Sunshine & K's on Eagle... (as in kilometers...)

Eagle Glacier in Pictures.... 

 Reese showing off his pre-glacier camp pancake sandwich 

 Thanks Alpine Air for getting us and all of our stuff up to Eagle!

 Riding in the back of the helicopter with Lex enroute to his first time on Eagle! 

 About to make touch down at the facility

 Awesome heli shot 

Sun safety zinc lip balm... me, Sadie, Rosie, Lauren & Fitz 

 

Got buzzed by Reese and Don's roommate Austin 

 More sun safety 

 Sadie B 

 Part of the 9k loop... 

 We have a new, legit men's team. They trained together all week... it was impressive 

Erik, Reese & Lex in threshold skate intervals 

 Me, making sure to "Get Out and Play Everyday!" 

Eagle on a clear day does not suck 

 Looking down at Girdwood and Turnagain Arm 

 Eagle, Panorama Style 

 Out for a ski with my music.... thanks so much to all my great sponsors that help make productive training camps like this one possible. 

 D. Norris manning the grill on burger night! 

 Making cookies

 Can't ignore strength work, even on the glacier 

 Klister testing.... 

 Panorama.... drink pond, athletes waiting for heli, tool connex, facility, waxing connex, trash connex, edge of cliff 

We practiced our soft conditions all week as the snow didn't really freeze once. 

 Photo: Reese Hanneman 

 The mastermind, Erik Flora 

 Da boys.... Erik Flora, Erik Bjornsen, Tyler Kornfield, David Norris, Lex Treinen, Sam Sterling & Reese Hanneman 

 Coach, yet again 

 Reese was all smiles 

 Coaches! 

 Good to test out some new klister boards! 

 Erik "attending" class from the glacier!  (Super cool opportunity granted by APU!)

 Lauren uses the make-shift trash can ice tub 

 APU Girls after an L4 classic session.... after the weather turned a bit more familiar..... 

 For classic intervals we tried something new. We had a "tech off" where each tech had a team of 3 skiers. Skier's skis were judged on kick and glide and at the end of the session, a winner was determined. You may ask what was on the line? Well, Don won and for his efforts he got to have part of the course named after him and the other techs were required to make a sign to mark the trail! What is it called? You'll have to ski Eagle to find out..... 

 Post OD (over distance) food. Sometimes you just need a bit of grease! 

 The ladies, waiting for the helicopter

 Staff, all smiles! Mikey, Sam & Don 

 ..... and the reason we had to wait. It was clear on Eagle and cloudy down below. You've gotta love those days where you're literally "above" the clouds! 

Life, on the glacier 

 The old machine 

 Selfy - with the glacier in the background 

Hello Costco

 Hello supplies 

 It's super cool in that Eagle is running mostly all summer with camps. Here are master skiers arriving at Eagle for their camp which began today. They took the heli up, we took the heli down. They get a small taste of what we do. 

 We had no more than 30 seconds to take this picture with Gil Lund, a Kongsberger member (from Seattle) that came for the camp! 

Last but not least, our safe return to sea level & civilization. Thanks to Erik, Mikey, Don & Sam for making that one of the most productive Eagle Camps ever! 

If you're still interested in seeing more pictures of Eagle, check out my teammate Reese Hanneman's blog for some really creative shots HERE!

What's next? Time for a couple of days laying low and then it's time to get back to training! Thanks for following along! 

Cheers, 

Holly :) 

Massive Catch Up & lots of Pictures!

Unfortunately blogging in my head doesn't translate to actual posts. (I'm looking for that app if anyone knows of one!)  Summer has been in full swing in Alaska and in case you haven't heard, we're experiencing a heat wave and what people are calling "a real summer."  In the past four years or so we've had the coldest summer in history... two years ago I counted 40 days straight that I roller skied in the rain. Last September, usually one of my favorite months in AK was nick-named "Raintember."  Anyways, you get the deal. I've been enjoying roller skiing without gloves, wearing shorts, and even jumping in the water after a training session or two. It's the little things that count!

I'm currently writing this from Eagle Glacier where the APU elite team is having our first glacier training camp. It's been awesome so far but it's entirely deserving of it's own blog post ... so check for that in a handful of days. 

I believe I left off with my last post mid Bend camp.... well, after Bend the team traveled to Park City, Utah, home of the US Ski Team. I actually wrote about this experience in a recent article for the Anchorage Daily News.  You can read the short article HERE.  This is the first article of a series about the "Road to Sochi" from an athlete's perspective. I'm excited to share stories from training and hopefully the actual Games themselves! 

