New website

It's been 4 years and I finally re-did my website. Head on over to www.jamessoutham.com

A good read

A good piece about the financial situation of most post college athletes in Olympic sports. Don't forget to support your local ski racers!

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/09/08/sports/8-solomon.txt

Injured

For the last 4 days I've been nursing a pulled intercostal muscle. Not quite sure how it happened but on Thursday as I was starting to ramp back into training after a few days off I found myself nauseous with pain. I went to get accupuncture that afternoon and some active release in the evening. The pain was down a whole lot the next day and I've been getting treatment daily since.

The training has been a little different that I am used to. It's been stationary. I've been hitting the elliptical or the stationary bike 3 times a day pretty hard to keep the fitness up while giving injured area little time to heal. Thank God for college football and the US Open to keep me company.

Grinding

Summer is over. Crisp mornings and changing leaves. This week I am enjoying a few days off after the summer base period and before the intensity kicks up next week. A little time to look back.

Two big pieces of news for the summer. We moved into a new house in the mountains. After two years living right next to the airport the quiet is amazing! The running from the house isn't too bad either. And the big one is I have a new sponsor! Alaska Waste. Alaska's recycling and waste management company. I recycle. Do you? alaskawaste.net

Training has been rolling along quite well, although last week I started to feel like a flat tire so the time off started a little earlier than planned. With the Olympics coming up and looking at the Pursuit and the 50k as my best events this summer has been filled with a lot of what I like to call grinding. Nothing overly complicated just steady, hard training to get ready for the long stuff. A few interval days thrown in but simply put, as fast as I feel I can go and be ready to do it again the next workout. Pretty simple. The glacier is fantastic for this and the three camps up there were outstanding for both the fitness and technique. Extra blue in August would be nice but it's hard to get many days of the kind of tough klister skiing that can be found on occasion in Whistler. It's a different kind of skiing and I've got 75 hours of it so far this summer.

I've got one more month of dryland now here in Anchorage before I head to Park City for my altitude camp in October. Now some pics.

The glacier

The new neighborhood

The baby girl

Nasty

Bird Ridge. 3 miles, 3400 ft uphill the whole way. Throw some wet, wind, and cold and that was nasty. Brent and I took off from the start and I felt super comfortable for about 15 minutes until last week caught up I couldn't match the pace. After about 25 minutes some of those classic skiing muscle that I abused last week started to cramp up in the cold and I was waddling up the mountain with my feet two feet apart. Trying to keep moving just hoping they would come around so I could hold on to second place. Luckily for me once Tor Kristopherson (3rd) got to within 5-10 seconds the course started to level out enough that I could run and the cramping let up and was able to pull away and save second. The best effort of the day had to be Rob Whitney who was 6th or so, that man can suffer!

Next up, a couple days of rest working down at the Raven before getting back to it on Wednesday.

Eagle 1

Yesterday I dragged my body out of my bottom bunk. Shoved down some more food and coffee before heading out for the last ski of the first Eagle Glacier camp of the year. This morning I woke up to the chirps of baby Hazel and gave her a bath before I ate breakfast. A whole other world...

My rest days are a little different than the rest of the team this year due to baby care which means the rest of my training week is a little different as well. This means that this was the first time I was back with the full team for the summer. This is the third year of the new APU team and you can tell that the whole crew is working really well together. Super good to see. This was also the first camp up there with Mark Iverson and Mike Hinckley. Two guys with quite a bit of talent that have been a good addition to the team.

Camp was a little different than usual thanks to the volcano. The ash that blew in March definitely left its mark on the glacier with a nice shade of gray. We woke up to snow a few days up there and the glacier would be white for a few hours before the gray would come back to the top. The loop we skied was much cleaner than the rest after the PB moved the surface ash to the side but the fat rills I put in my rock skis were no where to be seen after a few days.

We also classic skied a ton. The PB had some mechanical issues after a couple days and the snow wasn't setting up thanks to the ash and the weather so the snow machine set classic tracks for most of the week. Ski training is so varied with training options that we never do the same thing all that much. This week with only classic skiing was tough. Sore in all kinds of places and my feet were killing me by the end but my classic skiing is way better than it was seven days ago!

