Well, Summer time has officially landed; at least here in Pewaukee, WI.  Currently, it is about 94 degrees Fahrenheit with 75% humidity.  Yes, that is VERY hot!  

Maria and I are here in town staying with Bob and Mary Eloranta while we conduct high school as well as Master skier clinics this week.  We have high school clinics Monday through Friday for 1.5 hours starting at 4 p.m.  We also have a Women’s only clinic tonight from 6-8 p.m., and an open Master skier clinic on Thursday from 6-8 p.m. as well.  These clinics are a great way to give back to the area that made Maria into the elite skier that she is now.  I also enjoy doing the clinics because I spent a Summer down here working at the Bicycle Doctor and this area is great for training and has a really active and generous ski community.  

As far as my training and life has gone up until this point, I have been busy working at Farmer Q’s while home in Marquette.  I was able to sneak away for two consecutive weekends in May and race my mountain bike back in my hometown of Rhinelander at the RASTA Rally one weekend and the Crystal Lake Classic which is part of the WORS series the next.  Both races were really fun thanks to the Rhinelander area for putting on the races, and a big thanks to Wayne Fish who has pretty much single-handedly built all the amazing single track at the Camp Tesomas race venue.  I had one of my best mountain bike races at the 22 mile Crystal Lake Classic where I won my first WORS series medals for placing 3rd in the 19-29 age class.  I was having a REALLY good race until about two miles left where I blew up big time and lost about ten places overall.  I hope to keep the good bike form going this Sunday at the Superior Bike Fest up in Marquette where I will race the 24 mile mountain bike race. 

Stay tuned to find out how it goes.

Doing running drills in Marine, MN at the CXC Youth day camp.

Well, after finally returning to Marquette after being held up in Fairbanks due to the volcano I have found some time to reflect on the races.  Due to the race courses being extremely hard the races were demanding as well as fast.  The field was smaller than a normal short distance US Nationals, but the quality of the field was still very high.

In both races the front group split up on the second biggest climb, the Tower climb.  This was probably the biggest hill on the Duathlon course, but it was second biggest to the Black Hole climb in the 50km.  These were straight up herringbone hills.  In both races I was able to stay connected with the lead pack because of insanely fast classic skis.  I was feeling really good in the Duathlon during the classic portion and came through the exchange in 6th, 4th American.  I just did not have it in the skate portion and had to settle for staying in the pack that was fighting for the 3rd American spot.  On the last time up the big Tower climb I was dropped a little and just could not make it up by the time the finish came.  In the end I had to settle for 7th overall, 6th American.

In the 50km classic I was able to fight the entire race just off of the lead pack.  Just as the race started the Sun warmed the tracks and they started to glaze due to all the racers and my skis became a bit slick.  This was really unfortunate because I felt great the whole race and ended up being passed in the last 3km by the 3rd American, Glen Randall.  He had a great race, but I feel like I could have stayed with the lead pack of Ivan Babikov, Stefan Kuhn, Noah Hoffman, and James Southam with a little more kick.  I stayed with them until about 25km before having to settle in the chase pack with Torin Koos and Graham Nishikawa.

All in all it was a bit disappointing to be so close to the podium in the races but at the same time encouraging for next season.  It was also great to finally be able to ski with my older brother Chris again.  It has been awhile since we have even been in the same race, and it just so happened that we skied pretty much together for the entire Duathlon and about half of the 50km.

Currently, I am taking some time off of training and just staying active by playing basketball with some of the Men’s NMU ski team and Gus Kaeding, as the ski team practices for the annual Basketball Massacre.  The Massacre usually takes place in late April and consists of the current Men’s ski team taking on the current Women’s NMU basketball team.  It is always fun to watch as well as play in!  I am also waiting for some warmer weather so I can get out on the road bike.

Check back for pictures, because we cannot currently post any for some reason.

This past weekend Maria and I were able to head back to Rhinelander to participate in the Judy Swank Memorial Ski at the Northwood’s Golf Course.

As many of you know, Judy was my high school ski coach; however, she was much more than just my first ski coach.  She was a mentor and all-around wonderful person.  She was an amazing role model and always kind person.  She was also the wife of an extremely nice man Lee, and a mother of another great role model and inspiration for me, Adam.  She will be greatly missed but always remembered for all the great things she accomplished during her lifetime.

For the ski we could not have asked for a better day.  It was 50 degrees without a cloud in the sky!  We were met by around 100 other enthusiastic skiers skiing around the very well groomed trails.  We were skiing in Judy’s honor and memory as she had always wanted to complete the 10 Worldloppet races.  She completed 9 of the races and we were skiing her tenth.  It was a great ski with wonderful people followed by a celebration of Judy.  We sang a few songs and told our favorite Judy stories.  It was a very emotional event and something I will always remember.

