Ski Racing!

And so the season has officially begun!  We arrived last week to Beitostollen, Norway, had a good week of training and time zone adjusting and on Friday we all strapped on our boards, slid into our onesies and hammered down in the first race of the season.  All of us picked 2 of the 3 races to compete in this weekend, as 3 is a lot to bite off all in the first weekend of racing, especially as next weekend's World Cup Opener is a minitour (3 races: Sprint, 5k, 15k).  I chose to do the two distance races, both 10k's on Friday and Saturday, one classic and one skate.  The classic race on Friday was a good one to start the season off with, get my feet wet again so to speak.  The 10k skate on Saturday, however, went much better, however, and I ended up with a porcelain cheese slicer for my 6th place finish!  We are now on our way North, to Kuusamo, Finland where we will kick off this season of World Cup racing!  Let the whirlwind begin!

We met the Norwegian's at their apartment for some post dinner Bulle, handmade by Astrid Jacobsen!  We are so lucky!!!  It's really fun to see all of the girls again and to have our two teams getting together outside of skiing, especially within 3 days of being over here!It's really amazing how much more open and friendly I feel that the World Cup circuit is now that our team is mingling with so many others.

Happy Birthday Sadie!!! Sadie turned 24 on Thursday and we all decided we would hide 24 gifts and notes throughout the day for her to find.  Here she is with her morning's stash!  Sadie's 25th year is off to a great start too, as the very next day she was 5th in the 10k Classic!!  WOOHOO!!

Simi scaled the wall of our apartment in bare feet to wish Sadie a Happy Birthday bright and early!

These chairs made me feel especially small!

Here I am after Saturday's 10k Skate with my new porcelain cheese slicer!  I am so excited to use this, as there are so many different varieties of brown cheese over here it is ridiculous!  We have done an official taste test of 6 of them, as I got Sadie quite a few for her birthday!

Me and Kristin Stormer-Steira after Saturday's race.  I can't say enough how fun it is to have friends on the circuit.  It really changes the whole game and upgrades it.  It's so fun.

Holly and I found a huge canister of Extra Blue!!

Holly took a bunch of these photos of me, so thanks a lot Holly.  It's really cool how our team sticks around for one another to watch and cheer at awards, or out on the race course, or after a particularly hard day.  It's something a real, true team does, and Holly does it well.  She and I actually have a cool photo much like this one from last year after a race in Munio, Finland.  Thanks for being you, Holly.  And yeah, this is a shoutout:)

Holly in the leaders chair in Gallivare, Sweden last year at this time.  Get stoked for one another!  Help each other get to that leaders chair and then climb in with them.  Someday it will be your turn.

So go build your own team, work to make it better and better.  It is a constant effort and we are constantly trying to make sure we are doing all we can to ensure we are the best team we can possibly be.  Push each other, learn from each other, help one another grow and become the best people you can all possibly be.  

See you in Kuusamo.

Poster Challenge

CALLING ALL TEAMS!!!!

Objectives: To highlight the importance of having a team, to showcase all U.S. clubs and teams, and to increase XC popularity and visibility in your community by distributing your own team poster.

Instructions:
·     Get your team or club together for a photo shoot and email your high resolution photo tokperhai@ussa.org  and mwhitcomb@ussa.org by midnight MST on Dec 31, 2013.
·     A club may submit one full club poster in addition to a poster for each of its many teams – Youth, Post Graduate, EliteTeam, Masters, etc.
·     The poster must clearly display the name of the club or team and a slogan.
·     USSA will print out one 11” x 18” copy of each poster to hang on display at U.S. Cross Country Championships in January at Soldier Hollow.

The Competition:  The voting platform will be held on Facebook and will be based on the number of Facebook “Likes” per poster image. The voting period will be held on USSA Nordic Facebook from January 1-8^that midnight Mountain Standard Time.

Cost: There is no charge to participate in the contest. All you have to do is email your edited poster shot (High quality JPEG or PDF) and we will print out one poster to put on display at U.S. Championships at Soldier Hollow, and on Facebook during the competition window. The hope is that clubs and teams print out a bunch of copies to distribute in your own community.

Prizes:
·     U.S. Ski Team swag.
·     The top-3 high school team posters will be hung on the walls in U.S. housing at the Olympics in February.
·     Pride.

Beitostollen!!