Up next is Bird Ridge on Sunday. A 3500 or so ft uphill race along the Turnagain Arm. Luckily I managed avoid hiking out yesterday so my legs at least aren't sore. Who know's how the rest of my body will take it. Big thanks to Keith at Alpine Air for getting Laura and I out of there and Jay for getting us back to town!

May update

Since the last time you heard from me I spent two weeks on Kauai, 3 days driving my new (to me) car from Utah to AK, had some sweet spring skiing and now I am just finishing up my 5th week of training for the year.

After a great week in Fairbanks to end the season I enjoyed doing absolutely nothing for a week before Annie, Hazel and I got on a plane to spend two weeks in Kauai. The last time we were in Hawaii we were on the go pretty much the whole day. This time with the addition of a 5 month old definitely made us adjust the pace. We got in some sweet hikes and saw some amazing things, all a little closer to the car that we had before.

There was another big life change this spring when the 1987 VW van that I have driven since I learned how to drive retired. It has been replaced by a 2001 Audi A4 wagon that I bought down in Salt Lake and spent three days after Hawaii driving the 3000 miles home. So much more fun to drive and this winter is going to be a whole new experience with a heater that works and the sweet bonus of heated seats! Still the van will be missed...

The first training period of the year is 3 days from completion before I get my first week off. We hit things off pretty hard with the first training and testing camp starting April 27. There was some great crust skiing down in Turnagain Pass that we got to take advantage of to make the break in to training much easier on the body. Plus the chance to watch a bunch of people who aren't the greatest tele skiers unleash their skills on race skis is a blast!

Since then I have been settling into the routine of summer. Training, working, and spending time with baby Hazel. The pace of life has had to adjust a little bit. Not quite as much down time so my time management has had to improve a little. It makes me focus more on what I am doing and I think for the training it is a good thing. Something I like to think I have been pretty good at, but it has been forced to a new level.

During the week off I get to spend a day or two helping coach the APU juniors at the first APU Death Camp down in Girdwood. East High's xc team used to have a Death Camp back in the 1990's and Charlie Renfro decided to bring it back. Not sure what the details are but there will be some sweet adventures.

Champ!

Last night I got my first National Championship since 2006! I knew when I won my last one that any win could be your last so to get back on top after a rough couple years feels super good.

I was the 4th starter in the "A" seed so I knew that there were a lot of fast guys behind me so there wouldn't be much information to get from the time checks out there. I just had to ski as fast as possible and hope my time would hold up. After I finished I heard how many guys were not far back after the halfway and I started to get real nervous, even a little queasy. Finally I heard the announcement that I was the National Champ and it was all smiles!

This past week I have been really nervous about this first race because my body has felt awful. Just sluggish and tired since last Sunday... Finally after a few days up here with some tune up workouts and some solid couch time my body finally started to come around the morning of the race. Still I had no idea if I would be able to ski fast or not. Out on the course I had no clue what I had, I was just going as fast as I could with what my body could do. Fortunately it was enough.

Yesterday was a sweet day for APU with 3 on the National Championship podium. Becca Rorbaugh, 2nd US and Brent Knight, 3rd US. First time on the podium for both of them.

Now it's a couple days recovery and get ready for Friday nights pursuit.

50

Today was a solid effort. I managed to stay out of trouble early and pick my way up thru the field once again and was sitting comfortably in 15th at 15k and was right in the lead pack at 25k. Then I hit a little rough patch. I was able to work thru it until about 30k when I started to run out of gas and had to let the lead group go. I really had no idea whether there was 10, 15, or 20k still to go I just knew I had to try and hang on to the other guys who were around me. That worked for a while but there was just nothing left in the tank...

The course today held up really well thanks to a massive salting effort by the race crew. The area by the wax cabins has rivers of mud so to race on hard, fast, snow when it hasn't been below freezing for a few days was so nice compared to the alternative.

The wax crew did a sweet job once again and I big thanks to the whole staff this week! Those guys do amazing work.

