Also, psyched to be a part of the 2012 Sportiva ski mountaineering team:

(Boulder, Colo.) –La Sportiva North America introduces its ski mountaineering team for 2011-2012.

On the women’s side, the team includes last year’s Colorado Ski Mountaineering Cup (COSMIC) series winner Sari Anderson, 2011 national ski mountaineering champion Janelle Smiley and IFMGA guide Olivia Race. The men’s team features some of the top skimo racers in the country including Adrian Ballanger, Keith Garvey, Jared Inouye, Chris Kroger, Luke Nelson, John Race, and Jason McGowin.

“I’m excited and honored to be a part of the La Sportiva ski mountaineering team,” states Sari Anderson .“My set up of Stratos boots, RSR skis and bindings is incredibly light and performed without fail last season.” Read more here.

And for next season:

(Boulder, Colo.) –La Sportiva North America, makers of the world’s finest mountain products, announces today that it will debut a full line of technical ski mountaineering apparel at the 2012 OR Winter Market, SIA Snowshow, and ISPO Munich tradeshows.

“The culture of ski mountaineering is thriving in Europe and shows signs of significant growth in North America,” states Jonathan Lantz, president of La Sportiva North America. “Our team of designers in the Dolomites used feedback from some of the world’s best ski mountaineers to design apparel that is fast, light and highly efficient. For randonee racing, backcountry touring, and alpine climbing, the La Sportiva apparel line sets a new bar for performance and innovation.” Read more here.

An excerpt from the post:

Listen to Your Body – Sari Anderson’s Belly Tale

November 3, 2011

I need to start by saying this – Sari Anderson is a stud. She is a two-time national mountain bike champion, the 2006 Adventure Race World Champion, a badass trail runner, ski mountaineer and an Xterra Winter World Champ. Somewhere along the way, she also managed to pop out two kiddos! And then to top it off, she got right back on the trails and after being selected as one of Outside Magazine’s “Fittest Real Athletes,” she was invited at the last minute to join the reigning XPD Adventure Racing World Championship team in Tasmania for this year’s event. Yes, she just left a few days ago.

So in other words, Sari Anderson is hard-core. Having kids has not slowed her down one bit. While I cannot claim to have maintained Sari’s level of workouts during my pregnancy, my favorite take-away from her story is her insistence that no matter what level of athlete you are, you need to listen to your body.

I thought about this concept for a while. Listen to your body. This is something I have told countless athletes who I’ve prepped for various events over the years. I have come to lean on this phrase because as an athlete, I understand what it means. It should be simple, right? Don’t get injured – Listen to your body. Don’t get dehydrated – Listen to your body. Don’t bonk – Listen to your body.

What I failed to remember is that the first time you ever try something new, you have no idea what you are listening for! So while I agree…Read more of the story.

High school mountain biking – awesome! Ian and I can’t wait for Juniper and Axel to be able to take part in this. Thanks to everyone working so hard to make mountain biking a part of high school sports.

What to do when there are no more races on the calendar

The Leadville 100 race has come and gone (with some lingering frustration about how I performed). Then the Mt. Washington Hill Climb came and went in the blink of the eye. Now what?

About a month ago, my friend Lyndsay Meyer, asked if I would answer some questions about Post-Race Letdown syndrome for an article she was writing. I had no idea what post race letdown was and said I didn’t think I had ever suffered from it.

Fast forward a month when I have no races scheduled and wham, I think I’m experiencing PRLD. Now that I know what PRLD is, I’m wondering if I have experienced it previously and just not known what the problem was. I’m not sure on that one yet but I do know that I’m working on enjoying myself right now, having fun with the family and thinking about focusing on the upcoming skimo race season. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll throw in another mountain bike or running race before the summer and fall are over.

Check out Lyndsay’s great article on post-race letdown on ESPNW.

After dropping the kids off with Ian’s parents, Ian and I arrived almost a week before the start of the board meeting for a long-overdue, child-free vacation. Arriving in Geneva on Saturday, we rented road bikes on our way out of the city, and then drove to Chamonix to stay with Michael and Nina Silitch. At the last minute, Michael convinced us to enter a 133km road race on Sunday. The Time Megeve Mont Blanc turned out to be a great way for Ian and I (along with over 2,000 other French roadies) to ride over some amazing cols and see some beautiful parts of France. I ended up finishing as the third woman in the long race, but missed out on the podium because Ian accidentally signed me up as a man on the French website. I guess we better work on his French.

Ian & I at the start of the Time Megeve Mont Blanc

Michael and Nina Silitch were amazing hosts giving us a place to crash as well as joining us out on some cool local runs and rides. Nina, Lyndsay Meyer and I enjoyed a nice early morning run to Chalet de le Floria on Monday, climbing about 1,000 meters above Chamonix in just under 3 kilometers. I enjoyed the girl time as much as the great views and training.

Nina, Sari & Lyndsay at La Floria

Lyndsay & Sari with the 200 types of flowers

Ian and I then popped over the border into Switzerland to visit with Vail ex-pats Pezz and Shane Gaherty. We hadn’t seen them in years and we enjoyed an incredible day of catching up and riding around the Swiss countryside near the Medieval town of Murten. Of course I had just gotten a tiny bit comfortable with French and we arrive there to everyone speaking German. Add that to the list of languages we need to work on.

Shane, Sari & Pezz in Murten

On our way back to Chamonix, we stopped for one more road ride in the Swiss Alps at the recommendation of Pezz and Shane. Leaving from the tiny town of Le Sepey, we climbed the Col de Mosses, rode through Gstaad, climbed the Col de Pillon, and headed back to Le Sepey via Les Diablerets. With another three hours of riding under my belt, I think my total miles for this trip may have equaled my total for the season so far.

