I just finished up (well ok, it’s been a few days) my second glacier training camp of the summer.  It was another great week of volume training with a few interval sessions thrown in.  The pisten bully was working great this time around and the skiing was pretty sweet, minus the ash.  Cleaning off gritty klister is a pretty interesting experience!

Here are some photos:

A shot of the helicopter for the trip up.  A rare blue sky day, no hiking, yay!

The trip up was sweet, just a little too short.

A view of the trail. The ash was mostly bladed off the course with the pisten bully.

Getting some work done while chillin’ in my new compression recovery suit.

On Friday evening I left the camp a little early to get back to town for my good friend Tara Hamilton’s wedding.  It was hard to leave the glacier with the chance to ski a few more days, but it was really great to be there to celebrate with Tara on her big day.  (Tara and I were roommates at the three world juniors we both attended).  Tara and Wes had a sweet Alaskan wedding at an old historic mine area.  Here are some pictures:

I have one more glacier camp on tap this summer, a few weeks from now in August.  Until then, it’s back to work with plenty of dryland training.  I’ve got one more big week to finish off and then I can enjoy a recovery week to let my body absorb the last eight weeks.  Wahoo!

Last week I completed my first glacier camp of the summer with my APU team at the Thomas Training Center on Eagle Glacier.  It was supposed to be an 8 day long camp with a 50/50 split of skate and classic skiing. Once we got started however, there were some problems with the grooming equipment, and there was more volcanic ash in the snow than predicted, so we ended up classic skiing almost the entire week.

At first, I was apprehensive about the effects of classic skiing every session for a full week.  I was concerned that my feet and joints might get overworked.  As the sessions played out however, I found it was actually quite beneficial to be able to be so submersed in one technique and my body actually held up pretty well.  I guess this is what they did back in the old days anyhow!

This camp was mostly focused on distance training, with a few speeds in most sessions.  We did intervals once at the beginning of the week and one session near the end.  It was a nice relief to ski a little faster in the slow and soft snow conditions (also great prep for Whistler conditions).  One day midweek we did an over distance session of three hours.  In the afternoon we played a team game of speedball, which turned out to be way more fun than I imagined.

By the end of the week, I had 24 hours of skiing under my belt.  The initial plan was to fly out, but the clouds were hanging in thick and even after holding out until the very last minute, I ended up hiking down with the team.  My legs were quite sore from the downhill by the end.  Yet it was a really fun way to close out the camp with everyone in high spirits and quite silly at the bottom.

I’ll have three weeks of dryland training until the next camp.  A perfect balance.  Here’s some pictures from the camp.

Now that the first six weeks of the new training year are complete, I thought I would take a quick look back at what I’ve done so far:

- 91 hours of training total

- 12 hours of skiing (on-snow)

- 30 hours of running

- 39 hours of rollerskiing

- 3 hours of strength training

- 7 hours of “other”

And here’s what it looked like:

The infinite possibilities of crust skiing

Pretending to be a rock star in Hollywood

Sweet skiing in Bend, OR

A brief stop in Croatia

A fun Saturday OD with the girls, we hit snow line!

Should we keep going?? … of course!

Part II of the OD, snow flurries at the top

And lots of play time with the kittens!

Now I start period II.  This week begins with a few testing sessions: 90 seconds max skate RS uphill, 2 min DP max effort and 5×5 min L4 bounding.  Then on Friday I’ll head up to the glacier with my APU team.

Only 8 months and three days until the opening ceremonies…

Hey guys!  This post is about two weeks overdue at this point, but I felt it was at least important to summarize my experience at the recent 2009 FIS Calendar Conference and explain my new role as an Athlete Representative on the FIS Athlete Commission.

After just getting going on a great training camp in Bend with the US Ski Team, I had to say goodbye to the sweet skiing and hop onto a plane over to Europe.  It wasn’t the most pleasant plane trip, mostly in the middle seat, and for a while I was wondering what I had gotten myself into.  Thankfully, upon arriving in Dubrovnik, Croatia, I immediately realized what a great opportunity it was going to be to see FIS in action and got right to work meeting everyone.

