Europe Moments

Just rolling with the punches... as everyone has been this year! After facing a bit of disappointment this season I've been trying to focus on the positives. I'm  appreciative of the opportunities I have had and I know not many are as fortunate. Regardless of how races go, I do love being able to travel and continue to chase my goals. So, on a more light-hearted note here is a random compilation of some of the highlights from the past few weeks in Europe :)

Pillow, blanket, melatonin, good book and an entire row to myself = keys to a good international flight.

Usually I pack my own meal to have during long flights, but I couldn't turn down this little cup of joy!

The World Cup races take a TREMENDOUS amount of work to put together and on race day everything seems to go pretty smoothly. However, when you arrive at a venue a week early, things are still getting set up and you have to make do with what you've got.

You would think I'd know how to carry skis by this point in my career... (PC: Daily Skier)

There is also a lot of waiting that happens while on the World Cup. Waiting for your race, allotted training time, scheduled transportation, meal times, meetings...

All dressed up with nowhere to go! (PC: Jessie)

Anyone remember that crash in Lahti? This is a klister mark on the upper leg of Julia's race suit (from the bottom of my ski, oops!)

Just waiting for my turn to go skiing...

Went a little too hard in a plyo strength workout mid-week so I tried to speed up the recovery in my glutes using Julia's Hypervolt.

Being a bit of a foodie myself I love exploring the different food options when I travel abroad. Sometimes it's super interesting stuff (I once tried horse tongue in Kazakhstan) and sometimes it's just fish and potatoes.

Sweden seemed to be big on the soups this year: broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, we tried quite the variety.

Julia eyeing some pretzels and croissants during a layover in Frankfurt.

Jessie and I were so excited to be staying in cabins while in Falun, Sweden, we thought we might have the chance to cook/bake some yummy treats for ourselves. You can imagine the disappointment when we realized we had no oven... so instead we got creative!

Whipping up a big batch of microwave mug cakes.

Birthday fudge for Caitlin Patterson that ended up more as homemade caramel, not complaining!

Our last night in cabins Julia made us crepes to stuff with all of our leftovers, super yummy!

Local Swedish pears with melted Gruyere fresh from the podium (thanks Jessie)!

Most evenings were spent doing sunset jogs with the other girls :) (PC: Julia Kern)

Or getting a haircut from Caitlin Patterson!

No matter what type of race it's been I always enjoy cooling down with friends. Sometimes that means talking through the course about wild crashes we saw, sketchy corners we're proud of making or sections of the course we thought we saw God. Other times we talk about anything and everything else, wanting to take a quick break from what just happened and focus on how pretty it is outside.

Cooling down with Julia and Hannah in a frosty Falun wonderland.

Making friends with our neighbors from Canada after sprinting in Ulricehamn!

After racing in Ulricehamn, Sweden a few weeks ago, there was an off week before the Nove Mesto World Cup in the Czech Republic. The other skiers planning to race in Nove Mesto were either coming from World Juniors or from the US, while the World Championship team was off at a training camp. This left Peter Holmes and me as American athletes needing to find our own training location in Europe for about a week!

We thought we could just stay in Sweden for an extra week to limit the number of travel days we'd have to face, but I was craving some sunshine and mountains. So, I had to twist Peter's arm to convince him to join me in Ramsau, Austria for some beautiful skiing. 

1 week, 1 cloudy day. I'll take that.

This is what I like to call 'happy skiing'

We were so fortunate to stay at the Almdorf Reiteralm, could not get over this gorgeous view!

I think Peter and I made a pretty good team, taking turns driving, cooking, cleaning, supporting each other during workouts and cheering each other on in intervals.

There are lots of road crossings in Ramsau that always made for good water breaks....

Or if you're Peter you can just fly right over the roads!

Klister skiing looks a little different without your wax tech around for support.

Can you guess how many times we had to use Google Translate?

In Austria, most things were closed because of Covid so we didn't get too many opportunities to explore the surrounding area, but we tried our best!

The nearest town, Schladming, looking beautiful at night but a little empty.

Despite the situation, I think we did a good job at making friends with the locals...

These little snow people made me smile everyday :)

Skiing with Sophie Schimpl, who is originally from Austria but skied in college in the US. Super fun to see her again!

After a week of paradise and good training, Peter and I started hearing rumors about Nove Mesto: Czech was going into a stricter lockdown and the WC could be canceled. We started to prepare ourselves for whatever might happen. Sadly, by Valentine's Day we found out we would not have the opportunity to race again in Europe and that it was time to go home.

Packed our bags and had ourselves a V-Day evening

Just another unfortunate situation to add to the list. Peter and I were both excited for another chance to race a World Cup. I had started to feel better energy-wise while training and was feeling optimistic about having a good race in Nove Mesto. As bummed as we both were, it was completely out of our control, so we scheduled a Covid test and changed our flights.

Bye for now, Ramsau!

The silver lining of this situation is that I get to be at home with my family AND take advantage of Birkie Fever! I'm excited to be back in the Midwest just in time to compete in the American Birkebeiner next week, which is always a fun event and something that means a lot to me. Excited to see how many kilometers my legs can hang on for!