Leaving World in 2005, I wanted to be in the fight the next year. 2006, the same. 2007, the same. This year I was finally in the fight and it makes ski racing over here so much cooler! I still have the last third of the race to work on but to be in the mix with the best guys in the world the week has been a huge confidence boost and I cannot wait until next year in Whistler!

I leave Tuesday to go back home and will be racing the Tour of Anchorage on Sunday if I can stay heathly on the travel home. I have been the question from some of the other skiers if I am heading up to Lahti, Finland for next weeks World Cups. It would be great to get some more chances over the next few weeks but I am really looking forward to getting back to my girls in Anchorage.

Relay

Today I skied like a rookie. It's only my second international relay... but I'm still pretty annoyed with myself.

Other than the sections of the course that were salted (few) it was a full on slushfest out there. 5 inches of dirty wet corn. On those days it pays to start out smooth because if you go too hard there is no place to recover and every section of the course is work. Plus people tend to fade hard in these conditions so it you can ski a strong second half you can make up a ton of time on people.

Freeman started off and skied a great first leg coming in not far behind the Canadians and Germans who had some great skis being driven by Devon Kershaw who was on a mission. Cook skied a solid second leg as well bring us in 7th (I think) 20 seconds behind Kazahkstan and 15 or so in front of Italy. I started out nice and smooth trying to gradually work my way up to the Kazahk when about two thirds of the way up the first climb Killer Piller Cottrer came flying by. Had I been thinking, I would have thought "there is not way that I can maintain this for 30 minutes" and kept going about my work. Instead I picked up the pace and stayed with him over the top of the hill and tried to get a ride for a while hoping he might settle down. He didn't and that didn't work. I made it up the next small climb behind him and then my legs started to get wobbly. It took a little while but I managed to get myself back together and salvage something of a race out there but my legs were never right again after the early effort. Pretty frustrating.

Next up for me is the 50k on Sunday. The ladies do a 30k tomorrow which will be a good preview of how the course skis. If it is anything like it was today out there it will most likely be the hardest race that any of us have ever done. Making Sapporo, the previous hardest, look like a walk in the park. The rumor is that they will salt the course which would be beautiful.

Awesome!

Today has been amazing. It has been 27 years since the US won a medal at Worlds and to witness it and the way she earned it... Awesome.

That's more like it

The classic race was a hairies day and I was on kick wax... just a frustrating experience.

For the first time in my skiing career I was in there. The first half of the race classic skiing was just real comfortable. I had great skis and was relaxed in the pack. Starting back in the 50's you are very much at the mercy of those in front and I managed to avoid the crashes and tangles that can send your day down. I just stayed relaxed and picked my way up when it wouldn't take too much work. Climbing comfortable next to some World Champs was a great feeling, climbing past some was even sweeter!

Coming into the exchange I was sitting in 16th position and feeling good. My exchange was pretty slow and I ended up coming out a bit further back than I went in not a big deal since there was still a lot of skiing left. The biggest bummer of the day was I missed feeds on the first two laps of the skating. The feed zones are crazy and that just happens sometimes... So on the third lap I started to get some cramping and yo yo off the back and then on the final lap I wasn't able to hang on... Still I managed to get it back together and gain time back up to the guys right in front of me on the final climb and finished strong.

In the end it was my best mass start on the World Cup level, my best FIS point race, and a great boost of confidence. I was right in there with the best in the world for 25k! I am super excited for the relay and the 50k to come next weekend. Now I get a little rest and I start that off with a massage in a few minutes. 

Tomorrow we go

The ladies were under way today and tomorrow it's our turn. 

The courses here are beautiful. They are set around a hilltop overlooking the town and a really exposed which means it can get quite windy. Yesterday it was blowing hard and snowing so some places the course was icy fast and others you had snow drifts... today was much nicer.

It skis a lot like Soldier Hollow but a little bit bigger to make up for it being at low altitude. A lot of fun to ski when you are feeling good and brutal if you are having a bad day. It has two major climbs, a few minor ones that are still as big a anything we have seen in the US this year, and some gradual and flats thrown in between but everything is skiable. US course designers could learn some things from these guys... 

So I've been classic skiing better than ever, feel good, dig the course, and I can watch the new Lost episode online tonight... all good.