My first day of meetings included the sub-committee for Ladies Cross-country and the inaugural Athlete Commission meeting.  I was able to sneak out for a run midday, but ended up missing lunch.  The Athlete Commission meeting was super cool.  All 12 athlete representatives were present, and amazingly, we are all on the same page.  We all really want athletes to have a voice that counts!!  Here is a summary of what we discussed:

• Athlete Reps Communication and Transparency – We want to clearly and openly communicate with all athletes, so that everyone knows what we are discussing and also so we can hear what issues are important to all athletes.  One of the athlete reps, Ryan Blais, created a new social network for all FIS athletes, coaches, judges and officials.   www.democraski.com.  This will be a great tool for the Athlete Reps, and athletes in general, to be able to communicate on a constant basis, sharing ideas and bringing forth issues.  If you guys haven’t signed up, please do!  There are already some great discussions going!
• Drug testing – most of the discussion centered around a need for a better web interface for updating whereabouts information.  This doesn’t really apply to the US because we use the USADA system and not the ADAMS system.  I brought up my topic about wanting more testing and a representative from FIS explained that they have put more of an emphasis and more funding into out-of-competition testing, and that is why we’ve seen less in-competition testing.  The discussion moved on to a different topic after that, so I didn’t really get any ground on my specific issue.
• Funding for severely injured athletes/program for athletes in transition after sport – This came especially from the alpine and freestyle sides, a desire to see FIS implement systems to financially help athletes that are severely injured in competition and maybe don’t have good insurance or support systems.  Also, the athletes would like to see FIS give more education and support to athletes when they finish their athletic careers and are transitioning on from sport.
• Minimum requirements for WC Organizers -  This was a hot topic amongst all disciplines.  Basically, the athletes from each sport need to put together a list of all things we would like to see standard at World Cup events and FIS will help us make these mandatory requirements.  We were able to participate in a panel discussion with some World Cup organizers and they are interested in our feedback.  I’ve started a discussion on Democraski about this, please check it out.

On the second day, Sami Jauhojarvi (the other XC rep) and I were able to sit in the Cross-Country Committee meeting.  While we do not yet have any voting rights, we were asked for our feedback on several issues.  Here is a brief summary:

• Multi-stage “Tour” World Championships – The XC Committee voted in favor of the idea to contest a “tour” world championships in a non-championships year.  This would be an 8-9 stage race over 10 days and only the overall winners would be crowned “World Champions.”
• Bringing XC to the web – FIS would like to boost its marketing efforts by creating a new website.  Something to the effect of, “crosscountryiscool.com”.  This website would utilize modern technologies to bring the fans closer to the action, closer to a younger audience, etc.  The site will need support from the athletes and national federations for content.  More info to follow.
• Mini-Tour in Kuusamo – FIS was proposing that an additional race be added to the comp schedule in Kuusamo and that the 3 races would be contested as a mini-tour.  Sami and I brought up a few concerns on behalf of the athletes, and after a little discussion, this idea actually ended up not being supported.  So, Kuusamo will remain as it has been.
• Remove B Final from sprint format – It was basically decided that FIS would no longer require a B final in sprint competitions.  The reasoning behind this is to give more attention to the A Final, and to encourage racers to go for it more in the semi-finals.  This means we probably won’t see B Finals on the world cup anymore, but it will still be an option for NorAm or Continental Cup races.
• Tour rules – A racer won’t have to finish all races to get full points during a tour event.
• World Cup Finals – Will change to only top 50 world cup overall ranked racers, plus U23 champions and Continental Cup leaders.
• Ski exchange in 30/50km – There was a lot of discussion on what specific rules to apply, but basically, all that was decided at this point was that this idea was supported and specifics would be decided in the future.  What are your thoughts?

Overall, my experience at the conference was really beneficial.  I got to see and understand how FIS works, how ideas and concerns are addressed and discussed, and also give feedback from an athlete’s perspective.  FIS was really excited to have athletes involved and will be looking to us to help guide their policies and discussions in the future.

