On The Trax

'Twas the Eve Before Christmas Eve...

2011-12-23T22:34:00.001-05:00

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.

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.
Building off that train of thought, please help Rumford pull off Nationals without a hitch. That would be so awesome.
I would like an ugly sweater. I need one.
The US Ladies to continue dominating the World Cup.
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

It's Been A While

2011-12-08T18:14:00.001-05:00

Hello hello my blogosphere nerds. Contrary to popular belief, I am still blogging. It's just been so hectic since the end of Thanksgiving break with papers, exams, reading period, everything just flying by at a billion miles per hour. Thankfully, I'm home now, eating home food, sleeping in my own bed, and enjoying my pleasure reading that does not involve the history of Medieval and Renaissance Europe (History 110: it's great, but the Bartlett book -The Making of Europe- made me never want to read a straight up history book again. So dry and bland). I'm now taking the time to sit down, think of something somewhat witty, and write about the last few weeks.

Summary phrase of the last four or so weeks
Tiring but completely fierce.

I have to say, Canada was an amazing time. Yeah it was a little depressing being away from home for the holidays (as it was my first experience not being with the whole famn damily for Turkey Day) but all and all, I think our girls and boys teams bonded really well. The snow was a little sketch, but for the first two days, the track held up really well. Over the course of the week, we really put in some quality hours and technique sessions which I really felt I benefited from. We had our share of adventures: Kaitlynn breaking her skis, run-ins with the local fox, jamming to nostalgic middle school tunes, and a climb up a hill that literally took almost an hour (Sierra and Maren can attest to this beast of a mountain). Getting the snow time was so worth it though, considering when we came back there was literally nothing winter-y in Brunswick except the holiday wreaths all around campus.

All photo creds to Maren and whoever was using her camera at the time :)

The lovely lady Polar Bears:)

Adventuring in Quebec

Waxin' up

The Boys looking good as always for Turkey Day (photo win to Alec) AND that bottle is actually a substitute foam roller. Just saying.

Photo bombed professionally by Mr. Chris Sanville

The Ladies serving up mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving

Team bonding over Turkey. Note, the steam building up on the window from all the skiers in one space.

The shirtless clean-up crew (GO U MEN)

Riley REALLY helps out with dishes.

A popular question from Natedawg over camp: Ou est le Drew? Here he is.

Erin and Jackson wrecking houuuseeeee

Riley

Yayyyy first race as a Polar Bear :)

Kaitlynn having a great race :D

After Canada, school really picked up. And when I say school picked up, I mean school literally snowballed into a giant heap and left itself at my dorm door for me to pick up. Training happened to be very similar in structure, especially the week after the week we got back from camp. We managed to squeeze in a time trial with the Bates-ies and that was actually a lot of fun. Granted, we were all really tired from that week of training and I personally think my results were kinda crappy, but all and all it was a good excuse to put on a bib and get into the mindset.

Following that time trial is a blur of ridiculously awesome workouts, specifically this one running up the hill at Mt. Ararat High School that I absolutely loved. I'd have to say though my favorite was the one we did the Saturday before reading period started up, which was a 2 minutes at threshold with 30 seconds rest for a solid 50 minutes. At the beginning I thought I wasn't going to make it, but lo and behold I actually felt myself getting faster as the workout progressed and I ended on a really good note. During our cooldown, Riley helped me identify the wildlife along the side of the road (they were guinea hens by the way, very loud little birds that I would not want anywhere near my house) and we ended up going longer than expected but that was all fine by me.

I should probably throw in the pictures from my first Bowdoin hockey game against Colby. YEAAAH GO U BEARS!! MULES ARE STERILE!!!!! (We lost by the way. How sad....)

RAWWRRR GO U BEARS!

Polar Bears are always FIERCE

Then we hit reading period. And finals. And everything training-wise got put not necessarily on hold, but it kinda did. I can honestly say I don't think I've ever sat down and just studied like that. It was exhausting. I mean think about it. After a two hour ski with intervals, yeah you can go around saying "man, I'm wicked tired." But after a four hour study sesh in Hubbard writing out the entire history of Medieval and Renaissance Europe, are you really allowed to feel tired? I mean all you were doing was reading, writing, and talking aloud to yourself. And yet you feel like you have just finished said two hour ski. Hmm. Something to contemplate.

So now, thank goodness, I'm home. And I must say, this new puppy (yes we have a new puppy) is the new star in my life. Hattie is now 15 weeks old and can scale puppy gates with a single bound. Not to mention she is probably THE FLUFFIEST THING ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET!!!!!! Well, I'm biased so I'll let you all be the judges, but I personally think she's a very photogenic pooch.

The workouts at home are going pretty well. Today I visited my trails over at Titcomb and indulged in some VO2 max running interval ladders. I was really surprised because I remember doing threshold intervals over there this summer and running was so much more difficult. Now, running the hills and trails seems so much easier and I can really push myself. Hmm, am I saying I feel results of my training? Possibly. But the real goal of these next two weeks at home is the maximize my training and get race ready. Without snow, we just haven't had the chance to really get fast on skis yet. So that's the goal. Find snow, get fast, and get ready to rock it this coming season.

So the tree is lit, the house is decorated, the Italian cheese stuffed pasta noodle things are made (my specialty), and cookies are in the freezer, and the Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli fills our house with his joyous Christmas tunes. With that in mind, all we need is this Christmas storm. Cross your fingers for the snow. We all know we need it for US Nationals in less than a month and the Eastern Cup at Titcomb. SNOW DANCES EVERYONE, WE NEED SNOW DANCES!!!

Happy holidays to everyone!
Cheers!

Almost Over the Hump

2011-11-16T21:10:00.001-05:00

The fun never ends here at Bowdoin, as I have learned from the never ending stream of exams, papers, and practices. But to be honest, I think I've been living this fast paced lifestyle for so long that I don't know what I would really do without constantly having to do something else, or to be said in short: I really do enjoy having a never ending cyclone of work. Otherwise, what would I really be doing with myself?

As for the title of this lovely post, I should probably start with the fact that last week was an absolute wreck. And it's not quite over yet. I have just one more paper to squeeze out for tomorrow, but it happens to be my draft for my term paper for archaeology. So yeah, last week. I came down with a nasty case of something last weekend, starting Saturday morning with a light fever. I skipped practice that morning and slept till I couldn't sleep anymore. Advil seemed to lower my fever and I just kept pumping the fluids all day. Sunday morning, I had a really sore throat but after taking some more Advil I seemed to think I was fine for our classic OD to Naomi's for DELICIOUS chili (we're talking absolutely mind blowing). However later that night, while trying to write a paper in the library, I was hit with the shakes and the aches really bad. Walking back to my dorm has never been so painful. So for the next two miserable days, with the permission of the health center and my professors, I was able to do nothing but watch movies and sleep. Movie selections included: Rise of the Planet of Apes (JAMES FRANCO), The Land Before Time (the FIRST one), The Prestige (amaaaaazing movie), and finally, Atonement (possibly one of the saddest movies I've seen in a long time). Monday, I left my floor once and that was to go to the Health Center. Tuesday, I was a tad more adventurous and went to the dining hall for dinner even though I could barely talk to ask for the food that I wanted. Wednesday brought some relief and I gave running and erging a shot. Surprisingly, I felt amazing while running and I couldn't wait for the next few workouts on Thursday and Friday.

Om noms! via Zach and the new iPad.

A lovely OD classic ski. Via Zach and the iPad (I sense a reblogging of pictures from the Bowdoin blog trend...)

Oh, I should probably mention that as soon as I started recovering my test results from the Health Center came back. Strep throat, strain C. Bundles of joy.

Saturday brought a lovely change of pace. We decided to hold some sprint rounds with the Bates team down at Pineland. We arrived a tad late so our warmup was a little too short for my liking. I like a pretty long warmup especially for my sprints and my muscles felt super tight and cold by the time I toed the line. But to my surprise, I finished my prelim in 4th overall which was a pretty exciting thing for me. The rounds were a lot of fun, especially because I really haven't had the chance to race in heats since I was a J2, I mean, once a year at EHSC isn't really enough. I think my favorite was definitely the round with Kaitlynn, Steph, Me, and a Bates girl. We had the most amazing photo finish minus the photo part because I really don't think we were going to pull out the electronic eye for a fun little mini-competition. All and all, the boys and girls all had pretty strong showings. I can't wait to get onto real skis to see how we've all progressed. Ahh, the season is so close!!

So anyway, it's almost Thanksgiving. Canada here we come! We're heading North tomorrow at promptly 1:15pm and I think it's going to be absolutely amazing. Sure the snow might be sketch, but with a team like the Polar Bears, we're bound to make it work.
Enjoy your holidays! See you in CANADAAAAAA!!!!!
Cheers!
ps. GO TEAM NOFF NOFF (to be explained later.....!)

Taking the Plunge

2011-11-07T13:25:00.000-05:00

Last week was thankfully a wonderful recovery week to help rejuvenate the training batteries for this next coming training block. I can personally say with an immense amount of gratitude that I was ecstatic not to have 6:30am practice last Tuesday or 7am practice last Friday. I was actually able to catch up on that mysterious thing called "sleep," something that so many students around here seem to be lacking. Anywho, while it was technically an easy week for hours, we did do some quick workouts that happened to be pretty intense. Tuesday was one of the first times I had done classic sprints on roller skis in an extremely long time and for the next couple of days, my hip flexers were pretty tight. Thursday brought another hard workout, although not because of the workout design itself. Thursday happened to be extremely windy and cold and while it felt like we were skating in level three, we were moving at what felt like a snails pace. It was a little discouraging and my lungs were burning with the first taste of that crisp winter-esque air. But, with the help of Zach and his advice giving skills on the bike, I puttered my way through the rest of the workout at a decent clip feeling really strong. Our highlight of the week however, belongs to our Sunday workout. Due to our snow extravaganza last Sunday (SKIING FOR REALZ) we switched last Sunday with this Sunday and we ended up doing a 3.5 hour ski/run adventure around the Pineland area. The ski was a lot of fun with the girls, we all really pushed our V2 which was the main point of the workout (V2 everything unless your technique completely falls apart). The run was a hard follow up after a 2 hour ski but we managed to do it and when everything was said and done (2100 calories later) we celebrated with delicious cider and donuts from the Pineland Market. DELICIOUS WAY TO END THE DAY.

But this week is going to be our first step into the hard blocks of November and December. I'm pretty pumped. I do feel stronger thanks to our GSA and I feel like my threshold has improved. I guess I'm just nervous to start collegiate racing. Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing else I want to do besides race. It's literally my favorite feeling in the entire world. But I guess it's just taking the next step up into another league. It happens every couple of years. As soon as you get comfortable with the level you're at, be it J2's, EHSC, Junior Naitonals, Nationals, even World Juniors, you always have to end up taking the next step up. In my case this happens to be collegiate racing. It's a good nervous though. My technique feels solid, I'm relatively pain free, and I'm really starting to feel my focus sort of center in on my goals for this coming season. I'm gearing up for this next block of training by starting with my mentality before each workout. Just some positive visualization and race-prep practice. Anything I can do that is going to help put me in the right training mindset is going to help me in the long run.

So with that in mind, good luck to all of you! I'll be seeing you in Canada in about two weeks! YAHOOTIE! CANADAAAAAAA :D
Cheers!

Lots to Catch Up On

2011-10-25T10:48:00.001-04:00

Well this maybe the first time in a very long time that I have completely forgotten about my little corner of the universe. But with a helpful nudge from Sadie (erhm, I believe the text was "Did you forget that you have a blog?" or something along those lines) I decided to sit down and write today in the Union. I am in fact alive, contrary to popular belief, and I am functioning at a very high level here at Bowdoin. We have lots to catch up on, so sit down with a beverage of your choice and if you have a few minutes to kill, I'll provide some commentary on the month of October.

Hm, where to begin. Well we could start with some highlights. We had our first team time trial a few weeks back. We had a skate 5k on the bike path here in Brunswick, which actually was pretty awesome considering that is pretty much my kind of race (rolling/flat skate 5k's are just so appealing to me as of late, but that may be because I had my first 15k this past weekend and I wanted to drop dead. More on that later.) ANYWHO, I think I did pretty well, I was our top girl finisher with a 11:55 which I thought was a very solid performance. Other highlights of the past few weeks have included some gnarly 6:30am workouts with our new assistant coach -Zach Stegeman- like the one we had this morning. Which included watching a sunrise through the dark and mysterious fog as we did 4x9 minute running intervals around the athletic fields with weights around our waists. Oh happy day. We've also had some lovely OD workouts out and about on the roads around Brunswick, this weekend being my favorite so far. It was just such a perfect fall day, with amazing sunshine, a crisp breeze, and gorgeous foliage along the road. All and all, I can say that sure, we may not have a TON of hills right on campus, but just a few minutes out we have amazing terrain and some of the best pavement and skiing roads I've been on in a long time.

Oh and I also ran in the Dempsey Challenge about two weeks back. It was my first 10k in a while and I took it like a nice threshold workout (7:40 minute miles). And I got to creep on Mr. Dempsey himself which is always a great thing, he is McDreamy after all....

Oh Mr. Dempsey

It's a hazard to wear a Bowdoin shirt in Bates territory as I learned.

That day we also happened to travel to New York for a family friend's birthday and we wandered around for a little while in the Big City. While New York is kinda cool for shows and food and shopping, it's not exactly my favorite city. I've never felt so engulfed by so many people. Although the lights in Times Square were pretty awesome.

Ahem, so what else what else.... We also had the Lobster Roll out on North Haven last weekend, which I must say was probably one of my worst feeling races to date. The day before we had done speeds and I had tweaked my hip a little bit. I rolled it out that night and stretched and thought to myself "bring on the 15k!" Unfortunately my hip did not agree with what my brain was saying and I forced myself to slow down because I was kind of afraid that I was going to hurt myself more. I came across the line feeling a mixed bag of emotions. On one hand I was thinking "okay, first 15k EVER, you don't know how to pace yourself and in reality, this doesn't even matter. It's only October." But the little demon on my other shoulder kept whispering in my ear "It's October. Racing starts in two months and that was not a good note to start on. Get it together." So I cooled down with a nice chat with Coach and things started to look up especially when I really figured out that I have plenty of time to get together by racing season. And it really wasn't something that mattered. All things which I kind of already knew but I had to hear from someone else.

Gosh, I dunno what else to talk about. Well classes are going pretty well, everything is such a whirlwind, half the time I don't know what to do BESIDES homework. Archeology is going swimmingly as I have officially decided to write my term paper about nineteenth century brothels in Washington D.C. and compare them to those found in Boston and New York City (bundles joy!) My Russian is also a superb class with one of my favorite professors I have encountered so far. History is okay, although I'm not sure if I really want to take another history class anytime soon. Although last night we read and AMAZING letter from Pico della Mirandola about the purpose of man in the universe. Seriously. It kind of blew my mind (On the Dignity of Man). AND finally psychology which is something I have really taken a liking to. So much so that it has the potential to be my major, but I don't want to jinx that now do I?

Well I have to run and get some food at some point today and then go to my archeology class and Russian hour. Then practice. Again. But I think we're playing speedball which is perfectly fine with me.
Cheers!

I Passed (Yay!)

2011-10-01T15:37:00.001-04:00

Today was our morning of physical testing here at Camp Bo Bo. After being told by my roommate in a slightly grumbly voice that my alarm was going off, I rolled out of bed at about 7:30 only to remember that this morning was going to be a 'fun' morning. And by fun, I mean painful (but in the language of skiing, fun and painful are interchangeable terms). The girls all arrived at the field house and we started our warmup on the track and on the Ergs for our 500m double pole extravaganza. Nate and Zach both arrived and things quickly got rolling after Maren plugged in the speakers. Since I had to work at the dining hall at 10:30am and I wanted to be fresh, I went first. It wasn't nearly as long as I thought it was going to be, it was just really hard to sustain such a breakneck pace. By the end, everyone was screaming in my ears and my arms were just about ready to give. Thankfully, I ended with just over 2:00 and the cut off is at 2:05. Yayyyy for success! All the girls had amazing runs and then we all headed over (in the pouring rain of course) to Buck for our treadmill test. Once again, I got the ball rolling. 12% grade with the speed increasing every minute. Oh bundles of joy. I held on for the required time (5 minutes) and then the rest was all bonus time. My legs definitely gave our before my heart rate maxed as I only got up to 190 bpm. But I thought I had a pretty good run. But I think my time gave the rest of the girls more incentive to go longer than me (I mean, who wants to be beat by a froshie??? :P) So all of our girls went longer and at the end, Erin beasted it out for 6:07. All and all, today was a good start to the season. We officially sell our souls *cough* I mean, start practice on Monday (just kidding, I can't wait to start up the season) and from there, anything goes. Good luck, stay safe, WEAR YOUR BLAZE ORANGE, and have fun.
Cheers!

A Weekend in Bethel

2011-09-25T17:25:00.000-04:00

This weekend was an extremely exciting one for me as I was lucky enough to head back to Bethel for some alum action (it still feels weird saying that). On Friday I was able to join the solid group of fall trainers and new head coach Tim Whiton on an hour and a half double pole/strength session which I must say felt so nice after my two hour car ride. It was kind of deja vu-esque skiing back on Vernon Street but being able to see how the team is progressing was really nice. Watch out everyone, Kyle, Molly, and Ashton are looking really good this year :)

I was able to stay with my friend from school at her house that night and the next morning we headed to campus. After catching up with teachers and friends, being spoiled with alum food, and sitting in on some classes, I met up with my bestie who is over at Colby-Sawyer. With her enthusiasm cheering me on, I ran the alumni 5k (although I must say it felt a little longer) and ended up taking home a pumpkin for being the first female finisher. So with lactate burning in my legs, smelly laundry accumulating in the back of the car, and an empty stomach gurgling like crazy, I headed home for my mom's birthday. And finally, after traveling pretty much all over Western Maine, I finally returned to Bowdoin.
Wow, I did not rest one second this weekend.

Anywho, the training has been awesome so far. Today I took off after my race (which was actually more of a two hour sort of training sesh with one single threshold interval) and the rest of the team headed out for their OD this morning. I'll probably end up doing a short run tomorrow. But overall I'm adjusting to the training schedule quite nicely. Our girls squad is a really great group of people and we're all getting along really well. Pretty much every workout we do together, and if not there's usually someone you can hook in with if they can't make the regular practice, so training is never lonely. As for my shoulder, the only thing that bothers it is bounding still. I'm not really sure why, but I can double pole and single stick just fine. I feel like I've regained most of my arm strength and my speed, leg strength, and threshold seems to be holding pretty steady. I've only had one bad workout so far and that was our second track workout of 200m race pace repeats. I was just recovering from a nasty little cold that had me bogged down for a while and I was only able to do about half the actual time we needed for level 3 that day. But, I'm glad I got the sickness done with early, that way (hopefully fingers crossed), I'll stay healthy for the rest of fall training and race season.
Enjoy the weather, even though it kind of needs to start cooling down. We need winter :)
Cheers!

College!

2011-09-09T12:56:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the big world now. The world has now expanded to include more than 400 Polar Bear freshmen and not just my class of what, 68 back at Gould? I can't get enough of the life here. Everything is walking distance away and Brunswick is such an amazing town. The people here are just out of this world: always saying hello with a smile on their face. I had my first team practice last week which was pretty fun, especially because I got to meet all the girls. The girls team is so small compared to our boys squad. I mean sure, we're missing three girls due to some study abroad programs but I have a feeling our boys team is going to do VERY well this year (but I don't want to jinx it). So far, the track workout was our most fun/intense session we've had. We were doing 200m repeats at a strong clip with a 100m recovery in between, both taking the same time. We did those for about half an hour and then finished with a great cooldown/team meal. All and all, I'm really looking forward to the more intense sessions this fall. I was finally cleared to roller ski and Wednesday we were out for about an hour and a half session of double poling and classic work (in the rain of course, that's the only way to REALLY ski). I'm glad I'm finally getting back into a rhythm of practicing. It helps me focus and hone in on my academics.

SPEAKING OF WHICH! I guess you may be curious as to exactly what classes I'm taking. Well my first year seminar -a requirement for all freshmen as a writing intense course- is an Archeology class which was a pretty random pick. I'm also taking Psychology, The History of Medieval and Renaissance Europe, and my favorite class so far: Russian. Yes, I'm finally learning something other than French and I'm absolutely loving it. Здравствуйте. Меня зовут Шелби. Я люблю кататься на лыжах. The alphabet is a tad strange but once you learn how to read the Cyrillic Alphabet, pronunciation comes relatively quickly. That little example above is "Hello my name is Shelby. I love to ski." I wouldn't be able to hold a conversation about skiing, but I have learned the word to ski, which I just love to mutter under my breath, because there is nothing more intimidating than someone who mutters in Russian.

So yes. I am officially college student. You -if you have been reading this since the humble beginnings of this wonderful little blog- have successfully (or not so successfully at some points) followed me from junior year in high school, a rough season, a summer of 'redemption', my transfer to Gould, my acceptance into Bowdoin, my JO's adventures, another summer of training madness, a shoulder separation, recovery, and now here we are.
Good luck to all you baby freshmen out there!
Cheers!

Back To Basics

2011-08-22T23:18:00.002-04:00

Finally, two weeks after my fall, I was able to run this week. At first -Wednesday- it wasn't much. Literally, probably a 30 minute run, 3 miles, 10 minute pace, we're talking real simple. But my muscles didn't seem to hate me that much and my legs felt pretty solid considering all I've been doing for two weeks is biking and swimming so that had me pretty pumped. Over the course of this week I've been hybridizing my workouts, gradually adding onto the running time and decreasing the bike time. So I think Thursday I did a 30 minute run and then an hour on the bike and that seemed to work pretty well. Finally today I was able to do about a 7 mile run (exactly 59:51 if you were curious) and I was just so happy with myself. And today was my last run in my hometown for a while, so I wanted to make it special. I headed out towards Titcomb, although I didn't quite think my body was ready for 10 miles, and just took in this amazing day. I mean I couldn't have asked for better weather: perfect blue skies, a crisp fall-like breeze, and a nice solid 72 degree temperature. The llamas on the side of the road also made my run pretty worthwhile. But I just got really emotional coming back down the hill that overlooks all of the mountains and Wilton (and all of Franklin county pretty much). I mean I'm leaving tomorrow! It was my last run here for quite sometime and of course having Lady GaGa come on with Edge of Glory just made it that much more bittersweet.

I feel like although I'm not able to ski or do a lot of upper body, I'm still able to keep my aerobic side of things going. And hopefully, with the clearance of the doc next Monday, I'll be able to start bounding relatively soon. So all and all I'm progressing. It might not be quite what I was at (because I was supposed to be at about 54 hours this month and I'm only at 20...) but what matters is that I'm okay and I'm getting back on the training wagon.

Anywho, tomorrow I'm finally heading off to Bowdoin. Wow, already! I'm going to be doing a Cabin/Hiking/Backpacking something of the like for my Pre-O trip so some of the skills I learned at Gould will come in handy like Mr. Hayward teaching us to start a fire with a string and bow, cooking peach cobbler over a campfire (delicious by the way), how to make WICKED good G.O.R.P, how not to leave your stuff out in the rain, things of that sort. And then it's a head first dive into classes, college life, and fall training. Sadie sent me off with a wonderful hike up Saddleback yesterday, even though it took us about 2 hours less than we were anticipating... But what matters is we got to see each other before the school year starts up. So here are the pics from that extravaganza!
Good luck to all the baby froshies out there! Start out strong! And keep training of course :)
Cheers!

Gonna miss this girl like krazy :)

Dinosaur Sandwich <3

Planking on my car. Nooo big deal.

Never forget where you came from. Maine <3

Life on the (not so)Wild Side

2011-08-13T19:08:00.000-04:00

Being broken can have its benefits. You actually have time to read through Anna Karenina, you have a great story to tell for anyone who asks why you're in a sling, and you really get to know how to use your left hand (I'm proud to say I can eat somewhat ambidextrously). But unfortunately not being able to run or ski had me a little depressed for quite a few days. I mean, it's a sudden drop in hours and I'm thinking to myself "gee, what to people do with all this free time?" and the other thought I'm thinking is "Damn, what is everyone else doing right now that I'm not?" Yes, I may be worrying about my fellow competitors. But what I need to think about -and what I keep telling myself to draw myself back into the now- is what I can to make sure I am fit and ready for the heavy fall training. I've been in the pool with a kickboard doing hour long swimming sessions with intervals which has really helped me stay on top of my aerobic side of things. The ever-so-daunting stationary bike has grown to be one of my best friends as I just toss on my headphones, switch on Pandora to Pitbull Radio (okay, seriously don't judge, the beats just get me through my workout) and pump up the resistance level. That has helped keep my strength and my muscles feeling pretty fresh. Lastly, I've made sure to keep up with my core and let's just say as of right now, I could do leg throws all day long. I'm pretty proud of myself and what I have been able to accomplish. Do I miss the open road and roller skiing? Of course I do. Do I miss running and bounding over at Titcomb? Obviously. Do I miss biking (for real)? Yes yes, and yes. But focusing on what I can't do isn't going to get me anywhere. I just have to put all my pent up frustration and energy into the workouts I can do and get the most out of them that I can.

I do miss the road.

Anything exciting going on? Not really. It was my birthday yesterday and I am now old enough to do most things that a legal adult is capable of doing (hurray for 18 year olds everywhere!). And I leave for Bowdoin on the 23rd. Wow, summer has flown by so fast. Granted this last month was supposed to be a pretty high hours month, but considering all things, I'm pretty proud of my hours this summer and the effort I've put in. All I can do now is wait till mid September to start using the upper body again and then we'll be in business.

It's not too early to be thinking about JO's again. Is it??
And it's never to early to be thinking about collegiate racing. I cannot wait to be a Polar Bear :)
Cheers everyone!

Stuck in Neutral: I broke myself.

2011-08-05T12:25:00.001-04:00

Well unfortunately my training has come to an abrupt halt. This Wednesday I was over in Bethel going for a bike ride with Molly. It was a pretty typical 30 mile ride, nothing terribly challenging. As we were rolling along, a dog sort of came out of nowhere. It wasn't barking, growling, or making any noise. It literally just came out of the bushes like a big brown blur. It hit my front wheel and spun it around, which sent me over the side of the bike, rolling onto the pavement. The first thing I hit was my shoulder, and then my head. Thankfully (since I'm still on mountain bike pedals) my feet popped right out and my bike skidded across the pavement. I rolled a little bit more and tried to sit up. When I did, my shoulder fired up with a nice burning painful sensation. I reached to touch it and realized I had a huge bump on my clavicle. The first thought that came to mind was "Damn it, I broke my collar bone!" The dog walked away perfectly fine and thanks to some excellent citizens of Waterford, 911 was reached. Molly sat with me while we waited for the ambulance. I started crying not because of the pain, but mostly because of the fact that all I could think of was that I wouldn't be able to finish my hours that week, or for the next few weeks as it turned out. After a wonderful ride in the ambulance and a grreeeeat dose of some pain meds, I got myself x-rayed (is that even a verb??) and it turns out my shoulder had separated. Meaning, the ligament between my scapula and clavicle is torn, but it's only a level two separation. So what does this mean!? Where do I go from here?! Well, obviously I don't go on my whitewater kayaking trip for orientation or whitewater rafting for my birthday or do my triathlon next week. But it does mean I will be spending plenty of quality time on the stationary bike and in the pool doing some pool running. And doing plenty or core. I've made it my goal to not lose any core strength during these next 4-6 weeks that I'm going to be spending in the sling. But life marches on, I'm just so thankful it wasn't a car and that I fell the way I did. Sadie will be joining me for a pool running sesh eventually and hopefully Trent will be coming down to go through a LOTR marathon and watch some fireworks. Since I'm missing my favorite run of the summer, the Blueberry Festival 10k, I'll just have to make sure I make the most of the fireworks.

