Before I was a skier I was a runner and before I was a runner my sister was a runner. I was talking to my sister the other day about running and the topic of marathons came up. I expressed some interest in running a marathon and she told me about what kids on her team used to do for their birthdays. They would run a mile for every year that they were alive. I thought it would be a great idea to try and see how I did on a longer run. Unfortunately, I overlooked the fact that my sister and the kids who used to run the birthday runs are really good runners. I still can’t beat my sister in running races, which is going to change next year in the bolder boulder. If only my leg hadn’t fallen asleep! Perhaps I should have drawn the connection between her old teammates who ran this insane run and her old teammate who just won the Leadville 100 mile trial run. But did I? Of course not!
On my birthday I woke up at 7:45 to try and finish the 20 mile run early. (I suppose I could have run 20k but I’m a real American). In my stupid string of ideas that eventually lead me to try this run, I thought “You know what would be fun? To run this whole thing on a track!” Well I did start on a track and I ran 21 and one half laps on the LHS track before I gave up that horrible plan. While I was running on the track I started in Zone 1. After I did some calculating I realized it would take me almost six hours to finish at that pace! I couldn’t handle running for six hours on a track so I gave up and got in my car and drove home.
When I got home I was really bummed. I didn’t want to give up and after some encouraging words with Julianne over texts I decided I would finish the run or at least try my best. So I decided to go up to happy jack and measure out seven and a half miles in my car down the dirt road opposite the tie city parking lot. And I did. After a few more encouraging texts, setting my water bottles behind trees along the road at 3 mile intervals and a plan for my girlfriend to come cheer me on an hour after I left the parking lot (2:13 into the run) I set out. The out and back run was much better than the track, though it wasn’t perfect. I went from running on a flat track on a relatively cool morning to running down a dirt road with a lot of hills at almost 9,000ft at midday in 85 degree weather. But hey, there was more to look at! I didn’t run this stretch of the run at anything close to Zone 1. My max HR was 190 and I think my average was around 170 something but I couldn’t run for six hours! On the scale of eventful runs this stretch of the run, the out part, was extremely uneventful but that was all about to change at the half way point.
I thought Julianne would have met up with me sometime before the halfway point; she was going to drive up and cheer me on! But I got to the half way point and turned around and nothing. I ran back to my first water bottle and realized that I didn’t want to drive all the way back out there to pick it up so I decided to carry it. About that point, 14 miles, is when the difficulty of the run hit me. I can honestly say that’s the first time in my life I’ve run for 3+ hours in zone 3. Small goals my friends! I picked objects that were pretty close to me and I made it my goal to get to that point, so on and so forth leapfrogging from object to object. At about 16 miles the clouds were getting really dark. I heard thunder off in the distance but I kept going. When the flashes and thunder were seven seconds apart I was about to assume the lightening position. Just then the double OG, Julianne, and her pug rolled up in her 1990 Honda Accord on the dirt road. It was awesome to get some encouragement on the last past of my run, I gave her my water bottle and I took off at a good pace for about half a mile but then the storm was getting really bad and I decided to call that section of the run at 17.5 miles and I got a ride back to my car from my awesome girlfriend.
I thought, “Hey I’ll just run the 3.5 miles that I have left in town.” I got back to town and there was an even bigger storm going on in town. At this point, I just wanted to be done, but how could I quit so close to the end? I couldn’t! So I bit the bullet and started to run the last 3.5 miles on my parent’s treadmill. Running on a track is heaven compared to a treadmill. I ran to 18 miles and couldn’t take it! I got off and went upstairs, still pouring and thundering. It might be worthwhile to add, by this point it was already three something in the afternoon and I didn’t want to spend my entire birthday on the run. So I ate my pride and ran the last 2 miles on the treadmill. It was horribly slow and painful at that point but I did it and I made it to the end of 20 on 20.
The whole event took me from 7:45 am to 3:40 pm. The actual running was somewhere around 4 hours but I can’t tell you the exact amount of time because I don’t know. Is there a marathon in my future? I’m not sure, but I am pretty sure that I should stick to middle distance sprints (and skiing of course!)! I wish I had something more to write about other than my epic runs but that’s about all I’ve done this summer. I’m sorry if my tale was boring but I hope you smiled at least once reading this ridiculous story of mine.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
july so far
so the summer is going fast... from the 6-11 my family and i went on a bike trip to Glacier Waterton International Peace Park. we spent 2 days in waterton doing biking and some hiking . Then biked across the border, into the park ,back out and into St. Mary on the east side of glacier park. we then stayed in st. mary for 2 nights doing a ride to two medicine lake and then the next day the famous going to the sun road. it was deffinently one of my favorite rides. the construction wasnt fun though, we had to wait 20 minutes on the way up less than 2 miles from the summit and our legs were hard to get going again after that. the nest night we stayed in whitefish and did a ride around whitefish lake. it was awesome to be out west again. i thought i was lucky to have the week of the trip land on a volume week so that worked out perfectly, i was able to get just over 17 hours that week.
i was also proud of myself for actually training this weekend when i was at my cabin, that normally doesnt happen. i will have grand plans to train up there, but i normally dont get it done, so that was nice . but i think that next time i wont run at 8 pm without a shirt because the mosquitos are horendous this year,
well , live and learn,
peace out homeskillets
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Tri-It-Hi Triathlon
Talk about good old fashioned fun.
