Rio Olympics!

What a blast to attend an Opening Ceremonies party at TCF Bank stadium.  Even cooler to receive an invite based on our work with Run Club and the Boys and Girls Club.  Thank you to Comcast for supporting the Boys and Girls Club of the Twin Cities and Run Club with a $5,000 grant. The funds will be used for race entries and running shoes for the kids.

The eyes of the world are on Rio and the 2016 Summer Olympic games.  Caitlin and I even bought a television so that we could tune in to all of our favorite events.  Every athlete has a story and it is just so inspiring to learn their backgrounds and watch them perform in an event they have been focusing the last 4 years, and likely the majority of their life on.

When does the moment really set in?  For me it was as Team USA walked into the stadium for the opening ceremonies.  Sometimes you just can't help but put your hands up.  This moment in Sochi is one of my all time favorites ever.  The opportunity to hang out and share the excitement with all of Team USA before walking into the stadium together.  It is exhausting to think of the incredible support of so many who made this moment possible and I know it is the same for every athlete.

Enjoying the Opening Ceremonies on the jumbotron at TCF Bank Stadium.

Fun to finish up a fun camp with the LNR team in Utah.  My favorite part was bringing the whole crew up Mt. Timpanogas on the final day.  The first mountain for several of the athletes.

Great to be back in Minneapolis with our Run Club!  Especially since it is Nectarine season.

Jazeer learning how to fix the flat on his bike.

Haig Glacier

Final Day of training Camp was also one of the best days of skiing.  A 4th of July first for me!

Celebrating 32 years

On my golden birthday Caitlin set my twin brother and I up with a behind the scenes polar bear tour. http://in-the-arena-brian.blogspot.com/2011/07/so-i-fed-polar-bear-last-weekend.html  How do you top that.  I don't know if that is possible, but one way would be to go on an on snow ski trip with the guys on your late June birthday.  Matt Liebsch organizes a group for a week on the Haig glacier in Canada each year and this year the timing of training camp kicked of on my birthday.  Coincidentally in concluded on Matt's birthday.  Although it was tough to not spend our birthday's with the Mrs, we still managed to have a super good time.

Tri Loppet Podium to kick of the weekend

Celebrating Audrey and Brad's marriage with a wonderful wedding out at Gale Woods Farms 

Catching the Sunday morning flight for Calgary and Haig Week

Matt and Andre at the glacier internet cafe

Great to turn the watch to on snow skiing in July!

Good friends, food and weather led to a successful training camp.  I pushed my training volume to 40 hours over the 8 days with the majority focused on classic striding.  I have found that the crossover from skating on roller skis to skating on snow is pretty quick, but classic striding is more of a struggle.

Enjoying an evening run with Phil, Matt, Welly and Maria

My friend Welly is a strong classic skier and I enjoyed logging many kilometers behind and next to him on the glacier in an attempt to pick up his smooth stride and glide style. 

Packing the inflatable SUPS down to Maude lake for an afternoon workout.

Pumping up the boards

Suffice to say the alpine lake paddle boarding was unique and awesome 

I could look at mountains for days, but it is even more fun to go play in them

Enjoying a nice soak after a hard day of training.

Video review of the on snow sessions

On our final day as we drove from the trail head to pick up our gear at the helicopter drop we did see a Griz 

I love going skiing, but it is always nice to be home and the routine of Run Club practice with the kids at The Club.  It was fun to show them photos of skiing just the day before.

Also nice to have Alieta and my brother in town for some fun and games.

If you would like to watch T-Rex go rollerskiing check out:  https://www.facebook.com/GoTeamGregg/videos/1116546538419665/

Thowback Camp and Summer Routine

Caitlin and I kicked off June with a throwback camp in Hayward, Wisconsin at Cresthill Resort.  I would estimate that I have trained 3000+ hours out of Cresthill and have many great memories of the multitudes of workout options out the front door.  I lived in Cabin A with Garrott Kuzzy at Cresthill for 5 years when I moved to the Midwest from Alaska and enjoy any and every opportunity to be back at the resort and connect with my friends and the owners Scott and Kay Wilson.  Scott and Kay stepped up when our earlier housing arrangements. 

Road Ride from the Resort with Dennis, Scott and Caitlin.

Many of great training days have begun and ended at this table overlooking Lake Placid.  

