I just completed my final glacier training camp of the summer on Eagle glacier.  We had some really sweet conditions with hard snow, clear skies and sun, and also some good character building days where you were skiing in a 15 ft sq sphere the whole time feeling like you are the only person on the planet.  I continued to put in a lot of volume with a few interval sessions mixed in.  Over the three camps this summer I put in 65 hours of skiing and worked a lot on my classic technique.

I’ve pulled off a few video clips from the team video camera.  Check it out…

That concludes my glacier skiing escapades for the 2009 summer.  Now it’s back to work with dryland training. In two weeks I’ll be joining the US Ski Team in Whistler for a team camp.  See ya later!

A week ago, I started a much anticipated and probably much needed recovery week.  And since recovery weeks are important for both the body and the mind, I decided to get out of town and have a little fun with the girls…

On Monday we packed up my car and headed south to McCarthy, AK, the gateway to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.  Joining me on this adventure were my Mom, my teammate Kate Arduser and a friend of Kate’s, Luise Hunker.  It took us about 7 hours, the last two of which were on a dirt road, to reach our destination.

We drove through a thick haze of forest-fire smoke but luckily popped out of it just before reaching McCarthy where grand scenery awaited us!

For our first evening, we hopped on our bikes and rode 3 miles into town.  Once a booming city of 30,000 people during the copper mining rush, McCarthy is now the home to less than 50 people.  There were just a handful of historic buildings on the main street.  We enjoyed a nice dinner amongst the locals at the Golden Saloon and then jumped back on the bikes and cruised home.  By the time we reached our bed and breakfast in the woods.  The smoke from the fires was looming overhead.

Fortunately, upon waking up the next morning, the smoke had receded back and we began a 12 hour adventure.  We first rode our bikes back up to McCarthy and checked out the museum.  I find this pioneer-esc history fascinating!  We then grabbed lunch at The Potato and headed up to the Kennecott Mine via wagon trail.

The view from the mine was incredible.  A vast glacial morraine lay in front of us, the old mine buildings in various states of disrepair.  And all of it seemingly so far away from civilization, it’s hard to imagine how they built all of this stuff back in 1910!

After cruising through the town area, we found a hiking trail leading up to the mine sites.  We expected a short casual hike, but after two hours up a pretty steady grade, we still had not reached the mine.

Having not really been prepared for a long hike, we decided to push on just a little further to get visual confirmation of the site and then turned around.

It took us another couple hours to get back down, and then a sweet downhill bike ride back to our place.  By the time we reached our little cabin, we were all pretty tired from a long day.

On the morning of day 3, we took our time packing up and then said goodbye to our host and headed back to Anchorage.  It was a sweet trip.

I spent the rest of my recovery week back at home, going on a few bike rides and easy runs.  By the end of the week, my body was feeling pretty flat from all the rest and I was excited to get back to work.

Now we enter a testing week to gauge our training progress thus far into the year.  I set some new PR’s last time we tested so I’m anxious to see how I compare and if I’ve improved.