I just finished up a two week training camp, one week in Carrabassett Valley training at Sugarloaf and one week training with the us ski team in Lake Placid.  Sugarloaf is one of my favorite places to train, every year during the harvest break the coaches at MWSC take the juniors down for a training camp.  The access roads to the mountain are great places to do intervals, good pavement and really good terrain.  Plus the place is relatively deserted with only the mountain workers getting ready for the season and the students at CVA.  The highlight was a classic sprint at the end of the week.  A tough course heading straight up the condo access road.  We had a tough group at the front end of the race, Freddy B., Nick Klein, and Joey Bard.  The weather during the week was a little unpredictable, but the leaves were in full color.

I made the drive to LP on Saturday and spent the week there.  For the first few days the place was full of nordies.  Sun Valley, NENSA, CXC, Burke to name a few of the programs that were around.  Monday was the uphill time trial and it was just as hard as last year.  Straight uphill skating for five miles makes for a good workout.  I was pleased with how it went for me.  Uphill skating is my biggest challenge, it was a good sign that I was able to ski steady to the finish line.  After the time trial some of the teams cleared out.  Midweek I joined the sprinters for a speed workout at the jumps.  This is a great workout, working on starts, drop-in double pole, and transitions.  Saturday was the bounding workout at Whiteface, picture below.  It was a great week in Lake Placid, the focus was high and intense.  I drove home last night and will be here until heading west for Yellowstone.  The next weeks will be spent putting the finishing touches on the off-season training before the races begin.

The pictures below are courtesy of Justin Beckwith.

On saturday night Kuzzy, T. Koos and I spent the evening having dinner with the GMVS crew.  Lasagna, homemade rolls and cookies were on the menu.  We played mafia around the campfire after dinner.  They are a fun group and I wish them the best of luck this year!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 3:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.