Home away from home

It's laundry day which sure sounds like nothing exciting to write home about but when you live out of a duffel bag for 5 months of year as an organized migration, rambling from one ski area and hotel to the next in a caravan of rental vehicles, it's a BIG deal.  Clean clothes, which were not simply washed in a sink and hung to slowly dry in a bathroom which was likely recently flooded by an odd European shower system lacking any walls or curtains to contain the water, become a rare commodity and a comfort in this winter long road trip far from home.  Lately I have lucked out and had plenty of opportunities for clean clothes and have easily found that sense of a familiar routine while still being many miles away from what I normally call home. Davos, Switzerland has become my home away from home.

I have spent the last few weeks living at the Hotel Kulm in Davos, taking a winter training block before the next period of World Cup races.  I opted to skip the Tour de Ski which was a difficult decision especially after low snow conditions in Oberhof, Germany led to the addition of a second sprint into the race program.  My love of this lifestyle stems from the excitement found in the travels to each new race venue and the opportunity to lay it all out on the snow and race as hard as I can each and every time I step up to the start line.  Each race and each day are a new challenge.  It's the reason we train hard, setting goals and chasing crazy dreams.  So it's really hard to sit on the sidelines but sometimes that is the best choice.  We have a LONG season starting in November and continuing through March so it's impossible to race week in and week out without taking a break.  In order to prevent a plateau or an early peak, you have to create some variation in the training plan allowing your body to recover and then rebuild for racing at an even higher level.  We all love to race or else we wouldn't be doing this but it takes patience to plan for the long run and look forward to top performances not just in this moment but later in the season when the stakes are raised.

The Hotel Kulm! The US Ski Team has been staying here for year and Heinz Kessler and the rest of the staff are some of the most wonderful people.  They have taken such good care of me during my stay!

After great races in Asiago, I was confident in my fitness so it was hard to not continue racing.  But with beautiful sunny weather and perfect ski conditions in Davos, it was also easy to transition into training mode and set my sights on races at the end of January and February.  Most of our team was starting the Tour so I had over a wekk ofalone time in Davos, which was a huge change from normal life on the road where our lives are so closely intertwined that we happily share everything from the smallest European beds to hugs to a rainbow of emotions to stuffed animals to clothes to hand sanitizer to training plans and every insignificant or monumental daily occurrence in between.  As an intorvert, the first 24 hours were refreshing and relaxing but then I quickly began to miss my winter family.  With a solo week ahead, I challenged myself to make each and every day exciting, to make this time energizing and different from the normal race routine, and to take full advantage of being in such a wonderful place.

I soon found the time actually flying by and it felt great to train a lot, ski kilometer after kilometer while also relaxing in one place and taking a break from the long van rides and plane flights which litter a normal week in Europe.

So much snow and sun! The valleys were groomed with perfect tracks day in and day out.

The ski conditions couldn’t have been better.  I was a little worried to be responsible for all my waxing as I am usually spoiled by a hard working group of wax techs taking great care of all my skis.  But luckily every day was extra blue skiing and Swix LF6 so I could easily handle that.  When we race a lot there isn’t always a chance to ski very much, focusing instead on intensity and recovering to race fast.   I loved being able to go out on long cruises and explore the valleys and trails of Davos.

Without a vehicle, I memorized the public transportation system and even with very very minimal German skills felt like a champ choosing which trains would stop at my hotel and which ones would continue on toward Zurich, or timing my afternoon ski perfectly to catch the last bus.  At home in rural VT having a car is a necessity so it was really nice to easily get around in a more sustainable way.

I powered through my book list and enjoyed the time to read uninterrupted.  Some of my teammates had given me the book A House in the Sky for Christmas.  I think they simply thought it was the memoir of a Canadian woman in her mid-twenties who loved to travel solo which would have been the perfect book for this time.  The meat of the story, though, was actually recounting the true story of her abduction while travelling in Somalia and the year she spent in captivity being raped, tortured, and abused.  Her inner strength and will to survive created an incredible and fast paced story but I continually had to think of a happy place and remind myself that Switzerland was very far from Somalia and that there are lots of kind people in the world.  I can laugh at the irony now that my teammates accidentally gave me this boo to read while I was alone in a foreign country.

