Sweet Kollen Pics!

I'll write more later in a complete post World Champs update but for now, I wanted to share some pictures from the last three days.  The weather finally cleared in Oslo and the venue, racing, and the experiece is ten times better in the sun!!  Over 100,000 spectators were estimated at EACH race over the past two days. There is tons of tradition behind the 30/50k plus it was the weekend. Check this out: 

Reindeer skins sold at Intersport (think Norwegian REI) for watching races! 

Chainsaw carvings of skiers downtown... so sweet!

Therese after smashing the competition, including Bjorgen yesterday

Just another scene at the venue

Me and my mom! Thanks for coming to cheer me on! During the 30k she got all the spectators around her to chant my name as I passed by! 

A typical Norwegian parent at the races.... 

A homemade "Sausage" hat..... (A popular Norwegian skier) I'll just leave it at that.... 

A great reunion with Frode and Sean Lillefjell - Frode was an APU coach for years - they now live in Norway with their three boys

Frode and Erik 

We started off the great day with a trip to the top of the JUMP!  Apparently people have been jumping on this site since 1892?!

Looking down the jump.... can you imagine?  I can't.... 

Me and Rob at the top! 

Farra, Noah & Liz

"Fan Art" on the side of the trail..... 

More fan art... same artist

My "recovery ski" this morning was perhaps one of the most amazing things I've ever done. This scene is at the 5k turnaround - as FAR AS YOU CAN GET FROM THE STADIUM!  Thousands of people cheered me on as I tried to keep it level one. It was INCREDIBLE. 

Amongst the crowd I even found my AK friends. See the person in the hamock in the upper left hand corner? People were hanging out in the tops of trees with trumpets, the course was filled in smoke from campfires.... Reese - someone was even rocking the techno "Barbara Streisand" song in the middle of the race yesterday!

Sweet view from the course... 

Oslo written on the jump in traditional tree branches

Oh yeah

Watching the 50k with my freshman year of college coach, Eli Brown!

Waxing facilities/athlete lounge with roof-top deck

Feed zone craziness

The pack heading out on the blue loop

Watching the race

Pete & Kikkan

Eli getting a feed to last minute 50k addition Billy D!

NRK Blimp (for cool aerial footage)

That's a wrap for now!  It's hard to believe the Championships are over but I'm pretty excited to have the opportunity to continue my European racing experience by way of being the Super Tour leader.  Tomorrow morning we head to Lahti, Finland for the last regular season World Cups. After that, it's to Sweden for World Cup Finals. A Stockholm downtown sprint and a mini-tour in Falun are on the schedule. After Sweden, it's straight to Sun Valley for Spring Nationals/Super Tour finals. I feel pretty darn lucky!  

Thanks so much to everyone who has sent nice emails and comments! I miss you all!  Good luck to those racing the Tour of Anchorage (right now!!) and all the Alaskans getting ready to compete at JOs this upcoming week!  

Wishing everyone all the best, 

Holly 

Holy Holmenkollen!

(Sorry for the blog delay everyone.... I've had some technical difficulties - everything from my blog being in Norwegian to my email being spammed and unavailable, to my blog mysteriously disappearing for a few days but I'm back!)

To the POINT!

This place is pretty epic for a number of reasons.... As everyone says, it's "Every skiers dream to race at Holmenkollen at least once in their career."  I feel extremely lucky that this World Champs falls within my ski career.  Some people have told me that any championship after this one will be a let down.  While I doubt that everything from here is downhill (!) this will surely be a highlight for years to come. I am trying my best to take it and stride and enjoy the big moments and the small moments.

A wooden "Oslo 2011" with the top of the small ski jump in the background. 

A quick pic of the men's classic portion of the 30k pursuit.... it's funny how men race so differently than women. They tend to relax in the pack whereas women go all out from the gun. For example, the top three ladies in the women's race had dropped the pack at 3k (impressive!). Compare that to a men's race that came down to a 15-person sprint for the finish line! 

The Norwegian skiers here are like rock stars - rather than athletes competing in an obscure sport.  Last night someone captured this when they said that "Skiing" in the US is automatically assumed to be downhill skiing. "Skiing" in Norway is naturally, CROSS COUNTRY skiing! 

The "Kollen Roar."  Some of you have probably already heard of this but the crowd here is amazing and they are notorious for cheering for everyone, regardless of what nation they are representing. They are expecting over 400,000 spectators throughout the event here.....

WAFFLES everywhere.... maybe even the national food? 

Time here is speeding by and there are only a couple of races at the Championship remaining.  Namely, the relays and the perhaps the most famous event here, the 30/50k distance races. I've raced twice thus far and have been really happy with both of my results having finished in "the points" (top 30 score World Cup points) for both of my starts. I agonized over whether to race the 10k classic simply because it's been by far my weakest event all season. But, I went for it and had an awesome result, 27th! Unfortunately I don't have any great pictures of me racing yet but I'm hoping to get some before the week ends. 

