First BKL Camp of the summer

Every summer the Craftsbury GRP skiers host two Bill Koch Ski League Day Camps for local kids.  Each week twenty kids spend five days at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center being coached by GRP athletes and coaches through a non-stop schedule of rollerskiing, orienteering, swimming, more swimming, sculling, biathlon, mountain biking, more swimming and lots more activities.  Organizing these camps is one of my big projects for the summer and its fun and inspiring to see the enthusiasm and high energy which these kids bring to being active outside.  Here are some pictures to share the stories of the week.

A huge thanks to PowerBar for providing lots of bars to keep everyone fueled during the week.  There were some hungry campers and Ezra from South Dakota took down the most bars to keep up with new VT adventures.

Monday morning started off strong with most of the group rollerskiing on the common.  The library is closed on Monday morning leaving an open stretch of pavement free of cars which is the perfect place to learn to rollerski.  Many of the kids had never rollerskied before coming to camp but everyone was up for the challenge.

A focused Cormac

We put together an obstacle course which included some rollerskiing on the grass.  Being comfortable on rollerskis is very important and agility courses help learn these skills.

Callie was flying bu got pretty close to the edge of the road making this turn around the cones.

We also did some short sprints and here are Griffin and Zander racing head to head.  Zander had the only crash of the first morning but he did an amazing job of timing the fall to land in the grass rather than the pavement.

The next activity on the schedule was canoeing.  This year's group was much more ambitious than years past and almost everyone paddled all the way to the other end of the lake and back.

Quincy, Ava, and Jack showed everyone the best technique to paddle three people in a canoe.  This boat also survived a bee attack at the narrows and made it back safe and sound to shore after a lot of swimming.  

Ian psyched with a Powerbar after his first day at camp.

On Tuesday morning the campers tried orienteering around the Craftsbury Outdoor Center trails.  They started off with some expert coaching from Pepa, a former ski orienteering World Champion.  Almost all of the groups easily found all of the checkpoints and found the biggest challenge of the morning to be surviving the deer fly attacks.

Biathlon was another activity at camp and everyone learned how to shoot and then competed in some biathlon relay races with pushups for penalties for missed shots.

Clare, a GRP biathlete, helps Elias with shooting technique.  All the GRP athletes helped out with camp.  The skiers led most of the sessions but the rowers taught everyone how to scull which was the highlight of the week for many campers.

There was a mountain biking day.  Kids warmed up riding the pump track before riding the Center's single track trails.  

Taking a break from the heat and humidity in the shade of the solar panels.

I was impressed with the fearless riding that happened.  Here Avery hits the teeter toter.  

Awesome teamwork as Claire helps Ezra fix his bike

And the big event of the camp- Friday's adventure race!  Lucas, one of the mastermind's behind this year's course, explains the race.

Jack and team rescue the greased up watermelon and bring it back to the beach on a paddle board

Crossing the touring center pond on balance logs- high stakes for falling in!

Ian and David in the wheelbarrow race

Passing the logs and moving across the upper field without stepping on the grass

And the campers even got put to work stacking wood!  

Slip and slide!

Big celebrations happened after the race with a pizza party and ropeswinging at the Dreissigacker's camp.  

Coach Anna was the master dough stretcher

And the camp favorite-- ROPESWING!!  

MacKenzie with a BIG splash!

The view from the top of the jump

A big thanks to all the GRP for coaching and to Judy Geer for hosting the party on the final afternoon.  We're gearing up now for a next camp in the beginning of August.

Thanks PowerBar!

VT Summer Livin'

The past five weeks I have spent in one place: at home in VT.  I can't remember when my bags were unpacked for such a long time but it feels great!  The weeks have flown by, busy with training, projects at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, summer fun, and dodging thunderstorms.  Vermont along with the rest of the East coast has been a tropical rain forest this summer.  Monsoon season has brought heat, humidity and lots of intense thunderstorms.  You can guarantee that some point during the afternoon or evening the humidity will rise beyond return and the skies will let loose in an impressive downpour and lightning show.  The trick is timing it just right so that you are stretching outside at the end of a sweaty workout (in which case a shower isn't necessary) rather than halfway across the lake on a paddle board or rollerskiing on a very rural road through hilly and open farm fields.

A snapping turtle explores the lonely waterfront during a rainstorm. (Lynn J photo)

I love having these periods of time at home for the opportunity to train with my Craftsbury GRP teammates while focusing on individual needs.  Without any travel it is easy to make big improvements with consistent hard training in a familiar environment.  This summer a nagging Achilles injury forced me to target even more specifically some big weaknesses.  Normally my training includes lots of running and classic skiing.  For me, The feeling of a fast and fluid running stride or kicking and gliding up a big hill are hard to beat.  But the past month I had to cut out almost all running and striding and get creative with my training.  I've done lots of double poling, SkiErging (always a great option in the thunderstorms), aqua jogging in the lake (a great running substitute when the mercury has risen), and skate rollerskiing.  It was a test of patience at first but the progress I've made in strength and technique has been an exciting trade.

