I got back to the County late last night and this morning had a chance to go out for a ski at Nordic Heritage.  Things are looking good for JO’s next week.  Apparently the weather over the last few weeks has been unpredictable, but there is still a good healthy base left on the trails in Presque Isle.  I also have a reliable second hand report from Fort Kent and Madawaska that the skiing up north is also very good.

I am going to put in a plug here for the SuperTour finals coming up at the end of March because I am fired up that they are here in my backyard.  Here is the link to the website:

www.supertourfinals2010.com

The races start out with the 50k national championships on Wednesday and continue over the weekend with a three day Tour de Ski Event.  I can say that the races at both venues will be fun.  The folks in Madawaska have put in a brand new lodge and stadium within the last year and the trails are in a great spot overlooking the St. John River, Madawaska, and Edmunston Quebec.  The races in Fort Kent will be at the same site as the biathlon World Cups coming to the US next year.  My sources tell me that already there is a strong field registered with the number growing by the day.

There is going to be a lot of racing action up here in the next few weeks!  The Junior Olympics start on Monday in Presque Isle, the week after Fort Kent will host Biathlon Nationals, and then the SuperTour finals.  It will be nice to have a front row seat to all that is going on.  Before things get crazy though, I am headed to the Rangeley Loppet this weekend.

As always the Madison supertour races where a good time.  I fell flat on my face in the second lap of the criterium and I didn’t exactly inspire myself with my sprint prelim. performance, but I had a good time skiing in a city downtown.  The atmosphere around the races is always an electric one.  A few pictures below from Sunday.

I have been following the articles about the Birke on Fasterskier and I am feeling a little Birke fever coming on.  Tomorrow BethAnn and I are headed over to Hayward.

I thought I might sneak in a blog before the posts start coming furiously with Olympic news.  I am hanging out with my in-laws in Grand Rapids, MN.  The good news is that my knee is fully recovered, and I have been able to put the bib on a couple times out here, at the SuperTour in Telemark and again at the City of Lakes.  I am not in my best shape at the moment, but am trying to get some miles into my legs over the next few weeks for the races later on in the season.   Sunday I am all clear to race the Mora Vasaloppet, this is a race I have always wanted to do so I am looking forward to it. 

My new training partner, Sadie has some serious endurance in such a small package.  Two hours of skiing is no problem for her.

The lake that BethAnn’s folks live on here in northern Minnesota.  My thanks go out to the groomer at the Grand Rapids High School ski trails.  I hope he or she reads this.  The first day I was here I marched through the snow across the lake to ski on the 5k loop at the high school.  Every day since I have had my own private ski track across the lake.

I apologize for the radio silence for a few weeks.  In the classic sprint at nationals I tweaked my knee in the quarterfinal and have spent the last few weeks layed up and gathering information about my injury.  My knee was swollen and painful for about a week and the preliminary diagnosis was that I had some cartilage floating around in there.  I got an MRI done as soon as I could and late last week I was able to get some opinions on what was going on in my knee.  The short of it is that it turns out my meniscus is fine, a few frays around the edges, but nothing that requires surgery to keep me going.  I had a lot of inflamation around my joint capsule, the likely cause being a strained IT band and a healthy bone bruise.  After the first week, the swelling went way down and soon after I was able to move around without a limp.  I have had cartilage problems before, and even though this past week I was able to shuffle around on my skis before I had any report on the MRI I was still worried that I might have a problem that required surgery.  A while back I had a small tear in my right medial meniscus that caused a bakers cyst to form.  I would be fine for a few weeks, and then the cyst would flare up like a golf ball in the back of my knee.  It was a frustrating experience, but luckily I was able to get by without surgery.  This time around I was happy to hear that my problems  were not meniscus related. 

 I feel like I have dodged a bullet on this one and am feeling pretty good about myself.  I took good care of my knee for the first week, lots of icing and vitamin I, I think that made the difference in the long run.  Right now three weeks out, I am skiing with no problems.  The word from my PT is that I can train like normal this week as long as I pay careful attention to the swelling in my knee.  The first sign of swelling and it is back to the drawing board.   I have been given the green light to try a race this weekend too.  For a few days a couple weeks ago I was starting to think like a retired ski racer.  I got some good use out of my birthday gift, the Sopranos box set, but I must say that I don’t think retirement suits me that well.   Right now BethAnn and I are at her folks house in Minnesota, I will stage my comeback at one of the races in Telemark this weekend.  We are headed over there on friday morning.  Cheers!

My knee!

