Big Week and SMS Camps

We had a busy week last week with one of our biggest training weeks of the summer in addition to the SMS Camps that were going on at the school. Between all the camp kids running around, the Canadian men's team being here for a camp, the Craftsbury girls last week, and Rosie Brennan visiting now, it's been an exciting time to be in Stratton. After returning to the east, I had a relaxing few days and felt ready to jump into a big week of training. I think we either had an OD or intervals almost every day last week. It sounds like a lot, but if you're smart about taking care of yourself and listening to your body, you can actually feel pretty good and that's always fun. We had two continuous threshold workouts and one sprint practice. I think the sprint practice was one of my favorite workouts of the summer so far. After a prelim, we took turns breaking the wind at the front of the pack and drafting behind the leader. The leader would go as hard as possible for 1:40 and then they would pull to the side and the rest of the pack would do a sprint finish for 20 seconds. It was fun to go as fast as possible and it was also pretty impressive watching the boys' group because it was basically a North American World Cup sprint final.

Warming up for sprint practice with coach Pat

Sprint practice

Ben, Simi, Lenny, Alex, and Devon during sprint practice

Camp kids lining the course

Our T2 team tried to help out with the SMS Camps as much as possible. We ate our meals with the kids down at the school and got to know them pretty well by the end of the camps. They were all lining the course and cheering us on during our sprint practice and hopefully they left the camp fired up about skiing and summer training. It's always refreshing for us to see kids who are eager to learn and full of questions. Being healthy role models for those kids is one of our biggest motivators and the SMS camps have been a great way for us to make a lasting impression on them over the years. Be sure to check out the SMS Blog for tons of pictures from the camps!

Camp buddies

Simi helping with drills

SMS T2 doing a Q and A with the kids

SMS T2 and coach Pat in the back

Shirt signing on the last day.

This week we have a recovery week before heading to Lake Placid for two big weeks of training with the US Ski Team at the Olympic Training Center. I'm tired after a big week last week, so I've been enjoying taking it easy and not worrying too much about training. We had our final Summit Sisters hike up Stratton yesterday and now I'm looking forward to spending some time with friends and family back home before heading to New York to see my teammates!

Summit Sisters hike up Stratton

Baby Basil is the first baby to complete a Summit Sisters hike!

Haylen sporting her new T2 truckers hat

Leroy!

Ben and I took our new Fischer head shots. What do you think?!

New pink HR monitors from Polar!