This Saturday was cross country running day in Fairbanks at Birch Hill.  Former FXC athletes Ian and Heather started the day off strong at the UAF races against Central Washington.  Heather as a first year had an especially great race taking third overall behind two UAF teammates.  Next up were the high school races hosted by Lathrop.  Pat and Kipp had strong results in the men’s race while Skeeto, Hannah, Megan and Lizzy had high scores in the women’s race.  The final race of the day, the Seekin’s Golden Heart Trail Run was hosted by FXC and went extremely smoothly with all the help from parents and athletes.  There were options for all ages with a closely contested 1k race actually won by a girl for the youngest children.   A bunch of the devo team raced in the 2.5k race including an age category win by Joe Bue.  The 5k race featured a competitive field and quality commentary from announcer Peter Leonard.   A couple of the Comp racers who didn’t race earlier in the day competed in this event with another age category win by James Lily.    In summary, great job to all the competitors and many thanks to all the volunteers and sponsors.

Here are a couple of pictures I was able to snap in between my timing duties but I’m sure there are a lot of better ones out there that we might post soon.

The leaders in the 2.5K race

Joe Bue picks up merchandise from Woolly Rhino, Beaver Sports and Hot Licks

Following the races a bunch of the comp athletes finished off the day with a strength session to keep in touch with the upper body through the running season.

Megan doing strength under a wedding arch left at Birch Hill- Strength gets repetitive sometimes and needs a little spicing up...

Really stoked about the good start to the school year.  It seems like everyone made a very smooth transition this first week, and we saw some clear progress in a number of the technique items we discussed during a video session the previous Saturday.  The XC runners got in their upper body maintenance sessions and the full-time skiers were pretty well on it, with great displays on a couple of tough rollerski interval sessions.

A few pictures…

Claire, Hannah and Nick on Sunday's OD

Nick just has an affinity for hideous spandex...

The boys

Hannah Cresting Ballaine Hill

Willie caught a little off balance?

Only coaches are allowed to do stupid human tricks during strength training...

Rachael: Plank

Rachael: lateral med ball throw

Stefan: OH med ball throw

Apparently the boys are into the shirtless heart-rate monitor look while doing strength... I don't quite get it myself.

Double Pole... what you do when your ankle hurts too much to skate

Athlete and Coach

This week the Devo group did a round of speed disc golf around the course at Birch Hill.  The general idea is to throw your frisbee, chase after it when it flies off course into the woods then repeat as fast as you can until you get it in the basket and continue on to the next hole.

Going for the final shot.

Speed disk golf in action

… was there…

First pass of the day - a few kinks to be worked out

Power up...

...and recover.

Repeat.

Nick C rallies the troops for one more.

When the smoke from a whole slew of wildfires in Interior Alaska rolled in and stayed last week, we had to alter our training plan for the first time this summer.  We canceled a Devo session, cancelled a comp session, moved some intervals inside to the ergs (rowing machines) at the UAF SRC, and then made rapid plans to get out of town.

In the end, a group of ten of us headed down to near Rainbow Mountain for an overnight camping trip.  It was a perfect fit for the end of a recovery week - it gave us some fresh, different activity, and allowed us to clear our minds for two days of the inconveniences of life in town at the moment.  And the best part was, when we got back the smoke was gone (and has stayed gone so far).

From a coaching perspective it was a far different trip than the training camps we do most frequently.  Much more low key - definitely a positive in this case for all involved.  Spirits were high as we jammed out on the way home and stopped for Buffalo burgers in Delta.

Some pics from a sweet trip:

Hiking in

Willie: in search of a restroom?

Commence the three-hour hack: No one gets to eat until we go around the world!

IAN!!

Heading out

Big country

All-in-all a good time

Toyota ad?

Jordan finishes up a 50km roll along Turnagain Arm

The boys crew (or most of them)

The final evening as the final part of our week-long intra-team competition, we had an ‘airband’ competition.

It’s interesting to see what these kids come up with when given an opportunity to be creative!

'Stacey's Mom'

Bananas and Bongos or something...

"1, 2, 3, 4...

...Everybody do the Jane Fonda."

I don't remember the song on this one, but...

...it was definitely the winner - you had to be there to fully understand

We finished the evening up with some cake for Brandy’s birthday.

Blowing bubbles and hanging out while waiting to load the vehicles Monday morning

Goodbye Girdwood... til next summer...

There is no shortage of ‘Up’ around Girdwood, which makes it pretty sweet to base a training camp there.  A few shots from our hike on Thursday (day 3).

Below treeline

There are few things as disorienting as walking on a uniform green slope while socked in and then having the clouds open up just below you.  You suddenly feel like you can lean off the slope to make the sucker spot your ‘horizon.’  Then gravity kicks in…

The Alyeska Hwy and Girdwood far below

I am always talking about how sweet the mountains are here compared to the East and the athletes are always telling me to get over it but I think everyone could agree that the mountains were great for training in over the last week.

Between ski walking intervals on the slopes of Alyeska

Roller skiing on the Girdwood bike path

The view of Denali from the back of the carivan- no smoke and no clouds!

We returned last night from a week on the road in Girdwood, AK.  A big week of training for all.  More pictures to come after this post, but this one should get it started.  Photos from Day 1:

Loading up with food in Anchorage on our way to Girdwood (the other cars were a lot less full, but don't tell these guys...)

Roller skis laid by the front door with care...