A Change of Scenery
Roller skiing always becomes less appealing as a skier hits the months of October and November. The temperature starts dropping and the days become shorter and all you want is some snow to actually ski on! But before I could hit a real slump in training, the CXC Team Vertical Limit traveled to Lake Placid, New York for our last training camp on roller skis (hopefully), which is exactly what I needed!
The weather here has been on the chillier side, but it is awesome wearing spandex again because that means that snow is just around the corner! The change in terrain has also been great and very refreshing. As to be expected, Lake Placid is pretty different from the Midwest for the reason that it is not lacking the solid V1/striding hills that the Midwest tends to. We are definitely taking advantage of the long, steep up-hills by focusing on the hill climbs for every interval workout we have had out here. As I mentioned before, the change in terrain is refreshing, but more mentally refreshing than physically! Luckily the Olympic Training Center has a variety of recovery options.
One highlight of the week, which Fish briefly mentioned, was the hike/run up White Face. An estimated 2 hour recovery run abruptly turned into 4.5/5 hours (for the girls + Igor) after receiving the wrong directions to get down. The adventure was surprisingly fun though, which I was very impressed with because situations like that can easily become extremely frustrating and stressful. The best part of the run down was seeing Fish appear out of nowhere from the woods, telling us that the van, which had food in it, was only a little over half a mile away. I’ve never been SO happy to see the van. Though the run wasn’t much of a recovery run like it was meant to be, it was still a lot of fun.
Only a couple more days left of camp in Lake Placid, and our 20 some hour drive home is waiting! The next camp for our team is in Yellowstone. Cross your fingers for early snow!
Me and Audrey at the top!
Not knowing the climb down was going to be so long...
