The "U" in APU

APU Nordic Ski Center tends to be in the headlines quite a bit... maybe it's Fasterskier reporting on 1 of the 3 USST Women that ski for APU (Kikkan, Sadie & Myself) or perhaps it's the National Nordic Foundation awarding the club trophy to APU for being the top performing club in the country... or our Junior program that just won the overall at 2013 Junior Nationals or perhaps the Anchorage Daily News reporting that our Program Director and Elite Head Coach Erik Flora just won two coveted awards including "International Cross Country Coach of the Year" and "USSA Overall Coach of the Year." Yes, needless to say I'm proud of our team and it's many accomplishments! 

But what about the "U" in APU? As in, Alaska Pacific University? Some people never make the connection that we are a community-based club housed in a legit University where one can earn a college degree - or even an advanced degree for that matter!  So - I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to highlight some of our student athlete and the opportunities they've been given as part of the apU program! Read on...... 

Thomas

Thomas has been part of the APU community based program since age 12.  Next year Thomas will be enrolled in APU's "Early Honors" program which allows high school seniors to attend APU and take college courses, getting high school and college credits simultaneously.  The advantage of this is that Thomas can challenge himself academically and athletically. Consequently Thomas will be a member of the "University Team" and get exposure to the elite team. Thomas is the defending J1 boy's National sprint Champ and he sees Early Honors as a great way to "up his game!"

Sadie 

Sadie skiing on the glacier 

Sadie (literally) in online class during our kick-off camp in Bend, Oregon 

Sadie is a member of the US Ski Team and simultaneously, a full time undergraduate student at APU. She's entering her senior year and will be earning a bachelors in non profit management. Being a full time athlete and a full time student is quite the feat and Sadie makes it look easy! She attends online class from Europe, training camp, or wherever she may be at the time.....  APU online classes are usually at night (Alaska time) which means they might be as early as 5am in central Europe.  On World Cup race days she usually gets a pass but otherwise, she's up early studying away!

Erika 

Erika originally hailed from Homer, Alaska. She recently graduated with a degree is psychology from APU. She's been an awesome member of the team and has done some really cool things during her four years at APU:

This past April Erika was a volunteer coach for NANA Nordic - an outreach program that taught over 1,500 kids in remote Western Alaska how to ski. The NANA program was started by APU student & Olympian Lars Flora.

During her time at APU Erika also developed a business, E'Klaar.  Erika makes awesome hats, headbands, buffs and much, much more. What started as a small project sitting at her sewing machine turned out to be a successful business with help from her business classes at APU. Check out her website HERE. Erika's connection with APU and the ski world helped draw attention to her product and her business!

APU team members all wearing different E'Klaar products! 

Don 

Don has been with the APU program since 9th grade and a couple weeks ago he graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science. Don was a member of the APU racing team for seven years before transitioning his passion and skills to coaching, ski-flying and general Alaskan adventuring. This summer Don will work on Eagle Glacier (APU's summer glacier training center) learning about remote systems, glaciology, and grooming. Next year he plans to apply to medical school and will have awesome letters of recommendation from his professors - all of which he knows personally from APU's small class sizes!

Don coaching the APU Devo program.... 

Don's transitioned his cross country ski skills to other adventures that only happen in Alaska.... here he is on the top of a random Alaskan Mountain top being dropped off in his roommate's Super Cub. 

Kikkan 

Everyone knows Kikkan Randall the World Cup Sprint Crystal Globe winner but what about Kikkan Randall the APU student who is 12 credits shy of earning her business degree from APU? While it's true that school has been temporarily put on hold due to her International success she states that business classes from APU helped her with the business of being a self-employed World Cup ski racer! Kikkan plans to complete her degree in 2015, after kicking some tail at the Olympic in Sochi, Russia! 