In Europe skiing and other snow sports are a big deal and broadcasted live on television so I had lots of races to watch on tv and enjoyed yelling at the screen for my teammates and other friends, being inspired by their impressive performances.  Simi won his first World Cup and the Americans had a slew of top ten finishes in the Tour de Ski!

Winner!

Kikkan was staying in an apartment in town so I can’t actually say I was alone in Davos.  We met up almost daily for training sessions or to hang out.  She celebrated her golden birthday turning 31 on the 31^st and I set up a birthday scavenger hunt for her which would lead her around the ski trails and eventually to Café Klatsch in town where I would be waiting for her for a lunch date.  The hunt turned into an epic fail though when she couldn’t find the last couple clues.  Her two hour workout almost doubled in length while I waited at the Klatsch trying to guard her seat during the lunch rush on the busiest day of the year, feeling more and more stood up as each minute passed.  We both gave up at about the same time and returned to her apartment to compare stories and laugh.

Kikkan getting her pump on at the beginning of the scavenger hunt

I have really appreciated the extra time for the chance to catch up with friends and family at home.  I’ve connected via phone, Skype, and email with so many people back at in the US and it is great to hear all the stories so keep them coming!  All of the support and encouragement makes a huge difference for me and the rest of our team.  We love to be connected to our communities and the cheers from the ski world back home keep us going! 

A wonderful card from my Friends at Vermont Coffee Company

And the best part of this training block is that my excitement level for the next races is now through the roof!  My stoke level is super high so watch out!  On Wednesday I will drive to Nove Mesto, Czech Republic for the next World Cups with a freestyle sprint and a classic team sprint this weekend.  Can’t wait!

Inner fire burning strong (Lynn Jennings photo)

Asiago Classic Sprinting

Last weekend was a double classic sprint weekend in Asiago, Italy with an individual sprint on Saturday and a team sprint on Sunday.  Asiago was my first new venue this season which is always really exciting to travel somewhere new, explore a different area, and race on a different course.  Unfortunately warm weather in Italy at the beginning of the winter left the organizers scrambling but they amazingly pulled off a fun course in a park in the center of town.  

One of the main streets in Asiago.  It was lit up with lots of Christmas lights at night for a festive feel even if there wasn't any snow on the ground and the temperatures were not particularly wintery.

A WWI monument on the edge of town.  There was a major battle of WWI which took place in the fields surrounding Asiago and this memorial houses the remains of 50,000 Italian and Austro-Hungarian soldiers

The town square with a Christmas market set up.  In the evenings these booths were open selling food, drink, crafts, and local foods.  

A little shop in town selling jams and marmalades, fruits, mushrooms, pasta, and more.  The food in Italy is always some of the best with lots of great pizza and pasta. 

Looking down on Asiago and the surrounding hills.  It was pretty cloudy the whole time we were there so we were not able to see many of the surrounding mountains.  

Training on the course on Friday, the day before the races.  Usually this involves a lap of the whole course at L3 or threshold, a lap at L4 and then some pickups on different parts of the course.  This is a fun way to practice pacing the course and skiing the faster and in a group.  We do these workouts together as a team and it is fun to ski together around the course in a pack, a fast train of black and pink (Austin Caldwell photo).

Testing skis on the course with Matt, who as well as being a coach, is also my wax tech.  I travel with close to 30 pairs of Fischer skis so that I'm prepared for all snow conditions and race types but having that many skis can be confusing sometimes to pick the best ones.  Matt does an awesome job keeping the testing process simple and straight forward.  We have an awesome team of hard working techs.  They were up at 4:45am each day this weekend testing wax and preparing fast boards for the tricky snow conditions and we had great skis all weekend despite the dirty slushy snow (Eli Brown photo). 

Qualfication on Saturday's individual sprint.  It was a pretty flat course so about half of the top women double poled the course on skate skis.  I opted for classic skis and was happy with that decision qualifying tied for  20th.  I still have not ever double poled a classic sprint and it would probably have to be pancake flat for me to confidently forgo striding.  I was a bit tempted to try in Asiago but the World Cup is so competitive that it's not a great place to test new things and gamble with seconds (National Nordic Foundation photo)

The start of my quarterfinal.  I'm on the far right of the photo next to the boards.  The quarterfinal was really fun although I got out double poled at the line by Katja Visnar from Slovenia in the fluorescent suit.  She was on skate skis so I got an advantage on the uphill but I couldn't quite hold her off on the downhill and into the finish when she had the upper hand lacking klister on her skis.  I still qualified for the semifinals and had a bit of a bobble at the start with one of the Finns in my heat and ended up 5th in my heat for 10th overall, my first top 10 of the season!  

