Two weeks in photos...

The last two and a half weeks have been (another) whirl-wind of travel, training, testing & visits.  Here it is, in pictures: 

After a red-eye flight and (three) airplanes to get from ANC to SLC for my first round of US Ski Team testing I arrived 9 hours earlier than the other girls. Luckily this meant a visit with my good friend and ex-teammate, Katie Ronsse who is in PT school in Salt Lake. Here we are taking shots in her garden!  .

Shots of Wheatgrass that is! 

When Sadie and Kikkan arrived they came to Katie's house to pick me up.  Before departing for Park City we took this "chic" picture! Katie had a few generations of chickens due to a recent dog accident

Next, I spent two 12-hour days at the COE (USSA's 67 Million dollar training facility called the "Center of Excellence.)  We completed 6 (?) Roller ski treadmill tests, strength tests, specific double pole tests, mobility tests, full blood screening, hemoglobin, dexascans, etc. Seeing that this was my first time going through the battery of tests I don't have any results to compare to but I'm hoping to glean some knowledge from my tests and get a couple of pointers for the direction of my summer training.  In theory, we will conduct the same slew of tests in Park City come October to see what changes our summer training resulted in. 

Jess with a big smile warming up on the treadmill 

Here I am mid skate L3 altitude test.  This particular test was 4 x 7 miles at a steady pace featuring four different levels of oxygen.  (I have a mask & a nose plug)  The first test was sea level, then 1000 meters, the altitude of Val di Fiemme, this year's World Champs. The third test was 1500 meters, the elevation of Sochi (2014 Winter Olympics) and the final test was higher; the elevation of Park City.  During each test our heart rates were monitored and after each test they took blood samples to see how we were reacting to skiing at that particular altitude. 

Erik Bjornsen & USST Women's coach, Matt Whitcomb on the Double pole urg. Here we did a max test - testing "force" for five maximum pulls as well as an endurance/power test 1 x 30 seconds. 

O2 bottles used for Roller Ski treadmill tests. 

Jessie completing her hemoglobin test 

During PC Camp it was Simi's birthday. We had a team dinner and I obviously caught him at the right time during our happy birthday song. It looks like he's planning on stealing ALL the cupcakes and running away with them! 

Liz, me, Alberto, Sadie, Kikkan & Jessie 

The second day of testing we had some special guests. Alberto Salazar and his Nike team were our guests at the COE!!! Salazar is a legendary athlete and coach having won both the Boston and New York Marathons, setting World and American Records.  Today, he coaches the Nike Oregon Project and some of the best distance runners in the country.  If you're unfamiliar with him, check out his Wikipedia page HERE. 

A coach's only shot: Salazar & Matt! 

Matt was seriously the BEST cheer leader for these all out, max effort tests. We did two tests, a classic and a double pole only test that were ALL OUT as hard as you can go. We actually wear a chest harness so you ski until you drop - literally.  I even found a new max heart rate, 194! 

EBJ showing off the on-demand Gatorade machine :) 

There are some additional perks of being in Park City.  Along with training in a facility which house's the entire USSA staff, (Admin, travel agents, PTs, Drs, Nutritionists, Coaches, etc) there is the Athlete kitchen!  It's full of healthy snack for pre and/or post-training.  Adam Korzun, the Ski Team Nutritionist is always cooking up something good & nutritious.  

A quick shot of the COE kitchen 

I could have spent a lot more time in Park City and was bummed that I felt as if I didn't have sufficient time to meet with everyone I wanted to at the COE. Being named to the Ski Team has opened up a whole new set of doors and resources. If I lived in PC, I'd have access to these all the time but seeing that I live in AK I tried to take advantage of everything I could during my SHORT visit there.  Next visit I will surely plan more time there..... 

After Park City we jumped on a plane and traveled to the first team camp on the new training year; Bend on snow! Here's the 2012-2013 team in it's entirety! 

