On Snow Training Camp

Thank you to our incredible sponsors and supporters.  The last two weeks I have spent training, eating, and sleeping and am so grateful for this opportunity.  Although we have great internet at our little studio here in Canada, being out of the country and away from home has allowed us the luxury to focus almost entirely on our training.  We are training on the 2km loop that is 'Frozen Thunder,'  last years snow stored through the summer under wood chips.  The temperatures have been warm here in Canmore, AB sometimes as high as 60 F.  Surprisingly the man made snow has held up well, but I do hope we get some colder temperatures and more natural snow soon.  

The loop takes between 6-10 minutes so 4-5 hours of training each day makes for a lot of laps.  There are so many talented skiers here to follow, watch and mimic technique from though that I find myself easily entertained.  

My training camp in Canmore is brocken in to two blocks.  The first block of 8 days focused on volume with some L2 skiing to focus on technique as well as two races.  I felt good skiing distance, but the races didn't go so well.  I skied pretty quickly on my distance days to focus on technique and I think that left me a bit tired for the races. I look forward to being sharp for the races in West Yellowstone.

Laundry Day at our Canmore Studio

Caitlin does a great job finding some fantastic deals on lodging.  One of the ways we are able to do such a long (3 week) training camp is that we are able to find affordable accommodations.  This little studio was only $40/night and we have two beds which helps us maximize our recovery.  I have always enjoyed living in small spaces, especially after living in my brother's yurt.  Small spaces require you to be simple, clean and organized.  

Caitlin carved me the coolest nigh light ever for Halloween.  I also got a bag of my favorite canadian candy, wine gums.  

Waxing and Testing our ski fleet

Thanks to a donation from Stephanie through our Fundly campaign  we were able to rent one of the wax rooms here at the Canmore Nordic Center.  This has been huge in allowing us to wax and test our fleet of skis.  The opportunity to have a world cup level wax room, located basically on the trails is pretty huge.  We have really good skis and we do our best to take really good care of them which while we are testing in dirty snow means at least an hour of waxing each day.  I am certainly jealous of the other teams up here who all have wax techs.  Many teams have one tech for every 2-3 athletes.  I actually really enjoy waxing and working on skis though.  Plus I have been able to catch up on some great pod-casts. 

Photo Credit: USSA

My second block of training is nine days and focused on intensity.  I have been fortunate to be able to join the Canadians for some of their workouts including a skiathalon 2*25 min L3 and a 10*1min L4 session.