Spring update

Jess sniped me in a very usual operation- trying to soak in the sun while enjoying a dilla- LIVIN!

My season concluded with the Tour of Anchorage 50km ski race. After that race Jess and I had a couple days in Anchorage before heading to Montana. In Bozeman we packed up our things for the summer while getting in a few backcountry and xc days in at our old college stomping grounds. We will spend roughly 9 weeks each in Colorado Springs, Park City, and Grand Junction for Jessica’s Physical Therapy clinical rotations. The goal was to pack light, but thats a challenge given the duration and the amount of hobbies/activities we want to do this summer.

Jess, the Roast Master, gave Jessica and I a tour of the SteamDot roasting operation while we were in Anchorage

The Cold Brew action is exploding and it tastes amazing. It is borderline too caffeinated for me though.

I’ve been in Colorado Springs the past few weeks and it has been great! I miss the spring skiing in Alaska, but I’m enjoying the early transition to running and riding. C Springs is a big city, but it is surrounded by trails and for the most part they are not even crowded. Sense my work is remote I get to tag along with Jessica to all these sweet clinical locations this summer.

Dry trails!!! Super stoked for Jess to be riding for Pivot this summer

My goals the past two weeks have been to not kill myself on the mountain bike and to resist running too much. I think I’ve succeeded in easing into both activities without to much pain or soreness :)

Jessica kept the coffee coming at me so she could practice her latte art- looks pretty good to me

Marathon Spring

Missing the Olympics freed up some space on my calendar. This spring I based out of Bozeman and took advantage of my fitness by signing up for four marathons in late Feb and early March.

Winning the Sun Valley Super Tour - 15km Classic - Last race of the Olympic selection period

There was almost an initial weight off my shoulder when the Olympic team was named and I was assigned as an alternate. Without the Olympic races to train and peak for, I just started joy skiing. I got to Bozeman and the conditions were super good so I was skiing minimally four hours a day and really enjoying it. The warm sun and nice walking trails in Bozeman also got me stoked for running even though summer was still far out. I started running quite a bit as well, which was a nice change of mindset.

Hard to beat that spring mountain west sunshine

I made plans to race the Boulder Mountain Tour (30km skate) in Sun Valley, The Sacagewea Classic (30km classic) in Bozeman, The American Birkie (50km skate) in Wisconsin, and the Tour of Anchorage (50km skate).

So good! Racing with Jessica after her Olympics and Ian who also did a spring of Marathons like me

I came into The Boulder and Sacagaea with several big weeks of training under my belt. I felt great in both races, but after those two races on back to back weekends I was wrecked. The Birkie was always on my calendar for this winter regardless of my World Cup or Olympic plans. So after the Sacagawea I took several easy days to just chill and get my legs under me before a final little prep for the Birkie. I also didn’t want to come into the Birkie tired because the Tour of Anchorage was the weekend after.

Ian and I in the Birkie. Race started cold then warmed up quickly. I was roasty toasty

Overall, the plan worked and I felt great in these spring races. I won all of them except the Birkie where I placed second by just boot. I kind of messed up my sprint into the finish and lost it, but it was a good effort and something I certainly learned from.

I cannot say I’m pleased about the Olympic selection, but DEFILA certainly made me a sweet custom suit to embrace the moment…. ‘Just Keep LIVIN’. This was a good spring for embracing the fact that failure is inevitable when chasing goals and its more about how you grow from failure then worrying about failing itself. Yup, thats the key!

Racing domestically is the funnest thing. So many awesome people on the circuit and great vibes

World Cup

First two WC weekends are done. I’m fairly unsatisfied, but the past two weeks have had some positive moments as well (this is only regarding the racing- life has been totally fine :)).
First weekend was in Finland, which was crazy cold and felt like Fairbanks. Last weekend was in Norway where I consumed a significant amount of farmed salmon (sorry Alaska) and brown cheese (sorry white cheddar).

This upcoming weekend is in Davos. I like the course here so I’m excited. It’s always tough to deal with the altitude, but that challenge is kind of fun on World Cup.

Fall Training

Photo credit: Simi Hamilton

The annual altitude camp in Park City is kind of how I separate summer and fall training. The dumping of snow and hunting opportunities in September maybe might have actually gotten me into that fall vibe… either way I had a successful camp in Utah.

After Utah Jess and I moved out her apartment in New Mexico. Proudly made the move in two days then made a 16 hour drive to Montana. Bozeman has the best donut shop btw…

After a quick stop in Bozeman Jess and I went to AK to get a solid 3 weeks on snow before we left for Europe. The time in AK went by super quick with lots of time spent driving to snow at Hatcher’s Pass, making great meals, and packing up/dealing with errands as I won’t be back to AK until April.

Meat of the summer

Autumn. I'm going to do a bit of a photo dump from the second half of the summer. For a quick reflection I would say life has gone well the past two month with the exception of my mystery six day fever that included a day in the ER and ended with an IV. Other than the fever all other aspects have been groovy- training a ton, work is chugging along, visited Jessica in NM, revived the sourdough, went fishing and some mellow days laying low.

After my first fall roller ski time trial I drove north for a run and some fishing. Camped one night and luckily got dialed in on what the fish wanted to feast on.

Riding in NM with Jess. This three hour ride was all above 9k feet.

Helping out Healthy Futures with their kids race.

Fall colors are popping and I feel like I wore gloves at least half of my runs this week.