Beautiful day, beautiful people (TONS of those), and racing 'til you drop. Just my kind of style.
The Leadville tri is a standard sprint triathlon, 500m swim (in a pool thank God, I think any standing water near Leadville only de-iced about a week ago), a 20K bike (12.2 miles for you Americans), and a 5K run. Then awards and people watching. (Authors note: triathlons are probably the best people watching there is, and for one reason: triathlon suits. Ya know what triathlons suits are? Underwear. Just awesome)
The UW Nordic contingent included myself, Rachel and Christi on tandem, Becca, and Kyle Steitz (for those who don't recognize the name, he's an incoming freshie from Steamboat).
My race started pretty well, with the three other guys in my lane with much faster swim times than I had ever put up, and me set to hang on. Hang on I did, however I think I may gone a little hard. On the swim to run transition I felt rather dizzy from lack of oxygen (for those who don't know, Leadville is at 10,200 ft) and the hard pace. I had a very good transition, and then started the bike leg. The bike leg felt pretty ok, until about 4 miles in when I took a wrong turn, went about a mile up a naty hill, and then back down to return to the course (many thanks to the guy on the motorcycle for turning me around). The best part of the race came after I returned to the course. About a hundred yards ahead was a guy riding fast and hard, and being pissed about the wrong turn, I chased him down, and we dueled for the remainder of the bike leg, with him gapping me by about 15 seconds by the end. I talked to him afterwards, and he said I was the first person who has ever passed him on the bike leg (and it wasn't his first rodeo). He ended up turning in about the 3rd (out of almost 300) fastest bike time. The run didn't feel so well, I was still pretty bummed about the lost time on the bike (I think it was about 3 minutes), so I wasn't exactly committed to putting myself through a lot of pain on the run, although I definately pushed it enough to make it hurt. When all was said and done I sat in 14th out of about 300 racers, so pretty good for me.
Thanks to Ferne and the Boggs's for the neverending amazing hospitality that makes Leadville my favorite town to race in any sport!!!
Beautiful day, beautiful people (TONS of those), and racing 'til you drop. Just my kind of style.
The Leadville tri is a standard sprint triathlon, 500m swim (in a pool thank God, I think any standing water near Leadville only de-iced about a week ago), a 20K bike (12.2 miles for you Americans), and a 5K run. Then awards and people watching. (Authors note: triathlons are probably the best people watching there is, and for one reason: triathlon suits. Ya know what triathlons suits are? Underwear. Just awesome)
The UW Nordic contingent included myself, Rachel and Christi on tandem, Becca, and Kyle Steitz (for those who don't recognize the name, he's an incoming freshie from Steamboat).
My race started pretty well, with the three other guys in my lane with much faster swim times than I had ever put up, and me set to hang on. Hang on I did, however I think I may gone a little hard. On the swim to run transition I felt rather dizzy from lack of oxygen (for those who don't know, Leadville is at 10,200 ft) and the hard pace. I had a very good transition, and then started the bike leg. The bike leg felt pretty ok, until about 4 miles in when I took a wrong turn, went about a mile up a naty hill, and then back down to return to the course (many thanks to the guy on the motorcycle for turning me around). The best part of the race came after I returned to the course. About a hundred yards ahead was a guy riding fast and hard, and being pissed about the wrong turn, I chased him down, and we dueled for the remainder of the bike leg, with him gapping me by about 15 seconds by the end. I talked to him afterwards, and he said I was the first person who has ever passed him on the bike leg (and it wasn't his first rodeo). He ended up turning in about the 3rd (out of almost 300) fastest bike time. The run didn't feel so well, I was still pretty bummed about the lost time on the bike (I think it was about 3 minutes), so I wasn't exactly committed to putting myself through a lot of pain on the run, although I definately pushed it enough to make it hurt. When all was said and done I sat in 14th out of about 300 racers, so pretty good for me.
Thanks to Ferne and the Boggs's for the neverending amazing hospitality that makes Leadville my favorite town to race in any sport!!!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
How about that rest day!
I know most of you struggle with rest days, either taking too many or, more likely, not taking enough.
Joe found a great blog posting with ideas for how to best deal with those endless rest days without going completely crazy.
Enjoy! http://blogs.fasterskier.com/brookegosling/2008/07/10/rest-days/
Joe found a great blog posting with ideas for how to best deal with those endless rest days without going completely crazy.
Enjoy! http://blogs.fasterskier.com/brookegosling/2008/07/10/rest-days/
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Excellent Fun Ride!
While some people were nursing a hangover and sleeping in on July 5th Rachel and I took advantage of a wonderful opportunity provided by Trevor driving to Denver to ride somewhere different.
We drove to Fort Collins bright and early on Saturday morning and left our truck at Christi's uncle's house. We put together our folding tandem and took off riding towards Boulder. Not the direct direction though, we found a much better route!
