Lead-up to Ruka

It’s the eve of the cross-country World Cup opener, to be held in Ruka, Finland. Tomorrow is the classic sprint, but my first start this year will be in the 10k classic interval start on Sunday, Nov. 25th. There’s always so much uncertainty, and yet also optimism, at the start of the season.

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Five favorites from 2 weeks West

If you think of locations as paintings, the artist uses a slightly different color palette in each one. This is of course part of what makes places recognizable, some more than others – the combination of the color palette, mountainous or flat terrain, building styles or other context clues from the human environment. Waking up slightly disoriented the first day of this camp, I could look out the window and see the tan-brown grasslands, bright golden aspen leaves and greyish higher mountains that marked my location as in the West, particularly Utah.  Definitely not in Vermont anymore.