Galen Johnston modeling the (women's) APU team jacket.

The team got a sweet set of dryland training gear so we'll look super professional for the rest of the summer & fall training. Thanks a bunch to Skinny Raven Sports for helping a ton with the purchase of this quality, not to mention good-looking, gear! I try to avoid running as much as possible but if you're into that kind of thing, Skinny Raven is the place to go in town. They also are continually sponsoring (& by sponsor here I mean employment) several aspiring athletes.

Okay, so going by the theory (which I don't actually believe, by the way, but I'll use if it's useful) that you have x bad races and y good races per season I now officially have only x-1 bad races to go! And the ratio of good races to bad races is tipping in my favor! Yes, so we skied an uphill skate time trail this morning from Old Seward Hwy to the top of Prominence Point and, um, I was the third to slowest girl. Now you KNOW it's a bad race when you know your place counting up from last but not counting down from first...

The top three guys were James Southam 26:42 (Marwe), Mikey Mattsen 26:49 (some-kinda-fast skis), Lars Flora 27:06 (Marwe). Holly didn't have the women's splits done by the time we got back to the parking lot so I only have the top men for you.

I have a guest from the lower 48 so I'm getting into the tourist track for a couple days and watching the polar bears play at the Alaska Zoo...

(but I'm still training, don't worry, especially with a uphill skate time trial Thursday morning!)





Dall Sheep

Amur Tiger

photos by Alan Schmitz

Labels: animals, photos

Laura,

There has been a lot of talk/debate on Fasterskier starting with Caldwell's article over the so called state of US skiing. One question that always comes up is college skiing vs. training full time. You successfully made the jump from college skiing into 'professional' skiing. Now that you've seen both ends what do you think about the merits of college skiing in a skier's development.

-Erik in Minnesota

---

To My Inquiring And Probably Scandinavian Friend, Erik-

The less other activities you have to do the more you can rest. The more you can rest, the better you can train. The better you train, the faster you ski. No doubt about it: You can become a better skier more quickly if you start training full time as soon as possible. Heck, why even stay in High School?

I believe in the pursuit of self-actualization (Maslow, although you could probably find other terms for the same concept) and see the college experience as an excellent step towards living a more enriching life- being able to experience life with a wider perspective and being able to communicate your thoughts effectively to those you around you as well as a step in attaining a fulfilling career.

Philosophy aside, if you're not sure you want to dedicate your life to skiing, skiing for a college team gives you a great opportunity experience a professional team structure while also developing other life skills. A college ski team can provide exceptional support to all of its serious athletes. This is particularly helpful for those skiers who aren't fast enough yet to be on the USST or one of the trade/club teams (which is most of us). Because if you're not skiing for a college you don't have a very good alternative that will provide you (for free if you overlook tuition) coaching, wax, logistics planning, a competitive race circuit and other support depending on the college. Not to mention the benefits from training with your older, faster teammates and from racing some of the fastest skiers in the country, both foreigners and Americans.

College skiing gives you a great opportunity to build your training hours and improve your skiing with really no risk of getting kicked off the team or cut. You also get the camaraderie and support from your teammates who are pursuing skiing and school also. If you decide to skip school and train on your own it's tough to keep the motivation up. Furthermore, if you're training while in school you're forced to prioritize and if you choose to pursue skiing instead of sorority/chess club/rock climbing you KNOW that you want to ski. If you're not forced to choose, are you certain you really want it, or do you just not have anything else to do?

I have experience only one of the many, many possible paths. Training without school is eons easier than training in school, but I for sure wouldn't be as successful (aka: happy) today if I hadn't fought, stumbled & slept through 4 years at Whitman. If anyone else has some more insight, feel welcome to contribute!

lav

I realize this isn't exactly an interesting list. But just in case you happened to be wondering where, precisely, each of the USST athletes reside and train (training group in parenthesis), here it is:

Morgan Arritola: Ketchum, ID (SVSF)
Rosie Brennan: Park City, UT (family home) & Hanover, NH (Dartmouth)
Matt Gelso: Truckee, CA (family home) & Boulder, CO (CU-Boulder)
Taz Mannix: Talkeetna (family home) & Anchorage, AK (APU)
Liz Stephen: Montpelier, VT (family home), Park City, UT (USST)
Alexa Turzian: Sun Valley, ID (family home) & Middlebury, VT (Middlebury)
Morgan Smyth: Vernon, VT (family home) & Marquette, MI (NMU)
Laura Valaas: Wenatchee, WA (family home) & Anchorage, AK (APU)
Lindsay Williams: Marquette, MI (NMU)
Lindsey Weier: Marquette, MI (NMU)
Leif Zimmermann: Bozeman, MT (BSF)
Kris Freeman: Andover, NH
Chris Cook: Rhinelander "the greatest place on earth" WI
Torin Koos: Leavenworth, WA
Andy Newell: Shaftsbury, VT
Kikkan Randall: Anchorage, AK (APU)

