All the Seasons

I'm hanging out inside this morning escaping the heat on a morning off from training.  It seems crazy that with sunny and clear skies I wouldn't want to be outside but after enduring a long three plus hour run yesterday that combined shuffling through fall leaves with 85 degree heat and humidity, my body is suffering from a little seasonal confusion.  The past few weeks have been an exciting whirlwind of travel, skiing, training and recovery.  At the end of August I traveled to New Zealand for a three week training camp with my US Ski Team teammates.  This is one of my favorite training camps where we are always treated to winter wonderland ski conditions at the Snow Farm, unreal southern hemisphere sunrises and sunsets, and lots of New Zealand adventures.  This year a few club teams joined the fun including my Craftsbury GRP teammates so it was fun to have a large contingent of American skiers training hard together far from home!  With amazing snow in a beautiful landscape it's easy to A LOT so after three weeks of hard training including some New Zealand Winter Games races at the end, I was exhausted and ready for some recovery!  I arrived home to beautiful crisp fall Vermont weather and the red maple leaves were popping!  Soon though the mercury began to rise and my seasons continued to transition in reverse first from winter to fall and now from fall to summer!  With all of the extreme weather events happening around the nation, I count myself very lucky though, and am soaking up the vitamin D and enjoying my last opportunities to swim!  I'm also feeling grateful to be able to spend the fall at home in Vermont and am looking forward to making the last preparations before the season with some quality Green Mountain training!  Here are some photos from New Zealand and check back soon for fall updates!

Snow Farm trails! So fun to find perfect winter in August!

Sunset bedroom views

Skiing the Gorge trail which is one of my favorite trails at the Snow Farm.  It 

A rest day on Lake Wanaka

Running up the Matukituki Valley

River crossing

Back to the snow for some crust skiing up high

So much snow to explore!

This might have been the best ski of my life...seriously!!

Storm clouds rolling in bringing whiteout conditions just in time to race

Skate speeds

Mountain yoga with ski poles...it's a new thing

A quick visit to NYC to get a Visa to spend more than 90 days in Europe

And back to Vermont!

Loving the last of the late summer and fall harvests including apples, tomatoes, peppers, kale, zucchini, and this amazing peach tree from the O'Brien's yard in Putney

Summer or fall?