Blink and beyond

So, Kikkan and I finished up at the Blink Festival and have moved on to a small town outside of Steinkjer, Norway. We are staying with the Lillefjell family, Frode, who was Kikkan's coach a few years back at APU had put us up and has been showing up (and training with us each session) all of the  awesome rollerski and running loops around the area.  The first part of the week we traveled to Sandvikhamn, an area not far from here where Frode's sister and her family have a cabin.  It was a beautiful place, and as it turns out, Petter Northug is from right down the road and one of his sponsor's owns a house with 2 apartments upstairs, right next to Frode's sister's place.  So, when he heard Kikkan and I were coming he gave us an apartment to stay in for the 2 nights we were there and hosted an awesome bbq one night.  We got to meet Petter's parents and a few locals from the area, as well as sign the guest book at the house, where we learned of how many sports teams had stayed there already, along with the Finish Cross Country team! Maybe next year we will go back to have a team camp there for a week.  It was absolutely awesome training, not to mention generous and kind people.

Women coming over the bridge that they made specially for the event!

Me, mixing it up in the 10k

Kikkan with the lead pack in the 10k

Kikkan in the sprint

Kikkan and I took a hike with a friend from Anchorage, Chris Seaman, who is living in Stavanger, Norway for his job with Conoco Phillips.  It was a quick hike, and we got to see this amazing waterfall!

Chris, Kikkan and I on the hike

And again

Opening Ceremonies in the Lillefjell house.  We each picked a country and made our flags.  From left to right: Marius (Norway), Kikkan (Canada), Anders (Italy), Haakun (Spain) and me (Sweden).  We even had a torch parade! 

Haakun, Frode and Marius

Our hosts at the cabin on the Fjord!

More soon.  Now to the bogs for a last Over-Distance run!!

Blink Festival!

Kikkan and I are on our annual Scando summer training trip together and this year it has taken us to the Blink rollerski festival in Sandnes, Norway for a week.  Yesterday was our first race, an uphill climb called Lysebotn Opp, which we took a 2 hour ferry ride down the Fjord that runs through Sandnes, Norway and arrived at the start of the time trial.  It was for sure the most beautiful view I have ever had after a hill climb, and I have done some pretty awesome hill climbs in my time.  Today we have a 10k criterium style race with money preems every 2-4 laps, so it should be exciting!  Here are a few pictures of the trip so far!

Kikkan and me on the ferry to Lysebotn.

Ferry ride

We watched some base jumpers on our ferry ride.  Pretty insane.

A picture of the map on the boat of where we were going.

Me, sporting one of the awesome hats that Toni Adams crocheted for Kikkan and me. Thanks Toni!

Kikkan and me with some of the Swiss National Women's team.

Norwegian skiers, Astrid Jacobsen and Maiken Caspersen-Falla, Kikkan and me with some fans after the hill climb.

A bit of the view from the top, but no camera seemed to really capture the full beauty.

A few of the top boys racing, nearing the finish.

French skier, Jean Marc Galliard, second place finisher in the men approaching the finish.

Women's podium: Therese Johaug, Heidi Weng (not shown) and me!  Awesome day!!

Hello?

I found Vermont Peanut Butter in a cupboard in Utah!!! So psyched!!!

If you haven't tried their peanut butters, get on it! Check it out here:

