Holly Brooks

I just got word that there were two fatal avalanches in Alaska yesterday. nbsp;One up Hiland road and one on the Kenai Peninsula. Not all of the names have been released but we do know that Jim Bowles, President of Conoco Phillips Alaska was one of the victims. nbsp;My heart goes out to everyone involved in this tradjety, the families, the Conoco employees, and all of the friends that are left behind to deal with this accident.br /br /Under Jim's leadership Conoco has been a wonderful contributor to cross country skiing in Alaska. nbsp;For the past two years they have been the title sponsor for US Nationals at Kincaid Park, they have been a long time sponosor of the APU program, and they have recently jumped on board to help my Olympic pursuit. br /br /Avalanches scare me to death - as many of you know, my husband Rob was buried for ten minutes in a small slide last year in British Columbia. Luckily I wasn't there to witness it but it was still a very difficult experience for me.br /br /Mynbsp;span style="font-family: Times;"condolences/spannbsp;to everyone affected by these slides. nbsp;My heart goes out to you.br /br /Sincerely,br /Hollydiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-3429599547989146503?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

Hey Everyone,br /br /Here is the "mondo-post" that I've been wanting to write for a while. I have my new camera...... and finally have a couple of extra minutes. I've delayed training this am because theoretically I wanted to sleep in. (I say "theoretically" because I was woken up this morning by random drug testing) We returned from opening ceremonies last night at 1am. Getting down and back to and from Vancouver took forever. That said, I don't regret my decision to go to the opening ceremonies at all. (Some folks opted to stay behind and watch on tv) This being my first Olympics, I was really looking forward to marching!br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bsCVyz6fI/AAAAAAAAArU/-IMWw3owe5o/s1600-h/DSCF0080_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bsCVyz6fI/AAAAAAAAArU/-IMWw3owe5o/s320/DSCF0080_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Although there were tons of long waits the energy was incredible... on probably 50 different occasions our whole group burst out in "USA, USA, USA" chants. nbsp;I won't say that I'm usually the most patriotic person on the block but I think I can speak for everyone that this was a time when we were all reallynbsp;proud to be Americans!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"nbsp;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bsvJgnzdI/AAAAAAAAArc/NnPtQUglrH4/s1600-h/DSCF0064_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bsvJgnzdI/AAAAAAAAArc/NnPtQUglrH4/s320/DSCF0064_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Here is our flag-bearer.... he is a 5-time Olympian and two-time medalist. nbsp;Speaking of lugers (sp?) the hardest part of last night's ceremony was the announcement that the Georgian Luger, Nodar, had actually passed away from his accident. I feel horrible for his family, his teammates, and of course him. All 40,000 or 60,000 (?) of us last night had one minute of silence to honor him and his Olympic dream.nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"But, onto happier things.... Here is the view just before entering the stadium:nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bvgCWlxtI/AAAAAAAAArk/-QZD8BiWDSA/s1600-h/DSCF0070_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bvgCWlxtI/AAAAAAAAArk/-QZD8BiWDSA/s320/DSCF0070_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Everyone always talks about "the moment" that you first enter the stadium... it was pretty incredible. nbsp;I think that I had about 10 seperate episodes of full-body goose bumps! nbsp;I think it's finally sinking in that I am at the Olympic games!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Here is a picture of Compton with Shawn White and Bode Miller. I wanted to get a picture too but I could tell that Bode, especially, wasn't too psyched about fan-fare amongst his own teammates and decided against it. Good for Caitlin though to just dive right in!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bwMfIhAmI/AAAAAAAAArs/3pKWUkx5gDY/s1600-h/DSCF0089_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bwMfIhAmI/AAAAAAAAArs/3pKWUkx5gDY/s320/DSCF0089_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Caitlin and I were in line right next to the figure skaters so it was interested to talk with them. One of the ice dancers had a HUGE scar on her hand from a fall where her partner's skate cut her hand to the bone:nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bwxy-3KrI/AAAAAAAAAr8/J-EVWvMSfJc/s1600-h/DSCF0062.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bwxy-3KrI/AAAAAAAAAr8/J-EVWvMSfJc/s320/DSCF0062.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"It might be hard to see in this picture but it was an awesome scar. I also thought it was interesting that she was only 19 yet had been skating with her ice-dancing partner for 10 YEARS! nbsp;That means they've been working together since they were 9 years old! nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Here are a couple more pictures of us staging in Whistler before getting on the buses:nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bxOd9vTAI/AAAAAAAAAsE/5e-RLEICKgE/s1600-h/DSCF0033_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bxOd9vTAI/AAAAAAAAAsE/5e-RLEICKgE/s320/DSCF0033_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Most of the cross country squad...nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bxVWm3EgI/AAAAAAAAAsM/gyMNs07G5HQ/s1600-h/DSCF0038_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bxVWm3EgI/AAAAAAAAAsM/gyMNs07G5HQ/s320/DSCF0038_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"And my Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center teammates, Kikkan, James, and myself rocking the Ralph Lauren...nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Back to the skiing! Training yesterday was awesome. Erik and I tested skis after getting a sweet pic in the waxing cabin:/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bxjzhtCRI/AAAAAAAAAsU/GZY4OMvH1SY/s1600-h/DSCF0004_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bxjzhtCRI/AAAAAAAAAsU/GZY4OMvH1SY/s320/DSCF0004_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"It's HARDLY freezing at night. nbsp;The first 2k of my ski was semi-frozen water-logged snow. By the second lap, everything was breaking up and the fast downhill corners literally had 6-10 inches of HEAVY SLOP. nbsp;Try that at high speeds with tiny skis. I think it would even be a challenge for the super G skiers! We're wondering if they will ever salt parts of the course in an effort to get it more firm?nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bwgoMJSyI/AAAAAAAAAr0/-YugdhPQSP0/s1600-h/DSCF0007_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bwgoMJSyI/AAAAAAAAAr0/-YugdhPQSP0/s320/DSCF0007_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"I have NO IDEA why Sarah Palin is on the door of our waxing cabin....? I've already had a couple of questions from other countries when they find out I'm from Alaska.nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bybddkIlI/AAAAAAAAAsc/-QE6a88Vz6s/s1600-h/DSCF0024_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bybddkIlI/AAAAAAAAAsc/-QE6a88Vz6s/s320/DSCF0024_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Here is the stadium/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bykOA905I/AAAAAAAAAsk/kAg2ZciXVG0/s1600-h/DSCF0023_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bykOA905I/AAAAAAAAAsk/kAg2ZciXVG0/s320/DSCF0023_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"This is a train-track for a camera that can film the finishing stretch. They also have cameras that travel via telephone wires suspended in mid-air plus tons of cameras operated by people on the course. Should make for great coverage!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3by63y_f_I/AAAAAAAAAss/JRiTyF6r6W4/s1600-h/DSCF0016_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3by63y_f_I/AAAAAAAAAss/JRiTyF6r6W4/s320/DSCF0016_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Here I am in the Olympic stadium with my training bib on. You can't go anywhere without the thing/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Last but CERTAINLY not least, I want to thank my husband Rob who has been working double time on my behalf:nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bz5w_Wp2I/AAAAAAAAAs0/CqI7BohQgvY/s1600-h/Holly+and+Rob+..+YEAH!.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3bz5w_Wp2I/AAAAAAAAAs0/CqI7BohQgvY/s320/Holly+and+Rob+..+YEAH!.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Not only is he still working fulltime as a firefighter but he has been busting his butt trying to help me out with the blog, trip logistics, helping me get the gear I need, the whole "GO HOLLY" campaign, and trying to help line up a couple of sponsorships for me. nbsp;In addition, he's doing everthing at home - cleaning, paying bills, setting up our house sitter (Erin you rock!) taking care of the cat. nbsp;The poor guy hasn't gotten to work out in 3 days! nbsp;(If you know Rob, that is a giant sacrifice!) nbsp;Without him this whole Olympic pursuit certainly wouldn't be possible. I owe all of this time him - he was in fact, the person who told me I could make the team when I didn't believe it myself....... I am very excited that he will be joining me down here tomorrow. I only hope that he has a chance to relax and enjoy the great aspects of the Games. Thanks so much for everything Rob - I love you! nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Ok, off to late training.... I'll end on one of the latest hair-dying pictures:nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3b1IvbmJ0I/AAAAAAAAAs8/sL1OvuVz6r4/s1600-h/boys+with+hair!+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3b1IvbmJ0I/AAAAAAAAAs8/sL1OvuVz6r4/s320/boys+with+hair!+.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Thanks APU boys!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Have a wonderful day,nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Love,nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Holly :)nbsp;/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-2670990922520588728?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

