Happy New Year

Crazy to think 2011 is coming to an end. So much has happened this last year, for better (mostly) and for worse (specifically the passing of my Farfar). As I did in 2010 and 2009, I will be posting a recap of the year. I like going through the process of writing these posts as it makes me read a lot of the things I have written over the last year, helping me relive experiences and relearn lessons. But this recap will have to wait, at least another week.

I am writing this post from a Starbucks in New Orleans, LA. My girl friend Mo and I leave on a seven day cruise in the Caribbean in just a few hours. I’m pretty certain there will be limited internet access on the trip, so no tweets or blog posts until we return. I will make sure to take lots of pictures of our trip and share some of the highlights.

Finally, I want to wish all of you a Happy New Year! Enjoy the end of the holiday season.

Happy New Year from New Orleans!

Now we go the other way

Yesterday was the winter solstice. Growing up in the southwest my whole life I didn’t have much of an appreciation for the winter and summer solstices until I was in high school or so. Around that time I learned from my Farfar that in northern countries like Denmark, the amount of daylight each day, and whether it was increasing or decreasing, is a hot topic. Each summer and winter solstice he would say to my dad (in Danish of course), “Now we go the other way.”

My Farfar was the first to congratulate after I won the Breath of Life triathlon in July

My Farfar passed away on November 23rd. We had a wonderful memorial for him on Saturday. It was quite emotional as you may imagine, but it was nice to share many great stories of him with family and friends.

Now as we look the “other way” towards the summer solstice, things look bleak despite the promise of long, warm summer days. My Farfar won’t be around to share his wisdom and cheer me on from the sidelines of my next triathlon. Still, I will continue to persistently pursue my dreams, knowing that these sad days will pass, and the sun will shine again.

Family weekend at sea level

On Friday I went home for some family action. My Great Uncle Niller had flown all the way in from Copenhagen, Denmark, which doesn’t happen very often. I spent the majority of the weekend at my aunt’s beautiful home in Northridge with my cousins, brother, sister, mom, dad, sister-in-law, Farfar (father’s father in Danish)…

Those that know me well know that I’m a family guy. I love it in Flagstaff, but I do miss my family a lot while I’m here. I’m lucky enough to have my own travel agent (mom) that gets me home once or twice a semester. Guess who is the favorite child?

Another perk to going home is sea level! I took this opportunity to do a little swim marker to see where I am at. USA Triathlon has a swim test that they use to evaluate potential Collegiate Recruits: 200 all out, 1 minute rest, 800 all out. Last year I did the test several times, putting up my best time in July. On that occasion I swam 2:13 and 10:10 for short course yards. At the time I was ecstatic with the result, especially the 200. I had rested up for the test and it was my last hard swim before turning my focus 100% on the cross country season.

Swimming has been going very well up here in Flagstaff. I hit 30,000m in one week for the first time a couple of weeks in anticipation of my first ITU triathlon coming up. I didn’t taper at all for the test, but I knew with my new swim fitness and a little extra oxygen I was ready to swim a good time.

Coach Ian did some filming of the swim. My form has improved, but I need to bring my arm underneath my body to really get the most out of my stroke.

My triathlon coach Ian Murray met me at CLU and took me through a good warm up. I got myself pumped up and dove head first into the 200. I swam a 2:10, which was a little bittersweet because I thought I was ready to break 2:10. I tried to enjoy all the extra oxygen during that short one minute rest, and then set off on the 800. I hit 9:41 — a 29 second improvement!

While the 200 wasn’t quite as fast as I was hoping, I surprised myself in the 800 and I can see that all the hours I am spending at the pool are paying off. I spoke with Barb Lindquist yesterday and we agreed that if I can keep this regimen up, I will be an entirely different swimmer come next Spring.

My swim will really be put to the test this weekend at the Myrtle Beach ITU Continental Cup. Lots more to come before and after that race.

Getting to know The Lumberjacks: Kortnee Burton

Coming to NAU to study and compete has been a great experience for so many reasons. Perhaps the highlight of it all has been the many teammates that I have had which are some of my closest friends. This last semester, especially, the team did a great job coming together for regular social “get togethers” outside of practice. Many of the “Getting to know The Lumberjacks” videos came from such outings.

In December Coach Mo had the team over to entertain a couple of recruits. Being the opportunist that I am, I brought my camera to make a new episode. This night’s victim was junior Kortnee Burton…

Getting to know The Lumberjacks: Lauren Hill & WOW

About a week ago I did another interview at “Thankful Thursdays.” This one was at a fairly new Greek restaurant, Taverna (the gyro dinner is delicious and a steal at $12). Once again I took advantage of the large congregation of Lumberjacks and interviewed junior Lauren Hill. I threw a couple new questions in there to keep things fresh.

