June 24, 2012 (Alaska) – The other night we went to a Michael Franti and Spearhead concert outdoors (next to the Moose’s Tooth, for those of you who know how awesome their pizza is). Because it was summer solstice in Alaska, the sun pretty much never went down and it was an absolutely beautiful night! The concert was so fun, with Franti pulling people up onstage to play guitar and dance, and beach balls flying everywhere.

Afterwards, we got to meet Franti and get a great big hug, and he was so cool. We told him that we’re skiers and are here for a glacier training camp and he was like “what?!? that’s awesome…I want a picture with you girls on MY phone!”. So basically, I was hyperventilating afterwards.

The training camp has been going full swing, and I don’t think I’ve ever trained this hard before! Our distance skis are at a really quick pace and we’re putting in loooong hours, but resting and recovering just enough to do it again before the next training session.

This morning we had a time trial up Potters, which is a sweet place to race because we first do a 2-km out-and-back on the flats before winding uphill for the next 3km. Uphill time trials are always such painful experiences, and I was pretty sure that my lungs were bleeding halfway up. But we made it, and Liz won with an extremely impressive pace, while three of us broke last year’s record time!

So now there will be a new time to beat next summer, and it’s going to be a hard one to improve. But knowing this group of women, I have no doubts that the record time will keep getting knocked down! I’ve linked the resuts here:  It’s definitely a cool feeling to finish a workout and know that you just came one step closer to your goals.

Also, the moose count is now at nine (9), which is important enough to make the blog post, obviously. This camp is pretty much an excuse for camping trips afterwards and wildlife sighting/shooting/grilling/eating.