Hey Folks...this is Rob(holly's husband). nbsp;She asked me to put up a quick blog....I just talked to her, she was in the motorcade traveling from Whistler to Vancouver for the opening ceremonies. Get this.....the motorcade of buses full of US athletes had armed vehicles ahead of them, armed vehicles behind them, and even a helicopter above them...all the way to Vancouver!! nbsp;How's that for security!?br /br /Here is a great link (in Dutch, nonetheless) to watch live streaming of the opening ceremonies (thanks for Frank in Boulder for locating this):br /br /span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px;"br /a href="http://www.livescorehunter.com/live-streaming-video-other-sports/" style="color: #0068cf; cursor: pointer; font-weight: inherit; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"http://www.livescorehunter.com/live-streaming-video-other-sports//a/spanbr /span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px;"br /br /Just click on the link you're interested in (tonight: "Ceremonies: Opening Ceremony") and then start clicking on all the links until one of them works for your computer. nbsp;/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-4362501341026900551?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

This will be short, cause I'm running out the door to the opening ceremonies! nbsp;(an all day process....we leave the village at 1 PM and get back super late tonight)br /br /Check out this photo sent to me from Mrs Gray's 3rd grade class at St. John Fisher School in Portland, Oregon! nbsp; These students took the time to make these great signs and send a picture! nbsp;So, why not post it on my blog as thank you?!?! nbsp; I'm fortunate to have ya'll cheering. nbsp;Thank you, you rock! nbsp; FYI, Mrs Gray is married to Rob's college friend, Alex.... thus the connection! nbsp;Apparently, Mrs. Gray's 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students have a surprise package that Rob will deliver once he arrives here in Whistler on Monday!br /br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3XKWCICu6I/AAAAAAAAAp8/amzx-WH0_VU/s1600-h/MrsGrays+kids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3XKWCICu6I/AAAAAAAAAp8/amzx-WH0_VU/s320/MrsGrays+kids.jpg" width="320" //a/divdivbr //divbr /br /br /Hugs to everyone! nbsp; nbsp;Let the Games begin!br /br /-Hollydiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-3228462538966565276?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

Oh boy.... so much has happened in the last two days. Its gone by fast but 48 hours ago also seems like an eternity. nbsp;One reason I've been delayed is because my CAMERA BROKE! nbsp;So, instead of blogging earlier, I had to take the entire afternoon to go on a camera hunt into the Whistler village. BINGO. I got one. nbsp;(Can you really think of a more inopportune time to have your camera break - the DAY before the opening ceremonies of the Olympics?!)br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3TsbzGY8bI/AAAAAAAAApU/ANvPPV5c-PY/s1600-h/P2100025.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3TsbzGY8bI/AAAAAAAAApU/ANvPPV5c-PY/s320/P2100025.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"This is our room. We had six HUGE duffle bags to unpack. It's a huge mess - and absolutely no storage space. nbsp;In many ways, I really feel like moving into the athlete village is like going back to college. You have a roommate (actually, she's "hidden" in this picture - can you see her? It's not Where's Waldo - it's Where's Caitlin?!)nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"The skiing here has been fun. It makes me wish that I had some Whistler-specific training camps back at Snoqualmie Pass where I grew up skiing! Both days during training it's been 34 degrees and snowing hard. I actually talked to Rob about brining my extra tuff rubber boots from home. The snow flakes are dime-size huge and if you want to have a huge snowball fight, you would be in heaven. There are tons of "course volunteers" out on the trails and one was "marshalling" next to a gigantic snowman today. (I would have gotten a pic for you guys if my camera had been working!)nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3T1CuKyU2I/AAAAAAAAApc/BXS1DjCnNik/s1600-h/P2100003_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3T1CuKyU2I/AAAAAAAAApc/BXS1DjCnNik/s320/P2100003_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"(My teammate, Liz in front of a Vancouver sign pre-press conference yesterday)nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Today for training I skied on my "zero" skis. For those that aren't familiar, think of it as a new-age waxless racing ski. nbsp;They are particularly good in conditions like we are experiencing here - 32 degrees and snowing. I had heard a rumor that Kris Freeman owns 27 pairs of this partiular kind of ski. I tried to confirm it on the bus ride back from the venue today but he, "didn't really know...." nbsp;It's takes a lot of skis to be a competitive ski racer! nbsp;Also, as a side note - Kris was on the Today show the other day. If you haven't checked it out, here is the link:nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"span class="yshortcuts" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"a href="http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/35329776#35329776" rel="nofollow" style="color: #333366; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" target="_blank"http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/35329776#35329776/a/span/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"br //span/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"It's always great to see our sport bust into the mainstream media!nbsp;/span/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"br //span/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3T1-0gvCzI/AAAAAAAAApk/8wXenIlH3Xc/s1600-h/P2100011_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3T1-0gvCzI/AAAAAAAAApk/8wXenIlH3Xc/s320/P2100011_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"(Here is our team walking into the athlete village. It's been grey and pretty rainy but lucky the atmosphere is so good that it doesn't really seem to matter. Lots of the buildings are temporary white tents - the kind you would see at a wedding but only a LOT bigger.nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3T2i_JTg5I/AAAAAAAAAps/iJ66ma-PJxU/s1600-h/P2100016_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3T2i_JTg5I/AAAAAAAAAps/iJ66ma-PJxU/s320/P2100016_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"McDonalds is an official sponsor of the Games and there is a full-fledged restaurant inside each athlete village dining facility. Ronald McDonald sits on this bench 24 hours a day, everyday. Apparently, McDonalds took their top 300 employees from all over the country and brought them here to work as part of an incentive program. So far, I've been really impressed by the food. They have a huge variety/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"and it's pretty good. No complaints.nbsp;nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3T3dX0tJkI/AAAAAAAAAp0/gjEAU4U-6tM/s1600-h/P2100019_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3T3dX0tJkI/AAAAAAAAAp0/gjEAU4U-6tM/s320/P2100019_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"I was also really fired up to see one of Sean McCabe's painting in the athlete lodge at the venue. For those that don't know, Sean was a nordic skier/teacher/mountains enthusist from Winthrop WA that recently passed away from cancer. He has some amazing paintings, many of which are skiers. Check out his website here:nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"http://www.seanmccabestudio.com/index4.html/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"The other thing that's worth mentioning today is that our entire team went to drug testing. This time we had our blood drawn to check our hemoglobin levels. (span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"Hemoglobin is the protein molecule innbsp;a href="http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=5260" style="color: #0033cc; text-decoration: underline;"red blood cells/anbsp;that carriesnbsp;a href="http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=10690" style="color: #0033cc; text-decoration: underline;"oxygen/anbsp;from the lungs to the body's tissues and returns carbon dioxide from the tissues to the lungs.) nbsp;Sometimes high numbers indicate evidence of doping but sometimes levels are high because of dehydration, lots of time at altitude, etc, etc. The coaches had our whole team POUNDING the water and gaterade to avoid any suspentions. If your numbers are found to be high you get an automatic 5 day suspention and are subject to further tests. We can also be testing at ANY time during the day for both urine and/or blood. We turn in extensive "whereabouts" filings that basically tell anti-doping folks where they can find us at all times so they can do surprise tests. Testing is great and helps us protect the integrity of the sport. nbsp;/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"br //span/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"Okay, more good pictures to come tomorrow. It will be a busy day between training and attending the opening ceremonies. The ceremonies are a 10-12 hour commitment for those staying up here in Whistler. Lots of driving and lots of standing around. But, I'm REALLY looking forward to it.nbsp;/span/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"br //span/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"Talk soon/thanks for reading!nbsp;/span/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"~Holly :)nbsp;/span/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"br //span/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"ps. Thanks so much to Kaladi... apparently an AK coffee care package is on the way. Thank you to Gina Romero (wife of a co-worker or Rob's) who read our coffee worries and put a plan into action! nbsp;THANKS! nbsp;BIGTIME!!/span/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"/span/divdivbr //divbr /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span id="goog_1265953115129"/spanspan id="goog_1265953115130"/span/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-6635847997919190689?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"A HUGE blog post to come tomorrow. It's been a SUPER busy day... while I would love to stay up and write but training, health and rest must take precedence. nbsp;Thanks so much for reading - thanks for the continued support and "talk" to you all tomorrow!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"And, this is a cool website if you want to watch events. nbsp;I haven't checked it out, but sources tell me it's awesome:/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"http://p2p4u.net/sports/winter-olympics.html/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3OnaSCmMsI/AAAAAAAAApE/IswdzM-tn3U/s1600-h/P2100023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3OnaSCmMsI/AAAAAAAAApE/IswdzM-tn3U/s320/P2100023.JPG" //a/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-3045682076227667838?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

