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03/04/10
Caribou

I have been home only four days and already I am in middle of packing for another trip. This one however is a short one, Russell and I are leaving this afternoon for the Rangeley Loppet. I have wanted to do this race for many years, and now is my chance. The weather looks great, sunny and warm for tomorrow.

The last few weeks have been pretty crazy. I did the Capitol Square SuperTour races in downtown Madison Wisconsic a few weekends back. Events in a city downtown are always a good time. People, snowed in streets, lots of crazy racing action. Unfortunately I got caught up in the madness on the first day, getting involved in a pretty big crash that left me way behind the leaders. The second day was not much better than the first but I had only myself to blame for being slow in the prelim. round of the sprint. the races were a big success however, and I had a good time.

The Birke last weekend was also a big success. BethAnn and I made the trip over to Hayward from Minnesota. Great weather and fast course made for a good weekend. I still feel that I am still trying to find some good shape after so much time off in January, but I was at least able to stay with the leaders for 40 out of the 50k before the wheels came off. Not too bad, and considering the strength of the field this was better than my efforts a few weeks ago.

Tomorrow will be my last race before the big event in the County at the end of March. I am looking forward to all the racing action that is going to happen here this month, starting with JO's next week!

02/07/09
Grand Rapids, MN

I am still hot on the comeback trail out here in Minnesota, I followed up my first race back in Telemark with the City of Lakes Loppett this past weekend. While I am not back into great shape just yet, I am getting there and will be almost there with another good week of training this week. My plans got derailed slightly last week when BethAnn came down with a horrendous cold, and spent two days in bed. While I did not get sick I had to take a few extra days off being tired and draggy, I am sure that my immune system was fighting tooth and nail. Bummer for BethAnn, she had to put off her flight back east and miss the races there this weekend. The good news is that she recovered in time to catch a flight to Burlington for the biathlon Nor/Ams in Lake Placid this weekend. The last that I talked to her she was stuck in Detroit because of the snow, but at least she is healthy and ready for action.

The last few weeks have been pretty good for me. My knee has not given me any trouble in two weeks time and I am pretty much 100% in that department. My first race back was the 15k mass start in Telemark and I am glad I did it because it gave me a good test of my knee in more ways than one. At the start I got trampled in a pile-up and 1.5k from the finish I went head first into another pile-up in front of me. While the bad news is that I lost over a minute floundering around in the snow, the good news is that my knee did not give me any trouble at all. It was a fun weekend, I was able to stay and catch up with my friend Dennis Kruz at his hamlet in the Wisconsin woods. He has a beautiful house and is one of the most gracious ski racer hosts I have ever stayed with. Both BethAnn and I had a great weekend.

And this past weekend I had a very memorable weekend of ski racing at the City of Lakes Loppet. The City of Lakes is in downtown Minneapolis - starting in Theodore Wurth Park (the site of the SuperTour races a few weekends ago) and finishing in Uptown, just a few blocks from the skyscrapers. I drove down Saturday morning and did the sprints in Uptown on Saturday night. I felt good Saturday night, just missing out on the win with a lunge at the finish line with Matt Liebsch. The scene was really something, lots of people out spectating. The next day didn't suit me as well. The lack of training has taken a toll on my recovery time, my legs were tired from the start and I never really found a great rythmn through the day. Part of the problem was my own making however, I tried to stay with Liebsch when he made his break at 5k and I payed for it with some suffering mid-race. I recovered enough to hang on to the small pack that had formed behind and was at least able to sprint for 4th. It was a good workout however, and I will be stronger for it in the weeks ahead. With only the few weeks that I had to rest, my fitness is not buried to far under the hood at this point. One of the best parts of the weekend was the Luminary on Saturday night. Set up in a loop around the lake below the finish line were thousands of candles and ice sculptures. There must have been about two thousand people out to witness the event, unbelievable.



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