We have arrived in Beitostollen, Norway at the start of our 4 month European tour on Saturday afternoon!!  It's great to be back in Norway and back on snow and seeing some familiar and friendly faces from the World Cup Tour last year, not to mention my summer trip with the Norwegian Team!  It's so nice to be back with the team again as well, as being together on the road is really when the bonding takes place.  Everyone's "other" lives are put on hold and we become really invested and in tune with each other, and it feels like someone took all the distractions and threw them in the ocean on our way over. 

We are staying in really nice apartments here and cooking all our meals, so it's been a really easy transition to life on the road for this first 10 days.  It is not as dark as it will be in Kuusamo, Finland next week, so that little bit of extra light has helped with the time adjustment I'd say too.  Third night can be tough though, so fingers crossed!  I haven't taken too many pictures yet, but here are a few to give you a bit of an idea.

The track here in Beito. It was really busy this weekend and with only a 5k loop of manmade snow it gets really crowded quickly, but it cleared out a lot today and I think it will remain calm until this next weekend when the races start.

Our wax room....I guess we all travel with some skis....

Our cargo van getting build out for skis.  It's quite a puzzle trying to fit everything we have into this space, but we make it work.

My awesome Estonian wax tech, Oleg.  Best smile on the team hands down.  He lightens a whole room with it.

Our wax tech's Randy and Oleg and Holly out on the snow.

And one of our team photos for the year!!  Get your jump on!  Oh, and that reminds me.  If you are a member of a ski team, take a team photo, be creative, inspiring, funny, and/or awesome in some way and come up with a slogan for your team and send it our way!  If you need my email, post a comment and I will get it to you.  This is our team challenge this year, and the winning team will get something cool, so you will for sure want to try and win.  Ready, set, jump!

HOME!!!!!!

First snow of the year here in East Montpelier yesterday morning for my Mom's birthday!  So, what did she do?  She went skiing!

And I went bounding!

I did a clinic with the Harland Nordic Team on Saturday afternoon.  Great group of kids, and we got to play tag!!  

And we practiced bounding and channeled our inner Antelope and Bambie!

My pooch, Maisie very relaxed in my Mom's arms.

Crazy Masie

My good friends, Hannah, Chester and Maia showed up at my event at Fresh Tracks Farm last week wearing these old T-Shirts that they made for me back in my Cross Countrty running days.  I am so lucky to have such loyal, loving and awesomely cool friends.  Thanks guys.

Constantly in my Mom's lap.

And still pumped as ever about food.

Dried, smelly fish to be precise.  HVT: "High Value Treats" for special occasions.

My good friends Andrea and Theo Ambros.  Their son, and my good friend and teammate at Burke, Marshall had his wedding reception this weekend and I was able to attend!  Really nice to meet his awesome new wife, Megan!

Stopped by Morse Farm to thank everyone for doing trail work yesterday and received an awesome welcome and card from these girls!  Kikkan, you got one too!

My dad is a Cav's fan?!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Apple cinnamon pizza pie!

The birthday gathering here yesterday.  So great get a chance to see everyone before leaving for the winter.

My second cousin Liza is getting so big!

My Mom's Birthday present from Team Ninja!

Sleeping puppy and pops.

ACTION SHOTS!

I guess I get my lungs from my Mom:)

My cousin Kate and Liza.  Red, white and blue girl!

I take of Friday for the season.  It is always so nice to get this little breather at home in Vermont before heading across the pond for the next 5 months.  Thanks to the community here for always being so supportive and excited for me and to welcome me back after the summer in Park City.

Bon Voyage.  See you in Norway!!!

Fresh Tracks Farm Yoga and Gathering!

Looking forward to seeing you all tonight!!!

Cleveland!

Jessie after some VO2 Max Testing earlier this week.  Giving it her all.  Awesome.

Early Thanksgiving dinner with good friends.  YUM!  Wont taste like this in Finland...

And then I flew to Cleveland to see my extended family.  Here is Gemma Moore, still pumped up in her new house in Cleveland.

And Charlie at school today.

And Hannah kick boxing at Karate Class

Cutest thing you have ever seen are "Tiger Tots" doing karate class.  Oh. My. God. CUTE!

Cleveland Caveliers game!  Alex now is the High Performance Director for the Cavs, so he hooked us up with tickets for my first NBA game!  It was awesome and they won as well, though it was a close game by the end.

Alex kicking ass at his new job.  

Carly and I enjoying the game.

Seeing these guys has made my whole fall.  Going from seeing these guys almost every day all off-season to not seeing them for the last 2 months, has been a tough transition.  So snagging some hugs, love and fun times before taking off for 5 months of racing was so needed.

Heading to Vermont tomorrow for some home time with my family before heading across the pond until April on the 15th.