Hey all,br /br /I'm going to try and be brief. It's been a long day and we're getting up early tomorrow to get to the village - and to go train. Todaynbsp;consistednbsp;ofnbsp;driving,nbsp;flying,nbsp;credentialling,nbsp;(isnbsp;thatnbsp;anbsp;word?)nbsp;gettingnbsp;THREEnbsp;dufflesnbsp;ofnbsp;schwag,nbsp;havingnbsp;anbsp;briefingnbsp;onnbsp;ournbsp;pressnbsp;conferencenbsp;fornbsp;tomorrow,nbsp;andnbsp;endingnbsp;withnbsp;annbsp;introductorynbsp;meetingnbsp;co-hostednbsp;bynbsp;Bonnienbsp;Blair!nbsp;nbsp;Enjoynbsp;thenbsp;photos........br /br /It's my turn for the Ralph Lauren shot:br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JPBhQ1d6I/AAAAAAAAAnk/hz7B72R7-OI/s1600-h/P2090018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JPBhQ1d6I/AAAAAAAAAnk/hz7B72R7-OI/s320/P2090018.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Also... Freeman is going to be on the Today show tomorrow morning. (He has to wake up at 4am!) nbsp;Check it out.nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JR7icqs6I/AAAAAAAAAns/IM2Fy5CG5UU/s1600-h/P2090015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JR7icqs6I/AAAAAAAAAns/IM2Fy5CG5UU/s320/P2090015.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"My roommate for the next two and a half weeks, Caitlin Compton, at the "check out" line - the one where you don't have to pay :)nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JSgGij9TI/AAAAAAAAAn0/7l5i9A74Nqc/s1600-h/blair+-+gold+medals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JSgGij9TI/AAAAAAAAAn0/7l5i9A74Nqc/s320/blair+-+gold+medals.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Bonnie then....nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JS1hXUflI/AAAAAAAAAn8/nN2mIWrjDnM/s1600-h/P2090023_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JS1hXUflI/AAAAAAAAAn8/nN2mIWrjDnM/s320/P2090023_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Bonnie now....nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JTNvT9mpI/AAAAAAAAAoE/X2bQ2724tok/s1600-h/P2090010_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JTNvT9mpI/AAAAAAAAAoE/X2bQ2724tok/s320/P2090010_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"?/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JTeu5bZJI/AAAAAAAAAoM/MPN9C1GLO4Y/s1600-h/P2090013_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JTeu5bZJI/AAAAAAAAAoM/MPN9C1GLO4Y/s320/P2090013_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Liz and her favorite new piece of Olympic wear/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JTrPetkiI/AAAAAAAAAoU/t4y6dL34ZTU/s1600-h/P2090016_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JTrPetkiI/AAAAAAAAAoU/t4y6dL34ZTU/s320/P2090016_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Erik Flora previewing the closing ceremonies attire in the "instant alterations" room/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JT46kKDkI/AAAAAAAAAoc/5xJeMyScSE0/s1600-h/P2090022_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JT46kKDkI/AAAAAAAAAoc/5xJeMyScSE0/s320/P2090022_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Nordic boys ready to head to the Cape...nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JUXxGS76I/AAAAAAAAAok/pM73ztebTTQ/s1600-h/P2090006_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3JUXxGS76I/AAAAAAAAAok/pM73ztebTTQ/s320/P2090006_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Getting my credential literally a few steps off the planenbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"A couple of other random thoughts from the day.nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"*One thing we learned in our intro today is that there are going to be TWICE as many media people here as athletes. nbsp;That number was a bit mind-blowing to me.nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"*USSA has brought in a media representative to help us with press conference, manage requests, etc./divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"*Both Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancusco were in our dinner meeting (there were only 25 or so athletes.) nbsp;I didn't recognize them at first because they looked like - guess what - REAL people. I suppose when the last time you've seen someone is on the front of a magazine with tons of make-up and airbrushing they may tend to look different. (That said, they still, of course looked great.)nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"*As it turns out McDonalds is the SOLE distributor of coffee in the athlete village during the games. This means NO coffee at breakfast and long lines just to get our am fix. I was overjoyed to learn that my roomie is a coffee drinker too so we're devising a plan as we speak. (Kaladi, if you want to send us a coffee carepackage that wouldn't be turned down!)nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Okay, I need to get to bed. I am very excited to ski the courses tomorrow for the first time - I think I may be the only one on the team that hasn't trained there in both the summer and the winter. No worries - that just adds to the excitment. More tomorrow! nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Thanks SO MUCH for all the wonderful support.nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Sweet Dreams,nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Holly :) nbsp;nbsp;/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-5296854730061315705?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

It has been an awesome few days of training here - full sunshine, good food, famous World Cup skiers zipping by on the trail. nbsp;I'm excited for the next step but to get there, it entails leaving the little slice of heaven that we've created here in Cammore.br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3DwxpLM7kI/AAAAAAAAAm0/dLsCBfuMtmY/s1600-h/apu+lame+daffy!.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3DwxpLM7kI/AAAAAAAAAm0/dLsCBfuMtmY/s320/apu+lame+daffy!.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"(You can't really tell in this picture but I AM off the ground here - this is my lame attempt at a daffy.... thanks to Kikkan who took this shot 4 or 5 times!)nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"I'm excited to go to Vancouver - we leave tomorrow at 8am!!!! Here is a snapshot of what I have in store for my future:nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3DyUfSUwtI/AAAAAAAAAm8/iKm90YSEtzc/s1600-h/Lowell+Bailey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3DyUfSUwtI/AAAAAAAAAm8/iKm90YSEtzc/s320/Lowell+Bailey.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"(re-blogged twice from USA biathlete, Lowell Bailey)/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"I wonder what the girls will be wearing? nbsp;I heard via the grapevine that the girls have similar boots. They might go straight from the opening ceremonies to chopping wood - how USEFUL!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"In other news, one of my master skiers, John Wood sent me this Olympic song sent to him by some of his associates that work out of Vancouver. I had to laugh.... check it out:nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma, 'Sans Serif', Arial; font-size: 11px;"/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"Hear the cheers, hear the hype,/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"Good Vancouverites don’t gripe,/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"The Olympics are coming to town!/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"Closed-down streets, protest meets,/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"Higher costs for drinks and eats,/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"The Olympics are coming to town!/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"br //divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"So it’s Rah! Rah! Rah!/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"As we cheer fornbsp;/spanspan lang="EN-CA" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"span style="color: black;"Canada/span/spanspan lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"!/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"Too bad our slopes are wet and brown./span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"We will truck in snow/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"Where skiers have to go,/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"The Olympics are coming to town!/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"br //divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"Damn the noise, damn the cost,/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"Damn the peace that we have lost,/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"The Olympics are coming to town!/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"Trains are late, folk irate,/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"But we still must celebrate,/spanspan lang="EN-CA"/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"The Olympics are coming to town!/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"br //divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"So it’s Cheer! Cheer! Cheer!/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"The games are coming here!/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"There’s so much rain we just might drown./span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"We will grit our teeth/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"And our brollies cringe beneath,/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"The Olympics are coming to town!/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"The Olympics are coming to town!/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span lang="EN-CA" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"(How I wish I could get out of town!)/spanspan lang="EN-CA"/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', fantasy; font-size: medium;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"br //span/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', -webkit-fantasy; font-size: medium;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"So, the song is a bit sarcastic but I'm optimistic that it's going to be a great "Games." nbsp;The US team looks to be strong, healthy, and fired up to compete and turn in some good results. Here is a quick, informal team shot taken before training the other day:nbsp;/span/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', -webkit-fantasy; font-size: medium;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"br //span/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3D1ByTOCkI/AAAAAAAAAnE/EzCnB5xgWs4/s1600-h/P2070003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3D1ByTOCkI/AAAAAAAAAnE/EzCnB5xgWs4/s400/P2070003.JPG" width="300" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Last but certainly NOT least, I would like to say hi and congratulations to the APU devo and junior skiers that raced in Fairbanks this weekend. APU will have a bunch of athletes representing us at both Junior Olympics and Arctic Winter Games. nbsp;Congrats you guys! nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3D24S4EExI/AAAAAAAAAnM/wa4OiYtY_68/s1600-h/P5040132.