All Quiet on the Western Front
But not anymore!
Caitlin, Ida and I are currently in Park City, UT joining the USST for their annual fall altitude training camp. Tomorrow is actually the last day of the camp, so we’ve pretty much done a terrible job of keeping you updated thus far. This is mostly because I haven’t taken many pictures during the camp, but also because it’s been surprisingly busy staying on top of 2 training sessions a day, catching up with our favorite skier friends, and seeing family and friends. I decided to just steal some photos from other sources to get something up on the web (thanks guys, don’t worry, credit is given in all the captions).
It has been an incredibly productive camp in PC. We’ve managed to squeeze in 2 speed sessions, 2 level 3 workouts, one hammer-sesh bounding workout, a time trial, 3 marathon strength sessions, and a couple of OD’s and distance workouts, all in a 10 day span! We also took to the trails for a mountain bike adventure, which ended abruptly when my seat fell off my bike. Oops. But overall the quality of both the training and the training partners has been fantastic, and we’re really glad to have made the trip out here. Also thanks to my Mom for putting up Caitlin and I during the duration of the camp! Okay, without further ado, here are some of the top photos from the camp.
Day one of the camp, an OD classic roll up American Fork Canyon to the base of Timpanogos, also one of the more beautiful places I’ve ever skied. Tired from travel here, but happy to be skiing with friends old and new! I’m second from the back, in bright yellow (Photo USSA Nordic)
Day two- skate speeds in a parking lot near the COE. Here’s the women’s group getting instructions before the start. Head-to-head starts and finishes are the best way to work on pure, raw speed (Photo USSA Nordic)
Day four- a 3.5 hour run on Mid Mountain Trail, one of my favorites in Park City. Awesome running buddies made this session go by as quickly as 3.5 hours of running can… (Photo Jennie Bender)
Same day- a little further down the trail. It’s past peak foliage here, but there are still some vibrant stands of aspens up high. This one I actually took!
Day seven- the best clubs in the US unite for a distance ski up Wolf Creek Pass. APU +Craftsbury + SMS-T2 + SVSEF+ BSF = so many strong skiers! (Photo Jennie Bender)
Day nine- Caitlin and I hit our culinary stride with this masterpiece. Sweet potato gnocchi and antelope meatballs with a side of asparagus. Lots of training = hungry skiers
And finally, day ten! L3 Classic intervals up East Canyon, some of the nicest classic terrain around. Here we are warming up with the T2 and Sun Valley ladies (Photo Jennie Bender)
Double poling and practicing drafting on some of the flats on East Canyon. I’m third in this train (Photo Pat O’Brien)
Tucking in behind Erika Flowers and Annie Pokorny of SMS-T2 near the top. These two are fantastic classic striders and I was happy to be able to follow them for much of the workout (Photo Pat O’Brien)
So what’s next? Caitlin and I will stay in Park City for a few more days and get in some fun (and hopefully uneventful) mountain biking and hiking before heading back East (Caitlin) and to Bozeman (me) for a quick visit. We’ll be back in Craftsbury soon though to get in our final prep work before the season starts in November. Ida will head to Frozen Thunder in Canmore and get some on-snow time before she returns to Craftsbury in late October.
Many thanks to the USST for inviting us out to this camp and providing awesome training opportunities. Also thanks to Pat O’Brien, SMS-T2 coach, and Colin Rodgers from SVSEF for adopting us for a a few workouts and taking video and giving shuttles, even though they had their own athletes to worry about. We really appreciate it, and it makes it much easier to be out here without a coach!