Period 1 of the World Cup
Happy holidays! I am writing from Seefeld, Austria where I spent my first Christmas apart from my family. It is hard to believe Period 1 of the World Cup is already over and the season continues on (mostly) as planned. When I headed over to Europe, I wasn’t sure how long the season would last before the plug got pulled due to Covid. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how safe both the World Cup circuit and our team has been. I feel very fortunate that we were able to have a safe race season thus far and to have the opportunity to race during this time. In some ways things feel normal, we are out there ski racing our hardest, but in other ways, life on the road has been a bit different. Normally, we switch up roommates almost every week so that we don’t get sick of each other, but this year we are operating on a roommate pod system, only spending time inside without masks on with our roommate. This means A LOT of time spent with my roommate in my hotel room, no hanging out with other teammates besides outside when we are training together, and very limited social or team interactions. Lucky for me, I am roommates with Jessie and we get along extremely well, operating on similar high energy wavelength. She has taught me a lot of her tricks for life on the road and has helped me engrain some better habits, always keeping an eye out for me and sharing her wise wisdom :)
I am thankful to have Jessie as my roommate on the road!
Lots of mask wearing, and time with Jessie, which means things are getting a bit weird hahaha
Period 1 is always a brutal awakening, with the Europeaners firing on all cylinders after racing on snow for over a month. Many of them have to fight for their World Cup spot for the season so often they are quite sharp, while those of us from the east coast have only spent a handful of days on snow. This year, we had even less time than usual, spending only 6 days on snow before racing, and for me, classic skiing only 2 hours total before the first classic sprint. I strained my hamstring shortly before coming over to Europe so I had to be extra careful to ease into things if I wanted to race the first weekend. Despite that, I was fired up and ready to rip, with high hopes for the first weekend, optimistic that snow time doesn’t actually matter too much. Once again, I was reminded of the harsh reality of the Ruka competition, finding myself outside of qualification for the third time at this venue. I got my butt kicked the following day in the 10km classic, but found a little redemption in the 10km skate pursuit to conclude the Ruka Tripple.
Very excited to have my name on my athlete bib this year for the first time!
I came into this season with bigger goals and expectations than last year, after spending all summer and fall training full time with no classes. Ruka definitely left me hungry for a lot more, but I wasn’t alone with that feeling. Many of my east coast teammates also felt this way and were looking forward for more time on snow to get our ski legs under us. Rosie, Hailey, and some of our guys came out swinging tough, nailing some awesome results for the team!
Our women’s World Cup squad in Period 1, featuring our beautiful wax truck, Yolanda!
With the Lillehammer World Cup being canceled due to Covid, we traveled to Davos, Switzerland early, allowing us to settle there for 2.5 weeks! Normally we aren’t at a venue for more than 1 week, so on the positive side of a race being canceled, we got to settle in at one of my favorite venues for a bit longer and enjoy lots of fresh snow and sunshine. When we arrived the grass was green, but shortly after the snow gods delivered a 3-foot snow storm! On the weekend we were supposed to race, our coaches self-organized a friendly time trial race weekend with 4 other nations (Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Russia) on the race course and it was the most epic time trial I have ever done! It reminded me of the true spirit and power of sport, bringing different people together over a shared activity. It served as really good practice for sprint tactics and 10km pacing strategy, and of course, added 2 more hard race efforts which I felt like I needed to build my race form.
Home sweet home for 2.5 weeks in Davos (the building in the left corner).
Duking it out in the time trial with one of the German skiers (PC: Matt Whitcomb).
Pine cone participation medals courtesy of the German coaching staff!
No strength training in gyms this year, so we have some team strength equipment for at home strength. No complaints here about this “gym” setup!
One of my favorite things about Davos is all of the beautiful mountain terrain. It made it super easy to get outside with teammates for some safe, social skis and sledding adventures, the social outings I was definitely missing on the road thus far. I was super excited that my friend Hannah Halvorsen joined us in Davos for her first races back after getting hit by a car last year. She has been one of my close friends over the past few years and I hadn’t seen her in almost 2 years in person, so I really enjoyed going on some soul skis and afternoon sledding outings to catch up on everything! Afternoon sledding became a regular team activity, and it turns out, can be a pretty hard workout when you are doing laps on repeat up a big hill in the deep snow.
Night sledding during the massive snow storm!