I really encourage all of you coaches and/or athletes to join www.democraski.com!!  We’ve already started several great discussions on the website and we want your feedback!

Here are some shots from my trip too, Croatia was a pretty sweet place to visit!!

A view of the shoreline

The Athlete Commission

Cavtat at sunset

Dubrovnik old town

Sneaking in a run along the beach

Earlier this week I traveled down to Hollywood with several other US Ski and Snowboard athletes to participate in a video and film shoot with NBC and the USOC.  The purpose of the trip was to give the media a better chance to get to know the athletes that are hoping to represent the US at the 2010 Olympics.  For a full day, 8am to 6pm, every 20 minutes was scheduled with video interviews, film and photo shoots, and hair and make-up touch-ups through out.  Here are some shots from the day:

It was great to be able to share our sport with those that just think of it as just something “really hard.”  And a good reminder that Olympic medals will be on the line in just under nine months!

Afterward I headed up to Bend, OR to join the rest of the US Cross-country ski team for an on-snow camp.  Yesterday we enjoyed a great two hour classic ski under a hot sun.

I’ll just be in Bend for a couple more days before I head over the pond to Dubrovnik, Croatia for the FIS Athlete Commission meeting, fullfilling my first duties as the women’s cross-country representative.

Happy trails!

I am going to echo Andy’s comments and say that it is good to be back in a training rhythm.  After spending the previous week in Hawaii, finishing the last hurrah of the ‘09 season recovery period, I returned to Anchorage at 5am on Monday morning and set right to training for the 2010 season.

The week looked something like this:

Monday – Testing.  Classic rollerski 1km repeats, one at threshold, one a little faster and the final one all out.  Felt a little funky to be back on rollerskis again, especially when I snapped one of my rollerski shafts during the warm-up.  Collected some good values on time and lactate, giving the coaches and I a good baseline to work from.

Tuesday – Crust skiing.  Drove a hour south of Anchorage and hit up a great two hour skate ski with 20 of my APU teammates.   We threw in a few 10 sec pick-ups while skiing in formation and hit a few tele turns on the way back.  In the evening the team met up for a sweet trail run and then a BBQ at Coach Erik’s house to discuss the plans for the upcoming year.

Wednesday – Another testing day.  Trying out a new route.  1 hr uphill threshold test, skate rollerskiing.  15km for the women, 18km for the men.  Really had to pace myself over the first half to conserve enough energy for the final 20 min of steep climbing.  Legs haven’t burned that bad for a while!!  Afternoon strength session, first one in a few weeks, careful not to start off with too much weight.  Finished off the night by giving a motivational speech to a middle school National Jr. Honor Society crowd.

Thursday – Crust skiing again.  Headed off toward Spencer glacier this time.  Clear blue sky.  Cruised at a solid distance pace and scoped out some new territory.  Fun to ski in the sun!   In the afternoon we met as a team for a distance double-pole on rollerskis.  The guys skied together and the girls skied together.  Nice to ski in a train and work together as a group!

Friday – Crust ski.  Left town at 7am.  Got a little separated from the group and skied with Jeff and Ben up onto Center Ridge.  A giant playground of crust, rolls and nice slopes for tele turns.  Could have skied up there for hours!  Took a long nap in between sessions.  PM workout was 5×4 min bounding/ski walking intervals, threshold mostly.  Made it up to the top of “Flattop Mountain” and then glisaded down the snow.

Saturday – Volunteered at a local kids race and  foreran all the girls races.  Those youngsters are surprisingly fast!!  Signed a few posters and posed for some pictures with the silver medal, and then jumped in the car with Ben and headed south.  The team had just finished their 3hr OD as we got started.  1.5 hours of DP’ng along the bike trail followed by a hour hike up to the top of Bird Ridge.  Back down in 35 min (legs are sore the next day!).  Total time 3 hrs.  Took a quick, and very chilly, dip in stream on the way home.

