Back to Training

April flew by and it was the perfect combination of being at home, seeing my friends and family, and spending a little time in the sunshine. April is a funny month for skiers because the rest of the year we are constantly training, traveling, and racing, and then suddenly our only order is to rest for a month. We still stay active, but I personally don't really follow a training plan for April. If I feel like going for a run, I'll go for a run, but if every once in a while there is a rainy day where I find myself still in my PJs at 4pm, that's also just fine. I enjoy having that freedom and lack of structure for a month because it gives me time to recharge and by the time May rolls around, I'm ready to jump back into training. By the end of April, it's tough to know where you're going to be in terms of fitness after not doing much training for a month. I trust that rest is what I need at that time of year and know that it's easy to overdo it in April, so I usually lean towards doing too little rather than doing too much. Usually the week that includes May 1st is the first official week of the training year, but I started a week later this year because I had a vacation planned with some of my best girlfriends that involved, well, a lot of relaxing. So this week has been my first week of training and even though just about every part of me has been sore all week, it feels good to get back into it. We started the week with a bang with our 2 mile uphill run test. A lot of us set PRs or were close to our PRs and that was really encouraging because it meant that even after a month of resting, we didn't lose too much fitness and we are clearly well rested and ready to go! Before Tuesday, the last time I had done strength was at the end of February, so I was pretty sore the past couple days. I woke up feeling better this morning, just in time to go to the gym again this afternoon.

Making new friends in South Carolina

Beach biking and learning new tricks

A week with some of my favorite people in the world (Erika Flowers, Anya Caldwell Bean, me, and Mae Foster)

I usually hate water, but I swam almost every day and this is proof!

Windblown and smiling (Phoebe, me, Anya, Mae, Erika, and Sara)

A visit with Helen, one of my best friends from high school, to celebrate the life of her lovely mother, Holly.

Aaaand back to training! Carson, Annie, me, Erika, and coach Chase at the start of our uphill run test. I'd like to let everyone know that Chase was the winner - maybe even beat his time from high school?

Erika and I have been helping coach at Girls on the Run on Mondays and Wednesdays. We help out at the Flood Brook Union School where I went to school from K-8th grade and these afternoons are honestly some of the highlights of my weeks. The girls are in 3rd-6th grade and after a healthy snack and a little pep talk, we just go out and run. Our girls ran 5 kilometers on both Monday and Wednesday this week and I'm so proud of them. They are training for their 5k race at the end of the month. It's an awesome organization and I would encourage any girl to get involved with their local program.

Lilly and Rory taking off down the road

Erika leading the charge with a group of eager followers

I missed the glasses memo at practice on Wednesday

Some post-run stretching and resting

And you always have a friend when you need a walking break

We've had some big news as far as our SMS T2 team goes. Gus will be leaving our program, but Patrick O'brien will be taking over as our head coach! I'm sad to see Gus go, but it's been great having him around for the spring and we're all really excited to have Patrick joining the group. HERE is the fasterskier article on Patrick. Eric Packer has also decided to stay in Alaska and ski for APU. He will be missed dearly, but we're all very happy for him and looking forward to watching him next year. Our new additions to the team are Ben Saxton, who was with us last year as a PG, and Annie Hart who has trained with us a bunch over the past couple years. They are both easy fits and great people and we're psyched to welcome them to the team! Jessie, Simi, Andy, and I will be heading to Bend Camp on May 19th and the rest of the team is either already here or arriving in the next month. By the time we get back from Bend, we'll be reunited in Stratton and I'm looking forward to an awesome summer of training. HERE is an interview I did with FIS about last season and getting ready for next season. That's all for now!

Anya's farewell to the beach