10 things I love about now

As Erika so subtly pointed out to me this morning (and my mom as well.. maybe not a coincidence) it has been 10 days since the last post.  Completely unrelated but at the same time not, one of my favorite movies is 10 things I hate about you (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWmjzCZr0Jw).  So, inspired by Erika's day counting, and the aforementioned movie, I've decided to compile a list of 10 things I love about now (because love is so much more fun than hate).

1. Recovering outside.
Gus did remind us that laying in the sun isn't recovery, but every once in awhile is just fine.  I'm pretty sure that maximum recovery also involves getting sufficient stock piles of Vitamin D, and I'm currently in no shortage.  I've also finally attained a non-ghost like appearance, so when I stand in front of a clean white wall I don't just blend in.  Although I do still occasionally enhance my "tan" with the occasional neon article of clothing (well ok all the time).

Paddy and me "recovering" after a long ski

 2. Amazing views.  
This is from "lookout point" on Equinox Mountain, which Annie and I ran (ok mostly walked) up for an easier day of training.  It's so funny having another person named Annie around, and is requiring some more specific naming.  I'm also not still not used to saying my own name out loud, but I'm psyched that she's here and she makes an excellent training partner.

The Two Annies

 3.  Not crying
A couple days ago we hopped into some skate speeds (my favorite workout) with the REG camp currently happening at SMS.  It's an awesome time--lots of people all running around and skiing really fast.  That said, it makes me feel really old because I remember going to REG camp and that seems like a really, REALLY long time ago.  But back to not crying... so during the speeds I had my first ever crash.  I had just been waiting for the day I totally ate it, because before that day I had only experienced one minor crash 2 years ago.  But immediately after that minor crash I was giggling because I literally fell over Isabel, but then I looked down and saw that my thumb was bleeding, and started sobbing.  This fall was much worse, but I didn't cry.  I just put on my big girl pants and finished up the speed session.  Sometimes that's what you have to do--put on the big girl pants and keep on keepin' on. Although putting on pants still hurts.  Good thing its dress season!

Ouch.

 4.  Isabel
Every day I am constantly reminded how lucky I am to have Isabel as a  constant companion.  She is the most wonderful, genuine, happy, supportive, loyal and beautiful person I think I know.  Love you boo!

Vermont Wildflowers are beautiful.  After a double pole workout in Weston (where there a lot of big hills) I made Isabel get out of the car and go frolic in them.  It didn't take much convincing.

 5.  The Super Moon
A couple of nights ago the world experienced a super moon.  According to Wikipedia, a super moon is when a full moon is closest to the earth, resulting in the largest apparent size of the moon.  It's technically called the perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun System.  Our Power was out for the night, so Isabel and I took the opportunity to stay up and look at it!  It was awesome, the iphone doesn't do it justice.  In addition we saw a lot of fireflies, and apparently fire flies "light up" to attract mates during mating season, and that the light created by fire flies is the only light that doesn't emit energy because it is a chemical reaction in the bug.  Fun Fact courtesy of Isabel!  Isabel and I are going to hunt fire flies later this summer.

The SUPER moon.

 6. Swimming (or in my case sitting next to the snow making pond, observing).
Following lots of big sweaty workouts (like the L3 bounding up Stratton Mountain we did today--a ton of fun in part because of the huge group of people--so cool!) a lot of time we head to the snow making pond.  The water is very clean and a superb temperature, and maybe by the end of the summer I'll make it in.  Sophie beat me too it--she went in today!  Which is rare because normally we are the two sitting by the edge dipping our toes in :) Speaking of Sophie...

Jordan Fields--or Fields of Dreams as we affectionately call him--came to visit us from Woodstock, VT for a couple of days.  He was a PG last year in the fall, and we sure miss having him around.  Caption: Hidden Tiger, Crouching Fields.

 7.  Soph's Back!
Sophie just got back from a 5 week western adventure.  She was in Bend with the US Ski Team (which she is now a part of...yay!) and then 3 weeks in Park City, Utah training.  I'm glad she had such a fun time, but I'm glad-er that she's back here.  Similar to Isabel, I love Sophie for all the same reasons.  Must run in the family.

Isabel is also really excited that Soph (or Doph) is back.

 8. Red the Cat
I love Red, one of the Caldwell's cats.  The other cat is named Dudley Rose, and so far neither of them have been eaten by the fox.  Hooray!  Red likes to lay outside with me, and he apparently even has interest in being a cover girl.  He's so majestic, he could probably start their first feline-friendly line.  

He's just a little bit tired.

But always ready for the camera.

 9. Rainbows!
Just towards the end of strength yesterday, we all looked outside and saw not only a rainbow, but the lowest rainbow I've ever seen AND both ends of it.  Sorry to say there wasn't a pot of gold, but we still felt lucky.  And we are lucky--all of us get to spend the summer training and hanging out, and appreciating all the wonderful things Vermont has to offer.  I was also feeling especially lucky, because I have an easy week in strength.  I've been working really hard at putting on some muscle in my legs, and I think its paying off, but its always nice to have an easy unload week.  The arms are next.  I'll probably feel them tomorrow after the double pole intervals we have planned (likely in the pouring rain).  But after rain there are often rainbows, so it all comes full circle.

If you look closely, or imagine really well, you can see two rainbows.  But the bottom one is clear.  The weather here has been very strange.  Really hot and humid in the morning, followed by massive thunderstorms in the afternoon.  Makes afternoon training a little questionable, so it's always nice to have strength scheduled.