Sunday – Day off.

This was our traditional APU start up camp week.  A good kick in the pants for the new training season!  We lucked out with some beautiful weather, up close to the 70’s F.   My camera died in Hawaii last week in the waves, so sorry for no pictures this time.

Now we’ll settle back in to our regular training rhythm with a few team sessions a week and some workouts on our own.

Until next week… go for it!

HISTORIC FIRST FAST AND FEMALE EVENT IN ALASKA IS A HUGE SUCCESS

More than 160 Girls Join US Olympian and World Cup Gold Medalist Kikkan Randall for Ski and Chat

Anchorage, Alaska (January 10, 2009) – Fast and Female hosted its first, sold out international event on Friday night in Anchorage, Alaska, USA.

Kikkan Randall, an Alaska native who is a member of the US Cross-Country Ski Team member and a two-time Olympian, was joined by 25 elite racers and 30 volunteers for the hosting of 160 girls between the ages of 9 to 19 years old.



“The event was amazing, we had so many girls come out and ski with us, and the enthusiasm was high,” said Randall who became the first American woman to win a cross country World Cup with her Dec. 16, 2007 sprint win in Rybinsk, Russia. “We were initially aiming for 50 participants but visibly, we’ve surpassed our objective!”



Sponsored by the Anchorage Women’s Clinic , and co-hosted by the Nordic Ski Association of Anchorage , this inaugural Alaskan event held from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. featured cross-country skiing drills, inspirational speeches, ski trivia and healthy eating.

“Wow, I never knew skiing was this cool. I want to be fast too.” Said one of the event’s participants.

Several members of the US women’s team, UAA ski team and APU ski team stayed in Anchorage an extra day following US Championships to be instructors at the event. While the championships had been dogged by cold weather all week, the thermometer warmed up just enough for a great session on skis followed by snacks and a few inspirational speeches.  All the participants walked away with special edition posters autographed by all the elite racers.

More photos available for purchase at www.shutterfly.com/pro/dap/FastandFemale

Since its inception in 2005 by Canada’s Olympic Gold medalist in Cross-Country Skiing – Chandra Crawford – Fast and Female has hosted five ski festivals. In total, more than 500 young women have taken part in these empowering life seminars held at Silver Star Ski Resort (B.C.), Canmore (AB), Thunder Bay (ON), Mont-Saint-Anne (QC), and Callaghan Valley’s Whistler Olympic Park (B.C.). This is the first international event for Fast and Female.

“I’m thrilled that the event was a huge success!” said Crawford from her home in Canmore, Alberta. “Kikkan and I share a common commitment for inspiring women in sports so I knew she would make an outstanding Fast and Female ambassador. I look forward to growing this relationship so that we may reach even more girls across Canada and the USA,” she concluded.

The next Fast and Female event will be held at the end of March 2009 in the Calgary region. The 2009 Fast and Female Ski Festival will feature a full day of cross-country skiing, biathlon, lunch, inspirational talks, yoga, dancing, and giveaways. The event will also feature an adult seminar intently focused on empowering parents and coaches supporting female athletes. More details about this event will be released in the coming weeks.

ABOUT FAST & FEMALE

Fast and Female is a not-for-profit organization started in 2005 by Olympic Gold Medalist in cross-country skiing Chandra Crawford. The mission of “Empowerment Through Sport” is accomplished through fun-filled all-day events featuring skiing, biathlon, yoga, hip hop dancing, healthy eating and inspirational presentations. Fast and Female is about more than a great time on skis; it’s about building confidence and leadership skills in girls and young women while showing them how much they have to gain from an active lifestyle. Success in the short-term means getting more girls hooked on cross-country skiing and biathlon.  In the long term, Fast and Female will become a nation-wide wellness program with benefits for girls and young women across the country. The young girls who attend Fast and Female events today will lead it in the future. For more information about Fast and Female, visit www.fastandfemale.com.

