My Teammates are Famous

I heard a few Alaskans have named their pets or children after our local skiing superstars. Yesterday, I met the canine Taz-- but she was not as fast as her human namesake. The APU ladies and I were running around University Lake when we came upon a woman walking her dogs. One dog was sniffing a spot in the the trail so the woman sternly said "Taz Go! C'mon Taz!" The other dog's name is Kikkan. We passed "Taz and Kikkan" with a chuckle and I gave Taz pat on the back and assured her that she didn't need to run any faster.

Cuddy Park Rollerski Race

Clowns, kayakers, roller-derby girls, musicians, families, rollerbladers and rollerskiers gathered in midtown Anchorage on Saturday, to celebrate the re-opening of Cuddy Park. APUNSC, Winter Stars, and others, made a presence in the roller-ski pursuit race. The morning's classic rollerski race (4.2k for the ladies and J2 boys, 6.2k for the men) was added to the 1k skate sprint times to determine the overall placings.
Erin Phillips and the World's Tallest Lady

The classic course didn't have any steep hills, so I decided to put my double-pole to the test and race with skate boots, skate rollerskis, and classic poles. The twists and turns in the flat course gave ample opportunity for marathon skating as well as drafting. "Kikkanimal" Randall also went with the skate set-up and set a speedy pace (as usual), so I got the chance to hop in behind her and tried to hang on for dear life.

The men's race was even more of a double-pole derby, and it was pretty neat to see the top pack fly around the course in synchronization.
Anders Haugen, James Southam, Bart Dengel

The afternoon race was a 3 lap skate sprint around the pancake-flat speed-skating oval. It was fun to race again and exciting to watch the guys (and Kikkan) battle for the finish line. Working hard is much easier and more enjoyable with a bib on your back!

Erik wanted to make sure there was no doubt left in our minds that today was a hard day. So after the sprint we did some double-pole speeds. Today I feel like I can enjoy a well-deserved day of relaxation.

There's No Place Like Nome

Last weekend my Dad and I ventured to the northwest part of the state, and landed in Nome. There are so many inaccessible places in Alaska that I have always wanted to check out, so I am taking every opportunity I can to explore those remote places (before my airline travel benefits expire next month). I realize that Nome is not your typical tourist destination. In fact, we didn't meet a single other tourist...it was great.

There couldn't have been a better adventure buddy for this trip than my Dad. He can identify flora and fauna by common, scientific, and often Yup'ik names, and he knows the edibility of the tundra plants, how to cook them, and how they tast. He can decipher bird species solely by their calls, flight patterns, or silhouettes while in flight. I wish my brain was a sponge, so I could remember everything.

Dad could also explain all the Eskimo "stuff". The tipi looking stack of wood in the second picture is so that the wood can easily dry before being burned as fuel for heat. The boat (behind the cement guy and I) is stored high on the rack to keep dry and above snow accumulation and could be used for ocean travel if it were covered with walrus or bearded-seal skin. The gigantic sled in front of the water storage tank below is similar to one of the sleds we had when we lived in Kwigillingok (="The Village of No River"). Dad used to carry huge ice chunks from the lake back to our home in that type of sled so we could have fresh drinking water in the winter.

Nome (founded in 1901) was once Alaska's largest city and was booming with gold miners and European settlers (just ask Donovan or Brennan Walsh!) The old sluice boxes, dredges, and really old cars are still laying around up there and probably will never leave. Nome is very old Alaska style-- without trying to be.

The Last Train to Nowhere.

The people we met in Nome were unreal. The man I sat next to on the plane saw that my Dad and I were trying to take a taxi into town, so he offered us a ride with him and his girlfriend. His girlfriend, Ann, wanted to show us around town before dropping us off at the rental car place. Next, she said she had a freshly caught silver salmon in the oven and convinced us to come to her house for breakfast. Before we knew it, she kept insisting that we take her jeep for the weekend since she would we working the rest of the weekend and would walk down the street to work. She was pretty sure the rental car place was closed anyway. Ann also offered to us a place to stay at her house for the weekend...all of this from a person whom we had just met.

