Never a dull moment

And I am back, in the East again .  After a great time in the mid-west with my family followed by an awesome training camp in Utah, I finally made it back to Maine.  Unfortunately I left my husband out West, but more on that later.
Upon my arrival  back to Caribou I was happy to find my house still standing, while most of my garden looked to be good and dead, with the exception of my kale and carrots.  You've got to love those hardy veggies.
So I am back in Caribou after a long trip. The last week of the camp had two time trials built into it.  I will be honest, rollerski time trials are not my favorite, especially when they are trials races, but I did my best to make the best of it.  Soldier Hollow is always sure to make you hurt, and these races were no exceptions to that.  I was feeling a little sore and sluggish the first day but happily worked most of that out and felt looser and more free on the second race day.  My shooting was about middle of the road during both days.  I put a little extra time in the range on a stage or two, determined to hit my last shot every time.  While it took me a while, I did it.  So after a little evaluating I feel fairly happy about a few things I had set out to work on: skiing relaxed, racing my own race and keeping focused in the range.  My ski speed wasn't quite what I wanted, nor was my shooting time.  It was a good checking point and has left me with a very clear focus for the up coming weeks.
I can finally say I am reaching the home stretch of rollerskiing for the year!  I don't mean to imply that I hate rollerskiing, but honestly, it's just not skiing!  And most of the time you do it on a road, have to wear a helmet and it hurts a whole lot more when you fall, not to mention rocks, cracks that need to be avoided  and POLE TIPS SLIPPING!  Glad to get that out of my system. :)
The good news is snow is on the way!  Or I at least know I will be going to seek it out myself!  After watching the weather right today, I can honestly say I wish I were in Boulder, CO with my husband right now.  I am pretty sure he is out skiing somewhere, which is why I haven't heard from him all afternoon and evening.
I will be toughening it out here with a few more weeks of dry land training here before heading to West Yellowstone and start skiing!  I also heard some unexpected good news the other day.  It sounds like MWSC and Big Rock are going to be making at least a 1km loop of snow to ski on as soon as the weather gets cold enough.  So there is a chance I will be on skis before West.  Here is too hoping.
Until then I'm going to hammer out a good intensity block over the next week and a half or so, taking advantage of all those extra red blood cells my body worked so hard to make while living at 7200 feet in Park City over the past three weeks.  Tomorrow it begins with a "bounding in the bog" workout with the X-C crew.  Leave it to Will to think that bog bounding in 35F degree weather to be a fun time.  At least I won't be the only one.
I'll post a full report tomorrow, along with an update of the new pavement at NHC!

cheers, BethAnn