July 18, 2011 (Anchorage, Alaska) – “And remember…if a grizzly charges you, lay down and cover your head and neck. If it’s a black bear…do your best to fight back”. These were Erik Flora’s last words to us before beginning our afternoon run today. Welcome to Alaska! Sadly, the bear warnings are for real – Kinsey Loan (APU) got charged by a grizzly AND kicked by a moose all in the past few weeks. No worries though – she’s tough as nails and is fine!

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One of the first things I found out when I arrived off the plane in Anchorage yesterday was that our coach, Matt, was locked out of his apartment. Not due to a mistake, but due to a moose and calf sitting right outside of his front door munching rhubarb. Awesome! Today, my moose count reached 8.

The baby moose is out of the picture but it was super cute. © courtesy of Jessie Diggins

I’m psyched for this all-girls training camp where the USST, APU, Canada, and other girls from around the country are joining up for a some serious training. We’ll start on dry land, and then take a helicopter to the Eagle Glacier for a week of on-snow training. In JULY! Cool beans.

Some serious soccer watching going on! © courtesy of Jessie Diggins

Today we all got together at Kikkan and Jeff Ellis’ house for a pancake lunch and a whole lot of yelling and anxious nail-biting as we watched the Women’s Soccer World Cup Final. I was totally bummed for the U.S. when Japan beat them but it looked like a really good game with some incredible skills and sportsmanship.

Also, Kikkan has this totally awesome cutout her mom made. It’s larger than life!

Yep...not quite 7 feet tall in real life! © courtesy of Jessie Diggins

And most importantly – the USST Women’s Video Challenge has been PHENOMENAL!!! I said I was going to post all the videos here but there are actually too many to be able to put into a single post! So here’s what’s going down. The USST women are going to watch all of them and figure out who won the challenge, and when we do I’ll post the top results. But for now I’m going to put up 5 video links every day. Please enjoy and get fired up to train!

More to come tomorrow!

Here’s the video from the CXC women:

Here’s the video from the Stillwater Nordic Ski team:

Here’s the video from the APU women:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75wK7k8dW-A&feature=player_embedded

Here’s the video from the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club girls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJtbKUq6NVU&feature=player_embedded

Here’s the video from the SMS ladies: