July 19, 2013 – Check out the latest from Len Valjas as he gets down in Maui; Holly Brooks is stoked about her new car and the North American Women’s Training Alliance aka NAWTA… is underway in Alaska; Jessie Diggins also reports on the NAWTA camp in Back to the land of the Midnight Sun! as Norway’s Astrid Jacobsen is on board this year; and Liz Stephen fills us in on her final days in Park City getting tested and taking in the Crest Trail with her mom.

Kikkan Randall – My kitchen has been hijacked… by a Norwegian baker!
Devon Kershaw – Showing KSS some of the Bow Valley sights
Chandra Crawford – Need a pick up in energy and inspiration?
Andy Newell – Since there’s an eastern heat wave going on.. Figured I’d hit NYC for the day. Pretty jankey down here

"Never turn down an invitation to a party wave" © courtesy of Len Valjas

Len Valjas
Nationals-Maui-Surgery
Well, it’s been a little while since my last update… I don’t even know where to start. Let’s see, after a disappointing World Championships, and the final World Cup races of the season, I had to regroup and focus for one last event: Canadian Nationals. Looking back, I still remember how physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted I was. I had never felt like this before. The only race I could manage to do, was the Sprint. My warmup that morning felt brutal and I tried hard to stay focused on the race when all I felt like doing was putting my skis away and calling it a season.  Another thing I remember from that day is how ridiculously hot it got. After each heat, I would go to the ski chalet, find some scissors and cut a little more material off my race suit. For the final heat I had shorts and short sleeves.

It takes some getting used to driving a car with your name on the side © courtesy of

Holly Brooks
New Wheels & Ladies in Town! (Oh… and AK Fish Season!)
Hey All! Happy Mid-July! Can you believe it? The summer is just whizzing by. But first….. I received a shiny new package the other day…… a BRAND NEW sporty, useful, awesome Toyota RAV4 to drive for the next year (or at least when I’m training in town!) I have to say, it takes some getting used to driving a car with your name on the side but especially since I drove my old car for almost TWELVE years the “new car smell” is rocking my world. I totally love this thing and apparently everyone else does too because they’re flying off the lot at Kendall Toyota just as fast as they can get them!

PLUS The U.S. women’s team in fast company for Anchorage training camp…

Ida Sargent and Liz Stephen ham it up... © Holly Brooks

Then, Girl’s Camp Started!  A couple years ago we started NAWTA which stands for “North American Women’s Training Alliance.” It used to primarily be team USA and Canada. Lately it’s morphed into an International affair which is super fun.

Read more here.

North American Woman’s Training Alliance © courtesy of Jessie Diggins

Jessie Diggins
Back to the land of the Midnight Sun!
Well, here we go again…the annual moose count is on (I’m at 6, but one might have actually been a bear). Oh, and I guess we’re training pretty hard too! I’m back up in Anchorage for our women’s NAWTA camp – North American Woman’s Training Alliance. We started the NAWTA thing a couple years ago when we began training a lot with the Canadian National team. Now we’ve expanded and started training camps with people from many other countries – Sweden and Finland last summer, and now Norway! Astrid Jacobsen, a super good skier on the Norwegian National Team, came to train with us for our glacier camp and it’s been so much fun getting to know her and training with her. I think we have a lot to learn from each other, so it’s great to share training ideas and interval sessions.

Read more here.

Here I am VO2 Max Testing where I breath sea level air. © courtesy of Liz Stephens

Liz Stephen
Crest Trail Anyone?
This week I had an awesome training week, full of so many of my favorite kinds of workouts and 5 of the last 9 days I spent in Park City took me in one way or another to the Crest Trail.  The Crest Trail runs along the top of the ridge of mountains that separate Salt Lake from Park City.  The views are beautiful and right now the wildflowers are out and we have gotten some rain, so trails are in super shape.  I ran parts of this trail 2 times, biked it twice and hiked it once with my Mom, so I have really made the most of my favorite trail before heading to Alaska for women’s camp.

Read more here.