Me
Many people don't know this about me but in addition to having been a full time staff member at APU I am also a student!  I am currently enrolled the in Masters of Arts Program (MAP) and hoping to eventually earn a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology from APU. I take one class at a time and so far it's been a blend of independent study courses and traditional classroom courses. I've found the professors to be intelligent, wonderful and willing to work with my unique schedule. To me, this is the essence of an APU education..... If there is something you want to learn or do, it can be done. Learning is based in reality rather than a text book and it's done collaboratively. I just wrapped up a course on Positive Psychology and the USST has been discussing some of the concepts here at camp - case in point! 

 VO2 Max testing on the treadmill this week at the USSA Center of Excellence

Strength test - Single leg squat test (on a force plate) 

Hopefully I've successfully answered some questions about APU.... in addition to being an amazing ski program APU also offers opportunities to get a great education. Between Early Honors, traditional Undergraduate, distance learning, degree completion, Master's courses - and it's first doctoral program (Psychology) the possibilities are endless. If you'd like more information about the school, the ski team, or anything else, feel free to shoot me an email or check out the official APU website HERE. 

I'll leave you with one last picture: 

APU/USST Girls at 2013 World Championships - all APU students! 

Hopefully we'll have a similar one (plus a few more members!) from the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi!

....... 245 days and counting!
Cheers - and thanks for reading,
Holly :) 

Bend Camp +

This was me the first day of Bend camp and no - I wasn't posing for the picture. I left AK during a winter storm warning, complete with fresh snow & temperatures around 20F. 

Here I am with my teammate, Ida.... this picture pretty much sums up most of the weather we've experienced for the camp past day ONE: 

I have to say it's funny that Bend actually manufactures plastic bags to ski in that say, "Mt. Bachelor Fun to the Last Drop"  All of us Alaskans are constantly getting a hard time about the weather in Alaska yet everyday when we drive up to Mt. Bachelor it's a blowing sideways and vacillating between snow and rain. I've never used my Salomon Zeros more. Ironically during our time in Bend Anchorage is experiencing perhaps the best weather window of the past decade.  Apparently every day is beautiful and temps are upwards of 80F! I do find it ironic that I'll go home and probably look pale in comparison to all the other Alaskans. When's the last time that happened? 

While it's a bummer to ski around in tough conditions (one day was like skiing circles in a giant puddle of Elmer's Glue) it's good practice. Yes, there is a silver lining.  The coach's go-to saying during these tough days are, "Great Championships Conditions!"  While this could be seen as blind optimism it is, in fact, brutally realistic. The Vancouver Olympic snow was skiing in slush sometimes over my boots, the fog of 2011 World Champs Oslo had visibility of about 10 feet and this year @ Val di Fiemme we faced some difficult waxing conditions.  So, if the championships aren't going to be straight extra blue, perhaps skiing in glue & rain is good for us? 

First big interval set of the year - 5x6 minutes uphill skating intervals with the girls. (Photo thanks to MBSEF) 

The windshield wiper standard on the way to am training

Remember that game pick up sticks as a child? We play it everyday on the ground of the parking lot trying to find our own equipment! 

Opening training camp means we're hungry athletes!  Healthy meals and group meals are a fun part of living together. A recent house favorite is frozen bananas. Try it before you knock it. 

Even coaches get hungry at training camp. You might not be able to see it but here's Matt eating an entire plate full of Tillamook ice cream in front of the fire place :) 

Mixing it up with a little team mountain bike session! 

In addition to all the training & meetings we hosted a Fast and Female event at the Bend Athletic Club. We had approximately 45 local girls as well as girls that traveled from Portland, Leavenworth, WA and other places to take part.  I was lucky enough to lead the older group (ages 15-19) and we had an awesome goal setting session. Individually we each made goals that fell into four separate categories: Short term, long term, quantitative & qualitative. Afterwards the girls had the opportunity to share goals (if they wished) with the group - thought being that if you actually vocalize your goals, one is able to draw support, encouragement and ideas from friends and peers. It was a really cool session! 

Here are some anonymous comments from girls that attended our event via Facebook: 

 "Those days you'll never stop smiling. 

Best day of my life."

"Today. I am completely speechless. I have always had a passion for skiing and I couldn't love something more. Today changed that. It is one thing to look up to someone but to meet them and talk with them is more then I could ever hope for in my whole life. I can't thank the U.S. Ski Team enough. This is why I do what I do. Because of you."

