I was sad to only be at Canadian Nationals for such a short stint. It's not as fun to go to races when you show up the night before and leave right after the race. I was really looking forward to getting to hang out a little more with some N.Americans. I wanted to go ski with the Fast and Female group Saturday morning when they were hosting a women's ski and hot chocolate drinking session. Now, however, I am in Presque Isle, Maine and looking forward to a more chill week and getting to reconnect with the American ski scene.

Actually, we're staying in a cabin/house (up here they call it a "camp") in Caribou that the Maine Winter Sports Club hooked us up with. Like everywhere I've been staying lately, it has it's pluses and minuses.

Pluses:
-it's a huge house (esp. compared to the little euro hotel rooms I've been staying in)
-we each get a bed
-it's on a gorgeous lake
-there's a huge kitchen
-laundry machines

Minuses:
-40min away from the race venue
-poor cell phone service
-no internet

And it's nice to be back with the CXC Team. Matt Liebsch flew home yesterday and Compton flies in tomorrow but everyone else is here: Garrott Kuzzy, Brian Gregg, Bryan Cook, Andre Watt, and Bryan Fish. Gregg and Kuzzy spent the morning trying to hoola-hoop, do handstands and handstand push-ups, jump rope with the hoola-hoop, pull-ups on the edge of the loft, and otherwise be ridiculous.

Okay, now Gregg and Kuzzy are practicing for their upcoming Challenge-- 3000 sit-ups, 2000 push-ups, 1000 pull-ups. So they're doing 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, & 15 sit-ups every ten minutes for the next hour... the pace they'd need to maintain to finish the Challenge in 3 days.