Of course, camping is more our style. Here's where Dad slept while I went running. Like Kolemenos from The Long Walk, Dad has the preternatural ability to relax in almost any situation.

Now you are going to think my Dad and I are crazy, but we did actually end up using Ann's jeep for the weekend. It was one of those "only in Nome" type of situations. To show our appreciation we took them out to dinner, gave them a sack of blueberries, and let them borrow our fishing poles. Ann is planning to stay with us when she comes to shop in Anchorage this fall. I sent them a package of vegetables from Mom's garden (vegis are expensive up there), along with some chocolate and coffee (that...umm...might have appeared on my doorstep).
Dad in blueberry heaven on Anvil Mountain. We saw some musk ox up there too!

My Friendly Credit Card Theif

When I returned from Kodiak there was a large box waiting for me on my doorstep. The person who stole my credit card number bought me gifts! I know many of you have probably had your credit card numbers stolen, but how many of you have a thief who sends you presents? The on-line store does not care to pay the shipping costs to have the package returned, so I have a new coffee pot, coffee beans, and a special spoon sitting in my house. Too bad I don't drink coffee! If you live in the Anchorage area and need a coffee pot, it's yours.

Kodiak Island, Alaska

This week I got the chance to explore Kodiak Island. There was some quality father-daughter bonding time during the first couple days and Miss Valaas served as my partner in crime for the second part of the trip.

The pinks were in and were making their way up the rivers to their spawning grounds. We made a stop off the side of the road to check out the fishing when we saw two fisherman casting their lines. Within 5 minutes of casting in the Old's River a fish engulfed my lure and 10 minutes later the salmon was gutted and grilling on Dad's fire. Getting fish from the river to our stomachs so quickly had nothing to do with my fishing abilities, but rather the abundance of hungry fish that swarmed the river. If there are any homeless people living on Kodiak I am not worried about them, because I think it would be nearly impossible to go hungry on this island.

I absolutely loved the small town atmosphere on Kodiak. The moment we walked into the fishing store two customers at the check-out started conversing with my Dad and before we knew it we had a phone number of someone who wanted to take us deer hunting. I got a kick out of the small town radio which made reports such as "Jane Smith, you left your fishing boots on our boat yesterday, please call us at 345-8778 so we can get them back to you". Every local I met was very friendly and there seemed to be a quite a bit of cultural diversity on the island, with Alutiq (Russian-Aleut), Filipino, and Russian Orthodox influence.

On Monday night Dad and I came across a buffalo herd nonchalantly crossing the road. We decided to pitch our tent soon after (first pic was from the tent's vestibule) since a Kodiak brown bear would probably find baby buffalo more appetizing than us!

We checked out on Fossil Beach and watched a pod of barnacle-covered gray whales feed along the coast of Surfer's Beach.

Valaas brought the rain when she came on Tuesday...so we took the chance to visit Alaska's oldest building (now a museum), and play with the sea creatures in the touch tanks at the Kodiak Fisheries Research Center.

We couldn't let the torrential downpour slow us down too much, after all we were getting to see the reason why Kodiak is so lush! We checked out the left-over WW2 cannons and bunkers at Ft. Abercrombie and fueled up on salmon-berries and some blueberries too. Valaas and I hiked up Pyramid Peak on our way over to Larson Bay. There was no heart rate monitoring, pain, or training plan involved; we just hiked because it was the best way to explore the mountains in the area.

We were expecting to find at least a few houses at the end of the road since the man from the fishing store was from Larson Bay. All we found were some pick-up trucks and a loading dock that would allow people to boat to their homes. We tried our luck at fishing, but only Laura was semi-successful by bringing in a bottom feeder.

