I know I’m not off to a very good start on blogging…a combination of training, school, and not feeling educated enough to speak on very important issues have been a barrier to getting another post up. However, with a week of lower training volume, I’ve had some more time to collect and take pictures, catch up on school, and think about things with less training stress.

Generally, training has been going really well since the last update. Not having camps has contributed to this by making it easy to get into a healthy and simple training routine from home. That being said, the zoom meetings don’t quite fill the hole of not seeing my teammates from around the country. We make do, but it’d be very fun to have some time together again! Instead, I’ve been training mostly alone or with Luke and Eli Hermanson along with a ton of other APU and AWS skiers that are also training really hard right now.

…speaking of biking ^^^ I realized I had pretty severe shin splints in Mid-may and quickly stopped running. I was definitely not happy about it, especially because it was just from being dumb about getting back into running with too much excitement and pavement. I went for about a month without running, but I was still able to rollerski, bike, and do strength, so my training and fitness didn’t take a hit. I actually PR’d in our classic rollerski time trial that we do 2-3 times every year, so I don’t feel like I’ve missed too much. Over the past few weeks I’ve been slowly getting back into running, with this week feeling no pain or soreness! My patience on recovery I think has really rewarded me, and I’m excited to be able to use running and bounding again in training, now with more respect for changes in mileage. The silver lining on this break from running is that I’ve gotten way better at mountain biking, plus I got a new bike this spring from the wonderful folks at Intense cycles. I got a 29” Intense Primer, and that thing is treating me niiiiice! It’s crazy how much more proficient a nice bike will make you feel.

All of this brings me to the recovery week of July 20th. I was having some mental fatigue from training and school so I thought some time away from my normal spots would be chill. Now on day 5 at my family’s cabin in Kenai, I am feeling very refreshed and healthy and excited to get back to training in Anchorage with everyone else. This week has been busy enough but not with things that stress me out. I’ve been doing some set netting. I went for 2 good runs with good technique and no shin soreness. I rode the Kenai motocross track twice, I haven’t spent much time on it so it was fun to get used to new turns and jumps. I went for 3 rollerskis, and explored some new neighborhoods I’d never been in before. I caught up in my static physics class that ends next Wednesday. I took a few great naps at our setnet site on the beach. :)

I’d also like to acknowledge that all of these activities are being done on native Dena’ina land, and I’m very grateful for being able to catch and eat wild salmon. I hope this land and its resources can be managed sustainably for us and future generations.

This brings me to the topic that kept me from posting earlier for fear of saying the wrong thing or adding meaningless words to the flood of voices on the issue. I’m still am going to struggle with talking about it, but there is a lot of racial inequality in America. I used to be aware of this, but not aware of the depth of these issues. BIPOC are and have been treated differently and held to a different standard than white people in America. I don’t really know what best to say on this blog, but I do know that we as Americans, especially within the very white cross-country ski community, need to be active and vigilant in being anti-racist and inclusive to anybody, especially within the realm of our sport. This doesn’t just mean accepting people of color into our teams and competitions with open arms, it means making sport and the outdoors more accessible to these communities that have long been held down by racist policy across the nation. I don’t know exactly how best to do this, or what I can do, but I think talking about it and bringing it up when I can is a start. Money and policy are also powerful, so I think other good things we can do as individuals are protesting, donating, seeking out BIPOC businesses, and voting.

Thanks for reading!

Gus