If any of you have suggestions on any questions you would like to hear, or some requests for specific Lumberjacks to be interviewed, leave a comment below.

Flotrack Workout Wednesday

The Tuesday following Pre Nationals, Flotrack’s Ryan Fenton came out to watch and record one of our workouts. We did 6xmile out at Ft. Tuthill on 7:00 go’s, which is among our hardest workouts of the season. Fortunately I was able to have a great workout in front of the camera and under the hot lights. I even got a great shout out from Coach Heins, “Jason Pedersen he’s just a grinder. . . He just wants to be on a team that has a shot to do something special in November.” Thanks for the compliment Coach, and I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

Getting to know Eric Lynch & Big Sky

So I have been a little lacking on updates a bit. Since my last post, the team has started our newest of many traditions, “Thankful Thursdays.” Every Thursday, we go out as a team to a different restaurant. We started with sushi, Mexican last week, and Greek last night. These make for great opportunities to do more interviews.

Last week, at Café Olé, I interviewed Eric Lynch. Lynch, as he is commonly known as, is one of the few people remaining at NAU that started with me in the Fall of 2006. He has always been a great friend and I’m glad he is still around to laugh, run and share “old” times with.

Big Sky Championships

The other piece of news is that the mens NAU Cross Country won its 4th straight Big Sky title over the weekend. As a whole, the team ran very well. David McNeill and Diego Estrada continue to impress every time they toe the line. Tim Freriks and Eric Lynch had exceptional days, both earning their first All Conference awards. Congratulations to them.

I did not have my best day, in fact it was definitely my worst performance of the season. I was our 7th man, finishing in 12th place. I didn’t feel all that bad in the race, which is good. I just didn’t seem to have that extra motivation that is needed to really make you hurt on a cross country course. When I realized this, it was rather alarming. “This was your last Big Sky Cross Country Championship, and you couldn’t get ‘up’ for it?” As I mentioned in my Stanford race report, I have been unusually calm about racing this year. This is my fifth year competing collegiately, could it be catching up with me?

Sunday, after finishing my long run with Tim and Andrew Belus, I thought about this and I just came to the conclusion that I need to put myself in the right frame of mind just before and during the race. Being relaxed is a good thing, but a little nervousness goes a long way. So during our workouts this week, which were some of our two hardest, signature workouts — mile repeats and “The Lumberjack” — I practiced putting myself in the right mindset. I don’t want every workout to feel like a race, because that will quickly lead to burnout, but when it got tough I told myself, “You want it; you just have to believe.” This will be my mantra over the last 16 days.

Getting to know The Lumberjacks: Mathew Coloe

I am currently sitting in my giant hotel room with Rube getting ready for the big race. I thought I would post a new episode of “Getting to know The Lumberjacks” that I recorded yesterday. This one is with NAU’s newest Aussie, Mathew Coloe. Matt comes to Flagstaff as more of a track specialist, but we are hoping for big things from him today and through the rest of the season.

Getting to know The Lumberjacks: Sarah Raber

Shortly after finishing my interview with Andrew Belus, I decided I need to include some of the girls in this action. So while we were at breakfast at the DUB on Sunday, I decided to take the opportunity to ask one of the freshmen ladies 20 questions. First up was Sarah Raber from Cottonwood, AZ. I know what you’re thinking, that is the same place Tim is from! Yep, but no relation.

Getting to know The Lumberjacks: Andrew Belus

Last week’s debut “Getting to know The Lumberjacks” was a big hit amongst the team and coaches. Now everyone wants their few minutes of fame. So today I was Johnny On The Spot with my camera in the ice bath after a hard, long progression run. The first person to jump in the tub with me was 4th year Junior Andrew Belus from Tempe, Arizona. Andrew was NAU’s 3rd runner at the recent Stanford Invitational and is now known worldwide for running 7.5 km of that race barefoot (see my post).

Getting to know The Lumberjacks: Tim Freriks

Over the summer I spent a lot of time immersing myself in triathlon culture. I spent a lot of time reading triathletes’ blogs, including Jordan Rapp’s and one of his “mentors” Simon Whitfield, the first Olympic gold medalist in the sport of triathlon. After speaking with Jordan at a trail race last December, I learned that they had done some training in Flagstaff in past years, so I decided to see if there were any blog posts about their time here. What I found was some videos of the training camp. It was really cool to see them training in the same locations that I train at every day. But the most interesting videos, I thought, were the ones about the people, not the training. Simon Whitfield has several videos on his Youtube channel that are called “20 Questions with…[insert athlete's name here].” Here is a link to the interview of Jordan.

So I thought it would be fun to start doing something similar with some of my teammates. I ask 20 questions, some running related some not, and post the video. First up is sophomore Tim Freriks from Cottonwood, Arizona. Sorry ladies, he is taken. (small cameo by David McNeill)