And that's a season!

Five and a half months is a long season and a long time to stay mentally and physically sharp.  Now as the season comes to a close, I'm feeling quite exhausted and secretly hoping the rest of the snow will melt so we can say a final goodbye to winter.  Luckily the season ended with as much excitement as it began so underneath many layers of fatigue I'm more inspired than ever for a new year and the challenges and adventures ahead.

Here are some belated stories and reports from the final races of the year.

The XC World Cup season ended with World Cup finals in Sweden.  The top 50 in the World Cup overall standings compete in finals.  Qualifying for these races was a "reach" goal for me so it was exciting to make it happen and experience the progress.  Last year the USST had three women  and two men qualify for finals and this year we had six ladies and four men racing in Sweden which showed our team improvements.

World Cup finals is a four race mini tour which begins with a city sprint in Stockholm.

In my first visit to Stockholm, I had fun exploring the old city while running with the other girls

RAWR! Watch out!

A city square which we ran through

Not a bad race venue backdrop!

XC Skiing is a big deal in Sweden so it was really exciting to sprint in the old city around the palace in front of huge crowds

After having had a few rough races in a row, I used the energy and excitement for a really good last World Cup sprint of the year.  I qualified in 11th which was a personal best qualification for me.  I used some poor tactics in the heat, attempting to take advantage of the draft on the windy track next to the harbor but let myself get boxed in and ultimately finished 4th in my heat and 20th overall.  It was still a very fun day and re-energized me for the last few races of year.

The biggest uphill on the course climbed over the palace steps

A guard watching over the palace steps.  I said hi to him every time I passed on the training day and it only took a couple laps before he responded with a hello.

Bitter winds whipped off the ocean

The finishing stretch

Kikkan won the sprint globe for the second year in a row and was third in the World Cup overall.  Hearing the national anthem played on the Stockholm palace steps was incredibly inspiring.  I hope to see myself up there sometime soon!

From Stockholm we drove three hours northwest to Falun for the last three stages of the mini tour, including a 2.5km skate prologue, a 10km classic mass start, and a 10km skate pursuit.  Falun will be hosting the World Championships in 2015 and built some new trails for the event.  The trail designers wanted to showcase the infamous Morderbacken hill and push the limits with huge uphills and technical descents.  

Unfortunately they went a bit over the top and after the downhill had been skied a few times everyone was wishing they had metal edges to tackle the icy slope.  It was steep, fast, and narrow but didn't ski well with sharp off camber finishes to the turns which combined with ice pushed you into the fencing and trees.  Skiing it alone in an individual start race would get your heart racing and in a mass start would be just dangerous.   Skiercross on cross country skis on a narrow trail through the woods which was steeper than adjacent the ski jumping landing strip? Serious injuries and maybe career ending collisions and falls were deemed a possibility in Saturday's classic mass start race so the athletes worked together to propose course changes.  At first we were met with an absolute no since the TV cameras and timing had already been setup.  With athlete safety on the line, we met multiple times the day before the race and threatened to boycott the first race of the mini tour if the course wasn't changed.  It became a very heated issue with lots of media involved.  

We made the Norwegian tabloids:

http://sport.adressa.no/sport/langrenn/article273510.ece

Democracy in action

After several more meetings and a high proportion of athletes signing a petition to boycott the weekend if the course wasn't changed, a compromise was reached on the morning of the first race.  A new course was set which used only the bottom of the downhill and cut out some of the sketchier turns so everyone agreed to start.

Yes we were going to race! 

Racing in the 2.5km Prologue (Salomon Nordic photo)

I had a slow start in the 10km classic but came back on the final two laps to score distance points with a top 30 finish.  Here I am tired and spent after the last day of racing!

Immediately following the last race we had to pack and after spending five months on the road, this was quite the process. Here is Noah's ski bag with 30+ pairs of skis in it.  After we finished packing, we got to relax and celebrate the season with the rest of the World Cup field.  It was a fun and laid back way to meet other athletes.

We were all very ready to head back to the US but after months on the road what is one more day?  We stayed to participate in the first Fast and Female event held outside of North America.  It was cool to share this program with our Swedish friends and to meet some enthusiastic young Swedish skiers.

Sixty girls attended the inaugural event and after an afternoon of skiing, dancing, and talks they lined up to get their pink tshirts.