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3D24S4EExI/AAAAAAAAAnM/wa4OiYtY_68/s320/P5040132.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"(This is a bunch of us at a training camp in Girdwood this past summer)/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Also, the Alaskan "Ski for Women" was on Super Bowl Sunday. One of my master's groups dressed up at Mosquitoes and my women's group (I'm both embarrassed and flattered to say) dressed up as the "Hollyettes."/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3D4VJqXA-I/AAAAAAAAAnU/Oy2yGqr0Cj8/s1600-h/hollyettes!.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3D4VJqXA-I/AAAAAAAAAnU/Oy2yGqr0Cj8/s320/hollyettes!.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3D4uEytaHI/AAAAAAAAAnc/I8lhP1fuTzY/s1600-h/rhia:holly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S3D4uEytaHI/AAAAAAAAAnc/I8lhP1fuTzY/s320/rhia:holly.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Huh?/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Alright, its time to climb into bed so that I can pack in the morning. Let the craziness begin - can't wait to share the fun with you all!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Good night!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Sincerely,nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Holly :)nbsp;/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', -webkit-fantasy; font-size: medium;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"br //span/span/divdiv class="x_MsoNormal" style="color: #ffffcc; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"br //divbr /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-5816345393109073903?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

Good morning everyone - sorry for the delayed post.... first of all, GOOD LUCK to all the APUers at Besh Cup 6 today in Fairbanks and have SO MUCH FUN to those participating in the Ski for Women at Kincaid! nbsp;Take lots of pictures! br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S27V78u7BPI/AAAAAAAAAlE/sIo_h8t6FCU/s1600-h/Holly+Canmore+Sprint+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S27V78u7BPI/AAAAAAAAAlE/sIo_h8t6FCU/s320/Holly+Canmore+Sprint+.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"(Classic prelim - photo courtesy of Fasterskier)nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Yesterday was my second World Cup and my first World Cup sprint. nbsp;Both races here in Canmore this weekend, (10k individual skate and classic sprint) are the first two races at the Olympics so it's great to get a tune up and test the field.nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //diva href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S27YxNVkSdI/AAAAAAAAAlM/xp5JHOof6-s/s1600-h/P2060004_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S27YxNVkSdI/AAAAAAAAAlM/xp5JHOof6-s/s320/P2060004_50p.JPG" //abr /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"(Sun coming up over the Canadian Rockies as we waited for the shuttle that never came)nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Before I started the race, one of the coaches, Travis, said to me, "Holly, you may be the only skier out there that has scored World Cup points in every World Cup start!" nbsp;After my prelim, I walked back to the waxing table and told him that I continued my trend! Of my 2 World Cup starts, I've collected WC points in both!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"The course suited me very well - it was long and had lots of striding uphills - plus we're at altitude and I usually preform well racing up in the mountains. nbsp;My prelim time was ranked 21st, overall. nbsp;I was ecstatic! nbsp;When I looked at the results I also realized that I was "sandwiched" between the defending sprint champion from World Champs in Liberec, Arianna Follis, and my teammate, defending Silver medalist in the sprint, Kikkan Randall. nbsp;I was among good company which made me even happy with the preliminary result!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"/span/divdiv style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"Fornbsp;thosenbsp;thatnbsp;arenbsp;interested,nbsp;FISnbsp;justnbsp;releasednbsp;anbsp;newnbsp;websitenbsp;fornbsp;thenbsp;Olympics.nbsp;nbsp;It'snbsp;awesomenbsp;-nbsp;younbsp;cannbsp;looknbsp;upnbsp;skiersnbsp;andnbsp;checknbsp;outnbsp;fullnbsp;biosnbsp;ofnbsp;allnbsp;thenbsp;Worldnbsp;Cupnbsp;regulars.nbsp;(It'snbsp;almostnbsp;betternbsp;thannbsp;googlenbsp;stalkingnbsp;butnbsp;notnbsp;quitenbsp;asnbsp;completenbsp;asnbsp;facebooknbsp;stalking!)nbsp;Checknbsp;outnbsp;a href="http://www.fiscrosscountry.com/about-competitor-top-ath/follis-arianna,17653.html"Follis'nbsp;bionbsp;here/anbsp;ornbsp;checknbsp;thisnbsp;linknbsp;fornbsp;thenbsp;a href="http://www.fiscrosscountry.com/national-teams.html""team"nbsp;page./a/divdiv style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"It will tell you if skiers like meat or veggies, ferrari or porche, etc, etc. nbsp;Kind of fun!nbsp;/divbr /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"/span/divtable class="athlete-container" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 2px; width: 880px;"tbodytrtd class="head-left" style="padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 3px; vertical-align: top; width: 455px;"img alt="Arianna FOLLIS" height="175" src="http://www.fiscrosscountry.com/data/classes/athlete/comp_17653_topathleteabout.jpg" width="200" /br /br /(Ariannanbsp;Follisnbsp;-nbsp;Italy/defendingnbsp;sprintnbsp;Worldnbsp;Champion)br /br //tdtd class="head-right" style="padding-left: 3px; vertical-align: top; width: 418px;"div class="actu_description" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"br //div/td/tr/tbody/tablea href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S27Z2xX28MI/AAAAAAAAAlU/Pej-4NZNmMM/s1600-h/P2060011_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S27Z2xX28MI/AAAAAAAAAlU/Pej-4NZNmMM/s320/P2060011_50p.JPG" //abr /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"(Shot of the finish line)/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S281zGnIRyI/AAAAAAAAAlc/wVFsYwfD7QM/s1600-h/P2060025_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S281zGnIRyI/AAAAAAAAAlc/wVFsYwfD7QM/s320/P2060025_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Katie, Kikkan, and Hollynbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"My quarterfinal didn't go so well but I am satisfied with the overall day. nbsp;It was a good day for North Americans in general - Kikkan finished 10th, Torin Koos finished 11th after qualifying 2nd... seven Americans all together qualified for the heats, 2 women and five men. Hometown favorite, Sara Renner ended up 3rd place with a bronze medal. And - it was an awesome day. Skiing doesn't get much better than a full-shine day in Canmore watching and competing with the best skiers in the world!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S283jlMJFgI/AAAAAAAAAlk/JdpPK0lEC_Q/s1600-h/P2060031_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S283jlMJFgI/AAAAAAAAAlk/JdpPK0lEC_Q/s320/P2060031_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Speaking of the best skiers, Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk continued her domination by literally destroying the field. It was impressive to watch. nbsp;She had tons of screaming Polish fans at the race too. nbsp;They got a picture with her afterwards... I snuck in too: nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S284MjyVCYI/AAAAAAAAAls/sdyWeM-QflQ/s1600-h/P2060048_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S284MjyVCYI/AAAAAAAAAls/sdyWeM-QflQ/s320/P2060048_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Here is the female podium for the day:nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //diva href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S284V04rDLI/AAAAAAAAAl0/ot6oxqkqtus/s1600-h/P2060044_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S284V04rDLI/AAAAAAAAAl0/ot6oxqkqtus/s320/P2060044_50p.JPG" //abr /br /Also, here are a bunch of youtube links from the weekend if you're interested.br /br /Here I am skiing in the 10k - this hill was BIG and we had to do it twice:br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_B0vxFFPpIbr /br /Check out this promo for the Canmore Nordic Center. It gives you a really good idea of what the area look like. It also shows their snow-making and paved roller ski trails:br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRCR0Mgemv4br /br /Here is a Eurosport video of the women's A final:br /http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVgXveNc5wAbr /br /Phil Bowen, professional photography (philsgood.com), has a gallery of shots from the classic sprint here:br /http://www.photoshelter.com/c/philsgood/gallery/Canmore-Nordic-World-Cup-2010-Classic-Sprint/G00005o2Aw990.zk/br /br /Enjoy!br /br /We're in Canmore for another day before making our way to Vancouver Tuesday morning....div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-1378023259113628351?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"I have to say, I am pretty psyched about my first World Cup experience. nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2yll5Ff2PI/AAAAAAAAAkU/CJll9c1R8OQ/s1600-h/P2050018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2yll5Ff2PI/AAAAAAAAAkU/CJll9c1R8OQ/s320/P2050018.JPG" //a/divbr /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"Last night I wrote this in my journal, "There are 66 girls starting the race tomorrow, many of whom are seasoned veterans. It's hard to make numerical goals but it would be cool to be top 40, amazing, the be top 35, and virtually unheard of to score World Cup points and finish in the top 30." nbsp;Well, I did it - in my World Cup debut, I finished with a strong 24th place, only 46 seconds out of 10th place!nbsp;/divdiv style="text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2yo_ncdxRI/AAAAAAAAAkc/heW2yfPEtEs/s1600-h/IMG_0106.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2yo_ncdxRI/AAAAAAAAAkc/heW2yfPEtEs/s320/IMG_0106.