Men: Skyler Davis, Erik Bjornsen, Simi Hamilton, Tad Elliot, Andy Newell, Noah Hoffman, Kris Freeman. Ladies: Me, Liz Stephan, Ida Sargeant, Jessie Diggins, Sadie Bjornsen & Kikkan Randall. 

If you had asked me about Bend Camp in early April I wasn't too excited about it. I was tired from the road and just wanted to be at home. But, come mid May I was pumped to be in Bend and back in a training camp environment.  I spent lots of time skiing in Bend growing up (PNSA roots!) and it was fun to be back after so many years! 

Team Salmon; Brooks & Diggins! 

Team Erik: Bjornsen & Flora 

Typical scene post-training waiting for van-mates to finish up the session! 

Liz and I went to soak our legs in the Deschutes after a hard trail run one day. It wasn't nearly as cold as AK rivers for "icing legs!" 

Bend camp was busier than I initially anticipated. One reason is because we put together three team US Ski Team teams for Bend's Pole, Peddle, Paddle multi-sport event. Here is Ida, sporting Liz's old GS suit to rock the Downhill skiing section of the relay race! 

You would think we would have been more prepared but we got the start early in the morning only to realize that 1) Kikkan's borrowed set up for downhill skis still had wax - on the skis. After Matt scrapped them with his driver's license we realized that the bindings didn't fit her boots! Luckily she was able to rent gear with t-50 minutes until race start! Our women's teams ended up going 1-2 and our men's team won.  Kris Freeman, the only one to take on the individual event won the entire thing too!  

We joked about the PPP being the "Bend Olympics!"  People certainly take this race seriously.... 

While in Bend we were also able to host the Bend edition of Fast and Female. Here is our traditional endurance/dance station: 

I got to be a co-leader with Susan Dunklee for the oldest girls and we had a really fun and productive goal setting session. Both Susan and I shared our path's with making goals as well as some of our personal goals for the upcoming season. Susan told the girls to "Aim for the moon and you might land in the stars!"  I told the girls that I hoped that one of Susan's goals was to get an Olympic Gold Medal after her breakthrough 5th place finish at World Champs for Biathlon last year! 

At Fast and Female I had the pleasure of meeting Mikayla Briere - a Whitman College student!  Mikayla is pursuing para-olympic cross country skiing and it was awesome to meet her.  She has a wonderful spirit and I have every reason to believe she'll go far!  After camp she was scheduled to depart on a ten-day field course in Yellowstone National Park with a professor that I'd had at Whitman too! Good luck with everything Mikayla & keep in touch! 

Sometimes, on the road traveling, training & racing I have a hard time finding balance.  In a team environment it can get claustrophobic at times and if you're not careful, it's easy to loose sight of the things that keep you grounded and make you happy.  Hence, on our pseudo off-day I made plans to spend the night at my one of my best friend's farm, Rainshadow Organics.  It can be hard to leave the team because you never know when group plans will change or when an opening with the PT will come up but it had to be done. Sarah only lives 50 minutes from Bend and I knew I would regret it if I didn't make time to visit her. 

And, who wouldn't want to go to the farm? Sarah has done incredible work taking her family's farm through the three year FDA organic process. She has a flourishing CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), tons of animals, and fun events going on! 

Sarahlee with a group of baby chics!  Sarah and her boyfriend Tall are starting a meat CSA too! 

Fitz made the trip out for a day as well! 

Perhaps my highlight of the day was feeding the pigs.  Tall has some connections with people who drive refrigerator trucks and they donate expired or close to expired milk, eggs, and Naked Juices for the pigs to eat.  These are some LUCKY pigs that live a VERY happy life! 

The food trough! 

Seeing that it was still pre-Memorial Day most things were just starting but the greens were in full swing!  We got to pick some freshies for dinner and to take back to the team.  Thanks Sarah! 

Me & Sarah with fresh veggies and a beautiful rainbow in the background! 

Fitz, Tall, Sarah & Me! 

 Adam K, the ski team nutritionist spoiled us by coming to the last couple days of camp to help cook.  Adam makes some great eats and it's really fun to pick up some healthy cooking tips from him.  He also brought a suitcase full of vitamins for us! 