From Sweden I flew to California where I met up with the rest of the GRP.  After having been separated across the globe competing in lots of different races, it was really fun to reunite with everyone and ski together as a team for the last races of the year

The GRP only missing Gordon and Maria

While we had a lot of sun, we also had some other "less typical California" weather but our awesome wax team conquered all the conditions.  The sloppy April conditions combined with 7200' of altitude, a stuffed up nose and a cough made for some hard racing!  I've never seen the entire field walking in a race but when you're herringboning up a big wall through knee deep sugar at high elevation in April, sometimes there isn't another choice.  At times it felt more like a slow paced hike at maximal effort than a ski race but so it goes.  

The 3km prologue was rainy, snowy, and wet.  We battled the sloppy conditions and had a great day as a team with five top 10 finishes.  Here's Pat leading the guys with a top 5 finish.

The women's field at the start of the 10km mass start race. Can you find all the green suits? (Ryan Scott photo)

The start of the men's final for the classic sprints. We had two people in both the men's and the women's finals. It was a great last sprint for me as I won the qualifying round and ended up 2nd in the final after winning my quarterfinal and semifinal heats.

2nd Place Buddies

I decided to end my season on a high note so after the sprint, I decided to give my hacking lungs a rest and fly home a few days early, skipping the hill climb and the marathon. 

 The sweet taste of spring!

Two buckets of sap is one of the best welcome home presents, especially since maple syrup is a rarity in Europe

This morning I awoke to a few more inches of fresh snow and there is still great skiing on the trails at Craftsbury so I don't know if I'll be putting the boards away for good yet but it's also nice to be able to sleep in my own bed, explore some backcountry and alpine trails, and have the time to put up my feet and rest after a really fun winter.

Thanks for reading and thanks for all the support along the way!

VM Top 10

Ten reasons why Val di Fiemme 2013 is an awesome championships for team USA

1.)   Steep climbs and hard courses.  Gradual climbing does not exist on these courses and every hill is a steep wall.  Fitness reigns above all on these courses and it’s awesome to see the US skiers hang with the best in the world

2.)   Pasta galore!  In true Italian fashion we are served about four or five different pasta options each day and it’s all delicious.  The grocery store stocks rows of pasta options from almost neon colored noodles to the official Val di Fiemme 2013 pasta.  Even the FIS family room serves perfectly al dente pasta all through the day keeping athletes, coaches, and techs well fueled.

3.)   Espresso!  The wonderful hotel Touring employees have figured out our team’s routine and espresso machine is cranking nonstop.  The same FIS family room at the venue also has two espresso machines free for use so none of us are suffering from being under caffeinated.

4.)   Great recovery options.  The training done on the ski trails this week is only a small fraction of the equation behind fast racing.  With so many competitions in a short period, it is absolutely necessary to recover quickly.  To help in this process athletes go for afternoon jogs or spin on the two spin bikes which we have.  We contrast bath by alternating between sitting for a minute in the cold bath and a minute in the hot tub in the sauna room.  We also get massage work by Steph Caverhill who is volunteering her time to be part of the team this week.  Her work makes a huge difference in the team’s success

5.)   Retro spandex. The Marcialonga course runs though the valley and is a showcase for all the styles of spandex from the last couple decades.  I’m frequently itching to trade my own USA race suit for some of the attire I pass while skiing under the Italian sun.

6.)   Tricky waxing conditions.  There hasn’t been an easy day of extra blue skiing yet.  Every morning brings a new challenge with new snow or quickly warming temperatures.  Our coaches and wax techs have worked incredibly hard, leaving the hotel at dawn, and testing all day to provide some of the best skis in the field.  We may not have a tractor trailer wax truck like so many of the other teams but we have a staff which is putting their heart and soul into each race and I cannot thank them enough.

7.)   Team. We’re a happy family.  When you spend five months together travelling around foreign countries, you become very close.  We all know everyone’s quirks and we have each other’s backs.  While stuck in his hotel room with a chest cold, Simi put on a blonde wig and glitter and made a movie quite accurately portraying the women’s team.  We couldn’t stop laughing as he lovingly mocked each one of us.  Andy showed up at the first meeting dressed as an Italian with capris, a “Ciao” tank top, greased hair and techno beats.  Not to be outdone, Kikkan walked in upside down the next day.  The atmosphere is relaxed despite it being a championship week.

8.)   Personal best results.  While it hasn’t been a perfect championships, there have been many results which carry the team and we rally around these moments of success.  Sophie started us off with a 20^th in the sprint, Liz was 5^thin the 10km posting the best women’s distance result ever, the boys all had great 15km skate races.  I had my first World Champs top 30 finish in a somewhat unexpected and hard race with a 25th place in the 30km.  And...