We started by riding the Fort Collins bike path to the very end of the route, right up to the base of Horsetooth Reservoir. We climbed the hill and headed towards Masonville. It was an amazing ride, lots of hills but nothing too tough. Masonville was beautiful, with the green land, flowers, lakes, rivers, etc.
After Masonville we road downhill for awhile and crossed the road up to Estes Park. We didn't ride up that road long but turned off on a small, quiet road heading over the next set of hills. It was a great road, more cyclists than cars and the view from the top was great. At the top we decided to ride on down to the frontrange so Trevor could have some chance of finding us. We road down towards Berthoud but then took another small road down to Longmont.
By now it was past 11am and it was getting REALLY hot. We were tired, dehydrated (despite having lots to drink and drinking it) and ready for a ride. Trevor and Shannon picked us up at a gass station in Longmont and we were excited to have had such a great ride!
Due to the extreme hilliness of the ride it took us about 4 hours to do 42ish miles. The approximate route we took can be found here.
We drove to Fort Collins bright and early on Saturday morning and left our truck at Christi's uncle's house. We put together our folding tandem and took off riding towards Boulder. Not the direct direction though, we found a much better route!
We started by riding the Fort Collins bike path to the very end of the route, right up to the base of Horsetooth Reservoir. We climbed the hill and headed towards Masonville. It was an amazing ride, lots of hills but nothing too tough. Masonville was beautiful, with the green land, flowers, lakes, rivers, etc.
After Masonville we road downhill for awhile and crossed the road up to Estes Park. We didn't ride up that road long but turned off on a small, quiet road heading over the next set of hills. It was a great road, more cyclists than cars and the view from the top was great. At the top we decided to ride on down to the frontrange so Trevor could have some chance of finding us. We road down towards Berthoud but then took another small road down to Longmont.
By now it was past 11am and it was getting REALLY hot. We were tired, dehydrated (despite having lots to drink and drinking it) and ready for a ride. Trevor and Shannon picked us up at a gass station in Longmont and we were excited to have had such a great ride!
Due to the extreme hilliness of the ride it took us about 4 hours to do 42ish miles. The approximate route we took can be found here.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Good article about training when you're sick...
I usually send these articles out to the list-serve but I thought others might benefit from the article as well.
Those of you what have worked with us know that we are always harping on not training when you are sick or injured. I found an article that's very clear and concise about how to tell and why. There are actually 4 parts of the article and they're all useful, except for the second one that talks about running a marathon when you are over 40!
Anyway check it out! http://www.active.com/women/Articles/Ask_the_Experts__Exercise_Well.htm?act=EMC-eNews_Wmn_0708&link=11
Those of you what have worked with us know that we are always harping on not training when you are sick or injured. I found an article that's very clear and concise about how to tell and why. There are actually 4 parts of the article and they're all useful, except for the second one that talks about running a marathon when you are over 40!
Anyway check it out! http://www.active.com/women/Articles/Ask_the_Experts__Exercise_Well.htm?act=EMC-eNews_Wmn_0708&link=11
Monday, June 30, 2008
Old balls +1
That's right Johnny, you will be old balls + 1! I soon will be (gulp!?!) 23 years old! Still one month to go for me!
I thought I would just give everyone a quick update on my training, etc, here in AK. I have been working a week on week off schedule on the north slope of AK so to keep myself motivated while in the field I signed up for 2 half marathons this summer. The first was the Mayor's half marathon, here in Anchorage and it was June 21st. I trained for about 7 weeks for it and I am definitely thinking I could have used some more training! I did 2 weeks of 6-miles a day on a treadmill (time on slope), then did 2 weeks of "altitude" training at about 4 miles a day with the Bolder Boulder thrown in (my trip home to WY), then a week of 6-miles a day on the treadmill (slope), a week of hiking around AK (friends came to visit), then a few days of the 6-miles on the treadmill at various speeds, then it was time to "taper" for the race! I kept increasing my speed and incline on the treadmill with every subsequent workout so I would not hit a plateau. My goal time for the race was set at under 2 hours, I had run a half in January in 2:08, and one last April at 2:16.
So race day comes and it is a beautiful AK summer day...meaning rainy and about 50 degrees! It was all pavement but followed the coastal trail so the scenery was beautiful! I was shooting for 9 minute miles but started fast, my first mile was under 8 minutes, then every mile after that was 8 minutes give or take a few seconds, then I hit mile 10. From miles 4-10 I ran with a 54 year old woman whose goal was to beat her time of 1:53 from 9 years ago, she runs half marathons and marathon all the time, definitely one of those "old" people I want to be! We stuck together until mile 10, which we hit at exactly 1:20....then I started to fade a bit so she took off and I was on my own, at which point my legs decided that 6 miles on the treadmill didn't quite make them strong enough, I averaged just over 10 minute miles for the last 3 miles but was able to run up the last hill at the end. The result was I finished in 1:55, 5 minutes under my goal! I was pretty stoked!
My next race is the middle of August and I think I am going to shoot for 1:50, I am done working in the field so I can get much more pavement running in so hopefully that will help!
I hope everyone is doing well with their summer training! Tonight Katie, Liz, Russ, and Patrick and I are meeting for dinner! I can't wait!
