Latvia

I ended up getting pretty sick as soon as we arrived in Latvia. I'm not sure if it was the flu or a bad cold, but even though there was no throwing up, I was not a happy camper for a few days. We're staying at an awesome little ski area in these rustic cabins that are set right on the trail. There is skiing right out our doors but we are very removed from any other kind of civilization. Being sick here was a little torturous because I looked out at the trails right in front of me every day, but wasn't able to ski or do much of anything else. David Norris had also been sick so we were quarantined in the "sick cabin". Instead of saying goodnight each evening, we'd cough back and forth at each other. While this was an exciting new language to learn, I think we were both relieved to revert back to English once we started to get healthy again. On Friday we were able to move out of isolation and back into the cabins with everyone else. I'm still hacking every once in awhile and sniffling a little but for the most part, I feel healthy. Here are some picture of the cabins and scenery.

The cabins we are staying in

Right on the trails!

stadium

We saw the sun one or two of the days!

I've been able to go for some nice skis in the past few days. The race loop is extremely hilly but yesterday I went off the big groomed trails onto some smaller flatter trails that weren't as well groomed. These seemed to go on forever and had some really fun terrain to ski on. That's my favorite kind of skiing and remind me of the skiing back home.

Skiing with Becca and Caitlin

Ben Saxton

David Norris

Tomorrow is the first race of the series with a 5k classic for the women and a 10k classic for the men. Thursday is a 10k skate mass start for the women and 15k mass start for the men. After the race on Thursday, we pack up and drive to Estonia where we'll be competing in a classic sprint on Saturday and a skate sprint on Sunday. They should be really competitive races on some tough courses! I'm hoping to race all the races but I'm going to see how I feel each day and only do what makes sense. I definitely want to be getting healthier and don't want to push too hard and get sick again! On Monday I fly to Davos, Switzerland and meet up with the World Champs team for some training and the World Cup in Davos before traveling to Val di Fiemme for World Champs. I'm VERY excited to (hopefully) see some sun and eat some new food!

The gals - Caitlin, Becca, Jennie, Sophie, Anika (Jennie photo)

Ben made some burgers

my colorful meal!

in honor of Dartmouth Carnival this week...PINK!