Olympians Wouldn't Be Olympians Without a Team

The SVSEF college crew/Gold Team on top of Otto's Peak

Everyone knows that Nordic ski racing is largely an individual sport. When you are halfway through a race and your body is being pushed to its absolute limits, you have to rely on your own mental strength and training to get you to the finish. Sure, there are other athletes racing around you, but in reality, you're out there on your own and you can't turn to others to help you race faster. And I think this is one of the reasons Nordic skiers are a unique breed. We thrive on knowing that our failures and successes are, for the most part, our own responsibility. 

But I think we can all agree that what happens during the races is built upon what happens during training. And what happens during training, happens with a team.  Your teammates, whether temporary or long-term, are the support system that helps you get through the hard workouts, helps you form the memories from the good ones, and shapes you to become the athlete that you are.  They cheer you on, challenge you, empathize with you, give you advice, and suffer right next to you through the long van rides, freezing cold, exhausting heat, and difficult training days. They know what you're feeling, because they've been there, and they are there.

I'm a firm believer that training with and immersing yourself in a team is one of the main ways to train effectively and live happily.  Training without a support system to fall back on can easily lead to frustration and a lack of motivation and challenge, while training with a team pushes you outside of your comfort zone and teaches you the coping skills needed for the moments when you find yourself in the middle of the race with only yourself to fall back on. No matter what age you are or how serious you are about skiing, training with a team ignites the passion for the sport. You can think back to the days you spent chasing down your teammates on the road, trails, and snow, and you know that you've been there and done that, and this race is no big deal.

The Olympic Day kids organizing themselves into teams based on animal noises

I've always admired SVSEF because I knew that its team environment was a strong one, but I never realized just how strong it was until I got here. The group that is training here for the summer is absolutely awesome. They support each other and genuinely want their teammates to become better skiers, which makes practice something to look forward to every morning.

Gold Team! Miles, Mary, Colin, Chelsea, Ben and Me

But not only the nordic team is a tight group, the whole of SVSEF (nordic, alpine, freestyle, and snowboarding) is a team in itself.  This week we hosted Olympic Day, a day of celebrating our past, present, and future Olympians. Over 150 kids from the foundation and from town signed up to play and were put on mini-teams to compete in games such as tug of war, jousting, tricycle races, paddle boat races, penalty kicks, BB gun shooting, and relays.  It was so amazing to see the kids on the teams (many didn't know each other) bond together and work to include everyone in each task. No matter if you were a nordie, piner, freestyle skier, or snowboarder, you were included and valued. And THAT is awesome.

I'm feeling super duper lucky that I have the team I do, because the difficulty of the training doesn't matter when you're doing it with awesome people. Thank you Gold Team-ers (Mary, Chelsea, Ben, Miles) and all the college kids (Sloan, Jesse, Katie, Maggie, Corky, Sam, Adam, Jack, Cole, etc) for making June an awesome training month. I can't wait to see what July holds.

Out on a classic distance ski

Chelsea and Mary battling it out at Olympic Day

Rick Kapala and Picabo Street refereeing the tug of war

Even Colin got in on the fun

Sloan, Colin, and Mary on the way down from Otto's Peak

The view from Otto's peak!

Sloan and Mary leading the way

Up on the High Ridge Trail

First Weeks in the Valley

A view of Mount Baldy from one of the bike/ski paths

Welcome to Sun Valley!

Basically life here renders me speechless.

The valley is training paradise, the community is welcoming, and SVSEF is just an incredible program.  I've only been here for two weeks yet I already feel as if I belong.  The group of college skiers that is here training for the summer is a solid one, and each day we have the opportunity to push each other and ourselves, whether in a L1 double pole workout, strength, or bounding up Dollar Mountain. It's taken me a bit to acclimate, but tomorrow marks two weeks since I arrived, and my morning heart rate has finally returned to normal.

Snowy run in the morning this week

So moving to Idaho is a bit of a culture shock, in case you were wondering. First off, I definitely notice my Minnesoootan accent more, but I try to wear it with pride. Ooh yaaa sure ya betchaa.