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"(Thanks to Ronsse for this racing pic - it's the only one I have so far but I will post more when and if I get them!)nbsp;/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"br //span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"After any racing experience I ask the kids that I coach to analyze their race - what are three things that went well, and three things that could be improved upon next time? nbsp;Well, I suppose that I should practice what I preach and do the same thing! nbsp;Here it is:nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Things that went well:nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"1. My mental game was strong. nbsp;I didn't let myself become too intimidated..... somehow I wasn't that nervous at all which is somewhat surprising. nbsp;It's just another "race" right?nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"2. I've been working on my V1 technique and I think I was able to execute it more than I have in other races.... it helps when there are tons of big climbs and opportunities to work on it!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"3. All of the racing "logistics" were smooth. nbsp;Breakfast,nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2yxG4uRROI/AAAAAAAAAkk/eiN1Jw5p6-I/s1600-h/P2050021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2yxG4uRROI/AAAAAAAAAkk/eiN1Jw5p6-I/s320/P2050021.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Things that could be improved upon next time:nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"1. nbsp;I went out too hard. nbsp;I thought it was "fast" but I didn't realize that at 2.7k my split was 12th for the entire World Cup field. nbsp;At 6.9k, my split was 14th for the entire World Cup field. nbsp;Pacing is always really difficult, especially at venues were you haven't raced, and fields that you have no experience in.nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"2. nbsp;I could have been more conservative on the steep hills and picked up more time in transitions. Those that I coach have heard me talk about the rule of "threes" before. I definitely died on some of the crests of hills.nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"3. I still haven't gotten pictures with the Italians! Today would have been the day to do it since they went 1 and 2!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2y2ILbTcvI/AAAAAAAAAks/2EBfNCgaD6c/s1600-h/P2050022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2y2ILbTcvI/AAAAAAAAAks/2EBfNCgaD6c/s320/P2050022.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Even the Red Bull girls showed up to the World Cup in Canmore!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2y2189yluI/AAAAAAAAAk0/3NEEwLNVCeo/s1600-h/P2050020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2y2189yluI/AAAAAAAAAk0/3NEEwLNVCeo/s320/P2050020.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Here is a picture of the big screen that they used for the event. On one of the downhills a video camera on a 25-foot boom swung out and I thought I was going to crash into it! nbsp;Also, the announcer told the crowd that the race was being shown (live in most places) to 100 MILLION viewers all throughout the world. That's not 100, not one million but 100 MILLION! nbsp;It makes you wonder, "Do I have anything in my teeth?"nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"If you are curious about other pictures, Phil Bowen is here taking pictures of the US Skiers - his shots are phenomenal. Check out the link a href="http://www.photoshelter.com/c/philsgood/gallery/Canmore-Nordic-World-Cup-2010-10km-Free/G0000ZQDmvD6FO30/?_bqO=0amp;_bqH=eJwzNS0o9zaLT3cJj0_JSHcz9_eNMHIJCPHPCwu0MrawMjK1snKP93SxdTcAgqhAl9wyFzM3f2MDtQCQqJq7Z7y7o4.Pa1AkNkUA.jYaYg--amp;ppg=25"here/a. nbsp;I'm number 23 with white Salomon boots and skis..... Thanks Phil for being out on course!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"And, Erik Mundahl found this CBC Sports link of the women's race. nbsp;It's a full ONE HOUR long! nbsp;the link is:/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px;"pre style="white-space: normal;"a href="http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Sports/CBC_Sports_Weekend/Full_Shows/ID=1405701991" style="color: #0068cf; cursor: pointer; font-weight: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Sports/CBC_Sports_Weekend/Full_Shows/ID=1405701991/a/pre/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"I'm racing the classic sprint tomorrow. nbsp;I'm crossing my fingers that I can qualify top 30 and make it to the heats! nbsp;We'll see!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Thanks for reading - Sincerely,nbsp;Holly/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv style="text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-3864474657179084855?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

Today was race prep... everyone was out testing their skis. The scene was awesome. nbsp;I think some of the pictures below will speak for themselves! nbsp;I'm excited to go 10k tomorrow. I felt great skiing today. Somehow the steep hills seem to be getting smaller each day. Check out some of these shots!br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2s6EveQ7LI/AAAAAAAAAjc/Um5JSBuwlJQ/s1600-h/P2040002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2s6EveQ7LI/AAAAAAAAAjc/Um5JSBuwlJQ/s320/P2040002.JPG" //a/divbr /Another perfect day in Canmore. It's great to feel the sunshine on your face... the girl in pink is Petra Madjic, arguably the best female classic sprinter in the world right now. Maybe one of these days I'll get the courage up to ask for a true photo rather than having to stalk her in the parking lot :)br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2s7VB_q3BI/AAAAAAAAAjk/HaBydsexU38/s1600-h/P2040008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2s7VB_q3BI/AAAAAAAAAjk/HaBydsexU38/s320/P2040008.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Here I am with the first US Ski Team hat I've ever owned standing in front of the biggest hill on the course. It's steeper and longer than it looks in this picture. I'm glad we did Wallnbsp;Streetnbsp;intervalsnbsp;on the first half of Spencernbsp;anbsp;couplenbsp;ofnbsp;timesnbsp;beforenbsp;wenbsp;leftnbsp;Alaska!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2s8dbmjfjI/AAAAAAAAAjs/eO_gxrduSXA/s1600-h/P2040009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2s8dbmjfjI/AAAAAAAAAjs/eO_gxrduSXA/s320/P2040009.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"APU head coach and program director Erik Flora/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2tBUJ2EP3I/AAAAAAAAAj0/pfp-VNiHqKM/s1600-h/P2040014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2tBUJ2EP3I/AAAAAAAAAj0/pfp-VNiHqKM/s320/P2040014.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"One of my APU teammates, Beeca Rorabaugh loving Canmore - she just found out that she gets to race the distance race in addition to the sprint. nbsp;She's only 20 years old!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2tCjv_l3JI/AAAAAAAAAj8/Bka7VJveVWw/s1600-h/P2040020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2tCjv_l3JI/AAAAAAAAAj8/Bka7VJveVWw/s320/P2040020.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Me and my skis which have been awesome all year.... (doesn't it look like I'm holding an Alaskan Salmon?) nbsp;OIA!!! But this time in Canmore :)nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2tDdzVjBBI/AAAAAAAAAkE/c538rwMss0k/s1600-h/P2040026.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2tDdzVjBBI/AAAAAAAAAkE/c538rwMss0k/s320/P2040026.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"We got our new US Ski Team Bjorn Daehlie suits so of course we had to try them on in our hotel room once we got back from training. One of our jobs this afternoon is to sew APU patches above the US Ski Team Logo!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2tEcuJou5I/AAAAAAAAAkM/4Ae0REiK5dQ/s1600-h/P2030001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2tEcuJou5I/AAAAAAAAAkM/4Ae0REiK5dQ/s320/P2030001.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Also, all of you Alaskans might be happy to know that we've put up a gigantic Alaskan flag in the hotel dining hall. nbsp;The Italians are the only other World Cup team staying at this hotel with us. Apparently they asked the wait staff, "what's that flag?!" nbsp;My goal is to get a picture with some of the famous Italians IN FRONT on the Alaskan flags!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Thanks so much for all of the encouraging emails - you guys are the best!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Hollynbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-1635234182332720490?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

The following youtube video was sent to me this fall while on the Supertour. nbsp;If you watch it, you will understand the following pictures :)br /br /a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJRFRZx3590"object height="340" width="560"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TJRFRZx3590amp;hl=en_USamp;fs=1amp;"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TJRFRZx3590amp;hl=en_USamp;fs=1amp;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"/embed/object/abr /br /The APU juniors are totally AWESOME! br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2paPkWEaxI/AAAAAAAAAhs/yw5zlOPurp0/s1600-h/hair+8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2paPkWEaxI/AAAAAAAAAhs/yw5zlOPurp0/s320/hair+8.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"So I picked red, white, and blue..... the boys came through on the deal!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //diva href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2paWpiv1AI/AAAAAAAAAh0/HMJO1EZufIQ/s1600-h/hair+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2paWpiv1AI/AAAAAAAAAh0/HMJO1EZufIQ/s320/hair+2.jpg" //abr /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"And then the girls decided to follow suit!/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //diva href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pacmLxrmI/AAAAAAAAAh8/bRlNEIc2Z-E/s1600-h/hair+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pacmLxrmI/AAAAAAAAAh8/bRlNEIc2Z-E/s320/hair+3.jpg" //abr /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Kyle during.... (I think it actually looks kind of cool like this!)nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pahwzMp8I/AAAAAAAAAiE/1BDzprAaNFE/s1600-h/hair+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pahwzMp8I/AAAAAAAAAiE/1BDzprAaNFE/s320/hair+4.