Sweat in the Eyes

Summer has flown by and suddenly the days are getting shorter, the workouts are getting more intense and there's slightly less sweat stinging the eyes. That can mean only one thing, ski season is soon approaching…

Lina and I enjoying the new Tailwind Hydrate mix to stay on top of all that sweating.

I realize it's been a minute since I last touched in, so there's a lot to cover! After an epic journey around Argentina in July, I returned to Stratton eager to rollerski. I had a few days to unpack, do laundry, recover from jet lag, then pack again for a mini training camp up at Green Woodlands in Dorchester, NH. Although I felt pretty content staying put in southern Vermont, I had been looking forward to a Green’s camp since last summer when we visited the wilderness for a few days of biking and running.

Back on my Pursuit Fork Flex skate skis, enjoying the company!

This summer, we enjoyed just as beautiful weather as last year and jumped right onto our mountain bikes as soon as we arrived to camp. Bob Green is the landowner of ~25,000 acres in New Hampshire. He has built his own bike and ski trails, which he opened to the public for recreation access. The trails are phenomenal; smooth and flowy downhills with a few technical sections that are hard enough to challenge you but straightforward enough to not get hurt on. The entire team plus many of our summer guest athletes hit some high volume hours exploring the trails at Greens.

Hitting high hours and enjoying camp life!

Sydney, "I try not to brake too much on the downhills." Jessie and me, "Oh."

During camp, we made an afternoon trip into Lyme, NH for some double pole ski intervals just so we didn’t totally lose touch with our ski focus. Then, on one of the last days, we made our way up into the White Mountains to cap off our volume training camp by running along the Presi Traverse. This was my fourth time trekking along the Presidential range and by far the most beautiful weather I’d ever experienced up there. Lots of fun was had out there by the crew!

Solid crew!

Eat, sleep, train, repeat.

Back in Stratton, the team had a few hard training sessions before we hit the road again to do some outreach in the Vermont ski community. The team made a brief visit to Waitsfield, VT where we joined the U16 National camp at GMVS (Green Mountain Valley School). The campers traveled from all over New England and the Midwest to attend the weeklong camp. We hopped in one of their workouts as we battled it up App Gap in the hot and sweaty, humid weather. That afternoon, we ate lunch with the kids and gathered for a Q&A about skiing, school, balance, and life. It was so fun to see the next generation putting in the hard work and really great to visit with juniors from Minnesota!

What a squad!

Really fun to chat with everyone.

Working on that uphill grind.

Before leaving Waitsfield, the team took advantage of some new running trails and went for an over distance run up Sugarbush resort and along the Long Trail. Lucky for me, I had a special visitor who made the long run fly by!

So fun to have my dad around!

My dad traveled to Vermont to visit me for a few days. When I attended UVM, my parents came to visit me once a year, but my dad hadn’t spent a solid chunk of time in Waitsfield or in Stratton so it was fun to show him around.

We packed a lot into 48 hours in Waitsfield but had to make the drive back south to Stratton for our T2 team fundraiser. In early August, we hosted an uphill running race up Stratton Mountain Resort. Racers got to challenge themselves to one heck of a mountain and one of the sweatiest days I’ve ever had, but the smiles, laughs and water jugs at the top were all worth it.

Thanks to everyone who came out to support the team!

Looking good in our new Bliz glasses.

It was incredible to see the community come out for the event and meant so much to my teammates and me! The contributions go a long way to support our team for travel, lodging, race fees, wax fees, coaching, and so much more in the winter. We might still be a few months out from natural snow falling from the sky, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have it on our mind… A few weeks ago the team traveled abroad in search of snow. If you're interested in a recap from my 10 days of training in the Oberhof Ski Tunnel, you can read the blog I wrote for Gear West.

Trying to keep things entertaining!

So many laps in the tunnel...

Oberhof is such a cute little town!

I returned from the Oberhof camp a few days early to attend the wedding of one of my closest friends. Although it's challenging to balance all social opportunities with the intense rigor of training full time, I'm grateful for the relationships that I have and want to support them the same way they support me mid-winter. It was a beautiful wedding that brought together many friends from college whom I hadn't seen in many years.

So great to see these humans.

Recently, Lina, Lauren and I have been getting back to work in Stratton and are looking forward to when teammates, Jessie and Julia return from their camp in Australia this week. The leaves are starting to change in Vermont and with crisp mornings I'm feeling jittery to get going on some hard training sessions. Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that I had been running on fumes for some time and I came down with a mild cold. This type of pause is hard for me to acknowledge, but also a good sign to me that I need to slow down a bit. I'm willing to accept that notion and am looking forward to a few more consistent weeks of training in Stratton before packing up for a fall altitude camp out west!

Ready to roll!