No, this isn’t the GnR song, but it is a key part of the Maine training plan:     wrestlin’  -

This weekend I am doing a short training camp at the 10th Mountain Lodge in Fort Kent.  The 10th Mountain Lodge got its name because a few of the soldiers in the 10th Mountain division were from the Fort Kent area, including Lorenzo Voisine.  And of course the skiing heritage of Fort Kent fits nicely with the heritage of the 10th Mountain division.  I like it up here at the lodge because it is a great place to train. 

This morning I did intervals with Bill Bowler  in the pouring rain.  Bill is a biathlete, when he stopped to shoot, I stopped for a little rest.  The biathletes of the county spend quite a bit of time on the range here in Fort Kent.  BethAnn makes the trip up here on most weekends to work with her coach, sometimes I tag along.  On most weekends I can find some good training partners around.  Bill is a member of the Biathlon development squad, Russell Currier is usually hanging around and always up for a training session, and another member of the MWSC cross country team Nick Michaud lives in Fort Kent, among others who are here for the summer.

BethAnn dry firing in the Great Room.

This is the morning ritual for the biathletes, setting up the range.  Unfortunately sweeping off the rain water has also been a ritual this summer.

Gary at work.

Russell in his lair.  The athletes who stay here pack into the upstairs rooms dormitory style and eat in the downstairs kitchen family style. 

There is another World Cup here at the 10th Mt. in 2011.

The lodge in the rain.

There was another successful Maine Training Group camp this weekend in Fort Kent.  The sun decided to show itself for a little bit too.  For the past few years this camp has been a chance for some of the top juniors in Maine and Quebec to get together for five days of hard training.

This was a big group, over thirty skiers from all over Maine and Quebec.  They trained well together, seemed to be getting along in the evenings, and were focused for the time trials that we did on the weekend.  I was impressed with this group.  Everybody stayed in the accomodations at UMaine Fort Kent, staying in the dorms and eating in the cafeteria.  When in Fort Kent it is easy to take advantage of the rollerski loop at the 10th Mountain.  A newly added loop last fall allowed us to do an 11k skate race in only four loops.  And a nice loop for our sprint race.  Below is a video of the sprint race from Saturday, thanks to Sam Tarling for this video:

Rain, rain and more rain.  That has been the story from northern new england the past few weeks.  Apparently that is the story from parts of the west too, Andrew Johnson told me last week that it has been the wettest month on record for Park City (or something like that). Anyway, the rain does not keep us from training up here.

Last week we completed a few days of testing.   Sue Beaudet is a physiology professor at UMPI who has been very gracious to open her testing lab to all of us here at the MWSC.   For the last four years I have done treadmill tests every few months, both a pole walking test and a double pole test.  The scene is very similiar to some of the other posts I have seen recently about testing.  Sweetser and Sue get their mad scientist caps on for the afternoon and jack the treadmill up to the point where we start falling of the back.  There is most always some blood, some sweat, and even occasionally Fred Bailey hanging by his neck from the safety harness.   We do learn a lot, so it has become an important part of our routine up here.  

So far the early summer has been training as usual.  This coming week the best juniors in the state make the trip to Fort Kent for the annual Maine Training Group Camp.  Last year this camp was a great success, with groups from southern Maine and junior groups from Quebec joining us.

    I have said before that we have a big group this year.  Our fearless leader Will Sweetser has a big job taking care of everyone.  Here he is plotting strategy with two guys from my alma mater, Mt. Blue High School.

Treadmill testing.

Hanging out after a group training run.

BethAnn and I took a short vacation to Grand Falls, New Brunswick recently.