Alaska glacier camp to....NORWAY!

Oh, my life is so tough:)  I flew to off Eagle Glacier in Alaska last Saturday night and was in Oslo by Wednesday evening.  It is amazing to be back in my happy place again, Scandinavia in the summer, and the training the last 4 weeks has been with all my best friends!  I am so lucky.  I will be here in Oslo through tomorrow and then I fly to Sandnes, Norway where I will compete in some rollerski competitions called the Blink Festival.  I competed in these races 2 years ago with Kikkan after another Scandinavian adventure together and it was a blast, so now I am heading back to fire it up again this weekend.  It's great practice to move fast on rollerskis, around corners, mass starting with 30-60 other women, and especially good practice for me, as I am very tentative on my skis.  

Here are some pictures from this week in Norway and from last week on the glacier, but all you really need to know is that I am training hard with all of my best friends, seeing new places, pushing new limits when I can and having the time of my life.  I hope all that read this feel the same way about your own lives!  

Explore, Dream, Discover. -Mark Twain

Team sprint workout.  Whew.  That was a hard one.  Left to right is me, Sadie, and Celine.

Kikkan and I in our Bjorn Daehlie summer training gear.  Can you say pink?

The whole crew skiing together on the last day.  It is pouring rain in this picture and Sophie's lips are actually blue too.  We were all jealous of Kik's rain suit.

Glaicier Women't Crew for NAWTA camp 2014.

I jetted to Hope, Alaska with Holly early on Sunday morning to make it in time to jog the Wagon Wheel 5k, an annual race in Hope that is really fun.  Here is the crew that joined.  It was so fun to see Holly's cabin again, 1 year after I saw it last time.  Rob has been working really hard and it is almost livable inside.  In fact 4 of us slept in it that evening and got a great night of sleep!

Katie and I in our boa's on the start line.

It was hard not to be this pumped with the beauty that surrounded us for 3 hours.  It was really a special trip.

Katie and I.

AND SNACKS AT THE CAR!

Astrid driving us to the mainland for training.  I spent the first 4 days at Astrid's parents summer house on an island off the south coast of Norway in a place called Sogne, near Kristiansand.  We drove a boat to the mainland twice a day for training which was a fun start to the session each time, as the temperatures were hot and the sun shining every day so being on the water was key to staying cool.

The summer house.  It is a beautiful place.

Our first day training with a former skier named, Marthe.  Now she is in medical school and was visiting her parents at their summer house in Sogne.  Super fun to go on a long run all together, and extremely nice of them to basically only speak english the whole way. 

Astrid was our nightly grill master!

Astrid, her Mom, Britt, and Britt's twin sister Ann.  Both Britt and Ann played on Norway's National team in Handball back in the day and Ann actually is a Handball World Champion!  Really fun for me to meet other people's families and hear their stories of growing up.  Ann owns a fruit farm in Denmark, where the girls grew up.

Astrid's grandparents and her Father, Frede.  Dinner on the water in the sunset every night followed by a delicious dessert and coffee was a wonderful way to spend the evenings in this weather.

Sometimes it was followed by a swim and a few pull-ups on the diving board!

Astrid and her parent's dog, Ekko, silhouetted by the setting sun.  I really like this picture.

A boat owned by some local guys that comes by every Friday night of the summer holidays with a huge boom box and speaker playing music.  Really fun.

We went fishing for Mackerel one day, but I was the only one that caught any and the one that I caught I let jump off the line right before I got it into the boat!  We had to call Britt and tell her to take out some backup food from the freezer for dinner. 

Frede and Britt on a cruise out on the ocean with us.

This morning's run with Marthe Kristoffersen and Astrid.