An inane list, I do apologize for sharing it with you. I'll try to put some reason behind it by saying that I'm looking forward to getting back together with (most of) these guys at the beginning of October for our next training camp in Lake Placid, NY. Actually I'm probably more excited because a bunch of other skiers from around the country will be there at the same time which means I'll get to reconnect with my CXC teammies!

That running sure is rough on the body... I can't wait until it's winter and I can get my kicks skiing!

The Lost Lake Run was absolutely gorgeous. 16miles of scenery and sunshine. I had considered running with my camera but decided against it since Laura-who-races-with-a-camera-so-she-can-stop-and-take-pictures isn't a moniker that I'd like to adopt. I would prefer something more like Laura-who-runs-race-courses-like-this-before-breakfast-as-a-warm-up. Although since it took me 2:10 to race the course it would probably take me 4hrs to run it as a warm-up and I like my breakfast.

The event raised a tremendous amount of money for cystic fibrosis, $85,000, more than any other year. I was not paying the best attention at the start because I was being introduced to Hannah Moderow and being impressed. I did hear that the competitors were 5:4 women:men which at first I was pleased about, gender-equality in sports and all that, until I remembered that I like being one of the only girls around... who wants to be in the majority?

The trail, once we made it up to the alpine meadow area, reminded me of the trails in Banff, Alberta-- well engineered and meandering through open alpine lakes and meadows. There was a particularly tempting lake about 9miles in that I really very much wanted to jump into. Sadly, someone had already ruined my oblivious frolic by informing me that I was the second woman so I felt obliged to keep running. I knew I didn't have a prayer of catching Cedar Bourgeois (4-time Mt Marathon winner) but I figured the women behind me would be out to pass me and, given the option, I would prefer to stay in second place. Which I did, with the help of some of the boys to pace off.

Labels: race, seward

Lost Lake

(photo stolen from here.)

There's two types of support as I see it- one makes it easier to do the things you'd be doing anyway and the other enables you to do things you wouldn't otherwise get to experience. I'm off to Seward to compete in the Lost Lake Run today! Thanks to Rich Suddock of Anchorage for sponsoring my entry fee! The run is a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation which is a great cause... but without a sponsor I wouldn't even think to sign up. So I am thrilled to have this opportunity to race the Lost Lake trail-- I hear it's gorgeous and it's even supposed to be a sunny day!

So I was out on a rollerski (does anyone else feel like that's my version of "this one time, at band camp..."?) on Wednesday morning. Oh wait, I was on my road bike, well, whatever. And I passed these two fast rollerskiers, whom I knew. I smiled and said "good morning" since, despite the wet pavement it WAS a pretty good morning. And I totally got eye contact but no response. When I passed them on my way home I didn't even get any eye contact. (for the record, this wasn't Southam & co. whom I also passed that morning.) Everyone else I passed greeted me pleasantly so I can't blame Anchorage residents in general.

Now, I'm totally willing to give anyone a pass to not be friendly on the trail; I sympathize with the I-just-don't-want-to-talk-today kind of mood. Maybe my smile wasn't convincing since I very well could have been thinking about how it was going to end up a soggy-chamois kind of ride and the gritty soggy you get when the water is coming from the pavement instead of the clean soggy when it is mostly falling from the sky. Or maybe they didn't recognize me and aren't in the habit of talking to strangers. Maybe rollerskiing isn't chatting time for them. But my first thought was, "it's because I'm riding slowly" and "they don't think I'm good enough to acknowledge" which would probably be some juicy bits for a psycho-analyst to use on me. Avoiding delving more than one layer deep into my psyche it did give me some questions to ponder on my ride.

DID they actually think I was beneath their notice?
Is that what people think I'm thinking if I don't say hi?
Do most people feel superior to people that they're "better" than?
Is it okay to feel superior?
Are we constantly ranking ourselves against the people around us?
Is that one way to pursue happiness-- being able to place yourself higher than others?