Thank you so much to the Siegel family for all the support in the hospital and hosting my car for this week. I can't tell you how much it meant to have Molly in the ambulance with me and in the hospital. Thank you so much :)

So for all those able bodies out there, stay safe and keep training. I'll be busting it out on the bike and in the pool. Good luck! Hopefully I'll be back in action by October fighting fit and ready to race and train.
Cheers!

Randomonium

2011-07-27T09:06:00.001-04:00

So I've been MIA for a little while, it's about time I post about something I've done recently. Well last week I finally took a nice easy week and visited a fellow former Gouldie down on the coast. Little Cranberry Island to be exact. Easily, probably one of the best trips of my summer as island life was so much fun. Granted the winter would be really difficult, but I could get used to not have a car, riding a bike all over the island, going to the beach at six in the morning, and jumping off the docks into 56 degree water everyday. All and all it was a fabulous week and it really gave my muscles a well deserved rest.

Such an amazing week :)

So when I jumped back into the intervals on Sunday, I felt awesome. I crammed in a skate session at dusk, as the heat this week was horrendous (as I'm sure all of you have noticed). And the heat doesn't really help when you need to get a solid chunk of time in. So I did some basic speeds/intervals (lvl 3/lvl 4 3-4-5-4-3-2-1min ladders with rest in between) on my skate skis and my muscles felt so relaxed and fresh. I actually ran into one of my old friends from my Mt. Blue days and her parents who were also enjoying the cooler weather on their bikes. As to why I was at a different location than usual, my fresh and beautiful stretch of pavement that was pristine for miles, was covered with a craptastic gravel top coat making it impossible to ski or bike on my road anymore. Boooooo.

Anywho the next day was probably my gutsiest workout of the year so far. A ten mile run, from my house to Titcomb and back. Now for those of you unfamiliar with a road called Walker Hill, let's just put it this way. It's downhill for about 3 miles and then you have to turn around. And go all the way back up. ALL THE WAY. And it's not a gradual winding easy little road, it's steep, full of potholes, and as I found out, full of dogs that like to chase you. So along those ten miles I saw two llamas wandering around on a driveway, was chased by 4 sets of dogs, and I managed to finish the longest run I've ever been on. Hoo to the hah. And I finished the day with lots and lots of eating. It was a wonderful day.

Lastly yesterday was a bounding sesh over at Titcomb. I actually woke up early before work at about 5:55am to get in some core work and warm myself up on the double pole machine so that I'd be fresh going into work. After successfully making breakfast sandwiches, stuffed french toast orders, chicken salad wraps, a crock pot full of delicious soup, white chocolate chip covered brownies, muffins, and donuts (busy day right?) I finally came home and went bounding. I did a pretty good progression of 4-7-14-7-4min lvl3 bounding sets. I think that bounding has significantly helped my overall threshold base as it's really the ultimate workout; it's specific, it's aerobic, and it's technical. So all and all, life is puttering along with the training. I have about an 18 hour week planned out for this week, with a long bike ride for today. And I'm heading over to the land of New Hampshire and my grandparents camp in New London so if you see a girl flying down hills on her bike looking like she's just having a ball (and if she's wearing a pink helmet and Bowdoin jersey) it's probably me.
Enjoy the cool air while it lasts!!! Keep training!!!
Cheers!

5k and Maine Adventures

2011-07-09T21:00:00.000-04:00

Tuesday....
Wow, my legs were dead! That 5k was a nice refresher for the racing muscles and race mentality but I totally forgot how much running races drain you. I ended up running faster than I expected, I'd say probably about 7:25 minute miles as my time was a 23:12, which I'm pretty proud of considering I haven't really run a race for about a year. AND, I got a nice little trophy for my shelf for coming in second for my age group. It's one of the very few running trophies I've collected throughout my life :P That run was preluded by a mile(ish) warmup then concluded with the best run ever: BEACH RUNNING. I can't tell you how much I love running on the beach, there's just something about it that makes it so wonderful. All and all it turned into a slightly longer day, about an hour and fourty-five minutes total. But the sun was out and the sunscreen was not on my back. I ended up running in a sportsbra because I got so hot but the suncreeen was only on the lines of my tshirt and that set me up for my killer burn that now occupies my back. Oh bundles of joy.

Victory dance attempt? maybe? Nah....

Wednesday...
And Wednesday's events were extremely productive as I found myself out the door by 6:15am and picking up my lovely Addikay and we headed up to Weld to take on Little Jackson. So while you were sleeping the morning away, we were tackling mountains. We literally CHARGED that mountain, no breaks until the top (except to brush off the occasional huge blackfly). The top was so beautiful especially in the morning like that . We encountered one other early adventurer, but besides him, we had the mountain all to ourselves. After running down, and Addie finding herself walking dead straight into a tree, I drove to Auburn to have my last -hopefully- orthodontist appointment. That afternoon was a little more sketch. I had plans to bike up to Weld however, the gods of thunder, lightning, and all things stormy had other plans. I got about ten miles from my house and the clouds were coming fast out of no where. So I high-tailed it back (I'm counting it as one chunk of level three because I didn't go under 24mph the entire way back) and found myself dead in the middle of a thunderstorm. I hid under a information platform/display thing at the local wilderness conservancy but that happens to be in a giant field, so I didn't feel any safer. After frantically calling my parents, I was picked up safely in one piece and not fried to a crisp. Later that night, after the storm had lifted I got to drive a jetski for the first time around the lake. I must say, I may have found my new favorite toy...

Thursday+Saturday
Thursday I occupied myself with double poling and specific strength drills on my roller skis and did 6x500m repeats with progressively faster splits. This route I was on this time had hills in it, so my times were slower than my last set of this workout, but I think I may have also paced off a longer route so that might explain the difference. But all and all I felt extremely strong and my strides were efficient and powerful. Friday I took off as I was still feeling the effects of an extremely long training week from the REG camp but today was an amazing bounding threshold day. I was able to go over to my home mountain and thanks to some dedicated crew workers, I was able to bound on perfectly mowed trails. I warmed up and pumped out 3x6x12x6x3min intervals with rest in between. So all together it was about an hour and fourty-five minutes. It probably takes the cake on the best workout this week as I had almost *perfect time spent in level three. Just a tad shy. I was so happy to be back on my home trails though. There's just something that makes you so happy when you return to the place where everything started. I mean, my entire ski career is based at this mountain, everything from the Bill Koch Festival: Feel the Rythym, to KVAC meets, and everything in between. Mind you hopefully, these trails will be home to an Eastern Cup this year. They're technical, narrow, and so much fun (not that I'm biased at all :P) So all you guys will be able to experience the racing that I grew up with, which is something I'm so excited to share with you.

Homegrown! There is nothing like returning to your home trails :)

Keep training! 2012 is bound to be a great season! Cheers!

REG-ing it up

2011-07-04T22:25:00.000-04:00

So I'm finally back from Craftsbury and the REG. The abridged version of this post can be summed up in a few sentences. The athletes and coaches were all top notch and my experience was beyond amazing. That being said there are also a lot of things I need to work on to progress my skiing ability. But I think the camp helped me organize my thoughts on my training and what I need to accomplish this summer to accomplish my goals for the coming season. I learned the three things I need to really work on are my running (basically to do more, as technical running and technical skiing are heavily related), increasing my threshold-base area (essentially extending my intervals although maybe not doing them as hard, so instead of hanging out at 180 for 3 minutes, go at 175 for 5-6 minutes and extend from there) and my general strength (not lifting, but my overall fitness with a focus on strengthening my core, shoulders, back, and arms). I think with those three things in my sights, I should enter into my college career on a good foot.

Now with that said let's start off on Saturday. We arrived at Hosmer Point that afternoon, which Craftsbury recently acquired as a camp last year. We were sort of the trial guinea pigs (I mean why start with 10 year olds when 18 and 20 year olds are so much more entertaining to watch struggle in the woods without Internet and cellphone service for a week?). Everyone got together for a nice run on the Craftsbury trails. That was my first time meeting all of these athletes in one place besides maybe JO's and one of the SMS camps a few years ago. It was so nice see all my friends from all over New England again. I knew that this camp was going to make us stronger skiers and also bring us closer together as a group. That night we met up with Brian Fish and he introduced the core concept of the US Ski Team: "get the best athletes together to train and compete." He also laid out the week for us. That next morning -after being humbly awakened at 5:30 by the extremely loud birds outside our window- we ate heartily and went out to our first series of tests. We were on skate skis doing agility work. However, this wasn't your typical do-a-little-dance-around-the-cones sort of thing. We were being timed to have fun. Now just imagine going around on wet pavement at a pretty good clip and finding yourself in a sudden 360 turn or making a transfer from pavement to grass and dirt back to pavement. All of these things were technically challenging but at the same time it made for a great workout and test. Overall I think I was 8th, which I was pretty happy about. I knew I wasn't in for the running for the NEG but it was still a fun test to stretch out the sprinting muscles. That afternoon I completed nap one of my quest for 1000 naps, which Jenna can attest to that I came pretty darn close. Later we played some soccer and met our friend from Russia, Victor. Apparently he is a Russian elite coach who has come to the States to watch us train, as he coaches young elite athletes back in the Motherland. He was great to have on staff and he popped up in our soccer game and blew us away with his speed. Unfortunately we lost one of our athletes that afternoon, as Paddy rolled his ankle pretty bad on the ball (and we're talking grapefruit sized swelling). And after a swim and some solid dinner we headed off to bed, like the good children that we are... :P

The next day we ended up doing a two hour double pole session in the morning. My technique was solid and I learned from Alex how engage more of my core from getting a better starting position, which seemed to dramatically increase my power output after tinkering with my form for just a few minutes. But thanks to the insanely humid weather, my hands ripped apart with blisters. Thankfully however, Peppa was there to work her magic and introduced me to using athletic tape rather than Band Aids. That afternoon has a little more of a funny side to things. We did an OD classic sesh with drills and I turned around with Jenna and Hannah as we knew that it was only supposed to be about an hour and half long. We arrived a little early and decided to keep going on the road. Peppa told us not to go to far as the road actually ends up merging with a larger, much busier route so we turned around after 10 minutes. When we arrived back at the Church, all the vans were gone. We assumed that maybe Peppa and Hans (who had been there 20 minutes earlier) had gone to pick up skiers who had thought that the workout was supposed to be longer. So we took off our gear and ran around on the Church lawn making airplane noises. 10 minutes go by and we're starting to get hungry. We also had run out of water and Gatorade at this point, so we're also starting to get dehydrated. 20 minutes go by and no van. At the half hour mark Hannah and I ventured over to the Craftsbury Community Care Center to call Hosmer Point. It took us a little while to realize that they hadn't updated the phone book and it was still under Windridge Tennis Camp. Bt even when we did get the right number, there was no answer. We couldn't call the coaches as they wouldn't be able to answer with no cellphone service. We were slightly screwed. So we walk back over to Jenna who has diligently been guarding our gear, this is of course after we talked to the elderly couples about nordic skiing and after we got our free cup of "pity juice" from the workers at the center. Even better: the lady who worked the main desk brought out a bag of bread for us that had been served that night at dinner. We quickly demolished it. By this time we figured dinner was over, the presentations were beginning, and it would take AT LEAST 10 minutes before anyone realized that we were missing and then another 10 minutes for them to drive and get us,f we were lucky that they realized we were missing in the first place. Hannah stomped in fury in the middle of the road and while Jenna poked her blister and I did Child's Pose. This was about an hour after the end of our workout. However, help arrived in the most unexpected manner. A truck pulled in and a man asked us if we needed any help. He was speaking a rough accent as well (I guessed Russian at first). He offered us a ride back to Hosmer but at first we were a tad suspicious. I mean, it's the middle of Vermont, no cell phone service, a random guy in a truck, and it's starting to get dark. The situation has horror-movie written all over it. However once he introduced himself as a Bulgarian who knew Peppa and had a skier daughter, we relaxed a bit. After some deliberations amongst ourselves, we piled in and drove off. Turns out this guy was on a silver medal winning team for ski orienteering in Bulgaria and moved to the States as a map maker. Small world. OH! And his name was Krum. For those Harry Potter geeks out there, Victor Krum? Bulgarian seeker? If you know what I'm talking about, then you'll be laughing by now. So we pull into Hosmer and barge into the meeting both hungrry and tired. Ida unfortunately had to deal with our mishap but like the good sport she is, she kept on giving the presentation as soon as Andrew shuffled us to the back to get some food and whip out the apology cookies. All and all it was an eventful day.

Tuesday came with the uphill run which I will just leave as a humbling experience. My time was okay. I threw up twice along the course -which never happens- and that slowed me down quite a bit. The motivational signs we made the night before were also extremely amusing to read as we ran by. My personal favorites included "WELCOME TO THE PAIN CAVE!" and "Whoot Whoot! The Pain Train is leaving the station!" So that was pretty cool. But watching Mary Kate slaughter that course was awesome. Kudos to her and her amazing week :) yaaaaah girl! That afternoon we did and easy skate OD with Ida and some Green Team members. Skiing behind her was an awesome experience and being able to mimic her technique brought me to a whole new level of happy. Again, this was another successful and motivational day. At this point in my journal entries I kept at camp I started to organize my thoughts into my plan for the summer and what I could work on.

Wednesday was my least favorite day. I mean when you come in dead last by a marginal amount in the strength test your confidence goes down quite a bit. And I will say this: I couldn't do a pull up. And really I never have been able to. But! I used that as my motivational starting point. If I can build up some strength, maybe by the next time I test myself or participate in the Canadian Strength test, I will be able to at least a few. That afternoon we took a day to go over the Elinor's Hill and shoot some biathlon rifles. I must say, I was even impressed with myself. 5 for 5 consistently, prone of course while not having the heart rate up. 4 for 5 on the combo where we did get our heart rates up. On our way back all I could think was "Hmmm? A NEW FUTURE?!?!?!" hahaha, of course we'll see how my first biathlon race goes in a couple of years once I learn how to get the gun off my back fast enough.

Thursday we did bounding intervals in the rain with Andy and Skyler who came down for the last couple days of camp. It was raining, it was tough, but it was a blast. We did some technical bounding before hand to get our muscles warmed up and then it was all uphill (literally) from there. After blasting out 5x5min on the hill I was quite satisfied with my efforts and did my cooldown with Chris from CSU, which was a pretty fun time, especially getting to see the camp from a J2 prospective (wow, I feel old saying that). We ran back home and by this time our cabins had already become nice and mildew-y so the addition of another 7 sets of wet and sweaty workout clothes didn't really make a difference in the smell, so we just hung them all over the rafters. After taking yet another nap (this is probably nap 8 for me) there was a free afternoon so I used it to go work on my skate technique. Rob helped me a ton especially with my V2 Alternate and Brian had some great drills for V2 and really maximizing the most of each stride. It was a relaxing after a hard morning and once again we were all extremely happy to hit the hay that night.

I should mention that after dinner that Thursday night I came down with a massive stomach ache. I'm not sure if was from consuming whole milk that day with my granola or if I just had a bug, but it kept me awake all night. So when morning came, I rolled out of bed realizing we had double pole intervals that morning. Wasn't going to happen. So I talked to Janice and went back to be and slept until 10:30. Feeling a little more refreshed, I tackeled a banana to see if I could hold it down. I did. So that was a bit of a confidence booster. By the time the team returned I had about 85% of myself back and I stayed awake just that one afternoon so that Jenna and I could go down and shoot some archery. You know, shooting things like biathlon targets or bulls-eyes is extremely rewarding. It's the perfect stress reliever. We laughed about how awesome the sport of biathlon would be with bows and arrows (Future Red Bull Sport anyone????), I was feeling much better and I decided to go for a run that afternoon with intervals. So I ventured into the woods and took on 4x6min 30/30's and I have to say I felt awesome. Running through the woods is one of my favorite things to do. You really learn how to listen to yourself, the environment, and the critters that may or may not be under your feet. So after and hour and a half I triumphantly returned and ate my dinnner. That night we had a presentation on how to handle media and potential sponsorships. Not that I'll be needing my sponsorship skills anytime soon, but I think blogging has definitely helped my 'social media' skills a ton. Thanks Mr. Ryder for assigning that pop culture project :)

FINALLY (I know you're probably thinking, jeez she just needs to shut up now), Saturday I had a lovely OD session with Hannah on the roller skis. We skated for about an hour and a half and had some lovely conversations about where we want to take our skiing, especially after being motivated by this camp. We later join Olivia and Lizzo for a run back to Hosmer and through the woods. I, being the adventurous one I guess, led the pack through the tall grass and assured Lizzo that if there was a bee's nest I would take all the stings for her. I turned back at about 2hrs and 40m and arrived at camp just shy of the 3 hour mark. So all and all, after tallying my workout hours, I managed to run myself into the ground for 20 hours and fifteen minutes this week. Hoo hah.

So what's up next? Who knows. Tomorrow I'm heading to the coast for a 5k race at Gooserocks. Whether I'll actually race it or not is up for debate as I'm still pretty tired, but we'll see. Then it's a planned OD run on the beach after that. Soaking up some summer sun and sand running on the 4th. Nothing like it :)
Enjoy the summer training!
Cheers!

Back to Bethel

2011-06-22T17:31:00.001-04:00

Today was a rather exciting day. I was able to head over to Bethel to join a group doing some bounding intervals today up Sunday River. Now the drive over was a little bizarre, I passed about 15 police vehicles and I later learned that there was a man hunt going on around the state. SKETCHY. Once arrived however, bearing my gifts of cookies from work, we headed up to do some solid level three bounding work. This was my first bounding sesh of the year and it felt pretty solid, the heart rate was a little high but I think that's because I did plyo's and speeds yesterday so my muscles and aerobic system were a little worn out. We managed to squeeze out about 8x3min lvl 3 intervals alternating between straight up and 30/30's. Afterwards, everyone minus me was rewarded with raspberry filled cookies and I rewarded myself with a trip to Letter S, one of the best swimming holes in Western Maine (besides Frenchman's of course). Everything was so peaceful and I had the beach all to myself. That is until a group of 6 children and parental units arrived with a Boston Terrier named Felix. Annnnnnd then I left. And got my favorite drink from Isabel's -the best coffee shop EVER- which is a French Vanilla Iced Mocha. I will never buy an iced mocha anywhere else as I'm afraid I might be disappointed.

Felix the Boston Terrier enjoys chasing sticks underwater...

All and all this week and last week were pretty successful. This week was supposed to be a little bit longer (about a 16 hour week) but since I have the REG coming up this Saturday, I cut back on the hours to get me ready and rested up for all the lovely physical testing we're going to be doing. I'm kind of nervous for this camp one could say, I'm entering a whole new playing field of competition and it really is some of the best skiers in New England. So I'm going into it with an open mind and for all of the testing, I'm just going to pit myself against myself and see what I can do. But at the same time, it is a little unnerving to be surrounded by such good skiers. Hopefully I'll be somewhat successful and not totally get my butt kicked. We'll see....
Other than that, there's not a ton to write about. The job is going pretty well and I've definitely had to learn to accommodate my training with my work schedule. And I've slowly been working my way towards the kitchen and I now know how to make a killer chicken salad sandwich (would you like that plain, or with pineapple or cranberries???) as well as strawberry maple salad and some killer cookies. But anywho... I have to rest up, I'm exhausted from today. And tomorrow is a Double Pole sesh after work mixed with some half-kilometer repeats. I'm in for a good time :)
Enjoy the weather while it's good!
Cheers!

ps. Pictures from the hike with Sadie, previously unreleased....

Sister seals <3

Trent in all his glory. Confused as always.

Nordies are the coolest people you will ever meet. Hands down.

Summer Time Commences

2011-06-09T19:02:00.000-04:00

And while most typical teens find themselves diving into miles upon miles of books, tanning out on the beach, making frequent trips to the ice cream stand, or sleeping until they can't sleep anymore, that is not the summer lifestyle of the typical nordic skier. Summer is now in full swing and so is the summer training. I'm wrapping up my first block of training with a solid recovery week after last weeks 15 hours. It was a crazy week with roller skiing intervals, a solid double pole sesh, bounding, running and an amazing 30 bike ride up to Weld that was literally the best bike ride of my life. The sun was out, the sky was perfectly clear, and my legs felt great. Those are the days where I just find myself saying "man, I love doing what I do." I finally started my new job at The Baker's Market Cafe in Wilton (which you can check out by clicking HERE or by liking us on Facebook) and that gave me a dose of the real world when I found myself having to plan waaaayyy in advance what I was going to be doing for workouts around my work schedule. Thankfully I was able to plan to get Wednesdays or Saturdays off so that my longer training days can be accomodated for.

And as if the adventures couldn't stop, Sadie and I put on some poles and hiked our way up Sugarloaf last Sunday. Mind you, she had just completely destroyed the competition in her state track meet the day before (YAY SADIE!!) so she was a little tired. And we were joined by my former CVA Nordic buddy, Trent and his friend Jay. So all four nordies made their way up the mountain. Granted the bugs were awful, the sun at the beginning was miserable, and the boys wanted a food break every 10 minutes. But the complaining settled down into laughter as we hiked our way towards the rainy top. All and all it was a great hike to start my hiking for this summer. I think I'm planning on hitting some different mountains this year, or trying some different trails. I'll be over in the Whites eventually because I'm planning on joining Jenna and Kaitlin for some extreme hiking adventures. And I'll probably head up towards the Sugarloaf area again to do Cranberry and I'm crossing my fingers for doing Bigelow and Katahdin but we'll see how that all pans out...

The boys already crippling over in fatigue with Sadie yelling at them to keep going....

A secret stash of snow we have hidden away on the mountain :)

Sadie modeling off her future sponsors... Unless of course she gets Fischer :P

So let's think about what's coming up. Well, college! That's one thing. I can't wait to start my Bowdoin career as both an athlete and a student. YEAAAH U BEARS!!!
Anywho, what else. Oh, the REG camp in Craftsbury is in two weeks which I'm also extremely excited about. Just being able to make the team was exciting enough for me because I really didn't think I was going to. So this is just icing on my summer cake :) And plus a bunch of my friends from all over the region are going to be there along with some people I haven't had the chance to meet yet, so this is bound to be a grand summer adventure.
So stay cool everyone! Lot's-o-sunscreen and water, it's hawt outside.
Have fun!
Cheers!

I'm an Alumn???

2011-05-30T16:19:00.000-04:00

It's kind of a weird feeling, looking at your graduation hat sitting on your printer as you think "wow, I can't believe it's already over." I guess that's what happens. If you couldn't tell, I graduated. Yep, all done with Gould Academy, Mt. Blue, Academy Hill School, and Cushing School. The last 12 years of my life have been sealed off and put into one diploma that is now resting on my bookshelf. But I guess it was bound to happen eventually...

Let's reminisce a little bit.....
I cannot thank the people of Gould Academy enough for the fantastic year that they gave me. Everyone from the Davies as the bestest British dorm parents ever, to my teachers and advisor for keeping me sane, Mrs. Libby for pretty much getting me through my Common App, and to Mr K and Jeremy who if I was without, I probably wouldn't have made JO's this year. There are so many people I wish I could hug and write pages upon pages of thank you's to but since I can't right now I guess I'll do it here.

My experience at Gould is something I wouldn't trade for anything in the entire world. I learned to (as our speaker at Baccalaureate put it) embrace the awkwardness because it's what makes you unique. When I first arrived at Gould I was afraid to embrace a new face that I could finally call my own. But I realized that I was in a new place with people I haven't known all my life and I could finally be that girl I always wanted to be. That's the opportunity Gould gave to me, and I thank everyone from my friends who camped out in my wardrobe (NARNIA!) to the late night watchman who came into Gehring and stumbled upon Kelsie and I crafting yarn from sheep wool. Everyone and everything, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Smiles all around :)

So where does this leave me now? Where to go from here? Well I'm off to college. With my training plan in one hand, my work polo in the other, and bottles upon upon bottles of sunscreen and water in my bag, I'm ready to tackle summer head on. This week is about a 15 hour week with some threshold work on Wednesday (7x3min intervals) and some specific strength on Thursday with a DP sesh. Hopefully I'm thinking about taking a hike up Sugarloaf sometime either this weekend or next and then after that maybe taking on Little Jackson with Tumbledown in the same day. Ooo, that sounds like an awesome time. Yesterday was my first classic ski. Mind you, I was of course stumbling around like an awkward girraffe because it was the first classic ski. I did some basic no pole technique work to make sure I wasn't just using the rachets to pull me up the hill and tested out my upper body with 100m reps of double poling. All and all it was a pretty fun workout, however not as fun as today. I strapped on my bike helmet and put on my tire and headed off to Weld. Now for those of you who don't quite know the road to Weld up Rt. 156, it's kind of all uphill until you come into downtown at the four corners. So it was an uphill battle for 15 miles with a killer headwind but the downhill and tailwind afterwards was so much fun. I'm pretty sure in some spots I was easily going over 35mph. Now that ladies and germs, is a way to kick off a new summer training program.
Enjoy the sun! Wear the sunscreen! And if you haven't finished school, good luck to you!
Cheers!

Commence the Countdown

2011-05-23T20:10:00.000-04:00

Only five days until I leave the doors of high school forever. Holy mo, I can't believe it's already here. The whole thing seems kind of surreal. I mean, I'm graduating, GRADUATING high school. Granted it's really not that big in the scheme of things but I guess it's just something I never thought would eventually happen but lo and behold here we are: entering the week of finals and my last week of high school. Thankfully this week is slightly lower on the hours (about 11.5ish if I continue to 90 out of my exams to fit time in, like I did my French today) and then after Saturday, it's finally back to the grindstone back home. I can't believe it. Wow.

To all of those 2011 kids out there, enjoy these last few weeks. There's nothing more exciting than cruising through the senior spring (just don't cruise too much of course :P) And get ready for graduation! Because as soon as all of this is done, it's on to the bigger things in life (aka COLLEGE!!!) and who knows what other things are out there waiting for you to discover them. And to the skiers out there in the graduating class, let's get pumped! New training plans, college, new teams, everything's going to be so exciting! Let's have a great one.
Cheers!

YEAH 2011!!!!!!

Here We Go Again

2011-05-19T20:29:00.000-04:00

This is it!!! Finally after a nice long month and half of recovery with road cycling, it's time to jump into the summer training! Ahh, it's one of the most exciting feelings: a mixture of anxiety with the new goals for the coming season with a dash of kick-ass, and the feel-good vibe you get after a nice long 3 hour skate.

Today kicked off with the turning in of my cycling jersey. I'm actually a little sad about leaving the cycling team because they have been pretty much the best group of people, especially for us cycling newbs. I'm really glad I was able to learn the basics, and maybe become somewhat of an amateur because I'm really pumped for some fun summer rides.

1 of the 2 race I actually got to participate in this year...

Yeahhhh GA Cycling!

And thank goodness we didn't encounter these roads as seen in Alaska....

But after turning in my jersey, I turned on my iPod and bolted for the woods. Running again was the most liberating experience. And by bolted I mean ran at a comfortable pace for someone who hasn't really been running all spring, so yeah. I hit the trails and I just felt so at home. The mud was ridiculous (I ended up knee deep in some parts of the woods) and the rain was just barely hitting my skin from the trees. You know that feeling where you're just out on a trail and you don't really know where you're going but you just keep going because you don't ever want to stop because it brings you pure joy? Yeah. One could say that was me.

On another note, the allergies have been horrendous this year and I've been sick twice already. The first time was a few weeks back and I missed about a week of school to go home and recover. It was pretty gnarly, with a 104 degree fever, the chills, the aches, and a miserable headache. Thankfully that ended so I could continue cycling. But now I have a cough that is just annoying. It's so easy to catch a cold at this school. So cough drops are my friends now and I have been drinking the lemon tea by the gallon.

All and all though, I'm so excited for this summer. I have some pretty good goals lined up and training plans from both Gould and Bowdoin so I can fiddle around with the transition process. I'm pretty pumped for the REG camp in Craftsbury this June too. I was so pumped when I found out I had made it because I really wasn't even expecting to. I think that camp along with my own personal goals is definitely going to provide some motivation and drive for me this coming season.
So grab the running shoes, prime the double pole machines, and ready your Febreeze for those smelly roller ski boots. Summer is almost here and it smells like sweat and glory :D
Go get'em!
Cheers!

