Training Week

3rd Place in the 10k Classic SuperTour and my best FIS points ever (44.11)

After a great start to the race season, plus an engagement, My CXC Teamates and I have stayed in West Yellowstone, MT for a week of solid training. It has been a tough, but good week with just under 24 hours of training in six days.

Cisco working on his 'ups' in a relay at the West Yellowstone School. Caitlin and I spend two afternoons helping the kids stay active.

Bear Walk Race

My favorite is playing outside. The school plows up the playground to form perfect 20' sledding hills.

After a solid week of training Caitlin and I ski toured in to Yellowstone National Park for a nice easy long distance ski.

After Training and After School in West Yellowstone

My CXC teammates and I are in West Yellowstone for just under a month this year. That is a long time to be living in a hotel room. This is my 5th winter in West Yellowstone and I arrived with the goal of making a greater connection with the local community during my stay.

Caitlin and I gave a presentation to the after-school program about life as a professional ski racer and the big Yellostone Ski Festival and Super Tour races in town.

Happy Thanksgiving pop-up cards. My mom made pop-up cards with me when I was younger and they were awesome. Although the finished products from Annie, Lillith, and Mason were really cool.

Show-and-Tell of Skis and Poles

Drawing Biomes

Having fun training, living, and playing in West

It has been a hard week of training. Visiting and working with the kids was a great way to add energy to the day and take a mental break from training. It was fun to see the excitement in the kids eyes for the first big snow storm. Plus I like seeing how new kids respond to my favorite games of Squirrel Olympics, Last-Man Standing, and Speed Tag.

Tie Dye Art

Estasha, Alison, and Sariah Rockin' their new Tie Dye T's

One year during High School our cross-country running team warm-ups were misplaced so we decided to Tie Dye long sleeve shirts for the Team Uniform. One of the guys on the team Pete had done a fair amount of Tie Dye and he helped everyone create some sweet shirts. It was a lot of fun and something I have wanted to do with the kids at the Lac Courte Orielles Boys and Girls Club. Again Pete coached me along about where to get the best dye and get the project started.

Aaron working on his spiral shirt

A huge thanks to my neighbor and friend Kay for helping keep the chaos organized

Tomorrow I hit the road for 2 Months: Nov 11 - Jan 11. After a great spring, summer, and fall of training I am excited to get back on snow and to race. One of the things that I will miss is everyone at the Boys and Girls Club.

What does Brian do when he is not at the Boys and Girls Club?

I gave a presentation to the kids about my travels, struggles and triumphs of last season. Plus, my plans for the next two months on the road.

"I want to see what my shirt looks like!"

We tie dyed over 60 unique shirts on Monday night. It was fun to see them all. I was hoping to get the kids the shirts on Tuesday but it took me over 2 hours to cut/pull out the rubber bands and rinse the shirts. There were a lot of curious kids yelling at me as I walked down the hall on my way to Mrs. Johnson's 5th Grade classroom.

Mary, "Check out my Shirt?"

Josephine

Adding letters and drawings to the shirts with Sharpies

It is still pretty warm here in Wisconsin. Bad for skiing, good for flashlight tag

I had a great final night at 'The Club' tonight. The kids loved the slide show, were super excited to see their shirts, and we had a huge game of flashlight tag down at the Pow Wow Grounds.

Tomorrow we head for snow.

One Last Big Week at Home

Enjoying one of my few weekend at home in Hayward, Home of the American Birkebeiner.

Birkie/ActivEdge Clinic in Seeley, WI analyzing video immediately after skiing. Last year I bought a Netbook with a 10hour battery life. The screen is small but the portability is fantastic. It is great to go over video while the workout is fresh in your mind.

Santi and Eric cooling down after 3(6*60s) HARD. We saw every kind of weather on this workout: rain, snow, sun, wind.

Alright I didn't stay at home all week, I drove down to Minneapolis on Saturday after dinner to surprise Caitlin for her Birthday. We enjoyed our 4 hour Sunday OD with the large group of Vakava skiers. There were over 40 skiers out on the road together.

Let the snow fly.

Nature's Playground

Check out our Fort. Helena, Caitlin, Idanias, Brian, Jayden, Shaina.

I am settling back in to life in Hayward after Lake Placid and Chicago. This is an important recovery week for me to absorb all the training from the last three weeks. With several afternoons off I have been enjoying spending time with my kids at the Boys and Girls Club.

