First Craftsbury Summer
I know there are technically two more weeks until the start of fall but after the bout of chilly weather we’ve been having, it seems appropriate to do a post to wrap up the summer! As one of the newest members of the GRP, I’ve been diving headlong into training, work projects and just soaking up the Northeast kingdom lifestyle. It seems like summer has absolutely flown by, and I think everyone is excited to round the corner into fall training and camps. With the first freeze two nights ago, it seems like winter will be here before we know it! (okay, maybe wishful thinking on my part).
But anyways, here it is, my first Craftsbury summer in pictures (sorry they are so small, click on any picture for a larger image!):
Just another beautiful evening in Craftsbury! Some of the new GRP members playing a little sunset golf. From L to R: Pete, Mike, myself, Jake, and Alex
Back in June, one of our “adventure” workouts was a run/hike from Morrisville to Stowe, and of course we had to stop and take a chairlift pic at the top. Caitlin and Clare braved the lift, while Moni (Pepa’s godson and our summer training guest) and I stuck to safer ground.
One of the fun parts of being on the GRP is that we make most of our own bread for the house. I’ve never made bread before this summer, but Caitlin has been teaching me all her bread magic, and my first loaves turned out pretty well!
We’ve also been doing a lot of work on a new singletrack mountain bike trail that is a good connector loop for running and biking from the biathlon range. We found this little guy while out clearing the trail. It’s been really fun building berms, cutting a climbing switchback (a major excavation project!), and experimenting with trail design. Pete and Andrew finished the trail just last week and I hear that it will be featured in the Singletrack Shootout Biathlon race that’s part of Oktoberfest weekend at Craftsbury. More info on that here, as well as the other events going on that weekend: http://www.craftsbury.com/general/about/news/Oktoberfest13_130820.htm
The beet harvest from the garden at our house!
And carrots! We are so lucky to have yummy fresh veggies from the garden. Before packing up to come to Lake Placid camp, we harvested chard, kale, beets, carrots, and tomatoes to bring with us, and it’s like having a little bit of Craftsbury with us on the road. Dinners have gotten pretty gourmet, and I think there will likely be a little inter-team competition between the guys and girls to whip up the tastiest meals. The boys pulled ahead tonight with bacon cheeseburgers, sweet potatoes, and kale salad, so we’ll have to get creative to top that!
We will be in Lake Placid for 10 days now for a training camp with the US Ski team as well as other elite clubs and teams. Hopefully we’ll have posts about the camp soon with training pictures and updates on what the GRP skiers have been up to! The camp culminates with the Climb to the Castle next Sunday, so we’ll be training hard and gearing up for that and enjoying the beautiful weather so far in LP.