April Skiing

2011-04-21T14:30:00.000-04:00

Well I guess I should say that bike season is going along just swimmingly. We haven't had a race yet, thanks to the wicked weird weather (wow, that's some alliteration for yah) we've been having lately. Wednesday we were supposed to depart for Holderness but the hail storm, thunder and lightning, and iced up slush decided to make the directors of the race think otherwise. So now my first race on a bike will be our home race up Grafton Notch. Oh the joyous thoughts of my quads completely burning out. Oh what fun.

As to the title, I should probably say that I have now been skiing for seven months in a row. We -Mr. K, Sarah, and myself- hauled ourselves up to our secret skiing spot in Grafton and enjoyed the wonders of snow once again. Being on the fishscales made me feel a little bit like a joey, but that was all part of the experience. It was such a fun day filled with little laser noises made by Sarah's super fast fishscales on our way down the mountain. Unfortunately, my Flip decided to be a party-pooper and die so there is no real evidence to document our adventures. So for those of you waiting to drool over a possible video or pictures of the amazing snow that we found, you'll just have to wait until our next trip up.

Wow, Spring is going by so fast already. I can't believe we're more than halfway through April. Pretty soon we'll all be sitting in rooms taking our AP tests and then soon after that, we'll be walking down the aisle with our caps and gowns. But I guess we should just enjoy the Spring while we can. Because once May 1st hits, I'm hitting the training like a stampede. I'm so excited for this summer and the training adventures waiting to be discovered. The hiking, the roller skiing, the running through dark forests at the break of dawn, it's all so tantalizing right now. But until then, I'll confine myself to the bike and watch my upper body slowly disappear... Just kidding! That's what core workouts and pushups are for :)
Enjoy the spring!

Cycling 101

2011-04-07T14:13:00.000-04:00

So for those of you who have been biking all your lives, you can probably read this and laugh. But cycling is a new experience for me. Don't get me wrong, it's so much fun especially when you cruise at thirty nine miles and hour down a hill at Grafton Notch and then power it home at a steady twenty five with a killer tailwind. But my first few weeks on the bike have been.... How do I put this lightly.... A little painful. Mainly for my derriere. And toes (it's a little chilly outside).

Well let's start with the comical part. Clipping in. I have never biked before in my life. So on my first day of cycling (wow, 2 weeks ago already) I learned about bike shoes. Oh bundles of joy. And to make things better, on our first ride out we had to stop by Gehring to pick up some warmer tights. So we decided to ride our bicycles to look super cool. Well unfortunately clipping out turned out to be a slight problem for one of my fellow newbies and gravity decided to kick in after she got one foot out. Then karma decided to kick in for me after I laughed at her and gravity soon followed. What a great first day out.

Flash forward about two weeks later and there we are, all seven of us plus volunteer coach number 2 pedaling along at a snails pace into a massive headwind up Grafton Notch. 30 miles later we found ourselves agonizingly stretching our glutes and backs but all the same, smiling with our legs and hearts both extremely content. Overall? I have to say the experience is pretty exciting. I mean, it's new, it's fast, includes shiny things, and not to mention the gear that goes along with it is pretty darn spiffy. I think this spring should be extremely interesting to say the least.

What else is exciting in the grand life of me?? Well this morning at assembly we were so lucky to have Judson Laipply come and entertain us for our morning. Now who is that you might ask? Remember a couple of years ago, before Justin Bieber, the most watched video on YoutTube? A little thing called "The Evolution of Dance?" Here's a refresher.

In other words, we were extremely happy campers today. Other than that, the life continues to roll on. AP exams are making their way into out lives and soon it'll be May. 50 days and counting until graduation and summer. And training :D And then it's off to college. Holy mo. Watch out world, here I come!
Enjoy the last pockets of snow! It'll be gone before you know it.
Cheers!

Just For Sadie

2011-04-02T10:14:00.000-04:00

Dear Sadie,
I can't believe I'm already going to college and next year you're going to be an all grown up J1. Holy mo, how time goes by soooo fast. What a year we've had, no? You slayed at J2's and I'm so proud of you! Look at your ferocity.... Even on the podium. Rawwwwr.

And we've all watched you become an amazing young athlete. I expect big things saders :P And we're roller skiing together this summer, no matter how hard I have to work to pull you out the door. Shanks for a wonderful year as our photobooth sessions have been rather fun :)
Luvers yooz!
Shelbers

Reflections on a Season

2011-03-31T18:56:00.000-04:00

Wow it's been a long time. Where to start. This season has been a season of so many first for me. First international skiing experience, first year at Gould, first year training year round specifically for skiing, first time making JO's, first training group, and the first year where I have been pretty satisfied with my efforts. I can honestly say this year was probably one of the best years I've ever had, both athletically and emotionally. Learning to keep myself stable and balance the work and training was crucial for me to be able to function properly here at Gould and I think that is going to really help me next year at Bowdoin. But let's start with what went right this season....

Spring
I took track season off which after a season of burning out really helped me focus, recover, and get the rest I needed to start off on the right foot. There were a few trips to the gym to keep my core and muscles in shape but all I was really doing until about May-ish was running or gently roller skiing for no more than an hour a day, just keeping the legs moving. However once May hit, my new training plan finally started up and speeds were introduced. The hours went up slightly and so did the intensity. It was overall a very gradual and relaxing spring. Do I wish I had done anything different? Yeah, I guess I wish I had taken to running a little bit more. I think I was roller skiing a little too much. But all and all it was a solid spring.

Summer
Summer was the real grit of my season. The first couple of weeks were unbearably hot (we're talking 98 degrees and 170% humidity by 9am) and getting the workouts done safely without burning to a crisp and dehydrating dramatically was a little difficult. However, I compensated with early morning rises or later afternoons and that seemed to work pretty well. There of course my days where I felt like a complete wreck and I'd haul myself in early or I'd decide to just slow it down but there were also the days where I felt like I was on top of the world and nothing could touch me. July rolled around and the hours were making a pretty big jump, not only because of the training plan but also because of the start of my trip to New Zealand. Speaking of which, New Zealand proved to be a place where I learned the most about myself. The two weeks I was there I learned how to listen to myself as an athlete and how to accommodate my needs for training in a new location. And not to mention being able to chill out with the US Ski Team and the Canadians was pretty much one of the best experiences as a young racer. It gives you that extra push, you know? Like that feeling after a solid training camp where you tell yourself "you know what? You can do it if you just keep putting in the time and effort. Don't give in." And with that in mind, I was thrown into my new life at Gould, ready to tackle the world.

Fall
Fall was where it all began. Really, that's where my true suffering as an athlete started. Hahaha, not really, but that's where the lack-of-running began to come back and bite me a little bit. Although I had been bounding, which wasn't a problem for me, my running legs weren't there so I had to catch up a little bit. But all and all it wasn't too much of a problem. The biggest change for me? Finally having people to train with consistently. Molly and Alice provided some of the best training buddies I've ever had because we all really drove for solid practices this year. There was an energy I had never really been able to feel before and that carried into our winter season. Our training sessions were filled with adventures, mainly Mr. K singing to as on our two and half hour roller skis or hydroplaning through the puddles in the pouring rain or even the attempts to drink from our fountain of youth. The fall was a wonderful time for me and it developed not only my confidence as a skier, but it also developed my drive to preform well for the coming season.

Winter
Finally came the winter. Everything that I had prepared for came down to a competitive season spanning less than 4 months out of the year. The beginning of my season was a blast out of the gate. Our first Eastern Cup I made the heats for the sprints (granted my points weren't too stellar but still it was pretty sweet) and I had a pretty awesome distance classic opener. As the season progressed I was pretty consistent and I was maintaining myself pretty well. Nationals was a rather humbling experience but all the same it was worth the effort. I got to match myself up against the best and I got to see how fast I need to be to get to where I want to be in the next couple of years. Lake Placid was also a ridiculously fun experience, at least the first day of the SuperTour. I made the top page of results with all of the girls who were at Nationals there and that was a major confidence booster. There were some points however when I just wanted to throw my skis at the wall when my school work started to fall behind. Mid February was probably the worst, before our break. That also happened to be when I had my worst races of the season at Trapps. So I think I learned about what happens when I start to go over the edge. But I also learned what I am capable of when I'm under pressure, which points to our last Eastern Cup at Holderness. I couldn't have asked for better results. And I reached my goals so that was just icing on the cake. JO's was another humbling experience and I don't think I raced my full potential there but I was glad to make it and to race for Team New England.

So What Now???
Well as you can guess, skiing is pretty much over (however, this Nor'easter may prove me wrong). I'm a senior. And I'm off to college (BOWDOIN BABY!!!). But that doesn't mean I'm just sitting around all spring like last year. Nope, this year I'm trying something a little new. Cycling. And granted I just got back from an hour and half ride, but I think I'm really taking to it. It's relatively easy on the cardio system and apparently I'm a killer climber (whatever they mean by that.... :P ). But my goals for next year are set. JO's 2012, I'm coming for you. Soldier Hollow sounds rather lovely. And of course going to college will change things but then again, so far, change has been rather kind to me lately. We'll see how it all pans out.
Good season everyone :) It was a great year and to all the seniors out there, I wish you only the best for college next year. We'll be sure to run into each other sooner or later. Have a great spring, enjoy the birds and flowers and whatever sport you may or may be not doing.
Cheers :)

oh ps. Pics from NEPSACS. We're soooo pro :D

Pigtails and paint with pride.

The manly men :)

The lovely ladies

Molly beasting it out

Alice and Margurite

First and last year in a Gould suit. What a year is was :)

lkUGFDLS IHRW[EO;IAVRIWEU SADIE AND SHELBY ARE BLOGGING TOGETHER. AGAIN. OHHH YES. ITS EPIIIICCCCCCC

2011-03-20T21:50:00.001-04:00

It's our annual blog- SADIE AND SHELBY: EASTERNS 2011.

TODAY WAS HARD ( according to sadie. she hates sprints. and falling in the finish zone and getting a boo-boo on her elbow.) according to shelby...... it was.....(im waiting for her to tell me how it was).... "TOTALLY AWESOME HEHEHEHEHEH or however she laughs. she sounds like a chipmunk.
"shut up"

SHOUT OUT TO YARMOUTH HIGH SCHOOL. GET BACK TO WORK AND STOP READING DURING CLASS I FOUND OUT YOU WERE MY NEW AUDIENCE FROM YOUR WONDERFUL TEAMMATES. IT'S A SECRET NO LONGER.

i'm tired. we both are. we are lying in sadies room on vicky's bed. sadie doesn't have a bed. she is sleeping on the pullout couch. she needs to wash her hair, but we have to end this blog soon because buzz is going to kick shelby out of sadie's room in appx. 6 minutes because we need to go to bed at 10:30. IM SO TIRED.
HOLY MO It's shelby's last high school race tomorrow. Last race with saders for 2 years until she comes to camp Bow Bow. 5MINUTES!!! GNIGHT!!!!!

JO's Finale

2011-03-15T22:42:00.000-04:00

Well I'm finally back home in my own bed after another lovely traveling day back to New England. Now let's go over what happened in the last week...

New England won the Alaska Cup. Again. HOO HAH FOR THE THREE-PEAT
New England had an insane number of All-Americans
New England nailed the wax for every single darn race (KUDOS)
And New England is kind of the coolest team on the face of the planet. 'Nuff said

So with that in mind, you can probably imagine my excitement for being a part of the best team in the country. It was truly an honor to be able to be earn my spot and to go race in one of the most unexpected venues JO's has seen in a long time. Everything was just so awesome from the hotel, the wax techs, the people, and the dance, it was just a great experience. Probably I'd have to say the highlight of my week was the relay. I don't think any of us had raced a 3k classic since the days of Bill Koch festivals and middle school state meets so it was a really interesting experience to be able to race that distance again. The boys were blowing the times out of the water and the girls were no exception (Diggins managed to totally blister that course). My tag off was a pretty solid one and Elena had a really awesome race and set us up in a really good place. My skis stuck a little bit on the first corner coming out but after that, I felt like I had a pretty strong race, given that I was being hunted down by some pretty fast girls. Climbing that horseshoe turn hill for the last time was in some ways extremely relieving but in others it was also saddening. I had finally achieved my goal, raced all week as a Team New England Member, and now it was all coming to a close. When I tagged off to Hannah, I kind of just stumbled over to the pen where girls were going down left and right in utter exhaustion. I just leaned on my poles and thought about one thing: next year.

Okay, so call me a little strange but there was a lot running through my mind after that race. I felt like 'okay, so you made it, you raced, you had fun' but now I saw what I could become for next year. So I walked away out of the stadium with a little bit of a plan in my mind. I wanted to review my season and go over some basic facts with myself before the dance that night. I have already made my new goal pyramid (YAYYYY FOR GOAL PYRAMIDS!!!!) and I feel like I'm ready to tackle another season of training. Hoo hah!

Tara and Olivia getting ready for the relay start

Classic Mass

Adorable Emily :)

Roomie Love!

BUT!!! Before that, we have to get enjoy the wonders of the Eastern High School Championship this weekend. Our J2's just rolled off an awesome competition against Vermont this year (YEAH TEAM MAINE!!!!) so we should be in a prime position to fight off Vermont and all the other New England teams. It's so weird, I just get back from Team New England and I'm already planning on how we're going to try and crush Vermont..... hehehe. Well, whatever happens I'm sure it'll be an Eastern High School's that no one will forget. I can't believe I'm a senior. Four years on Team Maine. Wow.

Good luck to everyone this weekend! Let's go get'em Maine!
MAINE LOVE <3

City Sprints

2011-03-09T19:28:00.000-05:00

So my first JO race is finally under my belt and I have to say it was a pretty solid day. The night before our sprint at Wirth Park, I was pretty nervous. I mean, it was my first JO race and I guess you could say it was one of my stronger events, as my sprinting hasn't been too shabby this year. We drove to the park and my nerves only got worse. It wasn't really awful nerves like my nerves before the last Eastern Cup, more of an excited sort of thing, I was just really excited to see how I measured up against the rest of the country. My warmup was on the other side of the park on the rest of the golf course and I was able to ski a bit of those nerves out but I was just still really jittery. After walking up the endless staircase, Scottie calmed me down a little bit and sent me off to go run. As soon as I entered the pen, it finally hit me that I was about to embark on my first JO race and the nerves lifted instantly. I honestly didn't totally care if I made the heats (although it would've been really nice) I just wanted to enjoy the fact that I was finally here. So I got to the gate and just let it go.

The course had gotten a little chewed up since I had previewed that morning and it almost seemed a little draggy. The first hill was relatively easy to V2 up and that momentum sent me into the swooping downhill corner. Our coach -Toast- was right on the base of the first big climb and that was pretty motivational having him scream me up the hill. Honestly, I felt pretty awesome, my tempo was snappy and my legs were moving pretty fast. One of the middle course hills was pretty chewed up and my legs started to feel the burn but thankfully there was a pretty sturdy flat right after so I kind of just powered through that. The last hill was kind of a blur, I felt like I was moving pretty fast. I threw myself over the line and thought to myself 'hey if you make the heats, it's because you had a pretty solid run.' I found myself sitting in the hot-seat of seed number 28. And I didn't want to go cooldown because I wanted to see if I made it, but with some nudging of the coaches, I went over to the other side of the park to go ski. When I came back, I found myself in the worst spot. 31st. They take 30. And I was .3 seconds out of the heats.

I was a little disappointed because I really think if I had made the heats I might have had a shot to do really well. But I wasn't totally mad, we ended up going back to the hotel, showering, and then coming back to watch Team New England totally dominate the entire event. Seriously. We kind of just rocked the world.

Good luck for the rest of the week! Eat, sleep, drink, don't get lost on the way to Target. 5k skate coming up on Friday and a Relay on Saturday. Should be a solid time for Team New England!
Cheers!

Dizzy From The Elevator: Welcome to Minneapolis

2011-03-05T20:02:00.000-05:00

So Team New England has finally landed and settled down into their roost for the next few days here in the center of Minneapolis. And let's just set a few things straight. JO's have gone from exact opposite locations. Presque Isle, as much as I adore that town, isn't exactly in the center of everything. Minneapolis IS the center of everything. The idea that we're skiing about 2 miles from the middle of downtown is a little hard to wrap your mind around but at the same time it's pretty cool to see what other skiers from around the country get to ski on everyday.

As for our journey across the country, it went rather swimmingly. No major hangups, no one lost their luggage, and everyone seemed to be in pretty good spirits. Our workout of the day (literally) was our adventure across the terminals of the Minneapolis airport with all of our ski bags, backpacks, and luggage. Probably a solid mid level three for all of us with equal rest on the escalators and moving walkways. Our hotel at the city center has been extremely accommodating and the way they have things set up is pretty cool with all the athletes under one roof is pretty exciting. We're looking forward to some fun times here. Things have already gotten underway with SkyWalk adventures to the mall across the street and getting lost on the way to Target, Not to mention the Macy's models all doing an awkward pelvic thrust in the general direction of all passers by.... Awkward turtle.... But if we do end up going to the Mall of America (WE BETTER) I'm sure we're bound to have some more exciting times there for sure :)

As for the festivities themselves, we previewed the course after a bus ride through the city. Now everyone was all like "aww it's just a golf course, it can't be that difficult. It'll be just like Weston." No. Not the case at all. In fact, kind of the opposite. Granted it doesn't quite have the winding hills of Stowe or the steep climb like High School Hill at Rumford, but all the same it was not your typical golf course. Yes there are in fact hills, and they actually are pretty reasonable. In general, I thought it was a pretty fun course and it has some potential to be really fun to race on (after all that is the point isn't it?). The waxing village is pretty awesome too with everything, skis and wax, conveniently all near each other. The snow was awesome today and the sun was shining, everything just seemed to be really solid.

Races start up on Monday. We're all really pumped, I mean I can't even really fathom the fact that I'm actually here racing with all these kids. But I guess I'll just take it as it comes and hopefully we'll end up having some really good races for the New England kids. Can't wait!
See you out there!
Let's rip'em up!

I Did It: JO's 2011

2011-02-21T21:38:00.000-05:00

I don't think I can quite put into words the emotions that I'm feeling right now. Even a day after the final Eastern Cup at Holderness, I'm still jittery with excitement. I can finally say that I have made the New England JO team and that I'm going to Minneapolis in two weeks. This weekend was just such an emotional trip for me, literally and figuratively. But the feeling I can't shake is the feeling of accomplishment: that finally after a year of burning out and a year of training my guts out, I have finally accomplished the goal at the top of my goal pyramid (yes, I'm one of those little lame-o's who has a goal pyramid :P ). Honestly, it's impossible to put into words. I've waited, trained, and prayed even a little bit, and now it's here. And it feels awesome.

Honestly I don't know where to start. Friday night? The night I spent lying in bed muttering to myself 'This weekend, you gotta be on fire'? Nah, Saturday. Saturday we woke up bright and early to drive over to Silver Fox Trot and race a 10k skate. I remembered this course from two years ago (as last year I couldn't race the last two Eastern Cups) and I remember how much it hurt. But, as I put on my game face, I didn't let the past get to me and after a solid warmup, I took it flying out of the gate. Thankfully, one of the SMS girls was coming around for her lap and I hooked in right behind her. Thanks to her pacing, she pretty much pulled me the entire first lap including all the uphills, which was kind of a relief because I wasn't quite sure how to set my pace in the fields. It was a great experience to learn how to pull in behind someone like that and just mimic everything that they did. Once she turned in for her finish, I pulled in for my lap and started going on the course on my own. My tempo sped up a little bit to compensate for the fact that I had no one to draft off of. The hills on the golf course though this time around started to kill me. The snow was getting chopped up really fast and becoming very powder-like. But I remembered what Mr K had told me the night before: "Don't dwell on what's coming up, focus on what you're doing right now." So with that in my mind, I powered myself up those hills and heard Will shout at me "SHELBY YOU'RE IN 20TH PLACE!" That was pretty solid encouragement. I took the last 3k as hard I as I could go and after almost going off the dam and flying into the woods a couple of times, I came into the finish and threw myself on the ground. The snow was so nice. So, so, nice :)

I ended up with a 24th place that day and I was extremely happy with that result. But I knew in the back of my head I needed to have an even better day on Sunday. After sending home our lonely junior to go camping in the woods on Junior Four Point for 9 days (Best of luck to you Molly, DON'T GET EATEN BY BEARS!) we traveled to my grandparents summer cottage in New London as a halfway stop between Dartmouth and Holderness. That night we watched Prefontaine as a pump up movie. Now call me a complete sports idiot, but I didn't actually know what happened to him, I just knew that he died before the Montreal games. I cried a little, not gonna lie. But the story of running your guts out kind of hung with me that night. As I started to fall asleep, I thought about what would happen if I didn't make it. That thought scared me. A lot. And I knew that in order to get away from what scared me, I had to open up a serious can of whoop ass the next day. So I fell asleep on that note.

That morning we enjoyed breakfast from my parents. I didn't feel like eating. I couldn't even drink all my tea. My stomach was tearing in so many different directions. We loaded ourselves into the van and I turned on my iPod as soon as I could. Lose Yourself came on and I just started to get really emotional and I almost started crying. Why? Some songs just have that ability to totally change what kind of mental state you are in and this is one of those for me. I didn't even nap, which is something I've become such a pro at doing, I just sat in my seat staring out the window. We pulled into the Holderness parking lot and parked ourselves right next to the trail. We had some time to kill and I didn't want to spend it fretting about the upcoming race. Thank god for StumbleUpon. No joke. If you want to get rid of nerves super fast, StumbleUpon can kill hours of time and make those nerves vanish.

So about an hour and a half before my race I started getting ready and getting my skis ready. An hour before race time I toured the course. It was pretty much the exact same course from J2's 2009. I went out with a really nervous mentality but then as I came into the stadium, that started to disappear. I was pumped up, not psyched out. I tested my race skis and they were so solid; perfect kick, awesome glide. The start was a little shaky, as I accidentally grabbed another girls skis, but thankfully I name my skis and when I looked down and didn't see Simba and Mufasa on my feet, I knew something was up (my ski naming process is something that could take up an entire blog entry on its own so we'll save that for a rainy day). So with about two minutes to go I switched skis, and got to the start line. It was probably the longest 15 seconds of my life in that gate, no joke. I thought that I was never going to start. But as soon as I did, I knew I had to move. It's my favorite discipline (although I should never actually say that :P ), my favorite distance, on one of my luckiest courses; I should be able to bust a move.

All I really remember from the race are two specific things: instead of shouting track I shouted "HUP!" and rounding the corner at the 2k mark with my dad shouting I was 15 seconds off of Hannah Dreissigacker and I was like "Aw man don't give up now." I don't think I've ever raced like this before; with a real primal hunger. It was a little strange for me to see how fast I was going. I passed a bunch of girls on the uphills thanks to some impressive wax and the donwhills were absolutely wild. I pounded up the last hill and booked it as fast as I could into the stadium. When I crossed the line I let out a scream of sheer pain and sheer joy and promptly fell into my designated snow pile. It was wonderful. But the only thing on my mind was this one thought: was it enough?

That question haunted me the rest of the day. I couldn't calculate points and the points were going to really make a difference because I would drop a 195 and replace it with whatever this was. So I crossed my fingers all day. Sure I saw the results. 14th was a pretty awesome finish out of a really strong field of girls and I was super pumped. I just hoped with all my heart it was enough. We waltzed over to the awards ceremony. I have never been so nervous in my life. There were those kids who knew they were in, they were all sitting like it was no big deal. And then there were the bubble kids, like me. We were on the edges of our seats with our eyes (and ears) wide open. When they called my name, not as an alternate, I thought my knees were going to give out. I don't think I've been that filled with emotion in such a long time. It finally happened; I finally joined Team New England. My suit is being ordered, my seat on the plane is reserved, and my bags are almost packed. Well maybe not so much on the last one, but the point is this:

There is absolutely nothing the human body cannot do when one's mind is in the right place.

I finally figured this out and I intend to keep racing like this. This, I don't think, was a peak for me. This was me realizing what I can do when I really drive with some serious motivation. My mind was finally in the right place.
So with that in mind, LET'S GO TEAM NEW ENGLAND!!!! I know Maine Love can never be replaced, but I'm always up for new kinds of team spirit :)

Let's go get'em!
See you in Minneapolis!!!!!

NEPSACS

2011-02-18T16:26:00.000-05:00

A mighty wake-up call at 5:30am Wednesday morning was not what I wanted to hear. Not in the least. After eating our triumphant breakfast all alone in the dining hall, we packed up and headed West for Holderness. I was extremely excited to be racing at Holderness again. I didn't get the chance to race there last year and so I haven't race there since my J2 Festival in 2009, which I have to say was pretty much the best racing weekend of my life. I was pretty stoked. I don't remember any of the bus ride, I just remember waking up and feeling very very hungry. We got to the site pretty early and set up our trailer and then the girls wandered into the Holderness locker rooms where we didn't come out until about 30 minutes before the start of the 6k Classic. Yeah... My warmup was pretty much running over to the start, a few leg swings, deep breathing, and that was it. I was supposed to be the second bib out but since the girl ahead of me scratched, I was the first girl on course.

I should probably mention a little detail: we like team spirit. And as a result of our team spirit, we all decided to embrace our inner 7 year old and do our hair up in pigtails and put copious amounts of face paint and glitter on ourselves. And purple hairspray into our pigtails. We're pretty much the coolest team ever.

I took it out pretty level 3-ish and hung in that area for most of the race. I may have cracked into level 4 on some of the hills but I kept myself at the "this is good heavy breathing, but not a lot of pain" pace. I love the Holderness course for 2 main reasons. The downhills are wicked. And because the track was so icy, the course was so fast. The other reason is that it's a really technical course in the sense that there are a ton of switchbacks and technical turns. It's just such a fun course to blister. Honestly, it went by so fast, it didn't even feel like a 6k. It was just a solid run. I knew I wasn't totally spent because I came in with a big smile on my face and I wasn't really tired at all. Our girls all followed in pretty quickly and our boys followed them. The girls ended up sweeping the podium, and then another top 15 finish for our scoring while the boys had their top four in the top 10 with 2 on the podium in first and third. Molly took the silver, Alice the bronze, and I squeaked out a gold. Andrew took the men's gold and Jeb snatched a bronze for himself. Gould was quite successful :)

After draining my legs on the wall, I strapped into my skate garb and we got ready for the relay. The relay course was so fast and crazy and we were so pumped for having a good run. Now, for those of you know what happened at J2's 2 years ago, relays at Holderness have not gone well for me in the past. So we had a tag phrase that we prepared ahead of time to get us ready for the tag. 'Go go go' in Italian is "Die die die!" which is an extremely motivational phrase (according to Mr. K of course) and so we did that to get us moving in the tag zone and to send us off we shouted "SQUIRREL!!" when we actually tagged. Call us a little nerdy, but we pretty much slayed that course. All of the girls had awesome relay legs and our A team for both boys and girls took home the victory. The B Teams also all had awesome races. Overall, it was an extremely productive day for all the Gould Nordic team.

I really wanted to put up some pictures of our ridiculousness, but they aren't up online yet from our official photographer. Once those get up, you're sure to get a laugh or two out our originality and team spirit. Tomorrow is the last Eastern Cup at Dartmouth and the Finale is over at Holderness again. I'm so excited and so pumped. I'm really hoping to qualify this year, I mean, this is what I've been really working for. It kind of comes down to this weekend (no pressure, hehe). But we'll see how I fair, and hopefully, I'll have another post with a screaming title saying that I'll be jetting off to Minneapolis.
Cross your fingers.
Good luck to all, and let's have some fun this weekend :)
See you there!