A camp in the woods on the distance course

A boy cheering at the top of the sprint hill 

Me & Jessie with the crowd in the background 

While 27th place or my 25th (in the pursuit) may not sound like anything to write home about I am pumped. Sure, it's no medal or top ten but when I think about the fact that I haven't been racing Internationally very long - and considering the fact that these are the best skiers in the world, I am excited and satisfied.  In fact, after seeing how much support the skiers have here - and the infrastructure they benefit from, I almost can't believe that we do as well as we do.  Most Cross Country skiers in the US are strapped for cash while skiers in Norway have the potential to make a LOT of money through sponsors, endorsements, appearances, etc. They're in commercials, on billboards, and on food packaging. I feel lucky to live in Alaska which as far as I can tell, supports and values skiers more than anywhere else in the country (maybe Minnesota too!)

Here are a couple of other good pictures from the last couple of days: 

Jessie with her signature kiss to the crowd before her sprint quarterfinal - a GREAT way to start the Championships! 

A great shot of Erik Flora (APU Director/Head Coach)

Sadie standing in front of the Holmenkollen Stadium early on in the Championships - before the layer of thick fog virtually eliminated visibility!

Me in the women's locker room pre-race!

With Peter Graves - friend and Nordic Skiing (English) Announcer for the event and the past 5 (?) Winter Olympic Games 

Me and Jessie + the jump!

Last but not least, drinking coffee out of a traditional wooden mug and keeping warm with a caribou hide! 

The relay is tomorrow and I am skiing the second leg (classic).  Our line up is Kikkan, Me, Liz & Jessie. I'm definitely up against some tough skiers so I hope that I can hang in there .... somewhere! 

Thanks for reading and I'll try to post again soon! 

Good night, 

Holly :) 

Pumped for Teammates + Personal Reflections

Sometimes, when things aren't going your way, it's best to focus on the positive notes, on the bright spots.  While I have been having a rough start to my European Tour, some of my teammates have been turning in some awesome results.  While I would have loved to be racing in the sprint heats yesterday, it was AWESOME watching Kikkan kick butt - LIVE outsprinting all the other World Cup girls including the "Queen of Vancouver," none other than Norway's national hero, Marit Bjorgen.  It was extra fun watching the race from the side of the trail with my APU teammate, Sadie, who had an awesome first weekend of World Cup racing and Jessie, who had had her first World Cup that very day.  Jessie's direct comment from the day was, "I wish the race would have been longer because it was so much fun out there!"  

Sadie, Jessie, Holly acting goofy :)

Sunday was Kikkan's third World Cup win of her career and first in Norway which is an added bonus.  Her result definitely puts her at the top for the list of favorites going into Thursday's World Championship sprint.  Someone on Facebook asked if anyone can beat Kikkan in a skate sprint right now and the answer was, "Maybe Shani Davis!"  After watching her final kick in the long straight finnish stretch I think I'd have to agree.  Here are some pictures of her victory: 

Kikkan at the start of the finals

Marit Bjorgen, the "Queen" of Vancouver.... 

Shadows on course near start, looking across the stadium at the finish

Sprint start - ladies followed closely by camera on snow machine

The downhill on the dimond screen

Instant replay of the finish, Kikkan in Black

Final results: USA #1!

Her interview after crossing the finish line - and of course, a huge smile!

As for my own racing, this past weekend wasn't my best.  And, when you're on the World Cup and have an off weekend or are disapointed by results, it's compounded because your racing against people who are the best in the World, literally.  This weekend also served as my first hard race efforts in over a month.  It's hard to fathom that I used a pair of World Cup races to "wake the body up"..... especially when it wasn't that long ago that the Anchorage Cup was my regular race series. (Hard to believe, right?)

This morning I was looking on Twitter and stumbled upon Devon Kershaw's blog, a Canadian skier. I could really identify with his most recent post so I decided to include some excerpts in this post.  Here is what Devon had to say about racing in Drammen after a long period of training:

"After not racing in so long, the main objective was obtained – feeling that hurt and racing with a bib on again. The reality is no matter how many interval sessions you do, or time trials – real competition can’t be faked and can only come through real racing – with a bib on, and the xc community watching." (Kershaw, 2.21.11)


Furthermore, everyone in the World Cup field wants the same thing.  The thing we have in common is that we all want to win.  Unfortunately, there can only be one winner - leaving second through last place for everyone else.  While it's unrealistic for many of us to hope to win, everyone in the field is hoping to better their best result.  Everyone is searching for a PR or the "race of their life."  When you think about it, one enters a race in an attempt to do something similar to everyone else - I suppose that is the essence of competition.  Sometimes goals are met, and other times, the athlete is left looking for another chance.  