I thought I would just give everyone a quick update on my training, etc, here in AK. I have been working a week on week off schedule on the north slope of AK so to keep myself motivated while in the field I signed up for 2 half marathons this summer. The first was the Mayor's half marathon, here in Anchorage and it was June 21st. I trained for about 7 weeks for it and I am definitely thinking I could have used some more training! I did 2 weeks of 6-miles a day on a treadmill (time on slope), then did 2 weeks of "altitude" training at about 4 miles a day with the Bolder Boulder thrown in (my trip home to WY), then a week of 6-miles a day on the treadmill (slope), a week of hiking around AK (friends came to visit), then a few days of the 6-miles on the treadmill at various speeds, then it was time to "taper" for the race! I kept increasing my speed and incline on the treadmill with every subsequent workout so I would not hit a plateau. My goal time for the race was set at under 2 hours, I had run a half in January in 2:08, and one last April at 2:16.
So race day comes and it is a beautiful AK summer day...meaning rainy and about 50 degrees! It was all pavement but followed the coastal trail so the scenery was beautiful! I was shooting for 9 minute miles but started fast, my first mile was under 8 minutes, then every mile after that was 8 minutes give or take a few seconds, then I hit mile 10. From miles 4-10 I ran with a 54 year old woman whose goal was to beat her time of 1:53 from 9 years ago, she runs half marathons and marathon all the time, definitely one of those "old" people I want to be! We stuck together until mile 10, which we hit at exactly 1:20....then I started to fade a bit so she took off and I was on my own, at which point my legs decided that 6 miles on the treadmill didn't quite make them strong enough, I averaged just over 10 minute miles for the last 3 miles but was able to run up the last hill at the end. The result was I finished in 1:55, 5 minutes under my goal! I was pretty stoked!
My next race is the middle of August and I think I am going to shoot for 1:50, I am done working in the field so I can get much more pavement running in so hopefully that will help!
I hope everyone is doing well with their summer training! Tonight Katie, Liz, Russ, and Patrick and I are meeting for dinner! I can't wait!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Is it fall yet?!
So I'm sittig at home on my lunch break covered in dirt and concrete. I've been working ten hour days and they havent been very fun. On top of that i'm still trying to stick to my training the best as I can and also play drums in my band several times a week. I am ready for a vacation! I've also been noticing my brain going into knowladge withdrawls. So I actually started studying the other night. Who would've ever thought that I, John Kirlin, would be studying chemestry in the summer! I know i never saw this coming! Maybe I am just getting old. Friday is my 23rd birthday, so according to the Gangle, I'm old balls plus one. YIKES!
I'm ready for the fall semester to start. I'm excited that we are getting some new skiers, and am ready to start kicking ass again with our returning athletes!
Well its about time for me to head back to the concrete! hooray!
P.s. Fitz, way to get your ass moving on that run! Next time I'm in town, I'll run it with you
I'm ready for the fall semester to start. I'm excited that we are getting some new skiers, and am ready to start kicking ass again with our returning athletes!
Well its about time for me to head back to the concrete! hooray!
P.s. Fitz, way to get your ass moving on that run! Next time I'm in town, I'll run it with you
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
2 Hour Volume Run
My whole life Pilot Hill has been looming in the distance. From the days of my young athletic career I had the goal of running to the top. I finally achieved that goal on Sunday! The two hour Zone 1 run I had planned on Sunday was never meant to summit the “hill.” Setting out on 2 hour runs can be a daunting task for me so I figure the best way to ensure that I will run for two hours is to run for an hour from my house. When I hit an hour I’ll turn around and then I’ll be forced to run the two hours whether I want to or not. As it turns out, Laramie isn’t that large and when you run for an hour in one direction you’ll end up out of town and when I’m out of town I run on the dirt roads that litter the perimeter of the city. I hadn’t planned on running the hill climb but when I got to 50 minutes up a dirt road and I noticed how close I was the summit I knew I couldn’t stop so close to my goal. 35 minutes later I got to the top! It wasn’t as great as I had hoped, I just wanted water! Next time I’m going to take a page from coaches’ book and bring a water belt, even though I hate running with one. To add to the blistering heat when I turned around at the summit I saw a thunderstorm coming. Turns out I was the tallest thing within miles and I was six plus miles from home! I won’t say that the return run was anywhere close to Zone 1 but I made it home safe and accomplished one of my life goals. In the end I found my new favorite Sunday Volume run. I’m not sure how long it is from my house, but I used Google Earth and figured out it’s a change of close to 3000 feet in elevation. It’s a great run! If anyone wants to go and you are in town let me know! I hope everyone’s summer training is going well, I know mine is!Sunday, June 22, 2008
Summer Ski Camp...
Well it's been a couple of weeks since the end of the High School Summer Ski Camp and no one has written about it!
I chalk this up to being busy or having too much fun, this has been my reasons for not posting.
So here it goes...
Day 1: We (Rachel, Christi, Team Leaders and Ev & Dick) all arrive at the camp about 1pm on Saturday to get setup and ready to go. The team leaders for the camp are Joe, John, Justin, Erin J, Gracey and Topher. Topher isn't here yet, I think we forgot to tell him to be early and Justin decided to go hunting with his car and hit a deer on the way down. He won't join us until Sunday.