I left Bend a couple days early to travel and compete in another fun multi sport event. This time it was Ski to Sea in Bellingham, Washington.  Last year I competed with my family in the family division.  This time around I was recruited to join an all women's team representing Fast and Female.  It was fun to meet girls from other sports.... here's our pre-race picture from our team meeting: 

 Ski to Sea is always a fun reunion of nordic skiers. Here I am with Josh Smullin and Matt Liebsch - Mt. Shuksan in the background. (Once again we lucked out on the weather!) 

 Thanks so much to Tony Valesco for putting together not only my team but 5 other teams for the event! He is such a master-mind! 

Following the race I got to spend a couple of days in Seattle with my family. Here I am with my mom and dad getting ready to go to the airport :) 

It's great to be back in Alaska and I'm really looking forward to two solid months of quality training at home before departing for our USA/Sweden joint women's camp in August. 

Have a wonderful day and until next time, 

Cheers, 

Holly :) 

On. The. TEAM!

So, I can finally talk about it, it's official. As is everything on the Internet, right? I'm officially a member of the 2012-2013 US Ski Team!  While I trained and traveled with the squad last year and all winter, I was a guest. Everyone made me feel extremely welcomed but I am pumped to be there all the way!  It's a pretty sweet team to be a part of; a bunch of girls fired up to preform and motivated to do everything possible to bring home a USA medal in individual events and RELAYS!!!! 

Pretty pumped on the day I found out! 

 Our season kick-off 4x5 relay in Sjujsoen, Norway

Celebrating the USA's best 4x5 relay ever in the Czech Republic!

Not a relay but a great team shot from Rogla, Slovenia!

To Val di Fiemme 2013 & Sochi 2014! Thanks so much to everyone that helped make this possible!  

More on teams & plans another day. I just finished day one of testing at the COE (Center of Excellence) and have another full day tomorrow. Then, it's onto Bend Camp where we'll get back on snow and ski with the entire US Team, Canadian Team, and US Biathletes!  Should be great! Ciao :) 

Tuna Salad Anyone?

So, for the past couple of years I've been wanting to write some blog posts about food and nutrition; what works, what doesn't work, what I eat before and after training, etc. I even have a large un-used folder with things like pictures of fresh Alaskan caribou, Rob cleaning fish after dip netting, me making smoothies with AK tundra blues.... more of that to come, for sure. 

Before I start, I just want to clarify that I am no expert. I have no background in nutrition other than being a hungry athlete.  I take on a what I believe is a practical approach to nutrition - I eat smart and don't deny myself of eating the things I love.  My approach is to focus primarily on eating whole foods, ie, foods that have ingredients that you can pronounce as opposed to the Big Mac from the science experiment that looked the same after sitting out in the open for 20 years. (Did you see those pictures on Facebook?)  

AMEN! 

Anyone that knows me well will tell you that my favorite food is peanut butter and I love a nice glass of wine at the end of the night.  But, I also absolutely love vegetables and would be happy to make a meal with brussel sprouts being the central focus.  I do eat meat (mostly wild game from Alaska) because as Justin Wadsworth, the head coach for the Canadian National team says, "In order to ski like an animal you have to eat like one."  I'll admit that I'm horrible with vitamins.  I'll go through phases where I take supplements in the am and pm, and have the little pill jar organized with rows of Vitamin D, Calcium, Iron, etc. Then, for no reason at all, I'll stop, cold turkey.  

Now that I've self-disclosed a bit I'll get on with it & share a recipe for the day if you will.  As an athlete I am usually hungry and on the go quite a bit. I admittedly spend a lot of time preparing healthy food and make it my goal to always have something healthy and nutritious within reach.  (This keeps me from stopping at the gas station and gorging on potato chips!)  I usually have a Costco case of granola bars in my car for "emergencies" as well.  As many athletes know, the window 20 minutes post workout is the best time to get something into your body that will aid in recovery.  

