How did it get so late so soon?

That line from a Dr. Seuss poem pretty much sums up the first two months of training in Craftsbury for me! It's funny that when I graduated college and became a professional athlete, I worried about having too much time. Too much time sitting around between workouts, too much time on off days, too much time in all the hours of the day I wasn't actually training. Well, I'm here to tell you that rarely do I find myself sitting around with nothing to do! Between training twice a day for an average of 2-5 hours (sometimes more), sleeping, working, taking an online class, fueling, stretching, shooting practice, keeping up with the granola consumption in our house by baking up fresh batches, and all the other little random life stuff that creeps in, more often than not I find myself at the end of a day or week wondering where all the time went.

In the two months since I got back to Craftsbury, I've had a really productive and fun time with training. I feel like I'm making baby steps forward in so many areas- technique, strength, total hours, quality of my workouts, etc. It's nice to be able to train more than ever and still come out of it with good energy. Of course, I still get very tired at the end of hard blocks, but it's nothing like my first summer at Craftsbury when I was figuring out how to do this whole elite athlete thing. Having an awesome training group here helps a lot too. When I first joined the team, sometimes there were only two women at practice for rollerskiing. Now we often have 10 of us, so there's always someone willing to go your pace. If you feel good you can always pull a train, and if you're having an off day and feel tired then someone else will lead. It's fun to be a part of a group with such high motivation and willingness to put in the hard work that it takes to get better.

Anyways- less talk, more photos, here are a bunch from the first bit of training, and a few non-training ones as well. Enjoy!

One of the first rollerskis of the year- Pepa calls
us the "smiling monkeys" on the branch

I think our front yard is pretty darn beautiful. By the way,
matching unplanned.

Tucking into the draft at the start of a rollerski OD

Kait, Johanna and I helped with a kid's biathlon camp in June, and when
we showed up after dinner coach Sam was having a wee bit of hard time
getting the fire started- GRP women to the rescue! (dresses and all)

Planting flowers on a rainy June afternoon to brighten our
moods

With June showers come EPIC DOUBLE RAINBOWS.
Although my iPhone failed to capture the double-ness
of this one

After our first hard block, Caitlin and I took off to the White Mountains for a few days for a camping/hiking expedition. Even though she has lived in the East for 8 years, she's never had a car before this year so she had never explored the area. I used to go to the Whites all the time in college so I was more than happy to play tour guide. We spent the first day exploring the Franconia Notch area and driving the Kancamangus Highway. (which of course took me back to my days skiing 50+ miles on the Kanc with the UNH ski team, good times!) Then we hiked Mt. Washington from the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail side, and even though the top was socked in we still got incredible views off to the west.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep. A night time walk from
our second campsite

Lake of the Clouds- below the summit of Mt. Washington

Then it was back to training! Here are a few more shots of the crew. This summer we have 4 U23's joining us for summer training, the first time we've had a group like this for the summer- Gavin Hess from Dartmouth, Gavin McEwen from Dartmouth, Evan Weinman from Middlebury, and Johanna Taliharm from MSU and the Estonian biathlon team. Combined with new GRPers Mary O'Connell and Ben Lustgarten, we have a big group but it's been manageable so far! It's so great to have new energy, and Johanna, Mary, and Ben have integrated into our crazy house/team situation seamlessly.

A busy day on the biathlon range! I've been doing a bit of
shooting, both for fun and to prep for August rollerski trials

The van's full, and we are pumped for training!

200m track speeds in Morrisville- one of my favorite speedster
workouts (nordic skiers really aren't that fast on the track, in
case you were wondering) Photo Caitlin Patterson

A sweaty gym circuit

Planned matching this time for a lovely
ski out in the Eden/Montgomery area

I'll try to get a few more pictures in my next update about what's been going on around the Center, but a new thing for me this summer is coaching mountain bike club every Monday,. We have around 30 kids middle school aged kids on the trails, from first time single track riders to absolute rippers. It's been really fun and rewarding to work with some of the beginners, and also humbling to ride with the faster boys and learn a bit about fearlessness! I won't be hitting any gap jumps any time soon, but I am soaking it all up and psyched about bringing our cool trail system to the local community.

Calm before the storm

Getting pre-ride instructions from Captain Ollie (in orange)

Our first group of mountain bikers back in June- the Craftsbury
Academy middle schoolers.

Summer really is a great time to be in Vermont, between the green landscapes, the numerous local swimming holes, and of course the maple creemees (that's soft serve ice cream to all the non-Vermonters out there). I'll be enjoying it a lot as I'll be stationed here in Craftsbury, bar a quick Western trip for a wedding, up until our first camp (to Slovenia and Austria/Italy) in September. Thanks for reading! I'll check back in with a more timely update in late July.

Biking home under the strawberry moon with millions of
fireflies in the trees = magic (Photo Caitlin Patterson)

Riding home in the back of Eth's truck from a concert on the
Common with Mike and Johanna- open air is the best way to travel
in the summertime 

And one last one- Fourth of July hayrides at the local bbq
in Craftsbury. Johanna rocking the rock tape, Mary
crushing the patriotic vest game. Happy late 4th everyone!