Canmore

I'm currently sitting in the airport shuttle on our way to the Calgary Airport while Erika is sitting in the seat next to me imagining all the possible things that could go terribly wrong. It's dumping snow and slush and our big shuttle bus keeps sliding around even thought we can't be moving more than 30 mph. I guess we timed that one nicely! We had 8 days of beautiful sunny weather in Canmore. I didn't start getting sick of the 2 km loop we were skiing until yesterday, so it was a good week. We did a lot of distance training, some intervals, two time trials, and a beautiful distance ski and run to wrap up the camp.

Pretty Canmore (hoff.com photo)

Ida and Sophie (hoff.com photo)

Getting on snow made me excited for the season and Canmore is an awesome little town to have a training camp in. My typical day consisted of waking up to coffee and breakfast with my roommates, Jessie and Ida, while we skimmed the US news on our computers and listened to the Canadian news on the TV. The top Canadian stories tended to be about topics such as a new baby elephant being born at the zoo. Ooooh those gosh darn Canadians, no wonder they're so nice! After breakfast we would head up to Frozen Thunder and do our morning workout, eat some jelly beans (they're all gone!), have lunch, and put our feet up for a couple hours. We would usually go to the local coffee shop, Beamer's, to get one of the tastiest muffins in the world, head back up to the venue for our second workout, then come back to make dinner and go to bed. We were doing a lot of training and days were busy, but we settled into a nice routine and the camp went by very quickly.

Ida and me chasing Smutna in the sprint final

Dakota, Andy, and Simi in the sprint final 

We made some progress with the jelly beans!

Ida's foot vs. Skyler's foot

We finished the camp with a sprint race, a 10k classic time trial, and a 3.5 hour combo workout in the last three days. I was happy with how I felt for both time trials and am now exhausted and ready for an easy week. I have about 2.5 weeks at home before I head to Europe. I can't wait to see my family and friends and eat everything I won't have in Europe, including but not limited to sushi, mexican food, burgers, and VT maple syrup. 

Communitea lunch date with the girls

Typical morning lighting in Canmore

Taking a nap on the moss during our run

Ben with the town of Canmore behind him

Erika and I unintentionally wore the exact same travel outfits 

Park City in Photos

In 24 hours we will be in Canmore! Park City camp flew by. After we finished testing, we had two weeks of really solid training with an impressive number of skiers from all over the country. We did a couple speed workouts, practiced agility, did a sprint workout, some distance running, and spent a lot of time in the COE taking advantage of having our strength coach and PTs there. I've been feeling really good and the team looks strong. Here is a recap of what we've been up to in photos - we've been BUSY!

USST Fundraiser at Mike Engel's house

Kikkan sporting our new pink puffies and some pants (and a lollipop, hair, and flowers) to match

Snow on our rollerski!

Holly and Kikkan all smiles at Soho

Andy practicing the "crazy legs" drill at agility practice

Erika and me working together during intervals

 Scenic runs

some Annie time :)

Our last workout of the camp and we finished it off by climbing up to the "PC" letters on the hillside

Annie getting artsy with the camera

Simi and Erik

Girls team sushi night

Team photos

Sodie neck massages

Parker and Hannah got engaged AND gave me a lifetime supply of jellybeans

:)

Team photo shoots with Matt the giant

We arrive in Canmore tomorrow for a snow camp. This will be my first time skiing on snow since Bend Camp in May, so I'm looking forward to bundling up and putting away my rollerskis for a couple of weeks. We will be there for about a week and a half before returning home for 2.5 weeks before Europe. Canmore is one of the more beautiful places I've traveled to, so I will try to take some photos to show it off!

