A new Year, an Olympic Year...

It’s the time of year where everyone is getting things going again, this applies to me too, and it looks like I haven’t updated my blog since September. September really? Yikes, as I looked through my phone to find a few photos that might represent what I’ve been up to, I realized that 98% of my photos are of my favourite canine friend Sadie. And it might be easier for me to write a dog blog recounting her adventures than a blog of my own.

Before I start posting puppy pictures I’ll try and recap last season. In short it was my best season ever! That being said it had its ups and downs, and there were times when I was walking a fine line between super fit and super tired. I had to pick and choose my races more than ever to conserve my energy. This meant very little distance racing, which wasn’t my plan at the outset, but something had to go, and it wasn’t going to be sprint racing that’s for sure!

The highlight of the season was without a doubt in Sochi on the Olympic courses where Dasha and I stood on the podium in the team sprint. It was the highlight because of the result, but it is also my favourite event of all time, and to share success with a teammate, especially one who grew up in Russia was pretty sweet. Not to mention the fact that we are now more excited than ever about the Olympics next year. Each and every workout for the next eight months we will be thinking about that 1.3km snow covered track.

Now lets fast forward a little bit, the end of the season came and went, and Joel and I both needed some serious downtime. That razor sharp edge I was on for a good chunk of the season finally got the better of me so come April I needed some serious recovery. After spending five months on the road working his tail off for our team Joel was in the same boat, and not having really taken any time to ourselves since we got married in July we escaped to our new favourite Hawaiian Island, Kauai. The ultra mellow pace of life there was just what we needed, a little bit of feet up relaxing, a lot of time spent in the ocean, and some solid adventuring. Add a quick stop at Alcatraz in San Francisco on the way home, and we are recharged and ready for another year!

A little coffee on the beach to start off the day.

Which pretty much brings us to now. We are in Bend, Oregon for our annual spring camp. Our team loves Bend, the skiing, the coffee, the food, the running, the milkshakes, it’s all top notch. It’s so good in fact that we are coming back for our second camp of the year too! It’s been a busy week so far with most of our staff down here they were busy dialing in the fine details of the coming season to make sure we have everything just right in Sochi. We have a truly world class support team thinking about each and every detail imaginable.

There are a few more exciting things coming down the pipes, so I will save them for the next update, wouldn’t want to have nothing to report on in a few weeks (or lets be honest months!) time.

All would not be complete without a few photos of the previously mentioned mutt Sadie…

If you spent much time with this cute furry face you'd have a few hundred photos of her too...

 Until next time- whenever that may be...