up), but it looks awesome.

I guess Erika's not good at photos either.  Super unclear what she is doing here, but needless to say she looks super intimidating, world watch out.  Erika the super snow plower coming in for the win.

I guess I'm also not that good at jumping.  Or timing, maybe both.  Part of our new strength is just doing a ton of one legged hops, and obviously I need to work on those if only to master the jump picture. This shot is awesome none the less.  At Dartmouth there is a tradition that the first snow fall of the year we do a bikini ski on the green.  So us Dartmouth girls (look Isabel is here (on the far right)!!!!!) did one in West.  We got some weird looks.

Prepping for the ski.

And now we are just sitting by the fire (which Soph sat too close to yesterday and managed to burn a nice hole in her new puffy), relaxing and recovering until the next workout (strength, which means jumps which means mehhh ouch).  Then back to Bozeman for what will hopefully be a beautiful ski tomorrow!

hugz and kissez

home!

I arrived home about a week ago, and my time here has been quite relaxed.  I pretty much train whenever I want, and because this is a recovery period in preparation for West Yellowstone and Bozeman, the training has been pretty light.  What was not light were my bags coming back from Canmore.  One of my bags was 66 pounds, and the other one 55.  But I only paid overweight baggage for one of them, and then got karma for the one I didn't pay for.  See below.

This is how my ski bag came off the plane....whoops.  At least they did a stand up tape job, I don't think anything's missing (although I haven't unpacked the bag yet so I guess I actually have no idea).

 Also when I got home I got to meet our new cat, Boss, for the first time.  Boss is mischievous, and thinks he is super cat.  He got himself stuck in the vent in my room the first night.  We used a piece of steak to lure him from his hole.  Henry and Val treat this cat like he's a real person (which is probably why Boss thinks he is a real person).

Boss in the vent

I've been a little bored at times this past week at home, as evidenced by this shot of Hobo....It's not photoshopped at all, I promise...

Meow

 One of the best parts about being home is going back into St. Paul.  I love all the little towns we've been too, but I do enjoy being in an actual city.  If not only because I love people watching.  This man had an umbrella up in the store, I'm pretty sure that's the worst bad luck you can ever wish upon yourself.  But he' probably enjoying a fabulous dessert, because this place (Bread and Chocolate) has the best desserts ever.  I had a snicker doodle cookie. It was good.

Bad luck for life

The worst part about getting old is not being able to trick-or-treat (or if you do it is awkward because you know every person is wondering what you are doing).  And the worst part about Halloween at our house is that we rarely ever get any trick-or-treaters.  I don't think there are even any more kids in our neighborhood, and Val left us to go trick or treating with her friends in St. Paul. So, naturally, I made grilled cheese. With jack-o-lantern faces.

Halloween dinner! Jack-o-lantern grilled cheese with blood (tomato soup).

 In lower school, coloring was probably my best skill (self call acknowledged). The grocery store always gives out Halloween coloring pictures, and while I may be too old to trick-or-treat, I am never too old to color.

In addition to coloring to use up some time, I also went through a whole bunch of pictures I found from back in the day.  A selection of my favorites...
Flashback Sunday:

Ghosts (or a princess and a Dalmatian) of Halloween pasts.

I used to take serious advantage of the fact that Henry was younger than me by 2 years.  For example, we used to play monopoly together and I told him I was the banker, and therefore I had all the money in the bank.  He would run out of money really quickly, and I would not only get all his money but keep all the money in the entire game.  I also used to lick the oreo filling and then put the cookies back together and give them to Henry.  It took him quite some time to realize that most oreos have filling on the inside.  Sorry Hen.  Or in this pictured instance, I made him play dress up with me.  And hold my purse.

I think this picture was for my Aunt Charlotte's wedding.  All I remember from the photo shoot was that Val was being a little sassy (although she looks really cute and happy in this picture, trust me she was not like this for all of them).

So today I have a long run, and then tomorrow is off!  I think I'm going to the big Mall of America with my mom, so that will be an adventure (and maybe a level 1 workout).  And then to Bozeman on Friday!  I miss my SMS buds and can't wait to see them!!!!

hugz and kissez

Canmore...then home!