Park City Week 1

I guess I've almost been in Park City for a week already! Testing started yesterday, but I arrived a few days early to acclimate, see my teammates, and show up for the Fast and Female event on Sunday. We had 135 girls show up to Fast and Female. That must be some kind of record! Before the event started, Sadie put a pink mullet wig on my head because I wasn't sporting enough pink. It was a little frightening to look at, but luckily I didn't have to look at myself. Hopefully I didn't scare too many of the girls. Erika and I were in charge of the youngest girls and they were absolutely adorable. We made tutus with them, listened to inspirational speeches, and moved through about 6 different stations that were put on by athletes from all different winter sports including alpine skiing, nordic skiing, biathlon, speed skating, and freestyle. I think the event was a huge success and the four hours flew by.

My buddy Grace :)

Jessie applying some glitter

135 girls!

A little scary

Tutu Making!

Yesterday morning was our first day of testing. Between today and yesterday, I'm doing two VO2Max treadmill tests, a hemoglobin test, body composition, strength and mobility, and a blood test to make sure my iron is fine. The tests themselves actually don't end up taking very long, but we end up spending most of the day at the COE and are pretty drained by the end. Testing is going well so far, but I'm looking forward to getting outside for training tomorrow.

Gus helping me off the treadmill yesterday

No more nose plugs till June!

sadzarue pushing to her limit

Everything else is going well! I'm rooming with Sadie in the master suite in our condo and we're sharing a king size bed. It's quite romantic and it's been fun to have some quality Sodie time since we haven't seen each other since May! I made chili the other night and Jessie, Holly, Kikkan, Erika, and I brought it up to the top of Empire Pass for a sunset picnic. The first few days I was here it was cold and snowing, but the last couple days have been sunny and beautiful, so you never know what you're going to wake up to at this time of year! I finish up testing this afternoon and will start the training camp tomorrow.

Snow and Utah foliage

some muddy running

Picnic on Empire Pass

Chili delivery!

run up at Deer Valley

snow outside of our condo the other day

Sadie's new nickname

Sodie time!

The Most Beautiful Time of the Year

October and November weather can be really hit or miss in Vermont, but we have been lucky this year! Since returning from Lake Placid, I would estimate that an average of six out of every seven days have been sunny and in the 60s with beautiful foliage, and the upcoming forecast doesn't look too shabby. The leaf peepers are starting to arrive, but many are under the misconception that the best time of year to come peep leaves is at the end of October when most of the leaves have fallen. So, as a result, we've been quietly enjoying the quintessential Vermont autumn. We took advantage of an easy week last week to participate in some non-skiing fall activities of our own, like apple picking! Apples are Erika's favorite food and Annie P. had never been apple picking, so there was a lot of excitement building up around this outing. It was a success and as usual, we got tired about half way through and ended up taking a nap under thee trees and then having Ben pull us in on the wagon.

We're in the middle of another pretty big training week before we tone it down for a few days before Park City and Canmore. Most of our workouts this week have been with the SMS kids. We're about to leave for three weeks so we're trying to ski with the high school kids as much as possible. They're looking pretty fast and have been keeping us on our toes in our speed workouts.

Poppet sent this picture to Jessie and me of the girls helping each other do pull ups and it made our day!

Simi and Koby

Ben and Max

Scenic ski in Manchester

Sophie, Erika, and Annie

My cousin, Anya, visited for a few days this week and we had a blast. She lives in Bozeman now and I rarely get to see her, so it was quite a treat!

Sassy

Christmas came early!

Some Bromley selfies

The Dartmouth cousins...and Anya

The twins came home for dinner one night!

Annie and Erika are leaving today to head out west. They are going home for a week before heading to Park City. I leave on Wednesday and we will all be in Park City together by the 7th. I had fun being in Park City earlier this summer, so I'm looking forward to getting back out there. I will be in Park City for just over two weeks before heading to Canmore for my first snow skiing since May! I have a lot to do before I leave, including going to the Peru Fair tomorrow. I come from a town of about 450 people and the Peru Fair is by far the biggest event that happens in town. Downtown consists of a post office, a general store, and a church, and the main road shuts down so all the booths can be set up on the street. It's supposed to be a beautiful day and I definitely plan on checking it out!