Laura had the brilliant idea of camping out in an abandoned boat, but after checking them out more closely we opted for a spot in the trees. Swarms of fish were teasing us in the adjacent river so we tried our luck again. Valaas caught a feisty hunchbacked pink. By the time I made it over to help her whack its brains it leaped from the grass to the river, taking the lure in it's mouth. I splashed in after it, but all I ended up with was a water-logged Polar watch.

On our way back to the airport we made a quick stop at the Old's River where I began and I caught a fish on the first cast. As if the trip couldn't get any better, Valaas hooked us up with a ride home in a four-seated plane with her pilot friends, Nico and Craig, who were leaving Kodiak on business. We cooked up the fish back in Anchorage, and with the help of Mom's home-grown potatoes and greens, nothing was store-bought. What a way to spend this week!

August Eagle Glacier Camp

Last week we completed our final Eagle glacier camp of the summer. As usual, we had fantastic skiing, world-class coaching, video analysis marathons, three hour naps, and delectable meals. While the July camp stands out as the camp where Kassie “wild Rice” chugged a mug of bacon grease after a lucrative bet, I will best remember the August camp as the camp where it snowed over a foot and we built a road. We spent hours chopping up boulders, moving talus chunks, and shoveling snow to make a 9-ft wide path so that the piston bully could be driven into the tool conex and stored for the winter. It was remarkable to see how 20 athletes working together could change the lay of the land.
Check out this gigantic magnet I got to use to pick up old rusty nails. I forgot to charge my camera before the camp (I know, way to start off as an irresponsible blogger, Katie!) Luckily, I have pictures from the July camp and friends like Laura Valaas who sent me the photo above.

On more of a training note, the focus of this camp was on intensity rather than volume. The “sprint group” did 2 strength sessions and 11 relatively short on-snow workouts covering each of the 5 training zones. Erik's prediction is that women's classic sprinting will evolve, similar to what was seen on the men's side in last year's World Cups. We have been incorporating more L5 double-pole intervals on skate skis to prepare for that shift.

When the sun is shining up on the glacier it is one of the world's most beautiful places. Combine the scenery with with crusty fast snow conditions seen after a clear night and it is difficult to stop skiing to go inside. Unlike the previous summers, most days on the glacier this year have been filled with clouds, rain, fog, graupel, hail, sleet, or snow; but the workout plan will be followed, irrespective of the weather. Here are my top-10 reasons why life on the glacier is actually better when it is not a blue-bird day.

1.You can’t tell that you’re going in loops when the only thing you can see is the next orange wand.

2.It provides a great opportunity to work on soft-snow skiing technique.

3.You can get extra balance practice going down hills and maneuvering corners. (Warning: I wouldn’t recommend getting carried away with this one. I caught a tip on the side of the trail on a descent in the June camp and before I knew it I found myself in a supine spread-eagle pose. My tail bone didn’t let me forget about it for 3-weeks).

4.It’s great for making snow balls (and consequently harassing your teammates).

5.It keeps you humble. I feel like a novice when skiing in challenging snow conditions because it exaggerates my technique flaws.

6.You don’t need to drink as much H2O to keep hydrated.

7.Pit-stops are more convenient. In the heavy fog you can hear someone coming before you can see them.

8.It provides a great opportunity to test soft snow skis, adjust klister zones, and play with binding placements.

9.You can get “in the zone” more easily and can concentrate on your own technique and pace when you can’t see anything but yourself and the trail ahead.

10.Lastly, hot chocolate is going to taste way better when you get inside after practice!

Testing, testing, 1-2-3

It works! Welcome to my new blog. Despite Matty J and Anna B’s persuasion to review the latest movies in this blog …that I’ve never seen… I have decided to stick to what I know. I intend to share my experiences gliding around on snow and getting lost in the woods. (Apparently MJ and AB think my blog would be a much more entertaining read if I attempted to inform others on what’s hip since I don’t watch TV and the extent of my pop culture knowledge is pathetic). If you have any comments or questions, please let me know. We are headed to Eagle Glacier for another 1-week camp. Stay tuned!