Craftsbury BKL Camp #1

Last week was the first of our two Bill Koch League summer day camps and we had 24 kids from all over northern Vermont who joined us for a busy week of ski training and other outdoor fun. It was a great group of kids who were certainly not lacking in enthusiasm or energy!   The coaching was split between all the GRP athletes and Craftsbury coach Jeremy Nellis and we were all pretty exhausted at the end of the busy but fun week.

Monday morning the campers arrived and after some introductory games, half the group went rollerskiing while the rest played some soccer, capture the flag, and other games.  On Thursday morning the other half of the group rollerskied.  We had a wide range of rollerski experience levels from our CNSC BKL skiers who rollerski at least once a week to kids who were trying it for their first time. Dividing the group allowed us to cater to the different skill levels.  The other half of the group skied later in the week.  Craftsbury Common is the perfect place to learn with nice pavement and basically zero traffic.  We went through quite a few bandaids with some minor spills but by the end of the morning everyone skied the slalom course and raced around on the rollerskis.

Annie and Weslie ski around a cone while Cormac comes in hot from the other side. Opposite directions through the slalom course adds an extra challenge!

Neither Gardner nor Johann had ever rollerskied before but they both picked it up quickly

Everyone reconvened before lunch for some much needed swimming at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center waterfront.  Monday was the hottest day so having access to the lake was appreciated by all!

Monday afternoon’s activity was canoeing.  Some boats made it to Hosmer Point or even the other end of the lake but most stopped around the Narrows.  With the afternoon sun glaring down and the heat continuing to rise, most kids spent more time floating in the water next to their boats rather than in the canoes.

Lots of canoes on the lake

Annie and Molly paddling hard while Weslie goes for a ride

Collision!

Gordon and Griffin paddling together

Tuesday was the rainy day of the week and the morning orienteering got off to a wet start.  The center has an orienteering course set  for the summer and the campers were challenged to get as many of its 30 points as possible.  A few groups came really close to finding them all which meant they covered a lot of ground quickly across the ski trails, mountain bike trails, and even a little bushwacking.  All the groups made it back to the touring center just before a big thunderstorm hit.  Swimming was cancelled for the morning but the timing was  perfect to wait out the storm inside while eating lunch.

Luckily the skies cleared in time for mountain biking in the afternoon.  The kids warmed up riding around the new pump track on the upper field and by the end of the session everyone was tackling the Center’s singletrack trails.  The morning’s rain and storm made it a muddy adventure!

Wednesday morning was a more ski specific session with ski walking, bounding, agility, and strength exercises on the new outdoor gym.  Reid won the monkey bar contest and only stopped crossing the bars once his hands were too blistered to continue.  Impressive strength!  The morning culminated in a relay race and snacks in the shade of the solar panels.

Thanks PowerBar for the snacks!

The afternoon sessions on Wednesday and Thursday included sculling and biathlon.  Each day half the group went to the lake where the Craftsbury GRP and SBTC scullers taught all the kids how to scull.  Both days were quite breezy but everybody stayed upright in their boats!  The other half of the group hiked to the biathlon range at Elinor’s house where Jeremy and Mike Gibson taught them how to shoot and staged some quick biathlon races combining running and shooting with penalty pushups.

Friday was the culminating day of camp with lots of excitement.  The day started with an adventure race.  Dylan left watermelons floating in the middle of the lake which the campers had to rescue in canoes.  The water leg was followed by mountain biking and running around the Outdoor Center, following a race course along the ski trails and single track.  The watermelons were waiting for the teams to enjoy at the finish line.

After a quick swim, everyone jumped on their bikes and rode a couple miles north along Lost Nation Rd. to the Dreissigacker’s cabin for the final afternoon party.  Some of the campers who still weren’t tired added an extra loop to the ride and checked out the new pump track at Hosmer Point.  When we arrived at the cabin, the pizza oven was hot and everyone made pizza, jumped off the ropeswing, and made quick work of lots of s’mores.

Pizza making

Everyone contributed toppings for the group to share. Sam's choice was a bit more creative. Have you ever tried a Chex Mix pizza?

Eagerly awaiting pizza from the oven

Pat mans the fire

Yummy!

David made a blueberry, pineapple, and pepperoni pizza

The perfect way to end the week

As soon as the pizzas were devoured it was time to get back to the lake. Here's Avery at the top of the ropeswing

And a few seconds later

Ani climbs the tree for added height

Swing....

We went through two bags of marshmellows, two boxes of graham crackers and LOTS of chocolate in a matter of minutes. Here's Nicole making her first ever s'more!