"Yesterday I got to spend the day with the greatest friends anyone could ask for and with all the women I idolize. The women that I have posters of, the ones my team looks up to, truly are inspirational. I couldn't thank anyone enough. The ski community is incredible."

It was AWESOME getting the chance to meet the girls from the Leavenworth Ski Club: Becca, Julia, Lydia & Keiren... these girls have a great thing going on with their club - keep up the great spirit ladies! 

Complete switch of topics but here are some of us in our One piece leisure suits in between training sessions in front of the fire :) 

And - because I don't think I've done it publicly yet - I wanted to officially congratulate my coach, Erik Flora on being named USSA Cross Country International Coach of the Year AND USSA overall (out of all disciplines) Coach of the Year! Congratulations Erik! 

With Erik training here in Bend

Erik officially receiving his award from Dexter Paine - USSA Board of Directors. 

Tomorrow is our last day in Bend and then Friday it's off to Park City - home of the USST for tests and a short altitude block before heading home. 

..... 252 days until Sochi :) 

Have an awesome day, 

Holly

Recovery Day @ Rainshadow Organics!

I have lots of goals for the upcoming season but one of them is to be more pro-active about recovery. Now, to me, this means more than getting enough sleep, putting my feet up in the middle of the day and proper sports nutrition. Sure, it means all of those things.... but what about mental recovery? Or more specifically, making sure that I engage in some non-ski specific activities? In order to think about skiing a lot I find that I need to make some time where I don't think about it at all. Yesterday was the perfect example of that.  The US Ski Team is currently holding our annual kick off camp in Bend, Oregon. We ski every morning and run, bike & lift in the afternoons. (This afternoon we actually had a Fast and Female event which was great in and of itself!)  Anyways, I'm lucky because one of my best friends lives right outside of Bend near Smith Rocks and the town of Terrebonne on a farm called Rainshadow Organics.  It's a highly productive, full-scale farm which literally had chickens hatching out of eggs to slaughtering the chickens for meat. Yes, this step & every step in between happened the day I was there.  The other "farm chore" on the list was castrating piglets which probably wouldn't have been even more interesting but we didn't get that far...... Check out some of my pictures from recovery day..... !

 Loving the flowers in the central Oregon town of Sisters, nearby! 

 Chickens head down, bleeding out into the barrel below 

 Chickens are dropped in boiling water and then put in a centrifuge to de-pluck them (remove feathers) 

 5 gallon buckets full of chicken feet and other parts! 

Then chix are washed, bagged... 

Dipped in hot water to seal the bag... 

Labeled, weighted 

And frozen for all the great folks in Sarah and Tall's Meat CSA!  I have to say that I am very impressed by not only the process but the way all the animals on the farm are treated. Each and everyone is given the space and freedom to roam and play, feed well, and treated with the utmost respect until their last minute of life. As a meat eater myself it was fascinating to see the entire process. 

Of course the farm has tons of tons of veggies and other edibles including lots of beautiful leafy greens! Some grow in these hoop houses while starts are just getting outside for the first time.  As you might know, Memorial Day is a big "landmark" for farmers.... 

 Sarah is getting married in September!  Here she is after our morning walk moving the irrigation lines at the wedding site. She planted grass seed here and I can't wait to come back four months from now and see it again! 

 We had to fetch our own breakfast - straight from underneath the turkey..... I had never eaton turkey eggs before and they were quite good! 

 Success! 

 Sarah in front of the log house she built..... cool to think that we designed it on a napkin almost ten years ago while traveling in South America! 

 Sarah and Tall have other 30 pigs at the farm. 

 Momma and baby! 

 There is nothing cuter than a baby piglet! 

 Me and the Mule! 

 Tall, Sarah's Fiance with a grass leash around one of the native creatures! 

 The three of us driving to sisters to see the Sugar beets! 

As of today it was back to the hard work with an am ski on snow the speed of glue... then a quick lunch before heading off to lead Fast and Female. Then afternoon workout (run) followed by dinner and a team meeting. Our days are action packed which make our recovery days that much more important! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates!  Only 257 days until Sochi! 

