Holiday Time

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!

I am in Davos, Switzerland for the Holidays this year, preparing for the Tour de Ski which starts in Oberhof, Germany on Saturday.  The Tour is 7 races in 9 days and is a very taxing but extremely fun bit of the season.  We are thoroughly enjoying the holidays together as a smaller team and I want to wish you all a very happy holiday season wherever you may be.  Here is a recap of the week.

Picture of me racing in last week's 15k skate taken by Andrew Moorehouse.  Great to have some extra help over here this week including Eli Brown, Erik Flora, and our awesome PT/Massage Therapist Fredrica "Fred" Manning. Huge shout-out to these guys for the awesome extra help this week.

And another HUGE HUGE shout-out to my awesome Rossi boot guys.  These guys are the reason I am pain free in my feet and able to train and compete at my best.  Luca and Luigi drove the long drive from Montebeluna, Italy to Davos to help me and a few other athletes out with some boot work.  Thanks a ton guys! You rock.

Noah and Jessie night 1 in our apartment here in Davos for the Christmas break.  Pad Thai. YES!

Breakfast 1: French Toast and REAL VERMONT MAPLE SYRUP!! My awesome cousin and his family gave me a lucky maple syrup from Slopestyle Syrup, the Cochran Family's sugaring business and it was delicious and sure to bring us extra energy for the upcoming Tour de Ski!

Noah, me and Jessie sporting our aprons for cooking time.

Christmas cookie time!!  My good friend, Anna Haag and I made dinner and then got our bake on the other night. We made these delicious chocolate cookie balls, fudge, chocolate covered pistachios and almonds and some gourmet Reeces!

Me and Anna having a blast in her kitchen.

The weather and the snow has been nice here and our apartment is just a short walk to the stadium and all the trails.  Jessie, Noah and I headed out on an early ski on Saturday so we be back in time to watch the sprint heats.

Jessie snagging some sun time.  Oh yeah Davos. Oh yeah.

Our Christmas Tree!!! Complete with lights and ornaments and a handmade snowflake for the top!

We fired up a game of sequence the last couple nights.  Games are awesome.

Jessie putting in some one pole work.

Yesterday Holly, Jessie and I skied together for a bit and worked on our classic technique together.  No pole and 1 pole drills may not feel "cool" but there must be something to it when you see the best skiers in the world doing tons of it. I think the only times I have seen Justyna use 2 poles this year are in the races.  That may be an exaggeration, but if you aren't ever dropping a pole or two, now is the time.

Mini coffee....

Mini Sandwich...

AND SO DELICIOUS!  Thanks for lunch Holly! (Don't worry, this was not it!)

There is a new hotel that has opened here that we call the "Golden Egg" because that is what it looks like to us.  They had an open house yesterday afternoon so a few of us went up to see what it was all about.

The flower presentation on the tables was beautiful.  

And the sun on the deck and comfy couches was hard to beat.

Florian (Robs friend from college), Holly and her husband Rob.

The view from the 10th floor bar in the Golden Egg.  It is a very crazy, overbuilt and modern hotel, but it has a bit of intrigue for me just because it looks so different than any other building I have ever seen.  I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the place but I will try and take one today and add it to this post.

Ahhh.....Davos

As many of you know, the World Cup revisits many of the same venues each year with a few that are every other year stops and once in a while we will go to a brand new venue.  This year, Lillehammer was the brand new venue, and it is always fun to try out some new trails.  Davos, however, has been on the circuit for many years, sometimes catching us in February for Valentines Day and sometimes right before Christmas.  Davos was where I competed in my first World Cup races ever, in 2007, when Morgan Arritola, Tazlina Mannix and I came over to join Kikkan in a 4x5k relay event, as well as a 10k skate race the day before.  It is pretty fun to go back and look at results from those two races and see how far we have come.  I was 48th place here in 2007 in the 10k skate and our relay was 11th, probably out of 12 or 13 teams.  Saturday I finished 20th in the 15k skate, which is the first race of the season that I have been in the top 30, not including the final stage of the Ruka minitour.  I have only skied faster than I did on Saturday here in Davos once before, which was last year where I finished 15th.

