Fall in Park City

After what feels like a real long time I got to spend September in the US. I had an absolute blast, and of course the time flew by. Directly after I returned home I was able to take a few days totally off and enjoy some much needed relaxing with friends, I finally got to go camping which I had been meaning to do all summer long. Sleeping outside is something I enjoy so that coupled with time off and great friends helped me recharge the batteries ‘upstairs’ real fast. After that I dove right back into training (I wouldn’t have it any other way), it was a very productive month. We took a little bit more time off of the ski jump, working on our cross country endurance and technique in fun and focused sessions. On the jumping side of things we continued our work in the gym preparing our muscle memory for the hill. We did jump in Park City, and it was so much better than summer in my mind, mostly because I wasn’t dying of heat the whole time. My team and I also entered the Red Bull 400 race during September. This is a brutal uphill race going straight up the Large Hill Ski Jump at the Utah Olympic Park. We had a strong showing getting 5 USA Nordic athletes in the top 10 of the final heat! Below are some photos from my general month in Park City. 

​While we were home this last month I was very happy to see bike riding on the plan, something I really love to do. On one of our rides in particular it turned into a bit more of challenging and adventure ride than we originally thought. We did a loop along a ridgeline in between Park City and Salt Lake City with incredibly long steep hills and the most challenging part… an extremely overgrown trail. The bushes were taking over the trail, leaving a rather small part of trail left for me to ride through, the amount of micro scratches on my limbs was mind boggling. The reason I bring up this bike ride is something I have been constantly pumped and proud of so far this season. My teammates, coach (Nick Hendrickson) and I may not have been having the best time but kept spirits up and pushed each other to work through the challenges however minor. This is a team atmosphere that isn’t obvious in the way that it shows itself but I think is key and a huge help to us this year so far. We all help pick each other up and push through the pain whether it’s a brutal interval session, mentally challenging bike ride, or being stoked when your teammate makes a break through on the ski jump. One thing that we all seem to thrive on is a bit of dry humor in these sessions, the bike ride was full of comical commentary, check out this video below made by my teammate Jared Shumate as he was mic’d up for our ride! (Volume on)

​I am now back in Europe with the team for the month of October. I will be spending time in Slovenia, Austria, Croatia, and Germany. I am looking forward to some focused and productive sessions on the ski jumps with my coaches along with a few days on the glacier in Austria skiing on snow!! Stay tuned to my homepage for media from my trip until my next update!