Gearing up for Canada

Wow, where did I leave off? The last few weeks have flown by and I'm currently back home gearing up for the final period of World Cup races...the Ski Tour of Canada! It's such a treat to be home in February for the first time in a few years. Even though Vermont is lacking snow at the moment, I've loved being home, training with SMS, and being with my family.

Skiing around Stratton with some of the SMS gals this morning

Taking our kitten/borderline cat, Bernie, for a walk in my parents' backyard 

After the races in Norway, we flew to Stockholm, Sweden for another classic city sprint. The only other time I had been to Stockholm was as a junior on the J1 trip. We had a day off during our J1 trip and walked around the city of Stockholm and it was really neat to see the same city this year with a ski track running down the middle of it. The sprint was right in front of the royal palace, so we played kings and queens for the day racing up the palace steps. My sprint qualifier went really well. I qualified 9th and was just over 1.5 seconds out of 1st - arguably my best classic sprint qualifier ever! My quarter final also went well and I finished first in my heat and moved onto the semi finals. In my semi final I was starting to feel pretty tired and I think I also prioritized the kick on my skis a little too much and was kicking up all the hills, but struggling to keep up on the flats and downs. I ended up 11th on the day, but was satisfied with my result. As I've said before, flatter classic sprints have historically been a struggle for me, and I think this race was a big step in the right direction.

Cresting the hill into the finish is my 1/4 final (Matthew Tipple photo)

Finish stretch (Matthew Tipple photo)

Finish lanes up to the Royal Palace

Starting gates (Caitlin Patterson photo)

After Stockholm, we went to Falun for a weekend of distance races. On Saturday there was a 5k classic and on Sunday there was a 10k skate. I raced the 5k classic and had a mediocre race. I took it out a little hot and paid for it later on, but it was awesome to see some of my teammates have great weekends with a lot of personal bests!

Training day in Falun with Sadie

After Falun, we flew to Lahti for our last European World Cup weekend of the season. As racers, many of us have a love/hate relationship with Lahti. It's an awesome venue with amazing trails, but the Lahti weekend often comes right after the Championships of the season, so sometimes we're feeling the "championship blues" and begin to get a little homesick. There were no championships this year and with the Tour of Canada finishing of the season, Lahti came a few weeks earlier than usual. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't getting a little homesick, but I knew that was only because I got to go home in a week. My history of racing in Lahti is pretty hit or miss. Before this year, I had been to Lahti three times. Two of the years I didn't qualify in the sprint and one of the years I qualified and had my first World Cup podium. I made it my goal to focus on qualifying and everything else was going to be icing on the cake. It wasn't just one more race until I got to go home, it was one more race until I got to go home, so I should give it my all. The course in Lahti this year was a new course that was a lot hillier and longer than previous years. This hasn't always been my strength in skate sprints, but I knew I was stronger, fitter, and faster than years past, so I approached it with confidence. I was thrilled to qualify in 6th, see Jess qualify in 2nd, and have four women and Simi all qualify for the heats. In my quarter final, I tucked in behind Ingvild and followed her for as long as I could until getting a little tired on the last uphill and letting a gap form. There was also a small gap between me and third place, but I got sucked up in the finish stretch, placing third in my heat and missing the semi finals. I was bummed to miss the semis, but my day was made a lot better watching Sadie get a top ten and Jessie placing 2nd on the day!

Lahti sunset

Easy training day with the girls in Lahti (Jess photo)

Race prep with Sades (hansi photo)

My wax tech, Oleg :) (Hansi photo)

Racing in my quarter final (Hansi photo)

Jess on the podium! (hansi photo)

 I flew back to the U.S. on Sunday morning after the Lahti sprint. It was a long travel day, but I couldn't have been happier to be in my own bed after over three months on the road. Federico Pelligrino joined us in Vermont a couple days later to have a little extra time in North America before the Canadian Tour. We've been doing some training with the SMS crew and have mostly been enjoying being at home, sitting by the fire, and cooking up some delicious food. I will head up to Canada on Sunday to prepare for the races beginning on Tuesday. It's so cool to see how excited people around here are to come cheer us on in Canada. I can't wait for the final period of racing, and I really can't wait to do it in front of our home crowd. Thanks for following!

Simi, Federico, Bill Koch, and me. As the best skate sprinter in the world, Federico was excited to thank Bill for inventing skate skiing!

Going for an easy ski with Lo and Alex at Mt Tabor

Classic speeds in the rain with the SMS crew

Intervals are a lot easier with buddies!

