When I first met Patrick, he did many ski races in Anchorage every winter. Boy did he train hard for them. Lots of skiing, interval training and weight training. Ella and I did the Tour of Anchorage ski race with Patrick in 2002-it was fun to finish the race-boy was it exhausting. 16 miles Ella and I did. 52 Kilometers Patrick did.
Then Patrick went on some downhill adventures for several years, taking him away from training for a cross country race. He hasn't done any races for several years-neither have I.
This spring Patrick and I are feeling like getting back into the training mind set for next winter. We want to do the Tour of Anchorage again. Patricks brother, Dicky, and my sister Ella may even come up and do it with us. It would give us something to work towards, which I think is a fantastic motivater....especially if "competing" with our siblings is involved. Our friends Julie and Ray and Jeremy and Karen would also be interested in doing the large Anchorage race as well.
My plan is to do spinning, weight training, hiking, jogging, skiing in the next year to come to prepare. Training for a cross country ski race here can be seen as challenging, because there are no groomed trails. However, this can be seen as a training advantage because it takes strength to plow through the snow to create a trail of ones own. Patrick has never seen the lack of cross country ski trails as a disadvantage in his training. He found that his race times improved once he moved here from Wisconsin (where there were LOTS of groomed trails).
Patrick quickly snapped the photo today as the kiddos and I were sitting in the recliner together. Nora spent 3 hours today with our friend Patty Mahoney while we were skiing and Stuey was with Meg, the mommy helper back at the house. Nora had a fun time with Patty and discovered the art of dusting-she was fascinated with Pattys feather duster. :)
Zoya
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