Vermont Peanut Butter Company

HEY!!! I'm back!!! I took a long break from skiing and anything ski related, including blogging this spring, but now, considering I am back on snow in Bend, Oregon for our first training camp of the year, I believe it is time to get back on the ski wagon and begin blogging again.  I took a nice 5 week break in Vermont from Spring Nationals at Craftsbury at the end of March and really didn't leave my home for more than a night or two the whole time I was there.  I didn't pack more than a backpack to do anything, and it was completely unexciting and felt so unbelievably good that I think I will do it every spring! I spent the time gardening, landscaping, hanging with my parents, running and playing with my dog, and visiting with friends and supporters.  I was in heaven.  However, it is not the time in my life where I get to garden and own a farm with tons of animals and an old house to fix up yet, so I headed out to Park City, Utah where I have spent the last 6 summer and fall seasons, training and getting ready for the upcoming year.  I did some testing a couple of weeks ago (a real HELLO and wake up call to the body after a spring of recovering) and headed out to Bend after that.  The first training camp of the season always starts here with us skiing in the morning on great snow at the base of Mt. Bachelor and doing some form of dry-land training in the afternoon.  This past Saturday we participated in the Pole Pedal Paddle, a six stage event that includes an alpine ski, nordic ski, road bike, run, paddle and sprint leg.  It is a major gear oriented event, but well worth it.  We fielded two women's teams, one male team and Kris Freeman did the whole event himself.  It was a great team event and I hope we do it again next year, as everyone had a really good time.  A huge thanks goes out to Andy Fecteau and Rebound Physical Therapy for paying for our entry fees and gathering all of the gear up for us.

FAST AND FEMALE

We also participated in Bend's first ever Fast and Female event on Sunday afternoon.  We had a great group of girls and did some really fun dry-land drills and activities as well as some motivational talks and goal setting.  The Bend community is a really great one, so it was fun to meet some of their local stars and have gotten to ski with some of the girls up on the trails since then.

Fast and Female crew from Sunday's event

Speed Ladder at the Agility and Power station

Core Work!

A couple of the most impressive and fun-loving young women I had the pleasure of meeting on Sunday

VITAMIN D!!!

Matt and I on our ski yesterday. First Over-Distance (OD) ski I have gotten to do in quite a while, so it was extra special. Perhaps the warmest and sunniest I have ever seen Davos, so it was a really amazing day full of smiles and vitamin D!!!

Rest and Relaxation time in the bed with my buddies Chandra, Marcel 1 and Snargles.

Matt and Chandra on our OD at the top of the Sertig Valley. Double classic tracks up a perfect striding grade for an hour and then 10 minutes of descending, during which we hit 67 kilometers an hour!! SO FUN!

Davos again!!

So we are back in Davos for our last rest and relaxation week before the final push of the World Cup season. We have 2 races in Lahti, Finland next weekend, 2 races in Oslo, Norway the following weekend, and then hopefully 4 races in Falun, Sweden for World Cup Finals if I can stay in the top 50 on the overall list. This time of year my focus can easily slip away if I let it, especially this year being on the road since November and the end of the season in sight, but keeping the focus and drive high right now is a mind game and I really like mind games, so I am playing to win. It's been a great season so far, so many improvements over last year, but I still have some unmet goals for the season and I am running out of opportunities to accomplish them. So, I have turned my brain back on, am living in the moment (and these days in Davos are super sunny beautiful days) and am training and focusing to give myself the best opportunity to have great performances in the last few World Cups of the season.

Chandra and I on a ski the other day. We kidnapped one of my best friends who is on the Canadian National Team and took her to Davos with us, which is SO fun!!

Newell getting his sun-bathing on. He's pretty much a professional at this task.

Matt and Chandra's post ski high-five.

Chandra and Matt smiling away. Hard not to with these trails and this sun. It's the life here, especially when a week of resting, recovery and training is just what the doctor ordered.

Nove Mesto Relay Recap

Kikkan, Jessie, me, Ida and Holly after the relay on Sunday. My face hurt from smiling so much. What fun to be on such an inspiring team.

Me, Holly and Ida after my leg. It's one of the best parts about a relay, having your team there when you finish with hugs ready. Relay day teams become real teams, gunning for the exact same thing, trying to get there together. Our team has that team aspect of the sport down even on individual days, however, relay day brings every team together and ours closer.

Holly after her leg rocking our red/white and blue/white socks.

Face paint and glitter happens every relay day!

The crew that makes it happen every day (minus a bunch). From left to right: Matt, Ida, Andy, Jessie, Kikkan, me, Holly, Grover, Gibbsy. Thanks one and all for another awesome weekend.

Nove Mesto Relay!!!

If you didn't get a chance to watch this on sportlemon.com the other day, here is is. Pretty awesome to be on a team with such momentum. Wow. So fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEZ5tDkAfj4