I had two workouts at the U.S. Ski Team’s Center of Excellence. When I arrived at eight this morning I was pleasantly surprised to find the parking lot full of cars (since it’s Sunday).

Alas whoever was in the building wasn’t in the gym. (I think they were probably there for meetings.) I didn’t see a sole during my two and a half hour spin on the trainer.

Today proved to me how important energy levels are to good training sessions. On Friday, even though there were lots of people in the gym, I struggled through a two hour elliptical session. Time was moving very slowly and it was hard to get my heart rate up. Today, after a recovery day yesterday, both sessions, the spin and an hour and a half on the elliptical, flew by and I had no trouble staying in my heart rate zone.

For entertainment today I listened to a variety of shows on my phone.For the first hour I listened to National Public Radio’s Weekend Addition on Colorado Public Radio.

Then I listened to Friday’s broadcast of American Public Media’s Marketplace. I really enjoy Marketplace and I don’t miss very many of their podcasts.

For the last hour I listened to my favorite radio station, KBCO out of Boulder, Colorado.

For this afternoon’s elliptical session I got to listen to the Colorado Rockies-San Francisco Giants game live. Listening to live Rockies’ baseball is fantastic. Unfortunately the games are generally at night. The Rockies won five to nothing which made the session go by extra fast.

This evening I went to my friends’, Alex Moore and his wife Carly Debenham’s, for a delicious dinner. After dinner Alex and I played chess while the three of us watched the movie Silver Lining’s Playbook. I enjoyed the movie. The chess game took three times as long as it should have because we were watching the movie at the same time. Alex had me on the ropes early, but I squeaked out the victory when Alex got distracted by the movie.

I brought some Vermont maple syrup home from Putney on Tuesday. It was delicious.

In the middle of the day I worked on the computer. I booked flights for my trip to Colorado and my first technique block of the year in Putney, both in July.

This evening we had a pizza party with Liz, three of the four U.S. Ski Team cross country coaches and one of our wax technicians Cory Wubbels. The fire in the pizza oven had to be started three hours before we started cooking to make sure it was hot enough.

While the fire was burning I made a salad. I like toppings and I tend to make really big salads. People complain that it’s hard to get to the lettuce.

We had lots of delicious toppings for our pizzas.

By the time we started cooking the oven was plenty hot.

I burnt the first couple of pizzas because they cooked so fast. I figured out (after Greg modeled to me how it is done) that I needed to put the pizzas in and turn them almost constantly. I got better at it.

It takes concentration.

U.S. Ski Team Coach Bryan Fish made possibly the best pizza of the night with two raw eggs that got cooked in the oven, Italian style.

At the end of the night, when everyone is full, we switched to calzones because they make better leftovers.

Here’s U.S. Ski Team women’s coach Matt Whitcomb with a lemon pizza:

Toni Adams, Greg’s wife, made a delicious baked fruit bowl.

It was a work of art.

I failed trying to cook it. I burnt it and lost part of it into the oven.

I had a really fun evening. Here are some of the group (from left to right): Corey, Bryan, Luke Adams, Toni, Greg, Matt and myself:

I had lunch today with my coaches from Ski and Snowboard Club Vail, Dan Weiland and Eric Pepper. They are in town for the USSA coaches conference. It was great to see them and talk about some logistics.

I was back at the training center in the afternoon for physical therapy and strength. Athletes at the center can sign up for private Pilates classes on a reformer in the gym. So far I’ve only seen women taking advantage of this perk. Here is a really bad picture of Olympic Alpine skier Resi Stiegler on the machine:

Physical therapy was painful today. The soft tissue work we did left my arm quite bruised:

I thought strength was going to be a struggle because my legs were so tired, but I actually felt OK during the session. I think the contrast baths helped. My teammate Liz Stephen was in the gym lifting at the same time I was there:

For dinner Liz and I joined the family I live with, Toni, Greg, Luke and Lindsey Adams, at Windy Ridge Cafe. Here are Luke and Lindsey with Liz:

After dinner I took Lindsey (who is a freshman in high school) driving for the first time.

She did really well.

Lastly, FasterSkier.com did a nice write-up about my shoulder recovery here.

After the long session I did physical therapy followed by a nice meeting with the Aspen Valley Ski Club’s Walt Evans. My legs are quite tired and sore from a combination of hard strength yesterday, my first time running in several months and treadmill hiking.

I got to run outdoors this morning! It was so nice to be outside without a sling. I was only cleared to go for twenty minutes so I came back to do the remainder of my two and a half hour workout on the spin bike. However, I didn’t have to wear the sling on the spin bike either, so life was way better! They were cleaning the windows in the Center of Excellence which provided good entertainment while I was spinning.

This afternoon I went to a town hall meeting held by the National Nordic Foundation (NNF). It was great to see the incredible support that NNF has in the elite Nordic community and to see the incredible steps they’ve taken to be the driver of Nordic success in this country.

