Once again I have fallen behind with updating my blog of recent adventures. Summer seemed wonderfully endless and then almost overnight the foliage popped and the leaves changed from green with a few rusty earth tones mixed in to vibrant red, yellow, and orange. This is perhaps my favorite time of the year when the nights get colder, leaves swirl down in the breeze, post workout swimming becomes a chillier challenge and overall the anticipation of the upcoming season heightens. It's also the time of year when the training intensity rises with more hard intervals on the schedule. Morning workouts included hard bounding intervals and rollerski time trials. With races closer on the horizon, we become familiar with the pain cave as the colder air burns through lungs and energizes the screaming and lactate filled muscles. I was happy to spend over three weeks after our Ramsau training camp in Vermont, enjoying the hard work at home surrounded by beautiful fall foliage.
I don't have many training photos of the past few weeks but here are some leaf peeping foliage shots thanks to my mom!
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| Beldon Pond where my family has a hunting camp |
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| Maple leaves! |
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| Green, yellow and red. A stoplight of foliage |
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| The pond behind my parents house |
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| Jay Peak in the fall |
While I was pretty busy with training, I also had time to visit a few of my old school stomping grounds. I returned to Burke Mountain Academy for a day to help coach at a Fall Nordic Camp that BMA coach, Kate Barton organized. We did some agility on rollerskis in a school parking lot and I was very impressed with how well everyone was skiing. I didn't have the confidence to attempt a 180 on rollerskis as a high schooler, much less a 7th or 8th grader! After rollerskiing we returned to campus in time for brunch which brought back great memories of my time as a Burkie!
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| Burke Mountain Academy and the Willoughby Gap |
October 7th was International Walk to School Day so I returned to my old elementary school with the Safe Routes to School program. I read Clifford Takes a Walk to kindergarten and first grade students and discussed rules for walking to school safely. My mom was a school librarian so I tried to channel her nurturing voice as I read to the kids but mostly I was amazed by their energy!
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| Barton Academy and Graded School students going out for a walk to celebrate the International Walk to School Day |
A huge and very exciting change for me this fall is a switch to Madshus skis and boots. I started testing Madshus product this summer on rollerskis and then skiing in Austria and I was blown away by the feel of the skis and boots. The skis were fast and responsive and very fun to ski on and the control of the boots is great. I'm looking forward to being part of an extremely welcoming Team Madshus and it makes me even more excited for the winter! For more information, check out this article
http://news.madshus.com/2015/10/01/us-ski-team-athlete-ida-sargent-joins-team-madshus/
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| Rollerskiing in my Madshus Super Nano boots in Austria |
Finally, fall also brings the Drive for 25, a fundraiser for the National Nordic Foundation, a grassroots organization that funds XC skiing development. The money raised in this drive supports the Nordic pipeline in our country funding World Juniors, U23 World Champs, OPA Cup trips, and B-team World Cup skiers. Please donate on my fundraising page and support our future skiers! Check out this link for more information
https://support.nationalnordicfoundation.org/fundraise?fcid=529218