Greetings from Finland!  My apologies again, for a long lapse since my last post.  Since my last update from my training camp with Chandra Crawford in Canmore, I returned to Alaska where I have been training for the last six weeks.  For the first three weeks, I was able to ski an hour’s drive away at Hatcher Pass.  The skiing there was excellent with solid grooming and nice classic tracks.  About three weeks ago, we got enough snow in Anchorage to start skiing on the local trails.  There wasn’t quite enough snow to groom but it was nice to be able to ski twice a day a few minutes from home.  Minus battling a cold/flu bug for about a week, the training block went well.

On Saturday I packed my bags, said good-bye to my APU team, and headed off to Europe to start the season.  I flew through Seattle, Amsterdam, Helsinki and then Kuusamo, to arrive a day and a half after I started.  My duffle bag greeted me in Kuusamo but my ski bag did not. Thankfully, the US Nordic Combined team was already in Kuusamo so I was able to borrow gear from them, and later the Canadians, until my ski bag finally arrived today, Thursday!  (Got a little scare this morning when I went to pick up my ski bag from the hotel reception.  Only my pole tube, which had been strapped to the top of my ski bag, was there, no skis. Yikes!  An hour or so later however, I was informed that my ski bag had been delivered to the US wax techs after the Fischer crew had accidentally picked up my ski bag by mistake at the airport.  Whew!).

The first few days here in Kuusamo have gone by fast.  My first night I only slept five hours, despite the long travel I was wide awake at 3:30am.  The second night I conked out for a solid 11 hrs.  Gotta love jet-lag!  The trails and dining hall have been getting steadily busier as all the teams, techs, industry folks and media arrive.  It’s great to be back in the World Cup scene again after a six month break.

I’m happy to report that my health is still very good.  The blood clot incident is now seven months in the past and I’m off the blood thinning medication.  I did take a theraputic dose of the blood thinner for the long flight over and wore compression tights during my travel, as well as making sure to get up and move around every couple hours.  Hopefully taking these precautions will help me avoid future clotting incidents.  Being down and unsure of what the future would hold gave me a greater appreciation for being able to ski race, and I’m not taking that for granted.  I look forward to an exciting season with lots of sprint racing and a few distance starts!

This weekend officially kicks off my racing season with a classic sprint on Saturday and a 10km classic on Sunday.  Right now the body is untested.  It feels a little bit like starting a classic race without having tested the wax.  All the indications are pointing towards good fitness and I’m psyched to get out there a see how it works.

Cheers for now!

While many of my other US teammates are at a camp in Lake Placid this week, I decided to work on some foreign relations.  On Sunday, I traveled down to Canmore, Alberta for a week-long training camp with Chandra Crawford. Even though we hail from different countries, we both share the goal of North American domination on the World Cup.

So far Chandra has been an excellent host!  She met me at the airport with smoothie in hand and zipped us off to Canmore in her snazy Pink clad Prius.  The first night we sat down to work out the week’s training.  I brought a plan from Alaska and together with her coach Arlid Monsen we melded our two plans together to include mutliple intensity sessions to practice our high speeds together.

Monday was officially day one.  We did a strength session together in the morning.  Chandra did her plan and I did mine for the first half, and then we met halfway through for some roller board reps and core exercises together.  Even though we did things a little differently, I found it super motivating to work out side by side.  In the afternoon, following a 2.5 hour nap, we met up with Arlid for a run with poles that included a 30 minute segment of natural intervals.  Arlid gave us some good technique advice and overall it was a great run.

Day two was a little more challenging.  During our skate intervals in the morning, the rain poured more and more as we went.  We took turns leading the intervals.  Being able to follow Chandra was both a nice break from the wind, and also a good chance to watch her movements.  She is a fantastic flats and overspeed skier and I learned a lot.  As soon as we finished the last interval we booked it back home.  A hot shower never felt so good!  The afternoon workout was similar to the day before, except 20 minutes of natural intervals.  Chandra had a recovery session so we warmed up together and then I took off on my interval.  Then we met up for the cool down.  On the way home, I got the scenic tour.  Canmore is a pretty incredible place!  We finished off the evening with a sushi dinner in town and then a movie in Banff.  It’s great that we can hammer each other in training and then still have fun as friends hanging out after!