Due to the sloth-like internet at our little apartments in Canmore, I'm currently sitting in one of the many coffee shops Canmore has to offer.  This one is called the Good Earth, and initially I wanted to come here because at home (a place I will be in 1 day, 3 hours and 19 minutes...not that I'm counting) the Good Earth restaurant is amazing.  And the coffee shop doesn't disappoint! The other really cool one in Canmore is called communitea, and its one of those super zen super modern looking places...with 80 different kinds of tea! It's super yummy, the internet password is givemeahug but its one of those places I feel weird taking out a computer...don't want to mess with the vibes or anything.

Other than going to coffee shops for internet, we go to them to keep ourselves occupied between training sessions!  It has been awesome skiing this early in the season, and I hope it helps later on!  We have skied every day except yesterday (when we took an amazing trip to banff/lake louise...see pictures below) and I am starting to feel a lot more comfortable on skis, even if I'm becoming a little (a lot) tired.  The highlights have been a 10k timetrial (which was hard), and today we had an awesome skate speed session.  We like to think of ourselves as the miracles on ice (at least 95% of skiing fast is feeling fast...and looking fast).  Confidence is key to that, so its good to pep each other up during the workout.  Tomorrow we have a classic sprint simulation, so that should be super exciting.  Then strength then home! I'm pumped to go home, I haven't been in awhile and I miss the good old midwest (even though I think I'm starting to consider the east coast a second home and I like real maple syrup better than Aunt Jemima, nothing quite beats going home to my own original bed).  Enjoy the pictures!

The crew minus Jessie and Gus in front of lake louise.  It looks like a fake background, but I promise it's not.  REAL LIFE. Eric Packer photo.

Sometimes Skyler and I like to push each others buttons...In the absence of my real brother Henry to wrestle (watch out Henry), Skyler has been a great substitute.  We can thank Erika for this gem!

But other times Skyler and I get along.  Erika is so good at capturing both sides of Skyler's and my interactions.  Thanks ruka :)

Speaking of brothers, here is my real one Henry and me.  Talk about full circle! My family used to go on alpine skiing trips for spring break and one of our trips was to Banff and Lake Louise!  I had great style back then, and check out that pose.  Maybe I should have been an alpiner.  Thanks mom for digging up this shot, can't wait to see you!

But if I'd been an alpiner I probably wouldn't have met Soph!  Soph and I always get along.  It's really great to have such a good friend there all the time, I don't know what I'd do without her!  Maybe go to bed after 10 o'clock (I think our average bed time is around 9:30.).  Eric packer photo.

Mandatory back shot.  Ever since NCAAs in Bozeman Erika, Soph, and I have been doing this shot.  This might be the most amazing backdrop yet.  Eric packer photo.

This is an old picture, but one of me back in park city on the treadmill test.  It was my first time doing a roller ski test like that, and I definitely prefer normal tests to the ones on the treadmill.  But a good thing to get used to!  Erika Flowers photo

Welp thats about it.  We are also going to a halloween party tomorrow evening hosted by the Canadians after I pack all of my bags...which could be a struggle.  It should be really fun.  It will be a nice addition to my typical halloween night, spent waiting by the door, desperately hoping that maybe this year we will get a cute trick-or-treater, that isn't my little sister Val (although she's pretty cute).  Here's to hoping!

hugz and kissez

Short Haikus sans fast internet!

Internet here slow
But in Canmore there is snow!
No pictures right now

Internet in town
Hopefully by tomorrow
New blog will be born

But the training rocks
Got to pull out my rock skis
On the 2-K loop

hugz and kissez

Heaven on earth!

Utah is amazing.  Today was our first day of rain and it has been an entire week.  It's almost nice that it's raining because then I don't feel bad just sitting around inside all day.  Not that we've been doing much sitting around inside, in fact we have been pretty busy since the last post!