The other cool media thing I've been involved in recently was an interview and video made by Seattle-based KING 5 News enroute home to Anchorage. You can check that out here:

http://www.king5.com/sports/olympics/Seattles-Olympic-cross-country-skier-Holly-Brooks-on-wheels-210910491.html

(sorry for some reason I can't figure out how to embed the link in this post but it's a sweet video, check it out!) 

With KING 5's Allen Shauffler, downtown Seattle in the background

But back to PC and Bend.... I'll let the pictures tell the story: 

 Here I am, hanging like a dead bug after my max classic VO2 Max test. There are a couple of pictures in this series but this one cracked me up because Sophie is watching from the warm up treadmill with a hilarious look on her face and Matt is still filming me on the way to helping me up!

 In Bend the entire USST went to the one-night-only showing of "First" a documentary about 12 summer Olympians that went to their first games in London. It had some cool footage but the story line jumped around a lot. Nonetheless it was still a cool team outing.

 Perhaps my favorite part was the commerical at the beginning for Sochi :)   (Imagine that!)

While training in Park City we live in condos up at Deer Valley near Guardsman Pass. Our condos are located at over 8,000 feet so we get some sweet altitude and then drop down into town for training. This is great except that here we are, packing for an entire day of testing and training - expedition style. 

We had some fun team dinners including a pizza making party at the Adam's Family house. Cork brought these beautiful sweet buns..... just one of his many hidden talents! 

Colorful safe roller skiing with the girls thanks to Rudy Project! 

Here I am doing a one legged squat - a new part of the strength test. And no, I actually cannot lift that much weight. I'm standing on a force plate. 

Here is Sadie doing part of her flexibility and mobility "FMS" test. 

A shot down the gym at the COE ..... 

Getting to and from Alaska is expensive. Therefore, I try to do stopovers in Seattle to visit my family whenever possible, usually on the way home from training camps when I can afford to relax and need a break from training.  Living far away from my family I miss all kinds of things including birthdays, mother's day/father's day... and most recently, my cousin Emily's graduation from High School and my cousin Eric's graduation from college (actually not in Seattle.... )  Anyways, we had a sweet family picnic and KING 5 news joined us to film more lifestyle footage. Here's my gang! (minus sibs who are spread all over the world right now) 

Training camp and visiting my family was sweet but near the end I couldn't wait to get home to Alaska. There is something to be said for sleeping in your own bed, hanging out with your husband, and reading the newspaper with a strong cup of coffee in the morning! Plus there was that sunshine that I eluded too.... 

Rob & Buggz! 

With some of my best AK girls.... making amazing food in the backyard (complete with one baby bump!)

Time in Hope and a biking adventure with my old teammate and one of my favorite training partners ever, Katie Ronsee! Yes, we are holding baby goats and they were ADORABLE. 

APU (the University) had it's third annual Gala event. It was incredibly snazzy and the team went to take part in the event. Here are Sadie and I in front of a gleaming Carlile Truck (our sponsor!) that was parked inside of the hanger... 

In other news, Fasterskier reporter Nat Herz moved to town and is working as a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. Welcome Nat!  Not everything in Alaska bites... some just kick! 

Solstice dinner with friends including Greer with this amazing strawberry rhubarb pie! 

I visited APU Juniors at "Death Camp" in Girdwood. The juniors trained super hard and I got a kick out of their game of charades. Here they are preparing to act out "lawn mowing someone's face."  Not sure where they come up with this stuff..... 

Sweet Penguin Ridge hike with Danielle, Carolyn & Rachel 

.... and one last teaser of Eagle Glacier - that post is up next! 

Thanks for hanging in there if you made it this far! I'll try and be more succinct in my next post! 

Enjoy summer, 

Cheers, 

Holly ;) 

The "U" in APU

APU Nordic Ski Center tends to be in the headlines quite a bit... maybe it's Fasterskier reporting on 1 of the 3 USST Women that ski for APU (Kikkan, Sadie & Myself) or perhaps it's the National Nordic Foundation awarding the club trophy to APU for being the top performing club in the country... or our Junior program that just won the overall at 2013 Junior Nationals or perhaps the Anchorage Daily News reporting that our Program Director and Elite Head Coach Erik Flora just won two coveted awards including "International Cross Country Coach of the Year" and "USSA Overall Coach of the Year." Yes, needless to say I'm proud of our team and it's many accomplishments! 