Not that I have any answers but it did make me aware that I should be extra conscious of being nice to people because I'm pretty confident and if I could be made to feel snubbed so easy surely other people could be too.

I don't usually do public service-type announcements since I figure most of my readers are better at the day-to-day type stuff than I am (professional athletes being notoriously bad at general life skills). I would, however, like to say that if there are any juniors/U23s out there who are hoping to qualify for the J1 scando trip of Jr Worlds or U23 Worlds you should make sure your passport is valid until next June (some countries won't let you in unless your passport is valid for another 6mo.). And if you don't have a passport, I think it's taking about 3-4 months to get one so you should apply, um, now.

Aside from passports... you know you're in Alaska when you go for a rollerski (this was on Friday) and you see: 1 rollerskier you don't know, 1 rollerskier you do know, 4 moose, 2 frogs. And you're surprised by the frogs.

The lakes where we camped ended up to be a serious hive of beaver activity. Here they've terraced the lake and each level has a beaver home in it. We walked across one of their dams that created about three feet of difference in the level of the water on either side. It was pretty impressive.

Laura Valaas

Once we set up camp and had a snack we went for a run along the nearby riverbed. The braided stream required a lot of jumping and some backtracking with only slightly wet feet (mostly when we misjudged whether a bank was solid or not).

I don't know if Katie's a better jumper than I or if I'm a better photographer. I will say that she made me jump this stream about ten times since she wanted to keep trying to get a better picture.

Katie Ronsse

Katie Ronsse

Walking along the tundra meadows was great... fighting our way through the brush-- not always so great.

Katie Ronsse

One of the very cool things about Denali nat'l park is that it's illegal to remove anything (I'm thinking blueberries are exempt from that rule) so there's antlers and bones and stuff to find. It's like a great big treasure hunt. They are also extremely protective of their animals so the animals haven't learned to expect food from humans or be afraid of humans shooting them. (Katie has a moose antler, although it looks like she's a little confused about where an antler might attach to your body.)

Katie Ronsse

I was always under the assumption that beavers built their lodges in the middle of their pond but all the ones we saw were up against the shore.

beaver skull

Between blueberry pickings we came across a bear print and a wolf print in the trail. On the bus ride back out to the entrance to the park (no private vehicles in the park, only the park buses) we saw a pair of wolves in the road. One of them was a gorgeous black and was the alpha of his pack (our driver knew because the alpha wolves get collared).

Grizzly bear

and then we came upon the grizzly bear. Actually we met the grizzly about ten minutes after getting off the bus and starting our hike. Katie had been really jumpy about running into a bear and kept imagining she was hearing one. Plus our bus stopped a short ways after dropping us off and we figured that they had stopped to look at a grizzly bear. I don't know why we both automatically assumed they were looking at a bear, they could have stopped to look at caribou or moose or dall sheep. So we decided to hike up along a ridge where we could see any bears before they saw us. I was making fun of Katie because she was so jumpy and she was talking really loudly so that we wouldn't surprise any bears. At the top of the ridge we stopped to discuss where we should go next and then I glanced down the ridge side and there was a great big grizzly eating blueberries. It turned out that I was the true scaredy-cat because katie pulled out her camera to take this picture and I was the one saying, "let's get outta here." So that was closer than I really wanted to get to a grizzly, we were downwind and he didn't even notice us, but still, I was happy not to run into any more bears for the rest of the hike.

Labels: denali, photos

Laura:



Now that you are up in the cold, cold north, you probably don't sweat that much (hah!!), but I thought I would ask you this anyway (after a 10k at lunch today in the hot sun). Do you ever have a problem, with sweat rolling down and into your eyes?? It burns like heck!!! Know of any good ideas to combat this problem?



Cheers,
-Scott.

----

Scott,

I must say, the simple solutions are the best: run faster. If there is no head wind, you've got to create one! The sweat evaporates faster, cools you better and no stinging eyes. Of course going faster isn't always an option, especially in the longer races and training sessions. Furthermore, if you're in a humid climate the evaporation process slows dramatically. In the absence of acceleration you can either get a sweatband or glory in the agony.

If you get a sweatband the most important thing to remember is that any kind of head covering and especially sweatbands MUST be worn for fashion NOT function. If you wear a sweat-mopping-up-device (and you can go with a stretchy cloth one or a bandanna or even a baseball cap works) you must wear it as an accessory to the "look" you want to create-- the stinging-eye-prevention-mechanism should only be an additional bonus to its raging stylishness. Otherwise sweatbands are gross.