 Above Erika, Soph, and I are beginning the first set of level three intervals since arriving at 7000 feet.  It was 3 by 8 minutes double poling on the flat followed by 3 by 6 minutes striding.  The nice thing about being up really high is that to go level 3 (threshold) all you have to do is worry about skiing with super good techinque and BAM heart-rate 175 (my average level 3). The route we did the intervals on was alright too, I guess (just kidding it was the prettiest roller ski of my entire life).  The intervals felt good, and my lactate on the last one was 4.6 which was right on target!

Packer looking super good on one of the double pole intervals (notice the casual lake and mountains in the background).

Erika, Soph, and I striding at the end of our cool down.  Look at that synchrony.  Not that we tried to do that or anything...

This was at the top of our cool down.  Sometimes it takes us awhile to get into order for the picture.  Or maybe Gus was trigger happy with the camera button and just didn't tell us he was taking one.  

 Everyone finally getting together for the classic and obviously necessary group shot.  Utah (and the team) at its (our) finest.

Again not quite ready for the picture.

But we eventually get there.  As Skyler would say (about his shuffleboard game, but it still applies to these pictures too) it's not about how you start but how you finish.  But ask him and Gus about their record against Packer and me in shuffle board (3-2, our favor...just sayin).

This was driving back from one of our runs.  Heaven on earth!  Or at least the entrance.

On one of our off afternoons (following the intervals) Erika and I went hiking with some of the USST alpine boys.  A lot of the guys on the alpine team go to Dartmouth in the spring so we caught up with them for an easy hike.  Here was the view from part way up. Ah-mazing.

And don't worry, we've been baking up a storm.  I think these were my favorite little snacks.  Pretzels, with chocolate, and candy corn.  Literally impossible to go wrong with that combination. 

Anyways, this morning we did some easy skating at Soldier Hollow and then this afternoon we are getting massages (YUS) and then going to dinner and a movie with some of our alpine dartmouth friends.  Working up for some intervals tomorrow, then an off day Sunday (!!!) and then my first experience with testing at the Center of Excellence on Monday.  Woof.

hugz and kissez

Park City!

3:15 am is an ungodly hour to be awake, doing anything.  Yet that was the time our alarms were set for our travel day to Park City.  The travel day went pretty smoothly, and Sophie and I only had one sprint.  We had a really short layover in the homeland (Minneapolis airport) and Sophie and I were almost positive we were going to miss our flight.  We even heard our names over the loudspeakers calling us for the last boarding call (rockstars!).  But, we got our airport sweat on and made the flight with 30 seconds to spare.  We arrived in Salt Lake City, and then got picked up and driven to the most incredible home ever.  Erika's Aunt and Uncle were extremely generous and are letting us stay in their home for the duration of the Park City camp, and it is sweet.

This is the outer view of the house.  It is about 30 minutes from soldier hollow, and only 10 minutes from the center of excellence.  It is well worth the drive however.  Sophie and I share a room, but then everyone else has their own.  Living the life!

Sophie and I matched on our travel day.  It was unplanned (actually though)

The view from the house.  Stunning.  I now understand why people love the West.

 The first day we were here we just did an easy 30 minute run, and had to remind ourselves to go extra slow.  Our house is at approximately 7,200 feet and that is high.  Even walking up the stairs gets me a little winded.

The next day we did an easy distance classic, and I am so bummed that I forgot to bring my camera.  It was so pretty.  The last hour was on some sort of semi-private road that was just a great uphill striding grade, and it was lovely.  That afternoon we entered the Center of Excellence for the first time to do our new strength plan.  It isn't quite as fun as just lifting really heavy things like our last one, but the core section is brutal and we all feel it a little bit even today.  I hurt my shoulder a little bit in the gym, but it isn't anything to serious I don't think so I'm just taking it easy on the upper body for the next couple days to ensure total recovery.

This should give a general idea of the massive size of the COE gym.  They have everything you could possibly imagine.  Even the dumbbells are engraved.