Ian above one of the many canyons on our Le Sepey loop

Opting for a day off the bike, Nina and I suffered through some hill intervals on Wednesday morning and then the Silitch’s pointed us in the direction of a hike below Mont Blanc. Starting right from their house, we climbed to Montenvers, checked out the Mer de Glace glacier and then continued to Plan de l’Aiguille. Since we could not spend the night at the Refuge Plan de l’Aiguille, we settled on lunch with amazing views of the Mont Blanc area and the town of Chamonix.

Refuge Plan de l'Aiguille

Trams in the clouds above the mid station at the Aiguille du Midi

With just one day left before meeting the Polartec crew, we decided to rent bikes for one more day. Heading out of Chamonix over the Col de Montets, we then descended to the Swiss border and began climbing to the Emosson Dam above the town of Finhaut. Of course when Michael told us there were two roads to get to Emosson, we opted for the steeper, less traffic option. This would have been fine except the road was closed at one point and we had to sneak across the construction site. And, of course my legs were thrashed from six non-stop days of racing, riding, hiking and running. In the end, the long climb to the the dam was well worth the views of the Mont Blanc Massif it provided.

The steeper, no-traffic road to Emosson

Emosson Dam

On Friday morning, feeling a little tired, I convinced fellow Polartec athlete Laurent Valette to join me for a quick flat run around town before we were locked inside a conference room for the day to discuss fabric. Our meeting was the best yet with many great ideas thrown around and constructive feedback given by all athletes. Unfortunately, torrential rain stopped us from getting up the Aiguille du Midi today but Ian and I managed a very wet, hour and a half hour run instead. According to my Garmin, I managed to squeeze in 24 hours of training this week, which is by far the most I have had in a week in years. Best of all, I got to do it all with Ian – and this has been the best vacation we’ve ever enjoyed together. We are off to Courmayeur, Italyfor dinner this evening and then I am really excited to head home and see the kids tomorrow!

Morning run with Laurent before a day of meetings

I can attest to this. We have been using one for a little over a month now and I no longer wake up sweating each night. Recently I spent a night on our old mattress with our baby and woke up wet in the morning. There is no way a sweaty mattress is clean.

Pacing Elinor at the Leadville 100 motivated me to get racing again whether in a local trail or mountain bike race or in an adventure race. But it did not motivate me to run a 100 miler. Well…maybe a 50 miler and definitely a stage race like the Trans Rockies or Trans Alps. I’m not sure why I feel this way other than right now I know I don’t have the time to train with two young ones and I don’t have the motivation presently (which means I most likely wouldn’t do very well).

The one exception – The UTMB – The Ultra-Trail Du Mont Blanc. This race intrigues me and makes me want to run 166km (103.15 miles) in one shot. My reason: In 2005 I raced with the Crested Butte adventure race team in the Raid World Championships and did a large portion of the UTMB course in one stage of the race. Despite not feeling great at the time, I fell in love with trail and the idea of running around Mont Blanc.

And now the problem: I have to qualify for the UTMB by racing in another ultra…

Check out The North Face video from this year’s shortened race.

The first week of June, I went up to Aspen to participate in the second meeting of the Polartec Athlete Advisory Board.  We enjoyed great food and discussed product we have been testing (including Power Shield Pro and others I cannot discuss) as well as new ideas and future product.  JustAZipper.com has a nice recap of the week if you’re interested otherwise all I can say is that I’m very excited about what’s to come from Polartec!

Axel and I left directly from Aspen and headed to Vail (I was a bit spoiled that week) for the Teva Mountain Games.  Ian and Juniper had been there for a few days, Ian working and Juniper playing with some friends.  The last two summers I have competed in the Ultimate Mountain Challenge consisting of four events in two days and the two years before that in the adventure race.  With Ian working and Axel only eight weeks old, I had to skip the UMC and just race in the 10K trail run on Sunday morning. This 10K is unlike any other I have raced including trail races – it is brutal. Most of the climbing is so steep that even the leaders are relegated to fast hiking so I was happy to finish just a minute or so slower than my time from last year (even with a stop to dump the rocks from my shoes). I missed competing in it all but it just wasn’t possible this year.

Dropping some ounces before the mountain bike race.

Lindsay at Carmichael Training Systems has been working hard to get me faster after the pregnancy and had me doing hill repeats and intervals throughout the week with a mountain bike race mixed in. My legs were sufficiently tired after Saturday’s running repeats and then we headed to Boulder for the Newton Running Form Symposium and Clinic.  Danny Abshire (Newton founder) and Ian Adamson (my old adventure race teammate) gave a great talk on the importance of proper running form to help prevent injuries and increase speed and efficiency.  After an hour and a half run through Boulder and up Mt. Sanitas in the pouring rain on Sunday morning, I joined the Newton crew again for the form clinic.  About thirty runners showed up to have their form critiqued and to practice what we had learned the night before. If you are able to get to one of these clinics, I highly suggest it! If you can’t make one, check out this video for some great tips.

Despite having missed two training sessions early in the week, I had an awesome twelve mile run with both kids in the Chariot this morning. With the temperature perfect, the wind still somewhat calm and not many people on the path, I was able to push my sixty pounds at an average 7 min. 50 sec. per mile pace. With all the foundation CTS has been having me build, I’m excited to get to the next phase of my training when I start to really prepare for racing again. I think I may be able to set some PRs and push the pace in some mountain bike races.

I’m a proud mom.  What else can I say?