President’s Fitness Awards presentation at Bryn Mawr Elementary School.

On Sunday after almost 70K of racing in one week for the woman and over 100K for the men at the Birch Hill Cross Country Ski Trails in Fairbanks, AK the 2008/2009 competitive ski season came to an end. A lull in Mt. Redoubt’s volcanic activity on Monday gave my flight from Anchorage the opportunity to take off, just before the volcano spurted another ash cloud. This was the first flight to Minneapolis since the volcano began erupting a week earlier. I was so relieved when we finally got off the runway.

On Wednesday morning I joined the second through fifth graders at the Bryn Mawr Elementary School to hand out medals and certificates to every kid who completed The President’s Fitness Challenge. Each student was required to partake in healthy activities and eating habits while keeping track of their choices for the previous 6 weeks.

The best part about Anita Chavez’s P.E. class is that she has almost all of them XC skiing during the winter! The Theodore Wirth and City of Lakes Loppet Trails run right through the school playground and the trails behind the school are where I train the most when I am home during the spring, summer, fall and winter. Almost 80% of the 180 kids in the assembly had skied in the City of Lakes Mini-Loppet. AWESOME!!!

I spoke to the kids about my XC skiing training regime leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympics and how much I love training in the Minneapolis parks all year. We talked about many of the different parks in the area and all of the different types of activities we can do in the parks and on the bike paths, like running, biking, rollerblading, soccer, baseball and tag. The kids had lots of questions about Skiing, Alaska, Big Mountains and my new training partner Lahti the Husky!

General Mills was also an integral part of the presentation offering prizes and info about good healthy food choices. The kids did a great job answering the trivia questions about the food groups and serving sizes!

I look forward to working more with Anita Chavez and the kids at Bryn Mawr this summer during their summer school programs and with the support of General Mills for the Tri-Loppet program that is being offered to the Anwatin and Anderson Elementary Schools.

New Addition to the Family!

We have a new member of the household here in Minneapolis. His name is...well he doesn't have an official name yet! We have been calling him anything from "dog" to "sable" to "Kate Moss."

He is a 3 year old Alaskan Husky that Ben, my boyfriend, and I rescued from the Minneapolis Animal Humane Society. He was a transfer from another agency and arrived with a few other Huskies that were all rescued together. He is going to make a great running and skiing companion someday. Right now though he is very skinny and extremely shy. The goal will be to start him with a few walks a day and gradually increase to short runs once he starts to gain weight and get adjusted to being on a leash. Hopefully we can get him out in the woods, although still on a leash, by early summer!

We are excited to give him a second chance and hope he enjoys living with us.

When does Exercise become Training?

My friend and teammate Jojo Winters and I were driving to the YWCA to teach a Nordic Walking Clinic earlier today, and we were discussing ways to get the group excited about getting out and doing Nordic Walking within a continuous exercise plan. As we were talking to the group I accidentally slipped the word “training” into the conversation, and realized that not everyone who exercises is necessarily “training” for something. Or are they?

When does “Exercise” become “Training”?

Whenever I go out for a ski, run, or to the gym I call it training, regardless of duration or intensity, it’s all training. I call it training because I have a goal in mind, and every session gets me closer to that goal. Jojo and I came to the realization that many people go for skis and runs, and to the gym with a much different goal. They simply want to live healthier lives, and enjoy their daily workouts, or escape from the stresses of life. Would you call that training, or simply exercising? Do more people say, “I’m heading out for exercise.”, or “I’m heading out to train.” Exercise and training are not really any different. They are different in scope of what they might hope to accomplish, heading to the Olympics, or completing a 5km run/walk, or simply losing a few pounds of weight.

When we were speaking to the group, we thought that using the word training might be somewhat intimidating to the group, but as we walked around the indoor track with the group, I realized that although this isn’t a part of training specifically for anything, this is still exercising, and everyone at the clinic who was talking part, was exercising, and just as focused and determined as I am training.

I also realized how much fun I was having, and although I would not log this time specifically in my training log, I hope to bring the “fun” into my other tough workouts I might have, and remember that it is all exercise.