Copious Amounts of Snow

2011-02-08T09:45:00.000-05:00

This weekend we shipped ourselves off the Stowe for our second set of Eastern Cup/JOQ races in two weeks. Hoo hah. Now lets do a background check with Stowe. Trapps is probably one of my favorite courses to race -one of the hardest- but still one of my favorites. I've had some of my best races there (ESHC Freshman year, Eastern Cup Opener sophomore year) and some of my worst races there (second Eastern Cup sophomore year). It's always a mixed bag at Stowe. We arrived Friday afternoon after the UVM carnival had wrapped up and we went out for a ski to preview the course. It was just as rolling as I remembered it to be but it managed to go by pretty quickly. After previewing, we went back to the trailer to scrape skis where I was finally able to do my Russian Accent like Mr. K and get it caught on camera. It was just so lovely. This got me in an even better mood so I was pretty stoked for Saturday's races. I was able to go back to the condo in a good mindset. The rest of our team/guests arrived later that night and we dined on Mr. K's phenomenal lasagna. I went to bed pretty early after some hot tubbing action and I dreamed of the fastest things I knew to be in existence. Like cheetahs and Ferraris.

That next morning I woke up promptly to Ke$ha and got up feeling like P. Diddy. While this may have slightly annoyed our boys across the hall, it made me feel awesome. After eating a nice bagel with peanut butter and gulping down some OJ we bused ourselves to the lodge where we got ourselves pumped for the 5k skate. Since it was still a college carnival day, there were a ton of people racing and I knew it was going to be hard to try and place well. But as my race start approached, I just plugged in my headphones and listened to some fast paced techno on constant loop to calm me down. My nerves were gone by the time I got to the line and as soon as I went off, the first thing I said to myself was "go big or go home."

I remembered halfway around the first swooping turn that my former assistant coach, Ms. Lauren, was only two spots behind me and that kind of drove me to go a little fast through the first 3k. I felt pretty awesome throughout that entire period. I was taking the downhills really aggressively and my form was pretty solid, especially in my V1. However, right around the 3k, stuff started to happen. My legs started to feel the burn pretty bad and I started to panic a little bit because all I could think about was what happened to me on this course last year and my entire burnout process. I tried to relax but I got a little freaked out mentally and then Lauren passed me around the 4k mark. I felt a little slow coming into the finish but I had enough to make my finish look slightly respectable.

I don't really know how to describe this race. I mean, by all means, it wasn't a bad day. But at the same time, it wasn't a great day. It was kind of a 'meh' day. Meh, it wasn't my best but I still had a pretty good result for the J1's. So I took it for what it was worth (literally, points wise) and we watched the boys bust out a pretty awesome 10k skate. We huddled on the snow like a pack of penguins until the sun went down and it was time to go home. We got on the bus, ate lasagna again, stayed up and talked a little while, played some Robot Unicorn Attack, then went to sleep.

Oh and it snowed that night. Funny story. See we left our skis in the trailer up at Trapps and the coaches thought they would be able to drive up and finish them that night. Turns out buses and copious amounts of snow (COPIOUS IS AN SAT WORD!!!! REMEMBER THAT!!!) don't quite get along. So they skied up, waxed, skied back down, got the bus, got behind a plow, and drove home. That's how cool they are. Not to mention it was thundering and lightning out all night. Which makes it even better.

Sunday did not go well for me. Let's put it that way. I woke up with a stomach ache and thought it would subside but it didn't. I thought once I started warming it it would go away but it didn't. Then I thought once I started it would go away. It didn't. I tried to keep myself in a positive mindset the entire race because I knew that if I lost it -mentally that is- I would have a repeat of two years ago at Stowe. Which makes now a good time to finally tell that story....

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away Shelby was racing in Stowe. It was raining, snowing, sleeting, thundering, hailing, and then snowing again. The wax was... Unpredictable to say the least. So Shelby essentially had to run out of the stadium and get passed by two people in the first 200m because the wax iced up so bad. She completely lost it mentally and when she crossed the line and her dad and her coach tried to come over to her, she threw her skis at them. The end.

So that is what I wanted to avoid again, because my skis were kind of slow on the downhills, like I had to double pole everything everyone else could tuck. I just tried to keep my cool and smile all the way through it. That's all I could do. When I finally crossed the line I took off my skis, brought them to the wax trailer, got on the bus, and then started to break down a little. I knew I wasn't burning out again, but at the same time I just felt miserable, like I had wasted so much energy on something that wasn't even really worth it because I felt so sick. There was nothing I could do, and after a good pep talk with my mom, I was able to walk away with my head a little higher because I knew that while I may had lost my number 6 slot for JO's, I still have one more weekend to fight back for it. So that's all I'm focusing on now. I have my motivation, and I have my work cut out for me. It's time to earn it back.
Game on.

Pictures From Races Past

2011-02-01T10:11:00.000-05:00

So I never did get a chance to blog about the Lake Placid SuperTour. How sad :( However, I think I can make up for it in pictures.

Me during the Classic. Hoo hah.

Sam being a total beast :)

Alice with her game face on >:)

All the lovely Gouldie Girls

And now that I FINALLY have all my other pictures uploaded, here are some others from races from not so long ago.

Craftsbury EC. Can you spot the Gouldies?

Men's mass start.

Shenanigans on the bus...

Welcome to the Empire State (of Mind...)

New Zealand buddy! Go Noah!

Even more bus ride shenanigans

Jeb beasting it out at Maranacook

Myself on a rather good day

Molly!

Marguerite having an excellent day as well.

A PSA To All Skiers: A Weekend In Weston

2011-01-31T09:54:00.000-05:00

Before you even think 'uh oh, this title does not show a promising blog' put this idea into your head: I had a pretty awesome weekend. I felt awesome and that's what matters. Now as for why this is a PSA, let's just say I've had my fair share of drama in races but the skate mass start at Weston this weekend was certainly one the most event filled races I've ever participated in. But let's start from the beginning....

Once upon a time in a land far far away called Bethel, Maine, about 8 high school athletes loaded into their Gould Academy bus and set off for the mythical Weston Ski Track. For those of you unfamiliar with Weston, it's a golf course by summer and a grand prix race course by winter. No joke. After stopping at Badger Island Pizzaria for dinner, I slept my way to our hotel room while the rest of the bus was entertained with their movies (can someone say Top Gun?) or listening to stories from the all ever amazing Mr. K. We arrived at our Best Western at about 8:30 and I just wanted to flop down on a bed and sleep for 10 hours. But unfortunately we couldn't do that because our room, while it was designated as a non-smoking room, smelled like a sketchy street corner. So we had to wait for our room to be changed and then I took a shower. I plopped myself on the bed and I was out until 7:30am the next morning. It was wonderful.

That morning we got up and enjoyed some bagels and breakfast-like condiments and packed ourselves up. We drove the ski track and got there about 2 hours before the start of our sprint. The parking wasn't a problem for us but over the course of the day, things got really crowded. I started my warmup about an hour before the race. I had some serious jitters even though the big college girls weren't all there. The course was so fast to warmup on, I almost double checked to see if it was a full 1.2k but I just took it for what it was. I had my iPod on and Sandstorm was on constant repeat because that was the only song that was fast enough to match my nerves. I got in line and got myself ready to go. As soon as the command was given I started to fly. My start was a little sketch because it was a downhill but I quickly recovered and started to really hammer it. The infamous Mt. Weston (haha, Massachusetts third highest point [just kidding :P ]) was the only real hill on the course and our entire boys squad was there to cheer us on so it was a pretty good way to start out. I felt so awesome. I had a little bit of the hop skate going on and my tempo was so fast on the backstretch after the hill. I roared around the turnaround point and found myself coming into the last set of downhills almost catching the girl in front of me. So in the final 100m I passed her and I let out a scream of 'whoa, that was so much fun' at the end. I knew I had done my job and now I had to focus on getting some food into me and doing a proper cooldown so I would be ready for the afternoon. I didn't want to eat anything though because I felt like I was going to empty my guts onto the snow but I held it down. After the cooldown, we cheered on our boys who had some awesome races, including a 24th place for our top junior. I went to look at results after and at first I didn't see my name and I thought "wow, I must have had the worst race ever" but then I saw my name. In 5th place. I pulled a littler Jersey Shore fist pump and skipped off to a nap on the bus.

Now the afternoon's activities were slightly more complicated. I warmed up about 30 minutes before the start of the race and did some pickups. I was ready to go and as soon as the command went, the ladies 5k mass start hysteria began. I navigated my way as fast as I could to get to the front pack but there was no way I could make it to the top ten. There were just so many women. I came around the back stretch of the first lap and I was double poling as fast as the pace was going. However, as much as I enjoyed the leisurely pace, it was only a matter of time until things started to catch up to me. Specifically karma. Let's have a little flashback moment...

The scene is set before the race and Shelby and her coach are at the fence...
Coach: Where's that extra set of poles Ben said you had?
Shelby: Umm, over in my blue ski bag, but I probably won't need them. I'm not planning on breaking a second pair of poles in two weeks......

Now let's go back to the race. So I'm probably in the top 20 or so girls coming out of the backstretch and we hit the downhill. Karma strikes hard and my pole is out behind me when I hear it just totally snap. I quickly looked down and realized I was missing about 20cm of pole. Greeeeaaaat. I may or may not have shouted a profanity in anger, but hey these were my second pair of poles in two weeks. I had some rights to be a little angry. So I kept skiing. I was waving my hand around and around for quite some time screaming "POLE! POLE! POLE!" but I was stuck on the inside of the track where no one could get to me. This continued for about a kilometer-kilometer and a half until finally I snagged a pole from my Dad who had snagged it from a man who had seen me earlier. Except karma struck again: it was the wrong hand grip. So mid tuck skate, I flip the pole around, cut off my hand's circulation, and figure out how to use it. I tried to play catch-up and it was working until about the last kilometer where I kind of threw in the towel early. I caught 3 or 4 girls right at the finish but I was done.

So the weekend concluded with some awesome results for the Gouldies. Our top junior boy snagged a top 20 in the mass 9k with another in the top 45. I snagged a 33rd place, which I have no problem taking for my lack-of-pole incident, and two more of our girls were also in the top 45. Overall, a really strong weekend for the Gouldies. Now it's back to school. I have 3 tests this week (AP Gov, AP Bio, and PreCalc) an English paper due, and we're missing again on Friday to jet over to Stowe. So I'm writing this in my Free Dot trying to think of all the ways I'm going to keep my GPA up all while keeping myself sane. It should be a rather fun time. Anywho, I have some precalc to finish for next class (in 20 minutes) so I should get going.
Good job to everyone for yesterday! And Hannah, I can finally say I scaled Mt. Weston. Ha.
See you in Stowe!

Waves of the Maranacook Kind

2011-01-23T23:41:00.000-05:00

So Saturday was one of the largest races the state of Maine gets to host for High School Nordic: Maranacook Waves. It's a pretty exciting race, and since I missed last years due to the Eastern Cup over in Stowe, I was pretty pumped to be able to race it this year. We stepped off the bus and I felt like I had stepped back into High School racing. It was sort of a surreal moment for me because here I was, not having raced any high school circuit races this year, and suddenly I'm thrown into one of the largest ones in the state. I didn't know really how to take it in. Being able to see my old team was a really big highlight for me as well because we're probably only going to be able to see them one or two more times this year. As soon as I walked into the High School I heard my name shouted all from one corner and I couldn't help but feel so loved. Thanks guys <3

As for the race itself, I absolutely love the Maranacook course. There is no other course like it. It's fast, it's winding, and it's a blast to go out with with 7 other people. I can't say enough about that course. Easily it's one of my favorites. After eating a quick bite of my Luna Bar and maybe half a cookie, I went to go warmup. It was 1:40pm and the race was supposed to start at 2:15pm. Then I heard over the speaker "Oh the race will now start at 2pm" and I was just like "aw crap." So after rushing and trying to get my muscles moving, I heard over the speaker again "Oh wait, we're going to wait for the last boy to come in." Thank goodness. So I kept warming up, translating song lyrics into French of course as that helps me with my nerves. We were called to the line and I was so pumped. Hannah and Becca, both excellent senior skiers, were both in my heat so I had my motivation. My start was a little slow because my pole sank in really deep at the command so I had myself in third going into the first downhill. But I quickly regained my position and took it into the field in first. Pretty much from there I just wanted to go as fast as I could. I looked across the field and I saw I was really far ahead and I almost double guessed myself and thought if I was going out too fast. But I erased that thought and told myself "just go with it and see what happens." And that's pretty much what I did.

So come the second lap on the lower field, I'm still feeling totally awesome. I dunno, maybe it was the song I had stuck in my head, a mash-up of Like A G6 and Strangers Like Me (I know, Phil Collins of all people....) I came around for the upper field and I saw the hill. I'm not quite sure what the called it, I think some people referred to it as Suicide but I could be wrong. So I put down the hammer and pulled myself up. I don't think I've ever made it up a hill that fast and not have the pain start that late. It was a really good ascent and I kept my momentum up until the backside of the field, which was a rolling straightaway. I had a moment of "ouch, now I'm feeling it" but I knew there was a downhill coming up. So I took that with all my lack of alpine skills and finished with a pretty big smile. The finish was a little slow because it had gotten chewed up by the boys but I didn't really care. I felt good and it was a really good race. More importantly, I had a blast and that's what counts.

See that little speck? That's me in my pathetic little tuck...

Anywho, we (Molly and myself) enjoyed a cooldown to the lower fields where we pranced around through the seven inches of untouched powder like caribou in Alaska. We were both extremely pleased with ourselves. It was a good day for Gould overall as well. Our boys took 1, 4, 19, and 23 with Andrew and Jeb taking spots in the top ten and Kyle and Izzy rounding off our scoring team. The girls took 1, 2, 4, and 14 which put us at the top of the team scores. I had a pretty good day one could say, with a victory. But I was really happy about our girls team strength. Molly was right behind me and Alice had a fantastic day and so did Sam (who is still coming off a broken hand). Good stuff? I think so :)

Our shenanigans continued into the night with an unpredicted hockey game we thought we weren't going to be able to attend (Hebron vs. Proctor). We were able to cheer on one of our schoolmate's sister and the Proctor Hornets. While the game ended in a loss for them, we were still running on good vibes which carried into today. I slept so well last night. So so well. I woke up, ate, waxed my skis, got my homework done, and watched YouTube all day. THAT is how you take the day off. So congrats to all the girls and boys who raced yesterday! It was a fun day filled with some great racing action.

See you (possibly) at the Sassi and all the rest of you in Weston!
Have fun, ski hard!

Bring Your A Game: US Nationals

2011-01-12T20:51:00.000-05:00

So. How do I describe my first time at US Nationals? Terrifying? Exciting? Thrilling? Boring? Depressing? Experience-gaining? Imagine all your best and worst racing feelings. Put them in a bottle, shake it up, and drink it. That's pretty much the essence of what it was like for me this week. Yeah, there might have been a race or two where my results were not nearly what you would hope for, but the point is that this is US Senior Nationals. They don't mess around here. With that in mind, I would like to reflect on this week as a learning experience and as a first glance into what racing is like in a post-college setting.

I felt so lucky that Nationals were at Black this year. They were literally, right in my backyard. Granted there wasn't really a ton of snow, but somehow they turned the snow drought into a great racing spectacular. So many kudos should be given the the crew over there, it's not even funny. So a mighty hoo hah to them.

Sunday: Classic Sprint
What could I take away from this race? Hmm... I guess the biggest thing I learned was the difference between a sprint classic technique and a more distance classic technique. Granted, I learned more of the difference after the race, but that's besides the point. Don't get me wrong, I know in classic sprints that there is a little bit of a change up in the technique. It's a little more percussion-like, still flowing, but a little more mechanical. And with the snow conditions, you could not afford to be going for glide; tempo was key, something once again learned post race. Being able to watch the heats after was also a huge part of my day. This was US Nationals, so you were bound to see some awesome racing action. Just seeing how these athletes were putting themselves on the line every heat was so intense. They were pushing their bodies just that much further, which was just something so inspiring.

Thank you Addikay for capturing me in my prime :)

Wednesday: Classic Distance
Remember how I said there was a day where my results weren't quite umm.... Respectable? Up to par? Satisfactory? Yeah. That was Wednesday. The sad thing was, I thought I was doing really well too. So here's Wednesday's lesson: walk away from a race knowing you gave what you had and that's the best you could do. A little bit of a mood killer I know, but that's another point of racing. I guess this post is slightly more of a 'lessons learned' sort of thing, because to be brutally honest, I don't really remember what happened as I was racing. I'm totally spent :P I took out my first lap hard. Probably a little too hard in fact. Because by the time the third lap rolled around I was thinking to myself "wow, I feel like crap." Something strange also happened that third lap. Coming up the hill on the backside of the course, my back totally spazzed out on me. I felt like someone had just jabbed a knife into my ribs and twisted it a round for a minute or two. To make matter worse, I was passed. And that just ultimately killed my mindset for a little bit. But my last lap I came around and tried to make a strong finish. I didn't even really want to look at the results for that long because I knew they were not going to be what I wanted. But I just told myself "you gave it what you had. Now go home, rest, and get ready for tomorrow."

Thursday: Skate Distance
So originally I thought we were doing a 20k. Silly me. A 5k was just as awesome. Lesson learned: Yesterday is yesterday, today is today. I really had to erase all the bad thoughts of Wednesday and focus on this race. And it seemed to work. My first lap felt awesome. I was strong, my technique felt pretty good and my tempo was nice and snappy. Second lap was a little slower on the backside of the course but that didn't really bother me. I knew I was having a much better race and I finished with a smile on my face.

Saturday: Skate Sprint
I learned something extremely important on Saturday: Go Hard. Honestly, that's all I can sum it up into. It was my last chance to make a statement, my last chance to race with all of these pros in one spot for this year, and my last chance to race in a week. So I let it go. We had worked on some drills on the field at Gould the day before and figured out a simple way to fix my toe-flickyness/weight transfer problem that I have been dealing with since I was in 8th grade. So I was confident, I was pumped, and I took it out hard. The race was really a blur but I knew I was going pretty fast and I was having a good one. So I took it for what it was worth. And it turns out it was the best race of my week.

The NEXT Sunday: Fast And Female
The fun NEVER seems to end. Thanks to some awesome organizational skills, Gould managed to host a Fast and Female event that over 100 girls from all over Maine were able to attend. Honestly, this might have been the highlight of my week. Seeing all of the pros mixed with these girls who were just starting out on skis was such an emotional thing for me. There is just so much potential for inspiration and who knows, maybe one of those girls could be the next Sadie Bjornsen or the next Holly Brooks. What mattered the most was that these girls were exposed to such high caliber racers in such a welcoming environment. This not only inspires the girls, it keeps them with the sport because now they know that there is an entire community of girls just like them who love the sport as much as they do. (Photo credits to NENSA. Thanks a bunches!)

The Crew :D

Gould Girlies are Fast and Female <3

Molly showing off her amazing 'push-ups on skis' skills

We are ALL Fast and Female :)

So now what? One week later -four races later- class decides to show up in my life again. So now I'm scrambling to finish Crime and Punishment and the reading journal that goes along with it before Friday which is when midterms close. And sooner or later we'll have to put the final touches on our AP Government Martin Luther King Day workshop that we'll be presenting to underclassmen around the school. Our topic of choice? Child Labor in Mexico. Oh bundles of joy. Not to mention the pile of French reading I need to finish... So with that in mind, we leave for Lake Placid tomorrow. 6 hours in the car should give me enough time to finish something.

Oh and another Kudos to give out: Mother Nature. Thank you so much for this dumping of snow! It made today an EXCELLENT romp day out in the woods.
See you this weekend! SuperTour! Get pumped!

Blogging: One Year Later

2011-01-04T07:41:00.000-05:00

So, this whole 2011 thing. That's kind of exciting, non? As of today, it's been exactly a year since I embarked on my quest to let the world know about the exciting ski life of me. Although I'm pretty sure I know 96.9% of my readers (and half of them are most likely family) it's awesome to see the hit counter move up everyday. So thanks for sticking with me. Kudos to you!

And with that in mind, I'll be blogging about the whole of nationals at the end of this week. So keep posted :)
Enjoy!

Romping Through Vermont

2010-12-21T00:09:00.001-05:00

Saturday
5:30am. It's dark. I just rolled out of bed. And we're already on the road. Last night is still roaring through my head and my throat is super sore. But I plug in my headphones and POOF! It's 7:30 in what feels like 2 seconds later and we're at a rest stop in the middle of Vermont.

So today was a very special day if you couldn't tell. Today was the first Eastern Cup in Craftsbury. I woke up promptly at 5:10am to the sound of my alarm blaring and the first thing I noticed was that I had a really sore throat. Great. I made some tea as quick as I could and made sure I wasn't too late getting to the bus (because Mr. K said he would be leaving people behind if they weren't there). I also had to make sure my bags were packed not only for this weekend, but also for my two weeks back home for break. Thankfully my parents came over the night before and picked up my school bag with my books for break and my clothes that I didn't need for this weekend. And I should probably mention that that night was Yulefest so Christmas music was still roaring through my head. How wonderful. Anyway we arrived pretty much on schedule and everything went pretty smooth as far as race prep. We managed to park the trailer without running over any innocent resident squirrels and we creeped our way up to the course for our preview.

I give huge credit to Craftsbury for pulling that sprint off. The snow was super fast and the course was crazy fun.

About 30 minutes before the race we tried out our race skis and they were flying so fast. My warmup was pretty regular, nothing too hard but some good strong pickups about 15 minutes before the start. The warmup area was a little ways away from the actual course but we made it work with some running and quick little plyos so we could be near the start without having to scramble to get to the gate. I got into the corral and the nerves started to hit. I was finally racing again. FINALLY. 8 months of summer training, racing, time trials, strength workouts, and this was finally the beginning of a new season. My eyes were literally twitching with excitement. You know that feeling where there is just such a big itch in your stomach that the only way to get rid of it is to just roar at the world and show'em what you got? Yeah. That's pretty much what happened. As soon as my legs broke through the wand, I just wanted to do one thing: rip it up.

So with that image in mind, I took it out hard. The downhill start was great way to build up some major speed but you had to be really careful. The corners were chewed up and I almost had a really REALLY bad tumble. Thankfully I didn't and I made my way up the first hill without breathing terribly hard. My eyes were wide and I was ready for anything. I just felt like I was flying. But then after another quick downhill and uphill and another little downhill, there was this short, but steep, wall of a hill. I didn't find out until the finish that it's actually called Heart Break Hill. How touching. That hill was chewed up really bad on the left hand side and everyone was tending towards the right, so I followed in their tracks. Finally I came around to the finish. My tongue was hanging out and I felt like a racehorse who had been prancing in the stall and was finally let out to run. The finish was rough because it was this very slight but noticeable uphill, but I charged it and came across the line smiling.

After my cooldown, I came by to check the live-timing. I was jittery because I knew I had done pretty well but I probably wasn't going to be in the heats. And I was right, I was 31st and the cut off was 30. So I shrugged my shoulders and went back the van to get some dry stuff on. After getting changed, I went to go look for K in the wax trailer and I found him talking on the radio. He turned and said: "You're in." Hoo hah. Here comes round 2.

So I ate half a bagel and we blasted the music across the parking lot. After teaching sous chef how to play Angry Birds and the Oregon Trail on my iPod, I left for my warmup and was thinking one thing to myself : what happens, happens. I checked my heat and found out I was probably not going to move after this one. Both the Caldwell Sisters were in it, A Craftsbury Green Team Girl, and a Midd Kid. And then there's me. The Gouldie. I knew my skis were going to be fast and I knew I was going to be fast but I also knew that they were probably going to smother me. With that in mind, I just took it out with a smile and played it as it came. The start was pretty slow, it was an uphill double pole, but I was right in the mix of things at the beginning. I started thinking to myself as we came up the first hill "Holy crap, I almost skiing on Izzy Caldwell's skis. What the heck am I doing here?!" But then things started to change. While I thought I might have actually been holding with them, they kicked it into their overdrive gear that my engine doesn't quite have. So I essentially was crushed by a good 15-20 seconds. But once again I found myself smiling at the finish. It was the first time I made the heats, I was in a heat of amazing skiers, my team was screaming for me, and I had a pretty darn good run. I was quite content.

We watched a few J2 girls heats and then packed up and headed to Wiliston, VT for our midway stop between Craftsbury and Jericho. That night we went out for Mexican food. Hands down, one of the best burritos I've ever had in my life. Either that or I was so hungry that anything tasted good. The team was in a great mood and we were just all happy to be racing again. So we all kind of fed off of that feel-good vibe and slept soundly that night, knowing Sunday would have even bigger surprises in store for us.

Sunday
Sunday morning brought a new surprise when we found out we didn't have to leave until 9:30am instead of 8:30. So we were able to hang out and not frantically scatter to get our stuff together. I hate being frantic. Especially on race morning. It puts me in such a bad mindset. But Sunday was anything but frantic. The Jericho Biathlon facilities are simply amazing, easily some of the best tracks we've been on so far this year. Once again we parked the bus without managing to hit any squirrels, spectators, or roaming children in sleds and we made ourselves at home with a few hours to kill before the race. The J2's went off without a hitch and surprisingly, as we toured the course, the tracks stayed pretty much in tact the entire way. The course was a 4x2.75k loop course meaning it was going to be an extremely congested start and the first lap or two was going to be extremely hazardous in terms of switching tracks. So we practiced some technical downhills and our tracking and everything seemed to be okay. So with our skis waxed and ready to fly, we made our way to the start.

The start was something crazy. I mean I've been in pretty big races before, but I've never really been right in the middle of such a huge field. In one direction you have all these college girls hauling to get to the front and in another direction you have all your regular competition that you've been racing against since the Bill Koch Festivals of the olden days. It was crazy. It was one of those starts, especially at the bottom of the first hill, where you just wanted to keep your own pace and keep your head focused because if you got caught up in everyone else's way, you were going to end up out of the tracks or going out way too fast. So I kept myself in behind one of my friends and then we hit the first set of downhills. Now, our skis were a little slow on the way down and I started to worry a little bit. However that uneasiness quickly vanished when I realized that I had some of the best skis for climbing the hills. I stayed really relaxed (something that Jeremy, Brad, and Mr. K had emphasized to me before hand) and I just let the skis work. Sure enough, I was passing a ton of girls on the uphills and I quickly regained a good position.

The whole four laps thing was a little bit of a mental killer. I mean its one thing where you can tell yourself "only two rounds of 5k!" but it's another to keep yourself sane in these shorter loops. But I feel like I did a pretty good job. I felt really strong and smooth all the way through the course. I mean, of course I was breathing hard and everything, but I just felt like I could process things calmly and really focus on the race. The last loop was a blast and I had a killer finish against a Middlebury girl who I just barely edged out at the line. When I crossed the line I let out a scream of relief mixed with joy because I knew three things:
I had an awesome day
My skis were perfect
It was the beginning of Christmas break so I could go home.
I headed back to the van and grabbed myself a Luna bar and some water and gatorade. I was really hungry for some reason, I'm usually not hungry for at least an hour after a race. I mean, I'll eat a power bar or something right afterwards, but the hunger doesn't usually hit me for a little while. We put on some warm clothes and headed out to cheer on the boys. I was quite proud of all our boys, they had some awesome races and they definitely looked the smoothest coming up the hills (once again, awesome wax). I think our team had a great weekend with some awesome results. After the race, I headed back to pack up my bags and headed to the car. And finally, I headed home.

It was a great weekend to say the least. I finally felt like I was really performing at the level I knew I could. I think as long as I get over this cold that's got me bogged down right now (thank god it's right after this weekend and I have some major recovery time before Nationals) I'm on a pretty good track. I'm itching to get back on snow, so maybe sometime this week I'll take a trip up to Rangely to see what's up there. We'll see.

Have a wonderful holiday season!!! See you at Rumford for Nationals!!!

I'm A College Girl

2010-12-14T19:37:00.000-05:00

So yesterday morning at promptly 7:24am, I found out that I got into college. My reaction was something of this manner.....

