CSU Camp Day 3

Today was a real yin and yang sort of day.  After our morning run and breakfast we loaded up the vans for a speedhike/hill bounding workout at the lost ski area on Mt. Watatic.  The old road up the mountain makes for excellent and plenty exhausting hill bounding terrain.  The air was a bit thick but it stayed more cool as we hiked to the top and then started the real workout of either 5 or 6 min. ski walking/bounding intervals up the mountain.  Before long CSUers were scattered up and down the road banging out these very tough intervals with those headed down for their next interval cheering on those headed up. This made for a great team-building atmosphere.  That and the shared discomfort of heat, humid and hard efforts!  For some of us there was a little bonus at the top in the form of wild blueberries before the trek back down to the buses and then lunch. 

At the eastern REG camp a few weeks ago Rob talked with Gus Kaeding, head coach of the Stratton T2 Team and they made plans for the team to come down and train with CSU for a few workouts.  This afternoon the Stratton team arrived with Eric Packer, Sophie Caldwell, Erika Flowers, Andy Newell, Jessie Diggins, Simi Hamilton and Annie Pokorny to ski speeds with CSU.  And when I say speeds I mean SPEEDS. Whew, they were flying, and when I say flying that is exactly what I mean....their wheels were off the ground more than they were on it.  Then our athletes hopped in to rip off a few and Eli Hoenig and Julia Kern could hang in there, perhaps not as smooth, but right in there!  Great to see.  The kids were having a great time!

We then rushed back to get dinner before they shut the place up (don't get us started on that topic), slamming down a quick meal before our mandatory fire alarm.  The fire inspector asked how we knew if everyone was out of the building and Rob quickly explained our fire team organization, adopted from the Marines and he was impressed.

After dinner we feasted on ice cream and then the Stratton team had a great question and answer session where everything from race psychology, to goal setting, to highs and lows on the world cup circuit and what runs through your head in a race were discussed.  What a great opportunity for our athletes to talk to these world class skiers!

Tomorrow will be an OD classic ski and in the afternoon we work on agility with Stratton.  That will be fun!