Pain faces and the meals to make up for it!

I am really really tired.  It's been lots of 12 hours days at the COE (Center of Excellence) full of training, meetings, activity & excitement.  Yesterday we wrapped up fall testing and I'm happy to report it went well.  In my classic max test I stayed on the treadmill longer than the spring and my proof of a hard effort is in the "treadmill" burn on my knees that I got from collapsing hard onto the treadmill while it was still moving. Luckily I fared better than these people:

Then yesterday in my classic double pole max test I held onto the treadmill once again with my teeth. Yes, you heard me right, my teeth.  Protocol for the treadmill is that every minute the gradient increases and as you fatigue, it gets harder and harder to keep up. If you get behind for even a split second you're in trouble as it's virtually impossible to move your way back up the treadmill.  We wear chest harnesses, have our noses plugged, and are connected to oxygen.  I fell behind and was literally hanging on by biting the mouthpiece connected to the O2. I never said max tests were pretty...... 

Yesterday we also had strength tests. This includes FMS or "Functional Mobility Screening" and strength tests. Ida and I partnered up and we captured some real pain faces. Hopefully she doesn't mind me putting them on the Internet. Mine are just as funny if not worse than hers! 

HOLY cow Ida can squat a lot!  Actually we are standing on a force plate here which measures the pressure that is going through our feet. 

 The one-legged force plate max push is much harder and more awkward than Ida is making it look. 

 We also measured lots of jumps.... 

After all this hard training we need some serious recovery.  Tonight we cooked up a fall feast in our condo.  Thanks to Morgan Arritola for the recipe inspiration!!!!! 

Via Mo's recommendation we made Roasted Butternut Squash and Red Onion with Tahini and Zaatar. I'm sadened to report that we couldn't find Zaatar but we tasked master chef Cork into googling substitutes for the spice and whatever he did turned out excellent! 

Try out the recipe for yourselves here.... it's fantastic! 

http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2013/02/roasted-butternut-squash-and-red-onion-with-tahini-and-zaatar.html

Also, I posted a bunch of pictures from camp on my athlete site, "Holly Brooks - Dare to Dream" if you're interested in checking them out. LIKE my page for more regular updates!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.594221177281298.1073741835.165326413504112&type=1

In the meantime, I'm happy to report that this is the second Wednesday in a row I've been successful at posting!  Check back next Wednesday if not before for more updates on the team and the last big training block before the "winter of SOCHI!" 

Have a good one & as always, thanks for reading, 

Holly :) 

Wednesday - CHECK!

I did it!  A little Wednesday update... probably my shortest blog yet!  Things in Park City have been pretty chill but they're starting to pick up fast... it's going to get busy really, really soon. With what you might ask? Meetings, USOC training, pictures, uniforming, more pictures, presentations, Fast and Female Park City, Fundraisers, Testing, blood tests, goal meetings, technique, more pictures.... training twice a day.  

To complicate things the USST Team always stays up at Empire, near Guardsman Pass while in Park City.  I believe it's close to 8600 feet - basically at the top of a mountain.  We have a few cars .. but we have more people so we joke about how every day is a carpooling jigsaw puzzle with everyone's slightly different schedules, meetings, and PT appointments.  You can't exactly walk to or from town  unless you want it to be one of your training sessions for the day! (For the record I am NOT complaining) 

 As you can see, Fall is in full effect here in Park City. We've had some gorgeous days but this weekend is forecasted to get colder and snow, rain, or thunder - we shall see! 

 I spent today in Salt Lake City; I had an airport workout, airport workout sandwich plus some.  I enjoyed the change of pace and got to mix things up with my good friend and old training partner Katie Ronsse. Katie has less than a year left of PT school at UU. She took me out on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Katie and I have done lots of adventures in Alaska together and we are always Bear Aware. But today we found a new predator..... 

This snake was just chilling across one of the bike paths we encountered.  We didn't really want to bike by it so we stopped and threw things at it like total amateurs. We thought it might be dead because it wasn't responding but then we saw the tongue... Needless to say it was a great ride and we survived the snake encounter! 

Last but not least - SAVE THE DATE! 

Fast and Female ANCHORAGE is going to be Saturday, October 26th! We'll be signing up participants & gathering volunteers shortly. We hope to see you there! 

More from Park City soon! 

Thanks for reading, 

Holly 

Wednesday Whereabouts and a photo collage....

The last two days in Park City I've been training in the snow. Yep, you heard me right, snow. Winter is just around the corner and I'm entering my last preparatory period before departing Nov 15 for the World Cup.

As momentum for the upcoming Olympic season grows so does the interest in what the athletes are doing to prepare to be our best come February.  That said, I am announcing here, PUBLICLY that I'm going get on the regular, (at least) once a week blog train.  My day will be WEDNESDAYS so check back each and every Wednesday to see what I'm up too.  I also just finished up school for the semester so homework is no longer an excuse to delay updates! 

I do post regularly on my facebook athlete page here... check it out if you haven't already: 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Holly-Brooks-Dare-to-Dream/165326413504112?ref=hl

And, you can always follow me on twitter @brooksha1

Here's a little photo collage of my last month. Thanks a ton for following! 

Two days ago, skiing up Royal Street in Park City. 

Giving school presentations - this one at Denali Elementary School. 

I went to Fairbanks to help with a volunteer rally for Arctic Winter Games. 

The view from a training run in Hope, Alaska 

Constantly working on mobility (APU gym)

The APU Ladies team cooked a big dinner (won at an Auction!) for APU Boosters Harry & Pat McDonald. This is a great auction item that we sell a couple of each year to raise funds for our team. The idea is that we come into your house and serve a 5-course meal. We prep, we cook, we serve, we clean. The guests get to enjoy Kikkan doing their dishes.... you get the idea! 

