This spring has been a blast. I am glad I didn’t know what I was missing for the past 23 years. Utah is so fun in the spring! Running and biking down in Salt Lake and skiing up in the mountains. Not to mention the desert is only a few hours away. I also made a quick trip to Anchorage to check out APU.

Tons of good skiing in PC this spring!

Crazy that this is only a few hours from Park City.

Classic intervals with new coach Erik Flora

I am psyched to be a part of a big team again! photo credit: Casey Fagerquist

It has been really nice to get my fitness back and just enjoy being able to get out and do anything I want (and feel good doing it). I have joined APU and I am going to make the lengthly drive up to Alaska soon… stay tuned.

2 Americans on the World Cup podium in 4 days! AND in Norway!!! Kikkan’s silver medal also comes on the course for next years World Championships. Keep it up guys!!!

Simi Hamilton posted this video on twitter. Super sweet. Click on the link below to check it out…

http://www.vidtweeter.com/channel/simihamilton/nozbr

Andy Newell was 3rd in today’s sprint in Drammen! 3rd is impressive in a normal World Cup but Drammen is one of the most competitive fields on the World Cup. As Kikkan Randall said on twitter  it’s “pretty much like the superbowl of XC ski racing.”

Super psyched back here in Utah!!!  Congrats Andy!

I am shocked. Yesterday we witnessed the first ever Nordic Combined Olympic Gold Medal. It was awesome! I can’t even put into words how inspired and psyched I am by Billy, Johnny, and the entire NC crew.

Now for the shocking part… a total of 6 comments. Only 6 positive comments on yesterday’s nordic combined articles. Throughout the Games there have been more negative comments than I can even count. None of which offered constructive criticism. Then yesterday we witnessed the biggest event for nordic skiing in the past 30 years and only 6 positive comments.

Here we are at the much anticipated 2010 Olympic Games. As you head into this ever so important week(s) of racing remember…

We all ski race because it is fun and we love it- no matter what the venue.

So, go out there and do what you love. Ski with heart and have fun.

photos from Teamtoday.org

Friday and Saturday 650 racers hit trails at Soldier Hollow for the Super JOQ! I am still not completely healthy so I went out to cheer. I think I need some more practice with the camera but here are a few shots that actually have skiers in them…

Caitlin Compton jumped in the race as a final tune up before the Canmore World Cups and Olympics!

The Utes also came out for the races. Zoe Roy leads some fast juniors up the hill.

The highlight of my day was the massive amount of kids out on the trails. I think there were almost a hundred kids in each category! Pretty awesome! Here is a link to the results from the weekend. http://summittiming.com/races/race_results.php

It was exciting to watch the juniors duke it out in the mass start races. It looked so fun and got me even more fired up to race! But for now patience and  recovery is still the name of the game.

The past few weeks I have been in Park City recovering from a recurrent case of mono (a CT showed I didn’t have a sinus infection). I am finally getting back on snow but taking it pretty slow. I am hoping to be ready for the Canmore World Cup but in the meantime I was able to check out a different World Cup….

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/afCUKVKQRSM" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Last weekend there were 3 Freestyle World Cups at Deer Valley. It was awesome!!! The energy from the 5,000 spectators, bright lights and loud music was incredible. I went to the Freestyle World Cups all three nights because of the atmosphere. Don’t get me wrong, the skiing was cool too but it was just fun to be there. Wouldn’t it be awesome if some of the street sprints, supertours and nationals could have sound systems and night events that would draw huge crowds?!

say nothing at all. That is the adage that has kept me from posting for the past month. No one really wants to read about my strange illness. Well, until I left U.S. Nationals. Yup, I left U.S. Nationals after one race.

Let me give you the run down. Sometime between the Bozeman and Silver Star Supertours I started feeling sick. I rested and rested and felt the same everyday. So, I went to the doc and got antibiotics for a sinus infection. They seemed to help a little bit and so I raced in the classic sprints in Canmore. Everyone warned me that racing on antibiotics would feel crappy. They were right! But I was there to get in the hard efforts and I accomplished that. The bad part was my sinus infection didn’t go away. So I returned to Park City for Christmas and started a second course of antibiotics.

By this point U.S. Nationals were about 10 days away and I began convincing myself that they were working. (Along with trying a netti pot thing, hot steam, hydration, tons of sleep, everything). I think I was actually feeling better that or I am really good at tricking myself because I really thought I was feeling better.

The second course of antibiotics ended the day I flew to Anchorage. The next few days I felt kind of crappy but with important races on the line pretended I felt great. Well, you can only convince yourself of so much… my body felt terrible in the skate sprint. It was time to face reality. I was still sick and racing was only going to make things worse. So, I saw our team doc and got a third more powerful course of antibiotics.

Now, I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed but I try to learn from my mistakes. In Canmore, I raced on antibiotics and it was terrible and I left still sick. So this time I packed my bags and my 2010 Olympic dreams, got on a plane, and returned to Park City to get healthy.

I may have left U.S. Nationals before the racing was over but I did not leave because I gave up. I left because I am not giving up on the rest of the season.