Devon also talked about an unsatisfying race on Sunday..... complete with Rolling Stones lyrics. It's great, check it out: 

While there’s nothing I loathe more than watching sprint rounds on tv after not qualifying and I was really disappointed with today’s sprint – I was straight up pumped for the crew.  For me, I’ll try to keep telling myself life goes on. It’s just racing. I wanted to have a personal best today when I woke up – and it didn’t happen. Every time I slip a bib over my shoulders I hope for a personal best – and it rarely happens. There are always other chances and luckily my next one is coming up quickly. I hope to make a quick turn around and be ready to go on Thursday for the maiden race of this year’s World Champs. I’m confident in the training Justin laid out, and I know that it will come around at some point (I just hope sooner rather than later!). All I can do is continue to try my best – which I did this weekend. Sometimes it goes – like it did during the Tour – other times racing tests you – like it did in Drammen. That’s the game.

Maybe The Stones were right all along. “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find – you get what you need.”

I obviously needed to blow out the carbon, put a bib on and race my guts out. I did that. It wasn’t what I wanted – but hell if I didn’t need it.

World Championships start Thursday. No matter what, I’ll be busy during the 10 days doing what I always do – getting after it and gunning for personal bests. (Kershaw, 2.21.11)

I know this was a particularly long excerpt but if you want to read Devon's full post you can find it on his website by clicking here.   (Devon, I hope you don't mind!) 

Finally, some pictures to leave you with: 

Me and Sadie in Drammen 

Thanks for reading everyone, 

Sincerely, 

Holly :) 

Picking up the pace!

Hello from Drammen everyone! 

I’ve just arrived in this new city to prepare for the upcoming weekend’s World Cup races.  This is the first time that the whole Cross Country World Championships team has been together and we are quite the Crew. 

The past week in Sjujsoen absolutely flew by and I have to say, it was a wonderful introduction to the country and a very, very restful place to become accustomed to the 10-hour time difference. I’m happy to report that I only had one fitful night of “sleep” that involved waking up at 3am and staying up through the entire next day.  I continue to be impressed with Kikkan’s ability to sleep anywhere – and to sleep long hours.  (She’s good at this!)

Skiing in Sjujsoen at sunset

As far as a training camp environment goes, you basically couldn’t beat the hotel we were staying at. Every day we walked out the door to over 200 kilometers of perfectly groomed trails that were great for easy and/or recovery training.  The downside of being an athlete in training (preparing for upcoming races) is that you must be careful to not “over do it” with training too many hours or skiing to hard.  I miss that about being a coach when there was absolutely no downside to skiing 6 hours per day if I felt like it and not caring if I was so tired at the end of the day to even put my head on the pillow. (However, life as an athlete has many, many benefits – for example, I wouldn’t be here otherwise!)

For our hard interval sessions we would drive 15 minutes down the hill to the Birkebeiner Stadium that was used in the 1994 Winter Olympic games in Lillehammer. Last night Kikkan and I even watched a documentary about the men’s 4x10k relay about the most famous ski race in history between Norway and Italy for the Gold medal… Norway expected to win the race by minutes with plenty of time to carry the country’s flag down the finish stretch but Italy, the underdog, hung with each skier, each lap of the race and Silvio Fauner beat Bjorn Daehlie in a sprint to the line in front of 100,000 Norwegians.  (In the interview he described how the crowd literally went silent when he lost.)  It was sweet to recognize the trails  - the hills, bridges, and terrain that we had done our intervals on the day before. It was SWEET!  The whole Olympic venue is still alive and thriving – bustling with energy and people skiing everywhere. 

Fauner and Daehlie in the final stretch '94

Me in the Olympic Stadium.... 

Now that I’m in Drammen it’s time to switch gears and the pace of life is fast forwarding quickly!  I haven’t raced in over a month which makes me a bit anxious about this weekend’s competitions but it will be good to get some starts before Worlds the following week.  It’s funny to think that I’m using World Cups as my “warm up races” for Worlds but I really value the hard training camp I had at home – which will hopefully set me up for a peak here soon.  I theoretically have fifteen races in the next month and a half and I can’t wait for the wild ride to come!

I'll leave you all with a few pictures from the last couple of days.  A special thanks to Deb, Kikkan's Mom, who supplied us with AMPLE Valentine's Day card making supplies. We had a busy afternoon celebrating eventhough our husbands were thousands of miles away! 

Our beds, AKA "craft tables"

13 Valentines in all!

This is the Valentine that I received from Rob. For those of you that know him, this is one of the best compliments I can receive! :) 

We made Valentines for all the guys in our group.  I think that Kikkan and I enjoyed making them slightly more than the guys appreciated receiving them! (A look of pure excitement from Erik Flora)

Holding up our creations in the country side, complete with Fast and Female Valentine's Day ware! 

We also skied to the store... just because we could. It's sweet to leave your skis lined up against the side of the store with the other skier-patrons! 

Here I am excited about an El Paso enchilada dinner kit 

And here's Kikkan biting into a huge chunk of the famous brown cheese!

More soon/thanks for reading,

Holly