Quick meeting and moving into cabins and the athletes start arriving.
This is a fun part as the athletes arrive and we get to meet everyone or see familiar faces again.
This year we have a special treat and the Yoga instructor from UW Campus Rec has agreed to come out to the camp and do a Yoga session for the early arrivals. We have most of the athetes there, just a few running a little late, so she holds an hour session on the grass in front of the lodge. Very cool, Yoga builds flexibility, strength, concentraion and body control all of which are essential for skiing fast! It is also a wonderful activity to help with relaxation, which the coaches and most of the college athletes can really use!
After a wonderful dinner of mexican food we have the Welcome and the explanations of how the camp will work. Everyone is excited and looking forward to skiing in the morning. The only problem is that it started to rain about 5pm and now it's snowing. We're not sure about the crust in the morning, afraid it won't be hard enough to ski on.
Day 2: Sunday dawns gloomy and cold and we're still a little worried about the crust. We arrive and the crust is not our problem, it's strong and hard but there is 6 inches of new snow on top of the crust! Wow! Exciting for those of us that can't get enough snow but really tough to skate in. We basically just trudged around through the deep snow, it was like a winter wonderland!
Back down for a fantastic breakfast, rest, lectures/meetings, lunch, rest, then out for our distance run. It had turned into a beautiful day for running, not too hot. We started as one group and gradually split everyone up into smaller ones, according to their heart rate. It was a wonderful run!
We came back to the camp and did a strength circuit on the grass. Great fun despite some confusion about which station was next.
After another amazing dinner, spagetti this time, we had a special treat of having Sarah Konrad come out and give a talk and answer questions. Sarah is the only American woman to qualify for two events in the same Olympics, Cross-Country and Biathlon. She's a great person and is always a treat for the athletes to talk to and ask questions of. We're lucky because Sarah lives and works in Laramie at UW!
After the lecture is free time and individual meetings with the college coaches for those athletes who wish to ask specific questions, want individual training or just want to talk about anything!
Day 3: Bright and beautiful. The skiing this morning was AMAZING, as good or better than we've ever seen it! Hard, fast crust, tons of snow so miles of skiing and a nice temperature. It can't be beat!
Back for Breakfast, meetings, rest, meetings, lunch, rest, meetings and finally we're ready for the really tough workout, hill bounding! We always do our hill bounding at the base of Snowy Range Ski Area. It's a great place with a steep hill and it's deserted at this time of year. As a testament to the massive amount of snow we had the place we usually do bounds still had some snow so we moved over to another run. It was beautiful, not too hot and a hard workout. The skiing for the past 2 days was so hard that many of the athletes were starting to get really tired but on the whole it went' extremely well.
Back for dinner and a rest and then we had Don Quinn for our evening lecture. Don was the high school coach for Lake Country High School, in Leadville, Co for over 30 years. During this time he had upward of 30 High School champions and a bunch of National Champions. All from a small town in the Colorado Mountains! Don gave a great lecture about skiing and life.
The day ended with free time, more individual coaching meetings and blowball!
Day 4: Another amazing day of crust skiing. So much fun that it seems like a dream. We did a little technique work with those who were interested and the rest had their last fun day on snow for the summer.
Breakfast and then one of the best activities of the camp, the teams course. This year it had a theme, map and a storyline. There were no instructions given verbally just maps handed to each group and they were off. It was great fun and everyone had a great time.
At the conclusion of the teams course is lunch and camp clean-up. Most everyone is sorry to go. They made great friends, skied, ate amazing food and hopefully learned something about how to train for skiing.
Pictures from the camp can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/uwyonordic
We had a great time and hope to see you all at camp next year!
I chalk this up to being busy or having too much fun, this has been my reasons for not posting.
So here it goes...
Day 1: We (Rachel, Christi, Team Leaders and Ev & Dick) all arrive at the camp about 1pm on Saturday to get setup and ready to go. The team leaders for the camp are Joe, John, Justin, Erin J, Gracey and Topher. Topher isn't here yet, I think we forgot to tell him to be early and Justin decided to go hunting with his car and hit a deer on the way down. He won't join us until Sunday.
Quick meeting and moving into cabins and the athletes start arriving.
This is a fun part as the athletes arrive and we get to meet everyone or see familiar faces again.
This year we have a special treat and the Yoga instructor from UW Campus Rec has agreed to come out to the camp and do a Yoga session for the early arrivals. We have most of the athetes there, just a few running a little late, so she holds an hour session on the grass in front of the lodge. Very cool, Yoga builds flexibility, strength, concentraion and body control all of which are essential for skiing fast! It is also a wonderful activity to help with relaxation, which the coaches and most of the college athletes can really use!
After a wonderful dinner of mexican food we have the Welcome and the explanations of how the camp will work. Everyone is excited and looking forward to skiing in the morning. The only problem is that it started to rain about 5pm and now it's snowing. We're not sure about the crust in the morning, afraid it won't be hard enough to ski on.