If you decide to glory in the agony, make the most of it. Use the experience to compose epic race stories. Preferably without using punctuation, i.e. "the sweat was just dripping into my eyes and my vision started to go blurry which wasn't really a problem because I knew the trail so well but then a moose sauntered out of the brush and because of the sweat I didn't see it until I just about hit it so I had to bust out my diving somersault between it's legs and then..."

LAV

Labels: Ask LAV

After almost the whole summer in Alaska I finally made it up to see Denali and visit the Denali Nat'l Park. Katie Ronsse and I wandered into the backcountry this weekend,

found a beautiful little lake shore to pitch our tent,

and frolicked with the wild animals (caribou in this photo)!

Labels: denali, photos

Labels: gossip, photos

I had forgotten that I meant to try and take some photos of the actual facilities on this glacier trip! I still haven't taken any photos inside the building. I'm not very inspired to take photos inside. But we did fly directly to the facility this time (instead of getting dropped off at the bottom of the glacier due to fog) so I got some pics from the helicopter.
The Thomas Training Center is miraculously perched on the top of a cliff. It sits on bare rock, cliff to one side, glacier to the other.
It's a cute little compound with a pool where we pump (and filter) water from. Last week it warmed up enough that the ice plug in the pool melted out and the water all drained by the end of the week. It better snow/rain before we go up again in September!
There's the main building but there's also a scattering of convexes (I would call them box cars, but everyone else calls them convexes so we'll go with that). The one to the left and in front of the house is the tool shed, then there's two cuddled up together to the right of the house and in the foreground. The left one of those is where we wax our skis and the right one is where we store the garbage until we fly it home. Up on the hill behind the house is the generator convex and the water tank. The upstairs of the house is all bedrooms with a common room at the top of the stairs where the weights are. The smaller part of the building on the left is the (composting!)bathrooms/showers/sauna. The lower left front corner is the kitchen. The lower left back corner is the coaches' room. The lower right back corner is a corner with couches & tv. The lower right front corner is the dining room.

Labels: eagle glacier, photos

Dear Lav,

So I have this theory about skiing.

It seems to me that skiing is a lot like drumming in that you have to coordinate several different body parts to make it work. And those coordinated parts need to work together dependently and independently. Like, for example, poling and skiing (separate but coordinated) that must adapt independently to changing terrain or snow condition and subsequent changes in technique, i.e. speed, timing etc. As evidenced by isolating skills during practice. Each movement needs it's own identity and role in order to create a satisfying whole. Just like drumming.

The second part of my theory is that drummers make excellent mathematicians. And vice versa. After all isn't math, at it's core, patterns and rhythms that as a discipline is especially sensitive to discord?

Drumming and skiing are differential equations - for your body! As a mathematician yourself, LAV, perhaps you've notice the connection?

I guess my point is, I almost certain that when the Beatles went out for dinner, they handed the check over to Ringo to figure out the tip.

What do you think?

Big Fan,

Mathlete from Middlebury

---

Dear Mathlete,

I must say, the first part of your theory with regards to skiing completely befuddled me so I'll leave that to internal musings.

Let's move on to the relationship between drummers and mathematicians. Nevermind, that's beyond me too.

I will say, however, that I've been musing over your question since you sent it to me (awhile ago, for my other readers' information). I almost skied off the edge of Eagle Glacier last week because I was so distracted pondering famous drum solos, unwinding the Black-Scholes differential equation, and trying to figure out how to ski. After a solid period of rumination I'm ready to present the most significant corollary to your theorem.

Corollary:
since (good mathematician)<=>(good drummer)
and (good drummer)<=>(good skier)
therefore, (good mathematician)<=>(good skier).
furthermore, since (LAV)=>(good mathematician)
then (LAV)=>(good skier)!
there's hope!

Thanks for the uplifting syllogism!

LAV

---

p.s. LAV is accepting any questions that you may have on skiing or life! (email her: laura@lauravalaas.com)

Labels: Ask LAV

I think the glacier's beautiful. By this time in the summer the snow pack is melting off so you can see more of its true nature.

Does this photo make you happy? It makes me happy.

The edge of the glacier where we start our hike down has melted down to ice. Ice and water and mud speckles.



Chlamydomonas for Stefanides.

