West Yellowstone Update 11-27-13

       Well, we have all safely arrived in West Yellowstone and been skiing for 4 days now. Everything here has been awesome so far! We had a long 14 hour drive on Saturday and got in around 7:30 PM. 

Sunset during drive though Idaho

      We are staying in two condos and have several rooms at the Days Inn where the majority of the teams are staying. On Sunday we all got up and went for a morning run at 7.

Part of out Mens team

      We were then on the snow and classic skiing by 8:30 AM. Classic skiing has been amazing with some stellar Extra Blue conditions.

Hannah, Savannah and Martin

      That afternoon we skated. It felt great to get familiarized with my skis again. We have five awesome coaches from Far West with us and its been awesome to ski with everyone of them!

Afternoon skate Brandon, Shane, and I

       On Monday we did the same thing as Sunday except got to ski with some different coaches. Yesterday, Tuesday, We did intervals together as a team. These were some hard intervals. All the guys skied together and we did these on the 1k sprint course for Fridays race. I did four of these intervals and then was able to catch some video after. Here is a little video recap so far of our trip!

       That afternoon we did some classic specific strength.

        Today we didn't have to run. This morning I classic skied for two and a half hours. It was a lot of fun to get out of the trees onto some different trails.

August, Peter, Julien, and Shane

Lizzie and I on Windy Ridge

      Over all skiing has been perfect out here and I think we are all looking forward to the rest of this week!

#BeHereNow

Marin Headlands

Life Does Not suck!

      Training last week was awesome! SBA (Sugar Bowl Academy) is currently on a three week break starting a week ago. The alpine team is in Colorado for some on snow training and the Free-ride team has been taking some trips down to Mammoth, CA for some on snow training. The Nordic team is on a little different schedule. Last week we spent down at the Marin Headlands just out of San Francisco, CA for a week of Low elevation high intensity workouts.
      Monday was a rest day preparing for a big week. On tuesday the team loaded in vehicles and headed towards the bay. On the way down we stopped in the town Washington for a skating 5k time trial. This was a full on climb starting in Washington at 2600 feet up to the top. It was a extremely difficult time trial but in the end everyone got something out of it.

The Start of the Time Trial

    After the time trial we got some lunch and drove down to the hostel that we were staying in. That evening we ran to the beach (about 2 miles away) and did a fun strength session. It was an awesome circuit with agility core and arms and leg strength.

Casey Jobe 

Team after Strength

      After some strength we jumped into the ocean to cool off. We then watched the sunset from the trail above an tan back to the hostel to eat some enchiladas!

Casey, Ryland, and Brandon

       On Wednesday we did a roller ski in the morning. The team  classic skied along the ocean on a bike path for a ways before getting into a specific strength set. On the bike path, it was so rough that it was smoother to ski on the dirt next to the path then the path it self.

Golden Gate Bridge with the City Behind

        That afternoon we headed to the community track for some running intervals. I did 2 800's, 8 400's and 4 100's. This was a very hard workout but I know it would pay off. That night we had some pasta and salad.
        Thursday morning half the team ran the Dipsea trail and half the team did it twice. The Dipsea is a 7 mile trail ending at Stinson beach.

The View from Part of the Dipsea Trail.

       Ending at Stinson beach we played some ultimate, swam in the ocean.

Ryland catching the Frisbee

       That afternoon we took the ferry into the city. It was very cool to watch the sunset from the boat in the middle of the bay. 

"enter boat name here"

Me, Savannah, Hannah, Elise, and Sam with the City Behind

San Fran

       We all went to China town and ate some dinner. It was a lot of food but our team had no problem eating every last bite. 

Before

After

      The team then split up and walked through the city before returning to the hostel.

       On Friday we packed up all of our gear, cleaned up the hostel and drove to Oakland. In Oakland we did some classic roller skiing intervals up Tunnel road to Skyline. These were 30 seconds on 30 seconds off intervals. Brandon, Sam, and I did 22 of these before cooling down on an awesome road and eating some lunch.

Our Backdrop for some Intervals

Sam and Caitlin

      We drove back to Tahoe that day. On Saturday some team members ran the anual Turkey Trot. A 7 mile race that rounds Donner Lake. My throat has been feeling scratchy so I didn't run on Sunday. I will get back into training tomorrow. I am looking forward to this next week of training at home (especially roller skiing on the cart paths) before heading off to West Yellowstone on Saturday.

Best Roller skiing out there!

       Thats it for now! Looking foward to West but for now #iwannacoke #beherenow.

October Comes to an End

     This past week of training was a very high volume week. We got some awesome hard training in! On Monday we got close to two feet of snow. It was not quite enough to go, through our skis on right then and there. Despite the snow we were able to get some quality training sessions in. Last Saturday the team ran The Drifter Time trial. I was not feeling to par that day but still had a good effort. That evening we had the annual Far West Nordic banquet and auction which was a very fun event this year!

Drifter Time Trial (PC:Mark Nadell)

     On Tuesday the whole school community came together to listened to a guest speaker. Dr. Jim Taylor talked to the community about the physiology of skiing. It was great to here about his thoughts on how mind set can change your skiing so much. I will definitely be working parts that I learned into my training and my racing. 

Dr. Jim Taylor

     Despite the snow we were still able to get some quality training.  Wednesday morning we double poled up Old Highway 40 from the lake to school. It felt weird roller skiing with snow on the side of the road.

Casey Jobe

    That afternoon we had an awesome and fun workout! we ski walked to the top of Donner Ski Ranch and then worked on explosive bounding at the top. There was snow on the ground the whole workout. From the top we ran down the backside. This was the fun part! It was basically an all out sprint running through the snow and falling! 

Peter Carroll Bounding

    Friday we had some awesome classic intervals on them roads still. Today we were able to get on snow. Auburn Ski Club groomed some of there trails with the snow mo. We were able to skate for 3.5 hours. It felt so weird to be back on snow. I think the whole team felt they were all over the place. It was good to get used to them again. I definitely don't think we will be skiing on snow for another two weeks though! I hope we are able to get some on snow training before west though! T-minus 21 days till west! 

     This past week I have also been able to shoot some pretty cool Star-scapes! Enjoy! 

'Skyler's' Tree

Lake Tahoe from Eagle Rock

#BeHereNow