And I've grown some flashy tiger stripes in the process!

Keeping my new white mountain bike clean has been an impossible challenge on the muddy Craftsbury trails.

Lots of skate intervals (Sheldon M photo)

Testing lactic acid levels (Sheldon M photo)

Dumb and Dumber style moped riding is a great way to get video while rollerskiing (Judy G photo)

Another awesome part of being home is the Craftsbury Outdoor Center meals which keep getting better and better every time I come home.  I feel unbelievably lucky to have gourmet meals prepared for me every day with local and nutritious ingredients.  As GRP athletes we show up at the dining hall every day at lunch and dinner time and have delicious food is waiting for us.  So this week rather than arriving in the showing up in Carharts and workout clothes, we decided to bring a little more class to dinner one night.  All the GRP skiers and rowers picked names out of a hat for our prom dates and then we dressed accordingly.

Charlie and I (Judy G photo)

Kyle and Liz arriving in style (Judy G photo)

Ethan and Liz (Judy G photo)

Alex and Lawrence (Judy G photo)

It's time to get back on the road again and the next stop is Alaska for a USST women's camp.  I can't wait for two weeks with the team in Anchorage and on the Eagle Glacier.  I have a couple more days in VT though before I leave, so enough time to fit in a few more sweaty rollerskis, swims in the lake, and a maple creamee or two- all the essentials of VT summer!

Quiet moment on Big Hosmer Pond (John G photo)

Park City

From Bend almost the entire team flew to Park City for a testing and training camp.  Everyone chose how long they wanted to stay in Park City with some opting for a long altitude camp and others choosing a shorter block.  I have always done the majority of my summer training at sea level and decided to stick to a similar plan this year and only spent a week in Park City.  That time flew by and I easily could have stayed much longer.

When we arrived in Park City we had an easy weekend training to recover from the training in Bend.  After the rainy weather in Bend, the sunshine felt amazing and everyone loved the big boost of Vitamin D.  There were some interesting "tan" lines when we showed up at the USSA Center of Excellence for testing on Monday morning.

Jessie, Sadie, Holly, and I sporting some bright Rudy Project colors on a rollerski (Holly Brooks photo)

We test twice a year in Park City and it involves two very busy days.  I was pretty overwhelmed the first time that I did it but luckily it has begun to feel more normal.  The tests include blood tests, physicals, functional movement screening to monitor mobility and strength, body compostion, hemoglobin mass, and a classic VO2max and a double pole max test on the rollerski treadmill.

For the VO2Max tests, the treadmill stays at a constant speed but each minute the grade is increased.  The test starts out super easy but then quickly becomes steeper and harder until you're barely hanging on.  For me there is always a yo-yo effect as I slide back on the treadmill and then claw my way back toward the front and then slide back once again.  Eventually the treadmill always wins and spits you off the back.  Luckily you're wearing a harness and get a nice little swing before landing in a crumpled ball on the stopped treadmill.  The whole fun experience takes about 11 minutes.

Double pole max test (Matt Whitcomb/USSA photo)

Here's a clip of the end of my treadmill session from Kikkan

I also had the chance to work closely with Michael Naprelasky, a USST strength coach.  He taught Sophie and I how to power clean and I'm looking forward to adding some Olympic lifting into my strength plan.  It was really nice to have a buddy to learn with and share laughs and terror as we tried to learn the technique with the heavy weights.  

A smile or a pain grimace? (Sadie B photo)

Every time I'm in Park City I'm very impressed with the number of resources available to USST athletes.  Everything you need for hard training and fast recovery is at your disposal.  My Achilles tendon flared up when I arrived in Park City and I was able to immediately start working with one of the USST physical therapists and catch the problem before it became a big deal.  A huge thanks to Adam Perreault for all his work which included some very painful and even bruising calf and tendon massages necessary to break up the inflammation and muscle tightness.  The COE is actually a great place to be injured and I took advantage of some new modes of training while I was there including running on the Alter-G, a reduced gravity treadmill designed to lower the impact on your muscles and joints.  You wear neoprene shorts which zip into a bubble enclosing the treadmill.  The bubble inflates and lifts you up by your shorts so you have a semi wedgie the entire time which isn't the most comfortable.  But once you get used to that, it's kind of a fun experience because it is easy to run fast!  Since I was running at 50% bodyweight, I could casually maintain a 6 minute per mile pace and played around with turning up the speed to really get my legs spinning.  

With the Achilles issue, I had to take some time off from running and rollerskiing and create more variety in my training.  It was the perfect opportunity to get out on a mountain bike and explore more of Park City's extensive trail system.  Tom Collier, a friend from college, was an awesome guide and even took off time from work to ride with me.  Or maybe I should say he changed his office location because sometimes he would ride ahead of me on the descents and check email on his phone while I caught up.