I also got a long-overdue hair cut this afternoon.

Afternoon strength was really challenging for me today. I am tired after my late night of travel yesterday. This evening I had a wonderful dinner at my friends Alex and Carly’s. My teammate Liz Stephen and one of the strength coaches Bob (I don’t know his last name) were there also. After dinner we played the board/card game Sequence. Bob, Alex and I were one team with one teammate rotating out each round. We lost every single game two sequences to zero to Liz and Carly. It was embarrassing.

It’s very stereotypical Vermont.

This morning Zach Caldwell of Caldwell Sport, my technique coach and manager of my ski fleet, went over my skis with me to see what holes in the fleet we need to fill this summer.

A got several new pairs of skis at the end of the winter and didn’t get much chance to get to know them. Zach is incredible at being able to look at a pair of skis and know what conditions they will run well in.

Madshus has recently, within the last couple of years, started using different base materials for different conditions. The clear base skis are generally better in wet conditions.

There were lots of skis to evaluate. After going through everything, we will be looking for rubb skis and klister skis primarily this summer.

Zach has this poster, which he lives by, in his shop.

It is an issue for Zach that I don’t like coffee. This afternoon, Zach’s wife Amy generously drove me the hour-plus to Bradley Airport in Hartford, Connecticut. They have an awesome Lego structure there.

I realized in the airport that I forgot my book, The Tender Bar, in Putney. I’m close to finishing it and thoroughly enjoying it. I’m bummed I left it. I had to buy a magazine (and snack) as entertainment instead.

I got upgraded to First Class again. This time I was on a United, as opposed to a United Express flight. The food was much better.

I’m headed back to Park City, Utah.

The Osgoods have a new deck. This house, to me, is a great place to relax and get away from normal life. I am very grateful to the Osgoods to be able to do just that.

Emily has two cats that used to be with her in the city. However, they didn’t handle being indoor cats very well. Now they are country cats at Chris and Mary’s place. They’ve adapted well to living outdoors. Here’s Oscar:

It is so green here, in contrast to Utah.

This morning I worked out, hiking on a treadmill for two hours, at the Putney School. It was nice to have a new view.

Apple blossoms are out. The orchards are gorgeous.

This afternoon Zach and I went to his uncle John’s house. John Caldwell is an Olympian (in Nordic Combined in the 1952 games) and a former head coach of the U.S. Ski Team. We helped him put some plywood under a mattress to make it more firm.

Zach also helped John work out some computer issues.

Zach and I then walked around some incredible bike trails he recently built in his backyard.

I am super impressed with the trails and can’t wait to ride them next time I am here. There are only about three kilometers of trail, but they are easy to connect to some other trail systems and are built to be fun. Zach brought a chainsaw with him on our walk.

Zach wants Gunnar to be able to ride the trails with his smaller wheels.

We also built a little rock bridge for an exciting alternate option in one section of trail.

For this afternoon’s workout I road Amy Caldwell’s (Zach’s wife) bike on a trainer. The seat was a little harder than the spin bikes I’ve been using and I got sore. I’m going to do some more of that, on my trainer, when I get home to save myself some trips to the Center of Excellence.

I could have stayed up there forever.

I couldn’t believe that a place like that existed in the middle of Manhattan, and, having seen it, I can’t believe every roof in the city doesn’t have a garden on it.

The inside of the house was fantastic as well.

I was at Sheri and Ed’s for a family (their family) dinner. All four of Sheri and Ed’s kids were there (including my coach Zach who lives in Putney, Vermont but came down to the city to pick me up and bring me back to Vermont). Some other relatives were also there including Zach’s son Gunnar. The friend I’ve been visiting in New York, Emily Osgood, was there. The dinner was incredible, as it always is with the Caldwell/Bartletts.

After dinner I went back up to the roof (of course). Here Emily and I are along with Ezra and his wife Hillary’s dog Putney. I didn’t do any editing to this picture, but I like it because it looks like a water color.

This morning Emily and I went back to the exclusive Harvard Club of New York. I did a ninety minute uphill hike on the treadmill. Going with Emily was great because she could show me all of the extra benefits, like free Harvard Club branded chocolates:

We then went to Grand Central Station to see an antique train display they have this weekend. However it was nearly a two hour wait to see the trains, so we didn’t hang around. There were a lot of people around.

We went to Bryant Park instead to hang out in the sun and people watch.

We also each called our moms for mother’s day. Happy mother’s day mom! I love you! Here’s Emily calling her mom.

This afternoon I took a picture with Ezra Caldwell. He broke his arm two weeks ago. We were laughing about the difference in the slings we’d each been using. He prefers (or has few other options but) an old mountain bike tube. In contrast, I’ve got a massive contraption.

Ezra is an amazing person. He is also sick with rectal cancer. He writes the best blog I have ever read. Period. It is called Teaching Cancer to Cry.You can find it here.

