Sharpening focus, training at the Park City USST camp
Most of the GRP ski women (Heather, Ida, Liz, Kait, and Caitlin) just returned from a great camp in Park City, Utah. With coach Pepa on hand to video, take lactates, and drive us around to USST-organized workouts, and with only 5 athletes from our team, it was a smooth-operating and fairly successful camp. Only fairly successful, because we did have a few instances of lost-skin while rollerskiing or running, a few close calls to losing more skin, and a bit of impaired health – still, for the most part the camp was extremely beneficial and we left Utah extremely tired in the best possible way, and each with some accomplishments as well as plenty of things to work on in these next few weeks. And we had a great time during and in between training sessions, getting plenty of hard work rollerskiing, bounding, and with frequent strength workouts, but also posing for silly photos and enjoying cooking and hanging out with each other.
Before the photos commence, a quick plea to you, the reader, to take a look at our CGRP fundraising page for the NNF (National Nordic Foundation) here and to consider donating even a small amount if you are able: https://support.nationalnordicfoundation.org/fundraise/team?ftid=60750
With limited resources available through USSA, the cross-country skiing governing body, the skiing community relies heavily on NNF to provide financial support for racing trips for developing skiers. Many of us from the GRP have attended NNF-supported trips, from World Juniors to OPA Cups to World Cups, and we wouldn’t be where we are in ski racing if it wasn’t for the NNF. The financial support, covering of partial trip costs, is a big part but equally as important is the sense of the skiing community standing with and behind us as we race on the international stage representing the US.
And now, scenes from Utah… it’s difficult to capture many photos of the action while actively participating in the training sessions, but I managed to snap a few, and most especially we had Pepa take photos of us during several of the sessions. Thanks Pepa for supporting us in every way at this camp and for the Craftsbury Outdoor Center and the GRP for facilitating such a great training experience by sending us out West! It definitely helped us start to sharpen our fitness towards racing shape, which is a good thing since our first ski races are at the end of November, coming right up!
Our GRP women’s team Park City camp favorite pose… the crane kick! Inspired by the sandhill cranes in the back yard of our rental house, and by the Karate Kid movie (which, needless to say, none of us have actually watched recently)
Caitlin and Becca Rorabaugh of APU, striding up American Fork Canyon
Way up high on the Wasatch Crest trail
Ski walking with Ida and Sophie Caldwell, nearing the end of the Wasatch Crest trail
Our favorite matching strength outfits (thanks Crafts Sportswear!) and triple-climbing the wall after strength, just because we can! Left to right, Heather, Caitlin, Kait
Chicken enchiladas! One of many Mexican-inspired meals we ate while in Utah, and this one especially nice and plentiful because we invited our friends from the APU women’s team over for dinner too. This is only one pan of 3.
Pepa made us tasty moussaka and Bulgarian salad one night of our trip
Caitlin leading a train of women from various clubs during a double-pole workout
Ida pauses for a sip of water during a rollerski
Training is most fun with friends, and most safe in bright-colored attire
The guys did an out-and-back section to add a bit of time to this rollerski, and they didn’t catch the lead women until nearly the end of the ski. Perfect timing so that we all finish in the same spot.
Meandering through Western valleys
Most of the crew GRP Park City crew, left to right Liz, Heather, Kait, Caitlin. Look for future updates as the skiers and biathletes head to Foret Montmorency to get on snow in a few days! And stop by my (Caitlin’s) personal blog at caitlinpatterson.blogspot.com for slightly different commentary and more pictures from the Utah camp.