AAHHHHHH!!!!!!!
AAASDKJASHDKJSAHDKJASHDKASGFDHASFDTYWEWJADMA!!!!!

Pretty much. So yes, I got accepted to Bowdoin and (as long as senioritis stays at bay) I will be attending next fall. Can someone say super pumped?! HOO HAH!!!!

I GOT INTO COLLEGE!!! YAHOOTIE!!!!!

HOO HAH

2010-12-11T16:05:00.000-05:00

AAAHHHHHH!!!!!! First race of the season!!!!! There is nothing quite like finding yourself with your iPod in your ears, listening to your pump up music, while sipping some tea, and having butterflies in your stomach all over again. No, I guess it wasn't 'technically' a race, considering it was Gould, Colby, and Bowdoin, but if was up to me, I'd classify it as a race. I'm so excited right now, my hands are literally shaking, and I'm just running on sheer endorphins right now, the feel good ones. We found out at the beginning of the week that Craftsbury and the Great Glen Sprints had been cancelled, so our coaches pulled together this last minute Time Trial up at Grafton Notch. I was so excited just to be getting back into race routine. It felt so right, like it was completing me. Anyway, I should probably calm myself down a little before I go off on a rant. Hold on.........

Ahhhhhh...........

Fixing up the wax.

There. So, after our first two classes this morning, we loaded up our skis which we had waxed last night and shipped ourselves off to Grafton, ALMOST on time (imagine that??) But soon after, drama struck the team when we realized we had forgotten one of our teammates. After some frantic phone calls, some pulling over to the side of the road, and taking care of that whole issue, we finally departed for the snow. I was so excited, just so ready to let it go. After arriving and testing our our skis, we realized we had waxed a little too cold, but that was quickly fixed. Now to get out to our race venue, we had to ski about 5k out, so that was pretty much our warmup. I did a little bit of running and some plyos to get my muscles ready and I was just in a really good mental state. There was no break in between the boys and girls starts so we just filed on in. I should probably now mention it was a 10k individual (30 sec) start classic race. That might be an important detail. I was off pretty fast. I felt like my technique was super solid and my heart rate wasn't all over the place which made me confident.

Dedicated cheering squad

Getting in the zone. I think we win the competition for the brightest speed-suits. You can never miss a Gouldie on the trails.

The course on the way up was a rolling uphill and then on the way back it was a rolling downhill. My wax was awesome and my technique just felt so relaxed but powerful and strong at the same time. I played some mind games with myself, telling myself the following "YOU ARE AWESOME. YOU'RE TOTALLY KILLING IT AND YOU ARE BEING SUCH A BEAST RIGHT NOW." I just needed that extra mental boost. I also happened to be singing this one line from a Britney Spears + Madonna song, Me Against The Music, "Can you feel it burn?" And I just kind of chuckled at myself and replied "Hell yes I can." So with that positive mindset, I pressed on. This 10k seemed to go by really fast, or maybe I'm starting to get more and more used to them. I was passed only twice in the race, once in the beginning and once right at the end by two Colby girls who had some awesome races today. But I passed my fair share of people which also boosted my mindset. There was one point in the race where the girls were starting to come back from the turn around and all the way everyone was cheering for each other. I got to the top and the turn around and I put down the throttle. I knew I was about halfway done, it was mostly downhill, and my skis were fast, so I needed to bump into my next gear. HOO HAH.

Stretching it out.

I just felt really strong the entire race. The only regret I can think of is the track switching. I might have been able to play it out better, but that's really all I can think of. My last 5k felt pretty solid as well, I really focused on being efficient and maintaining good technique. I surged my way to the finish and I finished with a smile.

You want to know why I was smiling?

Because for the first time in a year, I felt like I had truly accomplished a race in the way that I wanted to accomplish it. Sure, it's only the beginning of the season but in comparison to last year, I just felt so much happier while I was racing and post-race. I didn't throw my skis (once again, a story for another day), I didn't feel burnt out, and I had energy to compete. I have no clue how I did, but what matters to me is that I felt like sunshine on steroids. So now I leave you all to go get changed and showered for Snowball, our winter formal. We race by day, swing dance by night.

Happy Nordies are the best Nordies :)

Enjoy! Pray for some snow for next weekend's Eastern Cup in Craftsbury!!!!

I'm Sorry Sadie

2010-12-09T15:06:00.000-05:00

Sadie, I apologize. The correct spelling of Justin Bieber is not 'Beiber.' It's Bieber. And I apologize for all the harm that I've done. The corrections have been made so that you will no longer have to read that post and cringe at the misspelling.

Au Quebec

2010-12-08T21:14:00.001-05:00

Beautiful, wonderful, cold, French, snowy, holiday filled Canada was a wonderful adventure. We packed up the day after Thanksgiving and made our way through the rain/snow/fog extravaganza up to the border. After making it cleanly through border patrol, we happily sang Lady Gaga, the Spice Girls, Justin Timberlake (not Justin Bieber even though he is from Canada) all the way to our home away from home in the middle of Stoneham. Our house was lovely and full of surprises, including a basement with a French Karaoke machine and a Super Nintendo. That's right, none of that silly Wii business. This was the real stuff. After our van (the first van) arrived, we quickly went to the IGA and admired all of the labels en français and scurried home so we could eat. After digesting, we grabbed our skis and went out onto the powder of the golf course across the street.

It was heaven on a plate.

It just felt so awesome to have skis back on my feet. I've been waiting since August, and I know a lot of the group had been waiting since the end of last season to put the skis back on. Just being able to ski around and fall down into a giant blanket of snow was marvelous. That night, the other half of our crew arrived, including my best-est co-blogger Miss Saders. Although we never got to write a post together due to the lack of internet, she would have said something along these lines....

"CANADA IS AWESOME. THERE IS A TON OF SNOW, THERE ARE SO MANY COOL PEOPLE AND THE FOOD IS LUVERLY. And now, I want to hot tub. Say goodnight saders: goodnight shelber's blog people!"

Yeah........Something like that.

Anyway, we got up the next morning for our first session on snow. There were a ton of colleges up there participating in the races at Foret and so it was a good preview of who's going to be dominating the circuit this year. We spent the first part of the morning tramping along through a ton of powder on the back trails and taking pictures. It was so wonderful to be surrounded by our natural environment again. It's almost like letting out a breath of relief. Like sighing and saying "FINALLY." That afternoon we attempted to skate but the snow was a little soft so it was kind of a fail. However for the next four days we were able to get in a ton of skate and classic sessions. We were just able to build up a really nice base of on snow time which is extremely helpful to us considering we start racing this weekend. I can't believe the season is already here! It's amazing how fast time flies.

Looking gooooooood.

However after five lovely days filled with hours upon hours of on snow time, hot tubbing challenges, 130 degree saunas, pizza making disasters, pasta NOT sticking to the ceiling (that's right, sous chef didn't throw pasta on the ceiling this time around), being kidnapped by eagles on the Oregon Trail, Canada's Worst Driver (best TV show EVER), playing with our Cadbury Chocolate Egg prizes, and reading the Communist Manifesto in British accents, we finally had to pack up all of our gear and truck back down to, at the time, snowless Maine.

But thanks to some smiling of the weather gods, we've been on amazing tracks for the last couple of days. We're so lucky to have little pockets of snow hidden away in the mountains. So if you do ever come up to Maine and hear screaming coming from the mountains, do not panic. It's not the Yeti clan. It's extremely happy Gould Nordies skiing their hearts out on the trails.

We did manage to go into Quebec City one night, which was the only time I took my camera. However, thanks to marvels of Facebook and Flickr, I'm mooching some other pictures so that you can all see the wonders of snow in Canada.

Enjoy!!! Think snow!!!

Thank you Molly for remembering your camera :)

Beautiful Quebec City

Studying the Communist Manifesto: PROOF WE DO DO OUR HOMEWORK!!!

The wonderful Saders and I

A little slice of Europe in your backyard.

Home is....

2010-11-23T13:37:00.000-05:00

I've been anyway from home for a long time. I've been away from Titcomb for a long time. To FINALLY come home, and be back with friends, family, and places I haven't seen in forever is simply amazing. Finals ended (thank goodness) on Friday and I was promptly picked up after I moved into my new room. Yeah that's right. Shelby got a single. Hoo hah.

But I do miss my team to workout with and the lovely conversations we have. And rolling our r's for any word that has an r in it. And I miss the screaming Russian voice in the back of my head provided by Mr K. Some how it terrifies me just enough to make me go faster on the bounding sessions.

Anywho, what's up for this week... Turkey Day. That's pretty big. I remember last year I did kilometer repeats before the meal that day. Not a bad idea if you really want to open up your stomach. This year I think its an easier day, but I don't really remember. Today is a 7x4min level 4 day, tomorrow is a 2 hour level 1 recovery. Yesterday was possibly the crappiest day weather wise all this week. It was icy on the roads, which isn't really optimal for roller skiing or running. So in utter desperation, I went to the human hamster wheel over at the gym. I hate treadmills. And ellipticals. And anything that makes you do repetitive motions for a set amount of time without actually moving anywhere. But I was able to get some strength in on some different machines which was pretty fun. Not to mentions a ton of friends from school were over there so it was okay.

Hmm. What else... CANADA!!!! YES. Canada is coming.

Snow is required in Canada.

We depart on the 26th. I've never skied in Canada before. I know, I know, I'm literally only a few hours from the border and I've never skied there. It's kinda sad. But it'll be fun. We're not racing which is kind of a bummer but at the same time we'll be skiing (hopefully) everyday and enjoying some quality team 'bonding' time. Anyway, have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Watch the Macy's Day Parade because it's awesome. Therefore if you watch it you will be awesome as well. And enjoy the family time. That's what the holidays are all about.

Snoopy approves family bonding time :)

See you in Quebec :)

Time Trials > Exams

2010-11-11T20:08:00.000-05:00

Well if you couldn't tell, we're about to descend into the land of no return known as EXAM WEEK. Remember that blog post a little while ago when I thought my life was on full throttle? Well imagine that, only 100000x more intense. So yeah, I'm pretty pumped.

Anywho, we enjoyed another time trial up Evans Notch yesterday, which was rather a enjoyable experience (minus the fact that I may or may not have had pasta with salmon in it two hours before hand....). But other than that, my form felt awesome and I really felt in control of my body. My legs were burning up pretty bad because Monday we had done bounding intervals in the dark and Tuesday we enjoyed a round of plyos and strength. So this time trial was the perfect cap to a perfect intensity block. We were lucky enough to have Jeremy join us along with Micky, our personal fur-on-everything provider. The team did really well though. All of us cut our times by at least 30 seconds, if not more compared to our previous time trial in the spring on the same course. So obviously we must be doing something right....

Aren't we just the best looking team ever??? :P

Well said.

Today was a good day though. Practice was during the middle of the day, between morning and night classes, and we had a lovely 'aerobic shower' of ski walking and running on the trails. Of course 10 out of our 45 minutes were spent trying to de-clog a spring so we could drink out of it. It was one of our teammates missions to do so, and we didn't leave until he got what he wanted. Which was to drink out of that spring. Lovely.

And lastly, on our way back, since it was sunny out, Molly and I decided it would be a good idea to go for a swim in Freshman Brook. Well, let's just say I was in the water faster than I would have hoped. That's right, I was pushed. Shoes, shirt, heart rate monitor and all. Cold? Yes. Angry? Not in the slightest.

Hmmm what else... Thanksgiving Break is next week!!! YAY! Can someone say family time?! I'm so excited to get back home and see everyone. Family, friends, everyone who I haven't been able to see for a long time. It's going to be such a blast. Then on the 26th we depart for a 5 day adventure to Canada! Oh the fun never ends! Then its on to Eastern Cups. WOW!!!! WE'RE RACING IN LESS THAN A MONTH!!!! SUPER PUMPED!!!!! World Cup starts in less than two weeks now!!! Everything just seems to be rolling along and nothing is going to stop it now.

Don't stop me now..... (Queen reference anyone?)

Enjoy the rest of the fall and look forward to that fluffy white stuff!

Oh and some lovely exam humor to keep you company....

This makes me smile.

Pie!!!! Nom nom nom....

2010-11-02T13:35:00.000-04:00

I do believe this is my second post to include the phrase nom nom nom (Sadie, you better appreciate that). Anywho, yes there was a race this weekend, yes I attended, and yes I won a pie. After waking up at 6am sharp and getting loaded down in the van by 6:45, we headed off to Pineland Farms for the annual Eyes for the Pies Roller Ski race. While I've lived in Maine all my life and raced from Fort Kent to Twin Brooks, I can say I have never been able to go to Pineland. Now I can say I have and it was wonderful. The roads were super nice, there was minimal traffic, and there was food. Lots and lots of food for sale in the Organic/Local grocery store. That's usually the kind of race we like to attend :P So after almost falling asleep on my teammate, I woke up and clicked on some AC/DC just to get pumped. I also switched up my diet that morning.

Now some of you might say: WHAT?!?! SHELBY WITHOUT HER PANCAKES?!?! NOOOOOO!!!!! And I'm just here to say, yes. That's what happened. No more pancakes on race day for me. According to the ever so wise and all knowing Mr. K, the reason I get cramps during running races and why I sometimes fluctuate in my energy levels over the course of my races could be directly related to my morning meal. So instead of my lovely pancakes, I consumed half a bagel with peanut butter, orange juice, and a banana. Yum. Now I must say it didn't give me that first energy boost that I expect from my pancakes, but I did notice I was sustained for the entire morning. Well I guess all things have to change sometime. Might as well be now, before the big races, where the results really do count.

Anyway, I probably should have done the 10k but I wanted to do the 5k. I know, I know, I'm going to be doing 10k's this winter and I should see how it feels but I kind of wanted to do something for speed. So the clock started at 9am sharp and I headed out with the pack of boys. I hung with them until the downhill. Now this downhill from the top looks insane. But it runs out really well. But being the second time I've gone down it, I naturally grew a little timid and I lost some major time and I had to play catch up. However by the halfway mark I had moved my way into 3rd place and I was feeling pretty good. My V2 felt really solid and I felt like I was compressing well and getting my arms out. Once the hill climb started, I moved back to 4th which was a little bit of a mentality killer but I wasn't too concerned. My V1 didn't feel as committed as it could have been and as Mr. K pointed out later, it wasn't. I wasn't popping off of my leg. I was just kind of lumbering along without any real POP (and trust me, that's not the first time I've heard that). But my finish felt nice and quick and before I knew it, it was all done. Hmm, the 5k's seem to be feeling shorter. Maybe I am ready to tackle a 30k...... hehehe.

Anyway, this week is the MAISAD championships down in Augusta so we'll be busing down tomorrow to go and race our last XC race of the season. The rest of this week is supposed to be some easy roller skiing and then next week is all volume. Before Canada we should be prepping with some intensity and more volume and by December we'll start tapering and getting into more of a race season schedule. As long as everything goes to plan, it seems like a straight shot into winter.
PRAY FOR SOME SNOW!!!!!

Operation Snow Hunter

2010-10-24T16:08:00.000-04:00

When you're a secret agent, you're supposed to keep things secret. Duh. But this is too good to keep secret. So I'm going to blurt it out into the internet world.

WE FOUND SNOW AND SKIED ON FRIDAY!!!!!!

That's right. You should all ache with jealousy. And while it may have been really icy and frozen over, it totally gives us bragging rights. Want proof?
Here's your proof.


	Thank you to Kyle for not letting his camera die on the way up :)

Well, while you enjoyed your tar or dirt on Friday, we enjoyed our snow. Muhahaha.

Hmmm.... Anything else interesting in the world? Oh, we had a cross country race on Saturday, which was pretty fun. I managed a 4th place overall. At first I was really disappointed with my time (24:34) but then after talking to a few people we realized that it was really a 6k, not a 5k course. So my 5k would have been respectable, somewhere in the low 22 range. So I was pretty pumped. Today we kicked back at tackled some homework following a trip to Mardens. For those of you who do not know the beauty of Mardens, I hope that someday, the next time there's an Eastern Cup in Presque Isle or in Rumford, that you are able to take a little trip to Mardens. Imagine everything you could ever need. Then add everything you DON'T need. And put it at at extremely low prices. PRESTO! There's Mardens! Anywho, I should probably get cracking on this English homework.

Cross your fingers for some more snow! The World Cup start up in a few weeks! Ahhh!!!! HERE COMES WINTER!!!!!

Ouch, My Face

2010-10-17T13:24:00.000-04:00

No, I did not take an epic crash into a moose and I did not eat the tar for breakfast. I had my wisdom teeth out on Friday. Ahh, what a lovely way to spend October Break, all cooped up with a chipmunk face. In all honesty, it's not that bad. My face didn't swell, bruise, or get infected (fingers crossed that it won't) so I'm pretty lucky. It felt so weird though. As I was sitting in the chair and they stuck me with the IV, all I remember them saying is "this is happy juice. You're not going remember anything much past this." And I didn't. Next thing I know, I'm looking at my mom and she has four eyes and apparently I had called my brother while I had the gauze in my mouth so he couldn't understand a word I said. And that my friends, is what drugs do to you.

Besides that, my life has been just moving along at a constant pace. The training is going really well. This week was pretty intense and I was pretty pumped for every workout. Monday we did some under 100m sprint work at goal pace which was pretty fun. We also determined that I run like a pterodactyl, at least according to our residential dinosaur expert. Tuesday was my second favorite workout we did this week. We ran over to Telstar High School to use their track for some 400m repeats and 200m work. Compared to last week, I was not only running further and faster, but I was negative splitting every time. So that was a major confidence booster. Of course we got back 5 minutes before formal dinner started and we couldn't shower but I still felt like I had really accomplished something that day so it was all good. Wednesday was an OD skate, a little less than three hours. Now let me ask you a question: have you ever heard someone sing about flying capybaras? Never? Ever heard someone rant about how they're such a diva and Lady Gaga is their bffl? No? Well, just ask Mr. K about his opinion on that 'Celine Dion chick'. She's got nothing on him apparently. You should see his next studio album Flying Capybaras in stores sometime next month.

Thursday was by far one of the best workouts I've had all year though. We were all doing 6x7min mid level three intervals however there was a catch: no double poling. All kick double pole or striding. Oh what fun. After complaining for the entire warm-up, we finally settled into a rhythm and just took off. It was such a fun workout, especially because for the last one we just went all out to try and beat each other. The teamyness that day was really awesome and it felt almost like we were a giant, happy, slightly dysfunctional family.

Now, its a beautiful, crisp, fall day outside. Go out and enjoy it. And then next week go snow hunting. I think we're going sometime this week to scout out some possible pockets of the fluffy white stuff. Killington, VT got about a foot so there should be some hiding the mountains of Western Maine. Good luck looking for it! As soon as we find some, I'll let you know :)
Enjoy!

A Wonderful Week of Rain

2010-09-29T22:45:00.000-04:00

Dear Mother Nature,
Once upon a time, you decided to rain all week over here in little Bethel, Maine. Not appreciated.
Love, Shelby

But the rain is also a time to raise your banner high and shout to the world "DON'T STOP ME NOW!!!" So with that in mind, we embarked this week with our rain gear in hand into a week of non-stop fun and intensity. We started off the week with sets of speeds on Monday which was a good kick start to our week. We focused mainly on stuff under 100m at our goal pace. Of course Coach K made us do some fun stuff as well such as 'Prancing Ponies' (which Alice totally dominated in). Tuesday brought a much more intense workout: kilometer repeats. I felt really gross especially because I was wearing a long sleeve shirt and it was really humid out but I also felt really empowered. Originally we were supposed to be going for a pretty moderate pace but it turned really intense really quickly. I really focused on what K was telling us all to do: accelerate on the corners and pump the arms. As a result of just focusing on those two little things, I shaved about 15 seconds off. It's amazing what you can do when you really set yourself on something like that, when you hone in on one or two little things and the results it can produce. Hmm, maybe that's some foreshadowing for this coming season???

Post run we had to run back as fast as we could to Ordway for formal dinner. We ran onto campus at 5:58pm and dinner started at 6pm. In formal dress. *sigh* Life never seems to slow down. So after semi-showering as fast as I could, I ran down the stairs (in heels mind you, which I can do quite quickly) and sprinted into dinner. I still had little bits of wet grass on my ankles and my face was still red from the weather. I felt like I had just arrived at a convention and I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and everyone was in formal-wear (even though I had thrown on a dress). Then I remembered: we had a concert to go to that evening. So without even getting a chance to wash up some more, we made our way over to Bingham to watch Randall Atcheson bust a move on the piano. Two things I will say about his performance: I have never heard someone play Great Balls of Fire on the piano and I have never seen such a colorful shoe collection in my life. Two words: leopard print. Awesome.

Today was a little more laid back as we took a nice long 'aerobic shower' for an hour and a half on the classics. We focused mainly on technique and for myself, getting my core more engaged and reaching a little more with my arms. Today was a good day to say the least. The sun was actually out and we were able to lay down in a field next to a cow pasture and look at the clouds with our roller skis still attached to our feet. Who knows what tomorrow will hold, but I did hear something about 4 inches of rain falling from the sky (of course that's coming from Kyle but who knows... he might be right).

School is still managing to kick my butt into the ground. The thing I'm not used to is the amount of reading that we have to do. It's extremely reading intensive. But I think it's really going to help me prepare for next year. Cranking out the AP Bio chapters and the AP Government readings all while trying to annotate my English book for next class is really teaching me some time management skills. Plus I'm also learning that waking up a little earlier in the morning can make all the difference in finishing my work. So I think I'm off to a good start.

Now let's see about this rain tomorrow....
This is what we really need right now.... The thought of snow is just intoxicating.

Mr. K's Quantum Hours Theory

2010-09-16T19:01:00.000-04:00

For those of you who tilted your head and wondered exactly what IS Mr. K's quantum hours theory, I will now take the time to explain. Note: If you're actually looking for some magical training theory to make you the most amazing skier on the face of the planet, this isn't it.

Okay so for starters, take your hours from last year. Divide them into two groups. Hours where you felt like you could own the world cup stage and the hours where you were all like 'meh.' Take the hours that you felt like 'meh' and throw them out the window. So now you're left with however many hours you felt like you were a beast. Good.

Step 2, multiply those hours by the level that you felt you were actually training at (for me it was level 352). Take that number and add the number of hours spent racing in sub 10 degree weather. That number is your raw calculation. From there the process gets really REALLY complicated.

But if you really want to know.... Multiply that number by the square root of awesome-ness and add 5. We always add five because that's your highest level. Finally multiply by the mass of the universe and divide by the mass of your skis.

This my friends, gives you your TRUE training number. 800 hours a day. EVERYDAY.

All credit goes to Mr. K and his scary Swedish/Russian/German accent that he uses on us as we bound our way up the hill. Thanks.

My Life is on Full Throttle

2010-09-16T07:36:00.000-04:00

This is the first time since this morning where I have been sitting long enough to let out a big 'ol sigh of relief. If you really don't want to listen to me complain about my schedule and just how fatigued I really am, then I suggest that you stop reading and go find some other interesting thing to look at on Fasterskier or Johnny Klister.

This morning I woke up promptly at 6:15am. However, I stayed in bed until 6:20am because I didn't really want to get up just yet. Plus my eyes were really really sensitive this morning. You know that feeling where your eyes just won't open because it's almost painful to try? Yeah, that's what it was like. Then I realized "oh dear, French quiz today!" so I wolfed down some cheesy scrambled eggs and oatmeal before I realized that we had assembly today! I had approximately 6 minutes to get changed and get out the door before I was late (mind you this is way after I had finished breakfast). But after assembly I remembered "Bates visit today! No French quiz! Whoot!" From there on, the day was kind of a blur of classes and then impact testing.

A word about impact testing. If you are scheduled to show up at a certain time, be there. It holds everyone up especially if one of those you're holding up has a ski, then a hike, then a ski later that afternoon. So after being forced to memorize shapes, numbers, colors, and words to draw the conclusion that we did NOT have concussions, we were finally released from the second floor. So half an hour AFTER we were supposed to start our ski, we departed for Puzzle Mountain by bus with ski gear in hand for a post-hike double pole.

The hike was honestly the relaxing part of my day. While some people may turn up their noses and be all "Omigosh, why would you waste three hours of your life hiking and roller skiing?" I just get giddy at the thought of a nice long easy day of hiking with the team. That's where the real bonding happens; those days spent hiking through the middle of the woods when someone asks the most random and ridiculous question. It was fantastical.

Following our hike, we double poled for about half an hour on one of the scariest roads I've ever been on. It was absolutely terrifying. The logging trucks were literally 5 feet away from our skis and you could smell the wood on them as they screamed by. It was absolutely something I never want to do again. But we loaded back on the bus and sped back to reality where we came to dinner about 10 minutes before it was about to close down (thanks for letting us come even when we were all sweaty). After consuming a delicious lasagna, I sprinted back to my room to shower and then head to the biology lab where Alice was waiting for me so we could finish two labs. As we were waiting for the dialysis tubing to show the concept of osmosis, I thought about sleeping and getting everything done early tonight and how after this lab, I could go back and study. But then it hit me: I had art to finish. With a grumble of annoyance, I dragged myself into the Art Cottage and finished my assignment a little hastily. But I still think it came out pretty cool. Finally, I walked back to my room, back to my chair, sat down, and typed you this wonderful story about how my life is on full throttle.

This is just today mind you. But tomorrow is a sleep in day which makes Thursdays the best. I'll finish the bio reading then. Then my pre-calc. Then my Government. And somewhere in there, I'm training 800 hours a day, EVERYDAY (at least according to Coach K's quantum hour training philosophy). The weekend is going to be spent doing two things: finishing work/getting ahead and having fun.

So I leave you with this image: a very energetic girl in a Bowdoin t-shirt just about to tuck into bed just when she realizes she has to make up a French quiz tomorrow. The fun seems to never end.

P.S. Thanks to Lauren for coming down and skiing our intervals with us yesterday! It was a great time and it made the 4x7 minutes just a little more interesting and fun. I wish I could talk about yesterday and how amazing my ski felt, because yesterday I felt like I was on fire. I just was like *VROOOOMMM!!!!* But Shelby is a little sleepy and should probably get some shut-eye. Good night everyone :)

Everything seems a little different....

2010-09-08T22:46:00.000-04:00

As to WHY everything seems a little different, I arrived at school on Wednesday as a first-year senior (one of the very very few). Can someone say awkward turtle? But I'm adjusting pretty well. The community here is really tight so I feel pretty welcomed. But we've started classes and I think I'm in for a wild ride. I'm going to have to learn to balance EVERYTHING this time around (classwork, skiing, cleaning my room, laundry) not to mention I also have to basically live here. So with that in mind, I'm just going to try to weasel my way around and make sure everything is done on time and done right. I think this will be a good stepping stone into college life, at least the whole concept of living away from home and managing myself. My course load is pretty heavy but I think as long as I can stay focused (and slightly sane) I should be alright.

As for the training and such, I'm on the cross country team here but I'm also part of the NTG (Nordic Training Group) which goes along quite nicely with the cross country practice schedule. This way I'm able to not only keep competitive with my running, but I'm also able to go roller skiing during the week and get some ski specific training in. Trust me, I do miss my Kila Kitu ni Wezekana, but I really really REALLY thing that this is going to work for me. I'm able to do two things that I love, but I get to focus on the one that I love the most :) I followed my plan this summer to the tee (minus a week for Oklahoma and a weekend for a wedding). I really think I'm in good shape for this coming winter. At least I hope I am. I don't want to make predictions before stuff happens, so I won't.

Anywho, it's late but we get to sleep in tomorrow and I have a free dot first thing. Yahootie! More time to finish that biology reading and French homework... Night everyone!