I was able to help out with the first Tuesday Night Race in Anchorage - a great fall tradition which gets 1000+ community members out running together each Tuesday night! These girls were awesome! I enjoyed talking up the elementary school(s) running jamboree.... 

While at home I also got to hit up the Ronsse's garden again for some beautiful fresh greens.  Here I am using a saw to harvest some kohlrabi! 

Dennis & Annie + my harvest! 

After a solid period of time at home and some really hard training it was time for a break.  This summer I've been blessed with more or less NO injuries and things have been going well.  One of my goals going into the Olympic training year was to have a break - both mental and physical before submerging myself in the throws of the season.  My good friend from college, Sarahlee provided just the excuse!  Last week I attended both her wedding and her bachlorette party. No, not a trip to the strip in Vegas but a three day float trip on the lower Deschutes River.  It was a welcome change to do something entirely different, sleep under the stars, and reconnect with college friends as well as make new ones! 

Sarahlee, in her bachlorette outfit right before put in 

My friend Alison steering our ship. We had two full size rafts, 4 duckies (inflatable kayaks) and one hard shell kayak. The gear, the food, the company..... everything was INCREDIBLE. Thank you so much to Lizzie and Alison for organizing a top-rate trip! 

Even I got a chance to take a turn at the helm! 

The wedding was just as incredible at the float.  Sarah and Tall own and operate a farm in central Oregon, just outside of Bend called Rainshadow Organics.  Hence, the wedding was on the farm... all the food we ate was from grown on the farm (meat included). 

Sarahlee & Tall 

The bridesmaids with Tall.... in their potato field!

It was FABULOUS to spend time with dear friends... Merritt & Alison 

A picture of the garden 

When you come to the farm you always get put to work. Here is Rob at work with the chainsaw.... ensuring that Sarah and Tall will be warm this upcoming winter. 

Following the "break" it's time to get back to work and get serious... or as serious as I ever get.  I'm here a bit early for the Park City annual fall altitude camp.  The next few weeks will be filled with training, meetings, photos, logistics, and just about every senior level skier in the US coming here, to train. I have three weeks before returning home to Alaska. I'm crossing my fingers for skiable snow at Hatcher's Pass when I return! 

Here are some photos of the last few days in Utah. It's been FREEZING, especially in the mornings but it might turn to 75 degrees again... hard to advise folks on what to pack - everything? 

Skiing up Royal Street 

Tired. Done. Happy. Thanks Ahvo and Finn Sisu for providing my Marwes... the best roller skis out there. 

 Fun to have Rob in Park City for four days seeing that this trip I'm out of Alaska for more than a month. 

There are trails at the Canyons named Holly & Rob... you can actually make a great loop out of the two! Very fitting, for sure! 

 Running with Morgan and Sam! 

The mud here can be unbelievable! 

That's it for now... expect another update on Wednesday if not before. 

Thanks/Cheers, 

Holly :) 

Training Camp in the 84098

Just got home from TWO killer weeks of altitude training camp in Park City; home of the US Ski Team!  Only this time, I went with my club, APU. I'm going to use my blog to focus on a couple of pictures from the two weeks. If you want to read more about what we did check out my teammate, Sadie Bjornsen's blog. She did a nice job recapping here: 

http://www.sadiebjornsen.blogspot.com

Without further ado... 

APU Spinning out some dead legs after a crazy hard time trial effort.  There was talk about tasting blood...... (in your throat - happens when you go really, really hard..... ) 

Here is a snapshot of the skate sprint tt: 

I was pretty happy with my effort. I felt good for August and have a clear idea of concrete things I want to work on in the next training period. (Can you say, INTERVALS!!!!) 

Team training camp & Carpooling.... helmets, skis & poles overflowing out of the car 

I hardly brought a coat to the training camp.... it wasn't cold but it certainly wasn't bluebird and clear everyday..... 

 The APU men's team trained hard. Here they are during our OD run on the Wasatch Crest Trail Saturday. 

 Whitcomb was able to come to some sessions. This is a box with three donuts - yes, just three. They are the biggest things I've ever seen. They are $3 each and available at the Kamas Chevron. Incredible. Coaches need sustenance too. 

 Mid classic roll OD up Big Cottonwood Canyon with Fitz and Becca 

Pumped up on endorphins post ski. 

 Reese bounding at 8,000..... 

 Margo had us over for dinner and girl's night. We finally saw the famous nail polish collection 

 A benefit of training at the Canyons.... bounding uphill and "saving" your legs by riding the gondola down.... 

 Training camp carnage - Becca 

 A highlight of camp was hanging with my friend Langely McNeal who is chasing after Sochi for Women's Skier Cross. Lange and I went to college together at Whitman (Walla Walla) back in the day. She was on the alpine team, me = xc. It's pretty fun that here we are, years later, successful and still at it! 

You can check out her facebook athlete page here: 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Langely-McNeal-Fan-Page/234612721148

Post 1 hour hard threshold effort in Jeremy Ranch with Liz 

Near Main Street, PC 

Last but not least? I got home just in time to read this is Sunday's print edition of the paper

http://www.adn.com/2013/08/24/3041156/road-to-sochi-eagle-glacier-hones.html

What's next? Three weeks at home, doing a bunch of intervals and normal stuff such as mowing the lawn and watching over my neighbor's chickens. It feels good! 

Rob with our bounty! 

Cheers & thanks for reading :) 

Holly