Second, there is no humidity, mosquitoes, ticks, or any of the other nuisances that you fight while training in the Midwest. The weather is virtually perfect. (Well, except for when it snowed on Wednesday but we'll forgive that little Mother-Nature-meltdown).

Finally, instead of rush hour traffic due to cars, rush hour traffic is caused by sheep. Yep, giant herds of BAAAAA-ing, bleating, fat, wooly, sheep. They're being herded up to the northern mountains, and the path they take is literally straight through the town of Ketchum (seriously, they use the bike paths). The first time I saw the sheep I legitimately didn't know how to handle it. Also, instead of using pesticides on noxious weeds, the neighborhoods hire a hoard of goats to come and eat them, because apparently goats have an appetite for poisonous vegetation. I don't know.  The animals are everywhere. It's crazy.

Along with all that, life here is awesome. When I'm not training (or napping, which I'm basically also a professional at) I work at a bookstore called Iconoclast Books, this adorable bookstore/cafe in Ketchum. If you're ever in the area, I highly suggest you stop in.  Major thanks go out to the Unser family (Johnny, Shauna, and Loni) for welcoming me into their home for the summer, and also, shoutout to my dad, George, for helping me move all the way out here.

I definitely miss the Midwest and the people in it, but I'm already in love with Sun Valley, and I'm so glad I took the leap to come out here. 

3.5 hour OD classic roll/run with the girls this morning, joined by Coach Deedra and Morgan Arritola!

The river runs right by our training facility, and is great for ice bathing.

The Grand Tetons! Oh, and the Uhaul

The story behind the Superman duct-tape

So I've had my fair share of equipment problems, as every skier will. During one workout toward the end of this past season, the side clip on my skate boot caught on my pole and snapped right off, so the support strap that leads across my foot was just hanging out flapping around in the wind, acting pretty useless.

My dad and I are both pretty stubborn.
We had differing opinions on the solution to the boot-astrophe.

Dad: "Well, does the boot work without the strap?"
Me [sassy]: "I mean yeahhh, it's just obnoxious and looks dumb." (Which it was, and did.)
Dad: "Okay well go buy a new boot then!"
Me: "Are you kidding me, do you realize how much these things cost?" (Ski equipment is NOT cheap people.)
Dad: "I'll pay for it."
Me: "That's ridiculous. I'll fix it with duct tape or something. Innovation at its finest."
Dad: "I don't want equipment malfunctioning to be the reason something goes wrong in a race. It's my money. I choose how I spend it. Go buy the boots."
Me: "I only  have like, 5 skate races left in the season, Dad. I'm not going to buy new boots for 5 races. I already had to buy a pair of boots this season anyway."
Dad: "Paige Elizabeth, just go buy the damn boots."
Me: "Ugh, fine, I'll figure it out, BYE."
("click", this was a phone conversation)

So.  Little sassy stubborn me heads off to Target to run some errands, and what do I stumble upon but the duct tape aisle. I don't know if you've ever bought duct tape at Target but oh my gosh they have like 15 different colors and patterns. It's so overwhelming.  So I pick up this awesome flowery roll and then I see the Superman duct tape.  And I think, well Superman is fierce, and flashy, and has attitude (cough, BeFAST), AND he's a superhero so he basically flies. Perfect for racing!

After proudly showing off the tape to my mother and heading off to ski for the afternoon, my dad calls.

Dad: "So did she go get the boots?"
Mom: "Well, she fixed the problem, that's for sure."
Dad: "Cool, how much did it cost me?"
Mom: ".... Only $12.50!"

Needless to say, Dad was a little skeptical that the tape would hold up in the snow and ice. But it did, and before each and every skate race I would wrap two layers of Superman tape around the arch of my boot to hold the strap down.  It quickly became my pre-race ritual and my lucky charm, and when I raced at NCAA's my entire family showed up in bright blue superman t-shirts to channel the luck.

As I order my boots for next season, I'm thinking of ways to keep the tape in the race, because although I'm hoping these boots are a bit sturdier, the tape IS my lucky charm...