Soul ski wit Hannah <3
The whole Guppie squad back in action!
Covid testing time, we get tested every 4-7 days depending on our travel schedules.
After I fueled up my body with quality training sessions, outdoor social sledding adventures, sunshine, and soul skis, I was ready to race! Last year I found my race gear in Davos so I was hopeful things would start coming around. My one goal for the sprint was to give it all from start to finish, and that is what I did. I was able to move onto the semi-finals and finished 11th on the day. The following day I gave it my all in the 10km, but fell short of the results I hoped for. The race weekend left me confused and frustrated, my mind was so fired up and ready to race, but it felt like my body wasn’t there yet. My coaches have been reassuring me that “it’s coming” and I need to be patient, but that is hard to accept that when my mind is ready to go. I have always believed that if I am happy and my mind is ready to go, then the good races will come, but maybe it is not always that simple. It is confusing to be patient and wait for the race form to come around when I feel like I am are trying to do everything to race fast right now. But as I have learned in the past, the more races I do, the sharper I become….and after all, it is only December. So for now, I am focusing on doing all I can at the moment and have to trust the training plan and keep on believing. The big highlight of the Davos weekend was that my teammates absolutely crushed it, with Rosie winning her first (and second) ever World Cup in a row, and Hailey landing on her first-ever World Cup Podium!
Step by step making improvements every race. Skiing my way onto the semi-finals (PC: Daily Skier).
Head up, focus forward, and trusting the process (PC: Daily Skier).
Double podium for USA, go Rosie and Hailey!
A huge shoutout to my wax tech Eli for supporting me throughout Period 1, testing and prepping speedy skis day in and day out (PC: Daily Skier)!
The last stop of Period 1 is one of my favorite World Cups every year, Dresden city sprint! Normally my German family comes to cheer me on in person since it is only one hour away from their home and the atmosphere is incredible with all the fans. However, this year no fans were allowed and the Dresden was under strict Covid restrictions, but the beautiful weather and crazy, city sprinting still didn’t disappoint! I managed to move onto the semi-finals again, finishing 12th on the day, but once again, left feeling like I was missing that top race gear. Normally this kind of result would be pretty good for me, but Norway, Sweden, and Finland were missing in both Davos and Dresden this year. Sophie landed on the podium in 2nd, Jessie in 4th, and Simi and Kevin in 5th and 6th, making it a killer day for our team! The next day we raced the team sprint, my favorite race of the year, and I got to partner with Hannah which I was so psyched about. We had a tangle in a tag in the semifinals, but despite that, we raced super hard and still snagged a lucky loser spot to move onto the finals. In the finals, we held our ground and skied strong, but unfortunately got tangled up in a crash midway through and had to burn a few matches to catch back up. I was really proud of how we skied as a team, holding our ground, fighting super hard to get back in the game after both crashes, never giving up for even a moment, and most importantly, having an absolute blast out there together :) I couldn’t be happier to see Hannah skiing like such a champ in her first races back and for the chance to team up with her for the sprint, which I can guarantee won’t be the last time you’ll see this dream team in action!
Dream team <3
Of course we brought all the team spirit, including the relay socks, face paint, and glitter for team sprint day!
This old city backdrop never disappoints (PC: Matt Whitcomb)!
Narrow strip of white snow makes for a tight, action packed sprint (PC: Daily Skier)!
The heroes behind the scenes, making us fast skis!
Period 1 came to close which meant time for Christmas break. Usually, I hop in a car and join my family in Germany for the holidays, but due to Covid, I joined my teammates this year for Christmas break in Seefeld, Austria for my first Christmas without my family. I have been fortunate enough that I haven’t had to spend Christmas apart from my family so far unlike many of my teammates. I am thankful that I could spend Christmas with my ski family in a safe way this year instead, and connect with my family virtually. We have been embracing each other’s favorite holiday traditions and making things feel as homey as possible as all of us are away from our family. I have been soaking up the downtime and apartment living to recharge my batteries before the World Cup carries on with the Tour de Ski in less than a week. I wish you all a happy and safe holiday season with whomever you are able to celebrate with! Check back in for my update on the Tour de Ski!
Merry Christmas for our little ski family! (Hailey, Katharine, Gus, Jessie, and I)
Christmas Sledding: Taking a moment to appreciate all the things we are thankful for.