The next day was supposed to be an off day.  But it was also outlet shopping AND Fast and Female...basically not an off day.  The outlets were a success, but we will probably have to go back again at some point during our stay.  The Nike outlet store is by far my favorite.  Then it was on to Fast and Female, which involves two of my favorite things: pink and glitter.  And this year I got to a lot of my third favorite thing: dancing.  Jessie and I were in charge of the endurance dancing station, which basically entailed us dancing for an entire hour.  My strategy was just never to stop, because if I did I don't think I would be able to get started again.  Needless to say I think I should probably add an hour of level four dancing to my training log.  Even though I was really tired after the Fast and Female event, it is a great organization that promotes healthy living by embracing strong and beautiful bodies and trying to ignore the pressure to be super thin.  It is a really important message to get into young girls heads at an early age so they can grow up to be beautiful and happy with themselves both inside and out.

My healthy, strong, and beautiful teammates Sophie, Jessie and Erika.  Jessie's shirt is fabulous: "Barbie wants to be me."  And it's true, barbie doesn't hold a flame to Jessie!

Then things got a little intense when we got back home.  The house we are staying at has a shuffle board, and that is a great game.  I got into a duel with Erik Bjornsen from Alaska Pacific University, and narrowly beat him in a 5 game series.  Some would say I got lucky on my last shot (for those of you who know shuffle board I got 3 disks in the 4 point zone on my last shot), but I would like to think it is just raw talent.  I plan on also beating Skyler, and by beating I mean destroying him at some point in the next week and a half.  Watch out Skyler, I'm coming for you.  And you too Gus.

Till next time!

hugz and kissez

October!

How much more cliche can a blogpost get than by starting off with: "I can't believe it's October!"  Well, by doing this:  "I can't believe it's October, the leaves are so pretty!"  But cliches are cliches for a reason: They are generally, most of the time (if not all of the time) very true. Now it's time to start the blog:

I can't believe it's October, the leaves are so pretty!

October means Halloween.  Halloween means candy.  Halloween Candy means pumpkin shaped Reeses.  Pumpkin shaped Reeses mean YUM. 

Probably the most said sentence over the past three days has been "Those leaves are POPPIN!"  This is a picture from just outside the foxstop, a yummy place near where we are staying.

The biggest event from the past couple days was either the Reception we had for the SMS T2 team, or tieing Skyler in the leaf catching competition during or run yesterday.  Or also maybe seeing a moose literally 20 seconds into our run.  That's right.  A moose.

The Reception:  Before the reception we had a trip down to Putney to meet Zach and work on some ski grinds (or rather go down there and have him tell me what I need for my skis, but it was a learning experience for sure).  He also made us some coffee, which was SO good, but it was so dark and so extremely loaded with caffeine that I was just jumpy for awhile.  But I recovered from the imminent caffeine crash just in time for the reception!

The whole squad minus Jessie, who is at home (actually I think she's in park city now).  We can't wait to get back and see her!  This picture makes me giggle every time, just because it looks sort of like one of those awkward family photos.  I can elaborate on the family tree I've created for the team at some other point :)

Erika, Soph, and I.

The reception went off without a hitch, and it was a very nice way to spend some time inside instead of out in the pouring rain.

This was a little distance skate we did over in New York awhile ago.  It was literally pouring the entire time that day.  I was still recovering from some tiredness slash sickness so I cut it a little short. In fact all of last week I took it pretty easy.  But Soph and I did bench 100 pounds.  And do weighted pull ups, whoaaaaaaa.  Jacked (or getting there anyways).

Oh yeah, it has rained every day for the past forever it seems.  That made our run yesterday SO SO wet.  According to Skyler during the run we looked like swamp monsters.  But I was a swamp monster who caught just as many leaves as he did.  The competition started about 20 minutes into the 2 hour run when Skyler started trying to catch the leaves, to no success for awhile.  Then I caught one.  Then he caught one.  Then Erika caught none, but then Skyler and I kept on catching them.  It became a pretty intense battle.  I was behind one leaf for awhile, but then with about 23 minutes remaining I caught one to tie it up.  Then I was on pure defense mode, I would rather tie than lose.  Skyler, however, is sort of hard to play defense on only because he is like a foot taller than me.  We sprinted (or threshold ran, whatever) the last 3 minutes in a fruitless effort to catch one more leaf and win, but the battle ended in a tie.