Riding the Flying Dog trail (Tom Collier photo)

Park City actually looks pretty green! (Tom Collier photo)

And while it may seem like we were only training, we also had plenty of time to hang out and the weather was perfect for relaxing outside by the pool or on the deck.  We went to a Salt Lake City Bee's game, the triple A baseball team in SLC and gave everything we had cheering for the home team.  They gave up 12 runs in the 7th inning though so I can't say we were too successful.  Throughout the week we cooked delicious dinners a team including a birthday dinner for Matt's 35th birthday where Sophie and Jessie made sausage risotto and chocolate cupcakes inside a chocolate chip cookie shell.  We also had a delicious pizza dinner at the home of Toni Adams and her family where Noah lives.

Lots of leftover pizza, bread, and cinnamon rolls! (Holly B photo)

BBQ chicken, salad, and sweet potato fries which Noah and I made while babysitting together one evening (Noah Hoffman photo)

I'm back in Craftsbury now where the weather has not been quite as sunny yet but after a week of sleeping at 8300' and training at around 7000', sea level oxygen sure feels like quite a treat!

Springtime!

Rabbit Rabbit, it's June 1st!  While summer may not officially begin until the summer solstice later this month, it's sunny and warm, everything is lush and green (even in Park City), training has ramped back up to big levels, and I'm feeling the excitement which comes with the start of a new season.  But first here's a look back at my spring.

This was the first year which I wasn't in school for the spring so after a week in Hawaii, a settled into the routine at home in Craftsbury.  There were lots of projects going on so even as I was just building into training, I felt busier than ever and loved it.  We had a beautiful stretch of perfect weather and rushed to get the gardens planted during the burst of blooming.  Alex Howe taught Emily Dreissigacker and I how to drive the tractor so we could rototil the gardens at Elinor's.

Clare Egan and I planted carrots, beets, zukes, summer squash, kale, and chard under a torrent of black flies.  We covered some of the plants with row covers to protect against nibbling pests.

Rhubarb!  And rhubarb pie!

We planted garlic last fall and it was looking good this spring!

New this year at Craftsbury is a small farm.  We have 36 laying hens, a rooster, 10 pigs, and some turkeys.  Fresh eggs for breakfast!

Meanwhile as we were busy working in the gardens, there was still a pile of snow on the upper field at Craftsbury, leftover from the winter snowmaking.  On May 11th, it was rolled out for the first annual Slush Cup sprints, a 150meter out and back head to head sprint race.  A surprising number of people came out for the event in all kinds of costumes.

Clare Egan was the women's champion and also probably won the best dressed award!

Sprinting against Mamma Gina

The Channel 3 News team somehow heard about the Slush Cup and came out to do a piece on the event.  Here's the story that they put together from the day.  http://www.wcax.com/story/22239938/fun-in-the-slush

I also had the opportunity this spring to help out with Girls on the Run at Newport Elementary School.  In this program, girls in grades 3rd through 6th get together twice a week to run working towards a goal of running a 5km by the end of the program.  It inspires them to live healthy, active lifestyles and incorporates self-esteem building exercises into the curriculum.  The teamwork and excitement which the girls displayed was awesome and I had lots of fun running with them every week.  Unfortunately I missed their big 5km event but I was there for the practice "race" of a 10km relay.

The 10km took place at the Dandelion Run in Derby, VT which as you can see was named appropriately!

The girls were giving it their all and a couple actually ran the entire 10km rather than stopping at the exchange zones!

Since the girls were pushing themselves, I decided to challenge myself and ran the half marathon.  It was a hilly course around the dirt roads of VT's north country.  I set a course record by a big margin which was fun and my tired legs were rewarded with an ice bath in the lake and maple syrup for a prize.  I also made it bac to Craftsbury in time for the first firing of the spring of our pizza oven.  Yum!

The next day I flew to Bend Oregon for the first USST camp of the year. It’s a great time of the year to be in Bend.  We ski in the mornings at Mt. Bachelor and then dryland train in town in the afternoon.  The first and last days of our camps were perfect sunny weather but we had some tough conditions mixed in.  One of the mornings when we were up there, the local newspaper published that there were 140 mph winds on Mt. Bachelor!  Luckily we were a bit protected in the trees but it was still sideways snow and rain and strong winds!  

It is very fun to be back with the team and we hit the ground running.  The secret to our success?  We work hard every day and love what we do!  Positive team energy goes a long way!

Team sprint in the rain upped the toughness factor!

Practicing sprint starts

5x3min Double pole intervals 

Fast and Female- a fun afternoon of dancing, core, agility, relay races, and inspirational talks.  Thanks to all who came out!

The 2013-14 US Women's Ski Team!  

Thanks for reading!