July 23, 2011 (Alaska) – For this past week we have been training in town with a massive group of top ladies from US and Canada. We have now been renamed the “North American Training Alliance”. It has been so much fun though, around 20 girls a day rippin around on the rollerski paths, running trails, and gyms.

With all our fluorescent Rudy Helmets and bright Bjorn Daehlie clothing we have been making quite the scene coming down the trail. The benefits you get from doing speed workouts and intervals with all your closest competitors is endless. It is fun to see how much more you can accomplish as a group. Our first interval workout of the camp APU girls were cutting 30 seconds off our fastest times….. magic of a group.

Besides being intense it has been tons of fun. Everyone is staying on the row in Univeristy Housing, so for the first time ever we have been cooking BBQ’s in my front driveway and hanging out on the streets. Lucky for all of us the sun hasn’t stopped shinning, so this has become my all time best week in Alaska. I am beginning to really fall in love with this place.

Yesterday I set a rollerski distance PR. We decided to do “The Tour de Anchorage” where we ski down the chester creek trail, down into the heart of the city, along the ocean coast line, through Kincaid, past all the shopping centers, up along Campbell Creek, and finishing off at the University just under 51 kilometers and 3.5 hours later. Along the way we ran into some wildlife, spent at least 1 mile on a single track dirty trail, and crawled under five bridges…. all with our rollerskis on. My old roommate started the challenge of doing the Tour of Anchorage without taking your skis off, so I had to top him, and I made sure that everyone else did too 🙂 I caught some hilarious pictures of the group climbing along the boulders and river bed with our skis on.

We have one more day of training, which includes a time trial and strength before heading to the Glacier for the week.

Knock on wood, but with the weather we have been having, the glacier is going to be amazing!

Too fun!!

Thanks to Lauren Loberg, Matt Whitcomb and Holly Brooks for many of the photos.