It sounds like there's been great snow all over the US this spring so I can't brag so much about the great skiing at Callaghan last week. Although I'm guessing not everyone is as excited about all the late snow as I. Ha, that sentence would be a good example sentence to teach the I/me difference. In fact, I'm almost tempted to change it to me purely to amuse the small portion of readers who would find the apparently unintentional hubris entertaining. I'm not sure how many people would either notice or bother to read the sentence literally if I used me though, so I'll refrain. Now, what was I originally planning on writing?

Oh yes, I remember.

The snow pack at Callaghan shrunk noticeably every day we were there especially on days that were either warm and sunny or warm and rainy. Furthermore, every day was warm and every day was either rainy or sunny. As the snow melted it was like peeling away the layers of a time capsule. Every so often I'd come upon some relic from previously in the season-- one of those little blue nylon twigs used to mark the lanes, someone's pole basket, a paper race number... things that may have been lost or forgotten months ago. I think Whitcomb found a camera which we collectively determined belonged to Kevin Cutts. It's kind of uplifting to know that things you lose can be found again.

It was a big day for the stadium this morning. We did a mock team sprint, basically 2x3 laps of the sprint course except that we tried to emulate a team sprint so we had about equal rest between intervals and 30minutes between sets. (We all started each interval together instead of tagging off.) It was a good workout, Manu did all of them with us and Mali Noyes jumped in for two near the end also. The boys had a little bigger field which included some of the Sun Valley boys for one set. (Sun Valley is driving home today so they didn't want to do the full workout.)

Garrott Kuzzy



It feels like we have a lot of spectators when we're training around here with all the coaches from our teams and others milling around taking lactate and video and timing. This was the first time I've done lactate this year and if you're into the number here they are:

pre first set: 1.1mmol
post first set: 9.3mmol
pre second set: 1.4mmol
post second set: 9.0mmol
15min post second set: 2.0mmol

I'm no physiologist but I would say that I was recovering well but hopefully with some more speed training my post-interval lactates should increase.

Labels: 2010 Venue, photos

Yesterday afternoon I went for a 1hr run. Except that I found a sweet mountain bike trail and didn't make it back to the hotel until 2.5hrs later. I wouldn't so much call it getting lost. Maybe "willful ignorance" is a more apt term. It wasn't all lost time though. I found:

-One headless snowman
-A loonie, a quarter and a dime. Which I stopped to pick up.
-A golf course up on the mountainside where no golf course should be. I stopped to pee on the green in a sign of protest against turning wilderness areas into golf courses. Also because I had to pee.
-A lumbering black bear.
-A ropes course.
-Six dudes sitting on a log across the stream smoking something that didn't smell like any cloud of tobacco smoke I've ever been unfortunate to walk through.
-A really, really excellent woodpecker tree.
-Several wooden bridges on the mountain bike trail. Looked like fun if you were a good mountain biker.
-No other people once I got 20minutes away from the village.
-Lots of semi-crusted snow.

At least I made it back just after people had started eating dinner-- the boys made penne pasta with sauce and a very nice salad.

Feeling chagrined that I hadn't taken any photos yet on this trip to Whistler, I pulled my camera out of my drink belt when I stopped by the stadium for a drink. Mo happened to be skiing through the stadium at the time so I took a picture of her.
Morgan Arritola
Noticing that she was skiing without her poles and pausing between strides with her arm & leg extended I figured I could get that one good classic shot so I zoomed in and took another.
Morgan Arritola
Then she fell over, which made me laugh.
Morgan Arritola

Whistler has been everything that a ski town should be. We've been skiing in the sunshine every morning starting at 8 so we can get a ski in before the trail softens up too much and then an afternoon workout of running, rollerskiing, or strength. We're doing a "technique block" so we've been taking video every day and either watching it the same day or the next morning before going out skiing again. It's good to take this time to really focus on technique for the coming season while the fitness base is still building. Not to say we're not doing intervals already! Taz and I had some 1min intervals yesterday around the stadium area. I say Taz & I since we were the only ones with the workout planned but I think we only did one interval by ourselves before we had a shifting group join us of Vordenberg, Andy Fecteau, Pat Casey, and Manuela Henkel. Andy's our Physical Therapist and Manuela is on the German National Team and is over here training. So the intervals were quite the party. On our last interval Manuela turns to Taz and I and says, "okay now we're to the A-Final in the Olympics," now that is keeping your goals in mind during training. Easier, of course when you're actually training on the Olympic courses. It was a good reminder for me to remember that what I do every day, even some random day like May 7th 2008, contributes to competitions way in the future.

This has absolutely nothing to do with skiing or Whistler or anything you might expect to be on here but it is a very cool graph to peruse... it breaks down what the average American consumer spends and also shows how that has changed from last March. You can zoom in or mouse over to see what each bite of the pie represents.

View it HERE.

It's not a bad life when you go directly from the Wenatchee Apple Blossom Festival to skiing at Whistler. And by Whistler I mean staying in Whistler and skiing at Callaghan Valley. It was great to be home for Apple Blossom and get to partake in the festival. Everyone was so nice and excited about the festival and Tyler & my accomplishments. But now it's good to be back on the road with the US Ski Team!