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"High school boy sacrifice! Forrest, Ray, and Kyle/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //diva href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pcugs3r-I/AAAAAAAAAjE/WzjpBmALkBo/s1600-h/hair+10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pcugs3r-I/AAAAAAAAAjE/WzjpBmALkBo/s320/hair+10.jpg" //abr /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;""What did we do!"/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pazoGnucI/AAAAAAAAAic/5U_D9rr5sbo/s1600-h/hair+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pazoGnucI/AAAAAAAAAic/5U_D9rr5sbo/s320/hair+5.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Rob stopped by the salon to check on the progress/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //diva href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pczp83PuI/AAAAAAAAAjM/sMm2HowBCUI/s1600-h/hair+11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pczp83PuI/AAAAAAAAAjM/sMm2HowBCUI/s320/hair+11.jpg" //abr /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"?/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pa5Bgh0UI/AAAAAAAAAik/ucQrWbj4Njs/s1600-h/hair+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pa5Bgh0UI/AAAAAAAAAik/ucQrWbj4Njs/s320/hair+6.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Forrest even got his unibrow WAXED for the occasion... I feel so special nbsp;(I think Ray might have too!)/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pa9bYZtKI/AAAAAAAAAis/jEv6FPvvy5U/s1600-h/hair+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pa9bYZtKI/AAAAAAAAAis/jEv6FPvvy5U/s320/hair+7.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Turning a brown afro red is no easy chore/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //diva href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pbC2mXhtI/AAAAAAAAAi0/tmmuBEmM3ZA/s1600-h/hair+9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pbC2mXhtI/AAAAAAAAAi0/tmmuBEmM3ZA/s320/hair+9.jpg" //abr /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Big Mac pre-blue/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pbJZ5n2XI/AAAAAAAAAi8/3IqjC2pExrU/s1600-h/hair+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2pbJZ5n2XI/AAAAAAAAAi8/3IqjC2pExrU/s320/hair+1.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Mac and Erica representing with their side ponies!/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Thank you guys! I feel so honored :) nbsp;Miss you all....nbsp;/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-1335870275954564886?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

My first world cup race is two days away so today I have a "day off" from training. nbsp;But, that doesn't mean that I don't have a lot to do! Before the rave and the rant here is a picture to start the post off with...br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2muggyoynI/AAAAAAAAAhM/IXOyoVnBt2s/s1600-h/Kikkan+and+Holly+in+Canmore.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2muggyoynI/AAAAAAAAAhM/IXOyoVnBt2s/s320/Kikkan+and+Holly+in+Canmore.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divThis is Kikkan and myself at the venue with the Canadian Rockies in the background......br /br /A couple random thoughts for the day:br /br /*Since it's my recovery day I slept in a bit later than usual and was the last one at breakfast. That means that I missed the Italian team that flew in last night. nbsp;(DARN!) nbsp;They do randomly roam around the hotel though. I do have to admit that they seem to have some of the best looking guys on the world cup. (Of course not as good looking as my husband Rob though!)br /br /*Yesterday I was wishing that I could understand Polish because I sat behind Justyna Kowalczyk, the current World Cup leader. nbsp;Maybe one of these days I will get up the courage to ask for a photo!br /br /*On a href="http://Fasterskier.com/"Fasterskier.com/a they have a cool "Olympic countdown" timer. nbsp;This morning I looked at it while drinking coffe and it gave me goosebumps! nbsp;It read: 8 day, 18 hours, 4 minutes, and 55 seconds until the start of the Olympics! nbsp;Speaking of which, I was on a training ski in Silver Star last December and randomly found the Vancouver Olympic symbol that someone had built as a rock sculpture. Check it out!br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2mx6N-_8qI/AAAAAAAAAhU/lRg5d2L-hg0/s1600-h/Vancouver+Symbol_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2mx6N-_8qI/AAAAAAAAAhU/lRg5d2L-hg0/s320/Vancouver+Symbol_50p.JPG" //a/divbr /*Also, many of you have been asking about event tickets latety. nbsp;It seems like there are lots of rumors and confusion over when more tickets will be released, how much one should have to pay for them, and the best way to get them. nbsp;I WISH that I had a ton of free tickets to give away but unfortunately I do not. Apparently I get two free tickets for each event that I am racing and that is it. However, there is a forum on Fasterskier and someone threw out these sites for good scalper ticket sites:br /span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"/spanbr /div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"eSeats.com/divdiv style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"ticketliquidator.combr style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /stubhub.com/divdiv style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, Verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"I also have this feeling that they will be readily available AT the games once they start. nbsp;It does seem like the organizing committee has been hoarding them - for corporations, for Canadians, at this point. It's frustrating but I hope that everything will work out! I am so excited that many of you are coming down to cheer! I wish I could be of more help! (Sorry!)nbsp;/span/divdiv style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"/span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2m0PbVi6aI/AAAAAAAAAhc/fLRrfuHdFT4/s1600-h/P2010011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2m0PbVi6aI/AAAAAAAAAhc/fLRrfuHdFT4/s320/P2010011.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"Here I am standing in the Canmore stadium... the nordic venue was the site for the 1988 Calgary Olympic Games...nbsp;/divdiv style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"br //divdiv style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"Well, it's time to get on with my day. I underpacked for this trip (in anticipation of getting lots of new clothes/uniforms) but they haven't come yet. nbsp;I've been wearing my same APU spandex every day, twice a day for a week now and I NEED to do laundry. nbsp;The hard part is that it entails hiking across the highway with a huge packpack, sitting at the laudry mat, and then hiking back. nbsp;The hotel informed me that they only have drycleaning :(nbsp;/divdiv style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"br //divdiv style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"I'll end on this fun picture for the day:nbsp;/divdiv style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2m1jynvHKI/AAAAAAAAAhk/LXn_j-8pAv4/s1600-h/Go+Holly+Sign+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2m1jynvHKI/AAAAAAAAAhk/LXn_j-8pAv4/s400/Go+Holly+Sign+.jpg" width="400" //a/divdiv style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"br //divdiv style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"Thanks to Rob and the APU juniors for making this sign. nbsp;(It was on the hill at US Nationals in Anchorage this past January)nbsp;/divdiv style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"br //divdiv style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"Should be a fun post tomorrow :) You'll have to check back and see why!nbsp;/divdivbr //divbr /div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"br //divdivbr //divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-3907891845658391122?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

Sorry for the late post - it's been a busy day today! Let's start this post right - here is a picture of team "APU Olympics!" nbsp;We took some shots yesterday but the Canmore blue bird sky didn't cooperate with us...br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2e8SAB-suI/AAAAAAAAAgw/chZNBVA5X-c/s1600-h/IMG_1902.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2e8SAB-suI/AAAAAAAAAgw/chZNBVA5X-c/s320/IMG_1902.JPG" //a/divbr /Also, people have been asking for a while, "do you know what events you will race in the Olympics!?" At this point, I have general idea... and other races depend on this weekend's preformance while others depend on preformance at the Olympics themselves.br /br /I'm fairly certain about my participation in three events including:br /br /1) Classic Sprint - Feb 17thbr /br /I still have a hard time considering myself a "sprinter" ... it's hard for me to wrap my head around a race that takes anywhere from 2-5 minutes. Personally, I like to have more time to settle into a pace without having so much pressure riding on every stride. nbsp;Nonetheless, I'm excited to race it!br /br /2) 15k Pursuit - Feb 19thbr /br /For those that don't know much about a pursuit, it's a mass start, the first half classic, and the second half skate. nbsp;Your "transition time" which is the time it takes to switch equipment is included in your overall time. I am a balanced skier when it comes to the two techniques and it's 15k, I'm excited for this race.br /br /3) 30k Mass Start Classic - Feb 27thbr /br /This is the second to last day of the Games... a long wait. nbsp;The long classic race was also my best event at US Nationals (Silver Medal) so I've been anticipating this race. nbsp;I learned about a new twist yesterday about this race - you can SWITCH SKIS mid - race, or every 7 kilometers. nbsp;This adds a whole new twist to long distance racing - lots of tactics, more work for the wax techs, plus the fact that you have to have a nbsp;lot of skis for something like this. nbsp;There is also an option to NOT switch your skis, ski through the transition, and hope that everyone else doesn't catch you with new, improved, better wax. nbsp;I have to admit, I'm slightly nervous for this aspect of the race but it could be a lot of fun!br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2fCEqHhH_I/AAAAAAAAAg4/56r5WRY745w/s1600-h/P2010009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2fCEqHhH_I/AAAAAAAAAg4/56r5WRY745w/s320/P2010009.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv style="text-align: center;"APU wax tech Casey and head coach/program director, Erik Flora waxing skis!nbsp;/divdiv style="text-align: center;"br //divdiv style="text-align: left;"There is a chance that I will race in two more races.... so it could be as few as three or as many as five. Each country is allowed to start 4 people in each race and the US has five girls. That means at least one girl will have to sit out each race. That's fine considering that no one wants to race 6 races... plus we all have our strengths and weaknesses. nbsp;There is a small chance that I could start in the 10k skate race Feb 15th. I have a big feeling that that will depend on my preformance here in Canmore this weekend. Also, the 4x5k relay is on the 25th... I really hope to get to race that as well. Relays tend to be one of the highlights of the games.nbsp;/divdiv style="text-align: left;"br //divdiv style="text-align: left;"If you want to see the full XC schedule, check out this link on the official Vancouver website:nbsp;/divdiv style="text-align: left;"http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-cross-country-skiing-schedule-results//divdiv style="text-align: left;"br //divdiv style="text-align: left;"I have a ton more I would like to write about but it's past my bed time...more tomorrow. nbsp;In the meantime, I will end with this shot of Chandra Crawford's (Canadian Olympic Sprint Gold Medalist from Torino) SWEET Fast-and-Female-mobile..nbsp;/divdiv style="text-align: left;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2fDZ04KoRI/AAAAAAAAAhA/5UnPBMtcj7E/s1600-h/P2010013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2fDZ04KoRI/AAAAAAAAAhA/5UnPBMtcj7E/s320/P2010013.JPG" //a/divdiv style="text-align: left;"br //divdiv style="text-align: left;"Good night!nbsp;/divdiv style="text-align: left;"Thanks for reading,nbsp;/divdiv style="text-align: left;"Holly :)nbsp;/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-5678534157397926486?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

