Recently I have been evicted from my home and, with nowhere else to go, I have decided to make the jump and start living and training at the world famous Camp Gray Olympic Training Center.

Since I know that there are masses of concerned citizens out there wondering, “what the heck has Mo-T been up to recently?”  I will fill you in. 

Here at camp we have this wonderful thing called the Gorman House.  It is actually the name of the house in which the Directors live.  However, every Sunday morning it tuns into a huge breakfast for all the staff here.  Come anytime between 9 and 11 am and get your fill of french toast, sticky buns, toast, bagels, yogurt, granola, eggs, fruit and assorted other amazing breakfast foods.  People wake up whenever they want, come get some food and move on to getting ready for their campers.  I, however, like to come and actually eat for the whole two hours.

Last week our assistant director, Joe, moved on to a new chapter in his life. Yesterday a co-worker, Sara, came across me having a “moment of weakness” next to our freezer. In trying to explain what was wrong through my tears, I wasn’t speaking very clearly. Resultantly (perhaps not a real word, but way more exciting than “as a result”), Sara heard “Joe”. In relaying this conversation to Joe today, he also cried. Really, though, what I had said was “snow”.

So, break time at camp is hard to come by.  It always comes, eventually.  But when it does, there is a list of about 39 1/2 things one needs to accomplish before it is over. 

Because LITs are so awesome and amazing, they are also bad for my training.  First, let’s define a few terms.  LIT stands for leader in training, and, contrary to popular belief, they don’t need an apostrophe unless they are owning something.  They do own a lot of things though. 

Let’s talk about intensity for a minute.  What is it?  Since I work here at Camp Gray, I will use some examples from summer camp.  Intensity is washing 180 bowls, plates, forks and spoons and all the pots and pans used to make grilled cheese and soup and still getting the whole kitchen crew out by 7:45 pm.  Intensity is what it takes to be a parent to 10 9 year olds for a week.  Intensity is the atmosphere created by 50 campers playing a game of lightning on our 7 foot basketball hoop.  Intensity is being head cook for 16 meals a week for 9 weeks of summer camp.

This doesn’t sound like the kind of intensity training most skiers do. I spend most of the day in the kitchen, cooking, cleaning, putting away food orders and planning menus.  What little time I get out of the kitchen I split between playing with the kids and working out.  Sometimes the split is in favor of the kids…At the end of one of these days, however, I sure do feel as tired, or more, than if I had skied all day.  Many times, as I am running around the kitchen, I am positive that I am working hard enough to increase my capillary density.  Again, not how most skiers would train in level one, but I am not most skiers.  Regardless, I still do squeeze in some intensity training in the summer.  Which brings me to the point of this entry.

My coach forwarded me this article today http://www.fasterskier.com/training5444.html and said “Sounds like something your coach might have said before . . .”  I noticed two things in the article, clearly what my coach wanted me to get out of it.  The first is this, “In general, for most racers of every age group, I’m a firm believer that erring on the side of less intensity will be more beneficial than trying to push the envelope with intervals.”  This obviously doesn’t apply to me because, like I said, I’m not most racers.  This must be the line he meant for me to read, “If you feel that you can handle more intensity then get after it.”  That being said, I’m about to go get after it.

In the past 2 weeks, my life has been pretty crazy and busy. I have logged some serious training hours — probably about 14 hours…a day. I’m talking about staff training for summer camp. I haven’t actually gotten much training in. A little catskiing, rollerskiing, running, biking and strength training. I guess the lack of training doesn’t sound so bad when I put it that way.

Wow! I am so excited to be writing my first blog entry here. It is a perfect time to do it too, as I just got back from a slammin road trip. I just finished a year of service here at Camp Gray. I was definitely ready for a vacation and had one week off before beginning a year as Head cook and training for summer camp. The trip was definitely awesome, but it reminded me that road trip does not equal vacation…