Day 2: Sunday dawns gloomy and cold and we're still a little worried about the crust. We arrive and the crust is not our problem, it's strong and hard but there is 6 inches of new snow on top of the crust! Wow! Exciting for those of us that can't get enough snow but really tough to skate in. We basically just trudged around through the deep snow, it was like a winter wonderland!
Back down for a fantastic breakfast, rest, lectures/meetings, lunch, rest, then out for our distance run. It had turned into a beautiful day for running, not too hot. We started as one group and gradually split everyone up into smaller ones, according to their heart rate. It was a wonderful run!
We came back to the camp and did a strength circuit on the grass. Great fun despite some confusion about which station was next.
After another amazing dinner, spagetti this time, we had a special treat of having Sarah Konrad come out and give a talk and answer questions. Sarah is the only American woman to qualify for two events in the same Olympics, Cross-Country and Biathlon. She's a great person and is always a treat for the athletes to talk to and ask questions of. We're lucky because Sarah lives and works in Laramie at UW!
After the lecture is free time and individual meetings with the college coaches for those athletes who wish to ask specific questions, want individual training or just want to talk about anything!
Day 3: Bright and beautiful. The skiing this morning was AMAZING, as good or better than we've ever seen it! Hard, fast crust, tons of snow so miles of skiing and a nice temperature. It can't be beat!
Back for Breakfast, meetings, rest, meetings, lunch, rest, meetings and finally we're ready for the really tough workout, hill bounding! We always do our hill bounding at the base of Snowy Range Ski Area. It's a great place with a steep hill and it's deserted at this time of year. As a testament to the massive amount of snow we had the place we usually do bounds still had some snow so we moved over to another run. It was beautiful, not too hot and a hard workout. The skiing for the past 2 days was so hard that many of the athletes were starting to get really tired but on the whole it went' extremely well.
Back for dinner and a rest and then we had Don Quinn for our evening lecture. Don was the high school coach for Lake Country High School, in Leadville, Co for over 30 years. During this time he had upward of 30 High School champions and a bunch of National Champions. All from a small town in the Colorado Mountains! Don gave a great lecture about skiing and life.
The day ended with free time, more individual coaching meetings and blowball!
Day 4: Another amazing day of crust skiing. So much fun that it seems like a dream. We did a little technique work with those who were interested and the rest had their last fun day on snow for the summer.
Breakfast and then one of the best activities of the camp, the teams course. This year it had a theme, map and a storyline. There were no instructions given verbally just maps handed to each group and they were off. It was great fun and everyone had a great time.
At the conclusion of the teams course is lunch and camp clean-up. Most everyone is sorry to go. They made great friends, skied, ate amazing food and hopefully learned something about how to train for skiing.
Pictures from the camp can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/uwyonordic
We had a great time and hope to see you all at camp next year!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Idaho
I have been in Idaho for about 2 weeks now. The bike path is long and has some very pretty parts to it. So far the weather has been rainy and cool which I like because I am not ready for 100 degree weather. It is supposed to be 85 this weekend so it is coming :( I joined a gym so I can keep up my swimming and lifting so I can get everything back that I lost from surgery. Everything is going great; I have done activities from camping to checking out the night life in downtown Boise. It's great. The best part is I get to see Ashley!!
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
summer!
well, i've been home for almost a month now, and it has been nice. i got a new road bike and have been riding that and gotten into some running. so far i have been trying to follow the plan and i think this will show some improvement , im hoping...but now i,ve started work and have still been able to do some training after that so everything is going good. except the bird eating mosquitos!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Final Wrap-up part 2
We made it to the airport with little trouble and with so much time to spare they couldn't even check their luggage, which was annoying after having to haul it all day. All they wanted was to get rid of it!
As soon as we saw them through security we went to Enterprise to pick up our reserved car. We got a VW Polo, really nice little car, and headed to Blackpool. Should have been a 4 hour drive but there was an accident in Preston and it took us a little longer. We still got there in time to visit with my relatives Joan and Arthur before they headed to Scotland while we minded Eleanor.
The purpose of this part of the trip was solely to visit Eleanor who is my Grandmother's cousin. Eleanor is one of the most amazing and special people I have ever met. I feel blessed and lucky to have her in my life. We were hoping to get a chance to take her out a little but at 92 we weren't sure this would happen.
It did! First we spent the morning planting some flowers she had waiting for Rachel. It was fun. Then we went up to Fleetwood to do iChat with my parents and Holly and then went to Charity shops in Cleveleys. Rachel and I bought about $200 worth of clothing to wear to work, shirts and suits for about $40! I love Charity shops!
We had a great dinner of Fish & Chips and then delivered Eleanor back to her house and headed to our Bed & Breakfast. It is a great place, Norwood, with great food.
The next day we were more ambitious and headed to Tatton Park, about a 1 hour drive. It was well worth it, the flowers were truly amazing! The fun part was trying to push Eleanor's wheelchair through the deep gravel, over the grass, through the woods and over the roots. We managed it with no mishaps so we'll call it a success.
We went home after that and made Eleanor Pancakes. They don't have them in England and she loves them from her visits to the US. We said goodbye after dinner, went back to the B&B and packed.