div style="text-align: center;"Good day everyone! nbsp;And good luck to those racing Pia's Classic today at Kincaid! nbsp;Things are starting to ramp up at the Canmore Nordic Center...... more and more teams every day, different languages overheard on the trails. nbsp;It's sweet!nbsp;/divdiv style="text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"/divdiv id="right_col" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;"img alt="Cross-Country World Cup 2010" height="207" src="http://www.tourismcanmore.com/images_2010/layout_new/worldcup_banner.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" width="400" //divdiv id="right_col" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"This is a picture of Chandra Crawford, the Canmore "hometown" girl - also the sprint Gold medalist from Torino. nbsp;It must be sweet to have the world's best skiers come to YOU to race! nbsp;How sweet would a World Cup in Anchorage be?!nbsp;/span/divdiv id="right_col" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;"br //divdiv id="right_col" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;"Canmore truly seems to be a nordic-oriented town. nbsp;There are poster advertisements every 5 feet downtown, even in vacant store front building. nbsp;/divdiv id="right_col" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2XyS7-rGgI/AAAAAAAAAfc/19SpKv7OoAk/s1600-h/P1280030_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2XyS7-rGgI/AAAAAAAAAfc/19SpKv7OoAk/s320/P1280030_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv id="right_col" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"If you squint your eyes you may even be able to pick out Kikkan and her mom, Deb, complete with pink hat and scarf! nbsp;I took a picture of one - sorry for the glare./span/divdiv id="right_col" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"br //span/divdiv id="right_col" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;"Training went really well today. nbsp;I've been feeling pretty junky the last couple of days due to a hard week of training, followed by three days off (I NEVER take three days off!), long travel, and then arriving at altitude. nbsp;Today I did 6x45-60 seconds at 10k race pace on the race course and felt great once I got up to speed. nbsp;I've had that sensation a lot this year - feeling bad at low speeds and distance pace, and feeling awesome at Level 3, 4, and 5. nbsp;Erik says that it's beacuse my "high end race muscles" are in shape. nbsp;I suppose that's a good thing! It's funny because I think that a lot of ski racers want to feel really good all the time. nbsp;One thing I've learned this year is that you don't have to feel good to race well.br /br /If you are curious about following Friday and Saturday's World Cup races (I'm starting both) you can find links to startlists and results on the Alberta World Cup Academy website here:br /br /http://www.albertaworldcup.com/main.phpbr /br /Here are just a couple more fun pictures to end the post with....br /br /a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2X6LFJrjnI/AAAAAAAAAfk/6JMlpYS70Hk/s1600-h/Can%27s+O+TV+.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2X6LFJrjnI/AAAAAAAAAfk/6JMlpYS70Hk/s320/Can%27s+O+TV+.JPG" //abr /br /The media is starting to show up...br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2X6ZamhW7I/AAAAAAAAAfs/v8Y6UZQX8eI/s1600-h/through+my+glasses.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2X6ZamhW7I/AAAAAAAAAfs/v8Y6UZQX8eI/s320/through+my+glasses.JPG" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Can you see the venue in the reflection of my glasses!?/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2X62jpgCaI/AAAAAAAAAf0/BAa678lIH_A/s1600-h/Holly%27s+Wed+class-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2X62jpgCaI/AAAAAAAAAf0/BAa678lIH_A/s320/Holly%27s+Wed+class-1.jpg" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"This is my women's only group that had to put up with having a male coach for the second time this year last Wednesday. Sorry girls.... and thanks Casey for leading. (Thanks to Gail French for the pic and thanks to Gail French and Gail Hoefler for the beautiful leis!)nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"More to come including pictures from the venue...nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Enjoy your day!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Holly :)nbsp;/divbr //divbr /span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-3218059298465194023?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2RUiAeTvBI/AAAAAAAAAfA/jDeUT80ts0U/s1600-h/Don%26Holly-On+Ski%27s+83+Jpeg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2RUiAeTvBI/AAAAAAAAAfA/jDeUT80ts0U/s320/Don%26Holly-On+Ski%27s+83+Jpeg.jpg" //a/divbr /div style="text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"Check out this sweet picture that my uncle Dennis sent over email. This is me and my dad skiing when I was 8 1/2 months old! My dad looks like he came straight from Woodstock and what do you know.... I have an Olympic hat on?!/span/divbr /Our approach coming to altitude is to take day 3 off from training. nbsp;The third day at altitude is notoriously one of the hardest with low levels of oxygen in the blood. nbsp;It can make a person from sea level feel extremely out of shape! nbsp;Starting tomorrow, our bodies will start to re-adjust to our new environment and acclimate a bit more each day. nbsp;I'm excited to have the day to get caught up on paperwork and emails. Yes, ski racers have "paperwork!" br /br /I wanted to start the day with a couple of thoughts. First is to thank my husband Rob for being such a huge help through this whole process.br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2RY1oqW87I/AAAAAAAAAfI/vG8urHTFliA/s1600-h/Holly+and+Rob.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2RY1oqW87I/AAAAAAAAAfI/vG8urHTFliA/s320/Holly+and+Rob.JPG" //a/divbr /Rob has been working his tail off making "Go Holly" stickers, communicating with friends and family, helping with logistics, acting as my personal assistant, etc, etc. He's the best husband that anyone could ask for. Thanks Babe!br /br /Next, good luck to my APU junior skiers that have a high school race today! Ski hard and have fun you guys, I will be thinking of you!br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2RZtOdVOfI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/TgxRPHrwW_k/s1600-h/APU+Juniors.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2RZtOdVOfI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/TgxRPHrwW_k/s320/APU+Juniors.JPG" //a/divbr /I'll write more soon. nbsp;The coffee is calling me from downstairs....div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-5285777623786035462?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #655a4e; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"/spanbr /div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"/divh2 style="border-bottom-color: rgb(243, 213, 182); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; font: normal normal normal 2.3em/normal 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"My first trip to Canmore was two years ago. nbsp;I came here to watch the race, learn as much as I could, and cheer on the 8 or so APU athletes that would be competing in the event. It was a blast! nbsp;We wrote Kikkan's name on our stomachs, carried around ALASKA flags, and had a great time. nbsp;Two years ago I never envisioned that Inbsp;would be here as an athlete..../span/span/span/h2div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2OTr_lOuGI/AAAAAAAAAeo/aHaZBtsSE_A/s1600-h/Cheering+for+Kikkan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2OTr_lOuGI/AAAAAAAAAeo/aHaZBtsSE_A/s320/Cheering+for+Kikkan.jpg" //a/divdivbr //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2OVkw5a5cI/AAAAAAAAAew/pYidr4k8HA0/s1600-h/AK+flags.