Anyways, I've been on a tuna salad kick lately.  I know that not everyone is a tuna fan and no worries if you think it's gross but I happen to really like it.  I've also found that since Tuna is canned, I always have it in my cupboard. Plus, I can add almost ANYTHING to it and it usually turns out tasty and nutritious.  

A couple weeks ago in Hawaii I was cooking with my friend, Sarahlee - (or at least watching her cook for us - thanks Sarah!) and she liked to make what she calls, "huevos basuras."  If you know Spanish it translates to, "Garbage Eggs."  That doesn't sound appetizing but the whole concept behind it is that she puts whatever she has in the fridge into her eggs and it always turned out really good. So, that's exactly what I did with my tuna salad this afternoon. I put some stuff in, mixed it up, and had it on crackers and a whole wheat tortilla.  I don't really like measuring stuff so this really suits my style. Here what my ingredient list for the day: 

• Tuna
• Nancy's plain yogurt
• White wine vinegar
• Diced Apple
• Diced red onion & diced green onion
• Yellow pepper
• Salt
• Lemon pepper
• Lemon juice
• The end of a mustard bottle 
• Wasabi horse radish

This took less than 10 minutes and I had a great lunch!  Now, the above ingredients have virtually no fat..... If you're looking for this meal to carry you a while longer, make a tuna melt and add cheese! 

More to come! Thanks for reading, 

Cheers, 

Holly :) 

XC Ski Girl

A friend and avid skier from Seattle, "XC Ski Girl" asked me if I would do a guest post 1x per month on her blog, the idea being to give folks some ideas of what my training goals for the next month is, etc.  Here is a link to her blog and my post....... Unlike me, she posts all the time including lots of great stuff from friends in the Northwest (where I grew up) and all over the world. 

http://www.xcskigirl04.blogspot.com

Good luck with your training XC Ski Girl & Everyone else out there!  

In other news, I just completed a challenging week of training with the APU team for "Start up camp" which included 15 hours of on-snow skiing including three interval sessions!!!!  Today, Sunday, is our "recovery" day as well as our third annual APUNSC Spring Fundraiser. 

More on life, training & such later! Thanks for reading, 

Cheers, 

Holly 

Back at it!

Like everyone else, I had huge intentions of writing a huge blog post (almost a month ago now) reviewing my season, talking about the highs and lows in detail - and covering everything in between. However, in reality, I needed time to rest - both my body and my mind and that included taking a short hiatus from blogging and telling the world about my exploits :)

Now that I've had that time to rest, here is how it went, in a nutshell:

• A delayed departure for Europe due to no snow.... got my first taste of tunnel skiing in Torsby

• An awesome streak of World Cup performances - better than I had ever imagined... scoring WC points in 6 of 9 individual start races.  I almost made the distance red group after one period alone!  This was certainly a break through for me mentally, physically & emotionally.  It also gave me the green light to extend my season in Europe and join the Tour de Ski USA crew!  This meant spending Christmas in Europe. 

• Christmas night: fell on icy road and broke my wrist 4 days before Tour de Ski. (Nice timing, right?) 
• Proceeded to race the Tour de Ski with my wrist - didn't find out it was broken until half way through the Tour when I got x-rays and an MRI en route to Italy. 

Late night orthopedic clinic visit - Oberstdorf, Germany

• Stubbornly finished the Tour with the help of pain killers and tape jobs (thanks Steph!)  Was ecstatic to reach the top of the Alps Cermis, even if my performance took a huge tumble. 

• Proceeded to take some much needed rest in Italy at the home of Bill and Kathy Estes - thanks Guys!  
• Continued onto Ramsau, Austria, SOLO for a one-pole ski camp... often in a blizzard. 
• Got back into World Cup racing in time to come down with the weird stomach bug that took almost everyone out at one point or another. Dropped out of a race in Czech (Heck, I didn't even drop out of races when I had a broken wrist!) and then the next day summoned all my courage and energy to help the USA ladies to our best 4x5k relay result ever.  Certainly a HIGHLIGHT of the season! 