That brings us to today.  We have a easy classic roller ski on the plan for this morning.  Although as I look out the window, a light dusting of snow has fallen, so we may have to change our plans.  Following training we are looking forward to massages and then a yoga class.  I’ve never done yoga, so this should be fun!

More reports to follow from the rest of the week.  Promise!

August has been a good month.  Here’s a summary of what happened:

July 28-Aug 3

We kicked off a six-week block of intensity focused training, adding a few more intensity workouts to the plan and reducing the volume.  Early in the week I did a 90 sec max test on a 500m uphill V2 section.  Usually we record time and lactate and compare to previous results.  I had a malfunction with my watch on the 1st trial so Erik had me go down and do another.  It was much harder the second time around as my legs were still flooded with lactate from the first round, and to top it off, my watch didn’t work the second time either.  So, no conclusive data.  Oh well, just had to finish off the workout with 5×2min sprint pace V2 uphill.  Day two of the week was five repeats of bounding on a closed loop we use frequently at L4 pace (think 10km race pace).  I was happy to set some of my best times of the summer and finish off the workout with a PR on my last interval.  Later in the week, we did another APU favorite, 2 sets of 5×1min double-poling uphill at sprint pace. After having done this workout several times now, I’ve gotten smarter with my pacing and improved my technique.  We finished off the week with a rollerski race.  It’s called the Potter Valley hill climb and it’s a 3km out and back flat combined with a 3km climb.  I took the lead from the start and hammered the flat section.  I was feeling pretty good through the first kilometer of the climb but then the wheels started to fall off and I struggled over the second half.  Kristina Strandberg and Laura Valaas were charging hard and I was just able to hold them off with a surge over the last 500m.  I finished 9 seconds off my PR, and after a week with so much intensity, I was pretty happy.  On Sunday we flew into the glacier for camp number four of the summer.

Aug 3 – Aug 10

GLACIER CAMP!!  It was a great camp.  A few more intensity sessions.  Hard snow, soft snow and new snow, with 12″ falling on the last day.  Pictures are worth a thousand words:

After seven days of skiing we were all psyched to fly down and start a rest week.

Aug 11 – Aug 17

REST WEEK!!  The summer Olympics are on, enough said.  Spent most of the week on the couch, glued to the TV.  Jeff and I did manage to get out for a long run adventure with Lars Flora and Kristina Strandberg.

Post 3.5 hour run we ingested a lot of calories and watched more Olympics.

Aug 18 – 24

Back to lots of intensity.  Monday am double-pole sprint work, pm threshold pace work.  Tuesday am bounding, pm strength.  Wednesday recovery bike ride and babysitting (what hard work!).  Thursday am speedwork, pm classic distance.  Friday am 90 sec max test and threshold pace, pm strength.  Saturday we did a rollerski race.  It was two races combined for an overall time.  The first race was a 4km “classic race.”  My teammate Katie Ronsee and I double-poled it on skate rollerskis.  Then a 2 hr break before a 1km skate sprint around a 400m paved speed skating oval.  Good simulation of a sprint day!

Aug 25 – Aug 31

The intensity is adding up, body is getting tired.  We went through a similar week to the one before, but now the body is one week more tired.  Bounding on Tuesday felt like trying to run away from a giant rubber band.  Thursday’s speed was missing the final gear.  Friday morning’s skate intervals were hard and heavy, yet surprisingly fast.  Then early Saturday morning travel down to Whistler, BC to join the rest of the US Ski Team for a 10 day camp.

Took today, Sunday, as an easy day to let my body absorb the training and get ready for a good week of testing the body out at the Olympic venue.  Went for a short run with my friend Taz, had to detour our route for a “toad migration.”  (Sorry I don’t have a picture for you!)

I will try to be a bit more diligent about updates in September