At least we had the opportunity to partake in the game, which wasn't necessarily a given seeing as a HUGE moose showed up 20 seconds into our run.  Andy was convinced he was a friendly guy, Erika, Skyler and I thought otherwise.  As mentioned earlier, due to Skyler's larger frame, Erika and I were using him as a shield (sorry Skyler).

I think he forgave us though, probably because of the two baked goods we have whipped out of the apartment the past couple days:

Raspberry Oat Scones

Cinnamon rolls

And now I need to go get ready for a Level 3 time trial.  Yeah a time trial that you have to stay in level 3 the whole time for.  This will likely not be my speciality, as my typical style is going out hard and just trying to hold on.  But it will be good practice for sure.  Oh, and I suggest the movie the looper.  We saw that in Manchester yesterday afternoon, and holy buckets.

hugz and kissez

As a matter of fact...

I DO go to the bathroom outside.  This has very, very little to do with the rest of this post, but while killing some time in the Northshire bookstore I saw this and had an awkward moment of laughing out loud while everyone else was silent.  A similar scenario occurred when I saw this book:

It is a parody (thankfully and hopefully), but Goodnight Moon was one of my favorite books growing up, so I was saddened in a hysterical way when I came across this title.  I did purchase a book, Double Cross by Ben Macintyre, which chronicles that adventures of d-day solider spies.  Nerdy, I know.  But it's like an adventure story except with real world people which just raises the stakes infinitely. 

Now for three things that I don't joke about:

 Breakfast:  This has become a pretty standard first course of breakfast for me, but today I decided to make it photo worthy.  The base is some Chobani yogurt (Ah!), topped with some nectarines (questionably in season but still good), with a crown of my absolute favorite, raspberries.  Then there is some wonderful granola sprinkled on the top.  So simple, so good.

 Dinner:  Here is one of our home cooked meals from the past weekend.  It turns out there were a lot of vegetables--even brussel sprouts.  I'm not even sure if I like brussel sprouts that much, but they were on the table so I ate them (obviously).  We also adventured out and tried some scallops (good) and some butternut squash with asparagus (better).  And then for dessert we had some ice cream (the white chocolate raspberry chocolate truffle kind--better-er) with some raspberry chocolate chip cookies on the top (best).  Is there anything better than a fabulous meal? Unclear.

Dessert:  I don't mess around when it comes to baking.  Pictured above is probably one of Erika's and my best creation yet: a maple bundt cake.  We got the recipe from the Martha Stewart American Cookbook, and as Erika aptly concluded, "She may have not done everything right, but she did know how to cook."  True statement.  This cake was incredible, like happiness solidified in a maple-y, sugar-y, over the top amazing-y cake. YUM.

And I don't quite remember what we were cooking when we came across this cool thing, but its cool so here's a picture.

Two yolks in one egg! BONUS!!!!!!!

Oh yah, we workout (cue LMFAO song):

This picture isn't posed at all...regardless this is the top of a big hill that Erika and I biked up a couple days ago.  It was really cold, and we are complete novices (or just really tough guys...yup going with that one) and didn't wear gloves, or shorts (who needs feeling in their fingers? Not this kid).  But after biking uphill for awhile we recovered and had a wonderful time.

Here is Erika and I doing some solid level 3 (threshold) striding intervals up the Stratton Access road.  Its got really nice new pavement, and is perfect for any level three type stuff.  I had definitely felt better in my life, but also much worse.  As it turns out after that day I developed a little sniffles, but I've been pounding the vitamin C and some really nasty zinc chews and feel a lot better today.  So I'll keep today pretty easy and hope that this sucker is gone for good!

This sucker is probably not gone for good:

As it turns out the mouse is actually really smart (and also strong seeing as it ate some powerbars) and didn't stick his head in the trap like he was supposed to.  Therefore he didn't die.  So when we (by we I mean Eric Packer) let him go he just scurried off no harm done.  Probably just a flesh wound.  So he'll be back.  As will I in my next post!

Hugz and Kissez