A big thanks to Judy Geer for hosting the Friday afternoon party, the COC kitchen for making pizza dough, PowerBar for some great energy snacks, SBTC athletes for teaching sculling, Jeremy, Pepa, and all the GRP athletes for their coaching.  It was a fun week and we’re looking forward to the next week of camp in August.

Grass Skiing

It's hot, humid, and very summery here right now and taking skis out of storage just didn't seem quite right.  But it turns out that July is the perfect time for skiing in Craftsbuy, grass skiing that is.  Check out th video of ski speeds on the grass.  It actually felt much more like classic skiing than rollerskiing does.  Thanks to Gordon for the video editing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nyBEGFwT8B8

Eastern REG camp

This week forty of New England’s top junior skiers came to Craftsbury for a training camp so we’ve had lots of company on the trails and roads during our training sessions.  The first few days were cold and wet so we were all very excited when the sun came out yesterday afternoon.  The camp started with an agility rollerski test which Pat and Alex participated in at the Lake Region parking lot and included slalom, 360s and running across the grass with your skis on.  Clare and I did the Canadian strength test which was a minute of pullups, a minute of situps, a minute of pushups, a minute of box jumps, and finally a minute of jumps.  Then on Wednesday the entire team raced the Elmore Mountain Time Trial up Mt. Elmore.  In addition to these tests there have been lots of distance and interval sessions on rollerskis and running on the ski trails.  The Stratton Elite Team came up for the last couple days and it has been great to have a huge training group.  I was feeling pretty old early in the week since I only knew a few of the REG camp juniors but it was a nice opportunity to meet the up and coming fast juniors.  Here are a few pictures from the week thanks to Liz Kantack.

Caitlin and I took the J2s and Junior women on a skate rollerski on the creek road yesterday and it was great to see the sun after a few rainy days.omen

Luckily there isn't too much traffic because we had a long line of rollerskiers.

Nils set a new course record on the Elmore TT.

The TT takes about 20 minutes and the steepest section is right before the finish. Here Pat crests the top with less than 100meters until the finish.

Han and Suz are injured and skiwalked the course instead and were great cheerers on the final stretch.

I of course started out a little too hard and was in a world of pain by the finish as my face shows. But I was psyched afterward with a new PR.

Today the Craftsbury road department closed the North Craftsbury Road for us so the entire group could do double pole intervals together safely. It's great to be apart of such a supportive community! Here is the boys start with the huge group of guys stretching across both lanes of the road

Each interval felt a bit like a mass start race and it was great to have the head to head competition.

Classic Speeds in Bend

We have a huge North American training group together this week in Bend.  It’s a lot of fun to see so many familiar faces in the summer time and also to train with athletes who we often only see at races.  Yesterday everyone did a classic speed session and there were skiers from the US Ski Team, US Biathlon Team, Canadian Ski Team and Canadian Biathlon Team, Craftsbury, APU, XC Oregon, Sun Valley, Alberta World Cup Academy, CXC, Steamboat Springs WSC, Team Homegrown,  and MWSC were all out there sprinting in some sloppy and slushy conditions.  Having so many skiers out there pushing each other is truly invaluable!

Here is a video of the workout thanks to Bryan Fish.  You can play Where’s Waldo to find me in the group.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oOSzeJwiKIs

Here are some pictures taken by Matt Whitcomb

Part of the women's group skiing easy between speeds

Suz and I during a speed

Tim leading Erik Bjornson

Trying to keep up with Kikkan and Chandra

PPP Madness

I started the first training camp of the year with serious race anxiety.  My stomach was in knots, I was overly jittery from consuming too much coffee, and I was just trying to stay relaxed.  It felt like the World Championships and my life was on the line at the same time because in a way it kind of was.  We were starting our US Ski Team Bend camp with the Pole Pedal Paddle; a race combining five sports (alpine, Nordic, road bike, run, kayak, and run) during six legs.  The women’s team was competing in two teams so we would each race two legs.  I was teamed up with Holly and Liz while Kikkan, Sadie, and Jessie made up the other USST women’s team.  My nerves were out of control because I was starting the race for our team with a mass start alpine run.  The last time I had alpine skied was at least three years ago and this course description featured huge ruts, giant corners that could launch you into the woods, and other aggressive racers ready to take you out.  After that I would be doing a downhill bike race with sections where it was possible to reach 65+mph!  Fortunately Liz dressed me up in a ridiculous looking alpine outfit making it impossible to take anything too seriously, the sun was shining brightly, and I was ready to step out of my comfort zone and have some fun.