The start of Sunday's team sprint final with a view of the stadium

Both the US teams were in the same semifinal in the team sprint but we were able to work together along with Finland break away from the rest of the field.  Sophie and I finished second in our semifinal behind the Finns with Sadie and Kikkan right behind us.

Sadie and I skied together for basically every second of every leg.  Sadie is an incredibly strong classic skier so it was fun to ski with her.

Here are Sadie and I wearing our relay socks in the mix in the final.  It was an incredibly tight and competitive race and one of the most aggressive races in which I've ever skied.  Game on from the sound of the gun and the twisty narrow course made it very exciting with lots of elbows being rubbed.

Sophie and Kikkan hang over their poles after a strong finish.  This time we finished 8th just seconds behind Kikkan and Sadie in 5th and not too far from the podium either.  

Big hugs after the race!  Sophie and I grew up skiing together in VT and on the New England JO team and then were teammates at Dartmouth so it was really fun to race at World Cup team sprint final together!

I'll be home for Christmas...... Nope not this year

Merry Christmas! Frohe Weihnachten! Joyeux Noel! Buon Natale! God Yul! We're celebrating them all this year!  This was the first Christmas which I didn't spend at home with my family and while I did wake up Christmas morning feeling quite homesick especially after hearing "I'll be home for Christmas" on the radio, it has been exciting to start new traditions and spend merry times with my winter family.

We started our Christmas celebrations a couple weeks ago with a Secret Santa poetry and gift exchange in Davos with the entire team. 

Last weekend the Christmas lights in Asiago, Italy were wonderful.

All the streets were decorated which created a holiday atmosphere for the weekend before Christmas even though it was warm and snowless.

Kikkan and I were rooming together and since this wasn't Kikkan's first Christmas on the road, she came prepared.  She has a Christmas box filled with decorations, lights, and craft supplies and so we set up this little tree between our beds.  For training the day before the first race Kik wore her reindeer antlers, I wore a Santa hat, and she put a little speaker in her drinkbelt and blasted Christmas music while we skied.

We hung stockings in case Santa decided to come a few days early.  

After the weekend in Italy, I returned to Davos where I will be staying for the next couple weeks for a mid winter training block.  Jessie, Liz, and Noah were staying in an apartment in town and they had decorated it with a real tree, ornaments, lights, candles, snowflakes and paper chains.  Their cozy home had the perfect atmosphere that cannot be recreated in a hotel room.  

One afternoon Jessie went into a baking frenzy and baked four or five different types of delicious Christmas cookies in the span of only about an hour and a half.  It was amazing!  She made cracked chocolate ones, jam drops, salted caramel chocolate chip, gingerbread, and more.  I had fun tasting the dough and cutting out the gingerbread men.  

That same evening, Noah organized a Christmas party with other World Cup skiers who are also homeless for the holidays.  Some Canadians and some Norwegians joined us for a white elephant gift exchange.  Everyone had to bring a wrapped gift of something under 25CHF and then we exchanged, opened, and traded the presents.  There were some awesome and also interesting gifts including firecrackers, a stars and stripes tank top, a finger guitar, a harmonica, chocolate, a giant bubble stick, coffee mugs, and more.  

And one of the best parts of this Christmas break is the chance to go outside and ski in such an amazing setting.  With mountains, big valley, great tracks, and sun, I feel very lucky to be spending the holidays here.   

On Christmas Eve we were invited to dinner at the home of Jurg Capol, former FIS Nordic Race Director.  Once again it was wonderful to be in a home with a very welcoming family.

Jurg's wife Michaela cooked us an amazing Christmas dinner.  Michaela is from Czech Republic and Jurg is from Switzerland so we had traditional Swiss and Czech foods as well as a turkey for us Americans.  Michaela researched what Americans eat for Thanksgiving and then YouTubed how to cook a turkey.  She did an excellent job especially for her first time and everything was delicious!

Santa comes to Switzerland on Christmas Eve so after dinner we went on a walk with their two young daughters to look for Santa.  When we returned he had already come and gone and the tree was full of presents.  It was really fun watching the excitement of a six and seven year old opening the gifts, quickly tearing through the wrapping paper.  The Capol family even had gifts for us under the tree as well so we opened chocolates and snow globes.

