Utah Update #1

Miscellaneous

Oct 12

The skiers and biathletes are in Utah for a high altitude training camp right now (actually Susan and Hannah aren’t here yet but will be traveling to Utah soon). The majority of us arrived at a house in Heber City where we’re staying on Monday evening, having started our day at 3am in Craftsbury in order to drive to Burlington and catch the 3 flights that would take us to Salt Lake City.

While we’ve done distance skiing, agility practice, and speeds in the past few days, today was the first day of serious intensity. This morning we had a L3 skate rollerski workout at the Soldier Hollow rollerski track with all of the other athletes from the USST, APU, Sun Valley, Stratton, and many other clubs. (L3 is below race-pace, where blood lactate doesn’t build up higher than about 4-6mmol, a pace that could potentially be sustainable for over an hour.) While some athletes did 10-15 minute L3 intervals, or continuous L3 that was pushed up to L4 by the end, as far as I know all of us GRP skiers did controlled L3 for 40 to 60 minutes continuously. Our biathletes did shorter L3 intervals combined with shooting. It was important for us to be conservative with our L3 pace and not get carried away following other skiers, especially since this was our fourth day at altitude, which is typically one of the hardest days to feel good during the acclimatization process. As far as I heard, most people on the team did a good job of following their own pace even if it meant dropping back from a larger group. Here are some photos I took of the men’s workout, which I was able to take since they started their intensity an hour later than the women’s group in order to minimize traffic conflicts on the rollerski track. Considering the size of the men’s group I was very glad not to be out skiing any more once they started their L3. These photos aren’t nearly as good as the professional-quality ones that have been circulating, and I seemed to have missed catching a few of the guys, but I hope they give you a view into our workout.

All smiles after the workout! Left to right: Caitlin, Clare, Ida, Liz

A great day for a rollerski on the freshly paved track at SoHo

Pre-interval chaos

Andrew and Pepa confer before the intensity session

Part of the group lining up to start

Men’s group passing through the stadium area

The pack continues

And continues…

Fascinating western fall colors, it almost looks like a painting instead of a photo. Specks near the center of the photo are the guys tucking the big downhill