But what about the "U" in APU? As in, Alaska Pacific University? Some people never make the connection that we are a community-based club housed in a legit University where one can earn a college degree - or even an advanced degree for that matter!  So - I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to highlight some of our student athlete and the opportunities they've been given as part of the apU program! Read on...... 

Thomas

Thomas has been part of the APU community based program since age 12.  Next year Thomas will be enrolled in APU's "Early Honors" program which allows high school seniors to attend APU and take college courses, getting high school and college credits simultaneously.  The advantage of this is that Thomas can challenge himself academically and athletically. Consequently Thomas will be a member of the "University Team" and get exposure to the elite team. Thomas is the defending J1 boy's National sprint Champ and he sees Early Honors as a great way to "up his game!"

Sadie 

Sadie skiing on the glacier 

Sadie (literally) in online class during our kick-off camp in Bend, Oregon 

Sadie is a member of the US Ski Team and simultaneously, a full time undergraduate student at APU. She's entering her senior year and will be earning a bachelors in non profit management. Being a full time athlete and a full time student is quite the feat and Sadie makes it look easy! She attends online class from Europe, training camp, or wherever she may be at the time.....  APU online classes are usually at night (Alaska time) which means they might be as early as 5am in central Europe.  On World Cup race days she usually gets a pass but otherwise, she's up early studying away!

Erika 

Erika originally hailed from Homer, Alaska. She recently graduated with a degree is psychology from APU. She's been an awesome member of the team and has done some really cool things during her four years at APU:

This past April Erika was a volunteer coach for NANA Nordic - an outreach program that taught over 1,500 kids in remote Western Alaska how to ski. The NANA program was started by APU student & Olympian Lars Flora.

During her time at APU Erika also developed a business, E'Klaar.  Erika makes awesome hats, headbands, buffs and much, much more. What started as a small project sitting at her sewing machine turned out to be a successful business with help from her business classes at APU. Check out her website HERE. Erika's connection with APU and the ski world helped draw attention to her product and her business!

APU team members all wearing different E'Klaar products! 

Don 

Don has been with the APU program since 9th grade and a couple weeks ago he graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science. Don was a member of the APU racing team for seven years before transitioning his passion and skills to coaching, ski-flying and general Alaskan adventuring. This summer Don will work on Eagle Glacier (APU's summer glacier training center) learning about remote systems, glaciology, and grooming. Next year he plans to apply to medical school and will have awesome letters of recommendation from his professors - all of which he knows personally from APU's small class sizes!

Don coaching the APU Devo program.... 

Don's transitioned his cross country ski skills to other adventures that only happen in Alaska.... here he is on the top of a random Alaskan Mountain top being dropped off in his roommate's Super Cub. 

Kikkan 

Everyone knows Kikkan Randall the World Cup Sprint Crystal Globe winner but what about Kikkan Randall the APU student who is 12 credits shy of earning her business degree from APU? While it's true that school has been temporarily put on hold due to her International success she states that business classes from APU helped her with the business of being a self-employed World Cup ski racer! Kikkan plans to complete her degree in 2015, after kicking some tail at the Olympic in Sochi, Russia! 

Me
Many people don't know this about me but in addition to having been a full time staff member at APU I am also a student!  I am currently enrolled the in Masters of Arts Program (MAP) and hoping to eventually earn a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology from APU. I take one class at a time and so far it's been a blend of independent study courses and traditional classroom courses. I've found the professors to be intelligent, wonderful and willing to work with my unique schedule. To me, this is the essence of an APU education..... If there is something you want to learn or do, it can be done. Learning is based in reality rather than a text book and it's done collaboratively. I just wrapped up a course on Positive Psychology and the USST has been discussing some of the concepts here at camp - case in point! 

 VO2 Max testing on the treadmill this week at the USSA Center of Excellence

Strength test - Single leg squat test (on a force plate) 

Hopefully I've successfully answered some questions about APU.... in addition to being an amazing ski program APU also offers opportunities to get a great education. Between Early Honors, traditional Undergraduate, distance learning, degree completion, Master's courses - and it's first doctoral program (Psychology) the possibilities are endless. If you'd like more information about the school, the ski team, or anything else, feel free to shoot me an email or check out the official APU website HERE. 

