After reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan in my week of wisdom-tooth woes, I was inspired to write this essay on the health choices of young athletes, namely my peer group of nordic skiers. Since at Burke we strive to not only be the best athlete’s we can be but also the best students, I have decided (or dared) to post a snippet of academia on Fasterskier, with the full acceptance of our readers’ scrutiny and discern.

Two weeks ago today I had all four wisdom teeth pulled. After five days of sitting on the couch reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, my face had shrunken down to an almost normal size and I was ready to hit to road again (training of course). I had been strictly informed by my orthopedic surgeon not to raise my heart rate for a while because blood pumping through my head in my current state, would not feel nice. On the 6th day after surgery I went for an easy bike ride with Jonathon Poole, to whom I apologize for the painfully slow pace. Getting on the bike for the next couple days would be a good option for me as biking tends to work the heart and the legs out of sync from each other. I could keep my heart rate down, while at least my legs would be in Level 1.

I felt good all this past week and took two rest days, but I logged a lot of hours on the bike and some very easy rollerskis. By yesterday I felt ready to do some hard work. Overseen by our coach, Pete, my teammate Lucas Milliken and I did 3×8 minutes at L3 up a long, fairly steep hill. I felt great, but my heart rate was about five beats higher than I wanted it to be. Lucas was in the 172-176 range and I was around 174-179 but the last 200 meters (the steepest pitch) I raised it up to 181 every time.

I am pleased with how the intervals went. It was a good indicator that even though I feel 100%, I am not quite there yet. Today is an off-day and then I will be taking it somewhat easy this week with a lot of strength before the Burke Camp in Keene, NY.