Sophie Caldwell: Recovery Week

After two big weeks of training and four races in Norway, it was time for a recovery week. Simi and I flew to Colorado for a week of recovering and spending time with his family. Recovering at altitude isn't the easiest thing for me. Sometimes standing up can put me into level 1, so I tried to be very careful to keep our adventures easy and not tire myself out too much by trying to keep up with Simi and the rest of the family. We spent the first four days in Aspen and did some mountain runs, climbing, and a roller ski down in Carbondale. Simi's sister Jenny and her fiancee, James, just got a new kitten who we spent a lot of time babysitting and playing with - the perfect kind of recovery!

Shiv taking a cat nap in my jacket

He came road tripping with us and found many creative ways to sleep

There was a little smoke in Aspen our first couple days, but then it cleared out and we mostly had sunshine for the rest of the week

After a few days in Aspen, we headed down to southern Colorado to spend some time at Sim's family's ranch. I hadn't been back since last summer and I think it's one of my favorite places to be. It's somehow the most relaxing and activity filled place in the world. By early afternoon on the first day we had paddle boarded, played volleyball, mountain biked, eaten lunch, and dropped some tennis rackets off to play tennis for when we returned from the climbing adventure we were about to embark on. On the first climb, Jenny took a nasty fall and really messed up her ankle. Not only was it the worst injury I've ever witnessed, but it was also the most pain I've ever seen anyone in. We took her to the hospital in Del Norte where she was airlifted to Denver for surgery. I don't know of anyone else who could have gone through that much pain without fainting, but she's the toughest cookie I know!

View from the bike

Al, Celine, Jenny, Maile, Sim, and Jock taking a little break during our mountain bike

Simi our boat chauffeur coming to pick us up and take us across the lake

Our buddy and former Norwegian World Cup star, Celine Brun-Lie, joined us for the weekend at the ranch. She is going to the Colorado School of Mines in Golden and had just finished up her first week of classes! She came out of retirement for the weekend and was quite the trooper participating in every single activity we did. Our last morning at the ranch we went for a big hike up into the zone that a wildfire had burned down a few years ago. It's a very different kind of beautiful to see a forest that had been destroyed mixed with the regrowth of all the wildflowers and baby Aspen trees.

Drew, Molly, Carson, Maile, Simi, Celine and I all piled into the boat (and didn't sink it!!) to row across the lake to our hike

Some ash art

Sim hiking through the burn zone

Hanging in the woods with Celine and Mai

Celine!

After heading home from the ranch, we drove to the hospital in Denver to visit and spend some time with Jen before heading back east. She's doing a little better each day and we're sending her a lot of love and speedy recovery vibes. I flew back home to Vermont on Tuesday and arrived at my parents' house to the rest of my SMS T2 team and a delicious team dinner. September training is kicking back up and it's nice to have the group back together after a busy summer of traveling. I'm looking forward to being in one place for the majority of September and getting into a nice training routine back home. We have a bunch of visitors coming to train with us this month and a one week camp in Lake Placid in the middle of the month. We also have a team fundraiser pizza dinner on the 8th at the J.J. Hapgood General Store in Peru. So if you're in the area, you should stop on by for some tasty pizzas and live music!