We made it up to Ketchum, ID where I was thrilled to go to KB's for dinner and then to our condo to find that Caitlin & I had a walk in closet in our room AND wireless internet. Life is good.

I think that it's about time I gave some credit to my coach, Bryan Fish. I don't know how he manages to stay on top of everything as well as he does. When people ask me if I like my coaches, I have to correct them with, "coach, singular, there's only one Bryan Fish." But he certainly works enough for a couple more people. Especially since this is an all day, every day job. First of all, he writes out training plans for each of us, scheduling every single workout of every single day. Then he usually is at practice with us, taking video, testing lactates, working on our technique. He buys us groceries and takes his turns making dinner. And that's just on our chill training days.

Once it's race day, his workload goes way up. Because on race days, our wax has to be perfect, and Fish tests EVERY possible wax combination obsessively the day before and the morning of the race. He also stays up late putting top coats on our skis and gets up early to get the gear ready for race day. He registers us for the races and has to go to the coaches' meetings and know everything about race day because we ask him questions about everything. So far he has made my skis exactly how I want them, which is crucial for classic, and does so in a timely fashion. Especially when I delayed testing my skis for our sprint relay, finally got on them, decided they were slow, made him race-wax my second pair of skis, and rewax my first pair, found each pair too slick or too sticky several more times before we got it nailed in time for the start. Now that is what I like in a coach.

And then there's the business side of things. Fish has to gather all of our requests and then talk to all of our sponsors to track down missing gear. He also takes care of our logistics like booking rooms and traveling (making sure Tiny runs has been a big component of the travel tasks lately). I'm sure there's a bunch of other business-y type stuff he takes care of that I don't even hear about too. After all this, Fish has to get in the van and drive us to our next race venue. Basically what I'm trying to say here is that it absolutely rocks have Bryan Fish as a full-time, competent, dedicated coach!