Cheers & great wishes to you, 

Holly :) 

How do you Play?

Helping people begin, maintain and learn to love healthy lifestyles is one of my passions.  

For the past couple of years I've had the great pleasure in being involved in a State Run initiative called Healthy Futures.  I serve as a "Healthy Hero" or basically a spokesperson for the campaign.  Our latest initiative is really cool and it's called, Play Every Day!  Play Every Day challenges Alaska's Youth to "Get out and play everyday, for at least 60 minutes."  This could be anything from walking your dog, working in the garden, playing on the playground at recess, running, skiing or riding your bike.  There is no limitation!  The most important part is that you DO IT!  This isn't just important for young people.... I'd love to make the case that it's important for EVERYONE!  I don't know about you but I feel better if I can start my day with a little bit of fresh air and/or get my blood pumping! So, I'd like to ask you, "How do you Play!?!?!"  Get out and do it! 

If you want to check out our current ad running on TV play the vimeo link below! 

For more info on the program check out the website HERE. 

Alaska Athletes Play Every Day from AlaskaDHSS on Vimeo.

Here is some of my recent "Play!" 

Snow Biking across Eklutna Lake with Ana (Photo, Jim Jager)

 Bike to School Day!  Over 1.500 kids and 40 schools participated! Thanks Ben Harris for making this event a success! 

Handing out stickers at Bike to School Day.... Good job Trailside Elementary! 

Running with Tyson Elementary School Students as part of the ARISE program... (Active Recess Inspires Success and Excellence)  The kids have already skipped, ran, walked & jumped 1557 miles (the distance of traveling from Anchorage to the Arctic Ocean and back).... all during their Tuesday & Thursday recess times!  Congrats Tyson kids! 

 Handstands on top of Bird Ridge! 

Skiing with a group from Pacific Northern Academy! 

Now its your turn.... get out and Play Today!  I promise that you'll feel better :) 

Cheers, 

Holly! 

The Top of the World - Barrow!

Yep.... Kikkan and I went to the Top of the World... Just another amazing opportunity that skiing presents us with! 

A couple months ago our friend Mike Hajdukovich, director of Challenge Life, emailed us asking if we'd be interested in going to Barrow to kick of the Barrow Nordic Ski Club. The answer, "OF COURSE!" The opportunity to experience new parts of Alaska has always interested me.  However, it's extremely expensive to go on your own (esp to rural parts) and it's always nice to have a purpose. Years ago I did extensive field work in many small villages in Alaska: Galena, Fort Yukon, Kotzebue, Shemya (Island at the END of the Aleutian Chain!)  Weird enough I was doing historical research and a phase I study for an "unexploded ordnance clean up."  Funny to think where I am now in comparison .... but I digress. 

Barrow is the "hub" of the North Slope Arctic Borough. It has approximately 5000 residents and of these 5k, THIRTY SEVEN different nationalities are represented!  Many are attracted by work - often affiliated with the strong Native Corporations and the oil field of course. Barrow, like many other communities in Alaska struggle with obesity and making healthy lifestyle choices are difficult.  It's dark, cold & windy.  A small box of oranges cost $22 dollars and it's way to easy to grab a Monster energy drink and the Nintendo. Thus, Kikkan and I traveled north to make school visits and kick off the Barrow Nordic Ski Club. We had a PACKED schedule including 7 school visits, workouts with the high school teams, a community wide clinic, a public radio interview, and some "meet and greets."  Nonetheless, we got to take a quick tour of the town itself and play "tourist."  We are from Anchorage after all :) 

Our event: 

Our event poster (Thanks to the sponsors!) 

On the way to Barrow we took what Mike called the "Milk Run."  We flew in small planes from Anchorage to Fairbanks to Deadhorse to Nuiqsut to Barrow. It was awesome to look down on the ice roads and get a small glimpse of North Slope life.  Also fun to see how integral transportation & cargo is to the Slope. I saw lots of Carlile trucks! (My biggest sponsor!) 