9.)   Gold! Watching Kikkan and Jessie ski away from the field in the team sprint and climb onto the top step of the podium at the World Championships was unbelievable!  So much hard work went into that race and we are all so proud!

10.)Momentum- Our energy is high and there are more great races to come!  T

World Champs Finish Line

Expect the Unexpected

Onion filled biscuits for dessert, high speed snowmobile rides with security checkpoints before a race, 8 minute V1 uphills, handicapped ambulance vans rallying through a muddy construction zone, gondola rides, snowstorms then the hot sun, techno beats during breakfast, brand new cottages with incredibly spacious bedrooms, beautiful mountain views, construction, construction and more construction were just a sampling of what was waiting for us in Sochi, Russia last week.  None of us knew what to expect when the World Cup travelled to the Olympic venue for a test event.  We braced ourselves for the unknown, anticipating only surprises and assured adventure!  Even now as I reflect on the trip, I’m not sure quite what to think but the week was a great reminder to dream big, be ready for anything, and get psyched for the excitement ahead!  Traveling to Sochi involved long travel days, eating strange food, and training only on the incredibly hilly race courses.  It forced us all to step outside of our comfort zones and test new waters; both figuratively and literally as we were never quite sure if it was safe to be drinking the tap water.  But it was also an invaluable experience which has better prepared us for 2014.

To me personally, the Olympics still seem like a distant event.  It may be less than a year away but there are still many hours of preparation ahead until the team is named and the races begin.  It has of course been the top goal of mine for many years but until this last weekend, I struggled to draw a concrete picture of my dreams.  Travelling to Sochi and racing on the future Olympic course refocused my goals with a distinct image of what next year can bring.  I’m re-inspired for the months of hard work ahead as the 2014 Olympics now appear as races where I can compete with the best in the world, fighting for the podium as I represent the USA.  It’s no longer just a faraway childhood dream.

Our first race in Sochi was a skate sprint.  The US had an awesome showing in qualification with five women and two men in the top 17.  I was 17^th and this was a personal best qualification result for me as this round is the spot where I usually struggle the most.  Seeing the team and individual improvements was inspiring and I prepared for the heats with a good feeling about the day to come.  In the quarterfinals, I started fast and led my heat which was something I have previously not had the confidence to do on the World Cup.  I decided to try it that day after gaining experience in other races.  The semifinal started well but I made some tactical errors going over the top of the climb on the course and lost a few places.  I finished 4^th in the heat and was feeling quite disappointed in myself until I heard that I had gained a lucky loser spot and qualified for the finals.  A final?!!!  I would be racing against among the six best sprinters in the world that day?  I was ecstatic!  When the gun went off though I was just happy to be there rather than mentally prepared for the race and ready to put forth the same fight which I had in previous rounds.  I finished last in the heat and 6^th on the day.  It was still a wonderful experience which boosted my confidence showing me that I too can race for the podium.  I have a new outlook as I prepare for upcoming World Cups.

Later on the weekend, I had the opportunity to team up with Sadie Bjornsen in a classic team sprint.  Last winter Sadie and I raced our first WC team sprint together and we finished 14^th out of 16 teams as we struggled to maintain contact with anyone in our semifinal.  Sunday’s race in Sochi started out the same way.  Finding kick on the greasy snow was tricky and in the opening legs and were off the back of the pack.  But we kept fighting and the coaches touched up our skis after each lap.  By the final lap we had kick on our skis and were only building steam as other teams tired.  I caught the front pack on my final lap and tagged off with the leaders.  Sadie laid the hammer down in an impressive way and dropped everyone.  We won our semifinal with the fastest time of either heat.  In the final we raced at the front of the pack for the entire race and finished fifth in a tight race, just seconds from the podium!  It was an awesome race for both of us and a huge improvement over where we were last year.  That type of progression keeps us motivated for more.

A Final!

The Sochi Adventure

Our team was lucky though and all of our stuff made it on the plane including in some of these seats.A year from now, the Winter Olympics will be held in Sochi, Russia.  Sochi, a city on the Black Sea only about 10 kilometers from Georgia, is the most southern site of the Winter Olympics.  Googling Sochi, one finds pictures of palm trees but we would be racing in the mountains above the city.  Last year's World Cups in Moscow and Rybinsk, Russia left us with some very memorable stories and the week in Sochi proved to be no less interesting or exciting.

