It’s coming in on almost a week now that I’ve been training in Lake Placid with the USST’s last dryland camp of the year. Things started off big last Friday with the Whiteface Hillclimb, a brutal reminder of how much rollerskiing in general sucks and also 45 minute uphills on bumpy pavement against 50mph headwinds. All things considered though, this was the third year I’ve done the race and it was the best weather and the best I’ve felt by far. It was great to be on top of Whiteface and actually get to check out the ‘360 degree panoramic views’ they advertise for the Climb to the Castle. We had the whole Craftsbury crew over here for that including Mama Pepa, so it was nice to have our whole team get in on a race like this with high national competition.
Since then, it’s been a speed workout, a day off, and two more days of really hard intervals with the USST and their NEG/NTG squads. Yesterday we had tough V1 max skate intervals up Schaeffer Rd. in Keene with shuttles bringing 30+ rollerskiers down in between sets of intervals. It was quite a scene on that hill but fortunately the traffic was low and all the drivers more awed than annoyed with what was going on.
Tim, Pat and Sylvan just a little tired at the end of the workout.
Today was 6×4 minutes of vo2max bounding intervals up Whiteface. It was a tough workout and everyone here is definitely looking forward to an easy day tomorrow before rolling in to two more days of big speed with a prologue and a sprint time trial.
Tim, Sylvan, Dylan and Pat charging on our 4th interval today.