It has been an eventful couple of weeks since my last post.  Currently I am up in Anchorage getting ready for US Nationals, starting Saturday with a skate sprint.  Things are shaping up for a good week, the weather looks like it will cooperate with us this year, today was the coldest day yet out at the venue at a balmy 9 degrees F.  Warm compared to last years temps. 

I had a great holiday season back in Minnesota, the highlight being my wife BethAnn qualifying for the IBU Cup team  with an amazing performance on the last race of her trials.  She really killed it in a high pressure situation, shooting clean and skiing fast to take the win.  She left for Germany early this week and will be competing over there for an Olympic spot. 

I have to give a big thanks to the Stone family for putting me up my first few days here in Anchorage!   I have been spending my days up here skiing around at Kincaid, getting to know the courses again.  The rest of the Maine crew showed up the day before yesterday and we are all staying at the Homewood Suites.  The venue looks good, Kincaid could probably use a little more snow but the volunteers have done a great job covering the thin spots with snow.  They were out all last weekend pushing snow around to make sure things will go smoothly this week.  On the agenda are a skate and classic sprint, 15k skate and a 30k classic mass start. 

Happy New Year!

BethAnn relaxing after a long week of racing.

Alaska this time of year is a little dark, but still spectacular.

I am spending the holidays in Minnesota at my in-laws, cheering on my wife and the rest of the MWSC biathletes at the team trials here in Grand Rapids.  It has been a week of down time for me, and a week of craziness for the biathletes.  I didn’t arrive here until early last week, since then I was able to watch a sprint and a pursuit, tomorrow is the last race, another sprint.  Even though my in-laws live here in Grand Rapids, I have really only skied at Mt. Itasca in mid January, when the snow is good and the air is cold.  It seems to me that the folks at the Itasca ski club pulled off a miracle to get these races underway.  On the side of the trails are only a couple of inches of snow , but for three kilometers of skiing up from the stadium there is a trail that is World Cup worthy.  Every morning before the events I get up early and head to the venue to ski around and around the loop, but I am not complaining, the skiing is very good.  I can’t imagine how many man-hours it took to blow the snow and get it in place, my thanks go out to the crew that is taking care of the trails here. 

Also I have to send a shout out to the rest of the Maine Winter Sports Center crew back in Presque Isle.  From the looks of things it was a stellar weekend at the first eastern cup for everyone, bravo!

The last of what must have been a monster pile of snow.

Earlier this week Will and I made the trip from Bozeman to Kelowna.  I have trained and raced in Silver Star almost as many times as I have been to Yellowstone, and every time this place never fails to inspire me.   What is it that inpires me? -  the skiing is great, nine times out of ten this place is a winter paradise, and the main street of the village is a ski trail.  I get psyched about ski racing everytime I come here.

This weekend we have two skate races on the plan.  The venue is pretty electric at the moment.  The 15k skate race on Saturday is a one and out qualification race for the Canadian olympic team.  Whoever wins gets to go to Vancouver.  The course is difficult, it is the same course used for the pursuit race at the 2005 World Cup here.  One of the things that makes the skiing here so good is that Sovereign Lake does an unbelievable job with grooming.  It is fun to ski here.

With the ski festival over in West Yellowstone, last night I made the trip back to Bozeman to train for the week before the races coming up this weekend.  Right now I am staying with MWSC alum Brandy Stewart, her apartment is a short walk to the site of the sprint race this coming weekend. 

Before leaving Yellowstone yesterday I took a ski into the park, to Madison Junction and back.  Even in the winter the place is amazing.

To tell the truth my real reason for skiing into the park was to see some buffalo.  I had to ski all the way to Madison Junction and hike through the trees and snow for a couple hundred yards to snap a picture of these bison in the distance.  I also saw some elk, eagles, and a wolf.

Things are in full swing out here in Yellowstone.  This week has reminded me of the Yellowstone Festival of old, great skiing right here in town, tons of people and blue skies.  The trails are in really good condition right now.  I have been here for two weeks and have seen fresh snow every couple of days.  Every trail in town is open.

The sprint happened yesterday and it turned out to be a good warmup for the races this weekend.  An interesting course, a point to point with a couple short hills and a long gradual up and down approach to the finish.  It was a good chance to shake out the jitters for the races coming up.  The race reminded me of the old junior olympic lineup with a prologue to start out the week. 

Being here for two weeks has given me a chance to check out the town, although it is much the same since the last twelve times I have been here for Thanksgiving.  My favorite thing to do is to check out the live grizzly bears at the discovery center.  A few pictures below.

Hallsey setting up the Fischer wax room.

Some more  of my favorite local wildlife.  I will try to get some pictures up of the actual skiing over the weekend.

I have been in West Yellowstone for four days, and after a snowstorm and a few nights of snow showers the skiing here is fabulous.