I was joking before I went that the name sounds very elitist. It turned out to be way more elitist than I imagined. You can only be a member of the club if you are a student, alumni or staff of Harvard. The membership fees are high and go up as you age (or as you get further removed from your time at Harvard.) I was able to use the facilities, for a $25 fee, because I am a guest of Emily Osgood (whom I’m visiting here in New York). Emily is a Harvard alum and a member of the club. (However she is not elitist.) The facilities were nice, but not amazing.

There was a lot of school pride.

They had a treadmill that went up to a steeper grade than I had ever seen before. I decided to take advantage of it for something a little different. At the U.S. Ski Team’s Center of Excellence in Park City, I have been doing my uphill hikes at 15% grade and 4 mph. Yesterday I did my two hour session at 30% grade. I figured 3 mph would be good for distance training. It proved to be too hard so I reduced it after 30 minutes to 2.5 mph. That was too easy so I finally honed in on the right pace (of 2.8 mph) for the last hour. 30% is steep!

I liked all the amenities in the locker rooms of the Harvard Club. Because I carried on all my stuff coming here, I didn’t bring a razor or shaving cream. I couldn’t believe my luck when they had everything I needed!

After my workout I walked around midtown briefly. There were a ton of people out on a Friday night!

I had a fantastic dinner last night with Emily, Ezra and Hillary Caldwell and Hillary’s brother Tripp. Emily’s sister and my friend Brayton Osgood left yesterday to go to a wedding in Bend, Oregon. Ezra is a fantastic cook. He is formerly a custom bike builder. There are some really cool bikes in the house.

This morning Emily and I headed down to Lower Manhattan. We checked out the under construction One World Trade Center building with the newly attached spire making it 1,776 feet tall, the tallest in the Western Hemisphere and third tallest in the world.

Wall Street was packed with some sort of college graduation that had just let out of Trinity Church.

We walked by the New York Fed.

We then checked out some of the damage and construction that has resulted from Hurricane Sandy.

We also checked out Emily’s office. She works for the HPD (Housing Preservation and Development). She’s got an office as opposed to a cubical so she must be pretty important. ( However she’s not quite high enough up the ladder to get a window.)

We then went to a great brunch with one of Emily’s friends (who works at the New York Fed) Stephanie Rosoff followed by a trip to the Museum of the City of New York. Emily and Stephanie both have masters in Urban Planning, and I am very interested in urban development, especially as it relates to New York City. We went for a particular exhibit about ultra-dense living. There were different models of space efficient buildings.

There was also a cool full-size flat that was 325 square feet. To me, it seemed totally livable for two people (as long as they were a couple). Here are Emily (in the window) and Stephanie poking their heads out of the unit:

On the way back we walked though Central Park. I had to step foot in the park at least once while I am here.

When I was in Putney, Vermont working with my coach Zach Caldwell on technique just before Christmas, Brayton and Emily Osgood were at their parents’ house in Putney for the holidays. Another friend, Oakley Olson was also in Putney. We all decided to purchase tickets for the Broadway musical Book of Mormon for yesterday, even though at the time we had no idea if we would be available. Book of Mormon is the most popular show on Broadway and tickets have to be purchased four or five months in advance. It ended up working out perfectly, and the four of us attended an incredible performance last night.

Book of Mormon is the first play by the creators of the T.V. show South Park. It was hilarious. I was laughing out loud the entire show. I believe I enjoyed it a little more than I would otherwise have because I have lived in Utah for the last four years. The set and lights were also incredible, as they always are on Broadway. I have a special interest in the backstage operations because I worked backstage at multiple theaters in Aspen while in high school.

Watching the show made me miss being involved in the theater. Here are my companions for the evening (from left to right) Emily, Oakley and Brayton.

After dinner we went to a great restaurant that I had been to after a Broadway show with some other friends two years ago called Five Napkin Burger. I felt kind of dumb recommending the one restaurant in midtown that I had been to previously, but it was just as good as I remembered.

The evening was just about perfect.

On a completely separate note, yesterday was exactly six weeks since my shoulder surgery. Brayton took this picture of my atrophied left arm.

This morning Brayton and I walked around Morningside Park. (Emily had to work. She is an urban planner for the City of New York.) I love how green it is here.

Then we went to the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.

They were doing some repairs inside and I was intrigued by this bug looking lift:

There was also an art exhibit in the church: Jane Alexander: Surveys (from the Cape of Good Hope). The art was representative of apartheid and suppression in South Africa. It was emotional. Here is a piece called Security:

I didn’t catch the name of this piece:

The grandeur of the art was magnified by the setting. I was glad we checked it out.

We then went to Ulysses S. Grant’s Tomb:

It was interesting to refresh some of my civil war history.

For lunch today we got some delicious ramen on Broadway at 125th.

I always eat well when I come to the city.