NEHHH NEHHH NEHHH NEHHH NEHHH NEHHH!!! God I hate that noise.

Put a few more coffee grinds into that press, Pat. I mean seriously, it’s friggin 7am. I’m headed an hour north to Hatcher pass for perfect snow in a BEAUTIFUL setting. I’m pretty thankful that I can just up and leave my job with no notice to get good snow. October conversations in Anchorage are always full of “blah blah blah Hatcher”, and “Blah Hatcher blah blah”, or “Blah blah-SICK at Hatcher’s”, because the backcountry fills in early there, the nordic grooming is perfect, and they get it a month before the rest of Anchorage.

So I’m back, Gina. I guess if I just wrote something in my training log and woke up at 7am to ski a supplemental ski area to get in shape, then I’m back. But I swear, I turn my back for a couple of weeks and there’s a hoard of new blogs on fasterskier, tons of news, everyone’s talking about getting pumped for racing, and there’s SNOW in Anchorage. Blimey Margey! What Gives?!?

I’ve got my Gilligan’s island costume, the pirate’s costume is on the way, and I extended my ticket to w a full two weeks. Virgin Gorda, Yachts and theme parties here I come. What does this have to do with training? Not much. Why haven’t I written anything recently? Not much to write about. It’s kinda nice, actually.

Once my IT band gave the the checkered flag for the running season I got to say “fine, be that way. I didn’t want to run any more anyway.” Guess that means it’s time to rollerski, and back to the bottom rung. Yeah my lungs feel great, but my technique SUCKS and it doesn’t matter how humungous your tri’s are if you never use your abs. How do you guys do it, seriously!? I classic skied with UAA out Eklutna lake Road and back the other day and got totally worked. Those guys are fit, man, and it’s cool to see. They’ve got a solid men’s team and a friggin army of girls this year. Go Alaska!