 10.  Sports Bra Tan Lines
Maybe this is weird, but one of my favorite parts of summer is getting a sports bra tan line.  And every year its kind of fun to see how long I can keep it into the winter.  One year it never even went away.  Some people hate them, but I just embrace it.  T-Shirt tan lines, on the other hand, I am not a fan of.  So I avoid those at absolutely all costs.

winning!

And on a final note, today is Sverre and Lilly's 26th wedding anniversary!  Congratulations, and thank you so so much for having me.  I miss my Minnesota family and home very much, but feel very lucky to have another place I can call home on the East.

And now Sophie and I are about to do another thing I love...bake some muffins. 

hugz and kissez

Vermont

It's summer time! and it has been awhile.  But regardless it IS back--Adventures with Annie (hi soph and erika).  And I'm back training with the lovely SMS T2 team in Stratton, VT. My living quarters, have, however, greatly improved since the fall.  Instead of the infamous lift line, the Peru Caldwell Family, headed by the ever gracious Lilly and Sverre Caldwell, are putting me up for the summer.

Peru Caldwell house staple: The Piggly Wiggly Morning Coffee.  This was taken on the first sunny day in actually 4 days. Instagram worthy, filter choice debatable, but the coffee was amazing.

The Caldwell's lawn is filled with beautiful wildflowers.  The orangey-tangeriney-sunshiny-happy colored ones are my favorite.  Which is strange because there are pink wildflowers too.

Oscar (a Dartmouth teammate) enjoying the first day of sunlight.  Getting his bronze on.

Living in vermont for the summer, I've been exposed to a slightly different scene then normal.  For one, the boys chop woods for the fire place in preparation for the (hopefully) cold winter ahead.  For another, some of the biggest news in the town of Peru is that Marvin, the postmaster, is leaving.  Everyone is really devastated by his departure, as he was very nice and showed everyone the stamps before purchase.  Also, on a more personal note, he figured out I was living at the Caldwell's for the summer and is advising the incoming postmistress that any mail addressed to a "Ms. Hart" should be forwarded to the Caldwell's box.  I met Marvin briefly, and am very saddened by his departure.  The incoming postmistress has a lot to live up to.

Picture not staged.  But do notice Austin's impeccable forward lean.  Power application double pole practice.  No wonder vermonters are so fast at skiing!

Another difference from past summers is the presence of wild animals.  Isabel ran into a bear on her run one morning, we saw a porcupine waddle (and it was waddling, he was so fat and so slow), and there has been a fox trying to eat Dudley Rose and Red (the two Caldwell cats).  The fox roams around the perimeter of the house, and actually got a little taste of Dudley Rose right off of the back terrace.  The boys are trying to kill the fox, and Austin actually threw two kitchen knives at it one time.  Needless to say, he didn't even come close to hitting, much less killing, the fox.

Austin may be terrible at killing foxes with kitchen knives, but he is good (well better than all of us) at horseshoes. In the backyard the Caldwell's have a horseshoe pit, and this afternoon we all played.  Rather Austin and Isabel "played," while Oscar, Dave and I just tossed horseshoes and hoped for the best, and also looked out for each other's incoming throws.  Regardless of ability level, the game was taken very seriously.

It's unclear what Oscar is celebrating here, seeing as I think he, Dave, and I scored a combined 2 points.

David showing his "impeccable" form

I tried many different techniques, none of them proving to be very effective.  As it turns out, hand eye coordination is not my thing.  I'm a little embarrassed by this picture, but it aptly depicts the game.

Austin, who is actually good (well better) at the game, shows the proper technique.  According to Austin, "It is all about being one with the horseshoe."

Sometimes it was unclear who got the points.  Everyone got involved in the decision making process.  Here Oscar shows his decision making face. Cute.

Then Oscar got ahold of the phone.  Selfie!

Photography by Oscar.  Yeah Iz!

And then in typical Vermont fashion, it went from beautiful, sunny, swimsuit weather to thunder storming.  Metal horseshoes and lightening together are not a good idea.

It wouldn't be a complete blog without the mention of both food and training.  Training so far has been going well.  We've done some speeds, and some light intensity, a lot of strength, and so far one OD.  I'm decently tired, as I think my training in the last week and a half about equals the amount of training I did in the entire month of May.  School this past term was tough--I was talking an extra class to supplement my winter courses, and I was really focused on just recovering, running the Vermont Marathon, and getting psyched for summer training.  So I'm looking forward to hopefully a lot of sunny days filled with lots of fun training, but so far nothing huge to report on that end.  Other than the fact that I hate double poling.

A nice big group of boys starting out the 2.5 hour classic OD

The girls!

Another typical Vermont thing: covered bridges.  An artsy shot of Annie Pokorny and I with maybe an hour to go in the ski.  We had a really nice ski and I am looking forward to many more!

On the baking end I've also been slacking on a little bit.  After getting to the Caldwell's from Hanover, I've been doing a lot of reading and a lot of relaxing.  BUT I did make some cupcakes (really good cupcakes if I do say so myself) for a big gathering that Lilly hosted with some of the Stratton skiers.  They were vanilla cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream frosting, with a raspberry for garnish.  I think that simple cupcakes are better than crazy ones, and I think these were just about perfect.  Although Gus would have preferred more raspberries.  And I would have preferred muffins, but not everyone feels the same way about muffins that I do.

Cover of my future cookbook.  Lilly liked how the raspberries matched my dress!  Actually not planned, but a happy coincidence.

GETINMYBELLY! So good.

It's sunny again, and I think I might go learn to chop wood.

My best friend Isabel.  We are going to be spending the summer together (again!) and I'm so excited.  She's obviously really excited too.

hugz and kissez