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2OVkw5a5cI/AAAAAAAAAew/pYidr4k8HA0/s320/AK+flags.jpg" //a/divdivbr //divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"On September 23rd, 2009 I published an article on a blog that I write for: http://www.athleta.net/chi//span/span/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"br //span /span/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"In the article, I vocalized my Olympic goal and what had been "my little secret" was on the internet and available for ANYONE to read. It's fun to go back and re-read this piece from 5 (short) months ago!nbsp;nbsp;I faced my fear and it paid off!nbsp;Now, not only will I be starting my first World Cup in a couple of days but I will be walking into the opening ceremonys as an athlete in T-14 days!nbsp;/span/span/divdivh2 style="border-bottom-color: rgb(243, 213, 182); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; font: normal normal normal 2.3em/normal 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"I Want To Be An Olympian/h2small style="font-size: 0.95em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;"a href="http://www.athleta.net/chi/author/hollybrooks/" style="color: #4b9099; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Holly Brooks"Holly Brooks/anbsp;• Sep 23rd, 2009 • Category:nbsp;a href="http://www.athleta.net/chi/category/featured-athlete-story/" rel="category tag" style="color: #4b9099; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all posts in Featured Athlete Story"Featured Athlete Story/a,nbsp;a href="http://www.athleta.net/chi/category/skiing/" rel="category tag" style="color: #4b9099; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View all posts in Skiing"Skiing/a/smallbr /div class="entry" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"div style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"img alt="Training with Skate Skis" class="picright" src="http://www.athleta.net/chi/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/holly-2.jpg" style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: #f3d5b6; background-image: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(249, 244, 232); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 5px; border-left-color: rgb(249, 244, 232); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 5px; border-right-color: rgb(249, 244, 232); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 5px; border-top-color: rgb(249, 244, 232); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 5px; float: right; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 4px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" /There, I said it. I’ve been avoiding the “O” word for such a long time. It’s taken me months to come out and say it but there it is, plain, clear, and simple for all the Internet universe to see./divdiv style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"As a professional full-time coach for a private program, my personal racing has always taken a backseat to my job. This year, as I prepare to make the 2010 Winter Olympic Cross Country Ski team, I plan to step up my personal training while maintaining a high level of commitment to the athletes that I coach. (If anything is going to take a hit, it will be my social life or lack thereof!)/divdiv style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"During the past year when people have asked me if I’ve thought about “trying out” for the Olympics or training to make the team, I’ve always been non-committal in my answer. My response usually followed the lines of, “I’m going to train like usual and see what happens” or, “we’ll see how things go.” The truth is, or course I’ve thought about it and “YES!” I want to try. This time when someone asks me about the Olympics I plan on being clear and committal in my response./divdiv style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"Why has it been so hard for me to admit my goal? To put it simply, I’m afraid of not making the team — of failing. “What will people think if I don’t make it?” But, if I wasn’t “trying” in the first place it would be a shock to everyone if I was named to the team. If I didn’t make it they would say, “You weren’t really trying — imagine what you could have done if you tried!” There is a fair amount of safety in hiding my goal or being “laissez-faire about it.” I am not going to hide behind the mask of being a coach anymore./divdiv style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"img alt="Training with Skate Skis" class="picleft" src="http://www.athleta.net/chi/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/holly-3.jpg" style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: #f3d5b6; background-image: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(249, 244, 232); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 5px; border-left-color: rgb(249, 244, 232); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 5px; border-right-color: rgb(249, 244, 232); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 5px; border-top-color: rgb(249, 244, 232); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 5px; float: left; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 4px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 1px; padding-right: 1px; padding-top: 1px;" /Vocalizing goals holds you accountable in more ways than one. It holds you responsible for your hard work: On a rainy, cold day where you don’t feel like training, perhaps you’ll think of your mom who will come to watch you race. Or, encouragement from your local community, family, and friends can provide inspiration or emotional, logistical, or even financial support./divdiv style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"By failing to vocalize my goal I realize I have only been short-changing myself. When people would inquire about my plans and I was blowing it off, I realize that the attitude was permeating my training efforts, my planning, and my ability to be a whole athlete. When you are trying to make an Olympic team there is no room for three-quarter effort. Undoubtedly there are other skiers out there who have vocalized their Olympic goals for years and are doing everything they possibly can to ensure they are on that team!/divdiv style="margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"My hope, now that I have admitted to chasing the Olympic dream, is to have the ability to pursue my goal to the fullest: To receive support and encouragement from those around me; and last but not least, to inspire others to acknowledge, confront, and vocalize their dreams without fear of failure.br /br //divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"Not only is it sweet to accomplish my goal but it's super nice to have friends who make really cool signs!nbsp;/span/span/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"br //span/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2OXSCS-JzI/AAAAAAAAAe4/mIJI6rclDps/s1600-h/Inger+with+Sign+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2OXSCS-JzI/AAAAAAAAAe4/mIJI6rclDps/s320/Inger+with+Sign+.jpg" //a/divdivspan class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"br //span/divdiv style="text-align: center;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"Thanks Inger! nbsp;You totally ROCK!nbsp;/span/span/div/div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-4800841382367283875?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

Hey Everyone,br /br /Sorry for the delay in posting..... The travel here was long but seamless. nbsp;No broken skis or lost luggage! nbsp;The last 24 hours has been great - first of all, Rob and Buggz (yep, a cat that LOVES the car!) dropped me off at the Anchorage Airport:br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2Ic9e5i1UI/AAAAAAAAAdI/Cfj2SoP24tg/s1600-h/P1270013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2Ic9e5i1UI/AAAAAAAAAdI/Cfj2SoP24tg/s200/P1270013.JPG" width="200" //a/divbr /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2IdVgNcjaI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/k7_nqE7jWOc/s1600-h/P1270016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2IdVgNcjaI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/k7_nqE7jWOc/s320/P1270016.JPG" //a/divbr /(One of those funny hold your arm out as long as you can self shots right before I went through security)br /br /The plane ride was funny because many people on the plane were reading the newspaper and I was on the cover. nbsp;People kept recognizing me and congratulating me - I even autographed some newspapers! nbsp;(This is a very surreal experience for someone that isn't used to this kind of attention) Thanks to Mike Campbell for writing a really nice story and Erik Hill for the pictures. If you want to read the article, here is a link:br /br /http://www.adn.com/sports/olympics/story/1110936.htmlbr /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2IfovrzHlI/AAAAAAAAAdY/lygCQnzM6xE/s1600-h/P1270010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2IfovrzHlI/AAAAAAAAAdY/lygCQnzM6xE/s200/P1270010.JPG" width="200" //a/divbr /br /We had a short layover in Seattle and my parents drove to the airport to give me a hug... my mom brought her co-workers Olympic flag to greet me at the airport. My parents are excited and proud as you can imagine. nbsp;I appreciate that they have always supported me doing whatever it is that I want to do!br /br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2IcOL_a2yI/AAAAAAAAAdA/iUf8noj-S2M/s1600-h/P1270018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2IcOL_a2yI/AAAAAAAAAdA/iUf8noj-S2M/s320/P1270018.JPG" width="320" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divbr /After two flights, luggage, customs, the drive, and getting some food we checked into our temporary condo and went to sleep around 11:30pm - EXHUASTED!br /br /But today, we woke up for our am training session to this.....br /br /div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2Ii5URCSsI/AAAAAAAAAdg/PPa_LzvUw_Q/s1600-h/P1280022_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2Ii5URCSsI/AAAAAAAAAdg/PPa_LzvUw_Q/s320/P1280022_50p.JPG" //a/divbr /div style="text-align: center;"Canmore is awesome... the Rockies surround the venue/divdiv style="text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2IkIS_preI/AAAAAAAAAdo/0RitEmKbCAc/s1600-h/P1280024_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2IkIS_preI/AAAAAAAAAdo/0RitEmKbCAc/s200/P1280024_50p.JPG" width="200" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Flags of all the ski countries/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br /a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2ImLmJAokI/AAAAAAAAAdw/jITt48oKHWs/s1600-h/P1280028_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2ImLmJAokI/AAAAAAAAAdw/jITt48oKHWs/s320/P1280028_50p.JPG" //a/divdiv style="text-align: center;"br //divdiv style="text-align: center;"PERFECT grooming/divdiv style="text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2ImriJDgFI/AAAAAAAAAd4/f7bBYHVYyOk/s1600-h/P1280032_50p.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wl4EmOZ6xTM/S2ImriJDgFI/AAAAAAAAAd4/f7bBYHVYyOk/s320/P1280032_50p.JPG" width="240" //a/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Team APU going to the Olympics! James Southam, Holly Brooks, Kikkan Randall, and Coach Erik Flora (the only non-US Ski Team coach coaching at the Games!)nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"This afternoon we got some groceries and are going on a short run here in town. nbsp;My legs and arms felt really junky this morning in training but that is to be expected after a super hard training week followed by three days off and long travel. nbsp;I'm ecstatic to be here - thanks so much everyone for your emails, facebook messages, and voicemails, and kind words. nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"More to come soon!nbsp;/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"Holly :)nbsp;/divdiv style="text-align: center;"br //divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6401505974719455979-1267603360888549698?l=hollyskis.blogspot.com' alt='' //div