And the winter training continues...

Waiting for the podium in my Caldwell Sports hat

Last weekend, Matt and I journeyed to Jackson, WY to continue my race season prep via ski racing.  Saturday morning we took a bus to the ski trails to compete in the 30K Moose Chase.  Appropriately named, moose were sighted on the trails during the race!  We did a little blind wax testing, namely Matt waxed one ski differently than my other ski, and I told him which was faster.  Then we re-waxed our skis before the start (read: upper body warm-up.)  My Caldwell Sport picked skis were fast, as I started the race in the lead.  Unfortunately, I had a little mishap with the snow on the first lap and lost a bit of time, falling back to about 4th or 5th place.  I worked hard to catch back up to two women in front of me on the second lap.  Trying to recover from this was incredibly tough.  This race was hard, lots of short steep climbs and some longer gradual ones too.  Half way through the second lap I attacked.  I put some distance between the other women and myself, but there was still one woman ahead of us, completely out of sight.  It's a little frightening to attack when you are already suffering.  I was worried I was going to get caught, blow up, and be left on the trails hanging out with the moose.  Doubts aside, I kept at it and maintained my position into the finish, coming in 2nd place!  Total body pain fest, but at least these ski races feed you cookies afterwards to cheer your body up.  We enjoyed a nice lunch in Jackson with the Layec and Pardyjak families before heading back to UT.

My super sweet new belt buckle!

Thankfully the weather and air quality was reasonable last week, so after a nice block of intensity with the racing in WY, I went for my first outdoor ride since last fall!   Wow.  It was awesome.  I rode to Tiffany Pezzulo's homestead and embarked on the longest ride I've done in quite a while with Tiffany, her husband Steve, and their friend Justin.  Great company, some fun snow and ice riding through the airport's bike path, and a delightful and yummy stop at the Tulie Bakery (my new favorite SLC establishment) for some pastries of the serious variety.  Like seriously legit.  Even our French friends say its good. That could mean good for the US... but whatever I'm still VERY excited about this SLC discovery.  Total ride time was over 3 hours with some nice intervals on the way home = a tired Kat.

The Veloforma gets to play outside!

Freakin sweet chain lube!  Coconut scented!

Freezing Ogden Race- rocking the Gnar lube jacket

I was hoping to continue riding outside, but the snow has been falling consistently for days now.  So, back to skiing!  We drove up to Park City, for the last race of the Wasatch Citizens Series at White Pine yesterday.  Just as we were about to start, the storm blew in pelting us with snow, stinging the face, and making for zero visibility.  Literally, it was hard to see the trail a few feet in front of me for the first 7K of the 20K race.  The snow and wind eased up a bit on the second lap and the skiing got a little bit faster.  Heading to the finish, a man racing in a red suit was taking himself way too seriously and started yelling at me to "get out of the way and let us race!"  Hmm, not sure if he thought I was wearing a bib number just for the heck of it or because I was a women I was super slow and maybe my race didn't matter?  Since I was also racing, for the podium I might add, I made it my mission to catch him and beat him in the sprint.  Here's a video of the finish...I came close but totally cracked....

*Video coming soon...

Ended up in 2nd place!

Next ski race is the West Yellowstone Rendezvous and then the bike season starts!  Wahoo!