Pics

Some Italians brought out the red, white and blue for the classic race. Then we were off to Czech where they have done a sweet job getting ready. 

A little better

Feeling much better. Whatever I had was super low level and today I skied for 90 minutes and felt more like myself. I still won't race tomorrow. There is way more to risk than to gain when getting over a little sickness and it rarely works out that you see anyone have a good race, especially at this level. 

The sprint today was great to watch although totally frustrating. Torin was super solid and skied really well but just couldn't quite make it to the A final and finished well in the B final. Kikkan looked very much in control all day leading both the quarter and semi-final and was on her way to a podium when she tripped up around the last corner and lost it. So close to a great day. 

This is an amazing valley and our hotel is right on one of the big climbs that the Giro d'Italia goes up or down. It's pretty sweet to imagine those guys climbing by our hotel. For a reference, it takes 10 minutes to drive from town to our hotel and it's at least another 5k to to the top of the pass.

Ciao.

Italy!

Travel over was pretty miserable. 12 hours of delays...

I was about to drop off my rental car in Boston after driving down from Vermont Monday when I fortunately got a call from Air France saying my 5:30 pm departure was moved to 9:30 pm since the Paris airport was closed due to wind. So with nothing to do I drove around South Boston for a few hours looking in vain for something to do before heading back to the airport to start my trip. 

The flight to Paris was great. An empty plane and a solid 6 hours of sleep. I was supposed to have 2 hours there before getting on my flight to Munich. Waiting at my gate to board the flight just disappeared from the screen with no explanation. AHHH! So I run out of security since the little screen inside said nothing to the big board that said it was cancelled. Next available flight was 7 hours away... So after sitting around and walking back and forth across one of the lamer international terminals I have been in we took off, one hour late... Fortunately my iphone works over here, expensively. I was able to keep the ski team coaches somewhat up to date on my situation and Chris Grover was waiting on the other end to take me to Ramsau, Austria for the night. The next morning we drove 7 hours to Val Didentro, Italy where we are for the World Cups this weekend. 

A long trip, but the big bummer is I woke up in Austria with a little sinus cold. Nothing bad, but enough to knock me out of the races here. I will be fine for Worlds but it is always nice to get a race in to reintroduce myself to World Cup racing. 

Italy is as good a place as any to spend some time resting. Good weather with lots of sunshine so the easy workouts are a pleasure to do, the little town are always good to walk around and the hotels are always pretty nice with great food. 

I've got a camera again after someone ran off with that and my US Ski Team hat in Whistler so some pics should be coming soon. 

Ciao.

Win #2

Yesterday started with blowing rain, then snow, then sunshine in time for the race. Waxing was a little nuts but not as bad as it could have been. Once again I felt better as the race went being even with Lars after 1 lap, 20 seconds ahead after 2, and 25 or so at the finish. Right after I got the split I was 20 sec. up on him with 1 lap to go my pole came out of my grip! I had glued them on months ago and the have been fine until now...? It happened on a section of the course where there were no coaches or spectators so a brief moment of panic set in. "There is no way I am going to lose this race because my damn pole came off!" 

A college skier I had just passed caught back up and I offered him $50 for his pole, he laughed. I told him I was serious and he thought about it but said no way. I offered him $100. He still said no... 

It took a few minutes to get to where there was anyone who had a pole when Tommy Temple a legend in Eastern College racing appeared and had one for me. Thanks Tom! I got it on and tried not to go too fast too soon, got back to racing and held on to win. Quite a relief. 

I'm off to the airport soon to Europe. Until then...

Saturday Video

Some footage from yesterday.

It's dumping and blowing outside after raining and blowing all night. Today's could be a doozy...

More and pics

I miss my coaches. 

This afternoon instead of resting and going for a recovery session I spent 2 hours getting skis ready for tomorrow... I miss my coaches. 

Here's some pics from today. One more tomorrow then off to Europe. 

A win!

I'll get some pics up tonight but today was my first win of the season! It took a lap to get moving but I closed well and picked up 15 seconds on Lars who was second on the final lap. Now I've got to rest a bit and then go wax up skis since this trip I'm rolling solo. More to come...