Enjoying a good meal around the table: Jayden, Kaynen, Brian, Idanias

We built a little village out in the woods. Complete with living quarters, kitchen, table, cupboards, gates, doors and windows. We braided grass for rope and used it to tie the sticks together.

The kids loved having Caitlin come to visit

My favorite playground is nature’s playground. It is amazing what you can build with just what you find in the woods. I think more playgrounds should be like this one…

http://www.methowvalleynews.com/story.php?id=4125

Climb to the Castle Rollerski Race

We awoke to a crystal clear day here in Lake Placid for the Climb to the Castle roller-ski race. On Wednesday we had to move out of the OTC and it rained for 48 hours in a nice reflection of our disappointment to leave the comfort of the cafeteria, laundry, ice baths and warm showers. We did move in to a really cool house though. Jenny has a college friend with a beautiful place on Lake Placid. I wish we had played hide-and-go-seek there, it was huge. Each of us had our own bedroom. On the downside the place had already been winterized so we were without water and such a big place took some time to warm up. (Thankfully we were able to flush one of the toilets by filling up buckets of water from the lake)

Beautiful Day in Lake Placid

It was fun to ‘race’ again today. Newell, Liebsch and I skied most of the race together. We had a fun last kilometer to the finish with the strong headwind. The draft was pretty intense and it took awhile for us to break apart. After several failed attempts by each of us Newell was able to pull away. When he went it was very decisive and impressive. The guy is fast. It was great to race again. The day also marked stage 2 of the Liebsch/Gregg Tour de France (Stage 1 was the City of Lakes Half Marathon). Matt has the yellow jersey by just 2 seconds.

Results

The Finish

Karl and I are enjoying the free wireless in the Albany Airport. Our flight is delayed a bit but we are hoping to make it to the second half of the Bulls/Wizards game in Chicago tonight. After a solid 17 days of training camp I am looking forward to taking a break.

Karl and I will be leading a clinic for Chicago XC on Saturday and Sunday. If you are in the Chicago area come to our presentation Saturday night at the Univerity. Email me for details. Brian.Gregg@xcSkiLife.com

Work Hard, Play Hard

Cooling down with the boys after a Classic Sprint Simulation 4*3min All Out.

The Boys and Girls Club is closed for staff in-service these past two weeks. I have taken advantage of this 'vacation' time between Summer and Fall to train hard. My days have been increasingly busy and it was nice to be at home in Hayward and enjoy some good recovery between sessions. One night the mercury dipped to 33 degrees. The colors are changing and Fall has arrived.

Weight Vest Strength

Our next training camp is in Lake Placid, NY at the US Olympic Training Center in 11 days. I have found that it is important for me to take some time to recover after hard training camps. This weekend I have been enjoying spending some time down in the Twin Cities with my girlfriend.

Cherry and Spoon at the Walker Art Museum

Caitlin and I have been having a great time in Minneapolis enjoying some creative dates. We kicked things off by cutting each others hair. This might make many people nervous but check out the picture above, I think we both did a pretty nice job. There are a lot of things you can do that cost very little but are still a lot of fun.

Yesterday while at the local library we came across the Museum Adventure Pass Program and got free tickets to The Works: Hands on Minds on Museum. We played with gears, mirrors, lasers, robots, pulleys and more. Everyone at The Club would have loved it.

One of our friends, Audrey, had told us about how you can check out tickets to local museums at the Library. This is awesome. With your library card you can check out two adult tickets to a museum/organization which are good for 1 visit and can be used up to 7 days past the checkout date. Who wants to go on a free trip to the zoo? There are plenty of cool places to check out in the Twin Cities.

Which museums/organizations are participating?

The American Swedish Institute

The Bakken Museum

Bell Museum of Natural History

Como Park Zoo and Conservatory

Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary

Firefighters Hall & Museum

Foshay Museum and Observation Deck

Hennepin History Museum

The Landing - Minnesota River Heritage Park

Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Minnesota History Center

Minnesota Streetcar Museum

Minnesota Transportation Museum

Minnesota Zoo

The Museum of Russian Art

Walker Art Center

The Works: Hands-On, Minds-On Museum

The Museum Adventure Pass is presented by Macy's. Learn more about it at

http://www.melsa.org/MuseumAdventurePass/index.cfm