Thursday went extremely well, long but well. No missed planes, lost luggage or anything. When we go to Denver we had texts about tornado warnings in Laramie, which actually hit! Our house was spared all but the back gate so we feel lucky. My parents drove us up, which was good because I fell asleep about 20 times, through the wind, snow, fog and mess that was left after the tornados. Talk about freaky!
Anyway, we're home now and getting caught up on some work and getting ready for the ski camp, yay!
It was a fantastic trip! You can find more pictures than you can possibly want to see online at http://picasaweb.google.com/boggsarosa2
As soon as we saw them through security we went to Enterprise to pick up our reserved car. We got a VW Polo, really nice little car, and headed to Blackpool. Should have been a 4 hour drive but there was an accident in Preston and it took us a little longer. We still got there in time to visit with my relatives Joan and Arthur before they headed to Scotland while we minded Eleanor.
The purpose of this part of the trip was solely to visit Eleanor who is my Grandmother's cousin. Eleanor is one of the most amazing and special people I have ever met. I feel blessed and lucky to have her in my life. We were hoping to get a chance to take her out a little but at 92 we weren't sure this would happen.
It did! First we spent the morning planting some flowers she had waiting for Rachel. It was fun. Then we went up to Fleetwood to do iChat with my parents and Holly and then went to Charity shops in Cleveleys. Rachel and I bought about $200 worth of clothing to wear to work, shirts and suits for about $40! I love Charity shops!
We had a great dinner of Fish & Chips and then delivered Eleanor back to her house and headed to our Bed & Breakfast. It is a great place, Norwood, with great food.
The next day we were more ambitious and headed to Tatton Park, about a 1 hour drive. It was well worth it, the flowers were truly amazing! The fun part was trying to push Eleanor's wheelchair through the deep gravel, over the grass, through the woods and over the roots. We managed it with no mishaps so we'll call it a success.
We went home after that and made Eleanor Pancakes. They don't have them in England and she loves them from her visits to the US. We said goodbye after dinner, went back to the B&B and packed.
Thursday went extremely well, long but well. No missed planes, lost luggage or anything. When we go to Denver we had texts about tornado warnings in Laramie, which actually hit! Our house was spared all but the back gate so we feel lucky. My parents drove us up, which was good because I fell asleep about 20 times, through the wind, snow, fog and mess that was left after the tornados. Talk about freaky!
Anyway, we're home now and getting caught up on some work and getting ready for the ski camp, yay!
It was a fantastic trip! You can find more pictures than you can possibly want to see online at http://picasaweb.google.com/boggsarosa2
Friday, May 23, 2008
Final Wrap-up
Well, as you can probably tell internet access became extremely few and far between after the last posting. Boy a lot has happened since then.
A quick wrap-up of the last part of the trip.
Canterbury, really cool, old, cathedral with great story about a murder. Town was really cool too. Great fish and chips and high tea.
Dover - Amazing castle, the White Cliffs, really great walk along the cliffs, tons of snails, great lunch at the tea house, not so awesome "The Siege Experience", cool tunnels in castle, Kabob place for dinner, freaking steep hill back up to campground.
Drive back to London - Cool house and amazing garden, GPS rocks but was set on bicycle so went the long way back, driving on left on tiny roads in not tiny car, great Indian food, reached the Generator in the middle of party night, little overwhelming.
London Day 1 - British Museum, ROSETTA STONE!, temples, egyptian artifacts, amazingness! Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliment, SoHo, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, great lunch and dinner, more more more!
London Day 2 - Amazing breakfast, changing of the guard, the Tube, Tower of London, Tate Modern, SoHo for chinese dinner, cute french guys and their cafe for coffee and dessert, more more more!
On Monday Trevor and Ashley flew out. The trip to the Airport was amazingly easy, for this type of thing. We left the Generator with all our bikes and gear packed. Trevor and Ashley had wheels and Rachel and I carried ours. The wheels worked well but needed a little practice to manage.
More later... It's time for dinner!
A quick wrap-up of the last part of the trip.
Canterbury, really cool, old, cathedral with great story about a murder. Town was really cool too. Great fish and chips and high tea.
Dover - Amazing castle, the White Cliffs, really great walk along the cliffs, tons of snails, great lunch at the tea house, not so awesome "The Siege Experience", cool tunnels in castle, Kabob place for dinner, freaking steep hill back up to campground.
Drive back to London - Cool house and amazing garden, GPS rocks but was set on bicycle so went the long way back, driving on left on tiny roads in not tiny car, great Indian food, reached the Generator in the middle of party night, little overwhelming.
London Day 1 - British Museum, ROSETTA STONE!, temples, egyptian artifacts, amazingness! Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliment, SoHo, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, great lunch and dinner, more more more!
London Day 2 - Amazing breakfast, changing of the guard, the Tube, Tower of London, Tate Modern, SoHo for chinese dinner, cute french guys and their cafe for coffee and dessert, more more more!
On Monday Trevor and Ashley flew out. The trip to the Airport was amazingly easy, for this type of thing. We left the Generator with all our bikes and gear packed. Trevor and Ashley had wheels and Rachel and I carried ours. The wheels worked well but needed a little practice to manage.
More later... It's time for dinner!
DU camp Day 2.