My only point in mentioning all of these results is that our standards as a team have changed, as well as my own.  As professional athletes who have seen some great success, especially last year, we always want more, and we always want to better our best, which is good because it makes us better.  But, we have to remember that average races will happen many times throughout our careers, and an average race still brings with it many positives to take out of it.  A top 20, no matter if you have had a win, a podium or a 5th is still a top 20.  It is still in the points and it is still no reason to be disappointed.  The season is long and it is still December.  The great race or races are in there, or at least we have all done everything we can to be prepared to have the race of our lives this year.  I am not thrilled with Saturday's 20th place, but I am happy with it and I realize that what now feels like an average race, not too long ago would have been a hugs success.

Davos has some good food, especially their breakfasts!

Day 1 training in Davos.  We ended up skiing with quite a few other teams which was really fun!  Russia, Sweden, Norway and us all just kicking and gliding in the sun together.  

We have quite the views here from the Hotel Kulm.  We have been staying here as a team since the 80's or even late 70's maybe and so coming back always feels a bit like home.

Noah and I soaking up some Vitamin D!

And perma tanned Simi getting some bronzing action too.

Sadie and Soph

This is my Christmas star that I bought in Norway.  I have always really wanted one, as in Scandinavia they are hanging in many of the windows.  I like subtle Christmas decorations, white lights, paper cutouts, so this is just what I needed to make Christmas feel close.

Our annual secret santa which includes writing a poem for your person took place on Thursday.  Here is Cory reading his.  Cory happened to be my secret santa as well and he wrote me a really heartfelt poem.

Kikkan had Cory and here is the poem she wrote him.

Ida had our PT, Fredrica "Fred" Manning and went all out! 

Noah and I went to the Bjorn Dahlie kids event after our race on Saturday.  It is an event put on by Bjorn Dahlie where 300 kids show up and get to go through a really fun obstacle course.

Noah and I jumped in and helped the kids through the course.

There was a tree section, which was really tricky with long skis!

And an uphill GS course as well as a jump and a downhill GS course.

In some cases I really had to get my sprint on to beat these kids! They were really impressive!

And here I am with Bjorn himself!  What an honor it was to meet him! (picture stolen from Noah's blog.  Thanks Noah!)

Noah and I hit the gym after to get buff. (picture stolen from Noah's blog.  Thanks Noah!)

Noah and Rosie cheering at the skate sprint yesterday.  It was a beautiful day for a race.

 We had a really solid day yesterday, qualifying 6 out of our 11 athletes, and 3 moved on to the semi finals!  Sophie Caldwell had a personal best with a 9th place!

We also had USSA's new CEO, Tiger Shaw and his wife Kristin come to watch the race!! (picture stolen from Noah's blog.  Thanks Noah!)

I will not race again until the Tour de Ski which starts on the 28th of December.  Noah, Jessie and I plan to complete the whole Tour, so we will skip the next weekend of city sprints in Asiago, Italy and move into an apartment here in Davos where we will spend Christmas together.

Lillehammer

We had a great week in Lillehammer, Norway, eating delicious food, maybe a little too much salmon, (but we couldn't help it ourselves it tasted SO good!) and checking out some new courses on the World Cup Tour.  We also capped the weekend off with a tie to our best ever relay finish of 3rd on Sunday.  It was a real fight for every place and we were in a full on snowstorm, which made for exciting racing.  For the first time ever at a World Cup in Europe the US entered two relay teams in Sunday's 4x5k event.  It was amazing to be able to have everyone racing and to have 8 strong women over here to represent.

Our two women's relay teams!  

We were able to replicate our performance from Gallivare, Sweden last year and take home third place.  It was almost as exciting the second time around!  I am not sure standing on that podium with your teammates ever becomes anything less than magnificent.

Kikkan, Sadie, Jessie and me sporting the relay leg warmers.  We actually had two different pairs of leg warmers so that both teams were able to sport them in true USA relay day fashion.  It takes a full team to make a day like Sunday happen and it's what makes relays so cool and special for me.  Everyone plays a role that is equally as important as the next persons and together we achieved a result that we are very proud of.  A huge thanks goes out to all our staff and wax techs who nailed the skis yet again as well as all of our fans, family and supporters.  Thanks a lot for believing.

