Bend Update

By the time I woke up Tuesday morning, everyone had arrived in Bend (poor Jessie didn't get in until late Monday night)! I've had four great mornings of skiing and afternoons that consist of dryland and strength training. The iphone weather app predicted rain everyday, but we've actually seen a lot of sun! I think I've had one day of snowy and rainy skiing, one day of sunny skiing, and a couple days that start out cloudy and clear up by the end of the ski. The morning workouts have been a mix of speed sessions, intervals, and easy distance and the afternoons have consisted of running, mountain biking, and strength. It's exciting to be on snow and easy to feel like I need to do every workout, but this is by far the most I've ever trained in May and I was reminded of that the other day when I got so tired I could barely move. The goal for the spring was to rest a lot and get a little out of shape, so every workout at this time of year does not always feel GREAT and that takes some getting used to. On the other hand, some workouts do feel great and it's easy to take advantage of the skiing and easy distance training to work on technique and strength to make gains in some other areas while we gradually work into feeling really fit again.

Erik and Andy during L3 skate intervals (fasterskier photo)

Jessie, Kikkan, Holly, and Liz during L3 ski intervals (fasterskier photo)

Sophie during L3 intervals (fasterskier photo)

A couple of my favorite workouts so far have been the skate speeds and the team mountain bike. Our skate speed workout consisted of two stations where we would pair up and go as fast as we could for about 10 seconds. One station focused on sprint starts and the other stations focused on drop-ins, coming in with some speed and trying to carry that speeds well across a flat. It was fun to play around with different techniques and go head-to-head against athletes from the different clubs and countries that are here. We did about 6-8 speeds at each station with a few minutes of recovery between each one. Skate speed workouts have always been some of my favorite workouts and tend to be one of my strengths, making them even more fun! The team mountain bike was also a blast. We rented mountain bikes and headed up into the miles of trails right out our back door. The girls and boys quickly separated into two groups and began our adventures. I hadn't mountain biked in a long time so it took some time to feel comfortable on the bike, but it was so much fun. There were no big crashes but I toppled over three times because I kept forgetting to clip out of my pedals! I was completely exhausted by the end of that workout, but it was very worth it. Throwing in a different type of training every once in awhile adds a nice balance to the ski specific training that we've been doing every day.

Mtn Bike Crew (Holly Brooks photo)

Sodie Ski!

We have also had a busy social schedule! We went to the movie 42 and followed it up with a tasty Flatbread dinner date, had a delicious Mexican Fast & Female dinner, and have had the option of going to a couple yoga sessions. One of the coolest things we've done so far is the lunch we had with some of the biathletes and adaptive skiers. It was a pleasure to meet Oksana and Shawn and they both have incredible stories and a new fan club of the USST women. Some of the girls went to a hot yoga session the other day that I decided to skip because I was very tired, but I'm about to get ready for a yoga class this morning called "Gentle Flow" and I'm hoping it's a lot of lying on the floor and stretching in a nice cool room.

Kikkan at the Fast and Female dinner (Chandra photo)

Lunch date with the adaptive team and biathletes! (L to R Back: Holly, Oksana, Susan, Sophie, Eileen. Kikkan, Jessie, Ida, Annelise, Shawn, Front: Liz and BethAnn)

Mt. Bachelor