This past week wrapped up a solid 3 weeks of training here in Stratton, Vermont! It’s been busy with camps visiting in town and jumping into training sessions, which keeps each day exciting with fresh faces and enthusiasm for new training venues.

We had the SMS Summer camp here at the school, and for both camps (the junior aged and the high-school aged camp) the Elite team came to eat some meals with the campers, coach an agility session, sign t-shirts, do an interval workout and talk with the skiers during Q&A sessions where they could ask about World Cup racing, travel, or anything they’re wondering about the lifestyle of a ski racer!

The SMS elite team bounding up the mountain with the SMS juniors and a visiting Swedish club team! (photo by Lilly Caldwell)

The SMS elite team bounding up the mountain with the SMS juniors and a visiting Swedish club team! (photo by Lilly Caldwell)

Then after the camp, a visiting Swedish club stuck around for another few days and hopped into a few workouts with us. After they’d left, one of Canada’s national training center teams came down from Quebec for a week long camp, so we had a few workouts with them as well!

Big group of SMS, SMS elite, and Quebec training camp ready to go on some intervals! (photo by Pat O'Brien)

Big group of SMS, SMS elite, and Quebec training camp ready to go on some intervals! (photo by Pat O’Brien)

Moving so fast the trees were blurred! :) (photo by Pat O'Brien)

Moving so fast the trees were blurred! 🙂 (photo by Pat O’Brien)

One of those was a bounding workout where we went round and round a trail for 40-60 minutes in Level 3. It was cool to do a continuous bounding workout like that because it gave us a great opportunity to practice being comfortable with being uncomfortable, and getting in the zone where you’re just focused on each step and technique instead of how much it hurts.

Having fun and getting in the zone during a long continuous interval! (photo by Pat O'Brien)

Having fun and getting in the zone during a long continuous interval! (photo by Pat O’Brien)

Using the lactate kit to determine how my pacing went! (photo by Pat O'Brien)

Using the lactate kit to determine how my pacing went! (photo by Pat O’Brien)

Hurdles and an obstacle course during one of our last agility sessions of summer training coaching the juniors! (photo by Lilly Caldwell)

Hurdles and an obstacle course during one of our last agility sessions of summer training coaching the juniors! (photo by Lilly Caldwell)

Having fun working on my balance, agility and air awareness on the trampoline! (photo by Jason Cork)

Having fun working on my balance, agility and air awareness on the trampoline! (photo by Jason Cork)

Avoiding the "one dolla fine" going through the covered bridge with Cork! (photo by Pat O'Brien)

Avoiding the “one dolla fine” going through the covered bridge with Cork! (photo by Pat O’Brien)

For Anne Hart’s 24th birthday on Saturday, we decided to do a long over-distance workout at an easy pace…while getting up and over 4 peaks in just over 4 hours! It was fun and the stoke levels were high. Anne is a really awesome teammate, friend and all around great person (with some seriously impressive culinary, cross country skiing, and cross fit skills) so it was sweet to celebrate her birthday as a team.

The "before" photo: Lauren, Ben, Me, Anne, Erika, Gabe, Andy ready to run! (photo by Pat O'Brien)

The “before” photo: Lauren, Ben, Me, Anne, Erika, Gabe, Andy ready to run! (photo by Pat O’Brien)

I have wanted to run a marathon for a long time. I don’t know why this is such a fixated goal of mine, other than it’s probably because I’m not really allowed to do it. Running a road marathon would hurt my knees and be a distraction from ski training, one that I can’t do during my usual training season. But running a marathon on trails…is a possibility, because although it might take WAY longer, the soft trail and slower running would be easier on my body, and I planned to stay in zone 1 the entire time. So I picked Saturday as my day to go after my goal! It was a great day to do it as it was sunny, cool in the shade, and I had awesome teammates to run the first 2/3’s with, and my boyfriend to run the last tough part with.

Peak #1: Baker! (photo from Erika)

Peak #1: Baker! (photo from Erika)

Peak #2 (with terrible views): Stiles! (photo by Erika)

Peak #2 (with terrible views): Stiles! (photo by Erika)

Peak #3: Peru! (photo by Pat O'Brien)

Peak #3: Peru! (photo by Pat O’Brien)

Peak #4: Bromley! (photo from Erika)

Peak #4: Bromley! (photo from Erika)

After the group made it to the finish point after 4:30 hours of running, Wade met me at the parking lot and ran out and back on another stretch of the AT trail. It was super fun the whole time! fun at parts, and hard at other parts when I was really tired and just wanted to be done! After 6 hours of running, my knees were pretty sore and I was over the magic of trail running. But at the same time, once you’ve run for long enough you kind of get this feeling that you may as well run forever, as long as you have enough hydration and fuel! Big thanks to Nuun hydration tablets and Kate’s Real Food Bars for getting me through. And of course, Julia made an outstanding chocolate birthday cake for Anne and we all got to share that in the evening! Yum!

FINALLY - made it 26.2 miles! In 6:45 hours. Yikes.

FINALLY – made it 26.2 miles! In 6:45 hours. Yikes.

Now, it’s time for a nice easy recovery week before we travel to New Zealand for our 3rd US Ski Team training camp of the summer!

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