Athletes from the Callaghan Valley Training Center, a new Canadian National Athlete Development Center are submitting weekly reports to FasterSkier.com. The writings bring personal perspectives on training, skiing, and life in general. This will be an ongoing series so check back for more reports from these young athletes! The first several pieces are from earlier in the fall.
For the past 3 months a small group of very talented cross country skiers and a world class coach have been training together as the Callaghan Valley Training Center, a newly established NADC, located in beautiful Squamish, B.C.
Our first official team training as a group took place at the Haig glacier in early July. Some of us meeting for the first time and others catching up, needless to say it was a great camp with great weather and amazing skiing. We were fortunate enough to have 2 more opportunities to ski during the summer months up to this point, once more at the Haig and the other with the B.C. ski team in Smithers B.C. Each camp showed huge improvements as individuals and a team.
A big component of our training is based on monitoring and testing, knowing when our bodies are ready to push and when to rest. V02 max testing, a level 1 running test and an uphill running time trial are some of the tests we use to make sure we are headed in the right direction. With all the training we do together you would think that we would all be sick of each other, not the case, we have been known to engage in a fair share of intense Bocce ball games.
As the leaves begin changing (yes they are starting to!) we are reminded that our first set of races are only 72 days away! The team heads into a rest period, not just for the body, but for the mind. In the next 2 months we will be faced with some of the hardest training of the year, this will take 100% focus, which is why we must use the rest we have been allotted to the fullest we can.
