Alaska!

Hey all,

About a week ago I arrived in Aleknagik, Alaska, a small village in the Bristol Bay region, about 20 miles north of Dillingham. You can't get here by road from Anchorage -- just plane and boat. This is the one I flew in on:



The two real live Alaskans on the team are probably yawning about this, but I think it's pretty cool.

This time of year, the only thing on everybody's mind around here is fish. That's because the biggest sockeye salmon fishery in the world operates out of Bristol Bay. This year they're predicting an average-size run of around 36 million salmon. Turns out that one of the biggest side industries to actually fishing the salmon is predicting how many will come and when... this way the fish processors know how many workers to hire, the fishermen know when they have to go out, and the district managers know how much fishing to allow so that they can meet their sustainable fishing goal. The Bristol Bay salmon fishery, unlike most fisheries in the world, is well-managed and thriving. I learned a few days ago that it's actually unconstitutional in Alaska to manage natural resources in an unsustainable way. Wild!

Anyways, I'm working with University of Washington researchers who try to come up with an accurate real-time forecast of the salmon run. For the most part they have the models all written and it's just a matter of running the code, but there's also a fair amount of human evaluation and heuristics that go into it.

As I write this at 1am, it is legitimately dark out -- perhaps the equivalent of 10:30-11:00 at night in Boston right now. This is the first time I've seen it like this, and it's probably a result of particularly thick clouds. Here's a picture I took of the view from the dock a few minutes after midnight the evening I arrived:



The first time I went for a rollerski here, I left at 9:30 PM and got back an hour and a half later in comfortable daylight. Since then, I've transitioned to a morning schedule that feels a little more natural to me.

The availability of training facilities here is not too bad. There is exactly one paved road that goes 19 miles into Dillingham, and it is pretty well-paved, low-traffic, and fairly rolly... definitely V1 material in a few places. Unfortunately, even though there are a bunch of mountains around here, none are easily accessible from my location and getting the vertical in is my biggest problem right now.

I've also been told to keep an eye out for bears and moose while I rollerski. I'll keep you posted on this, but so far the animals that have caused me the most trouble so far are mosquitos. Really, though, they're not that bad, particularly with judicious clothing choices and application of DEET as necessary.

The most fun thing about training so far has been coming up with my strength routine. This is a pretty well-stocked camp and I was lucky enough to find a pair of 12lb dumbells and a gym ball. There's even an installed pull-up bar and stationary bike! But, with no med balls to be found, I assembled a collection of rocks and a concrete block to use instead:


Not a bad view for core strength.

I'll keep you all updated!

Chris

Update from the West

Friends, Romans, Teammates,

Lend me your ears:

After weeks of continuous rain and tenuous cloud cover teasing us with the promise of blue sky someday, the weather has finally broken and it is summer in Montana. I have spent the past month roaming the pine-wooded mountains and swimming in its cool ponds. Everything is so green here and it feels impossible to stay inside with the sun luring now me out at every chance.

I have been teaching boot camp as a personal trainer 3 mornings a week. It's been a rewarding experience, but also an interesting one trying to direct someone else's training besides my own. Most days I am up around 5 to make boot camp at 6:15, before hustling to training at 8. I nap, have lunch and hit afternoon training, then dinner and flop into bed exhausted. In honor of the recent sunshine, I cutoff all (but a stripe) of my hair:

My mother's not crazy about the look, but in my spare time I have been re-watching Glee on Netflix (which I have decided was a terrible idea to sign up for, because it's too easy on a lazy day). So the inspiration for my cut was Puck from Glee:

Disturbingly similar in our many perfect attributes: I know. It's pretty much been a perfect summer here. The lack of schoolwork has relaxed me completely and my lack of responsibilities and obligations have me feeling like a young kid again. I forgot how much I love summer training. We have a large group of athletes training with us this summer and it's good to have some fast guys to chase through the forest. I stepped right back into Dragan's European eccentricities, but it's been priceless training in the Big Sky again for a while.