BRUTAL!!
The plan for the day was to drive out to Red Rocks and do stair intervals, but it appears that the one high school in the Denver Metro area that isn't graduating at DU yesterday and today had booked the amphitheater for their commencement ceremony. So, the coach decided that we would head out to Falcon park, about a five minute drive away, with a sweet uphill trail system. Once we got there, we ran uphill for thirty minutes for our warmup, I was pretty stoked that I was able to stay in zone one the whole time on the warmup and keep up with all the DU guys. After the warmup we did a zone 4 interval ladder, 1-2-3-4-3-2-1. This was pretty rough stuff, with enough guys to push the pace the whole way that they only got faster throughout. On the first one we all stayed together, on the second one the DU coach tore past us and gapped Havard Selseng and I by about 20 meters by the time we finished. At the start of the third, Havard yells that we can't let him win another, so I dropped the hammer and didn't look back until Havard came around me with about 30 seconds to go, and it was just the two of us. The rest of the intervals were the same, with Havard and I gapping everyone else, with me leading until about 30-45 seconds to go, at which point Havard would lead until the finish. On the very last interval I managed to push hard enough that Havard couldn't come around, and I actually gapped him by a bit at the end, a damn good finish to my two day hard block! Afterwards, as we were coming down, I got some pretty inspiring comments from Havard, who is a total badass. He is Norwegian, as you might be able to tell from the name, and quite fast. We were having a conversation about trying to lose some extra body fat which we had both accumulated thanks to "college diets" (read: beer). As we talked about it he said to me "if you ski as fast as you run, it isn't hurting you." To which I said something to the affect of "well you kick the crap out of me on skis." He gave me a surprised look and said "Well you've definitely got the endurance, so it will come soon." Yes!!! It's awesome to see that my work finally seems to be paying off, enough that a truly elite skier thinks I can be really fast! I'm pretty exited about the training camp and all that we've done, and especially how I've handled two of the hardest training sessions in years on two consecutive days with really fast guys.
Here's to hard work.
Joe
Thursday, May 22, 2008
ADVENTURE!!!
Lots of things to talk about today, and not enough space to write it!
First, I drove down to Denver via Ft. Collins, and apparently drove straight-dead-center through a storm that produced nearly ten tornado's in two states, all right along the path I drove. While I seem to have missed the twisters, I definitely drove right through some of the hardest rain and hail I've ever seen. I stopped the car (borrowed from Dan and Karin Bergum, to whom I am forever in debt, 30mpg is so much better than 9) because I was honestly worried that the windshield would break. The highway had so much very hard hail on it that it felt like driving on a gravel road, nuts. It wasn't until I got to Ft. Collins and the sun came out that I turned on the radio and realized I had just driven right down the throat of the lion. Weee!!
I got to Denver about 10 minutes until practice started for the DU ski team. This was the purpose of the trip. Three days of trying to hang with and learn from some of the best college skiers from the country. The workout today entailed a ski up Lookout Mountain. No idea how high or what grade or anything, not that steep, but frickin long. And pretty much uphill for a long long long time. On our way up we did four seven minute "L3" intervals. I use quotations because I was not in zone three. Well, I was on the first on, but went downhill from there, haha. Skiing with me was Mike Hinckley, Harold Loevenskiold, and a kid whose name I think was Karl, not sure who he was. Oh, and Garrot Kuzzy. Garrot, not being mortal, did single-stick intervals up the damn thing while we skated. I'm not sure if he was doing the same intervals, but he definitely beat us to the top. Damn. Anyway, first interval I stayed with them in the right zone, but after that I was about 6-7 beats higher than them, but staying with Mike and dropping Harold and Karl every time. It was awesome!!! Even though I was going a bit to hard, it felt great to push that hard. By the end of the last interval, I was pretty damn tired, but it felt awesome to be skiing WITH or ahead of two guys (Mike and Harold) who've both finished in the top six in the RMISA (rocky mountain ncaa region). I'm going in the right direction. I think for the rest of the summer I would like to come here and train with them a couple times a month. This is what I need to get fat. Skiing behind Mike while he V2'd the first two intervals was frickin impressive, I was doing my best to keep up, and I was V1'ing. On the third interval, I said "screw this, I'm hanging with this guy", and V2'd for nearly the whole thing breaking into V1 for about the last 30 seconds, which were steep enough that even Mike let himself slow down. It was awesome to sit behind him and figure out how he could V2 straight up the side of this damn mountain, very powerfully, and yet be efficient enough to hold it for seven minutes hard. And then to be able to DO it was so cool! Training with those faster than you is always an eye opening experience, and one which should happen often to make you a stronger skier.
Keep up the good work.
Joe
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Medicine Bow
Today I roller skied up the road to Medicine Bow peak, and saw a bit of leftover snow on the way up,...........
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The Weather
Well folks,
It looks like there is not going to be any sort of snow shortage for ski camp. It's been snowing down in town since about 6:00 last night, and we have about three inches where it stuck, I would imagine Medicine Bow peak got about a foot. We may not be crust skiing, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we get a powder day in there!!
Hope all is well and looking forward to seeing those of you who are coming to the camp!!!
Joe
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