Labels: eagle glacier, photos

Erik Flora, Dylan Watts, Casey Fagerquist the three men that held the camp together this week and made it possible for us to ski every day. (Frode was up until Wednesday when he had to go back to Anchorage to coach the other programs.) These guys are amazing. I think they went through 48 cans of coke and 36 snickers bars this week. & if you charted that consumption I think you would see some spikes at around 2am. Absolutely disgusting.

Then, & I don't know how, they all fell over.

With typical aplomb, they didn't seem disturbed that they'd fallen into a pile onto sopping wet glacier snow.

Labels: coaches, photos

At camp we all do almost everything at almost the same time. Not ever quite the same time it's more that we're flowing down the same stream bed in a revolving cluster. Here however is a rare moment we've hit a dam and everyone's stalled out on the dry side of the start of the ski trail. Waiting. Waiting for Erik to fix the Piston Bully and go groom (he fixed the PB, then groomed, then coached the classic speeds). Yet another day of another week when I am very, very glad that Erik has a mechanical ingenuity.

A pause on the hike down. Even after a solid week together, everyone gets along happily. I must admit I was a little surprised. It's a good sign for the upcoming season

Becca Rorabaugh

Becca Rorabaugh, no longer so serene as she preps to dunk in the pool

Kate Arduser (Pearson) leads Taz Mannix.

I must say that I've enjoyed the people on the APU team immensely thus far. It's fun to have the variety of people from the college freshmen to the veterans to give the group a broader perspective.

Labels: eagle glacier, photos

John Caldwell wrote an article for FasterSkier.com recently that's interesting to read. I started to write a blog commenting on the comments at the bottom of the article but then I remembered that you can make a Simpson's Avatar of yourself on the Simpson's Movie website so I did that instead and put my avatar up as my facebook picture.

Usually I think I have my priorities straightened out and my time-management skills finely honed, but sometimes I clearly do not.

I was bemused by J.Caldwell's article. Aside from being scoffed at: "The US sent 12 skiers to compete at Sapporo and here are the finish places along with the number of finishers in the order of the events: Ladies' individual sprint-- 22,24/71; Men's individual sprint-- 5,21,31,47/78. Ladies' team sprint--11/18, did not qualify for the finals." Hey! that number 24 right there is me, and I'm that 11 too! I'm not just a number... I'm a person!

I am relieved, however, to know that he has two more parts to his series. They're going to have to be really long though since it takes 10 put-ups to counteract each put-down (wisdom from third grade).

I will say that I think that Colin R. has the best comment so far, he makes one point and makes it succinctly.

Labels: faster skier

I was pretty impressed how well this rag-tag bunch managed to form themselves into an orderly group once they noticed I was taking photos.

Labels: eagle glacier, photos

I made it back from the glacier tonight! It was a great week of sunshine. More pics tomorrow.

Katie & Keith flying up to the glacier. Actually Keith's flying, which is good because I don't think Katie knows how and it's Keith's helicopter.

The view from the glacier looking down onto Turnagain Arm.

Park City horizon.

Park City Closed.

Park City grouse.

I probably spent a good ten minutes of one of my distance runs in Park City last week chasing after this grouse. I'm not sure what I thought I was going to do with it if I caught it but for some reason I thought it was a worthwhile pursuit.

Park City Aspen

Laura Valaas, salmon

On Saturday I went out with Katie Ronsse & her dad, Dennis, and Heather Zimmerman to Homer to experience my first Alaskan salmon fishing! Way more exciting than the rollerski race we did earlier that morning!

puffin

Katie Ronsse (APU/DU), Laura Valaas (APU), Heather Zimmerman (UNH)... we don't just ski!

kittiwake

Katie drove us out to the fishing spot and Heather drove us back. I enjoyed bouncing across the ocean on the bow where the bounces were the bounciest.

Katie Ronsse dip-netting

Katie kissing one of the fish that we put back. Once they start to turn red they get less tasty so we only keep the silver ones.