Gouldie Camp

2010-08-23T22:10:00.000-04:00

I'm finally sitting down,which is such a relief for my legs and my body in general. Actually, I'm sort of laying down on one of those comfy arm chair reading pillow things that I found on my bed (thank you mom). Anywho, this week was pretty much a never ending extravaganza of fun and adventures. The beginning of the week went pretty according to schedule. After my awesome bounding day on Tuesday, Wednesday was consumed by a nice long skate. I love roller skiing don't get me wrong, but sometimes you encounter some of the weirdest (and fastest) drivers while you're out there. Granted to get to where I ski, I have to go up a section of Route 2, which is a usual route for the huge semi-trailers going to the mill over in Rumford, but I still get the jitters when they pass me going at a billion miles an hour. And as for the weirdest drivers, I was out on my ski cooling down from my level 3 work (7x3min) and I knew a car was coming up behind me. So naturally I started to move towards the side of the road. I could still hear coming it but I didn't know when it was going to pass me. And I'm thinking to myself "jeez, this car hasn't passed me yet..." and I turn around and there's this Florida license plate Cadillac creeping along behind me. I quickly turned back to the road and sped up just a little. But it kept on following me, just creeping along. 5 minutes later, it decided to leave but it drove really really REALLY slowly by me and it just gave me the shivers.

Note: DON'T CREEP BEHIND ROLLER SKIERS.

So with that out of the way, the fun began on Thursday with my drive over to Bethel to go do some stuff with the Gouldies (I guess I should kind of start considering myself a Gouldie but not yet. School hasn't started. Not for another two weeks [more time to finish my essays...]). The first day we kind of just went out for a little cruise on the skate skis for about an hour an a half with some technique work at the beginning. Jeremy was biking along beside us so we had someone to talk to. That's always a nice feeling. The road was pretty quiet which was also a nice little surprise (no creepers here!). Afterwards, I realized I didn't follow my own pleas to the public about wearing sunscreen and I felt like such a hypocrite. I was wearing a tank top so it gave me a nice full shoulder burn with a little 'v' on the front of my neck. I was definitely a lobster. To be brutally honest, that was the first real bad sunburn of this year so I had kind of forgot how bad they hurt, especially when you try to change shirts, take a shower, or even just try to sleep. We made our way to a hidden rope swing for a cooldown then swam back to the van. That afternoon we did an easy little hike (about an hour long) up Mt. Christopher. It was a pretty productive day and it gave me a chance to get to know some of the kids a little better (I'm still a newbie, don't forget).

Day two consisted of another bounding session. Thankfully this session was not on the side of the road, it was an actual trail. Ben and Sarah came with the mountain bikes to help encourage us along and give us little pointers on our technique. I personally love bounding workouts so I was just in heaven when we were told it was going to be 3x10 min level 3 bounding intervals up the cable road. I also heard we might be doing more of it this fall, so I got pretty pumped. I had a pretty decent song stuck in my head too which made time pass pretty quickly. The top of the cable road apparently has snow until late April almost early May so we may just have to go hunting in the spring up there. That afternoon, after lunch of course (we need our food), we took a trip over to a kayaking school and rented some tubes to float down some little rapids. Now THAT is a great second session. Unfortunately, I had to leave before I could do a second run order to make it back home in time for work, so I left and they enjoyed the rapids a few more times.

Now our killer session was actually on Saturday. While it may have been an OD hike, it definitely was a killer on the legs. I had to get up an extra hour early to make it over to campus by 8am instead of 9am which was something I wasn't really looking forward to. Then we had a nice long drive into New Hampshire to go conquer Mt. Adams. I think I've hiked in the White Mountains before, but I don't really remember. Either that or I just remember taking the Cog Railway up Mt. Washington but that's not really hiking now is it? So we launched into the woods, full speed with Micky the yellow lab leading the way followed by the rest of our crew. The first hour or so was pretty normal with some steeper stuff but then after we crossed this one river, the trail decided to go straight up. We got to our first major stop at the cabin but there was still probably a good 1.4 miles to go to get to the top. By the time we reached the boulder fields, my legs were nice and shaky. I don't think I've ever hiked something that strange before. It was just like climbing a giant rock pile. Only if you fell off of any of the rocks you'd end up with a nasty scrape or just end up tumbling down the mountain. Lovely image, I know. But we reached the summit after about two hours and we enjoyed a light drizzle while we ate lunch. Coming back down though through the boulder fields I was MUCH more cautious. I've had some tumbles down wet rocks before and it's not fun at all. But the group met back up and we made it back down all in one piece. Almost ;)

Note: Signs that point towards "water" might actually just be pointing towards a giant mud pit.

That night we had a barbaque at one of my new teammate's house and I was introduced to most of the parents and siblings of the team. After jumping on trampolines, playing ultimate frisbee with a football, and getting puzzle pieces thrown at us by a grumpy 3 year old, I spent the night at another teammates house so I wouldn't have to drive over again the next morning. Thanks you guys for the extra bed :)

And our last day, after sentencing our legs to a beating up that mountain, we finally had a time trial. It was back at Evans Notch where we had the one back in May or June or something like that. Only this time it was a double pole 5k, not a skate. Oh, and this time, instead of bright sunny skies with chirping birds in the trees, it was pouring rain. Brrr. Sure, skiing in the rain is okay but right as we had finished the warmup and started to go, it suddenly started picking up and coming down a lot harder. I felt pretty good going out. I was actually really glad it was a gradual uphill double pole because if we had been doing striding or skating, my legs probably would have given out on me :P But thank god my arms weren't dead yet. I took it out a little slower than I thought I would but I also blame that on the conditions and the fact that usually classic skis don't go as fast in the rain. But I didn't feel like I was breathing really hard until about 4 minutes in. Then I kind of just told myself "okay, you need to pick it up a little." The thing about Evans Notch is that it has these long straight-aways followed by a corner. Since we didn't really know where the van was parked, I kept thinking "oh, I'm almost there, it's just around this corner... Nope, nevermind." However, I did have a pretty strong last kilometer or so where I knew the van had to be around somewhere because I was approaching the 20 minute mark. But my heart rate wasn't that high at all when I finished. It only took me about a minute or so to get back down to a level one. But we cheered the rest of the girls in and after about 10 minutes of cooling down in the rain, we headed back to campus and I was finally able to head back home to food and warm clothes. Thank goodness.

So now here I am, the next day typing on my bed. We went out to Augusta for some school clothes and stuff this morning which was pretty fun, but I mostly took today off. My legs appreciate me very much. But school is starting in less than two weeks which is a daunting thought. I might not blog for a little while because I have a wedding this weekend, I'm moving out next week, and we're going on our orientation trip right after that. But I promise, this fall will probably have some awesome stories and I'm looking forward to what Gould life will be like.

Thanks again to the Gould team, coaches, and parents for making me feel welcome this week. You have no idea how knowing just a few people is going to help my mindset going to Gould. Thanks again! I can't wait for the snow to fall :)

Beastly

2010-08-17T14:29:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had one of those sessions where you just feel like an uncontrollable ball of energy that powers through every barrier and completely pushes that workout into the ground and spits in its eye?

Yeah.

That's how I felt this morning. It's a great feeling isn't it? Of course it does help when you constantly have awesome music pulling you through, but feeling like you can just take on the world and nothing is going to stop you is such a great feeling. It's like when you're out racing and you know you're hauling and you never want to stop because you're on this constant stream of 'I-feel-amazing' endorphins. In case you were wondering, today was a bounding workout filled with three blocks and each block had 4x15 sec, 3x20sec, and 2x30 sec reps at I'd say probably 90% effort ( Some powerful and explosive bounding). The affects of the altitude from New Zealand are still lingering as I feel like I'm just swimming in oxygen down here. It's awesome.

I wish every workout would make me feel this good about myself and my training but that's not always the case. One of the training days in New Zealand I distinctly remember I was having a really hard time with my heart rate and my technique. The snow was really sloppy and getting good glide and overall good technique was almost impossible for me. It was just so frustrating and I wanted to throw down my poles and call it a day. Which I sort of did, but I didn't quite throw my poles. I just kind of slammed them into my bag instead. That was I think the 4th or 3rd day. And having a problem with my heart rate just added to the stress. But after I was done and I got to the 5th day where we did some distance repeats, I felt awesome (like today). Training is full of these cycles. And that's what keeps me going. I know that if I have a bad day with my motivation, pace, fatigue, or overall well being, I know I'm bound to have a good day sometime soon. That's what keeps me from dropping my poles (or throwing my skis [some of you may know that story or not but that's for another day]) and calling it quits. And the thing is, I can remember most of the awesome days because I remember all those 'I-feel-awesome' endorphins and how they make me feel about myself.

Today, I felt rather beastly. And that was awesome.

Anywho, before this turns into a sappy story, which I think it already has, I should probably stop. I'm sitting here in my absolute favorite chair elevating my legs because I can just feel the lactic acid. Now there's a greeeeat feeling (and that is sarcasm mind you). But hopefully I'll be all rested up for the Gould Camp this week and the awesome adventures we're bound to have.
Keep enjoying yourselves out there! WEAR YOUR SUNSCREEN! Summer isn't quite over yet and you don't want to start school off looking like a freshly cooked lobster :)

Ouchers

2010-08-15T14:20:00.000-04:00

Have you ever been out for a ski with everything going perfectly fine and then, BAM! You find yourself on the tar with a bloody knee and road-rash on your leg? Ouchers. Yeah. I guess that's what happened to me today. Just skiing along, actually double-poling along, and all of a sudden I just fell. Not even on a downhill or something extreme, just on a flat. So there's no cool story about how I had to dodge a car going 50 mph down a crazy hill and how I epicly bailed into the ditch to avoid hitting a moose or something. So if you see me anytime soon and ask me about my knee, just remember that NOTHING COOL happened.

Anywho, if you couldn't tell, I'm back to the tar. How lame. We got back on my birthday and the jet-lag was an excellent birthday gift. I definitely had a really hard time adjusting. I've woken up at 1am and 4am a couple of times totally ready to go out for a ski but then I realize that I'm back home with no snow to ski on. So I go back to sleep knowing that I'm not going to see snow at least for another 2 months. After that, I can go hunting for some snow in the mountains.

Looking ahead, I see several events coming up. Firstly, I ship myself off to school September 1st, which means I only have about two weeks to finish my essays and reading material for my classes. Secondly, I see ACT prep in my future... Oh goody. And I think I see a few more adventure hikes/runs in the mountains. Oh, and even closer than all of that stuff, the Gould camp is coming up this week! Yay!! I'm pretty sure it runs from Wednesday through Saturday, maybe Sunday I can't remember. But that should be full of some awesome adventures. Wow, this summer has just blown by. Coming back from Kiwiland was a shocker to the system and helped me snap back to reality. I can't believe I'm a senior this year. And what's even more daunting than going away to a new school for my senior year? Picking where I'm going to go for the next four years after that! My Common App is sitting on my bed waiting to be filled in and then typed online. I have a sneaky little feeling that this year is going to be crazy amazing.

Oh ps. Here's a few pictures to drool at for you snow loving freaks like me :)

Muhaha, I'm on snow. Are you?

And this is what we got to ski by everyday.

Women's Podium for the 10k. USA!!!

Ahh, take in all of that fresh New Zealand Air :)

Almost Goodbye

2010-08-10T05:14:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it's almost been two weeks. It seems like we just got here. But we were determined to make the most of it, especially this morning. I was so happy skiing today. It was a long classic session and I felt like I could have gone forever. My technique felt awesome, I felt efficient, and I was so happy because my iPod survived the cold without dying on me. I love skiing with music for two reasons. 1.) The music keeps you from getting bored (which is a problem I frequently deal with) and 2.) If a really awesome song comes on, it gets you pumped and you get that extra 'boost' from your tunes. My skiing playlist lasts about 2 hours and consists of Muse, Franz Ferdinand, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and some random Reggae. Once it finishes, I have to either restart it or just quickly flip to my other list so I can listen to some Lady GaGa while skiing (which is epically amazing).

I've had such an amazing experience here. I walked in this afternoon after our skate and on my bed there was a signed USST poster with all the signatures of the ski team. Now THAT is epically amazing. Just being able to get to know those guys, the people on the Canada side of the boarder, and all the other skiers here has been a wonder in its own. This place is really a gathering of champions from all over.

We did manage to take one day off yesterday and take a trip to the coast. The drive to get there was magnificent. We stopped at all the pull-over stations of course to snap hundreds of photos. Literally. But the scenery was something out of another world. The forests were covered in moss and all kinds of different vegetation hung over our heads. The trees seemed to ancient as we walked through them to get to the rock pools. The water in these pools was such a cool color, like a really bright aqua. I don't think I've seen anything like it. The rocks were perfectly flat and probably made some of the best skipping stones I've ever seen. Of course the boys had to have a competition, but I preferred to stay back because I didn't have my jacket on (it's the middle of the winter, stupid me) and getting wet was probably the last thing I wanted to do. The waterfall we visited was also amazing as it fell into a little secluded pool in the middle of the forest and into the river. The scenery was just absolutely stunning.

However, the beach was something on its own. You take this little secluded path through a ton of prickly bushes and you thing you're heading into a thicket or something but you appear on the dunes of the coast. The waves were crashing and the sand was just waiting for us to come make some foot-prints. The polar bears of the group of course dove straight in and some of us got unexpectedly wet. I probably got the worst of it. But then we just strolled along the beach, looking for shells, rocks, driftwood, and make-shift tiki staffs. We even found a vertebrae of some now deceased animal. The weird thing was, at this beach, there were absolutely no seagulls. Usually when I go to the beach it's a scramble to protect my bags from the birds, but there were none to take any of our finds. I think I may have seen one, but it may have been an Arctic Tern. But don't quote me on that. And to make sure we someday returned to that beach and to New Zealand itself, we threw one coin into the waves. I really hope to come back someday.

On a sad note, I don't want to leave. I've had so much time on snow. I calculated some hours and all together I've done about 27 hours of on snow or training time. I'd say 94% of that was on snow. Being on snow is like... completing myself. I'm not complete without it. Being on skis alone makes me feel alive. I just kind of get sent into my own little paradise when I'm out there. And I wish I could stay until school starts but I need to be able to finish my essays and books and being around all these awesome skiers and snow is definitely not a study friendly environment :P Gosh. I can't believe I go to school in less than a month. This summer has just flown by. It's crazy, absolutely crazy. I did manage to finish a book and a half here but I think I have two more with essays. Or journals. I don't remember. I'm too busy moping around because we're leaving the snow.

I'll enjoy the snow for one more session. You enjoy the tar. Then I'll be back to join you on those wonderful roller skis and dirt trails.

Racing Abroad 101 and Getting Stranded in a Blizzard

2010-08-07T17:55:00.000-04:00

Being able to say that my first international racing experience was in New Zealand is pretty awesome. I mean usually it's Canada but not for me! We had a 10k Classic on Friday which I have to say, I was not ready for at all. I mean, it's August! Are we really supposed to be prepared for racing? But I put my headphones in never the less and got myself pumped. The cool thing was, only about two slots ahead of me in the mass start were Liz and Morgan. Now THAT was super cool. The start was pretty average, if you count racing with some of the best average. Of course they broke into the lead pack pretty early, but for about the first two kilometers, I had them in my sight. I hung with one of our other juniors for a couple of k's until I started to feel the burn. The course was a loop course, with the first 2k either pretty flat or downhill, and then it was all a gradual winding uphill until the loop ended. There was an Australian girl who I was hanging with for most the race but she was beating me pretty bad on the downhills. I didn't feel like I was really racing. It felt more like I was doing a really long interval or tempo ski. I guess that really didn't help with my mindset but I'm not complaining at all. The things that really hurt were my lungs. I felt like I was sucking so much air but going hard at altitude, even though it might not be much, can do that to you. So I crossed the line about 8 minutes after Liz and Morgan had taken 1st and 2nd and about 2 and half minutes behind our other junior. Overall, I wasn't disappointed what-so-ever. I had raced, I had skied technically well, and I was skiing against some of the best in the world. 10th place was good enough for me.

The next morning was a little different. I really really really wanted to do well in the sprints. All of the races I had done well in last season had been sprints and I wanted to see how things panned out. Our skis had been sprinkled with the magic fairy dust and blessed with Alexei's DOPE scraper (no joke, that's what the scraper had written on it), and I took it out flying. The course wasn't quite a sprint in my opinion. It was actually a 1.6k so you had to pace yourself just a little. I came across the line breathing like crazy again but I knew I was going to qualify. Once again, 10th place seemed to be where I was seeded. I had beaten that Australian girl which had made me pretty happy but now it was on to bigger and better races.

I will complain about one thing though. The quarter-finals consisted of four man heats. However, due to not as many racers competing, some heats only had 2 or 3 racers. If the heats had two, the two racers automatically made it to the semis and therefore the A or B finals. Now I was in a 3 man heat and I came in third. But people who were in a 2 man heat automatically made it. That was just frustrating because I had a lot more in the tank to race afterwards. But anyway, we watched the finals and the semis from the sidelines and that was a real treat. Watching the men's A Final was ridiculously cool because it was pretty much a top 20 World Cup heat: Alex Harvey, Stefan Kuhn, Andy Newell, and Simi Hamilton. They were destroying that course. Their tempo, their form, everything was absolutely stellar. The women were no different. Liz Stephan, who had a bet with some of the USST that she was going to take it out and lead, did in fact lead for a little bit. However, in the end the ever so quick Chandra Crawford clawed her way to first place followed by an Aussie and then Liz. It was a very well played move by Chandra and the Aussie. Overall, it was a good day and the snow had started to fall by the middle of the Quarters which had also impaired my vision and the track was getting slower. But other than that, it was a very VERY fun day :)

Now onto a more comical situation. Alexei had arranged for us to go with some of the local kids down to the Hot Tubs at the Snow Park to relax after the races. We had skied with these kids for a couple of days so we pretty much knew who was who. However, these hot tubs were outside. Not quite ideal for relaxing after the races. And the storm had really started to set in. The winds were about 60km an hour sustained with gusts in the 90's. The snow was coming down like crazy and it was pretty much white out conditions. Without being able to see the road, we couldn't drive back up to the Snow Farm! So we ended up eating down at the Snow Park lodge. After having my accent made fun of (all in good spirits of course), I learned the basics of rugby just in time to watch the All Blacks take on Australia. All of the locals up at the Snow Park were really getting into the game and it was super fun to watch. However it was growing late and the storm wasn't getting any better. Thankfully our hosts, were able to get us into some empty rooms that no one was using. With the winds howling, we spent a night at a home away from our home away from home. We woke up this morning with some winds still blowing but clearer roads and we were able to make it up just in time for some scraps at breakfast. We're not sure if the race is going to happen today because the snow drifts are over the fences but whatever happens, it's sure to be an adventure.
Enjoy the tar! I'm still enjoying the snow for just a few more days.

The Canadians Are Out For Blood

2010-08-04T17:34:00.000-04:00

Oh my goodness. I do believe the Canadians are out for blood. I don't think I've ever heard someone scream that loud over a game of Monopoly. The trash talk is being thrown around everywhere as is the throwing around of property cards. I can't quite see what's going down but the screaming is loud enough to hear all the way across the room. While I'm trying to figure out my silly Pride and Prejudice essay, this game is sending people over the edge. Noah is yelling '8 million! 8 million!' and I think Devon may actually have just won for the first time. Either that or he knocked Alex out which is pretty much a win for him.

Well if that wasn't enough for a blood rusher, you should have seen us play Spoons today. Cut-throat edition.

Update: the f-word is being thrown around quite liberally by all of them now... Devon must be out. Yup. He is.

Anywho, we were playing Spoons. I don't think I've ever been on edge that much for a stupid little card game. My best round I got to 5th place I think, or 6th I can't quite remember. Alex was the first one eliminated in the first game which drove him crazy. But once he caught on, the game quickly became a Canadian dominated sport with at least two Canadians in the final three each round. Morgan however proved to be the best the first round but quickly was eliminated in the second round. Alex was just the opposite. However he screwed up in the finals when Stefan played a nasty trick and pretended to go for the Spoon and made Alex DSQ. It was fabulous to watch. He was a very sore loser after that.

Monopoly Update: Someone may have won but I'm not sure... Nope, Alex and Noah are in the finals.... Alex seems to be faltering. C'mon USA, we should be able to beat them in this. They can have hockey, we can have Monopoly. And Spoons.

Well, I should probably head to bed because this competitive atmosphere is making me sleepy. Maybe the events will continue tomorrow.... Laters :)

Kiwi Adventures

2010-08-03T21:49:00.000-04:00

This morning was probably one of my best skis personally. The tracks were a little slippy but today was the first day that my heart rate hasn't been high or abnormal. It was behaving very well. So we did a couple of classic intervals and I just felt awesome. I finally felt like I was skiing again and that is one of the best feelings. It started to get really really warm though, and the snow started to get a little soft in some spots. But other than that, today was another excellent day in New Zealand.

Yesterday was probably one of the fastest days so far that we've had. I took a nasty tumble and I skidded across the snow because it was just so fast. After near-perfect conditions in the morning (and I mean absolutely amazing conditions) we all loaded ourselves into the Land Rover and took a day off on the South Island. We've been a little isolated up here so to get out into the country was a real treat. Alexei of course was our faithful tour guide as he knew as much about New Zealand as we would need to know. A few factoids we found out...

The two 'main' dishes of New Zealand are Meat Pie and Fish'n'Chips. Yum.
Rugby is the most popular sport here followed by Netball and Rowing/Sailing.
The New Zealand flag has fewer stars than the Australian one.
Bungee Jumping was pioneered in New Zealand.
DO NOT, under any circumstances, even think that New Zealand and Australia are the same.

Armed with our new knowledge, we made a side trip to Cromwell to see a very exciting place: the birthplace of Bungee Jumping. Now we didn't actually do it (although it looked like a BLAST), but we got some pretty sweet pictures of those brave souls who did. The bridge itself is 43 meters off of a river and if you jump just right, you can actually sink yourself into the flowing water, which is pretty cool to watch. We wandered around in the gift store after watching some jumps. After drooling over a Lord of the Rings location guide book (that's my nerdy side), I ran back to the car where everyone was ready to go to Queenstown.

Now I absolutely loved Queenstown. It's not quite a city like Wellington or Auckland, but it's more of a large village. The streets are set up in a very European type fashion (not that I would know because I haven't been to Europe.... Yet) and they are lined with all kinds of boutiques and stores. For a city, it gave off a really good vibe. I know that sounds corny but cities do give off certain vibes or impressions. It felt relaxed, like no one was really stressing about a lot and all the people seemed extremely happy which was very nice to see. We walked down to the waterfront which had a fantastic view of the mountains right on the other side of the shore. We were also treated to a lovely lunch of fish'n'chips and I have to say, my fish burger was amazing. When I think of fried foods, usually I think of heavy deep fried chicken or fattty and calorie loading type food. This was a different kind of fried to me. It wasn't really heavy or greasy, it just had a nice crunch. That, I think, is a big difference between American and other types of cuisine. The fries weren't really heavy either, they reminded me more of potatoe wedges than fries. It was really interesting to see the diferences though. But we couldn't escape McDonalds, Starbucks, Burger King, or Subway. They were all still in town. But even the menu at McDonalds in New Zealand is totally different than the American menu. We were waiting at the airport when we saw that. It's lighter with different kinds of wraps and salads. Granted they still have the soda and the fries and that kind of stuff, I think there's a different mindset regarding food here. I like it. Oh and btdubs, the Dunkin Donuts we saw in the airport only sells doughnuts. Not coffee. Interesting....

Anywho, enough about food. We walked around some more and eventually made our way up a hill to a Kiwi Sanctuary. Now, these birds are very tricky to spy. They're apparently very low to the ground and they blend right into the earth itself. We didn't see any :( I am deteremined to find one and take a picture. Hopefully we'll get another chance to search for one. It's part of the New Zealand experience. Anyway, we walked up this hill to a gondola station where we all got tickets to ride up the gondola. I don't think I've been up a slope that steep in a gondola car. The views were absolutely stunning with the mountains over the coast and paragliders right over our heads. I didn't really know what to expect at the top except Alexei kept saying something about a luge run. Lo and behold, as we crested the top, there was a paved luge run with karts that you could ride all the way from the tip top of the mountain to lodge a little further down. I honestly felt like a five year old. It was a ridiculously fun experience to drive those little karts. As lame as it may sound, it was absolutely fabulous.

After having a few laughs on the way down we went into the lodge. Someone on our squad was silly enough to wear short sleaves in the middle of the winter and he needed to warmup so we spent a little time poking around the gift-shop. I managed to get a few t-shirts (Sadie, of course I got yours) and a few little trinkets including a new hat for my dad. Sometimes I enjoy being a tourist :)

So our day concluded. It was a fabulous one at that and our ride back up to the Snow Farm was filled with a lovely conversation about philosophy, ethics, and animal testing. Greeeeat stuff. We got back to the Snow Farm and had dinner but right after eating, I was totally exhausted. So we decided to watch Finding Nemo. For those of you who don't really know me too well, Finding Nemo is my second favorite animated movie, but my favorite computer animated movie. It falls right behind the Lion King. Dori however, is my inspiration for life. And nothing perks me up like Dori singing. So with her little diddy stuck in my head, I drifted off into kiwi hunting dreams.

Oh and on another note, we haven't had the guts to challenge the Canadians. They're so intense! Usually it takes me a few hours to go through a game of Monopoly but they're going through 2-3 games a day! I'm not sure if even our A+++ game will be able to take them on. We'll see... ;)

Enjoy the tar! I'm enjoying the snow :)

Little Sheep, BIG Pasture

2010-08-01T00:47:00.001-04:00

First of all I should start out by saying that even though we have only been here about 4 days, this trip is easily one of the best I've ever been on. The skiing has been amazing. The tracks are perfect and the snow has been so great. The base is nice and thick so we really don't have to worry about losing any snow. We've been doing technique work on classic skis almost everyday followed by a good 10-15k easy ski afterwards. Alexei doesn't want us doing any hard stuff yet because we're not quite used to the altitude and the atmoshpere here yet. My heart rate has been running a little high, but that's probably because I caught the worst of the jet lag out of all of us. But after a few days of drinking water non-stop and taking it nice and easy, it's gradually coming back to normal and the skiing is coming right back to me. The coaching has been great and having some of these skiers to look at everyday has really helped me think about my technique. I've already been working on some new stuff with the drills and I can't wait to see how it influences my overall skiing this year.

We woke up this morning to the sound of 60 mph winds and a combination of sleet and snow outside. How lovely. As we tried to make our way out for a morning run, we realized we were completely foolish to even try to go across the iced up parking lot. So instead, I went inside for a few minutes and went to the weight room to stretch. But, being the smart little planner I am, I decided to finally wax my skis and take three days of kick wax off of the bases. By this time, usually the ski shop is buzzing with activity but today there was pretty much nothing going on which usually means that nothing is going to happen over the course of the day thanks to the weather. After realizing that we weren't going to be able to ski, I lumbered up the stairs in despair to go get some breakfast. However, the day quickly turned around.

I should probably back up and start with last night however.

So last night we were eating all alone at our isolated little table of 5-6 of us when all of a sudden Liz Stephen came over and was like "hey is anyone sitting here? Mind if I join?" and we were all "OMG."

Okay so it's not like I'm shaking hands with the President or going backstage to a Coldplay concert or chilling out with Oprah, but these people are some of the best athletes in the world in my opinion. And to even know that they're human -not just godly figures of Fasterskier- makes it just that much sweeter. After a nice long dinner conversation with us, Andy Newell dropped by and said hello. They had a meeting to go to at 8pm so they had to leave. But it left me feeling good about myself. Meeting with them helped confirm my opinion that they have the COOLEST job in the world.

Flash forward to this morning and the giant storm moving through our little paradise of snow. This morning after moping around because I couldn't ski, as we were about to put our dishes away, we were asked to join in on a game of dice with the team. I think they called Zonks or something like that. It's called 10,000 in my book. Anywho, we sat down and played this game for a good hour or so and once again it was just really nice to know that these guys are human. I mean I'm sitting at a table with with our team (all the juniors) but I'm also sitting at a table with Liz, Noah, Simi, and Kikkan. Life doesn't get much cooler than that in my opinion. Unless Coldplay or Muse suddenly appeared and started playing live for us. Knowing that these guys are just like us, granted with a couple more years of experience and a few more titles under their water bottle belts, it's just a good feeling. We all share that same passion and joy for the sport of Nordic Skiing. And that is something that we will always have in common.

