Exploring NE

After a relaxing 4th of July weekend in Nantucket, I returned to Stratton. I finally moved into the T2 house and it is awesome! We have a beautiful kitchen where a lot of gourmet cooking has been taking place. The other girls are also great bakers and I'm always there to sample when they need it. We had an easier week last week and took advantage of the lower hours to take some smaller trips around the area. Our first trip was to Winchendon, Massachusetts where CSU is having their summer camp. I wrote a post about it HERE. It was a great opportunity to meet some motivated kids and to do some training in a new area. Thanks to CSU for letting us come down!

The T2 boys leading a group of juniors

And the ladies

We had two big days at CSU so I was ready for an off day on Thursday. It's been pretty nice weather so Jessie and I went down to the snowmaking pond. She did a swim workout while I cheered her on and read next to the pond. My brother and some of his college friends were home so I was able to spend a relaxing off day with some friends and family.

Jessie swimming at the pond

Jessie's fancy napkin folding skills

Friday was the hardest training day of the week with double pole intervals in the morning and strength in the afternoon. If there's one workout that toughens you up, it's this one. I've been doing double pole workouts in Weston since I began training with Stratton in 7th grade. I remember those two hour workouts were the longest and hardest workouts of the week. We would double pole about 5k of flat, do a little double poling and single poling for about 5 minutes up the mountain and head back. At that point, if I double poled the whole warmup flat without kicking, it was a good day. On Friday, we did three 15 minute L3 double pole intervals up to the top of Andover mountain after the out and back flat for a warm up. Andover mountain is STEEP! It's fun to be able to compare what I've done in the past with what I can do now (as long as I'm improving :) ) even if I'm 10 years older now!

Jessie and me dpoling up the mtn - it's steeper than it looks!

Erika dpoling up Andover

We start our workouts early in order to beat the heat, so we were finished by 10 and I got to go to one of my favorite places for brunch! Up for Breakfast in Manchester, VT and Lou's in Hanover, NH are in a heated race for my heart, or stomach, at the moment. After breakfast, we stopped by Dutton's Farmstand to play with some of my favorite kids.

French toast with zucchini bread, pears, brown sugar, and pecans!

Goats!

RIP Sweet Sophia

On Saturday, we packed up the van for our 2nd annual trip to the Hodges' and Ogdens' lake house. We drove up to northern VT for a beautiful ski through farmlands and rolling terrain before heading to the lake for an afternoon of water sports, sunbathing, and a tasty lunch. I've been pretty good about participating in water sports this summer, but the water was just a touch too cold this time. Jessie and Ben had some epic tubing rides though and we had a blast hanging out by the water and seeing everyone. Thanks to the Hodges and Ogdens for such a fun day!

Guess who?!?

hanging by the lake

This morning we had a long run on our schedule. I've been working into running, but still haven't done any long running on my foot. It hasn't been bothering me, but I didn't think I was ready to run 3 hours straight on my foot with the rest of the group. Luckily, my wonderful training partner, Dan, is here at the moment so I dragged him along for a 3 hour run/hike. He was a trooper and even offered to carry my fanny-pack at one point, as long as we weren't in sight of anyone else. It was hot, humid, a lot of fun, and my foot didn't hurt at all -- success!

gondola ride down the mtn at the end gets a smile...or a nap