I’ve been back in Minnesota since nationals. I was exausted after the week of racing up in Alaska, so it was great to come back and relax and recover at home.
Now I’m chomping at the bit and ready to do some more racing! So this weekend I will be braving the freezing rain for the races at Theodore Wirth!!!

P.S. after my last blog post I had many many people who wrote to me saying how proud they are of me. Thank you for all those emails, it has meant alot to me. And I just wanted to say thanks again to everyone who has supported me. My memories I’ve made are priceless… but they came with a price tag. So thank you to everyone who has helped me financially, donated miles so I could fly to a training camp, and thank you to everyone who has believed in me.

In the journey of life as a cross country ski racer, the road is not paved in gold. You will not be led down the path by smiling people who carry your 80 pound ski bag and want to rub your feet after the stroll.
No, sometimes the path is more like the vast Canadian wilderness as seen on ‘Mantracker’. The road is steep, the wild animals are hungry, the river crossings are dangerous, and sometimes the road vanishes and all there is to do is bush-whack through the unforgiving forest to try to find your way. But these struggles as we go through life are what make us who we are. It makes us appreciate where we end up because we earned our place there. When we fall, we pick ourselves back up and keep heading forward. We don’t lay down in the dirt feeling sorry for ourselves. Sometimes we aim for a certain destination but end up somewhere else, but we still had our adventure.
I have dedicated myself to ski racing for the last decade of my life, and in the last year and a half I have had 3 surgeries on my lower legs. I have a total of 8 6-inch scars from my knees down where scalpels have cut open my legs. I have spent weeks where just walking to the bathroom a few times a day was painful enough to bring tears to my eyes. My half a block hobble was just as hard of fought journey as winning any of my national titles. Coming back from all of that has been a painful and hard fought journey. I wanted so badly for everything to come together this winter and to make my second Olympic team … I did the best I could, but I didn’t make it. It’s defiantly heartbreaking to dedicate yourself to something so completely and to not reach your goals. But I know I gave it my absolute best shot, and for that I have no regrets.

Yesterday was the first race at U.S. Nationals, the Freestyle Sprint up in Anchorage, Alaska. The race started at 10am (the sun rose at 10:12). So we piled into the van in the morning, and it felt like we were going out for a midnight drive it was so dark! But it wasn’t a midnight joy ride… it was morning, and we were on our way to do some cross country ski racing!!!
It was a chilly morning so I bundled up and headed out to test my race skis and to ski a hard warmup. I tested my skis, and picked my fastest pair and gave them to my coaches to put the super-secret powders on before my race. I took the other pair and skied for about an hour with a bunch of sprints and speeds and intervals before the race. By the time I lined up at the start to do the qualifying prelim I was hot and ready to go! So I got the countdown and took off onto the racecourse. I went as hard as I could, and crossed the finish line with the taste of blood in my mouth and legs made of jell-o.
I had qualified 17th, so I would be advancing into the rounds in the afternoon. So I skied a quick cooldown and headed into the lodge to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and relax for a few hours before the afternoon racing.
I warmed up again, and headed to the starting line again… only this time it wasn’t just against the clock. The quarterfinals are heats of 6 skiers, and only the top 2 move on to the semis (plus there are just 2 lucky losers for the top bibs in 3rd place in all the heats).
Skiers to their mark, skiers set… BANG!!!! And we were off! I felt strong and full of energy heading out of the stadium and up over the big climb. I settled comfortably in 2nd place heading down the fast downhill into the stadium… untill Ida had used my draft and sling-shot right around me at the bottom of the hill. I wasn’t too worried because I had felt so great heading up the hill, I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal to pass her back. But the time came to pass her back and my body had hit a wall, and I couldn’t shift into that extra gear that I needed. So I didn’t advance to the semis. Bummer.

But its a busy week, so time to look forward and move on! Tomorrow (Monday) is a 10 km freestyle race, and it will be my first distance skate race since my last leg surgeries, so I am super excited for that! Also, its supposed to start warming up here starting tomorrow into the upper 20’s!!! YAHOO!