Oh yeah, on another note. I won the game. That's right. I beat Simi, Noah, Liz, and Kikkan. No it was not on the snow, but still. I have some major bragging rights now. Now all we have to do is challenge the Canadians at Monopoly. I know it sounds weird, but that's all they do in their down time. Last night it got so intense. There was cheering, screaming, and crying over the loss or mortgage of properties. As I'm looking over right now, there's another game going on. I'm not quite sure who is winning, but we're going to have to bring our A game if we ever want to beat those Canadians. More like our 'Eh' game (oh that was an awful one.........................Almost painful to type).
Cheers! We'll enjoy the snow, you enjoy the tar ;)

Random Factoids about the Snow Farm and Its Inhabitants

2010-07-31T01:44:00.000-04:00

1. This morning we looked out our window and saw the US team warming up for their time trial. What a great alarm clock.
2. New Zealand has good taste in music: Benny and the Jets just came on :P
3. Toilet paper does not come in rolls at the Snow Farm. It comes in pieces, like a paper towel dispenser. Cool stuff.
4. Kite-snowboarders are quite common while you're eating lunch.
5. Listening in on the US and Canadian teams during meals in rather enjoyable.
6. The mountains here make you want to put on a suit of armor, get on a horse, and prevent the Dark Lord from getting the One Ring of power.
7. 10000 BC (the movie) was filmed here. We skied by the site. I feel cool.
8. Apparently it's okay to place rabbits that are dead on fence posts (random and strange I know, but maybe the corpse just got in the way of the skiers...)
9. THE ACCENTS ARE AMAZING
10. Yes, the toilets do flush in the opposite direction for those of you who are curious
11. Although it is only a rumor, I firmly believe that there are certainly more sheep than humans in this country.
12. The people are some of the happiest and most caring people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.
13. You can ski by the US team at any given minute which is AWESOME (plus Simi said hi to me this morning which pretty much made my day :P )
14. As we came in from our ski today, the silly Canadians had a ton of inner tubes in the shower room and there were four of them standing in there together. Strange? Yes.
15. In the span of 24 hours the weather can go from the best skiing in the world to 40+ mph winds and snow drifts. Talk about an adventure.
16. The learn to ski program is HUGE here. It's not just for little kids; everyone gets a chance to learn to ski.
17. Did I mention the accents are amazing?
18. Watching the sunrise here is one of the coolest things ever.
19. You get the chance to meet skiers from all over the world which is a priceless experience.
20. It's overall one of the best places you could ever visit. So yeah, if you EVER get the chance to come here, don't pass it up.

Adventures Across the US of A and Into Middle Earth

2010-07-29T17:06:00.000-04:00

8:26pm July 26th
So everything is packed and my skis are surrounded by all my ski clothes. It was so weird packing this morning because I was like "whoa, I feel super weird wearing all this thick and long sleeved clothing." And coming back from 105 degree weather doesn't really help with that feeling at all. Last night I tried to pack a little and I ended up with waaaay to much stuff. Thanks to my mom and her dumping out my suitcase, it currently weighs about 35 pounds and has all the stuff I need. My ski bag is the only thing I'm a little worried about. I just hope nothing happens to my skis. Otherwise, I may just cry, scream, or unleash a fury of anger upon the airlines. DON'T mess with my skis.
GAHHH!!!!! I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight!!! I was out doing my last workout on US soil and I thought to myself "gee, in less than two days I'm going to be able to ski for my workouts." I couldn't stop smiling the entire way home :)

2:10pm July 27th: Logan Airport
So after checking the bags and going on a little adventure at the ticket desk (our ski bags made it impossible for anyone to get by) we're here sitting at gate 20 waiting for our flight to arrive and then wait another hour or so to start boarding. Lovely. The entire group is here which is a relief and now we're just itching to get on snow. Too bad it's 27 hours away. WOOO!!!!!

5:38 July 27th: Chicago
Sweet success through Logan and now on to Los Angeles. Now I'm just going to say something about airplane etiquette. Sure, it's okay to get comfortable on a flight and make sure you're sitting in a somewhat not neck crunching position. However, as the guy next to me would have been a perfect example, it is not okay to sprawl yourself across your arm rest and all over the seat next to you. If it's someone you know (aka your parents, friends, family, etc...) it's somewhat acceptable. But please, keep yourself in your own personal bubble :P

11:32pm July 27th: LAX
It's really really really hard to try to stay awake until you board your flight, especially when back home it's 3am. And on another note: a grilled ham and cheese sandwich should not cost $9. That's absolutely ridiculous. Please airports: LET US EAT.

9:37am July 29th: Auckland
So after getting my bags searched because I brought my hiking boots and getting asked where I was going over 20 times, I'm finally sitting here in the domestic flight section ready to board our final flight to the wonderful land of Queenstown and Wanaka. YAHOOTIE!!! First impression of New Zealand: it's everything Middle Earth would be and more. Literally, as I stepped out of the plane I was just waiting for the Riders of Rohan to go by or see orks march out of the hills.

7:38pm July 29th: The Snow Farm
I am going to say this only once: New Zealand has officially become the coolest place I've ever been. As cliche as it may sound, there are literally no words to describe how beautiful and wonderful this country really is. The mountains, the oceans, the snow, everything is just so unique. And what's even cooler is that I can say I have been on skis in the middle of July. So yeah. Pictures are soon to follow as my computer is being silly and the Internet is slightly behind. But who cares!!!! I'M IN NEW ZEALAND!!!!!

Oh Oklahoma

2010-07-22T22:34:00.001-04:00

So I'm sitting my air-conditioned hotel room in the middle of lovely Oklahoma. Now let's establish a few things. Oklahoma is flat. There are no hills and you can literally see the horizon line in any direction that you drive. Unless of course it is being obstructed by one of two things: cows or water towers. Another factoid about Oklahoma: it's hot. And I should probably say HAWT because on average the temperature at night is about a cool 80 degrees. So yeah. I'm pretty sure I just want to be a tourist here. I don't have any plans to make a long term commitment to the state of the American Bison.

And plus, to get an hour of running or elliptical-machining in, you have to be up by 6:30 and running by 7 in order to avoid the heat. Even indoors. Thank goodness this week is an easy week. If it wasn't, I don't know how I would get my time in.

However, I'm not just going to bash on Oklahoma this entire time. Not at all. My brother is graduating from flight school and that's pretty awesome. I can officially go around and introduce myself as the sister of the guy who flys jets. Actually his job is a pretty good ice-breaker/conversation starter because he's just THAT COOL. Today we explored Vance Air Force Base and I have to say, I kind of fell in love with planes all over again. I mean, I don't think I could ever fly one (although my flight simulator results weren't too shabby), but just the idea of flying a billion miles an hour just makes you look at the sky and wish you were cool enough to walk out under the canopies and get into your 'other car'. And when you start mixing the reality and the awesomeness of Top Gun together, it just makes you want to put on a helmet with Maverick written on it, buzz the tower, then go play volleyball on the beach.

Since this week is an easy week and it's right before a nice volume block in New Zealand, I really don't have any training adventures unless you really want to hear about hotel gyms and the T.V. shows that they have here. Other than that, nothing else to really tell. But once we get to Kiwiland, I can assure you that I'll have new adventures every single day to post. Being in this heat really makes you appreciate the "heat" in Maine. And it really really really makes you want snow. The idea of snow and even skiing itself is intoxicating. Before a roller ski last week, I turned on a recording of the Olympics and watched Charlotte Kalla beast her way to the finish for a medal and I started crying. I need some snow.

Ramblings

2010-07-16T14:12:00.000-04:00

Rambling #1
I don't know where I would be without Johnny Klister. Simply put, Johnny never fails to make my day better. Who are you Johnny? We're all dying to find out. At least I am. Everyone has an idea of who you are, but no one knows.... *ghostly noises*. Either that or everyone knows who you are and I'm the one sitting in the hole with no idea and everyone is laughing at me because I'm so clueless.

Rambling #2
NEW ZEALAND!!!!!!! That's all that's been on my mind for this last week. And this last week has been kicking my butt into the ground. I did some ski walking/bounding intervals today and I felt pretty awesome until I started to feel like my feet were burning. I had the beginnings of some nasty under-the-foot blisters but thankfully two hours after the start of the workout, they were only hotspots. Thank goodness. I would tell you about these blisters I got once during a cross country race with size too small spikes, but that's for another day. Two words: bloody socks.

Rambling #3
Nutella makes everything better. It is a known fact that Nutella has super powers and despite the fact that everything may seem so hot and disgusting outside, Nutella can save the day. And it also brings good news. Which leads to...

Rambling #4
AP test scores came back. I kick butt.

Rambling #5
New Zealand apparently has different sockets to plug things into and I don't have a converter yet. Lovely. Oh and they have a butt load of snow right now and I'm twitching with excitement to get there.

Rambling #6
Before New Zealand, I must conquer the hot, humid, and lovely land of Oklahoma. My brother is graduating from flight school and we get to go dress up, be fancy, and have a splendifirous time with all his friends (splendifirous is indeed a word. Just like fantastical).

Rambling #7
I just went downstairs to fill up a giant cooler of water and found two packs of gum waiting for me. My day is officially awesome.

Rambling #8
I had a very strange dream last night. All I could think of when I woke up was about that new Leonardo DiCaprio film 'Inception'.

Rambling #9
Monday is going to be super special because I'm going running with MBXC and seeing people I haven't seen since school got out. This will be epic because I miss our long runs with our awkward conversations and lovely games that we would play between intervals. OH! And I get to go visit Sadie and see the ducks up at her house. Apparently they're the cutest things ever and I haven't seen Sadie in 3 weeks which is too long. I have a very special birthday present for my little seal. It's going to be FANTASTICAL.

Rambling #10
I'm going to go play Super Smash Brothers now. Why? Because I can. I did my workout, ordered my ACT prep, played around on the ACT prep, had lunch, finished Pride and Prejudice (btdubs, AMAAAZING book for you hopeless romantics out there), and I leave for work in about an hour and 15 minutes.

Enjoy the sunshine (not the heat). Wear your sunscreen and your sunglasses and go jump off a nice bridge and or cliff into a big lake/river/or body of water. It's amazing.

Monday Funday

2010-07-14T22:38:00.000-04:00

Annnnnnd this is what we do on our days off.

So yeah, enjoy your summer everyone. Screams and all :)

P.S. WEAR YOUR SUNSCREEN!!!!!

Inflatable Turtles

2010-07-05T23:14:00.001-04:00

In celebration of our nation's birthday, I ran my first road race of the year. Lovely. It was only a 5k, but it was a dreadful 5k all the same. It was totally flat, which is not my kind of race, and in was 96 degrees. I'm more of a 58 degrees with partly sunny skies kind of girl. However, I put my game face on along with a new neon pink sports bra and ran. Not fast, but enough to get my heart rate up there. I mean, I didn't take it too seriously but it was slightly disappointing when a 13 year old running prodigy beat me. But the rest of my day was made complete when I returned to our home away from home in New London, New Hampshire.

See, I have this thing about going to my grandparents camp and seeing an old friend. He can't talk or anything, but he's very special. He's a giant inflatable turtle named Merlin.
So yeah. He's awesome.
*awkward pause*

Anyway, the festivities were complete with a semi-surprise visit from my brother which was amaaaazing because I haven't seen him since Christmas. It would have been a total surprise mind you but a few things happened along the way. Two words: Car transmission. But seeing him was pretty much the highlight of my entire weekend a great kick start into July.

Now let's see if I survive the roller skiing this week with the 90 degree heat wave. Remember: SUNSCREEN IS YOUR FRIEND. Especially if you're like me and burn in under 5 minutes. Drink water, sweat hard, and good luck.

I'M FREEEE BIRD guitar solo

2010-06-21T23:57:00.001-04:00

Yesterday (I never got around to getting the pictures up in time to post it yesterday)

So what if I'm quoting one of most cliche guitar hero songs ever. It's true. School is finished and therefore I am a free bird.

A lovely evening on the lake :)

And in celebration of this new found freedom, Shelby roller skied her heart out on Friday and Saturday in the super heat that's been plauging Western Maine. It has probably the mid 90's everyday with 96% humidity. It was the first time she had pulled out her classic skis. Can someone say epic fail? Well the double poling wasn't because she's been double poling on the skates. But the striding? Super fail-tastic.

And to continue the celebrations of having no school, I went hiking today. On a NEW mountain. Yahootie! I've never hiked Mt. Blue, or at least this trail, and today was the first time. It wasn't as long as Tumbledown, distance or hour wise, but it was definitely a more challenging hike. It was a lot steeper and it needed to be carefully navigated as the roots and rocks were still wet from last nights showers. Speaking of showers, it looks like it's about to storm outside. There's some major lightning action out on the lake with some pretty loud thunder too... Hmm, I probably shouldn't be on the computer. Oh well. Anywho, I was hiking today and I saw a bunch of critters all over the place. Including a snake that I almost stepped on. And dogs that were off their leashes scaring away all the squirrels. On my way down I fell. I thought I broke my wrist, but I didn't. It was kind of comical the way that it happened. It was really slow, and I just rolled down the hill and ended up standing on my feet. After that, I was very careful about stepping on the wet roots.

I love Maine for a reason.

Sketchy shack on the way back down...

Anyway, summer is finally here. Enjoy it! Read a good book. I'm reading The Road right now and it is simply fantastic and I just finished the new Get Fuzzy treasury which was also amazing. And sometime sooner or later I have to pick up Pride and Prejuduce for school next fall.

And enjoy the fresh fruit. That's one of my favorite things about summer. I'm pretty sure there are some strawberries in the fridge that I'm going to go munch on. Nom nom nom...

TODAY!

Today was a lovely day because it was an easy day and a lazy summer day. I woke up this morning at 10:15 which was awesome and I read all morning. We turned on the cooking channel while we were eating lunch and we saw a fantastic recipe that my mom and I just HAD to try. So after we drove to Mexico to get my license picture taken we picked up the ingredients at Hanaford. They were these stuffed red peppers with couscous, feta cheese, chick peas, and a sour cream basil sauce. It was one of the best things I've ever had. So while those were cooking I went out for my run and enjoyed the 9 minute pace (I know, I was totally busting my butt out there :P ) and came back for a swim. After enjoying the best meal ever, I went to my friends house where we had a ceremonial homework burning celebration. We cooked s'mores over the burning chemistry labs and math homework and read tarot cards.

In the corner you can see my burning math homework...

I asked the cards about my trip to New Zealand. They said I would find something that would change my life (hopefully to make me an even better skiier) :D

If this isn't the perfect example of what a summer day should be like, I don't know what is.

Enjoy the sunshine and the roller skiing!

Human Hamster Wheel

2010-06-10T21:26:00.014-04:00

Treadmills are human hamster wheels. And like little hamsters, we run and run and run and run and while the distance reads 4 miles, we haven't moved and inch.That is the single reason of why I avoid treadmills at all costs. However, today we had to step onto these human hamster wheels. After getting up at 5:15 this morning to make it to Bethel by 7am, we headed over to UNH in the van to test our VO2 max and our lactate levels. No school: definitely a plus. The downside? 25 minutes of sheer pain and feeling like your going to pass out.

<--- Fashion statement of the

day: Gorilla socks.

We arrived on campus around 9:45ish and dropped our stuff in the testing room. I turned on my camera and snickered as I knew I was going to capture everyone in their sweaty glory. But I also realized they were probably going to take lovely pictures of me collapsing on the treadmill.

I watched the two people ahead of me run until they couldn't run anymore. It was kind of weird to see them do that. You don't really realize where the human body starts to give out until you see it under that kind of pressure and stress. So I stretched, did some mobilities, and jumped around anxiously waiting for my turn. So when they asked who was next, I boldly raised my hand and was measured and

fitted for the mask of doom. Now I didn't realized how claustrophobic I really was until I put on that mask. They used it to measure how much oxygen and CO2 your body is using and creating, and I thought it was going to be pretty comfortable. I was so wrong. I felt like I was suffocating. It was terrifying. I mean, I was breathing fine, but it just made me feel so claustrophobic and that made me feel sick. But never the less, I hopped onto that treadmill and began my descent into H-E- double hockey sticks.

The first three stages were perfectly fine. My heart rate was running a little higher than normal, but I think that was nerves from the mask. My lactate levels were following accordingly which was also a positive. Come stage four, I started to feel the burn in my legs. I was breathing hard and I started to get a little tense. I made a goal for myself, which was to not let myself slide too far away from the front of the treadmill. As I had learned from the previous two lab rats, as soon as you let yourself relax and slide back, you can lose your momentum very easily. So I mentally told myself "DON'T LOSE YOUR PACE!" Of course I was staring at a scale (meant for cardiac patients) that measured the amount of exertion put into exercise. And the one line I kept reading: "20: DON'T WORK THIS HARD!" Gee, how motivating.

Come stage five, I was dying. My heart rate went up to about 191 and I was just about to enter the hardest part. My lactate levels had officially made the jump from the lower baseline to the anaerobic levels (about a 3.0 mmol/L jump) and I was going to start the climb. Every stage until now, they had stopped me after 3 minutes, tested my blood, amped up the pace, and made me run for another 3 minutes. This time, I was supposed to run until I felt like I couldn't run any more and increase the grade of the treadmill every minute. I started at 5 percent. This was the part of the run where everyone starts to cheer for you because you can't think straight and you can't tell yourself to keep running, so they do it for you. First minute, I wanted to fall off. Minute two? I wanted to be done.

Minute 3? Same. Minute four? My legs started to feel like they were injected with lead. Come minute 5, my last minute, I started to get wobbly. My claustrophobia really started to set in. I felt so scared, like I wasn't able to breath. I felt like I could've gone farther if I wasn't so scared. I reached the 5th minute and I had to call it quits. I wanted to scream. I've never really felt so scared about not breathing with that mask on. It was truly terrifying. I ripped off the mask and was finally able to breathe a free breath.

So my lactate levels jumped. A TON, which was expected. I never got to look and see at what my VO2 max was, but I knew my heart-rate had maxed out at about 200-201 ish. It felt like it was going to pop out of my chest and my legs felt like they were not even there. I cooled down on the treadmill for about 2 minutes then walked around. I changed my shirt (you can sweat a TON in just 25 minutes) and set out for my cooldown around campus. I ended up walking half the time and taking in the beautiful scenery. We had 3 more testers after me, so I happily took pictures of their pain and ate a bunch of food. After we had finished, we walked up to the dairy bar for ice cream. If you EVER waltz into Durham, New Hampshire and suddenly feel the urge to eat some ice cream, go to the Dairy Bar and get some Dinosaur Crunch. Don't let the blue color throw you off. It's delicious and filled with little dinosaurs. RAWR.

The ride home was quiet. I slept for half of it until my iPod died. And then I just stared out the window. I was wiped. Everyone was wiped. Hopefully we'll get our results back sometime next week so we can plan our training accordingly.

FINALS this week. Good luck everybody.

Get'cha Game Face On

2010-06-02T21:13:00.008-04:00

It's time to break out in a hardcore sweat and get those endorphins pumping!!!

Rules Of Summer For Nordies

1. Awesome sunglasses are required. No excuses.

2. New playlists of pump of music need to be created.

3. Sweat. It's 90 degrees. You NEED to sweat. It's healthy.

4. A sport bra does qualify as a swim suit.

5. Sunscreen?

6. Ultimate Frisbee is the ultimate fartlek

7. No elbow pads or speed reducers. If we fall, we bleed with pride.

8. We eat double poling for breakfast.

9. Do not play chicken with cars. You

will lose.

10. Have fun, work hard, GET'CHA GAME FACE ON!

RAWWWRRRR!!!!!!

^--- Lance's Game Face. RAWWR!

^--- Kikkanimal's Game face. RAWRR!!!!

^---- Justyna's Game Face. RAWRRR!!!!!

Time Trials for Breakfast... nom nom nom

2010-05-17T13:56:00.000-04:00

This morning I woke up at 6am sharp. And why might I have done this on such a lazy Sunday? Because I'm not lazy. After eating my pre-race meal (PANCAKES), I got into the car, put on some pump up music, and got ready to go. Today was a time trial.

Okay, so I went a little over the top for preparation. But still, I like getting pumped for even the smallest time trial.

So we got in the car and left. It's about an hour drive to Bethel (my destination) and so I took advantage of the free time I had. Being a sleep deprived teenager, I slept the entire way listening to all the Pop music I could find on my iPod compiled into one playlist. Don't judge. Everyone loves a little Taylor Swift or Shakira or Black Eyed Peas in the morning to get them pumped. Oh and I should probably mention a little detail as to WHY exactly I was heading over to Bethel. Next year is going to be a little different. Next year I will be attending Gould Academy for the entire year (not just the winter program). I sat down during March and April to go over my options for next year and I really found Gould to be the best fit for my goals, both academically and athletically. It's not a full on ski school where skiing is why the school exists, but it allows a combination of great coaching and skiing to mix together with a strong academic curriculum. Now this might sound like a cheesy statement from a promotion booklet or something, but that was something I really valued. I didn't want to lose my academics if I was going to go somewhere to hone in on my skiing. And so Gould ended being the right match for me. So yay! *party streamers and noise makers* Those are my plans for next year.

Whoa, slightly off topic. Okay so, I got on campus and we loaded onto the ski bus and drove out to Evan's Notch. Now on a daily summer training basis, I only have about 3 roller skiing areas that I can do (really just two that are within skiing distance from my house) and so going to new places to ski is something I really look forward to. And another side note, I'm currently kind of sick (I woke up with the worst head cold yesterday and it's just starting to die down). So I wasn't functioning at full capacity as my breathing was kind of compromised. But I was still REALLY pumped. I haven't done a race or a time trial or any kind of sustained intensity like this in such a long time. It was kind of like a race horse finally being liberated and allowed to run on the track again after waiting for months on end. That's actually EXACTLY what it felt like. I felt so in the zone. Granted I wasn't used to the heart rate. But still, I felt like I had been set free.

So we had a mass start. There were about 15 (I think, I'm not sure) of us and the boys naturally took to the front. But I just kind of settled into my own rhythm and went with it. I love chasing people down or using them for drafting for a little while then passing them. I did that for a little while until I had no one else to chase down. Yes there were boys ahead of me but they were so far ahead that it would've been totally pointless to go after them because they were just THAT far ahead. This time trial seemed so long though. I looked at my watch and thought before hand "Oh I have to be at least halfway done" and my watch read 4:07. Fantastic.

It was all a gradual winding uphill which was really nice. Thank god it wasn't an actual hill climb like Fort Kent. I would've just dropped my poles and stepped off the road. We got to the finish and I was pretty happy with myself. My heart rate was running so much higher than what I've been used to for the last couple of weeks. It's so fascinating to see what the human body can do when it's subjected to that kind of stress. You just go into a primal survival mode. Yes I know it's still only a time trial but I like that feeling of raw intensity you get when you race. I miss that about winter probably the most.
Heck I miss racing on snow the most.

The polar bears of the group went swimming after the cool-down. The river was so cold and I had no desire to be soaking wet and freezing on the hour long car ride back home. But I walked back to the bus and sat in the sun for a few minutes and breathed a few very happy and fulfilled breaths. I felt so at peace with myself, which is something I haven't felt like in a very long time.
I cannot wait for summer to bring more awesomeness like this.
June 18th.
Then I'm free.

Today, I Broke a Sweat

2010-05-12T17:35:00.003-04:00

Sometimes when you're out there just cruising along getting the same old "what the heck is she doing" look while on roller skis, you can't help but feel totally awesome. And some days, I have workouts that are so awesome I can't even put them into words. Like today. I just felt so on top of the world. My heart rate was doing exactly what I wanted it to do, my technique felt solid, and I was just so driven. These are the days I look forward to with my summer training.

And yes today I did break a sweat. But not like in the summer where my shirt ends up totally drenched or something gross like that. But sweating makes me feel good about myself. It's a reminder that I'm working for something. Every bead down my forehead or every outline of a sports bra on my back is a reminder that I have a goal and I'm doing everything humanly possible to try and reach it.
Well, I could be more rested and possibly more hydrated but that's besides the point.

And in other news, Shelby had to conquer the AP exams these last two weeks. Can someone say "EXHAUSTED?" But with those out of the way, my class load just got significantly lighter which is always very nice. But now it's on to the SAT subjects tests... Then the ACT... Then the lactate testing...
[sigh]
I need summer sometime sooner or later. Preferably sooner so that I can just eat, sleep, and train. And maybe actually have time to read a few good books.

A letter to Allergies

2010-05-05T12:42:00.010-04:00

Dear Allergies,
Today you made my eyes water more than usual. My throat began to itch in French class and I had to remind myself I was not thirsty because I knew it was you. My nose has been runny for the last two weeks and my fantastic sense of smell has been utterly useless during this time. And lastly, I cannot fully enjoy the true beauty of spring because YOU are ruining my life. I have had enough of the itchy and watery eyes and I want to be able to smell if someone is making popcorn downstairs. So allergies, please please please, actually no, I ORDER YOU to go away.
Sincerely,
Shelby
-------------------------------------------------

Now as you may have guessed, spring is not one of my favorite seasons. But I like spring for two main reasons: the wildlife and flowers finally come out (tree pollen is really the only thing I hate) and a new training plan starts. YAHOOTIE!!!! Also you may have guessed from that extra large font that my new plan has started up. And it has indeed. I am so genuinely happy to be getting back into a natural rhythm with my workouts. I feel like I've been so scattered and getting lazy and now I finally have a purpose to go out and run, ski, or hike. And having a purpose to do something is what really drives me.
So yesterday I did my first major workout of the season and it started pouring on me. I mean hardcore pouring. But this didn't bother me one bit. I turned on some awesome pump up music and blasted it. And as I ran through the sheets of rain, I screamed at the top of my lungs "IS THAT ALL YOU GOT MOTHER NATURE?!?!?!"

Thank god I live in the middle of nowhere where no one can hear me.

But I guess the rain was kind of symbolic if you look at things in a certain way. My season is going to be tough and I'm going to be busting my butt off to make sure I meet my goals. And I can either get really mad about the conditions or how I'm feeling. Or I can make the best of a bad situation and get some good music stuck in my head and try convince myself that I'm awesome.

ps. Puddle jumping post-workout is ridiculously fun.
pps. I tackled SAT's with everything I had. And I do believe I took them to the floor and destroyed them. Well, I hope :P
ppps. I also enjoy hiking mountains. It makes me feel victorious.

<--- Tumbledown. Yes I'm wearing that pink bandanna I've been wearing for the last two years.

SAT's and the feelings they make me feel

2010-04-30T09:14:00.007-04:00

Shelby does not like SAT's. They are stressful, they wake me up early in the morning, and they invoke a certain feeling of "WHY ME!!!??!?!" So with that in mind, tomorrow I embark on the quest to tackle the SAT's with all my might and take them to the floor and totally destroy them.

Well hopefully.

And yes I'm working on an entry on my college visits. I've just been so plagued with Test Prep (AP, SAT, Subject Test) that I haven't had anytime to get it up.

Other than that, life is just kind of rolling along. I start up my new plan next week which is something I've been so anxious for. I'm ready for some hard work this summer. I've just been kind of keeping fit all spring but not really doing anything other than maintenance. I'm really ready for some intensity and some real hard-core sweaty workouts. This year is going to be different I can just feel it. Just let me get through this week and next week without totally losing my sanity over these tests and then I'll be all ready for tackling the training.

