Life Elevated

Well, Spencer linked #summitsunday to his newest Elite Team post so I had better give you some updates. Even more than ever, #summitsunday is less about my adventures and is becoming more about sharing an adventure with friends. ASC has practices on Sundays these days so we try to incorporate it into training. On instagram #summitsunday is still mostly pictures of cheer-leading, but we still get a fair representation of people being awesome outdoors. DFTBA.

Palisades at Squaw

Hawk's Peak with ASC

Combi Rollerski OD in the rain 

Tahoe Rim Trail Distance Run

Drifter Hut at TDXC after a TT

-Guscle

Addiction

Post USSA Congress, it was time for some adventuring in the mountains. In true nordic coaching fashion, the only sensible thing to do after sitting in meetings is to go run an uphill time trial, right? I thought so.

I want to point out that I wasn't the only coach at USSA Congress sneaking bike rides and runs in before and after meetings. We're all pretty addicted.

Mother May I?

It's Mother's Day and I'm trying to be a good son by helping out with the chores as my parents prepare for their move to Wisconsin. One duty was building this fence.

Wilson has been helping.

May has been a month of #secrettraining. Wilson and I are both going to be coaches in the Tahoe region this year, so it's time to resurrect the rivalry. We're both in Utah awaiting the start of our summer programs, so in addition to helping build the fence- Wilson and I have been going out for runs together and talking smack about who is going to be the fitter coach during the summer. It's a #Coach'sCamp of #secrettraining.

That's it. Thanks for taking the photos even though I know it stressed you out seeing your boy standing 8ft off the ground, mom.

Alta is for skiers

Today was the last day at Alta in a couple ways. It was their end of season of course, but it was also my dad's last day of his last season as a patroller. 33 years is a long time.

Peavine Peak

After a week of being a #coachpotato I decided it was time to get active and ride my shiny new Mtn Bike to the top of Peavine Peak in Reno.

#coachpotato

I'll probably end up jogging later for lack of movement, but for now I'm enjoying a nice lazy #summitsunday

Dilly Button

Well, it happened again. Champions in the tandem category at the Billy Dutton Uphill (there were no other participants because it isn't a real category).

Two Dudes Two Skis Round 2

#kikkanface

Here's a link to the last time we did this.

On this 6th day of the 4th month

This is happening

It's back. 

Update

Wow, no updates to the blog in over a month. Sorry about that. There have been summits though:

I went rock climbing

I had a 5+ hour adventure running through the desolation wilderness. This was at Lake Aloha

I took the ASC kids up an out on the Far Side of Tahoe Donner.

I ran to Watson Peak from Watson Lake in order to get a view of Lake Tahoe

Sorry for leaving you hanging!

-Gus

Cheers

Here is to September, my most favorite-est of months.

A month so great that all the males in my immediate family were born in it.

A month so grand that you begin to feel that fall is really here, like really "see it in your breath and fingers" here, but not so bland that the souls of the trees and people whither and fall in soggy wet bunches upon the ground.

Here's to intervals, and spandex, and the Church of Breath and Footsteps. And here's to the friends with whom you share a bowl of chili with over a pine-wood table, and then, the Bananagrams you play past dark.

Here's to a first-snowfall hike in sorrels and the feeling of the crunch of packed powder beneath your feet.

Here's to you, #summitsunday.

Here's my jam for the coolness of the afternoon. https://www.thisismyjam.com/gustavojohnson1/_6srp26e

Also, CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE IRONMAN LAKE TAHOE PEEPS WHO RACED AND SUPPORTED RACERS TODAY! It was awesome seeing you giving it out there. 

Far West gets far west by going coastal

Tales from the joint Far West/PNSA camp

SUP

My sister Ellie is in town this weekend. So we decided to go do some trendy SUPing.

Excellent planning and execution for some fun times and good company at music on the beach

Several Summits

I had a great #summitsunday yesterday. There was bike riding on the flume trail, a summit of a stump in Marlette Lake -which had nails in it from people playing stump; there was dock sitting, skinny-girl drink drinking, and skinny-girls skinny dipping. A fun time was had by all.

The Worst Kept Secrets

We build our lives in narrative, so that the stories we tell each other end up shaping our own perspectives of identity. That's a weird thought to think: that the stories I tell you make me who I am, both in my head and in yours.

Who would you say I am from this #summitsunday line of story telling? Is it vanity, a public correspondence, or a love for adventure that makes me post the summits?
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Recently I've gotten hung up on the idea of #secrettraining. Well, maybe I should back up and explain that I first heard the term from Wilson Dippo back in high school, and that it has always had some appeal to me since first hearing it, but now has gained a significant place again in my story-telling. Back then, as he explained it, secret training was the training you did outside of ski practices- on your own- which made you inextricably faster in front of your other teammates when you showed up for regularly scheduled practices. It made me feel covert and elite and like I was getting a jump on the competition, a kind of Navy Seal's approach to ski racing. Secret training back then had always been best early in the morning, as dawn approached, before the sun and everybody else were up. It felt (capital I) Important, like I was the only one in the world doing this stuff. I think now it's the same: the idea of #secrettraining is best before and after "work", when usually you'd be drinking beer on the porch or watching your favorite BBC drama on Netflix, when nobody expects you to be out having fun and getting fit.

These days I'm coaching juniors for "work", and I find myself drawn to #secrettraining all over again. Seeing the kids' enthusiasm at getting fast has rekindled my own joy in being fit and good at the sport. At practice and in team administration I'm there for the kids, trying to make sure that they get the most out of their workouts. I hand out poles to people who break them in the cracks rollerskiing (I cannot believe how many poles they break), and wait for slower runners to make sure they find the correct trail turns. It's not always a good workout for me, but the job isn't about me, and I'm totally fine with that. But what it does remind me is that these kids are out there training, and sneaking up on the older guys who've done it for longer, and you can't just be fit and fast without the work, even if you worked hard earlier in your life. To appease this ego I've started taking afternoon runs, and hopping in on as many workouts outside of junior coaching as I can. It's my own form of secret training, because I'm not ready to give up being fit quite yet. #AlwaysAnAthlete

I keep telling people about my secret in a not-so-secret way. It's about the worst kept secret I've ever had. I just get such a kick out of telling people I'm going to go on a run, and then tell them "shush, it's a secret."

#summitsunday after a #secrettraining ride up Donner Summit

#summitsunday as told by Johannes' Camera

Another Lazy Sunday

No arduous hikes to mountain peaks for this past Sunday. Lots of naps and reading and hanging out on the docks of Donner Lake. Thanks go to Anja for the photo timing for the #summitsunday photos this week.  They're a little different from the usual pose, but I like them. I'm going to count the first one as the summit because I was standing atop a concrete mooring post.

Also, thanks to Alec and Mr. Yo-yo Robot for being the catapult for the backflip.

Happy summiting,

Stavo

Sierra Buttes

What spectacular mountains the Sierra Buttes are!

1 year

I've done this for over a year now. I'm entitled to take some liberties.

Just Super

Hiked out toward Ellis Peak from Blackwood Canyon/Baker Pass under the super-moon. Spat some sunflower seeds, and tried to sleep with the moon glaring down upon me. Woke up to this:

Waking up to this on #summitsunday after the super-moon wasn't so bad.

Happy Fathers Day

Hike in the morning up 5 lakes to and beyond to the top of Alpine Meadows Ski Resort and then back down to skype with my father.