One of my favorite sections of road with water on both sides winding through the Tiger Cat flowage

I have training on Marwe rollerskis my entire professional career and thanks to the good folks at Finn Sisu Caitlin and I have multiple speed options.  We are able to adjust the wheel speed and add weight vests to make it possible to train together which sure is nice for 30 hour weeks.  

Lahti put in his largest volume block of his life and has been taking his recovery seriously

During my volume block I only had one intensity session, a 13.1 mile threshold training run at 6:00/mile pace.  We joined Team Nicole Coaching's running camp for the workout.  The pace was on the fast end of threshold for me, but I had fun pacing or rather being paced by my friend Craig Cardinal who is gearing up for Grandmas Marathon.

Fruitshare Pears and Blood Oranges

The Boys and Girls Club is now open for summer which means even more kids for Run Club!  Apples and Oranges are still favorites, but thanks Fruitshare for pear day to kick off the summer session. 

Traveling much less and training more from home has been a blast.  We even enjoyed our first concert together with a Wednesday night trip to the Target Center to see Macklemore.  It is good to actually take advantage of being a 10 minute bike ride from downtown.

Run Club LL Bean Shopping Spree

We made it to the big LL Bean Boot!

The top 3 Run Club Boys and Girls are: Ramiah, Jakeylah, Nakita, Tommie, Lebron and Lavon!  Load up in the van we are headed to the Mall of America for our LL Bean shopping spree.  

We record and chart our daily mileage at Run Club and this week marked the final week of Spring Run Club.  One of the competitions we have been having is for accumulating the most mileage.   The Mall of America trip has been a goal for the entire spring!  

Happy Shoppers

A huge thank you to LL Bean for their support of the Twin Cities community and our Run Club with the Boys and Girls Club.  LL Bean is a major supporter and sponsor of In The Arena connecting elite athletes with at risk youth.

Jakeylah (48 miles), Nakita (34 miles) and Ramiah (59 miles).

Ready to go to the Mall!

Ramiah picked out a new running outfit

Nakita bought new sunglasses and a new L.L. Bean water bottle.

Elliot one of the employees helping us became friends with Nakita and bought her a cookie.

Jakeylah also picked up a new running outfit!

LaVon enjoyed a Bean Boot cookie during his shopping

Lebron and his new Camo Back Pack.

Tommie picked up some new sandals, sunglasses and a water bottle for summer.

LNR Man Camp

LNR Man Camp in Cable, WI

We had our first training camp of the year this past weekend up in Cable, WI.  When I first moved to the Midwest I lived in downtown Cable and it was fun to train some familiar loops that have become some of my favorite over the years.  The roads in the area are incredible with lake views, rolling terrain and smooth pavement.  Lake Owen drive has to be one of my favorite all time roller ski roads.

Sam, Nick and I drove up Friday afternoon after school for a nice run on the Ojibwe trail and a feast at the River's Eatery.  Mick and Beth the owners of the River's Eatery are very supportive of the community and it was fun to show the boys my favorite place to eat in Wisconsin.

Temperature were in the low thirties so it felt like we were back in Winter.  The LNR group is a fit one and the nice thing about roller skis is we can adjust wheel speed so that everyone can train together and be at their right pace or close to it.  

I have trained thousands of hours in the Cable area but there is still more to explore.  The crew took me on a run on the North Country trail through a wilderness I had never seen before.  Crossing this dam bridge was pretty fun.  We did a morning combo of 1.75 skate roller skiing and 1.25 running.

We kept our eyes open for bears, but this is the only one we saw.

After a big morning we had a good nap and hoped on our bikes for a 50 mile ride.  

Nick learned the hard way to make sure you hydrate and fuel a lot on big training days

Nick impressed me the most of everyone at camp.  He is in his third year of skiing and his first year of LNR and this was his first training camp  He put in the most hours on Saturday after taking a wrong turn on the run.  It didn't phase him.  He also opted to go for the longer bike ride option in the afternoon.  With about 2 miles to go in the ride he felt kind of funny, or rather just really tired, like he could fall asleep on  his bike.  He then proceeded to yo-yo a bit off the back and then bonked real hard.  You can learn a lot about someone when they bonk and there is a certain bonding process you have with your training partners when one or both of you bonk.  Nick was awesome.  He asked what he should do in the future to prevent such a feeling from coming over him.  The rest of the team impressed me too when we arrived home. They had the steaks on the grill and helped Nick recover from the days long effort so that we could all rally again the next day.  Next time I will be sure to bring some extra food to share too.

Steak Dinner!

Roller-skiing Blue Moon Road

Enjoying the blue sky and sun