Lake Placid Week One

We spent our off day on Monday making the trip up to Lake Placid, NY for our annual USST training camp. The camp is two weeks long and we will wrap up the first week after a long run/hike adventure in the Adirondacks tomorrow morning. The camp consists of two big weeks of training with three intensity sessions a week, a speed session each week, some strength training, and a lot of easy distance and technique work. We have a smaller group in LP this year, which has been really nice for logistics and group size during training and it's been great to train with a handful of people that I don't get to see everyday. It's also fun to have the entire SMS T2 team here and see the familiar faces that I train with the rest of the summer. We kicked off the camp with some hard uphill skate intervals on day 1 just to make sure everyone was nice and tired from the beginning. Just kidding, it was a tough workout, but on the other hand, we got it out of the way! We're staying at the Olympic Training Center where we have access to all kinds of recovery methods including ice baths, physical therapists, massage, and constant food and hydration, so it really is an ideal place for a hard training camp. We've had beautiful weather so far and everyone is looking really strong. We held a classic sprint out at the jumping complex today. It's a long tough course with a couple technical downhills and two really big uphills, but I think most of the blood shed today was from collecting lactates, so I view it as a success. The coaching staff has been amazing, providing us with instant video and feedback and I'm looking forward to the next week of tough training! Here are some photos from our week so far.

Group of girls working together during a double pole workout (Matt Whitcomb photo)

The coaches put together a couple video clips for us to watch before each workout that highlight some good technique that we might want to work on. Here is the group before a classic day watching some World Cup footage of Marit Bjorgen and Therese Johaug (Matt Whitcomb photo)

Classic sprint day! (Bryan Fish Photo)

The start of one of our heats (Bryan Fish photo)

This is my teammate Ben Saxton eating salad. He isn't a huge fan of vegetables in general, but he has come a long way since last year. He now eats a huge bowl of spinach at both lunch and dinner. The spinach is undressed and doesn't have anything else on it, so it doesn't seem like the most appetizing option to me, but hey, it's progress!

Ida and I are roommates at the OTC and so far we've managed to wear matching outfits on most days. Here we are after the sprint workout today sporting matching everything except for our ski boots. (Bryan Fish photo)

I'm not sure why I'm smiling in this photo because I'm pretty sure it's in the middle of double poling up a massive hill, but I guess Matt caught me at the right time. (Matt Whitcomb photo)

Practicing cornering with Annie H during our classic threshold workout (Pat O'brien photo)

Jessie had her 23rd Birthday on the first day of camp and we got her tank tops that we all spent the afternoon tie-dyeing. THanks for being born, Jess!

On the way up to Lake Placid we stopped to go climbing. It was a beautiful day and a (mostly) fun adventure. I don't think of myself as someone who is afraid of heights, but the jury is still out on whether climbing actually makes you more or less afraid of heights. About 3/4 of the way through the climb I was voting more afraid.

Attempting to crack climb

Simi leading the way

Before leaving for Placid, we spent an evening at the Bondville fair watching the truck pull. It was very entertaining, but after about 10 trucks,  Jessie and I decided to wander around and see what else the fair had to offer (ferris wheels and candy apples!!!)

The fair had a petting zoo with goats!

Truck pull. Vroom vroom