New Wheels & Ladies in Town! (Oh... and AK Fish Season!)

Hey All! Happy Mid-July! Can you believe it? The summer is just whizzing by. But first..... I received a shiny new package the other day...... a BRAND NEW sporty, useful, awesome Toyota RAV4 to drive for the next year (or at least when I'm training in town!) I have to say, it takes some getting used to driving a car with your name on the side but especially since I drove my old car for almost TWELVE years the "new car smell" is rocking my world. I totally love this thing and apparently everyone else does too because they're flying off the lot at Kendall Toyota just as fast as they can get them! 

 

In front of Kendall Toyota! 

Never thought I'd be cruising in something like this but I'll take it!  (Note: most frequent comment thus far: "Where is the pony tail on the skier?" Answer: "Well, I'm all about aero-dynamics so it's tucked into the back of my hat!) 

Lost Lake! 

Cruising the strip in Seward after running Lost Lake with a big group of friend. Swiss skier Bettina Gruber is in town to train for a while and it's been super fun training with her. Always fun when your worlds collide and "World Cup Friends" meet "Alaska Friends!"

They don't have Jerky in Switzerland so we stopped at this roadside stand for Bettina to buy gifts for people at home! 

 
Alaska

....... Then, Girl's Camp Started!  A couple years ago we started NAWTA which stands for "North American Women's Training Alliance."  It used to primarily be team USA and Canada. Lately it's morphed into an International affair which is super fun. It's great to exchange ideas and make new friends. We find that having one skier from a country is a bit like a gateway drug and by means of becoming friends with them, we can more easily befriend the entire team.

Left to right... upper row: Erik Flora, Mike Matteson, Norma (massage) Astrid Jacobsen (NOR), Rosie Brennan, Heather Mooney, Emily Hannah, Kate Fitz, Matt Whitcomb Lower: Jessie Diggs, Liz Stephen, Holly Brooks, Kikkan Randall, Ida Sargaent, Lauren Fritz, Annika Miller. Not pictured but also at intervals Becca Rorabaugh & Swiss Bettina Gruber! 

ADN Article about the camp

 U.S. women's team in fast company for Anchorage training camp

 In addition to training in Alaska the girls get a cultural experience as well - take special notice of the bumper sticker on this car!

 Last night we ran the bluff trail to the beach


Two nights ago we went over to the Knapp families house for the second annual dinner and first annual game night. The Knapps have always been incredible supporters of skiing and of course, skiers themselves. Alice and Christina cooked up a feast for us and it was a super fun evening.

We broke up into teams and did some "Alaskan Challenges"

 Here is Astrid Jacobsen balancing people on her back after their team saw how many times they could fold a blue tarp without stepping off it!

 Kikkan had to walk to the "bathroom" in the dark and then hit her teammate with water.

 Here is Jessie, Norma & myself doing the fish toss. After each successful triangle we had to take a step back and huck this semi-rotten fish at each other and catch it!

 These girls had to duck tape these skis to their feet and race across the grass!

 Christina made a gorgeous, delicious cake for our group!

Christina and Alice Knapp with Bettina Gruber and Astrid Jacobsen. Thanks for hosting us Knapps! :)
(Gunnar, so sorry to miss you!)


Post skate intervals, Kincaid

Training has been going well and it's been fun having such a big, high level group of girls to train with. Today we did skate speeds and Erik Hill, ADN Photographer came out to shoot our group. Check out his photos HERE

This weekend the camp will fly into Eagle Glacier for a week of on snow training. I'm really looking forward to it!

On a completely different note.... while training camp is going on it's simultaneously FISH season in Alaska. According to Fish and Game the past couple days over 220,000 Sockeye Salmon swam up the Kenai River. This partially explains why Rob slayed them!  But really, our family and specifically, Rob's parents eat a lot of wild, Alaskan Salmon and the time is now to catch/process & smoke them. 

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/07/14/2973869/us-womens-team-in-fast-company.html#storylink=cpy

Bettina got a kick out of this truly Alaskan time of year. I can't think of anything more authentic for her visit to AK!

Not too many fish in SWISS!

Rob filleting dinner for girl's camp!

John & Sue, Rob's parents partaking in the work!

Bettina eating a freshly smoked salmon belly, straight out of the smoker! 

Our home made smoker, hard at work! I've been a bit self conscious about how I smell at training after tending to this thing! 

That's it for now. There will certainly be more to post about girl's camp and life otherwise. Thanks a ton for following along - you guys are the best! 

Cheers, 

Holly :) 

 Oh yeah... and don't forget to follow me on twitter @brooksha1 

Someday I'll be technologically savvy enough to put a follow button at the end of one of my posts!