A Great Day

Nov. 12, 2010

Training: Nov. 8,9 : Off days for recovery week
              Nov. 10: Easy L1-2 classic ski. Total time: 2hr
              Nov. 11: Easy L1 skate ski. Total time: 2hr
              Nov. 12: Classic L4 intervals. Total time: 2hr

     What a difference a few days can make! After last Sunday, it was easy to have doubts about the season especially when skiing back to the car felt like climbing Mt. Everest. Thankfully the two days spent recovering and catching up on some needed sleep helped bring my body back to life and rejuvenated my spirits. With some nice grooming at the hillside trail system on Wednesday, Mark and I had a very pleasant morning stroll on our skis to bring the bodies back into training mode. Two days off is enough to throw us off kilter a bit, so its good to start moving the blood again.
     Yesterday was an amazing day though. I took a drive home to Soldotna because I was invited to speak at a  Rotary meeting and because I was and still am in the market to find sponsors for my racing, this was a good opportunity to talk with some hometown businesses. I am always surprised how relaxed I feel when I drive into town. Its as if the busy lifestyle I live in Anchorage seems to disappear and I resort back to this grade school-like happiness of not having any REAL stress. Just comfort people I suppose.
     I was excited to be able to give a short presentation at the Rotary giving information on many of the great potential investments in the local ski community and I was surprised to find how receptive the group was. I forget  that even though I have yet to qualify for a World Championship or Olympic team, I have had a lot of success in athletics compared to most coming out of our small community and I can have some influence when speaking at home. Nonetheless, I was happy to be there and glad I could help promote our local ski programs. We have a lot of great people involved with our Rotary club in Soldotna and am not surprised that our community programs have grown and prospered through the help of such clubs.
     The Soldotna community itself still blows my mind as well. Perhaps I'm seeing things from a newer perspective, but the huge amount of support and accolades I received from our community was simply astonishing. I would like to send a very sincere thanks out to Tom Seggerman of TDS Construction and Mike Sweeney of Sweeney's Clothing for the support they have given and a special thanks to Justin Moore of Justin Moore Orthodontics and Dennis and Sandra Ghormley for their support as well. With communities like mine, I get so fired up to contribute back and I look forward to doing so this winter and winters to come. I will not be surprised if we begin to see a lot more Soldotna kids kicking my butt and achieving greater things than I, especially with the expert grooming from Bill Holt and the Tsalteshi trail crew. The trails in Soldotna are some of the finest in Alaska with the terrain out there, I wont be surprised to see some bigger caliber races there in the future.
      Beyond yesterdays great success, todays workout was equally exciting. Mark and I took off for some L4 intervals on a course with three substantial climbs. We switched leads each interval and each rotation got progressively faster. On the second to last interval I found myself having to dig deep and really grit my teeth to stay on the back of Mark, who perhaps had faster skis but I wont make excuses, and hit the highest heart-rate I think I've seen in L4 intervals. I buried myself a bit, but I kept the final interval in check and finished just a few seconds behind Mark. Going hard feels good. I was so jazzed after the workout today that my chocolate milk afterwards was drank with ferociousness. Those are the intervals that get you tough and I am now excited to race.