Then it was on to dessert including Ben & Jerry's!

Christmas day was a quieter day and I spent most of it relaxing at Hotel Kulm, my home in Davos.  Andy, Simi, and I ate Christmas dinner with the Canadian team at the hotel and Devon Kershaw told us it was his eighth Christmas in the hotel.  The best part of the holiday came in the evening when I skyped with my family at home and heard their familiar voices, separated by many time zones but still sending love and holiday cheer.  

Another holiday gift arrived today in the form of fresh powder!  Most of the team left today for Obehof, Germany and the start of the Tour de Ski.  I bid them farewell and stayed behind in Davos, opting for the chance to train and recover before the second part of the season.  I have some solo time ahead  so send stories, news, one person card games, book recommendations and anything else that will keep me from talking to myself too much in the next week or so.  

Happy Holidays!

Mountain highs and valley lows in Davos

Welcome to beautiful Davos Switzerland.  Does it get any better than this?

I feel very lucky to be in such a beautiful place and to breathe the fresh mountain air of the Alps.  We have had full sun every single day!  After a few weeks in northern Scandinavia, it feels great to soak in the rays and regenerate our Vitamin D stores.  

Mountains and more mountains

The view from behind our hotel

There isn't quite as much snow this year as last year or in years past but the skiing in the valley is still really good.  While I surely can't complain about all of the sunshine, I have my fingers crossed for a few fresh flakes so that they can groom some of my favorite trails up some of the nearby valleys (FIS Cross Country photo).  

Always great to be in Switzerland with lots of chocolate!  The giant Toblerone I'm holding was 140 Swiss Francs in the Zurich airport so I had to pass on that one but I've still had my share of great chocolate.  

I was excited to find some maple syrup in a store in town but fortunately it is still early in our winter travels so I still have part of my supply of Vermont syrup from home.  I gave a pint of it to Heinz Kessler, the owner of our hotel here in Davos and he excitedly told me that he loves syrup but has not had any since the 80s when another VT skier brought him some.

The team after our annual Secret Santa gift exchange which includes poetry writing and reading and gift giving.  I wrote 'Twas the Night Before the World Cup, a rendition of 'Twas the Night before Christmas for Fred, our massage therapist.  Jason Cork, one of our coaches wrote a series of Haikus for me and gave me a little Christmas tree for my hotel room.  It's a real tree and about a foot high and just perfect for firing up my Christmas spirit. 

The Davos stadium (Salomon Nordic photo)

Hotel Kulm, our home away from home on the road and where I will spend Christmas this year.

We had World Cups here in Davos this past weekend.  On Saturday some of the team raced in a 15km and 30km freestyle race and had great results including five top 30 finishes.  I sat out that race and prepared for the freestyle sprint on Sunday. I felt energetic and confident leading into the race and dreamed big with my sights set on improving on my results from last winter.  My qualification round was solid but not perfect and I just missed making the top 30.  My day was done far before I planned or was ready for and I was left with a huge ache of disappointment.  The women's field was incredibly tight this weekend and only 3.6 seconds separated the first through thirtieth and I was just behind that mark.  Normally the mens' field is packed into close margins while the womens' field sees larger gaps but on Sunday the opposite happened as six seconds spanned the top thirty men.  I guess just a lot of ladies were on fire this weekend.  I have replayed the race in my head repeatedly, grimacing while thinking of the slip on the ice on the final corner or my horrible transition into the uphill on the second lap.  Lots of little mistakes quickly accumulate on a day when there wasn't room for error.  On a perfect day for racing, I was left sitting on the sidelines which is not a fun place to be.  It's easy to become disappointed and frustrated when you look at just the place number beside my name on the result list but this sport is about keeping your head up, kicking harder up the next hill, and racing faster toward the next finish line.  The time had come to find confidence and motivation from this race and this day even if its ending was far different than I planned.  It's about looking for improvements, challenging obstacles which will eventually make me stronger, and embracing every success whether big or small.  It's a practice of patience, embracing this amazing journey rather than instant wins and gratification.