And about two seconds after stepping into my alpine skis and checking out the scene and I started having a blast.  It was an awesome race and an extremely chill atmosphere.  Kikkan and I started the alpine leg in the Open women’s team wave of 40 or 50 teams including quite a few middle aged women and  lots of costumes.  One look around the start line gave me confidence that I wasn’t going to get knocked out by a competitor.  The course was  a lot more relaxed and the crazy turns never appeared.  About halfway through the run I remembered how to alpine ski and my biggest regret that I was too timid, especially after I heard that Kikkan beat me by almost thirty seconds in a two or three minute run…oops!  I tagged Holly who skied a 6km Nordic leg and took the biggest crash of the day with a face plant into woods after trying to dodge some carnage on a 180 degree corner.  Holly tagged me and I biked 26 miles from Mt. Bachelor into Bend.  We lost 3000′ of elevation during the ride but it was a very hard race and a real leg burner.  I got passed by a couple intense looking racers on TT bikes but I was mostly passing people riding all kinds of different bicycles.  My favorites included the guy on the full suspension mountain bike towing a child carrier and the two ladies wearing hot pink tutus and rocking a tandem cruiser.  When I reached town I tagged Liz who ran the 6mile running leg.  She got a bit off course, though, and ended up running at least 7.5 miles.  Liz tagged Holly who kayaked a very very tippy boat and did an awesome job staying dry.  She flipped during both of the practice sessions with the boat but the third time was a charm and she killed it in the race.  Holly tagged Liz back who quickly recovered and ran an 800meter sprint to the finish.  It was an exciting race and a really fun team event to kick off the new training year.  Thanks to Rebound PT of Bend for sponsoring our teams!  Here are some pictures from the race thanks to the coaches.  Check out the USSA Nordic facebook page for more pictures from the PPP and our camp.

Feeling like a pro alpine racer in my bike helmet, sunglasses, and Liz's GS suit from her junior alpine days

Quite the atmosphere with all levels of competitors, from Kris Freeman who won the individual race to this guy who is having a little trouble with the fence.

Sadie heading out on the Nordic leg

Kikkan hammering on the bike

Liz finishing her extra long running race

Matt and I helped launch Holly for the kayak which turned into a nice ice bath for my sore legs

Post race nap

Lillehammer

I said my goodbyes to Muonio and traveled to Norway yesterday.  While it was great to be able to do a big block of training on snow before the seasons started, after three weeks in Muonio, the darkness was setting in, and I was ready for a change of scenery.

Sunset in Muonio.  This picture was taken before 3pm.

The first World Cups of the season are this weekend in Sjusjoen, Norway.  There is not any snow here either so we will be racing on another short manmade loop of snow.  The organizing committee is doing everything they can to protect the snow so the loop is closed until the races with the exception of a three hour inspection period tomorrow.  Since there isn't any skiing here today the US team decided to stay as long as possible at the ski tunnel in Torsby, Sweden, where they are currently training and will not be arriving to Norway until later tonight.  I already had a ticket booked for yesterday and since I skied many kilometers around the track in Muonio, I knew it would be alright to have a day off from skiing and I was excited for a solo day in Lillehammer, where our team is staying for the weekend.


After eating as much delicious breakfast at the hotel buffet as I could hold this morning (soft boiled eggs, toast, brown cheese, yogurt, keifer, cereal, smoked salmon, pickled herring, crepes, and more!!) I was ready to go for a run.  By this time it was fully light outside and the sun was up and shining brightly OVER the hills.  I asked the lady at the front desk if there were running or ski trails nearby and she replied, "Of course, everywhere."  Stupid question, this is Norway.  I left the hotel, picked a random direction and didn't run more than a few hundred meters before I came across a single track path.


The trail headed uphill away from town and paralleled a rocky brook.  After being in Muonio, it felt so hilly here!  It was cold outside with a thick layer of frost but still no snow.

This pool looks a little too cold for an ice bath

It at least looks wintery

Which direction to choose?  I think I'll save Sjusjoen until tomorrow

Looking down over Lillehammer from above

I followed signs to Olympiaparken, site of the 1994 Olympics.  The building on the right is now NTG Lillehammer, one of Norway's ski academies.

They were blowing snow in the stadium and I made some fresh tracks (footprints I guess) through the "powder."

From Olympiaparken I followed signs to Sentrum and soon popped out in the center of town.  The main street was very touristy with shops, cafes, and restaurants.  There were a few vendors selling waffles which smelled delicious.

Normally I would feel weird running with poles and wearing spandex in a city center but it felt oddly normal here.

A park in town

A church I had glimpsed from above and wanted to check out.  

My camera batteries died at this point but it was also time to head back to the hotel.  

Racing gets going on Saturday with a 10km skate!