Stowe

For the past ten days I have been getting back to work. Which means some HARD training. Since Christmas the training has really been pretty spotty. Super cold weather made the lead up to Nationals a lot easier that I had intended. Nationals being only one race for me and a short one at that made that week a lot easier than planned and World Cups the next week meant I couldn't do more than maintain fitness and try to be sharp for those. Three weeks and not a lot of quality work leading up to the Whistler races. I have read a few people commenting on the Canadians having 6 or 7 guys in front of the first US racer. When you look at their schedule compared with ours and the weather we had to deal with waiting to maybe race a 10 and 15k in the cold, while they did two 30k's including a pursuit. For everyone but Kris this was both our first 30k and pursuit of the year... what would you expect?

Enough about that. The training has been amazing with a lot of climbs to train on at Trapp's and Stowe, beautiful tracks every day and easy waxing have made for as good of a camp as I could hope for. I have another week of mellower training here before the SuperTour's at Trapp's over the weekend and going to Europe on the 9th. Can't wait to start racing again!

Worlds

I got the word after the race today that I am heading to World Champs! They aren't for a month so I am off to Stowe, VT to train for the next few weeks before I head over. Annie and Hazel are heading back there later this week so it will be good to see them for a while. 

My first sprint relay was a blast. I was able to hang in with the leaders for 2.5 of 3 laps when they made a big acceleration that I didn't have left in me. It was a sweet chance to see how fast they really go and have three laps to race with those guys. I feel like I have learned a lot both yesterday and today about tactics and the level that the regular World Cup'ers ski at. I've been at that level before and every time I am I learn quite a lot. Now there's another chance next month. 

So now a couple days off to travel back to VT. Then hit the training hard for a bit and see if I can't put together a good peak. 

22nd

22nd in a World Cup isn't too bad and I did get my first World Cup points. With the smaller field and a few guys in front that I normally beat it was a little frustrating. I started off a little more conservatively than I normally do and all was going well until midway thru the classic leg. The guy who I had marked since he is a typical slow starter and top 5 at the end was right in front of me. Then going thru the second feed station one of the Canadiens stepped in front of me trying to get a feed, missed it, and slowed up to get another right before the pack up front started to move and I missed my shot. The rest of the classic leg I picked off a few more people and came thru the exchange in 16th with 4 or 5 others. I had a pretty quick exchange and was feeling really good skating so I tried to drop the guys I was with catch up to the next group 10-15 seconds up and that proved a little costly and started cramping around 20k and ran out of gas.  

I was hoping for a little better race out there but I was still the 2nd American and I think I made World Champs after that but I won't find out until tomorrow night. Then I make some plane reservations and fly somewhere on Monday. It is a little bit of a tough call since I could stay in the US and make a decent amount of money on the SuperTour or go to Worlds and miss all the money races. But I am a racer and the fast guys are at Worlds and that is where I want to be. Tomorrow is the team sprint and I will be racing that one. I've never done a World Cup team sprint before so it should be fun. 

Race day -1

The first World Cup of the season is tomorrow. Today's sprint was a bit of a bummer for Team USA and APU with all but Newell getting knocked out in the quarter finals and Andy falling in the semi's. But all signs are positive for tomorrow. My pre-race intervals felt really good and I have picked up a couple new skis from Atomic that feel amazing out there. This is definitely the most confident I have ever been about both my equipment and my fitness going into a World Cup. Last night we got our super hero red ski team uni's. All that's left to do is go. 

Sunny days

Another beautiful day in Whistler. Everyone was expecting the pretty nasty weather that is standard below the clouds here and are "challenging" waxing conditions. All the national teams and ski companies brought over the hairies skis with new base materials to try out and it has been nothing but sunshine and blue skies that are supposed to last thru the weekend. A few countries have people who will be staying for the next month to se what this place really has to offer. Our van driver today said that until this week they haven't had a sunny day in two months!

Today the sprinters were getting ready for the classic race tomorrow and it sounds like most everyone will double pole it. It's a longer course, 1.6 k to be exact, with two pretty long hills but none that steep. Should be interesting to see how people hold up. 

Warmth!

