'Twas the Eve Before Christmas Eve...

All through the house there was a commotion this morning as I woke up to a surprise: a blanket of white softly covering all of the yard and the shed (as that's really all I can see from my window). After smiling and hitting my alarm, like any self respecting college student just home from break, I slept until 10. After that however, we took baby Hattie over to the conservancy to introduce her to wonderful things called snowballs. She happily chased them all morning and learned how to make a snowman, even though she spent half the time trying to destroy it/eat away at its snowy body.

She gave it a nice bodily wound right in the kidney area. It could be fatal.

Ta da. Rural Maine Snowman.

Anyway, the last few days have been very eventful. I've been able to get on snow three days for training, which has been very helpful. These sessions have been, how do I put this lightly, difficult to come by and in some ways difficult to execute just because the snow is so hard to ski on, at least today was. The snow at the base of Sugarloaf (the alpine slope mind you) was solid, it was just really difficult to judge my speeds because you were going straight up and then straight down so the heart rate was all over the place. But it was a good chance to work on the V1. Then on Tuesday I was lucky enough to get up at 5:30 and join the Gouldies for skiing at the base of Sunday River at Barker Mountain. That snow was actually very good and speeds on that were really effective. I actually felt like some of my summer technique work was actually translating to the snow. Today, I attempted to ski on my home trails at Titcomb. It wasn't necessarily the best, but being able to ski on the railroad bed and on the airport (aka, EASTERN CUP STADIUM) was pretty enjoyable.

Railroad bed. The snowmobiles actually made a decent track for skating.

Stadium view.

For other workouts, its been mostly bounding and running. With Sadie. Which as always provides for an entertaining two hour extravaganza. We trekked up to Saddleback and ran all over creation, stopping once for our prime photo opportunity. Say cheese.

Sister Seals <3

And tomorrow we're going to fire it up with some gnarly VO2 Max intervals at Titcomb again. Not skiing but running/bounding. GETCHO GAME FACE ON SADIE!!!!
A little side note, before this one workout, Nathan made us say three things that put us into a good mood/a mood that we can really use to power through the workout. My three things were: Unicorns, Ke$ha, and Narwhals.
And on that note, enjoy this letter.
Cheers!

Dear Santa,


I know this is really REALLY last minute but I hope you can find it in your heart to read this and perhaps come through with a Christmas miracle. First of all I should probably fluff up my request by saying that I have been a very good Polar Bear this year. So I have a list of things to request that I think the entire Nordic Community (specifically New England) will appreciate.

1. I would really like some snow. Last night we had a nice little squall and that brought enough for me to strap my rock skis on. However, snow is scarce this year. I know it's probably the most popular thing in demand, but please, consider New England before you go about giving snow to the rest of the world.
2. Building off that train of thought, please help Rumford pull off Nationals without a hitch. That would be so awesome.
3. I would like an ugly sweater. I need one.
4. The US Ladies to continue dominating the World Cup.
5. AND lastly, some extra spirit to distribute to children throughout the land to get them into the spirit of nordic skiing. It's not just about the results, it's about loving the sport for what it is and becoming friends with the people that you get to meet when you're involved in the coolest sport on the face of the planet. I think that one is the most important.

I hope you take these things into consideration. Have a safe flight Saturday, I'll be waiting with Hammer Gel for you at our recovery station.

Sincerely Yours,

Shelby