Happy Labor Day I hope you all have enjoyed your long weekend of Labor Day. It has been a good one in my books. An interval session in Fort Kent Saturday morning followed by a great shooting workout in the afternoon kicked off my holiday weekend. I am rounding it out with the rescheduled Harvest Classic bike tour/race here in Caribou this afternoon. Last Sunday’s forecast, with Irene breathing down our necks, forced us to reschedule this now annual bike event. The skies are looking mighty thick and heavy with rain this morning, so it isn’t looking like it is going to be anymore dry today. I am still optimistic that we’ll have good showing for the event. As we are now a few days into September I am starting to feel the racing season rapidly approaching. August was a busy month with our races in Jericho, VT early on, a great training camp in Sugarloaf mid month and a good volume block towards the end, finishing right here in Aroostook County. I am happy to report that I am not ready to throw out my rollerskis yet and am still enjoying the pavement at this point in the year. This isn’t to say that I am not frequently dreaming of gliding smoothly over the snow and listening to the soft crunch of my poles digging into the snow verses the hard clank of them hitting the hard pavement. But Fall is fast approaching and that might just be my favorite time of year. I am happily wearing a cozy wool sweater and socks, sipping a hot beverage while I write. Training in the cool air this time of year is one of the best feelings. On a side note it is the cool, DRY air that I like best. You will on occasion hear me grumbling about going out into the cool, WET weather for a shooting and skiing workout. Not my favorite. The upcoming week is our second testing week of the year. Another 3000 meter run is on the docket along with a strength test and the Mars Hill run, which we haven’t yet run this year. A few more team meetings thrown in there and a shooting workout or two, a few hours here and there massaging and I will have myself a full week. I am now just hoping for some dry weather to go with it all. Cheers, BA