Hello?

HEY!!! I’m back!!! I took a long break from skiing and anything ski related, including blogging this spring, but now, considering I am back on snow in Bend, Oregon for our first training camp of the year, I believe it is time to get back on the ski wagon and begin blogging again.  I took a nice 5 week break in Vermont from Spring Nationals at Craftsbury at the end of March and really didn’t leave my home for more than a night or two the whole time I was there.  I didn’t pack more than a backpack to do anything, and it was completely unexciting and felt so unbelievably good that I think I will do it every spring! I spent the time gardening, landscaping, hanging with my parents, running and playing with my dog, and visiting with friends and supporters.  I was in heaven.  However, it is not the time in my life where I get to garden and own a farm with tons of animals and an old house to fix up yet, so I headed out to Park City, Utah where I have spent the last 6 summer and fall seasons, training and getting ready for the upcoming year.  I did some testing a couple of weeks ago (a real HELLO and wake up call to the body after a spring of recovering) and headed out to Bend after that.  The first training camp of the season always starts here with us skiing in the morning on great snow at the base of Mt. Bachelor and doing some form of dry-land training in the afternoon.  This past Saturday we participated in the Pole Pedal Paddle, a six stage event that includes an alpine ski, nordic ski, road bike, run, paddle and sprint leg.  It is a major gear oriented event, but well worth it.  We fielded two women’s teams, one male team and Kris Freeman did the whole event himself.  It was a great team event and I hope we do it again next year, as everyone had a really good time.  A huge thanks goes out to Andy Fecteau and Rebound Physical Therapy for paying for our entry fees and gathering all of the gear up for us.

We also participated in Bend’s first ever Fast and Female event on Sunday afternoon.  We had a great group of girls and did some really fun dry-land drills and activities as well as some motivational talks and goal setting.  The Bend community is a really great one, so it was fun to meet some of their local stars and have gotten to ski with some of the girls up on the trails since then.