Travelling to Sochi was an adventure in itself.  We first took a charter flight with lots of other athletes, coaches, and techs from Zurich to Sochi.  Skiers don't travel light and the plane was way overweight.  Even with ten or more rows of luggage in the cabin, lots of people didn't get their bags until several days later.

Our team was lucky though and all of our stuff made it on the plane including in some of these seats.

It was a bit of a sketchy flight.  One layer of Simi's window was open and I wasn't the only one who screamed on landing.  In Sochi, our bags were loaded into trucks and we boarded buses which would take us to Krasnaya Polyana, the town where all the outdoor venues would be hosted.  It was about an hour and a half bus ride because there was so much construction happening on the road.  It was dark outside but still obvious that there were roads, bridges, tunnels, railroads, and buildings being built all along the length of our drive even after 11pm.  Before the Olympic bid was won, there was only one chairlift in the valley which was also the edge of a National park so everything is going to be brand new.

When we arrived at Krasnaya Polyana we had to wait for quite awhile for accreditation and this was my first glimpse at the high security of the region.  Just in the parking lot, there were cameras and armed guards everywhere.

A lot of the security guards and police were very serious but some were more eager to try out their broken English.  Here's one guy who wanted to get into this picture of Randy Gibbs, a US wax tech and I.

By the time we were done with accreditation it was getting very late but we still had a long ways to go before we reached our beds.  We went through some security checkpoints, where some of us had to turn on our laptops and phones to prove they were actually what we said they were and then we took a gondola up to the top of a mountain where the biathlon and Nordic venues were held.  For the games there will be 2 or 3 gondolas and a tram up to the ridge to accommodate the higher traffic but only one is finished so far.

It was dark during our first gondola ride but we took the trip later in the week during the day and were able to see some the mountains and area.

At the top of the gondola was a hotel where we checked in and got our room keys.  From there we boarded some modified ambulance looking vans and we rallied through some mudpits of a construction zone on our way to the cottages where we would be staying.

Newell in the back of the shuttle.

We were all a little dazed by this point and since it was about 2am by this point we were very ready to find our beds.  The cottages of the athlete were very spacious with rooms much bigger than we normally find in Europe.

This was our team's "cottage" in the athlete's village. Each one had a bunch of bedrooms off a large open common room area.  It was nice to feel like a home.  Also check out all the snow!

The next day we skied for the first time and this brought on more adventures finding the trails.  The cross country stadium is only temporary for the games and the biathlon stadium is permanent.  We accidentally took an ambulance van to the biathlon stadium on our first morning here and then walked around for awhile looking for the cross country stadium since we couldn't find anyone who spoke English and also knew where the stadium was.  In our wanderings, we came across the workers quarters.

Unfortunately they're not quite as nice as our lodgings

There was construction happening everywhere as the rest of the athlete's village was being finished as well as other hotels, restaurants and other infrastructure.  The plan is to have the area be a tourist destination after the Games.  There is lots of work to be done in the next year but the work was being done 24/7 through all types of weather.

Unfortunately they're not quite as nice as our lodgings

There was construction happening everywhere as the rest of the athlete's village was being finished as well as other hotels, restaurants and other infrastructure.  The plan is to have the area be a tourist destination after the Games.  There is lots of work to be done in the next year but the work was being done 24/7 through all types of weather.

Lots of cranes and workers on roofs. I was always a little worried as the men didn't seem very well secured on the snowy roofs.

Despite the construction, it's a very beautiful location with great mountain views

These snowmobile carriages were the actual mode of transportation between the cottages and the race venue. The drivers usually went very fast and it was always a bumpy and exciting ride

The courses here were hard with lots of hilly skiing.  We were all excited to test out the new courses though.  Friday was a skate sprint and a great day for the team.  In qualification we had five girls and two guys in the top 17 and after the finals all seven of us finished in the top 21!

Here I am racing in my first sprint final! I led my quarterfinal and then finished 4th in my semifinal after some tactically horrible skiing and was ecstatic to hear I grabbed a lucky loser spot into the final! This was a long term goal for me and above my season expectations. I was pretty tired by this point and didn't have much left so I finished 6th but it was still awesome. Now I have the confidence to know that I can fight for a podium position! Kikkan won the race which was especially impressive since she had been fighting a cold all week.