Oh and this also happened this weekend.  Sadie Bjornsen in the leaders chair, and not for just a short stint!  If she isn't careful, Sadie is going to stay there for the whole race one of these days!  She ended up 7th on the day for the second weekend in a row.  Leading the team and really CRUSHING it!

Doing a bit of racing.  That is me in the tuck behind.

Will Sweetser (Kris Freeman's wax tech and support staff), me, Kris and Sophie.

Day 1 on the new tracks in Lillehammer.  These tracks are in the same stadium as the Olympics were in 94, but the courses are new, and they are awesome.  Really tough terrain which makes for exciting and extremely challenging racing.  And on a nice day the view is not too shabby either.

Sophie and I enjoying a bit of sun on our faces!

Me and Soph again on a different ski.  Soph and I didn't race the classic 10k on Saturday, so we were able to do a lot of training together this week which was really fun.  On Friday we went up to explore some different trails 20 minutes from the venue.

Soph and I after our ski at Nordsetter.

Much of the team also went up to train on some other trails about 40 minutes from Lillehammer just to get some easier terrain.

The girls skiing together.

We just arrived in Davos, Switzerland where the World Cup continues this weekend with a 15k Individual start skate race on Saturday and the first skate sprint of the year on Sunday!  The weather for Davos this week looks incredible with highs in the mid 40's and lows overnight in the mid 20s.  And SUN SUN SUN!! Time to get some Vitamin D in!

Kuusamo and YIPPPEEEE!!!!!!

The New Friends of Liz Design is in!!! The neck warmers are a SERIOUS hit, so fleecy and soft!  Thanks to Corinne for designing this year's print herself and HUGE thanks to Skida for all the incredible support.

First of all, this blog is dedicated to my good friend and teammate, Noah Hoffman who had 2 personal best performances this weekend in the Ruka Mini Tour.  We raced the first World Cups of the season in Finland and it was what you call a "mini tour", basically a 3 day stage race, each days results accumulating to create an overall winner on Sunday.  Noah skied to a personal best finish of 9th in the overall Tour at a very well attended World Cup with over 120 men racing, but also posted the fastest time of the day in Sunday's 15k skate race!!!!  Congrats to you, Noah, for all of your hard work and dedication.  This is just the beginning for you.

The weekend is also dedicated to Sadie Bjornsen who had personal best finishes, posting the third fastest sprint time of the day on Friday and snagging a 7th place in the 5k classic on Saturday!! Sadie has persevered through many injuries and seasons of discouragement but has always been a positive light on this team and it is so fun to see it finally all coming together for her.  Congrats Sadesie.  You are just about to tap into your true abilities and it's going to be fun as hell.

The website CrossCountrySki.US has the entire EuroSport feed of every Cross Country World uploaded to the internet, just for all of you avid fans out there, but maybe not willing to get up at 4 am to see us compete on the weekend. TOTALLY get that!

You know you're back in Europe when the signs read things like this.

We have a bit of a pink getup this year...

Kikkan coming into our sauna after the cold walk that we do to and from each meal here in Kuusamo.

Kuusamo may be cold and dark, but not in the bowling alley!  Team bowling night had us rolling pretty high numbers this year, like triple digits!

Jessie, Simi, Soph and Ida

Chanukah is being celebrated here on the road this year with dreidel games, a menorah, and potato latkes made by Noah!

Athlete social set up by Kikkan after our biannual athlete meeting.  Kikkan has worked really hard to get the athletes a say in what happens with our sport.  I feel really lucky to be represented by such a  professional.

We have had a ton of birthday's this fall so far.  Andy turned 30 on the 30th for his golden birthday and the team got him 2 rocking chairs for his cabin porch in Vermont.  Our wax tech Peter's wife, Tina, made Swedish Bulle for the occasion as well! YUM!!!

And the Norwegian ladies came over and sang to him:)

Kuusamo stadium with the jump in the backround.  It was a cold weekend, but not as cold as it has been here in the past and the snow was really good.

We got some TV coverage leading up to the event.

And Matt got some too!

We are now in Lillehammer for this weekend's World Cup's which are a 10k classic on Saturday, which I will not start and the first 4x5k relay of the year on Sunday, which is also the only one before the OWG one, so it will be fun to throw down and see what we can do!  Until next time....