Sophie Caldwell: Back to it in Bend!

Spring always flies by. At the end of the winter, I run through all the different things I want to do in April and then try to fit them into a one month calendar. By the time April comes around, it's nearly as busy as the winter, but it's a lot less focused. It's a time to be active, but not following a training schedule and it's a time to visit family, friends, and places that I might not usually get to see. This year my April began in Fairbanks, Alaska at Spring Series. We had our final races of the season up in Fairbanks and they put on a great event. The highlight of Spring Series for me was taking the win in the club relay! Our team is always battling it out with APU and this year we snuck away with the big W. After Fairbanks, I flew down to Colorado Spring to do some altitude testing at the Olympic Training Center. I thought it was a very informative and helpful trip and owe a huge thank you to Susie Parker Simmons and Randy Wilber for taking the time to work with me. From Colorado Springs, I flew to Bozeman, Montana to visit my brother, cousin, and other friends for the week. We got in some back country adventures, a mountain bike, and some time to relax and catch up. After Bozeman, I was in Aspen for awhile visiting Sim and his family. I love my Colorado April time, so I was grateful to be able to spend some more time there this spring. At this point we were ready to trade the skis and snow for the desert and beach. We went on a road trip out to California and stopped in Fruita and Moab on the way to do some biking. We spent a few lovely days with Sim's aunt and uncle in Santa Barbara before I flew a little up the coast for Erika's bachelorette party in Santa Cruz. It was a busy spring, but it was the perfect mental and physical break and by the time I got back home to Vermont in early May, I was excited to start thinking about training again and really happy to be home in my own bed.

Skiing in Bozeman

Sunrise run with Linden and Sim in Santa Barbara

Desert time with Izzy and Molly

Wine tasting with the bride-to-be!

Club relay champs! Lace Parrish photo

Celebrating Liz's belated 30th in Fairbanks

Cooking with Susie in Colorado Springs

Brother time

Crust skiing with Sim and Pip

Sister time in the desert

The original SMS Elite team crew reunited at the beach

Sunset silhouettes

Cousin cruise

Caleb, Anya, and me at Bridger

Biking with Jenny and Sim in Carbondale

I had about eight days at home before heading out to Oregon for a L.L. Bean photo shoot and our annual Bend camp. The weather while I was home was pretty rainy, but I hadn't seen the rain in a month and I hadn't seen my parents or been home for over a month, so I was pretty content. I started to work back into training to make sure I wasn't too sore when we ramped things up in Bend. I unpacked my bags from a month of traveling and then repacked them for Bend Camp. Before camp started, Andy, Simi, Annie, and I did a photo shoot with L.L. Bean for a few days in Hood River. I had never been to Hood River before and it was a pretty neat little town! Hopefully we "got the shot" and we had a blast working with the L.L. Bean crew. After the shoot, Sim and I spent a couple days climbing at Smith Rock before heading to Bend camp. We are just over halfway through camp and we have been very lucky with the weather this year. There has been no lack of sun shine and there is still plenty of snow from the big winter they had. There is more skiing here than there has been any other year I've been in Bend. We supplement the morning skis with afternoon strength sessions, runs, and mountain bikes. It's been great to be back with my teammates and I'm looking forward to our last few days on snow before heading back home for a nice long stretch!