Even though there’s still a few weeks of summer, the Labor Day weekend traditionally marks the transition to the Fall training season, and Far West Nordic has wrapped up a highly successful series of summer Junior training camps for 2008.
JUNE LAKE CAMP (recap by Nancy Fiddler)
Our first “all-comers†camp of the season was the ever-popular, traditional June Lakes Camp, held in the beautiful eastern Sierra Nevada area in July. Led by Far West’s Head Coach Ben Grasseschi, with able assistance from Nancy Fiddler and Martin Benes, twenty four Far West Junior athletes from Truckee to Bishop gathered at the Oh! Ridge campground for 4 days of training, including running, strength, hill bounding, swimming, hiking, and even some rock climbing.
</font></center></p><p>Friday's highlights included ski walking at June Mountain, excellent views of a giant osprey nest (including osprey), some refreshing swimming in June Lake, a HOT, dry classic rollerski session near Crowley Lake, and a pasta dinner. At the end of the day, spirits were still high for the team. Any whining that occurred was not because of the training, but because there wasn't going to be a trip to Mammoth Lakes to see The Dark Knight that evening.</p><p><center><img decoding=)
The success of any training camp is based on the attitude and effort of the attendees. June Lake 2008 was an exceptional camp in that the work ethic stayed strong for the duration of the camp. The ages (13-18 yrs.) of the athletes was as varied as the ability and experience, yet there was lots of mutual support for every single kid. There was lots of training, lots of fun, and lots of inspiration.
MARIN HEADLANDS CAMP
After a 4 year hiatus, Far West decided to re-visit the popular Marin Headlands venue near San Francisco for their August “Low Elevation-High Intensity†camp. Open to only Junior Olympic-qualified juniors, this camp is designed for athletes to get a real taste of interval training where the air is nice and thick, and not of the rarified High Sierra variety.
</font></center></p><p>Led by Ben Grasseschi and Jeff Schloss (with some help from Mark Nadell), the Camp began on Tuesday with an interval roller ski session en route to Marin at one of Far West’s favorite spots near Colfax on the west slope of the Sierra. A 3-mile uphill at 1,000 ft. elevation (and near-100 degree heat), this grinder of a hill is perfect for classic rollerskiing, complete with a dip in the icy-cold American River afterward. From there, it’s a drive from the very warm Sierra through the blazing hot Central Valley, only to end up in the fog in the Marin Headlands area between Mt. Tamalpais and the Golden Gate Bridge. A swim in the frigid ocean cemented the athlete’s notion that the climate was going to be a bit different there than what they were used to. Along with the stay at the famous Marin Headlands Youth Hostel (complete with creaky beds and foreign guests bathing their infants at 1 am), the campers soon realized that they weren’t in the mountains anymore.</p><p><center><img decoding=)
LAKE TAHOE/BLISS STATE PARK CAMP
The final event of the summer season was the traditional Labor Day D.L. Bliss Park Camp on the shores of the incomparable Lake Tahoe. Designed more for younger Nordic athletes, this camp featured a little bit of everything, from running to kayaking to peak climbing to rollerskiing.
</font></center></p><p>Led by Maryellen Benier, Lea McKinstry and Mark Nadell, the Tahoe camp began on Friday evening (with school starting BEFORE Labor Day nowadays, it’s hard to fit everything in), with dinner and a hike down to the beach for an evening swim. With the athletes being treated to the revelry of nearby campers singing “Journey†songs well past midnight at the crowded holiday campground, a great night’s sleep was just a fleeting imagination, and a dawn visit by the resident teenage bear cub running through the campsite completed the experience.</p><p><center><img decoding=)