I hope everyone had a merry xmas!
I’ve been in Minnesota for the last week, and I’ve been keeping busy with family get-togethers (after 4 holiday celebrations I am done). On Christmas eve I cooked up a broiled flank steak dinner with blue cheese stuffed portobello mushrooms and a roasted beet and apple salad. (The meal got rave reviews)! My final Christmas party was a taco dinner at my mom’s house. It was a first for me, but everyone likes tacos… so why not?!?!

I’ve also been training hard, getting ready for Nationals up in Anchorage next week. This last week I had 2 days of interval sessions, followed by a day off, and then two more interval days. I’ve been feeling strong and fast down here at sea level, and I’m excited to fire it up next week!!!

Family and skiing has kept my time pretty occupied, but I did manage to go to the 3-D movie AVITAR last night with my sister and some friends… I recommend seeing this movie! And if anyone can get me a flying dragon to ride, that would be great.

This weekend was a back to back classic sprint races on the tough Canmore race course. I felt pretty good both days in the qualifying rounds… and both days I qualified in 19th place. I want to be racing faster than that, but things are heading in the right direction. So now its time to train smart, rest smart, and stay positive!!!

It’s been a great month and a half on the road, but tomorrow I am headed back to Minnesota for the holidays. Its a bit sad to have this ski trip come to an end, but I hear there’s awesome skiing in Minnesota. It will also be great to get to spend some time with my family and friends before heading back on the road for some more ski racing!

I am now in Canmore… and its amazing here!
Its sunny and warm. I’m feeling better, and the skiing is spectacular!

This last month on the road I have been able to use my culinary skills and be the US Ski Team’s chef. When I’m not on the ski trail working out, or in the wax room working on my skis, I’m usually in the kitchen making sure we are eating delicious dinners every night!!!
So far there has been no complaints!

When I woke up on race day morning with a headache, somewhat sore throat, and an achey body my first thought is to ignore it. So I ignored it, and I did what I would normally do on race day morning, drink coffee, eat breakfast, and ski… I did my warm up around the race course, but it was getting harder to ignore all the signals my body was trying to tell me. My body is fighting something, and it doesn’t need the stress on ski racing on top of that. It was huge bummer to not race today, but I think it was the smart thing to do… I want to fight off whatever bug is trying to get me down so that I can get back to health and race really fast next weekend in Canmore!!!

Today the SuperTour Bozeman sprints were held in Lindley Park! We arrived at the start at 7:45 am to start warming up for a race start at 9:00am. The wind was blowing, the temperature was dropping, and the snow was falling… but that didn’t stop us from stripping down to our bright little spandex racing suits to hammer around a twisty, turny mile long race course!
I felt pretty good racing this morning… unlike last week, I felt comfortable on my skis and actually felt like I could ski fast and stay in control of my body… and it felt great! I love the feeling of pushing yourself harder than most people think possible. And the metalic taste of blood in your mouth after you cross the finish line, and the light-headed lack-of-oxygen feeling is priceless.
So after a short cooldown, we headed back to our house (a 10 minute drive down the road) to throw some sweaty clothes in the dryer and to eat a sandwich and relax for an hour before we would go back to the race course for the afternoon heats. (I qualified and would be racing in the 3rd heat which started at 12:10pm).
The gun went off for my heat, and we were off down the course! I felt good, but since it was windy and to move to the semifinals you just need to be the in the top 2 of your heat, I wanted to take it out relaxed and take advantage of a draft. So I didn’t try to make any crazy break-away move, and stayed right in the pack… but the course was narrow and my skis got tangled with someone else’s skis… before I knew it I was on my face and everyone flew by me as I was trying to untangle myself and my equipment. I got up, and didn’t give up! I managed to pass 2 people before the finish line. But that still put me in 4th for my heat, and I didn’t move on to the semifinals.
I am happy with my effort and I felt fast. Though I was hoping for a better result today I’m not dissappointed because I can still say “I did the best I could today”!

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!