The salmon story (in case you're not from salmon country):

These salmon were hatched in a hatchery in a lake upstream where they became alevins, then fry, then fingerlings, all of which make tasty snacks for birds and bigger fish. Once they were fingerlings they started their journey downstream to the ocean. By the time they're smolt they're ready to head out to sea. Once in the ocean they spend 1-4 years cruising around trying to avoid predators such as Orca whales. Adult salmon make for tasty eating so lots of predators in the ocean will eat them if they can. If they survive their years in the ocean, they return to Homer where the big comercial fishing boats wait just outside of the mouth of the stream and scoop them out of the water. The salmon that make it past the big boats head upstream back into freshwater where they stop eating and get ready to spawn. On their way upstream they get snatched from the water by black bears and individual fisherpeople. The very few salmon that don't get eaten by this point swim upstream until they hit the waterfall where we were fishing. There they stop since it's too much for them to climb. Then they die. I wonder if someone told these fish when they were born that they'd never be able to complete their life mission and return to their birthplace if they'd give up in despair or if they'd still fight their way back to the base of this waterfall and enjoy the struggle for its own sake.



black bear

The black bear was hanging out around the stream while we were there but he never came too close. Which is good because until we got back in the boat, we didn't really have an exit if the bear had decided he wanted to fish where we were.

Of course if you're going to catch fish, you've got to clean them. So Dennis beheaded them once we got back to the boat and then we gutted them. Katie had the brilliant idea to eat some salmon eggs. So then Heather tried them, so then of course I ate some. Interesting.

Dennis Ronsse, fishing guide

Dear LAV,

I'm planning a visit to Whitman College in a week or two and I wanted to know if you had any recommendations. I love to ski, I'm not especially good but I do alright. I also am very interested in physics. Are there any special things I might want to see/do at the college that might help me get a feel for physics at Whitman or skiing
near Whitman? I really enjoy reading your blog, sometimes it is just what I need to remind myself to keep training.

Thank you for any help you can give me!

Kira from Minnesota

---

Kira from the M-to-tha-N,

I'm so glad to hear that you're interested in my alma mater! Whitman was a great place for me to go to college. I found the institution and the faculty to be incredibly accommodating and supportive of my (and my classmates') extracurricular pursuits.

Be sure to give the Nordic coach, Calisa Schouweiler a call and set up a meeting with her: (509)522-4438. She's from the midwest (Tomohawk, WI; St. Cloud, MN; Madison, WI) so she should be able to understand your skiing background pretty readily. You can find a nice article about Calisa on the Whitman Athletics website HERE. Even if you're not super fast right now, Whitman is a good place to go to get better. The ski team is super supportive and works a lot on development. If you want to check out where you would be skiing you can head up to Spout Springs Ski Area in the Blue Mountains to the SE of Walla Walla. I hear there's some good hikes up there but you'll have to ask someone at Whitman where the trailheads might be-- I've only been up there on my skis or on my road bike.

As for the academics, Whitman will certainly give you a rock solid education. If you're interested in research there's plenty of opportunity for collaborating on projects with professors. If you're super hard core about physics you'd probably want to go to a bigger university (like UC Berkely) where there is seriously intense physics going on. But there you wouldn't have the same kind of personal relationship with your professors (and might not even get to work on research). On the other hand, if you're into practical physics and know you want to be an engineer, you should probably go to a more practical university. In general I think that Whitman is a good place to go to college if you're not exactly sure what you want to be but want to be able to do anything you want after you graduate.

Enjoy your visit, there's a lot to think about when you're deciding where you want to spend the next four years but I think it mostly comes down to your gut reaction about a school. Go into the Science building, find a nice seat (I recommend the third floor couch at the corner facing out to Ankeny Field & the Library!), and ask yourself if you can see yourself being here everyday and being happy about it. Any college will suck if you're not happy and any college will rock if you're happy.

LAV

The start of the men's Potter Hill Climb Rollerski Race on Saturday. You can see Lars Flora (Subaru Factory Team) is taking off in the lead followed by James Southam (APU) to the left in the photo. Lars won, Southam was second, Max Treinen (WinterStars) was third. The men did a 3k out&back on Old Seward Hwy before the 3.1k climb up Potter Valley Rd.

The women did a 1.5k out&back on Old Seward before doing the same climb. The top women were: Tazlina Mannix (APU), Paige Brady (WinterStars/UN-Reno), Laura Valaas. I know, I know, I got beat in a sprint. If it makes it at all excusable, I didn't actually know it was a sprint since I hadn't skied up this road before and didn't know where the finish was. But NOW I know, so next time I won't be caught by surprise.

This race was part of a summer rollerski series organized by Ron Randall and was hosted by APU. When I say hosted by APU I really mean that Holly Brooks mostly put on the race since Erik's been busy getting ready for the Glacier camp.

The complete results are below. Which probably don't interest you but I mostly included them in order to point out that there were 29 women racing and only 23 men.

