Winding down

Yesterday was my last hard workout down here, 90 minutes of tempo shifting towards race pace the last 30 minutes around Soho. Ouch. Super effective though. There are only so many ways you can get your body ready to hold up to 30k+ races. There is a level of discomfort that only comes from going long and hard. But that discomfort was balanced out by some great Mexican food from Tarahuma and a soak in the hot springs afterwards. 

I've got one day left before I go home and should be skiing this weekend up at Hatcher Pass (big ups to Mark Strabel for the grooming up there!) The camp here has been a big success. Nothing fancy just two weeks of focused, hard training. Looking forward to getting back to the AK a few days rest. 

Utah

Three of the last 4 years I have come down to Park City in October for some altitude and dry sunny weather, hopefully returning to skiing in Alaska in mid-October. After staying home last fall I figured I needed to come back down. After training in one place for the past 15 years a change of scene can be golden. I started coming down in the fall of 2004 when the US Ski Team had open camps here before they moved back to Lake Placid. That year I decided this place was amazing in the fall. Good weather, long paved climbs, great single track running, and a rollerski track to boot. 

So this year I am back and rolling solo for two weeks on my last pre fatherhood trip. It is a little different not having a coach or consistent training partner with me but a little solitude suits me well. Train, sleep, train, watch the playoffs, repeat. Not a bad life. Here are a few pics from my Friday afternoon mountain bike to the top of the Canyons. 

Fall

Not a whole lot going on right now.  The leaves are starting to fall and I am banging out the training and hoping that in 6 weeks we can be on snow... In the meantime Annie and I have a quick trip to southern Oregon over the weekend to visit Grandma Southam and will be doing a two week altitude camp in Park City in early October like I did from 2004-2006. A great time to be there and hopefully miss the transition from rollerskiing to snow up here. 

Training has been rolling along... the intensity has been pretty high the last couple weeks and the body is "adjusting" to the higher speeds. A little sore in places... I suppose that is to be expected when you are a master, so I better get used to it. 

Cuddy Park

Yesterday was the 3rd Annual Cuddy Park Rollerski Race. I hadn't been to the first two and have never even seen the park before which is tucked right behind Lowe's in the middle of town. Turns out it is a pretty sweet place. It has a really nice gentle rolling paved 1k loop and an Olympic size paved speed skating oval (only the 6th in the country I learned). The race was a pursuit with a 6k classic which we all double poled on skate skis followed 2 hours later by a 1k sprint around the speed skating oval. The morning went pretty well although I ended up 3rd a few seconds behind Anders and a boot behind Bart. I let quite a bit of it with Anders and I switching off, and made the move that whittled the field down to the three of us but couldn't quite close the deal when Anders threw his 185 lbs into me on the inside of a corner with less than 1k to go. Rubbin's racin' and I never caught back up. 

The afternoon was a little less successful, but it was a track race and I am more of a non track race kind of guy unlike Jeff Ellis, our former 400 meter hurdler who one. It was a good chance to learn a few things about what I need to work on coming into the season. 

Back for a bit

It has been a little while since my last post... since then I've been on the glacier twice, and back east in North Carolina and Vermont for 10 days visiting Annie's family and getting a little change of training scene in VT. That made for 3 nights in my own bed over the last month.

Our glacier camps are done now, 30 days of skiing by mid-August... not too bad. It has been sweet to be on snow so much in the summer and get some quality time and ski testing done on snow, but it will definitely be nice to be home for a while. In addition to just being home and settled for a few months there is a lot to get done around the house before the season and before the little one shows up.

Back east was a great break from the cold summer, I didn't wear a shirt training once back there compared with not wearing a shirt one time up here so far. Aside from good weather the training around Stowe was great. Big paved climbs, the alpine hill is mellow enough that it makes for great bounding and the weight room at the SRC at the bottom of my in-laws road make for a solid week of training. I also got to go over to Jericho a couple days and ski on the rollerski loop there. That place was sweet and sparked a little bit of envy. If only we could have a hilly rollerski track like that in Anchorage... 

So this week a little down time and catch up on work and the business side of things before shifting gears next week as the training focus is a little more intense. 

TT, new ski day!

Yesterday was the 3rd time trial of the summer and the second one skating. The course is 5 minutes of flat and rolling terrain before climbing up for the better part of 25 minutes the last 8 of which are spent on steady switchbacks. It hurts. The good news is I was 1:40 faster than I was at the end of May and 0:40 faster than at the end of August last year! I also felt a little sluggish and heavy, so to post a best time was very reassuring. The bad is I did my usual lead on the hard parts routine (like the last 8 minutes) and Lars came by me in the end. I need to stop doing that.

Right after I got home from training the DHL man showed up with a box of Atomics! One of the great things about working with them is I get wet snow skis to test and get to know while I am on the glacier. That makes that first sloppy day of the season that usually coincides with a race day so much nicer knowing that I know the skis.

Camp 2

Glacier camp 2 is now in the books. Another really solid 4 days on snow and now it is time for a little break. Golf yesterday where I had 3 legit pars and didn't lose my ball until the last hole! My short game was really "en fuego" as they say.

Also it is Olympic Trials time for the summer athletes. Always good to watch and get a little fired up to go thru that in about 18 months. It would be nice if they showed the track and field before 11 pm though.