Done with West Yellowstone?

Well, we are supposed to leave here tomorrow morning at 10AM. Skis are packed, clothes are not (but they will be soon), and we’re ready to head to Bozeman. Except— there isn’t snow in Bozeman. This puts a small hitch in our plans. There might still be races in Bozeman next weekend, but we still need to train until then, and we don’t have rollerskis. When the skiing in West is like the photo above, it’s kind of hard to leave it! My hope is that we will stay here and train for a week, but that’s just my opinion. Spending time in Bozeman would be fun too, but it’s been really relaxed and comfortable in this house with a few teammates. I would be happy staying here with some fun people, good internet, and sweet skiing.

Basically, since my last post, we have done one classic race on Saturday, and an OD this morning. The classic race went quite well, with hemoglobin levels noticeably higher than the day before. I could really tell that things were going better as I skied out to the stadium area to warm up, and that confidence helped me get into a good zone for the race. I don’t have a whole lot to say on this blog that I didn’t already babble to a FasterSkier.com reporter in my post-race bliss, but basically I was able to be pretty aggressive throughout the race. I went out smooth, pushed over the top of the first big hill, and tried to really take advantage of all the transitions. Parts of the course were faster outside of the tracks, so I tired to be cognizant of that as well. In the end, I was 5th. I am happy with that because my goal was to get a top 5 finish, but the fact that I was only 5 seconds from 2nd place lights a little fire under my butt. If I had gone three seconds faster, I would have been on the podium! Next time, I hope that gives me a little more fuel to push at the end.

Here is FasterSkier.com photo from that race:

The FasterSkier.com article about the women’s race (including my bliss-babble) can be found here.

This morning we skied for three hours, which was pretty fun. It was sunny and fast outside, but not so warm that the snow started to get sticky. I love that kind of skiing, when the snow is cold and dry but still fast. We skied every trail in West, and I don’t think I am sick of them yet! Windy ridge is a great long loop to do on an OD, I was loving every minute of it. Tomorrow I might ski it again, but I might also end up moving out! Either way, I am sure it will be a good time.

Now I have to go to bed. Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite!