Yoders on Snow!

Hank and Meg managed to find some snow to play on on a hike on Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park in Washington. 

Rob Watches Over His Tough Flock

Who says the hills we train on aren't steep and tough?  Pine Hill intervals.

Where's Eli?

Somewhere in this photo from an APU coach is Eli doing a classic rollerski time trial in Anchorage.  Looks just like that 5km time trial course in Littleton!

Corey's Summer in Alaska

Hi! I have been spending the summer in Alaska training with APU, and I am having such a blast. The training is hard but super fun, the views are absolutely amazing, and the team is so awesome. Here are a few of my photos!


For the first two weeks I was in Alaska, I went to the NAWTA (North American Women’s Training Alliance) camp. The first week we spent pounding out some dryland training, and for the second week, we went to the glacier!

We had to take a detour in our L3 intervals to avoid getting chomped by these guys.

Kikkan and Aikku Saarinen (Finland) climbing into the clouds.

Becca Rorabaugh (APU) and I heading up to the glacier on a sweet helicopter ride!

Heli doing a “push over” the cliff after dropping us off…

It was cloudy for the beginning of the week, and it was awesome only being able to see a few meters ahead of us.

Me, Peri Jones (Canada), Liz Stephen (US).

The crew toughing it out through L4 intervals and the fog.

Once the sun came out at the end of the week, I could not get myself to go inside! Becca Rorabaugh (APU), Me, Alysson Marshall (Canada), Aikku Saarinen (Finland), Holly Brooks (US/APU), Rosie Brennan (APU).

A super fun sprint relay going on in the sunshine!

We just couldn’t get enough of it!

After an amazing camp, Kikkan, Liz, Chandra, Heidi, and I visited some awesome areas a little outside of Anchorage.

Kikkan, Me, Heidi (GMVS), Chandra (Canada), and Liz (US).

Kikkan and I looking in the water for sea stars, sea cucumbers, and crabs!

Now I have been back in town for a few weeks and am training with APU! Eli just arrived, and we are going up to the glacier again this Sunday!

Sadie and me at the top of one of our hikes!

Awesome view from the Sand Dunes across Turnagain Arm from the Sand Dunes!

Post Wapack Run/Hike

Everyone's looking pretty good after 2+ hrs. running/hiking the Wapack!  Must be the wild blueberries consumed along the way.....

Final Day, CSU Ski Camp

The last morning of the 2012 CSU Ski Camp was set aside for a skate time trial using a quiet side street with a good hill.  Most of the athletes did 3 (J2s) or 4 repeats of the course.  Those with injuries either rested or did one or two repeats.  On this last morning the humidity returned to Massachusetts which made for a pretty warm test but everyone stepped up their game and skied hard.  Skiers was paired up for 30 sec interval starts, starting the next repeat 15 min. later.  I'll get the results up on the blog at some point when they are put in a spreadsheet, but there were some very significant improvements over last year for some of those that were at camp last summer.  Nothing like hard work resulting in success!

Finally, the camp was a great success with athletes showing improvements over the course of even one week.  The variety of workouts was great and allowed everyone to work on different training methods, determine where more work is needed and work on technique, fitness and the mental aspects of racing. 

A few photos from the last morning:



Even the coaches work on technique!  Kathy working on double pole



Mary

Carina

Will

Ryan

Izzy and Talia

Max recovering after a hard effort

Maddy being Maddy

Hannah

Tom putting on a frowny face

Leah, Rebecca and Janelle

Katrin, Delphine , Rosie, Clara, Olivia, Hadley

Cate, Eli B., Oscar

Lewis, Rion, Sean, Nathan, John

Meg and Jacob

CSU Camp Day 5

Day 5's highlight was our annual run/hike on the Wapack Trail.  For this event we split the group in two with one group going North to South, starting at Windblown Ski Touring Center and ending at Rte. 119 just south of Mt. Watatic, while the other group starts at the south end and heads north.  That means leaving dry clothes, food and water in the other end's vans so you have it at the end.  Always a complicated venture, hiding the keys of the vans, etc.   It was another magnificent summer day, athough warmer than the last few.  Our group was the South to North group and after only several hundred meters of flat we climbed steeply up the side of Mt. Watatic and then headed north, running all the more level or downhill stretches and walking only the steeper uphills.  At one point we had to climb around a tree in the trail that it turns out was there for a reason..... the trail was closed.  Most of us had missed any signs that the trail had been closed and rerouted for a short stretch due to a lumbering operation.  We ran down what used to be a dirt road and now was a re-graded road that must have been 3-4 inches deep in soft dirt/dust.  The dust cloud we kicked up stuck nicely to our sweaty legs and I tried running with my mouth closed, which is difficult!   After scrambling through some slash and around the operating grapple lifting logs we ran into a truck coming up the road.  The driver asked if we'd seen the signs and I said no, but said we'd warn the other group.  The North to South group did find the re-routed trail and got successfully around the logging. 

We stopped briefly at the overlook above Binney Pond, had some delicious wild blueberries and continued on to Windblown after a short stop as we met the other group heading south.  By the end, coming down through a now wide-open forest with a carpet of ferns as the understory coming down Barret Mt. at Windblown that resulted from the horrendous ice storm a few years ago we were all getting pretty hot and most everyone had used up their water.  

South to North Group high above Binney Pond

After everyone made it back to the vans, a change of clothes and lots of Gatorade off we headed to Kimballs Ice Cream in Jaffrey for a well-deserved lunch and ice-cream break.  We had a very leisurely lunch before heading back to the school and saying good bye to Alex, who is now winging her way to Switzerland for the World Orienteering Championships. 

After a very refreshing swim and some rest we had another core session.  A soccer game warmup was followed by Maddy's diabolical core workout of 40 min. of one exercise followed by another in something like 6 sets.  For this old coach it pretty clearly highlighted every weakness I have!  Ouch! 

Tonight will be smores by the bonfire.  Camp is drawing to a close and the last act will be a skate interval timetrial in the morning.

CSU Camp Day 4 (cont.)

Below are 2 photos from Rob's talk on visualization from last night and some photos from the agility courses we set up in the afternoon today.  We set up two parallel courses in a big parking lot at the school and timed everyone twice through one of the courses or the other.  Sean blasted through in the fastest time for the boys and Julia K for the girls. 

Relaxation and visualization

Zoe

Olivia

Julia

Erik

Nathan

Haley

Rebecca

Hank

Leah

Izzy

Rebecca N.

Rosie

Oscar

Tom

Mary