August 05, 2013 – In this Blog Roundup we hear from Liz Stephen about some much needed R and R after an amazing week on the Eagle Glacier; Jessie Diggins recaps the who, what, where, when and why of Eagle Glacier and NAWTA; Phil Widmer fill us in on his solid month of training with stopovers that included Graham and Madeline’s wedding… and to start you off her are some tweets from the stars…

Kikkan Randall’s Alaskan MTB
Vesna Fabjan is Hot
Blink 2013 10km FR Women top 3
Blink 2013 15km FR Men guess who?

Liz Stephen
Alaska R and R
Monday blogday is upon me again, so I of course need to update you all to keep you in the loop of what is going on with me over the last week.  However, I am going to keep this one to a minimum, as, though there are many stories to tell, I am currently taking some much needed R and R after an amazing week on the Eagle Glacier, which was full of sun, friends and a lot of training.  After flying off Eagle two nights ago, we had a last hurrah of the whole crew at Kikkan’s house with some pizza and beer, the National Team girls and Astrid took off to Holly’s cabin in Hope, Alaska.  Her husband, Rob, has done a ton of work on the cabin over the last 8 months and it is astounding how fast he is putting up a house.

Read more here.

Jessie Diggins
AK update #1: Eagle Glacier and NAWTA
The last three weeks have been so amazing, I’m almost speechless. However, since this is a blog, I had to find some words to describe what I’ve been up to in Alaska. And since so many adventures happened up here, I’ve split this post into three parts; the glacier, Hope, and Halibut Cove. In case you want to listen, not read, check out what NPR had to say about our camp click here. In the past, the popular thing to do when going to Alaska for camp has been to grumble; it’s too cold, it’s always raining, the mosquitos will kill you, the moose will get you, blah blah blah. And if all you do is come and train, then yes, you might have bad weather and you may be justified in whining about the bugs. But if you get to go on some adventures and actually SEE Alaska beyond the paved roads, it’s a totally different experience, and that’s why glacier camp is the best!

Read more here.

Phil Widmer
Home town volume/The Whitehose edition
It’s been a solid month of training since my last update. For three weeks we got after the volume, training a lot of hours while getting in some quality intensity and strength each week. Because of the flooding, what was supposed to be glacier time was spent in the valley dry land training. We were on numerous runs and on each one we saw just how much the heavy rains affected the area. Nothing escaped the destructive forces of the heavy rains. Washed out bridges, trails and river banks were a few of the effects of the high waters. One run we did that’s normally 2.5h took over 3, due to navigating all the debris! Training went well and it really was about putting the work boots on and making sure we get some good volume in to lay the foundation for the training/racing to come during the rest of the season.

Read more here.