Kikkan upon arrival in Barrow...! 

Many of our USST teammates so happened to be in Costa Rica for a surf vacation. We couldn't resist taking a beach shot of our own.  Our beach just happens to be the ice-covered Arctic Ocean and the palm tree leaves are baleen harvested from the local whaling hunts! 

 We also found an igloo and couldn't resist this touristy picture :) 

 There are some odd living arrangements in Barrow. However, I must say, structures look a bit rough on the outside but then are often really nice on the interior. Much of this is directly related to the climate. In Barrow cold weather is one thing but they are also effected by extremely high winds. 

We spoke with 5 middle school classes.... we showed them our equipment to introduce the concept of XC skiing, told them our personal stories, talked about opportunity and all the ways participation in sports have positively affected our lives.  We also talked about nutrition, sleep, and all that healthy stuff :) But, perhaps the highlight of each presentation was when we shared out Tayler Swift Trouble video with the kids. They LOVED IT! Oh - and Simi, the close up of you singing your heart out always got the biggest laugh. It's my favorite part too! 

32 ounces of YUCK front and center at the Barrow grocery store. 

 One of my many highlights was meeting the Barrow girl's cross country running team.  We joined these girls for their core workout and hung out with other high school athletes in the weight room.  "Insanity" the workout craze is pretty popular amongst Barrow high school athletes and I have to say, my muscles are thanking me for missing out on that one! 

(Being spring I would have been too sore to get on the plane)

Mexican Food at the Top of the World? Why not?!

Then it came time for the marque event of the trip - the community wide clinic.  Now, the day we flew it was gorgeous - blue bird.  The night of the clinic was not. It was grey, snowing, and blowing HARD. We had been inviting people all day but had no idea who would show up.  Well.... everyone showed up. It was a wonderful overwhelming chaotic mess. Young, old, complete novice, old pro.  The ski room was a mix of 20 year old fish scale skis and new equipment that was just purchased with a grant.  The poles hadn't been cut yet so they were all 160cm. We had a narrow selection of boots. Nothing was marked with sizes - yet. The line was across the gym. I was trying to help everyone individually until it became so overwhelming that I finally threw all available boots on the gym floor and invited people to quote, "FIND SOMETHING THAT FITS!"  

It was awesome how positive and patient everyone was.  We had too many people and not enough equipment. While I hated the fact that not everyone could go out, I loved the fact that we were overwhelmed by the number of people that came out to ski with us in 30 mph wind! 

I had trouble loading the video of the actual skiing part but trust me. It was a SH** show; but a wonderful one. It was blowing so load I couldn't talk. 75% of the people didn't know how to put their skis on. There were kids in jeans, without gloves, poles over their heads.... many had no idea how to stand on skis let alone move on them. When they'd try to move they'd step on their other ski and crash to the wind-blown ground. Then they'd have no idea how to get back up. It was comical, chaotic, and wonderful all at the same time. 

A couple members of the newly minted Barrow ski club - complete with USST women's team poster upper left! 

 Despite the "challenging" many of the kids stayed out for over TWO HOURS. It was awesome to see improvement and great to see the enthusiasm.  In fact, the best part is that today, I got a message from Steve G, teacher/coach at the middle & high school and he told me that the kids were skiing on their own today!!!! You always worry that people might loose interest when you leave so I was ecstatic to hear this news! 

 These guys stayed out for hours! 

I couldn't surpass this photo opportunity. Have you ever seen a playground INSIDE like this? #onlyinalaska! 

I must say, this trip was awesome. Thanks so much to Mike & Challenge Life for making it happen, Tino and Crystalynn for welcoming us like family into their homes.  Steve Gillaspie at the middle & high school, Mike at the Rec Center, Geoff, Marie Carol, Charlotte, Christian, Kama, and many, many more!  Barrow is a wonderful community and I feel lucky to have made the trip North. I hope that enthusiasm for skiing sticks around as I'd love to see an organized club on my next visit to the Top of the World! 

Until next time, make it count! 

Cheers, 

Holly :)