Cuddy Park

Yesterday was the 3rd Annual Cuddy Park Rollerski Race. I hadn't been to the first two and have never even seen the park before which is tucked right behind Lowe's in the middle of town. Turns out it is a pretty sweet place. It has a really nice gentle rolling paved 1k loop and an Olympic size paved speed skating oval (only the 6th in the country I learned). The race was a pursuit with a 6k classic which we all double poled on skate skis followed 2 hours later by a 1k sprint around the speed skating oval. The morning went pretty well although I ended up 3rd a few seconds behind Anders and a boot behind Bart. I let quite a bit of it with Anders and I switching off, and made the move that whittled the field down to the three of us but couldn't quite close the deal when Anders threw his 185 lbs into me on the inside of a corner with less than 1k to go. Rubbin's racin' and I never caught back up. 

The afternoon was a little less successful, but it was a track race and I am more of a non track race kind of guy unlike Jeff Ellis, our former 400 meter hurdler who one. It was a good chance to learn a few things about what I need to work on coming into the season. 

Back for a bit

It has been a little while since my last post... since then I've been on the glacier twice, and back east in North Carolina and Vermont for 10 days visiting Annie's family and getting a little change of training scene in VT. That made for 3 nights in my own bed over the last month.

Our glacier camps are done now, 30 days of skiing by mid-August... not too bad. It has been sweet to be on snow so much in the summer and get some quality time and ski testing done on snow, but it will definitely be nice to be home for a while. In addition to just being home and settled for a few months there is a lot to get done around the house before the season and before the little one shows up.

Back east was a great break from the cold summer, I didn't wear a shirt training once back there compared with not wearing a shirt one time up here so far. Aside from good weather the training around Stowe was great. Big paved climbs, the alpine hill is mellow enough that it makes for great bounding and the weight room at the SRC at the bottom of my in-laws road make for a solid week of training. I also got to go over to Jericho a couple days and ski on the rollerski loop there. That place was sweet and sparked a little bit of envy. If only we could have a hilly rollerski track like that in Anchorage... 

So this week a little down time and catch up on work and the business side of things before shifting gears next week as the training focus is a little more intense.