"The battles that count aren't the ones for the gold medals.  The struggles within yourself-- the invisible battles inside all of us-- that's where it's at." Jesse Owens

Qualification rounds have always been a challenge for me.  I ski faster and more relaxed in the rounds when racing head to head against the other skiers but the first step is to make the rounds.  My goal is to eventually confidently qualify in every World Cup sprint that I enter.  I'm inspired by my teammate Andy Newell who  with the exception of a couple falls, can't remember the last time he hasn't qualified for the heats (we think it is since about 2003 or 2005).  I'm obviously not there yet, but I'm making progress towards that goal.  The last time that I raced on this course in Davos, nine seconds separated the top thirty and I was almost 13 seconds out.  This weekend I was a third of that margin away from the lead.  It was my second best qualification ever if you measure based on FIS points (percent back) or total time back from the winner.  I felt strong and fast.  I skied relaxed with length, rather than with a frantic tempo which is not efficient on courses like this one requiring gliding and smooth skiing.  So these are my successes this weekend and these are the steps which will take me forward to our races next weekend in Asiago, Italy.  Those are the feelings which inspire me to continue to train, race, and put everything on the line each day.

Thanks for the cheers and support!

Cheese

One of the treats of coming to Norway is eating copious amounts of Brunost which is a caramelized brown cheese made from goat milk or a mix of cow and goat milk.  It's a rich and creamy cheese with a sweet caramel taste and it is available in a variety of kinds from very mild and creamy flavors to sharper stronger types which I believe have more goat milk in them.  There is even a Christmas Brunost that is currently available and is spiced with cardamon and cinnamon. Norwegians eat it with breakfast, lunch and dinner and I think it's best with jam on a waffle or piece of bread.

A big block of brown cheese

And while the brown cheese is a nice treat when we are in Scando land, my favorite cheese is still Extra Sharp Cabot Cheddar.  Produced by local VT farmers, its a staple of my diet at home and I wish I could find it when I'm abroad.  Cabot cheddar can be eaten with just about anything and I love it on the Green Mountain Special pizza at Parker Pie, on a slice of apple pie, or with crackers and roasted garlic as the staple appetizer at our house.  Cabot Creamery has supported my skiing pursuits and I feel really lucky to represent this community of local farmers and to know exactly where my cheese comes from.

Thanks Cabot!

Ruka Triple

The European teams on the World Cup are amazed that we spend so much time on the road but each new hotel becomes our new home.  Andy hangs the American flag, Holly built a fire in our last condo, and Liz loves to feng shui each room to find the perfect space and sleep environments.  We settle into our routines, doing laundry when possible, sampling new cuisines (I tried two different kinds of caviar last night but they were both a little too fishy for my taste buds), and overall loving the adventure.  We just arrived in Lillehammer, Norway but here is an update from our last "home" in Ruka, Finland

The World Cup opened last weekend with a three day mini tour of a classic sprint, a 5/10km classic, and a 10/15km skate purusit.

My teammate Noah Hoffman rocked the weekend with a breakthrough performance finishing 9th overall in the tour and posting the fastest time of the day on the final stage!  It was so cool to watch the Hoff hassle his way up through the pack and then ski with the lead pack.  Noah works really hard so I think this is just the first of many awesome World Cup results this winter!

Congrats Noah on the win!

Our women's team also had a great weekend.  Sadie had a couple breakthrough results with the 3rd fastest qualifier in the sprint and a top ten in the 5km classic.  Kikkan had her first classic sprint podium and finished 5th overall for the weekend.  Liz and Jessie both posted top ten times on the day in the final stage and Jessie lost a pole and glove at 4km and skied the next 6km without a glove in some Arctic temperatures!  Ouch! Check out this video of the highlights of our team over the weekend:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XNcdQN8g20

I had a solid start to the weekend but I'm still looking for more.  My best result of the weekend was a 16th in the classic sprint.  After a few poor lane changes and tactical choices early in the quarterfinal which I have replayed endlessly in my mind, I ended up in a double pole sprint finish with the other Ida on the World Cup, Ida Ingemarsdotter from Sweden for second and third place in our heat.  She got me by an inch or so in the final lunge and I just missed moving on to the semifinals.  Both Swedish Ida and Justyna Kowalczyk, the winner of our heat, advanced all the way to the finals so I was bummed to have my day end too soon on a day when I was feeling strong.  More races to come this weekend in Lillehammer!

Here is the beginning of my quarterfinal.

Black light bowling with the team in Ruka

A Ruka sunset, probably around 1:30pm