Saturday was a 15km skiathlon for the women.   The classic course was really fun with lots of ups and downs.  The skate course was incredibly hard.  It dropped down out of the skate course in a steep fast downhill and then climbed back out of the hole for a long time. I think it was a 7 or 8 minute V1 climb in the snowy slow conditions.  I had a tough day with some tired legs and a fall in a bad spot where I got spun around a couple times and lost all my momentum as well as the pack I was skiing in.  It was still a good experience to ski on the trails and a really good day for some of my teammates.  Liz and Sadie both had career bests in 8th and 24th!

Snowy conditions actually kept the pack together for longer than normal and led to some congestion during the classic leg (USSA photo)

The final day of racing was a classic team sprint.  Sadie and I teamed up together for a great day.  The sun was out after the snowstorm and it was hot racing!  It was also tricky waxing conditions and neither of us had kick for our opening legs.  Halfway through our semifinal heat we had been dropped off the back of the pack.  But the techs did an amazing job and got us great skis for the final legs.  I caught the leaders on my last leg and then Sadie dropped them for a big win!  Last year we raced our first team sprint together and didn't come close to making the final so to win our semifinal with the fastest time of either heats was a HUGE improvement.  In the final we were in contention the entire time and ended up 5th just seconds off the podium.  This was an improvement over our 7th place finish together a couple weeks ago in Liberec so we're moving up!

Getting interviewed together after our race

Happy teammates after an awesome race!

Russian bathroom signs are very descriptive

La Vie en France

Bonjour!  The XC World Cup moved to France last week so we spent the past week in La Clusaz a small resort town in the French alps.  France was a new country for me to race in.  I also studied abroad in southern France so I was excited to return and parlez francais encore and race in a new location.

Lots of snow!

Our first morning we were greeted with a snowstorm and powdery, fluffy tracks! Most of the trails were out in the open and at times it was near white out conditions with very tricky visibility.

C'est parfait! The next day the sun came out and....WOW!

The view from our wax cabin

We were all a little jealous of the alpine skiers. There were lifts everywhere and fresh tracks hitting the new snow

Holly, Matt, and Liz during a team ski

The race course was a 3.3km clover shape loop which ran up and down through this field. When we showed up it was just a field but they quickly turned it into a World Cup venue. This really shows that it is possible to host a World Cup anywhere!

Going for a walk around town

La Clusaz is a little resort town but like every other French town there was a church in the center of town and lots of boulangeries (bakeries with great French bread), patisseries (pastry shops), and charcuteries (delis selling local cheese and sausage).

Here is one of the main streets in town on a sunny day (Noah Hoffman photo)

Lots of delicious chocolates and other treats including meringue pigs and ducks (Andy Newell photo)

We went out for coffee and crepes one afternoon and Hoff was very excited with his caramel crepe with whipped cream!

The French are very proud of their food and we were served some of the best meals yet this past week. Dinners were a long affair starting with bread and soup, then a salad or some other starter, then a main course with meat or fish, and finally this cheese platter. The last night the hotel staff wanted to serve us a special French meal so we had pate and foie gras to start which was not my favorite but the steak and sauteed mushrooms were incredible. (Liz Stephen photo)

It wasn't just our hotel serving lots of great food. In the athlete tent, you could find these giant cauldrons filled with different french specialties and lots of pitchers of wine (Jason Cork photo)

While the week of great skiing, delicious food, and speaking French was great, I was excited to race. Saturday was a 10km classic race.   I once again started towards the back of the mass start but had moved up to the back of this big pack by about 2km.  All the other US ladies were in the pack and it was exactly where I wanted to be.  Unfortunately as we crested this hill, my skis iced up and I found myself running on stilts as the rest of the pack glided down the gradual downhill in a tuck. I lost contact and spent the rest of the race trying to move up when I could while scraping my skis off at the top of every hill.  It was great practice in regaining focus and not giving up when the race doesn't play out as planned.  I managed to sneak into the points with a 29th place finish.

This picture is taken early on in the race and I'm in black at the back of this pack.  This was the fun part of the race when I was still skiing with lots of people.  The unexpected challenges in every race though are what keeps it interesting and makes you stronger!

Sunday was relay day and Sadie and I were ready to go with star knee socks, glitter, and flag capes since we weren't racing. We were very enthusiastic cheerers and a course official I think mistook me for a drunk spectator who had climbed the fence and tried to kick me off the course but I showed him my athlete bib and got to stay.

It was a tough day for our team but everyone pushed hard, didn't give up, and was still smiling after the race. The hard days make you appreciate how special the good days are!