Hello from Stratton, Vermont! Training is in full swing, and it feels crazy to think we’re cruising right through August. We’ve been working hard, and since I last posted in May (whoopsies) we’ve been balancing that hard training with good quality team hangout time, a mini-camp, birthday cakes, fun runs and more birthday cakes.
Essentially, this is a big photo diary of the last few months of summer training! Enjoy!
Earlier in June a group of us got together to run the Presidential Traverse up in the white mountains of New Hampshire, about 3 hours away from Stratton. If you’re a frequent blog reader, you’ve probably heard me talk about this run before; an 18-mile traverse that covers the Presidential mountain range, 8 peaks, and about 8,000 feet of climbing. It took us around 6.5 hours of running/hiking to complete, and about a week until my calves weren’t sore anymore!
Finding simple ways to gather as a team outside of sweaty training time has been really awesome. Here, one of our many potluck grill dinners.
We had a mini training camp up at Green Woodlands, and loved the mountain biking, swimming and new running in the area!
We celebrated Midsommer with our resident Swedish newcomer to the SMST2 team – Lina Sutro!
Another big part of my life as a professional athlete is working with incredible partners. I know you don’t always love the #ads on social media…and I get that. But here’s the thing…I only work with companies I really like, products I actually use and who support me as a person, not just as an athlete. What do I mean by that? I mean that the companies I’m working with now are thrilled about my work with Protect Our Winters, my work with the Emily Program and WithAll, and Share Winter. In supporting me, they also often also donate time, money and gear directly to organizations I care about, and indirectly, their support of me means that my limited free time in between training can be focused on the good I can do rather than trying to fund-raise year round. I get to spend my time trying to make the best impact I can on the community, whether that’s working to provide information and support to people learning how to support someone going through an eating disorder or answering Q&A about why strength training is awesome (and not something to be scared of)! I adore my job, and I love that the partnerships I have allow me to do as much of it as I can take on!
Our next upcoming training camp is in the ski tunnel in Oberhof, Germany at the end of August. I’m thrilled to be getting back on snow and spending every second of my time wisely, getting back that striding feel and working on technique while I have the opportunity to be skiing again! In the meantime…back to our usual program of crushing one working after another. 🙂
