Hazel!

Hello everyone! I am proud to announce that at 3:30 am on Nov. 25, Hazel Elizabeth Southam was born! The birth was amazingly smooth and both baby and mama are doing great.

Tomorrow morning I head down to Montana to start the season but I leave Annie and Hazel in good hands with both sets of grandparents in town. 

My own private ski area

Since the rest of the US ski world is in West Yellowstone skiing past each other I've got the full trail system in town pretty much to myself. Not a single soul in sight out at Kincaid this morning but there were two foxes and a moose. 

It is a good thing the skiing is pretty good here in Anchorage since it looks like I most likely won't be in West. The baby is still kickin' it in Annie's belly, and if it doesn't come tonight Soldier Hollow will be my first race weekend of the year. 

Still waiting

Still waiting on the baby but fortunately we have some pretty good skiing here in town. No classic tracks, or even grooming, but the trails are skied in and the skiing is great for this time of year so we are able to get quality workouts on snow. The best part is no driving to Hatchers on a 5 hour trip wondering if I am going to have to hustle back to town if Annie goes into labor. 

November

Not much news up here but things are rolling along nicely up here. Training is going super well and race season is finally almost here. The drive to Hatcher's is getting really old but the skiing is great and we are able to get some creative quality training in town in the afternoons. The rest of the team is starting to pack for heading down to West Yellowstone, but I still have a bit since I won' t be going down until right before the race. Annie is about ready to pop out a baby so skiing isn't quite the top thing on my list which is probably why it is going so well. Hope to have some big news soon!

New sponsor

I am super excited to now have Altolab as my simulated altitude sponsor! Altolab is an Intermittent Hypoxic Training (IHT) device that lets you get the benefits of altitude without having to travel or sleep in a tent and at a fraction of the cost. For an athlete like myself who lives at sea level and has a family it is a beautiful option. Their website has quite a bit of information worth reading (www.altolab-usa.com) Check it out!

October done

This coming week starts with a little down time after two solid weeks of skiing since I got back from Utah. The skiing has been sweet up at Hatcher's. Cold hard tracks, surprisingly clear skies, and no one but APU up there during the week. The driving up there to train every day gets a little old but having the quality of skiing we have up there now makes it well worth it. 

So the training has been going really well, and the ski testing has gone even better. We also had two time trial up there this week, one distance and one sprint. Going steady and smooth I won the long one. I did 15k and the rest of the guys all being sprinters did 10k and my 10k split was ahead of their 10k race times and I managed to hold the same pace for the next 5k. I ended up 2nd in the sprint to Jeff Ellis who nipped me at the line in all 3 rounds, but the rest of the guys were all a bit back (we had some way faster skis than them). There is a pretty good chance that the sprint TT will be my only sprint of the season so it was good to beat up on most of the sprinters.