• Just the day before I had purchased a ticket home for a 2-week recovery trip.  My wrist episode combined with the stomach bug took a bigger toll on me than I'd thought. I traveled back to the states, 30 pairs of skis and all; knowing that I wanted to come back but not knowing if I could come back. 
• Raced the American Birkebeiner and WON!  That one had been on my list for a while ever since loosing my an inch in 2009! 

• Returned to Europe for the Lahti World Cups but skied poorly.  Perhaps 20,000 + miles in an airplane, a 50k and jumping 4 time zones doesn't work.... 
• Skied and WON OPA cup finals in Toblach, Italy!  It wasn't WC Finals but it certainly felt good to stand on TOP of a podium. I won countless pounds of cheese and meat for my efforts. 
• From Italy I continued onto Craftsbury Vermont where I met my APU teammates. It was close to 80 degrees so we had to get tanks and shorts at thrift stores.... I continued to have what I felt were mediocre races at spring series. 

In all, the season was a huge break through for me.  Going into it, I had no idea that I would be spending almost five straight months overseas.  I didn't anticipate a 13th place in Davos, just missing the distance red group at the end of December, or even starting the Tour de Ski. Injuring myself was a huge bummer, especially with the momentum that I had created..... but on the bright side, it wasn't an Olympic year, right? I raced in 26 different World Cup races in countries and venues all over Europe. In all, I raced 51 times last year, summer events included.  I learned a lot, as you'd hope I would in that period of time. But perhaps the most important lessons when it comes to International performances are that 1 - I can do it; we can do it. We have the tools to succeed, let alone WIN against the Europeans. 2 - Next season I will need a planned break to come home to AK 3 - Diversify racing venues and level of competition - I didn't race my first non-World Cup race until the American Birkie in February!  As hard as it is to miss World Cups, standing on a podium and being in the hunt for the win is important and not to be under estimated.

All in all, I'm excited to train really hard this summer and take another stab at it next winter.  I'm crossing my fingers to stay injury free and be able to pick up where I left off!  

WHEW..... That wasn't supposed to be long winded but it was, sorry. Here are some pictures of my spring to make up for it:

First: A happy team - the 2011-2012 season is a WRAP!

Following the ski season I did what so happy skiers do after 5 months of traveling on the road, chasing snow; go to the beach!  This trip was actually planned as a college reunion some 8 months prior to going.  There was lots to celebrate and lots to catch up on including BIG birthdays.... (and some anxiety on my part for those that know me well!)  Time with my college girlfriends was awesome. We cooked amazing meals and talked for HOURS about all kinds of non-ski related things.  My friends are all amazingly accomplished and it was fun to hear about mobile butchers for Sarah's meat CSA, Al's trips on the Grand Canyon, Jayne's PhD in geophysics & Laura's teaching exploits from Oahu!

It was a tight turn around to get to Hawaii. I came into Alaska on a red eye and had less than 24 hours in AK to give my husband a hug, vote, pack, un-pack, lead a clinic & attend to all kinds of business and months of mail. Then, I departed on another red eye for the islands..... arriving 10 hours later; exhausted to say the least. (I'm NOT complaining though!) 

The girls also put up with my need to exercise - at least a bit. I've always wanted to bike on the islands and this time I was finally able too. Here I am at the 9,000 ft. lookout for Mauna Kea.

The view from the behind the handle bars..... we had more cloudy days than I would have wished!

A fern fiddlehead, I think?

Me and Jayne!

Walking through the Kona Coffee trees

Okay.... we did get a couple of good days at the beach :)

Al and her friend, Tortuga

The other super fun thing I did this spring was attend my good friend, Chrissy's bachlorette party.  Instead of a night on the town we took a water taxi across K-Bay in Homer to her family cabin. We brought skis, running shoes, and blow-up paddle boards - and used them all! 

I didn't go paddle boarding in Hawaii but I did in Alaska!  I wore a dry suit though :) 

In this photo we're trying to show that it's an "OIA or Only in Alaska" moment... 

Crescent Lake Back Country loop - not a bad place for a double pole workout with the husband! 

The spring is also a great time to participate in some awesome community programs.  

