Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Thanksgiving Camp: Wednesday (by Erin)

Canada Camp: DAY 5
Written by Erin

This morning we woke up to about 8 inches of new snow! The snow lasted long enough for a quick snowball fight before we headed out for our morning shake out run, but unfortunately we watched as the snow turned into a gross winter rain during our breakfast of oatmeal (compliments of Coach Terko).

After piling into the vans, getting out of the driveway proved to once again be a challenge. We watched from the van as Etown tried to drive the bus out of our uphill drive way to no avail, before hopping out of the van to help push. The same thing occurred with the van as well. Canada put Etown and Adam’s winter driving skills to the test as much of the highway was not plowed or poorly plowed. Kyle, Matt and I piled into the back seat of the van to help give extra traction. From the back we watched as crazy Canadians blew by us in the unplowed, untouched left lane, one woman coming within inches of Etown’s bus in front of us. Nevertheless, we made it there safely and were greeted by a foot of fresh, ungroomed snow covering the trails.
A car covered in snow up a Foret

After 3 days of easy of technique focused skiing, today we amped things up with some intervals. The new powder, as well as maneuvering around other teams, were added elements, but you never know what conditions will be like on race day so it’s always good practice. Today’s intervals consisted of some 8-minute L3 intervals, followed by 2 by 3-minute L4 intervals, similar to a workout we did earlier this year on rollerskis. We striped down to full race suits (and looked legit) and got down to business. The powder caused everyone to think about technique and to find the best balance of quickness and efficiency. In these conditions we had to work on being light and fast on the skis. After the workout we were able to explore some of the new trails, which had surprisingly good coverage that will hopefully get better as the week continues. The intervals tired everyone out and it was a quiet bus ride home.

Team Austin - Austin Meng (SLU) and Austin Cobb (Midd) - shreddin' the pow pow

Will loving all the SNOW!

Guys team exploring the new trails




The guys team powering up the hill

At home we were greeted by a delicious vegetable chowder/soup made by Mom-town. We devoured it as well as polishing off some leftovers. The team likes to give me crap for my seemingly non-existent taste buds. And it has been said that if you were to assign a color to the types of food I eat it would be brown/plain. This week almost every meal has provided me with something new to try and so far I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Cooking groups have whipped up some delicious stir-fry, burritos, and pasta with sausage the past 3 nights, giving me plenty to experiment with. As a side note, today we discovered that Canada sells yogurt in a bag! Austin thoroughly enjoyed figuring out the many ways to pour bagged yogurt, whether it be 3 feet above the bowl or in slow motion blobs.

After a lazy afternoon, we had a more relaxed second session with a short run and strength. Safe to say we are gaining a lot from training in this country of unplowed roads and bagged yogurt and we’re looking forward to traditional Thanksgiving day go-carting tomorrow and 4 more awesome days of skiing!

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