We have arrived back in Marquette for a few weeks of training after competing up in Houghton, MI at the Central College Regional races.  These races were open for anyone to compete so CXC teammates Maria, Gus, Brian Gregg, Kristina Owen, JoJo Winters, and I headed up to race a 5/10km classic and 10/15km mass-start skate.  Gus, Maria, and I would like to big a give thank you to Mike and Christine Young who allowed us to stay with them for the weekend.  They were unbelievable hosts and even sent us home with a growler of Keweenaw Brewing Company Blonde Ale.  Thank you very much!

The races came and went as all of us were still feeling quite tired from the Birkie.  The highlights were my 3rd place in the 10km classic and my 2nd place to Brian Gregg in the 15km skate.  Maria scored a solid 2nd in the 10km skate followed my Kristina and JoJo in 3rd and 4th.  Martin Banerud from NMU won the 10km classic by a mere 0.4 seconds, and Laura DeWitt took the 5km classic while Lindsey Dehlin won the 10km skate.  It was a great weekend for NMU as they qualified a full team of six athletes for NCAA’s in Rumford, Maine, while also winning the combined Regionals team title.  We wish everyone good luck at NCAA’s!

Well, it was quite the memorable Birkie week for myself.  I had been looking forward to, and training for, the Birkie for the past month.  Do not get me wrong, I did not overlook any of my races leading up to the Birkie, but I always had my eye on the Birkie as I was training.  The weeks leading up to the Birkie were going really well for me as far as racing and training goes; however, as I hit the Monday before the big race on Saturday I was hit with a sickness.  This was not just my annual, “Birkie fever,” this was something more like a sore throat and stuffed up head.

There was no time to panic, simply hope that I would be healthy by race time.  I ended up staying inside, resting, drinking a ton of tea, and eating as much vitamin C as I could until Thursday.  On Thursday I tried to ski off my sickness.  I skated for an hour and fifteen minutes and by the end I was feeling okay, which was nice considering at the start of the ski on the power lines I almost had to stop at the top of one of the hills because I was breathing so hard.  On Friday, Maria and I headed up to OO to test our skis.  I skied for about an hour and ten minutes and did some three minute level 3 pick ups to see if I was going to be able to race well at all.  I felt okay during these intervals so I convinced myself that I might be able to pull off a good race.

I spent a good portion of the evening eating as much pasta as I could muster, and I finished dinner and had a bowl of cereal right before bed.  I headed to bed around 11 p.m. and felt the best I had all week.  Right before falling asleep I thought that there was a good possibility I would wake up and feel almost 100% and be able to fight for a top finish.  Then…

I woke up around 1:30 a.m. and I had a horrible toothache.  I had a toothache earlier this year, which was quickly followed by a root canal so I knew what was happening.  This was much worse than my first one though.  I do not know why it hit the night before the Birkie, but I think it might have had something to do with me being sick all week and this was bad.  For awhile I contemplated getting up and asking my parents if I should go to the hospital or dentist because the pain was intense.  This would have totally ruined my chances at racing, so I decided to take two advil and hope it would just go away.  I sat in bed waiting for the advil to kick in and the intense throbbing to go away and it was painful.  There was no position I could sit, stand, or lay that would make the pain any less.  Now I was really worried, not because I could not sleep, but because I thought my Birkie was in jeopardy from a stupid toothache after getting fairly healthy in a week.  By a stroke of luck, or the advil, I was able to finally fall asleep around 3:00 a.m.  My Birkie was saved.

I woke up to warm temperatures, no toothache, and hopes that my toothache would not kick in again around 30km, or any kilometer for that matter.  I headed down to the start line around 7 a.m. and took off at 8:20 a.m. with the rest of the Elite wave and had a blast.  I felt good the entire way and was able to help our team score a 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 6th in the men’s race!  The feeling of sprinting up main street was amazing, and it was even better having Matt waiting for me at the finish line after skiing an incredible race for the victory.  Matt really deserved the win after working so hard all race and taking off with about 20km to go.  I followed a move by another great racer Dan Roycroft from Canada with a little less than 20km to go, and we skied the rest of the way together before I was able to sprint in for 2nd.  I really cannot describe what it was like to sprint up main street, because it was pretty much a blur for me.  The atmosphere is so incredible on main street thanks to the crowd of excited spectators.  It was also special to see Brian Gregg sprint in for 4th and Andre for 6th, because we were able to celebrate together at the finish line.  Not to mention the excitment that followed when fellow teammate Gus Kaeding out sprinted the King of Cross-Country skiing Bjorn Daehlie.  This was the crowning moment that the team had hoped for, a double victory and serious celebration after Gus crossed the line and we greeted him.

It was an incredible day, and I want to thank my family, teammates, coaching staff for extremely fast skis, and network of supporters for allowing me to pursue my dreams as a skier.  This is just one of my goals as a skier and I look forward to many more coming up!

Sprinting up Main Street for 2nd.