Salen Sweden

Today is a well appreciated rest day halfway through our camp with the Swedes and we’re all enjoying the time to relax and recover from a few big days of training in Salen, Sweden.  The breakfast buffet, laundry, and some yoga are on the schedule for the morning and then this afternoon we will drive back to Torsby for the second half of our camp.  Tunnel skiing again tomorrow morning!

The first part of the camp has been AWESOME!  Our Swedish hosts have been wonderful and it has been lots of fun having new friends and training partners.  A year ago I would never have imagined myself feeling  comfortable enough to laugh and joke or run and ski alongside these girls, many of whom are my idols on the the World Cup circuit.  The training has been tough and exciting.  Every day has totaled between four and five hours and included a sprint race, intervals, double pole speeds, specific strength, and long runs in the mountains and bogs.  The training plan for the week looked very complicated (partly because it was written in Swedish) but there hasn’t been anything noticeably crazy or different between their training and what I’m used to.  Many of the workouts are exactly the same as what we do at home and these girls laugh and have just as much fun while training.  It’s just hours and hours of hard work!  Here are some pictures of the Salen portion of our camp.

Salen is the start of the Vasaloppet, a 90km ski race to Mora, Sweden. Salen is a small town but it's obvious that skiing is a big part of this community.

We stopped at the stadium on our way into town. It's a huge open field with enough space for the 40,000 competitors to toe the line.

We stayed in cabins in Lindvallen, a resort just outside of Salen. Gunde Svan spent many years training here. It's the perfect location in the mountains with rollerskiing and running out our front door.

Every day started with an awesome breakfast buffet with tons of options to keep us fueled through all the hours of training.

The camp started with an OD run in a bog on the top of the mountain. It was soft footing but with some rainy weather, there were lots of muddy feet and legs at the end!

There are lots of great roads for rollerskiing and all the cars are very tolerant to rollerskiers. Here Kikkan and Anna Hag lead a train of skiers.

Following different skiers and mimicking technique has been very helpful.

We had a skate sprint time trial and the local club skiers cheered us on. Check out the bike which they found in the bushes!

The Swedish coaches have been awesome and very welcoming to our team. They said we added "spice" to their camp

Another morning we ran across the mossy high tundra off the trails for a few hours. Running through knee deep vegetation is great for the legs!

Cloudberries for snacking! There were also little blueberries hidden in the bushes.

Lots of new Swedish friends!

Thanks Marwe for new rollerskis which are closely matched in speed to the Swedes' rollers!

Tunnel Skiing

Today was our second day in the Torsby Ski Tunnel in Sweden and I’m not sick of it yet!  The tunnel is a 1.3km loop which you ski in one direction, then turn and ski it in the other direction, and the entire thing probably takes about 10 minutes.  I expected it to be quite boring but it has been really fun so far.  It’s easy to pass time when you’re catching up with teammates whom you haven’t seen in several months and listening to the pop music which plays throughout the tunnel.  The skiing is also really nice.  The snow is manmade and groomed almost every day but only changed once annually.  It almost has the consistency of sand which sounds weird but its actually very fast and a welcomed change from the resistance of rollerski wheels.   

There is great terrain with some fast corners and transitions, a couple steeper climbs and several gradual sections.  The tunnel is refrigerated to -3 degrees Celsius and feels cold and humid especially when you first transition from the summertime weather outside.  I underdressed the first day because it felt absurd to bundle when the weather was so nice outside.  Yesterday afternoon we did a combo workout where we started skiing in long underwear, hats, and buffs, and finished with a run in shorts and sports bras.

Right now our US women’s team is staying in Sunne (we like to pronounce it Sunny), Sweden which is 35km from Torsby.  When we are not skiing we’ve passed the time watching the Olympics, enjoying picnic lunches and other great Scandinavian food (Brown cheese, fish paste, fresh bread, smoked salmon, berries), and kicking the jetlag before our joint camp with the Swedish National team.  After a ski tomorrow morning we will drive a couple hours north to Salen and the camp gets going tomorrow evening!

At the start of the tunnel. Its wide enough for 2-3 skate lanes and there is a classic track on either side. There is a small biathlon range to the left of this photo with a few targets.

Giant AC unit attached to the back of the building

This is where the building (entrance to the tunnel) is attached to the Ski tunnel. There is also a rollerski track on site which rolls over the tunnel!

It is somewhat camouflaged but you can still see where the tunnel snakes along the hillside.

The stadium in Torsby includes lit ski trails, a Ski Tunnel, a rollerski loop, a biathlon gym, athlete dorms and cabins, indoor and outdoor gyms, and soccer fields; all of which receive lots of use. What a Nordic culture!

Outdoor gyms are quite common in Sweden and I have already seen a couple including one at our hotel. I've got a few ideas to bring back to our own "Monkey gym."