Dandelions and Ducks in Trees

2010-04-11T15:58:00.000-04:00

With winter now a good few weeks behind me, I've been able to take advantage of these few weeks to recover and rest up. And although I do miss track just a little bit, I love being able to come home, go for a quick run or ski or whatever, do my homework, then sleep. These last two weeks I've really adapted to this lifestyle and it's extremely helpful especially when I have tons and tons of homework to finish. There's been a ton of homework lately. I think teachers feel the need to make the end of the third quarter the hardest because my homework load last week was insane. But this is the beginning of quarter four: the last of my junior year. I've really been waiting for this quarter. It marks the beginning of my new training schedule, the end of junior year, the beginning of senior year, and the hunt for the elusive perfect college. And not to mention it marks the beginning of summer, which is something I have also been waiting for for a very long time. The signs of spring and summer are popping up all around me. This week I ate lunch outside a few times with my friends and we were able to pick dandelions and put them in our hair. I have also been spooked by ducks flying around and landing in the trees around my house. It sounds weird, but yeah, they hang out in the trees if they don't feel like going in the water. And what's even cooler is that we have two eagles across the lake and we think that they're nesting! Gahh, it's so cool. We've seen them so much more this year and I really hope they have a nest, it'd just be so cool :D

As for the training and the ski stuff, I'm not doing track this spring which is something a little strange because I always do three sports. And now I get to take spring off. In a few ways I'm happy because I know I can do what I need to do in order to rest and recover (AKA no intensity) and I can control my workouts. On the other hand, I miss seeing my friends on the team and our distance workouts to Hanaford to get free cookies (but I didn't say that. shhh!). So it's a balance. But I think I made the right choice for me. I'm feeling more recovered now, even just after two weeks, and my heart rate isn't as wild and crazy as it used to be. It's steady, which gives me a ton of confidence. It runs a little high when I run but that's because I haven't really eased back into running yet so my muscles and body aren't used to the effort it requires. But other than that, I think I feel pretty solid. I went roller skiing this week, which was extremely exciting. No hills or anything, but I just worked on some balance and double poling drills. I'm so excited for this summer. I can't wait to train again. And I can't wait to train smart this time around.

The Hunt for the Elusive Perfect College
This coming April Break, the week after this coming school week, my hunt for the perfect college will truly get underway. It's exciting, but at the same time it's terrifying. I'm taking the SAT's at the beginning of May, the AP Tests the following week (APUSH and English) and then the subject tests in June. Although I'm taking the SAT's this spring, I'll probably take them again in the fall if my scores are less than desirable. I will say this only once: I do not like standardized testing. Not one bit. It's three hours of hand-cramping action that shows how much you know in that span of time, not how much you know all together or your ability to learn. But what can you do? They're standard, and standards have to be met.
Turning back to April Break, I'm extremely excited. There are a total of about 5-6 schools I'm really looking at with a few back ups. I'll be visiting three this vacation, which should be enough for me in one week. Here's the list of schools...
1. Bowdoin: Bowdoin is the first stop, with an overnight which will be extremely fun. I'll be staying with one of my friends which should make it a blast.
2. Williams: Williams will be my second stop and second overnight. So far, it's my favorite school as I visited last fall. But then again, it's also probably the hardest school I'll be applying to.
3. St. Lawrence University: SLU will be my third and final visit of the week with a final overnight with one of my best friends. Yahootie! I don't know as many people at SLU as I do Bowdoin, and I know even fewer at Williams, but it should be an extremely fun visit.
These are only three of the many I'm considering. It's just so overwhelming with all the handouts, packets, and letters that plague my inbox and my mailbox. Eventually I'll have to start the Common App and my supplements, which will probably keep me up late at night. But I'm excited. It's a big step and a big change and I'm all for change. Who knows where the hunt will take me. It might not even be one of these schools. But one thing is for sure: IT MUST HAVE A SKI TEAM. Skiing is part of who I am and I'm planning on skiing in college. For who, I don't know yet, but I know I'll be skiing for me.

I can see Canada from my window

2010-03-28T19:47:00.009-04:00

This weekend brought festivities of the National kind up in Madawaska and Fort Kent. After going to school on Thursday and going for a quick run afterwards, I made the trip up to Frenchville in the Gould van. Now, I call our part of the state central, but I see why up North they call us Southern Maine (even though Southern Maine is really Portland, Yarmouth, Cape, that area at least according to me). It takes SO LONG TO GET THERE. And as we were driving up, the snow situation didn't seem to be getting any better than it was back here at home. However, as soon as we hit this certain hill past Caribou, there was suddenly snow. It was like we entered a land that Spring forgot. After thinking we had arrived but actually had 45 more minutes to drive, we got to the house. Everyone was pretty much in bed, it was 11pm and I just crashed. I woke up the next morning halfway off my bed because the mattress slid during the night, which was a problem that happened several times during the next couple of days. I realized exactly where I was because the night before I had just dropped my stuff and gone to bed. The house was nice and it had food which made it pretty much ideal for any group of nordies. I looked out the window and realized that just beyond the abandoned railroad car was the St. John. And I was looking right at Canada. I don't know exactly why that made me so happy, it just did. I was there and Canada was right outside my window. Cool stuff.

So as to exactly WHY I was that close to Canada, it was the SuperTour Finals. I had been invited as kind of a last hurrah of the season and I got my USSA number the week before. So at 5pm, which I believe is the latest I've ever raced, I set out on a 7k classic mass start at the Four Seasons Trail Center in Madawaska. Oh and by the way, Kikkan Randall was only 70 bibs ahead of me. I was just so pumped. I was racing with people I've raced with before, mostly New England kids and some college racers, but there was a whole new field I was able to get a chance to race with. CXC, APU, Club Nordique, all these teams that you hear so much about were there and I had a chance to race with them. And it was awesome on so many levels. I wasn't too worried about the race itself because I knew I wasn't going to be anywhere near the middle or top. I just wanted to race my race and see how it played out. The first lap I was probably in my best shape I was all race. I felt good, but it was mostly the nerves getting let loose. The second lap was where I felt the most burn. It was the first time I had been on skis in about a week because I've only been able to run the last couple of days. I felt like I had lost a little bit of my edge but I just kept on chugging. My third lap felt better, like I had caught a second wind. I got in behind a UVM girl and stayed with her until the finish where I lost her a little on the downhill because of some poor track switching on my part. The finish was crazy with a 180 degree turn into the final stretch. I was edged out by another girl right at the line but I wasn't terribly worried. Some of the New England girls really showed the competition what they had that race, I mean there were some serious butt kicking performances. It was just so cool to see how you measure up against some of the top in the country, the continent, and even the world. And something I didn't even realize until the last minute: we were sharing a tent with Kikkan. I turned around while I was putting my ski ties on and there she was talking to the wax tech. Super awesome.

The next morning was a little more rushed as we had to be out the door by 8am to make it to the venue so we could warm up and make sure our skis were all set. It was freezing outside with a high 10 degrees at race time. It wasn't windy but the cold was just so bitter. I wore my buff and by the end of the course preview, it had frozen over because the water vapor in my breath had frozen. It was kinda gross. My warmup felt really good and it was pretty long. I wasn't expecting to be running and doing my mobilities for as long as I did because I was seeded towards the back. Watching Kikkan and some of the other US Ski Team members fly in was so cool. Some of the girls were just so impressive to watch, they had so much strength. I wanted to really show them what I could do so when they said I could go, I flew. I felt like my tempo was really quick and forceful which gave me some confidence. Coming off of Easterns with a great sprint finish I thought that maybe I should really give it what I had for the sprint. My face had frozen into a gaping wide-eyed position and I seriously could not move it at all. I got to the top of the hills and my wax was amazing. I didn't crest as well as I could have but I felt like I was having a really good time. Coming around into the stadium, a bank had built up and I thought I was going to totally blow it but I kept my feet underneath me and finished with a pretty awesome double pole. I usually don't finish with a double pole, usually striding because I find it faster for myself, but I felt pretty strong. I finished and I was breathing like crazy and my fingers were frozen even with my heavier racing gloves. The rushing blood in my body started to make them pound and hurt really bad and that wasn't fun. I ended up really close to making the Junior heats (they took 12 and I was 14) and I was only about a second out of them. It was definitely the best race of the weekend.

We watched the rest of the heats from the bridge after eating lunch. It was just so awesome to see all these skiers in one place and know that you raced against them. I got goosebumps watching some of the girls go by because it was just so inspiring. I know that making the US team is something way out of my reach, but I thought about it just for a minute or two while waiting for them to go by and I shivered with excitement. IT WOULD BE SO AWESOME!!!! But then with a flashback to reality, I knew I needed to get this season done and over with and then recover for next year.

That night the boys decided to make dinner. Chef Boyardee and his Sous Chef were responsible for our feast. Sous Chef had to boil the water, put the pasta in the water, and make sure the pasta wasn't overdone (something that Sous Chef failed at). Chef Boyardee had to sauté the sausage, peppers, and onions, and then complete the mix with the spaghetti sauce. Due to Sous Chef's lack of kitchen experience, he didn't know when the pasta was done. Chef Boyardee saved the day however with the trick that if you throw the pasta on the ceiling and it sticks, it's done. So there was pasta on our kitchen ceiling. At the end of the night, onion peels, salad bits, and pasta covered the kitchen and we feasted. While the pasta may have been a little sticky and overdone, it was a delicious meal. However, I was responsible for cleaning up the kitchen and doing the dishes. Me and Maid 2 spent the night picking pasta off the ceiling and finding all the salad parts hidden underneath the stove and refrigerator. What a fun night.

The next morning we packed up and headed to Lonesome Pine for the final event: the hill climb. To be 100% honest, I've only done two hill climbs in my life and this was not the race I wanted to finish my season with. But I just kind of let it slide and took it out flying. My first 3k in the woods felt awesome, except I got stuck behind this one girl who snow-plowed every single downhill and I could not for the life of me get past her except on the hill. Oh that hill. It was miserable. I don't think I've ever been in that much pain in a race before. I wasn't really breathing that hard, but my calves and thighs were burning. It was brutal. I had watched some of the first couple of guys manage their way up and I was thinking "ok, it's going to hurt but not that bad" and I was soooo wrong. It killed. So after about 5 girls passed me on that hill, I finished the race and fell over. The first words out of my mouth:

"I respect nature so much"

It was finally over. The 2009-2010 ski season came to a close. I took off my boots and drank some warm fruit punch which was AMAZING, and walked up to the parking lot. I was really sad actually. I mean I know this season has been hard but at the same time I just didn't want it to end. So to start the beginning of the new season I ran my cooldown for about 15 minutes. It was relaxing. I took a look at the weather rock up at the shack on the access road (for those of you who know what it is, it was dry and it was not gone. No rain or tornadoes). I started to jot down some notes in the car about my season and I reflected on these few races. And then I got thinking about next season. And once again, I got chills down my spine with excitement. It's going to be a new year with new goals, new people, and new drive.

Congrats to everyone who raced this week and a hearty congrats to those who find themselves at the end of their season. It's been a great year and there are certainly some memorable moments. The end of the season is a great time to reflect and think about what's to come. So enjoy the next few weeks of awesome relaxation and recovery. They're going to go by so fast. And get pumped for the summer! Who knows what awesome training adventures I might meet you on? Enjoy the spring!

Skiing on a Sunday

2010-03-21T20:22:00.002-04:00

Today was possibly one of the best skis I've had with the Sunday Crew. We planned to eat burgers up at the base lodge (that's right the Alpine base lodge) and we climbed up to the Snubber midway station. After telling the man working the lift that we had to meet our parents at the lodge we rode up on our nordic skis -which made me feel awesome- to the base lodge. We dined on lovely burgers. At least they did. Me? I had a grilled chicken sandwich with tomato and lettuce. Nom nom nom. And we shared some laughable moments. One of them, my personal favorite, was: "Wait, that Lobster tracks ice cream, does it have lobster in it???" It was asked with complete honesty which made it a billion time better. These are the skis I live for: SKIS THAT ARE IN FULL PURPOSE MEANT FOR FUN. And then to be able to ski for another hour and a half on snow that isn't disappearing? Gah, it was just fabulous. I think Spring skiing is the most rewarding thing on the face of the planet. You don't have to worry about your racing, you don't have to wear six million layers, and you can just ski without worrying about your heart rate.
Yes. Today was a good day.

ARSH ARSH ARSH: Guest Blog With Sadie and Easterns 2010

2010-03-13T21:13:00.008-05:00

I'm in my room. Halfway on the bed, halfway on the floor. Sadie is on my bed eating 3$ 3.6 ounces of Strawberry Cheesecake Ben and Jerry's with a spoon under the lid. Nom nom nom. We're at Easterns and we just got back from a craaazzyyyy dance party. NOT. It's was kinda lame and the strobe light gave me a headache. And Sadie. Who's laughing. Hahaha. Today was fun. We skied. A LOT. I got 3rd. Actually I tied for second but they gave me third. It was like 3:43.9 for both of us and I was like, dude I got third AND second. Bronze and silver are better than gold. TTHAT IS A LIE SAYS SADIE. Shelby saw a very hilarious picture of Sadie's mom, but we didn't know it was my mother. realllllllllyyyyyy crazy. Shelby's back. Sadie says goodnight. Goodnight Shelby's followers! Oh Sadie just came back in with carrots from her garden, but I didn't really want any. She stormed out without saying goodnight. What a lame-o.

As you may have noticed the first paragraph was kind of silly. Sadie was in here and we were laughing. And now I'm sane again and I can type without messing up what I'm saying. This weekend I was sick and it was not fun. The only cool part was that my mom gave me a thermos for making green tea and I brought it to all the races. It really helped warm up my throat because it had been raw from all the coughing and sickness. The race on Friday was a little weird. It was a 5k skate which I was pretty pumped for. The snow however I was not pumped for at all. Given we've had pretty much one of the worst winters ever this year, I give huge credit to Gunstock for pulling this weekend off. But still, the snow was so chopped up and it was really hard for some of us taller girls. It was a lap course which was pretty interesting. I had done a course similar to it a last year at the Eastern Cup finals, so I wasn't totally lost out there. I went out a little fast. I really wanted to do well, but I could hear the girl behind me creeping up. I was going back and forth with a New York girl the entire race (she was one bib ahead of me). I would pass her, she would pass me back, it helped push me a little bit. The girl one bib behind me caught up and passed me by the second lap. That kind of put me in a bad mindset. I really wanted to pass her back but my skis were dragging pretty hard, like they weren't letting the water run off well enough. When I crossed the line, I knew I hadn't really done my best, but I thought it would get me in the top 20. And it did. I got 20th exactly. I was the 5th Maine girl, which I really wanted to improve on. I think that gave me some motivation for the next day. We went out to dinner at Patrick's and had some pasta. This weekend I don't think I ate enough. Usually after races I'm extremely hungry, but this cold I have made me not want to eat a lot, which made it really hard to replenish my energy stores. No food really appealed to me and so I didn't eat a ton. Just the garlic bread, chicken, and maybe a 1/4 of the pasta. Thank god I had some Cracklin' Oat Bran in my room. I snacked on that afterwards but I knew that wasn't going to be enough.

I slept pretty soundly which was really weird. The first night somewhere away from home makes me wake up 4 or 5 times, but I didn't even wake up once. I ate my pancakes which I microwaved and I made some tea. We were at the venue for our 1.2 kilometer skate sprint pretty early. I was just kind of sitting in the corner with my tea trying not to get anyone sick. My voice was starting to go and I was getting a little nervous because the only thing I could think about was if I couldn't breath out on the course. Sore throats really bother my breathing sometimes and I was a little scared because I didn't want to have a total skiing breakdown. We toured the course about 45 minutes before hand. It had this insane turn at the bottom that I was a little afraid of. It had been really icy and it was getting really chopped up with all the people going around. My heat was the 4th to go out. I was with some pretty good skiers, I knew a few of them and I was excited to race with them. We went out crazy fast, I was in second behind the Vermont girl going into the downhill. The first uphill is where I decided to make my move and I passed her on the left hand side where the track had been firmer. I crested really well and got ahead pretty far and we entered the first scary downhill. I could see imprints in the snow where people had crashed which didn't make my confidence get any higher. But I kept my skis under me and I got through the downhills just fine. On the last set of uphills I felt my legs just burning like crazy. I thought "crap, they're going to pass me right here" and all I could hear were the cowbells and crazy fans screaming "GO MAINE!" So with Team Maine in mind, I put down the throttle and flew into the finish line. I was so happy with myself. It felt like I had finally raced for the first time all year to the best of my ability. I knew I had laid down a good time and I knew that I was going to be near the top. I was honestly and truly happy. All I could say was "Wow, that was so much fun!" I checked the results and I was right. It was a good time. I tied for second. And I was so happy.

After a few hours of solid rest and sitting around, it came time for the relay. My relay team was pretty solid and I knew we were going to do really well. I was really pumped because this year the girls got to scramble (to start) and I was the scrambler. It was so intense at the line. I was behind our first girl team leader and we were all screaming "MAINE LOVE!" to each other. They started the race with what looked like a shotgun and the scrambling began. It wasn't my best start I've had. I've definitely done better. I was way behind where I should've been, but I attribute that to my position at the start (far left hand lane two rows back). I had some serious catching up to do. I think it actually helped me to be a little further back. I was in probably 16th or so going into the woods and after some crafty navigation and tracking, as our wax was totally kicking butt, I got us into about 8th or so. There was one Maine team about 10 seconds ahead who eventually went on to get second place, and one right behind me (we tagged at pretty much the exact same time). Our other legs did really really well and when all was done our team took 10th. Maine took 2nd, 8th, and 10th. It was really awesome having three teams in the top ten. Our awards from that morning and from the relays were distributed by a chipmunk and a lion. They were bags of cookies and they were delicious :)

The awards that night were filled with silly jokes and fun times at our table. After having my cellphone, camera, and jacket stolen (thank you Leavitt boys) we decorated our foreheads and jackets with stickers left for us on the table. I was a 'Super Hippo'. The medals were really nice, probably some of the nicest ones I've ever had the pleasure of receiving. They are snowflake shaped which made them even better. We watched some fireworks from our bus window and watched some Vermont boys run across the road in their bathing suits. Later that night we got to watch a slide show with pictures from the Olympics from one of our waxers. They were so awesome. I mean it's really cool how this sport allows you to have chances to meet people with so much experience and knowledge to pass down. Also later that night we were able to dance the night away. I came back early with Sadie which is when we wrote our first paragraph. The strobe light did in fact give me a headache and I just wanted to curl up and sleep. So after writing that down, that's what I did.

The 7.5k was the next morning. I woke up a little groggy and I went downstairs to get a different flavor of tea. We packed up our bags and thankfully my parents picked up mine at the hotel so they wouldn't get wet. Oh yeah I forgot to mention: IT WAS POURING RAIN OUTSIDE. With that in mind, try to imagine skiing 7.5k with 100+ other girls through the wind and rain. Yeah, it was tough. But thanks to our dedicated and awesome wax crew, we had some of the best wax out there. I was lucky enough to have NENSA points and be seeded towards the front in the 10th seed. The start was a little scary because they said they were going to give us a minute warning and then a 30 second warning. Any time after 30 seconds, the gun could go off. Except we didn't expect it it to go off 5 seconds after the warning. But I was able to get to the front relatively easily. It was 3x 2.5k loops which I wasn't really pumped for. The first lap I was able to get into the 3rd position and I was SOOOO excited. But as we entered the downhills girls started passing me left and right. My skis were a little slow on the downhills so I guess that may have been why. I started to get a little weak in the arms on the second lap, which was by far my worst lap. My third lap I guess I had kind of a 'second wind' and I was able to re-pass a bunch of girls that had put me into 18th. I was battling and drafting with a New Hampshire girl the entire race and she did nab me at the end by two seconds. But I finished 14th and I thought I did the best I could racing in the given conditions and with my cold which was probably the worst that day.

So another year of Maine Love concluded at Gunstock. We picked up our tent and team food after getting our skis cleaned and went back to the hotel for the overall team awards. Vermont unfortunately took the win with Maine in a distant second. A little bit of a surprise to see Massachusetts in 3rd place, out racing race host New Hampshire. New York this year also had several stand out performances which was really cool to see. But Team Maine will always always ALWAYS be the best team in the world for two reasons: we're awesome (I mean who can deny that?) and we have Maine Love. It was awesome to see the new faces of freshmen and younger classes as well as some first-timer upperclassmen. I really hope you guys had a blast because that's what it's all about. And I hope you also walked away with some new racing experiences because these races give you just a little glimmer of what the world of skiing is like outside of Maine. It's a great circuit that I'm lucky to race on and I hope you guys get more chances to be able to race these kinds of races; Eastern Cups, J2's, EHSC, and even JO's. Good luck with the rest of the season and enjoy the spring skiing if you can find any. If you can't, get some rest, eat good food, and get pumped for your next sport season. Maine Love <3

Who Said Nordic Skiers Can't Go Fast?

2010-03-07T15:28:00.004-05:00

Today was a day I've been waiting for for a very VERY long time: The Sugarloaf Inferno was today. For those of you who don't know what the Inferno is, I could just say it's the race of the gods and leave it at that. But in all seriousness it's a race that takes nordic skiers on a wild ride. We start from King Pine and work our way all the way down the mountain, down the condo trail, onto the nordic trails, and to the Outdoor center. It's a little more than 3 miles of downhill. Sure it's not as long as the more famous Stowe Derby, but it is one of the best races I've done in my life because it's just so much fun. I can't really express the happiness I had when I found out I could actually do it this year because it's always been on the weekend of J2's. And since I'm not a J2 anymore, I could finally put my life and limbs on the line. It wasn't a real race, I was just kind of doing it for kicks and giggles. The best part of the day though was when were all standing in line at the Whiffletree Super-Quad and all the alpiners and snowboarders were just giving us the weirdest looks. Now if I had been alone doing it, I would have felt so awkward but since I was surrounded by fellow speed junkies and adrenaline enthusiasts, I just wanted to be like "Yeah that's right, we're cool like that." It was so awesome. Another thing that was first for me was riding up a chairlift with the nordic skis on. I know that sounds like a really lame thing to be excited for but it just made me so happy. Once we got to the top though I started to realize the sheer enormous-ness of the mountain and I started to get a little nervous. The scariest part actually wasn't the race at all. It was getting to the race that scared me. The alpiners were just zooming by us and it was wicked steep going from Whiffletree to King Pine. I mean on alpine skis it's nothing at all. But I was starting to realize I didn't have any edges and I couldn't make any turns, they were more like giant slides across the trail. We got to the start and I was so happy because there were a lot of people were doing it just for fun. However some of not old but older than me 'out-of-college-for-a-few-years' generation were sporting their old speedsuits with pride. They were trash talking each other and I could just sense I didn't want to be near them in the start. I moved to the other side of the trail for my personal safety.

The start was wild. I made my choice to start towards the back because I could move more easily and I could see who was going to crash from back there. It was either you jump out to the front and get away from the pack or you stay towards the back and move your way up. It you were in the middle, you were screwed. With that in mind, the first crash happened to my left about 400m out of the start. I was laughing and screaming the entire way down. I was behind a good pack of people and we were just having a good time. I watched a few people go into the woods and lose their skis and I had my fair share of almost-falls. The condo road was lined with spectators which was awesome and then the corner transitioning into the nordic trail was lined with people. That corner was crazy. I'd guess it was probably about a 120 degree turn. And I mean, I had some crazy speed coming into it. It was scary. I screamed the whole way.

I was able to pass a bunch of people on the nordic portion, probably about 5. But I didn't realize how much the downhill really takes out of you until I had to start going uphills a little ways into the trail. My legs felt like they had been injected with lead. It was hard to even move them. They just wanted to keep tucking. But I managed to make it all the way down without falling. Not even once. I mean that kind of defeats the point of the Inferno as it is to watch people careen off the side of the trail. But at the same time I was very happy with the event today. I walked away with an awesome Inferno tee-shirt, the title of the fastest girl, and a pair of CT3s that fit me for classic. It was a very productive morning to say the least :P

And the skiing afterwards was gorgeous. It was probably the best spring skiing I've ever done. It was pretty fast and it was nice and warm out. It felt so nice and sunny and it looks like they have enough snow to last a couple more weeks, which will be great for some post-season excursions. It was simply fabulous. And the cookies at the Bull Moose Cafe made it a billion times better.

Snow? What's that?

2010-02-28T10:10:00.006-05:00

The Eastern Qualifier was on Saturday and there was a change of scenery for the first time in an extremely long time. IT WAS SNOWING. Yeah, it was crazy. I had to get up at around 6:15 which I really didn't want to do, but my pancakes were waiting for me so I had to. It was kind of a mix outside, snow and rain, mostly snow though. We were on the road by 7:15ish and as we got closer and closer to Sugarloaf it started to dramatically change. It was snowing so hard. And my mom and dad were kind of freaking out because of the driving conditions but I was just laughing and thanking the snow gods for actually deciding to be nice. Apparently the Sugarloaf area got like 30+ inches of snow over the last couple of days. We haven't had nearly that much, but it was so much nicer than what its been for the last couple of weeks. The trees were covered, people made a giant igloo, and snowmen littered the trail. The classic race was fun. It was the first time in a long time I just smiled the entire race. The wax was a tough call because it was wet sticky snow that had just fallen. A lot of people had 0's on for skis and they were working really well, but my wax wasn't bad. It slowed me down a little as it iced up badly in some spots, especially on the downhills where I lost a ton of time. But it was fun. And I knew I was in a good spot. I felt good, I wasn't tired and I was racing with pretty good form. The boys raced really well, our boys team for Easterns is amazing this year. Our girls team though, is a couple of people short last time I checked. We had only 22 girls signed up and there's a minimum of 24 for a team. Some signed up the day of so we ended up with about 30 girls racing. In previous years we've had close to 50, so this was a little short of a good turnout. But there were really good racers from all around the state there. And I was extremely happy to see all my friends from the county and Southern Maine that I don't get to see a ton. After the cooldown I went in and ate so much food. Including cookies which a teammates mom had made and a peanut butter bagel. This race day was very interesting because I usually don't eat a ton on race day but with two races, I really did need to eat something substantial. I don't eat a ton because my nerves usually make me sick, which isn't really fun before a race.

The pursuit was pretty fun too. I had two girls ahead of of me, I finished third in the classic, and the skate course was so fast. We loaded the magic fairy dust onto our skis and it made it feel like my skis were on steroids, like I was skating on ice. It was slightly terrifying. But I went out at a good pace because I wanted to catch the girls ahead of me. Unfortunately that didn't really happen. The course felt awesome and I felt really fast. I had the girl ahead of me in my sights until the 3.5k mark and a hill that was out there. I just died so quickly on that hill. Pretty soon I found myself being hunted down by the girl behind me, which kind of degraded my moral. But while racing, I remained positive. I stuck with her for a little while (maybe a hill or two) and she drifted further away. But I reminded myself that I knew I had made the team and I could cruise on into the finish. So I did. My finish was really easy and I just enjoyed the moment. Sure I really really really wish I had been the first Maine girl, but given the conditions, other people's wax, and other people's training plans to peak at the right time, I think I did just fine.

My teammate and I wanted to take the nerf guns back out like we had at practice a couple of weeks ago and shoot trees or each other out on the trails, but we didn't because of the boys race and the fact that we could possibly mess them up. The boys race seemed to be really fun. I heard some pretty funny stories of conversations and funny wipe-outs afterwards. I wasn't really upset or anything until I got home, where I thought about my races. I knew I could have been the first Maine girl because I knew I could do it, but I didn't which is what upset me the most. I thought 'I'm not going to be in a good heat at Easterns' and that I wouldn't be able to prove myself at Gunstock. But I looked at the JO standings and I'm seeded for the girls in the 7.5k classic, which is the event I really want to dominate in. So with that in mind, I'm going to enjoy Easterns. They're races that I can have so much fun at. The team moral and energy is so awesome, we just feed off the 'Maine Love' (those who don't know what it is will never understand unless they know what it is ;) I know that Easterns aren't JO's and there are going to be people missing that I wish I could race against, but the event itself is extremely prestigious as you are racing against some of the best in New England. I'm pumped, the team is pumped, and this year: VERMONT IS GOING DOWN!!!! WHOOOOOOO! MAINE LOVE <3