Back on the hill

After some time away from ski jumping in which I had my 3rd elbow surgery, recovered, and spent the spring Tele and Nordic skiing I'm happy to say I'm back on the hill.

I started jumping again at the end of June in Lake Placid. Although there is no National Team base in Lake Placid, it is where I've always started my training year for jumping.  Lake Placid has become a second home of sorts to me. The legacy of winter sports and many friends who have let me stay in their beautiful lake placid homes, or offered me employment so I could afford to train there has been the saving of my skiing career more than once.

This spring I was able to coach at the grasshopper junior camps, train at the Olympic Training Center and live in a basement apartment graciously offered up by a friend. It was the perfect low key way to start my season.  Being away from the pressure of upcoming competitions, or National Team Coaches analyzing my every single move, let me focus on the basics. I was able to just ski jump and remember why I love the sport. I tried to forget about the future, or upcoming plans and focus enjoying being in the air. In early May I took a risk and made my own training plan with help from some local Olympians and a Physical Therapist.  The goal of my spring was to do training that made me happy and brought my level of strength up,  after a long winter of being weak, injured and sad. I'm happy to say it worked.

The highlights of my month in Lake Placid were seeing the junior jumpers progress, being out on the many lakes with friends, doing intervals with the Women's Biathlon National team, mountain biking, going on long trail runs in the mountains,  racing in the NENSA REG camp uphill running Time trial and working with the USSA domestic coach of the year Colin Delany to get my jumping back to a high level.  Here are some pictures of July in Lake Placid.

my June and

Snow, volcanoes,and klister

I had heard how spectacular Bend, Oregon was in the month of May from teammates and friends for years. The stories of skiing in the sunshine, mountain biking through the pine trees, and running next to the Deschutes River were enough to convince me to get on a plane and experience the Mecca of spring training that is called Bend and see Mt. Bachelor for myself. 

In case you haven't heard, Bend is a pretty happening place, it is a city of 91,000 home to 45+ breweries, has coffee shops on every block, some multiuser trails connecting beautiful parks,  food trucks everywhere you turn around, not to mention the legendary Deschutes river coursing through it. And—yes!—it is bordered by extinct volcanoes. I would go there in May even if I didn’t ski. 

Mt. Bachelor is 18 miles from Bend. It has alpine trails on its peaks and Nordic trails starting right from the base area that swoops through the cedars for seemingly endless Kilometers. Although to my eyes there was lots of snow, it was still only about 60% of normal snowfall. Because the temps usually got up to about 60 degrees it meant early morning practices and at a lot of cleaning of skis. For the first 1-2 hours of every morning, the refrozen snow was rocket fast, and I often logged 35+ kilometers of a morning. 

With a still severely disabled/injured/messed-up elbow, I wasn’t sure how much skiing I would be able to do with two poles. However, Dave Celcoski at Focus Physical Therapy offered to help me out. My thinking was if I was going to entertain the idea of being a full or part-time Nordic-combiner, I needed to see if my elbow and body could stand up to endurance training again. Lucky for me, Bend had everything I needed to test out my elbow. 

For the most part, I did distance skis in the morning on Mt. Bachelor and running, biking, rehab, and gym workouts in the afternoon. Dave was able to help me to regain strength and mobility in my arm as well as guide me as to how quickly I could safely progress. His Focus PT office was also in the same building as the recovery gym. 

The recovery gym is probably the coolest gym I have ever trained in. It’s run by an ultra distance runner diva named Renae Metivier and it is geared towards endurance athletes.  Though you wouldn’t know it at first sight, the weight room is in a repurposed car shop. It has the usual weight racks, spin bikes, and treadmills, but also plenty of open space, with an astroTurf floor to do drills on. Once I was done with my gym session and rehab, I headed to the recovery side of things. There were hot and cold contrast baths, an ultraviolet sauna, NormaTec compression pants, and the resident dogs whose ears needed to be scratched. To accompany recovery, they also offered cold brew coffee and kombucha. 

The alpine area across from the Nordic Center. 

The end of a skate ski in the soft snow.

Trees by the Metolius River

Afternoon bike ride

metolius river

Spring start to the training year

I’m having a fabulous time here in Bend Oregon. After the hardest winter of my entire ski career, it's nice to start of the training year with long relaxed Nordic skis in the sunshine, rehab sessions for my still healing elbow, and plyometric and weight sessions for ski jumping conditioning. The Bend and Mt.Bachelor area is a prime place for me to train this mouth

 because it has easy access to all the essential training tools that I need to start my training year

off right. I have not yet decided if I will prioritize jumping, or Nordic-Combined this season, or do both. It will mostly depend on funding, what USA Nordic allows and how my elbow is feeling. I will not be competing in either sport until my elbow feels 100% again. The good news is that right now I’m 8 weeks out of my last of 3 elbow surgeries and I’m feeling great. A big thanks to Focus Physical Therapy, Inc. - Bend, Oregon, 

Dave Cieslowski Recharge Gym, and a very generous local family, who is letting me house sit.   Stay tuned for more updates on my recovery, training, and life. Fischer Sports Nordic Ski ONEWAY Jaybird USA Nordic World Cup Supply

Mt. Washington

In the "off season " when us winter athletes are not on a training plan set by our coaches, I usually use my free time to do long adventures with friends in the mountains.  I was lucky enough to get to ski Mt. Washington on a crystal clear warm spring day. We did about 5,000ft in elevation and it took about 6hrs. We started in the Gulf of Slides and then finished the day with a run down the headwall in Tuckermans.  Here are some pictures.