Sea legs to ski legs
This is my first post on the Craftsbury blog, but I have been training with the GRP since mid-July. Since I’ve been here, my fitness has improved exponentially but my starting place made that no exceptional feat. This spring I participated in a low-altitude training camp sleeping below sea level for 5 weeks. This will go down as the most mentally grueling experience of my life, possibly setting a record for fewest hours of training and sleep for a full-time ski racer. I never lost sight of my ski goals though; I would tie bungee cords to a metal loop on the bow to practice my double pole with a very wide stance to avoid toppling over from the waves. Below is the sailing school vessel on which I spent the final quarter of my college experience conducting open ocean research on plankton and sargassum from St. Croix to Bermuda to Woods Hole, MA.
Our one port stop along our 2000 nautical mile voyage in St. Georges, Bermuda during the first week of June.
I finally made landfall on June 17th, and have since trained with a renewed motivation that I haven’t felt with this intensity for years. Another perk of spending a month on a boat is that my knees, plaguing me with pain for the last year, have completely healed allowing me to run again. After spending a couple weeks in my hometown of Anchorage I joined my new team in Craftsbury at last on July 15. Above is a picture from the demolition derby from a GRP night out at the county fair.
I love living up at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center. The people, the place, and food are all awesome. We are now at a training camp in Lake Placid. Above is a picture of an afternoon strength workout on the deck between the guys’ and girls’ condos here at LP.
Just bought this beauty.
My favorite part of the camp was a long run in the Adirondacks. Luckily I brought my camera for an excuse to lag behind.
Descending from Algonquin Mountain.
An advantage of staying at our own place rather than the Olympic Training Center is we are directly across the street from “Bowl Winkles”.
I bowled a perfect 100.
It was the greatest night of our lives.
Today was a rest day so I borrowed the van and previewed the course for Climb to the Castle tomorrow. Since I payed a toll to drive up I decided to get my money’s worth.
At the top of Whiteface is a tunnel that burrows 500 feet into the mountain to the base of an elevator. The elevator ascends 27 stories to the summit of the mountain. I was fascinated and confused, but glad to explore today since tomorrow I will be so exhausted.
Practicing some advanced yoga poses.
Tomorrow is the last day of the camp! All we have to do is rollerski up the 5th highest mountain in New York then we are outta here. We’ve had a great time, but we sure miss the food back home.
-Andrew