Today was the official start of my racing season!
This morning I woke up early, ate my oatmeal, and then pulled on the bright red racing suit… I was super excited to be racing again and I wanted to start off the season with an awesome race! My training has been going great, and I’m feeling strong and confident… why not go out and have a great one?
Thats the funny thing about racing. Sometimes you just have to dust out the cobwebs after you haven’t raced for a while (try since last Febuary). And thats exactly what happened today. I did some major dusting… I didn’t ski the race perfectly. But I am happy with my effort. Looking back at it now, I know where I could have skied better and what I will do differently next time. But whats done is done. Learn and move forward.

I spent last week in Park City, acclimating to the thin mountain air. I also had a trip to the doctors last Thursday because a few weeks ago I had a pretty bad rollerski crash that dislocated both of my thumbs in the distal joint. I didn’t think it was such a big deal, and that they would heal up pretty quickly… but my right one still seemed pretty messed up. So I had a doctor X-ray it and it turns out I had smashed it pretty good. The cartilage is gone because the end of the bone is shattered and now the joint isn’t lining up right. To fix this I would need a bone graft to put the cartilage back on the end of the bone and i would need a pin put in for 6 weeks (and then taken back out) to line the joint back up. The good news is though, that as long as I can live with the pain, it isn’t a surgery that needs to be done immediately! So it looks like I will be spending this winter skiing with a broken thumb, and this spring I will get it fixed…
So onto some great news… Today was my first day back on snow for the season!
We (Morgan Smyth, Noah Hoffman, coach Pat Casey, and I) packed into our van yesterday afternoon and made the drive from Park City to West Yellowstone to start off the ski racing season! We rolled up to our cozy little house for the next week or so, and Lindsey and Dan Dehlin were there with a hot dinner waiting for us. NICE! And then this morning we went on our first snow ski of the winter… We missed the kick a bit, but it was still a great feeling to be on the white stuff!

I’m back in Park City, getting used to the altitude before we head to West Yellowstone this Friday… for the first races of the season!!! I’m feeling good, and getting really excited to start skiing on snow and racing!
It snowed here the other day, but not really enough to ski on… just enough to make the rollerskiing dangerous. Morgan Smyth and had a Over Distance (OD) workout on Sunday, and neither of us wanted to end up in the hospital trying to rollerski on ice. So we put on our hiking shoes, grabbed some ski poles, and headed up the mountain across the street for a nice long mountain hike! It was a BEAUTIFUL day, and we had a great 4 hour mountain hiking workout!

I arrived in Park City, Utah this evening… its time for me to get acclimated to the altitude before we start our race season really soon!!!!

During my last week in Hastings I had the oppurtunity to visit some schools, and talk about what I do for a living (how cool is that)????
Hopefully I inspired some of the Hastings youth to chase their dreams!!!

questions from the kindergarteners at Tilden

1st thru 5th graders at the SEAS school

this young man cut out my picture in the local paper and had me sign it. how cute is that?!?!

signing a cutting board at the Taste of Training for my Cousin Tara and her husband Larry!

I don’t think my face gets much redder.

suzi with the mic!

after a week’s worth of cooking… this is the end result!

the food

and at the end of the day, I get to hang out with my sister and my hairy nephews (Dwight and Oscar).