Akeo and I have been training with our high school teammates here. Mainly OD runs and rollerskis, but we've been hittin' the gym and gettin' ripped too. Coach Hess would be proud. I hope... I didn't really realize how much the elevation change was gonna suck, but I figured it out about 3km into a 10km running race just after getting home. So note-to-future-self: ease into elevation after a year at sea level.

Clare Miller swept through town on Tuesday night and we got a chance to go out for ice-cream, living it up on the longest day of the year! I hope that all is well, wherever you are and whatever adventure you are on!

From the Big Blue Sky Country,

Tanner

CXC Elite Camp

Hey guys!

I just spent the last two weeks at the CXC Elite camp at Telemark Resort in Wisconsin. That's where the Birkie starts.

Telemark Lodge, Brian Gregg, and Igor's ever-present CXC van

I had a lot of fun meeting and training with the CXC elite team (these guys) and I got a ton of hours in. I was there as a guest along with a few other junior skiers from Colorado and Minnesota. Chris (City) also came for the first half of the camp as a guest coach.

By the end of the camp, Jessie Diggins had a nickname for me: "Harvard."

The focus of the camp was on technique and moderate-intensity hours, so we did a lot of video review and a few interval sessions in between OD rollerskis. Particularly valuable was the VO2 max test we did a few days into camp and the lactate tests that the coaches ran during interval workouts. I learned a lot about how to do a proper threshold workout!

They were all complaining about the food, but after two semesters of HUHDS, I honestly didn't see what the big deal was.

In about half an hour I'm leaving for the airport to fly to Alaska, where I'll spend pretty much the rest of the summer. I'll be sure to post some photos when I get there!

Chris

Hey all!
Instead of traveling east and across the pond like some of my other teammates I decided to take my talents west back home to Vail and then to Spring/ Summer training camp with SSCV Team HomeGrown in Bend, OR.
May and June in the lands west of the Mississippi look similar to New England in January and February, except for the ample snow and sun!
Vail pass June 5th with Dan Weiland and Tad Elliot (SSCV/ USST).

While home/ traveling the Wild West, I ran into some recent Harvard Alumni.
Trevor Petach '10 took me on an incredible rafting trip through escalante canyon in southern Utah. He nearly killed me, but I still love him.T-revs and I rafting a huge waterfall!

On June 9th I set out on the Oregon trail with my local Vail club to go to Bend. In Bend we have done tons of skiing and spent a lot of time on and off the trails with Ollie Burruss '08.
Here is a short video make by Sylvan Ellefson (SSCV Homegrown), both Ollie and I star in it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOo4MECprOg&feature=channel_video_title

Summer and Training has been awesome so far this summer! I head back to Vail tomorrow for a dose of work and the real world.

Happy Travels,
Tony

Hello Harvard Nordic. Greetings from Russia. I left the cord that connects my camera to my computer in the US, so I have no pictures with me in them.

The first place we went to was the Peter and Paul Fortress. When Peter the Great decided to build St. Petersburg, he started with the fort on this small island. Dostoyevsky was imprisoned here. I live in one of the apartment buildings to the North of the island.

I haven't actually been inside yet, but here is the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. It is the only Russian style church in St. Petersburg. They sell really beautiful souvenirs outside the church. I am planning to buy some, but I like all the things so don't count on me getting any of you anything.

This is the square right behind the Hermitage. On the other side of that walkway is Невский Проспект (Nevskiy Prospect- I knew you were waiting for me to throw some Russian in).

This picture is from inside the Winter Palace/ Hermitage (Зимний Дворец/ Эрмитаж). We went yesterday after class. This room is one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen. The staircase is bigger than my house. Russian couples get married every day of the week, and take pictures on the Нева River, Peter and Paul Fortress, and at all the other beautiful historic sites. We saw a couple getting their wedding photos taken on this staircase. Of course, tourist groups got in the way 95% of the time. I felt like I was at home at Harvard. If you ever get a chance to go to the Winter Palace, go, because it is really sweet. Each room is huge and unique.

So now you know the touristy things you have to see if you ever come to Russia.

JRR