LNR Man Camp

LNR Man Camp in Cable, WI

We had our first training camp of the year this past weekend up in Cable, WI.  When I first moved to the Midwest I lived in downtown Cable and it was fun to train some familiar loops that have become some of my favorite over the years.  The roads in the area are incredible with lake views, rolling terrain and smooth pavement.  Lake Owen drive has to be one of my favorite all time roller ski roads.

Sam, Nick and I drove up Friday afternoon after school for a nice run on the Ojibwe trail and a feast at the River's Eatery.  Mick and Beth the owners of the River's Eatery are very supportive of the community and it was fun to show the boys my favorite place to eat in Wisconsin.

Temperature were in the low thirties so it felt like we were back in Winter.  The LNR group is a fit one and the nice thing about roller skis is we can adjust wheel speed so that everyone can train together and be at their right pace or close to it.  

I have trained thousands of hours in the Cable area but there is still more to explore.  The crew took me on a run on the North Country trail through a wilderness I had never seen before.  Crossing this dam bridge was pretty fun.  We did a morning combo of 1.75 skate roller skiing and 1.25 running.

We kept our eyes open for bears, but this is the only one we saw.

After a big morning we had a good nap and hoped on our bikes for a 50 mile ride.  

Nick learned the hard way to make sure you hydrate and fuel a lot on big training days

Nick impressed me the most of everyone at camp.  He is in his third year of skiing and his first year of LNR and this was his first training camp  He put in the most hours on Saturday after taking a wrong turn on the run.  It didn't phase him.  He also opted to go for the longer bike ride option in the afternoon.  With about 2 miles to go in the ride he felt kind of funny, or rather just really tired, like he could fall asleep on  his bike.  He then proceeded to yo-yo a bit off the back and then bonked real hard.  You can learn a lot about someone when they bonk and there is a certain bonding process you have with your training partners when one or both of you bonk.  Nick was awesome.  He asked what he should do in the future to prevent such a feeling from coming over him.  The rest of the team impressed me too when we arrived home. They had the steaks on the grill and helped Nick recover from the days long effort so that we could all rally again the next day.  Next time I will be sure to bring some extra food to share too.

Steak Dinner!

Roller-skiing Blue Moon Road

Enjoying the blue sky and sun