Gabe catching a ride with Federico this morning

Last intervals before Canada

Scandinavia

After our week in Czech, we headed north for our final month in Europe. There was a weekend off from World Cup races and the majority of World Cup athletes either went home or to their respective national championships. We did our best to make a home away from home and rented some cabins in Sjusjoen, Norway for the week. It was the perfect break from living out of hotel rooms with buffet meals. Our cabins had living rooms, kitchens, saunas, AND washing machines! As nice as it was to be living in homes, the best part of Sjusjoen was the 300 kilometers of skiing it had to offer. My week consisted of a combination of distance training, some intervals, and some recovery. Emily Nishikawa of team Canada joined us for the week and on the windiest and foggiest day, we set out for a three hour ski adventure. We wanted to explore some new trails, but unfortunately, when we got to the far point of our route, the wind and fog set in and our adventure ended up being a little longer than we anticipated. Matt came to our rescue and picked us up on our way back and a chocolate bar has never tasted so good!

Snowy view out our cabin window

Sunset ski with Sim

Beautiful light and hundreds of kms

Happy skier

After our week in Sjuesjon, we drove to Oslo. There was a mid week city sprint in Drammen last week followed by the 30km and 50km Holmenkollen races over the weekend. I've had mixed feelings about the Drammen sprint in years past. It is hands down one of the coolest venues where we have raced. The track is set through the city center and loops around the beautiful Drammen church. The crowds in Drammen are wild. Norway loves skiing and it feels like the entire country comes out to watch the races. I have done the Drammen sprint the last three years and had never qualified before. In fact, I had never even been close to qualifying! It's a gradual course, which is one of my weaknesses in classic skiing and the field tends to be stacked because Norway is allowed to have more starters in these races. So while I've always loved the atmosphere in Drammen, it's been a difficult race for me to perform in. But this year was a new year, and I went into the sprint with the confidence that I've had the rest of the season, and I qualified 11th! Jessie, Sadie, Simi and I all qualified in the top 12, which are probably the best qualifier results we've ever had as a team in Drammen. Jessie, Sadie, and I all narrowly missed moving onto the semi finals, but Sim made the semis and placed 11th on the day. This wasn't the strongest day we've ever had in sprinting, but I think it says a lot about how far our team has come in a sprint that has historically been challenging for us. I was thrilled to not only qualify, but to qualify well and to be in the mix in my quarter final.

View of the Drammen church from the high point on the course

Jessie and I were psyched to qualify in Drammen for our first time!

After the sprint in Drammen, we moved up to Holmenkollen to prepare for the weekend races. I didn't race the 30k because I want to be well rested for the upcoming sprints, but I was still looking forward to enjoying the Holmenkollen atmosphere. We had pretty awful weather for the weekend, but that didn't stop the crowds from coming out in force. Fans come up to Holmenkollen for the weekend and camp out on the edge of the trails. You can count on cheering around the entire loop and are surrounded by the smell of grilled food. It's a race weekend that I look forward to coming back to as a fan some day. I had a lot of fun working at the feed stations and cheering on my teammates as they fought to some impressive results.

Welcome to the Holmenkollen!

I was able to test out our new feed hats, courtesy of L.L. Bean. The hunter orange color and headlights made for the best hats out there on a foggy day! 

In addition to training and racing, we were able to do some other pretty neat activities while in Norway. On one of the off days, Simi and I went down to explore the city of Oslo.  I've been to Holmenkollen many times, but I never actually had the time to go check out the city, so I was excited to play tourist for a day. Former Norwegian ski racer, Kristin Stormer Steira set up an event for us with the organization she now works for, Aktiv Against Cancer (Aktiv Mot Kreft in Norway). It's an incredible organization that promotes physical activity for cancer patients during and after treatment. They support research on the topic as well as set up Puste Rommets (breathing rooms) within hospitals where patients can go to receive a personal training plan and workout with instructors. We were honored to attend a spinning class with a group of patients who are training for a bike trip in Majorca this spring. It was an inspiring event and we were happy to learn that Aktiv Against Cancer is branching out to the U.S. To read more about them, visit http://www.aktivagainstcancer.org/.

Sadie, Jessie, and me getting ready for our spin class

Liz exchanging autographs with one of the little girls

Spin workout complete!

The crew after spin class

Climbing up the opera house in Oslo

View of the city from the top of the opera house

Exploring the old fortress

This afternoon we are flying to Stockholm, Sweden for another classic city sprint on Thursday. This will be the first time I've done the Stockholm sprint! After the sprint, we will drive to Falun, Sweden for a weekend of distance racing. After Sweden, we have one more weekend of European World Cup races before heading home for the week before the Canadian Tour. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a countdown on my phone telling my how many days until I get to be home, but I'm looking forward to our last 12 days (to be exact) in Europe. Thanks for following!

Four Countries in Three Weeks!

This blog is a little overdue, but the past few weeks have been busy! After the first five races in the Tour de Ski, those of us who finished early had a week or so in Toblach to recover and prepare for the sprint weekend in Slovenia. Toblach didn't have a ton of snow, but they put down a huge stretch of trail for the marathon that was happening while we were there. It was one of the first times this season that we had more than a 5k loop to ski! Unfortunately, I caught a mild cold after the Tour, so I was doing more resting than skiing, but Toblach is also a great place to recover.

