Mount Marathon recap

This years race was pretty special for me cause my parents and sister’s family came to watch. I’m pretty sure they’ve never seen me do a mountain running race before so of course I’m stoked to have had a good day while they were in Seward.
The conditions during the race were super muddy and slick in the trees. I’ve never seen the mountain when it’s muddy. I visit Seward when it’s blue bird :) The morning of the race my APU teammate, Forrest, showed me a new line up the initial cliffs, which was considerably better than my line in the mud.

So the recap: great couple of days in Seward. Awesome race, great cheering, and fun group of racers to spend the day with. I felt fit and managed to stay on my feet so it’s back to a big block of nordic training- once my legs feel good again.

May spent in CO

I recently joined Jessica during her six week clinical rotation in Durango, which basically means I’ve had a CO altitude training camp. Sense all my accounting work is done remotely it really doesn’t matter if I’m here or in AK in regards to getting work done. I do try to spend time in Anchorage so that I remain a contributing teammate at APU and participate in community.

Training went really well in Durango. I put some emphasis on double pole, strength training, and building up my running miles for the rest of summer.

Becoming a religious sun block user

Endless trail running.

Davos Camp

After the races in Falun, Sweden Scott, KO and I traveled to Davos to hunker down for a three week training block. A few days after arriving here I learned that I was named to the World Championship team. Super stoked!

So with three weeks to train I made a plan with Erik Flora and have been charging pretty hard since I got here. I’ve only raced six times this season. Normally I would have about 15 races under me at this point in the season. I would say I’m relatively fresh and so I’m taking this opportunity to train hard and make some race type efforts via some tough interval sessions. It is going well so far and I’m enjoying my time here.
When I’m not training I’ve been doing a ton of accounting and bookkeeping work, played some Banana Grams, watching a few ski films with Scott, and I’ve spent a fair bit of time at meals.

I think we travel on Feb 21 to Germany to settle in before World Champs. The 30km skiathlon is on the 27th.

Spoiled in the dessert department.

That’s the quick update for meow.

Lahti World Cup

Such a relief returning to the action and feeling pretty strong. In all honesty I felt stronger than my results showed on paper.
I struggled a bit in the classic portion of the 30km skiathlon, but felt awesome in the last 15km skating. I moved into 30th and got out sprinted at the finish line and ended the day 32nd.

I scrambled the first leg of the 4x7.5km relay. My leg went quite well up until my pole broke and I lost the pack while searching for a replacement. Sadly, the gap that formed in my leg then left the rest of the boys on my team skiing in no-mans-land. They all skied good times so I’m excited about the next relay opportunity, which is hopefully at World Championships.

Fun week to travel and roommate with Hunter. He raced well in his first WC ever! Jack made some sweet skis for us. Stoked to be here with lots of APU teammates and friends.

First Few Finnish Days

Travel to Finland was as easy as it could ever be. The plane was nearly empty so I got a four seat row to myself. I was able to sleep at least 7 of the 9 hour flight from Seattle to Amsterdam.

Jack and Hunter- for once we can be germ freaks and fit in!

We got to Finland and first thing we had to take a Covid test and once we received negatives we were allowed to start training at the venue. The trails in Lahti are in perfect shape. The race course has nearly a 3ft base of man made snow. The non race trails are in great condition as well, which is awesome for getting off the long steep climbs on the race course.

Getting some good mileage in with Jack

What happens when you ask Hunter to take a picture