Senior men -- 9k
1) Lars Flora 29:29
2) James Southam 30:05
3) Max Treinen 30:33
4) Lex Treinen 30:37
5) Bart Dengel 30:51
6) Tyler Kornfield 31:14
7) Michael Matteson 31:32
8) Steven Buklis 31:38
9) Florian Notz 31:49
10) Eric Packer 32:56
11) Peter Kling 33:02
12) Nick Treinen 33:55
13) Don Haering 34:19
14) Darrin Markvardsen 34:38
15) Lukas Stutzer 37:10
16) Erin Phillips 37:30
17) Rich Suddock 38:09
18) Patrick Stinson 39:10
19) Fred Stutzer 42:47.

Senior women -- 6k
1) Taz Mannix 25:01
2) Paige Brady 25:06
3) Laura Valaas 25:07
4) Kristina Strandberg 25:22
5) Katie Ronsse 25:55
6) Caitlin Patterson 26:04
7) Ky Eiben 26:21
8) Becca Rorabaugh 28:11
9) Fiona Worcester 28:27
10) Amy Glen 28:51
11) Kate Fitzgerald 28:55
12) Heather Zimmerman 29:16
13) Ester Kennedy 29:37
14) Kalysta Schmidt 29:45
15) Kelsey Coolidge 29:45
17) Karina Packer 30:03
18) Becca Mamrol 30:46
19) Brenna Egeland 31:09
16) Madigan Stanley 47:00
20) Greta Anderson 31:09
21) Alison Ross 32:02
22) Lauren Hess 32:18
23) Hanna Johnson 33:09
24) Emily Rogers 33:17
25) Jane Sauer 33:52
26) Jasmine Neeno 34:17
27) Heidi Rogers 34:52
28) Cathe Grosshandler 37:34
29) Kathryn Pope 39:38.

Junior Boys -- 6k
1) Scott Patterson 24:43
2) Eric Ryan 25:40
3) Noah Hagen 28:29
4) Kyle Barnhart 31:43.

I've finally, officially sold my soul. At least that's what it feels like. I've come under USADA's jurisdiction (US Anti-Doping Agency). I've submitted my form and now I'm on their hit list. Which means that they have to know where I am at all times. ALL TIMES. I don't even know where I am all the time. But now I have to start being a little more responsible. This I do not particularly like. I don't even like carrying around my cell phone, much less using it. But now I'll have to start at least keeping it charged. Say there's a 3hr OD on my training schedule... I have to tell USADA that I'll be out of contact for the next three hours via text message or email.

I completely support USADA and their fight to keep American athletes clean, but I still think it's a bother and a half.

So since I'm going to be on the glacier this week I filled that in on the "temporary residences" section of the form:

Dates: 8/5/07 Thru 8/12/07
Address: Upstairs SW Room
Thomas Training Center
Eagle Glacier
Girdwood, AK
Can we test you here: Y

I wish they would try and come test me on the glacier. Ha! I would be maliciously smug sitting up on the glacier on the phone with them saying, "oh sure, I'm right where I said I'd be, feel free to come over!"

Exciting events coming up this weekend...

Classic Rollerski Race Saturday morning, then I'm going FISHING, then we fly up to Eagle Glacier on Sunday.

Which means that I'm leaving my computer tomorrow morning and won't be back to it until next Sunday. So it'll be a slow week on the website. I may be able to bribe my little sister to publish some pictures while I'm gone, we'll see.

I probably should be excited about the rollerski race tomorrow because, well, it's skiing, and it's a race, and that's what I do, but it's been completely overshadowed by the prospect of going fishing. I feel like to be a good Alaskan resident I need to kill fish and game and eat them. So I'm going after the fish tomorrow and hopefully I can convince someone to take me hunting in the fall. The Ronsse family is taking me down to their fishing spot near Homer the location of which I won't divulge since I get the impression that to be a good fisherperson you should keep your fishing spots secret. So I am psyched about that trip-- a new skill to learn and different type of trip to experience than what I'm used to.

And on Sunday I get to ride in a helicopter again!

It's a good weekend coming up.

I was momentarily befuddled this morning when I walked into work (through the back door) and there was a sign on the door: "Stairs under repair. Do not enter." How was I going to get down to the basement to use the shower? (I'd come straight from practice.) It took me longer than it should have to turn 180° and use the elevator on the opposite side of the hall. I don't know what that says about me that it took me that long to remember the elevator.