Training

Training this summer has been a lot of fun! It's been the most intense muscle aching work outs that I've had, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Skagway is at sea level with mountains towering over 7-9 thousand feet so all the trails, roads, rails are all up. Which makes it calf burning city! My main motivator is getting back into competitive shape. The reason the training has been so fun is mainly because the sun is up for 20 hours and all of the landscape is breath taking
I have been trying to determine which marathon I would run this August. I was torn between the Yukon River Trail Marathon (which is considered the hardest in North America) or the Juneau Marathon. I finally decided a week ago to do the Juneau marathon for many reasons. But mainly I was worried about doing one of the hardest marathons as my first one might leave a sour taste in my mouth. I've stayed on track with my training goals and have 3 more weeks to go for the Juneau Marathon!
Immediately after finishing the marathon I will be switch my training over for some triathlons. I have decided to do the Ogden Tri again, last year was a lot of fun and I know I'll be a lot stronger this year. And then the Extera Tri which is in the end of September. Both will be challenging but a lot of fun! I will only have 3.5 weeks to get back into swimming shape, but I figure my cardio should be pretty strong and shouldn't be to difficult....I hope!

This week has been good, on Monday morning a woke up early and headed up to Upper Deay Lake to summit the glacier mountains behind it. This would be my first real glacier climb. It was way intense at took about 4 hours to summit. The view up top was breath taking! I'm addicted now and have some other summit/glacier climbs in mind before I leave.
On Tuesday I decided to take a break on my knees and did some cycling. The only real road here is towards the summit of Canada so I grabbed my passport and made the long trek up the pass. It's only 15 miles but its a slow steep pass that will make your legs burn! I forgot to dress appropriately for the ride back down. It was really cold but exhilarating, you can get up to 50 mph coming down!
Today I was able to throw down some more miles to prepare for the marathon. I did 15 miles but, after 13 I started to get really dizzy and could barely keep the road in focus. I realized that I hadn't eating for over 8 hours and the GU wasn't holding up. The last two miles were pretty difficult. Learned a good lesson!
My parents purchased their tickets to come to AK! I'm way excited for them to come! They deserve a good vacation and I'm trying to set up some sweet excursions for them.
I know this was a long post but I lost my hard drive on the Mac and wanted to catch up.

Sunset

Sometimes when I look back at my past week I can't remember when and where I did what. Everything just becomes a blur. Sure glade I take a lot of pictures so I can look back and remember what and where I've been. This last week has been great. It was the first time I've seen the sunset for almost 2 months. Being so far north and at sea level with giant mountains all around it blocks the sun from actually setting (like it does in Id and UT). However, I was able to capture some good pics.

Bennett Lake, Carcross BC

I made it over to Haines a few days ago. Since I was 16 I've heard Haines AK, over and over in professional ski films like TGR. When I decided to work in Skagway I was excited to learn how close Haines is. I jumped onto the fast ferry with my friend and 45 minutes later I learned why it was so famous. The town and mountains were everything I had imagined big mountians tucked under a beautiful small town. Actually Haines is 4 times larger then Skagway and has been rated over and over again as one of the best small towns to live in. Once you go there you'll know why!

Haines

I attempted to hike Goat lake yesterday..... I failed for misjudging the weather. Goat lake has a pipe line that powers all of skagway and there really isn't a trail so you hike on the pipe line all the way to the top in the Sawtooth mtn valley. After hiking a ways and forgetting that it had rained the night before deemed the pipe line very slippery. Plus I took my buddies dog Annie which couldn't get around the larger cliffs so we turned around and I drove to Canada to chill at Tushi lake. I will attempt it again!