I'll leave you with one last picture: 

APU/USST Girls at 2013 World Championships - all APU students! 

Hopefully we'll have a similar one (plus a few more members!) from the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi!

....... 245 days and counting!
Cheers - and thanks for reading,
Holly :) 

Bend Camp +

This was me the first day of Bend camp and no - I wasn't posing for the picture. I left AK during a winter storm warning, complete with fresh snow & temperatures around 20F. 

Here I am with my teammate, Ida.... this picture pretty much sums up most of the weather we've experienced for the camp past day ONE: 

I have to say it's funny that Bend actually manufactures plastic bags to ski in that say, "Mt. Bachelor Fun to the Last Drop"  All of us Alaskans are constantly getting a hard time about the weather in Alaska yet everyday when we drive up to Mt. Bachelor it's a blowing sideways and vacillating between snow and rain. I've never used my Salomon Zeros more. Ironically during our time in Bend Anchorage is experiencing perhaps the best weather window of the past decade.  Apparently every day is beautiful and temps are upwards of 80F! I do find it ironic that I'll go home and probably look pale in comparison to all the other Alaskans. When's the last time that happened? 

While it's a bummer to ski around in tough conditions (one day was like skiing circles in a giant puddle of Elmer's Glue) it's good practice. Yes, there is a silver lining.  The coach's go-to saying during these tough days are, "Great Championships Conditions!"  While this could be seen as blind optimism it is, in fact, brutally realistic. The Vancouver Olympic snow was skiing in slush sometimes over my boots, the fog of 2011 World Champs Oslo had visibility of about 10 feet and this year @ Val di Fiemme we faced some difficult waxing conditions.  So, if the championships aren't going to be straight extra blue, perhaps skiing in glue & rain is good for us? 

First big interval set of the year - 5x6 minutes uphill skating intervals with the girls. (Photo thanks to MBSEF) 

The windshield wiper standard on the way to am training

Remember that game pick up sticks as a child? We play it everyday on the ground of the parking lot trying to find our own equipment! 

Opening training camp means we're hungry athletes!  Healthy meals and group meals are a fun part of living together. A recent house favorite is frozen bananas. Try it before you knock it. 

Even coaches get hungry at training camp. You might not be able to see it but here's Matt eating an entire plate full of Tillamook ice cream in front of the fire place :) 

Mixing it up with a little team mountain bike session! 

In addition to all the training & meetings we hosted a Fast and Female event at the Bend Athletic Club. We had approximately 45 local girls as well as girls that traveled from Portland, Leavenworth, WA and other places to take part.  I was lucky enough to lead the older group (ages 15-19) and we had an awesome goal setting session. Individually we each made goals that fell into four separate categories: Short term, long term, quantitative & qualitative. Afterwards the girls had the opportunity to share goals (if they wished) with the group - thought being that if you actually vocalize your goals, one is able to draw support, encouragement and ideas from friends and peers. It was a really cool session! 

Here are some anonymous comments from girls that attended our event via Facebook: 

 "Those days you'll never stop smiling. 

Best day of my life."

"Today. I am completely speechless. I have always had a passion for skiing and I couldn't love something more. Today changed that. It is one thing to look up to someone but to meet them and talk with them is more then I could ever hope for in my whole life. I can't thank the U.S. Ski Team enough. This is why I do what I do. Because of you."

"Yesterday I got to spend the day with the greatest friends anyone could ask for and with all the women I idolize. The women that I have posters of, the ones my team looks up to, truly are inspirational. I couldn't thank anyone enough. The ski community is incredible."

It was AWESOME getting the chance to meet the girls from the Leavenworth Ski Club: Becca, Julia, Lydia & Keiren... these girls have a great thing going on with their club - keep up the great spirit ladies! 

Complete switch of topics but here are some of us in our One piece leisure suits in between training sessions in front of the fire :) 

And - because I don't think I've done it publicly yet - I wanted to officially congratulate my coach, Erik Flora on being named USSA Cross Country International Coach of the Year AND USSA overall (out of all disciplines) Coach of the Year! Congratulations Erik! 

With Erik training here in Bend

Erik officially receiving his award from Dexter Paine - USSA Board of Directors. 

Tomorrow is our last day in Bend and then Friday it's off to Park City - home of the USST for tests and a short altitude block before heading home. 

..... 252 days until Sochi :) 

Have an awesome day, 

Holly