View of Toblach out my hotel window

Skiing on the marathon trail with Chelsea Holmes

After our week in Toblach, we traveled to Planica, Slovenia for the sprint weekend. I had never been to Slovenia before, so I was looking forward to seeing a new country. We were staying in a beautiful little town in the Julien Alps. The first race in Slovenia was a skate sprint. I placed third in my quarter final, missing the lucky loser spot and placing 13th for the day. I didn't feel great, but 13th in a World Cup is never a bad day. The following day was a skate team sprint. Ida and I paired up and moved through the semi finals to place 5th in the final, the best we've ever done as a pair in a team sprint! Team sprints are a really fun format and also one of the most demanding races on the World Cup. Each person does three laps of the sprint course and tags off to their partner between each leg. So by the end of the day, after the semi final and the final, we had each done six laps of the sprint course!

Ida, Erika, me, and Chels skiing around the day before the sprint

Team sprint buddies

Me and Ides sporting our relay socks after the team sprint

My favorite part of our trip to Slovenia was the adventure run we went on the day after the races. There wasn't much snow, so we decided to wander into the Alps for a run. It was a beautiful morning and there were mountain goats zipping around above us as we ran up the valley in Planica. Days like this are one of the many reasons I love being a skier and it was really refreshing to get away from a small manmade loop of skiing for a day.

Zuz running up the valley

The crew (Zuzana photo)

Checking out the view on one of the ridges

Zuzana, Erika, and me

SMS T2 jumping photo with Ruka

Made it!

The Tuesday after the Slovenia weekend, we made the long drive to Nove Mesto Na Morave, Czech Republic. This was the third time I had ever been to Nove Mesto, and for some reason I really like it there. It's not beautiful central Europe with sunny skies and delicious food, but we stay in a cute little hotel right by the ski stadium and everything is simple. Nove Mesto has a really neat stadium and they had a 5k loop of skiing. I did some good training in the beginning of the week and then took a couple easy days to prepare for a potential relay start. My cousin, Lilly, was coming over to Europe for a work meeting and she made the trip over to Nove Mesto to visit me and do some cheering before her meetings! I was so happy to see a familiar face and I loved showing her the ropes at her first ever cross country World Cup race. Saturday was a distance skate race that I didn't do, but I cheered on my teammates and we had a great day as a team. Jessie raced to the podium AGAIN, placing 3rd, and Sadie, Liz, Rosie, and Noah were also all in the points. 

Our friend Robin from the French team gave us some special herbs to spice up our food in Europe in exchange for some VT maple syrup and cheddar cheese when we get to Canada!

Me and Jess on one of the training days in Czech

Jessie at the podium ceremony downtown!

One of the best fireworks shows I've ever seen after the awards ceremony

Hanging out with my cousin Lilly at the races!

On Saturday afternoon, I found out I had a spot on our relay team! We have a really strong women's team right now and I think one of the coolest things about it is that any one of the seven of us could make a case for a strong relay leg. I was thrilled to be a part of our A relay team for my first time. The relay was 4x5kms and the first two legs were classic and the second two legs were skate. I was the scramble leg, so the first classic leg, and my goal was to conserve as much energy by following people and to come in tagging Sadie off in a good place. The first 2.5kms of the relay were pretty mellow. I had a good start and positioned myself in the front 1/3 of the pack. After 2.5kms, Norway took off at a sprint pace and put some time into the rest of the field. I hung tight to the chase pack and came in the with a pack of skiers from 2nd-5th place, tagging Sadie off in third. Sadie and team Finland managed to gap the skiers they were racing with and Sadie tagged Liz off in third, right behind Finland, with a gap to the next pack of skiers. Liz skied an awesome race and passed Finland on the second lap, tagging Jessie off in second, with a small gap to third. Jessie, being the anchor queen she is, put a little more time into Finland and crossed the finish line in a decisive second place, the best result our US women's relay team has ever had! This was one of the most memorable races of my ski career and I was so happy and honored to be a part of such a strong team.

Sprinting into the finish pen to celebrate our 2nd place as Jessie crosses the line (Getty Images)

Our relay team of Sadie, Jessie, me, and Liz (hiding behind her skis) (Getty Images)

USA, Norway, and Finland on the podium! (FIS photo)

On Monday morning, we flew to Norway for a week of training in Sjusjoen before the World Cup picks back up in Scandinavia next week. There are over 300kms of skiing in Sjusjoen and it is a winter wonderland. We are staying in cabins right near the trails and I'm looking forward to some good training, relaxing, and a weekend off from racing. Thanks for following!

Emily Nishikawa, me, Sim, Andy, Liz, and Ides posing for a picture on our first ski in Sjusjoen (Jessie photo)

Jumping for joy! (Jess photo)

Liz and Jess finding a cave under a snow covered tree

Celebrating Ida's 28th birthday

Sunrise view out my bedroom window in the morning

Making our way up the backside of the alpine mountain...oops!

Teammates cresting over the hill in Sjusjoen