Are We There Yet?

Perhaps the ancient Chinese proverb; "You can never be too strong, too rich or too good looking" really is wrong. I think we might be getting strong enough.

We are closing in on the end of our max strength training period for Sadie and Erik. Sam finished his a few weeks ago when we ran out of plates in the gym to add to the bar. It was really time for him to move on to the muscular endurance (ME) phase of our training with its puke inducing workouts. S&E have stayed longer than Sam with this max type of training due to both their age and her gender.

S&E will start the ME phase when they return from the NEG camp being held concurrently with the USST camp at the Whistler Olympic Park next week. I can tell that they are REALLY eager join Sam in these cross-eyed, suffer fests.

All three have seen significant gains in strength over the summer and the next phase will allow us to transfer those strength gains into ski specific power endurance. As a testament to the gains made, here are a couple of shots of Sadie and Erik in Friday's workout. Sadie is doing her pull ups with 30 pounds added. Erik is using 60 lbs and squatting 275. Sam does his pull ups with 95 lbs and we don't have enough weight to find his max squat. We've added big strength with no increase in body weight. Don't let those red eyes fool you these are not zombies or aliens from another planet who have inhabited Sadie and Erik's bodies.

Massage Is Good For You And Me

What with all the training that we as skiers do, recovery is key. In fact, it's recovery which actually benefits us; the training only serves to break our body down while the *proper* recovery allows us to super-compensate for the training and thus come out the other end stronger, faster, better looking, etc etc etc.

We of MOD have been utilizing the extraordinary therapeutic massage services of Alison Hanks, a local licensed massage practitioner and avid long-distance runner. Through both Erik and Sadie's minor injuries this summer and all of our general training fatigue Alison's work has served a crucial purpose in bringing our bodies to a quicker recovery, enabling us to get out and train harder the next day.

Check out her blog: http://alisonhankslmp.blogspot.com.

Canada Wrap Up

We have just returned from our week long camp in  the Squamish/Vancouver area. After four good days of training in Squamish, we moved back to the wet land of Vancouver for the remainder of the week.

Ice baths after the hard workou

Jim and Sharon Bishop were nice enough to let as use their house to live in while they are in Winthrop for the summer. The last couple days were very successful for the four of us. Learning to get around the traffic and finding our destinations were often times the hardest parts of the workout.

 

We got in two very successful rollerski vertical workouts skiing up to the two local alpine ski areas, Seymour and Cyprus. Unfortunately the weather was a little wet, creating a fog that made it impossible to see more than 8 feet in front of you. As we punched out our last ten minutes of 30-30 intervals I got the feeling of winter racing in a snowstorm.

 Sadie coming through the fog

One afternoon we decided to mix it up and try some new training. We spent the afternoon venturing over to the Olympic speed skating oval in Richmond. The four of us ripped around the oval trying to use our Nordic skiing skating skills to propel us along the ice. Let me tell you, the two sports may look very similar in their movements, but the techniques behind them are very different. 

Sam catching a ride

We tried to pick up on the things the instructors were teaching the new skaters, and finally at the end got one of them to give us a short one-minute explanation of the basics of the movements and how to take the corners. I now understand why speed skaters all have huge quads. That sport is a serious leg workout! Along with the speed skating rink there was also a huge gym in the building, so we got in a good strength workout after warming up the legs on the rink. To end our day, on our way home we drove through the heart of the city and walked around downtown doing some window-shopping and people watching.

Sam, Sadie and Erik Speed Skating

 Throughout the week we got in several good intensity sessions, a good long volume session on the last day, and a nice variety in our training. It was a great opportunity for training, but also a good reminder of what we are aiming for. Being surrounded by the hype of the Olympics was a nice reminder of our goals and why we need to be focused and ready to go every day and every workout. While we were downtown we got to watch the Olympic clock tick down.... 215 days until the start of the 2010 Olympic Games!

Canada Camp Pt. 2

We packed our things up from Chris and Katie’s house in Squamish and moved into Jim and Sharon Bishops in Vancouver. The Squamish part of the camp was really successful. We were able to get four rollerski sessions in at the Olympic Park, two of them being interval workouts. It was really neat rollersking on the Olympic courses. Lots of tourist very intrigued by our dry land training, Sam says he saw Jennifer Lopez and Angelina Jolie taking pictures of him while he was doing one of his intervals.




We had lactic acid testing after our interval sessions to make sure we are going hard enough and not too hard. In the evenings we have been mixing the training up with other activities like swimming, bounding, climbing, and we are planning on doing a work out on the Olympic speed skating oval today.

MOD Does Olympic Venue, Pt. 1

The past few days we have been up in Squamish, B.C. and in the Callaghan Valley, the site of the 2010 Olympic cross-country ski races. This week is our first MOD-exclusive training camp and so far it has been very successful. We've been lucky enough to be hosted by Chris Bishop and Kate Drew in their Squamish home which has provided us with great in-and-out access to training locales. The Callaghan Valley is accessed off of the road up to Whistler and it's entrance road is 10km of beautiful uphill rolling pavement, perfect for our interval sessions like this morning's. 

After this morning's workout we took long afternoon naps and then went to Club Flex to pump some iron. Apparently Club Flex caters to the "still-living-in-the-80s" demographic of Squamish, as we were mixed in amongst aging and balding (and rather portly) dudes straining to lift weights they clearly were more comfortable with 20 years ago, all the while listening to some drab post-disco crap on the stereo. Regardless, we finished our workout and after a quick stop back at the house for snacks went up to the Smoke Bluffs in the center of town for some cragging. Squamish is home to some of the best granite climbing in the world and a few routes serve as a great recovery session before dinner. Up later this week: more intervals, a few more sessions on the paved 5K of Olympic courses, speed skating in the oval at Vancouver and more!