Skiing today at WOP (Whistler Olympic Park) was 45 degrees warmer than skiing in AK last week! The snow was pretty good relatively firm fast wet snow with the standard 10 minutes of wet snow to make it really slow skiing for a while. 

The travel down was smooth. Lars and I got in a few hours before the rest and got to have some sushi in the Vancouver airport to kill the time. They have some good food in that airport. The one bummer is Anders woke up this morning with a sore throat... 

Nationals done

Todays sprint was cancelled which means they will try to hold them tomorrow instead of the distance classic race. The organizers delayed a few times but it wasn't even close to -4 F out there. Tonight the World Junior and U23 World Champ teams are named and we haven't had a sprint race in the country yet. Bummer for the sprinters. 

This morning was another run on the treadmill at the Alaska Club and distance ski as the sun set at 3:30 pm. I think I am starting to get used to the ridiculous cold, it was -16 F and I felt fine as long as I kept moving. The skiing has been amazing other than the cold. Hard fast tracks and blue skies and big bright moon the other 18 hours of the day.

The sprint has been rescheduled for tomorrow, but it won't be a championship qualifier race. Either way my championships are done. It's a bit of a letdown after finally getting a chance to race at home, but fortunately my season continues at the World Cup in Whistler next weekend. I knew coming into the season that it was going to be the first race that really counts toward qualifying for Worlds and it is also the first race towards Olympic qualifying.

The next few day it's time to get a few hard workouts in and jump in the UAA Invitational on Saturday for the mass start classic race with all the western college skiers before heading to Canada on Monday. It should be a good field and a good chance to get a mass start in before the World Cups. 

Cancelled

After 3 postponements, todays race was finally cancelled. At the low point on the course it was -27 C at 1 pm (that's -16 F)!  Lucky for me I only live a couple miles from the park and didn't have to hang out there all day. Instead I watched the new classic Superbad. 

Tomorrow should be the classic sprint, then the distance classic race Thursday. The forecast looks promising starting Thursday. It could be as high as 15 F!

Almost pretty good

Today went okay. I started a little conservative with my first split in 7th, then 6th, 5th, 4th by the end of the 1st lap and building. Winning was not in the cards with Kris skiing really well and me feeling good but not quite as sharp as I would have hoped. With a 2k to go I was only a few seconds behind Leif who ended the day in 2nd when coming off a downhill into the stadium my ski hit a patch of ice and before I knew it I was on the ground. I got back up pretty quick but my momentum was gone and so was the podium... 

Tomorrow has been changed from the sprint race to the distance classic race that has been lengthened from 10k to 15k. Classic has been better for me this year. Until tomorrow. 

Getting ready?

Tomorrow Nationals are scheduled to start for me. With it being so cold out that my normal pre-race week prep has needed to be adjusted and the rumor that the distance races might be moved to later in the week if today's sprint doesn't go off as scheduled it feels a little different. Still, the body feels good and I am really ready to get racing again.

The last time I remember feeling this uncertainty was Fairbanks in 2005 for the first races of the Olympic season. It had been way too cold the day before the 20k pursuit and I went to bed not thinking there was a race the next day. We ended up racing even though the temp at Birch Hill never got over -6 F but it was a pretty good day and the start to a really good season. Looking forward to the same.

Hopefully they won't force today's race since the sprinters could really screw up their lungs with such short hard efforts in the extreme cold. 

Nationals are coming

As most of you have heard or experience first hand here in Anchorage this week, it is cold. That aside the skiing has been sweet! Classic tracks were finally put in around the classic course and everything is in really good shape for the races. 

It has been fun to see everyone from Outside up here. They seem to be dealing with the dark and unusually cold temps pretty well and are pretty fired up to be here. The moose have been keeping them entertained out there as well.

The forecast looks cold for the races but it should be above zero on the days I go. I will only be doing the two distance races next week. It was a tough call to sit out the team sprint. Anders and I are both skiing well, but this year I am trying to race a little less and focus on preparing to perform well when I do race. That part sounds a little obvious but if you race all the races you can, the chances of skiing well in late February are pretty slim. 

Baby Hazel is doing really well and is letting Mama Annie sleep most of the night. She's starting to smile as well which is cool to see.