I went to New York to see my family for Thanksgiving and came back sick.  Since my first race of the year is on December 13 this is extra bad news.  There is not much time to get healthy and ready to race.  This might be the hardest part of the whole training year for me.  I’m ready.  I’m focused.  I will get healthy.  Game on.  

Oh, and we’re supposed to get about 5 more inches of snow today.  This is just wonderful.  

That is all, I must go back to bed.

It finally happened.  On Sunday night I heard rumors that we might get a couple inches of snow overnight.  Of course, this was on the eve of my first day as a substitute teacher’s aid at the local Catholic school.  I knew that if we got snow it would be melted before I got home from school.  Naturally, I set my alarm for 5:30, assuring that if it did snow I would be able to get in a nice ski.

This morning, as I was attempting VO2 max intervals, I thought of a really sweet title for this post.  Of course, now that I am sitting here trying to post, I have no idea what that title was.  That actually happens to me a couple times a week.  As I am working my butt off out on the trails or roads, I begin to think of a really cool idea for a post.  As soon as the workout is over, I quickly forget.  I hate it when that happens.  So, instead I will write a list of the top ten things I hate pertaining to ski training.  

Yesterday we played our own version of the tv show Survivor here at Camp.  I got voted out in the first round, which was a bummer.  I had to sit out and watch the rest, which was mildly lame.  Before getting the ax, though, I took part in an epic arm wrestling match that lasted about 12 minutes with no winner.  I am a little sore today, both in muscles and feelings.  This was also another great reminder of my lack of fast twitch muscles.  So maybe I wasn’t a survivor yesterday, but I have been surviving my first full year of ski training, and especially the past couple months.

It snowed two days in a row…what more needs to be said?

Okay, so maybe I haven’t written on here as regularly as I might have hoped.  Perhaps there are many members of the Nordic ski community who have anxiously been waiting to read more about my thrilling life.  However, I have been waiting for many things myself.  I suppose we all have our own burdens to bear. 

I include here an entry I wrote for our blog at Camp Gray.  For the purposes of training, I would add that I got in some solid easy hiking last Friday and Sunday, with 16 miles of fast paced, action packed hiking on Saturday…all with poles, of course.  It was a great way to get away from Camp and get some quality training in elsewhere, as well as another rare opportunity to train with a group of people…

There are several reasons to be joyful about my training recently…

1)I can feel myself getting stronger and fitter

2)I am definitely recovering from that awful illness I had a couple weeks ago

3)It will probably start snowing next week and not stop until June

4)The colder weather has made working out so much more comfortable

Recovering from  being sick last week seemed to take forever.  I basically did nothing for a few days (it felt like months) and then still only did an easy run and short strength session.  That was pretty much it, and lots of sleep, reading, eating, and more sleep.  My first workout resembling anything hard finally came on Thursday when I did 15×90 secs. double poling on roller skis.  It’s always so hard to start working out again after stopping like that.  But it feels good to be back.  Yesterday I did VO2max intervals, 7×3 minutes.  I was pretty close to max heart rate for the last minute of each one.  With a nice long warm up and cool down it was close to 2.5 hours.  I was wiped.

Okay, I admit it, I’m sick.