ARISE is a new program co-lead by Alaska Sports Hall of Fame and Healthy Futures. It stands for Anchorage Runners Inspired to Succeed and Excel.  Basically, it brings local runners and health advocates into Title I schools in Anchorage to run with elementary school kids at recess.  The goal is to show that being active can be fun! This spring Tyson Elementary in Mountain View is the pilot program. 

The grades, K-5 are having a competition to see which class can run the most.  Mid-week last week, the Tyson kids had run 584 miles total!  Last Thursday we had a "speed gun" where kids did a full on sprint.  The school is going to take our mileage and overlay it across the state of Alaska.  The goal is run from Anchorage to the North Slope - at least! 

Running with the kids! 

Rob came out to help with ARISE too! 

In other news, training for 2012-2013 has started and we're hitting it hard with APU. Lucky for us, we can still ski in Anchorage so we're mixing some on-snow training in with running, lifting, etc. Should be fun (and sometimes sore) times!

3.5 hour crust ski May 1st 2012

More real soon..... 

Cheers! 

Holly :) 

Rubber boots, hill climbs & an upcoming 30k!

Another mini-tour is under the belt, this time in North America.  I returned to the states a little more than a week ago to finish off the season on US soil with my club team, APU Nordic Ski Center. 

Speaking of that team.... how's this for enthusiasm? 

The week started off with a massive heat wave. In fact, some of us were so un-prepared for the close to 80 degree weather that we had a "team outing" to a local thrift store to buy shorts and tank tops. I also bought myself some mud boots at the local corner general store. You'll see why here...... 

I feel like I've heard about Vermont Mud season from Liz and Newell for a while now.... Driving on the dirt roads here can be similar to driving on ice - except for the fact that you're fish tailing on mud - beware!

The mini tour here at Craftsbury consisted of four races, a skate prologue, classic 10k mass start, classic sprint & the grand finale, a hill climb UP Jay Peak, the local downhill ski area.  If you want to know more about the races you can check it out on the event website HERE.  My efforts ended up with a 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 9th place........ this combined to equal a third place finish overall in the Mini-Tour, just 3 seconds out of second. Here are some pictures from the race week: 

Race #1 Skate Prologue - notice my mud boots and the brown grass everywhere!

Some US Ski Team & APU Ladies (l-r) Sadie, Jessie, Ida, Liz, Rosie, Holly & Becca (photo compliments of the Sargent Family)

 Racing the 10k Classic mass start

This was a special race because the APU ladies SWEPT the podium.  It's pretty special when a club can do that because more and more, the level of competition has become higher and higher.  The last time I remember this happening was 2011 Nationals: 

In the 10k we skied well but we also had some awesome skis with great kick and awesome glide.  We have this group of hard working guys to thank for that:

Erik Flora, Eric Strabel, Sam Sterling, Casey Fagerquist & Mikey Matteson

Next came the classic sprint. I was happy with my qualification ski but failed to make the A final.  I made a tactical error that lead to poor positioning. Also, nearly the last third of the course was flat double pole.  Double pole has never been my strength but ever since breaking my wrist and skiing with one pole (and mostly my legs) I've really struggled with it.  I've been waiting to celebrate the last classic race for this reason and now I can look forward to rebuilding my upper body strength & double pole for next year. 

 Skiing the heats with Jessie Diggins

While the classic sprint wasn't my best day it was AWESOME to see some of my teammates pick up the slack.  APU skier Reese Hanneman skied to a Silver medal in a stacked field and APU Junior, Celia Haering won the Junior Women's race. 

 Reese 

Celia showing her apple pie award! 

The final tour standings were decided with a 2k hill climb straight up an alpine area. 

Overall Tour Podium - Me, Susan Stephan (Liz's Mom!) & Jessie all share a good laugh!

Coming up tomorrow is the National Championship 30k for ladies.  We are racing on a 1.5k loop, potentially in what Easterners call a "wintery mix."  It should be interesting.... stay tuned and thanks for reading! 

Cheers, 

Holly :)