Bryan and I got picked up in Marquette on Sunday morning by the CXC Elite Team van. We drove all day, stayed overnight in Canada, and arrived at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Lake Placid, NY around 1:00 PM on Monday. The drive took about 16 hours (from Marquette) and it went very smoothly. Today was the second day of training at the Lake Placid OTC and it is going to be a hard couple of weeks. Although there are many hills in the Midwest, I understand why skiers from the East and West refuse to acknowledge them. Yesterday, we did intervals on a road that was so steep even the boys had to V1 the whole time. It took 3, 4 minute intervals (with 4 minutes of recovery between intervals) to get up the hill and when you got to the top you had to be driven back down to the bottom in the van. Then, today we went for a 1 hour and 45 minute roller ski where the women’s team went up a huge hill, down the other side, up another hill, and then had to turn around to make it back to the van in time. The hills are huge.
Coach Fish talking us through some technique issues after the intervals on Tuesday.
Staying at the OTC is extremely convenient. The weight room is right down the hall, there is a gymnasium, a training room, a sports science lab, an ice bath, a sauna, and cafeteria food that is available at any time of the day. It makes me feel like a freshman in college again, living in the dorms. Hopefully, I will be able to get some studying done while I am here. This semester I am enrolled in 3 graduate school credits and I have only been able to make it to class once. Thank goodness for the internet and for my dear friend Laura Dewitt who is taking notes for me.