Perfection

Some days are simply dialed.  Today has been one of those days.  Woke up at 7:30am after a full 10 hours of sleep to sunny skies and temps around -5 C (we are in Canada, eh?).  Got out for a light morning jog before a filling pancake breakfast at our hotel.  The World Cup bus picked us up, along with many of the other teams in town, at 9am and we were off to the venue–a short 10 minute drive across town.

Canadian Olympian George Grey showing off his backyard trail network

US National Team coach Justin Wadsworth is flying solo here until the other US coaches and wax techs arrive back from World Juniors in Germany later this afternoon.  Despite being spread thin, Justin had our wax cabin (closer to the trail than any other team’s), set up with benches and ready for me to scrape my skis and hit the trail.

Canmore World Cup Stadium - Home of the 1988 Calgary Olympics

The groomers in Canmore do their job better than almost anywhere I’ve ever skied (right up there with Little Siberia 😉 ) and today was no exception.  I hit some of the flat valley trails for my warm-up, then zipped around the 15km race course doing some relaxed threshold intervals.  The hardest thing about my ski today was not hammering too hard considering such great conditions and all the other World Cup athletes and coaches cruising the trails.  Gotta leave the cork in the bottle for a couple more days. . .

I caught the first bus home after my morning workout, grabbed lunch, and a quick shower, then worked out some kinks with an afternoon massage.  The US National Team is one of the few Cross Country teams that does not travel with a regular massage therapist.  Typically, any body work we get done comes out of our personal budget.  Massage is something that I’ve started to work into my routine this year and I’ve noticed a marked difference in my increased flexibility, and more importantly, injury prevention.  Two weeks before the Games, however, the stops are pulled out and we’ve got a massage therapist working with the team this week.

Living out of a suitcase again. Roommate Noah Hoffman

I kicked back afterwards with a brief nap and a little reading while my roommate Noah crunched numbers on his computer (actually, I have no idea what he was doing, but it sure sounded like there was a lot of crunching going on).  Noah, who stayed with the Adams Family in Park City all summer, and I reminisced about the by-gone days of our host family’s meals and entertainment.  I’m heading out now for a jog to the store to pick up a few snacks to tide me over between meals.  Although this is how most days should operate, it is rarely so.  I need to remember not to take these perfect days for granted, but appreciate every minute of them.  Get out and enjoy it!