With just a few weeks at home in the county we are yet again preparing for travel, this time to Canmore, Alberta where the senior athletes have trials races for the December World Cups and IBU races. For the rest of the team it will serve as some solid on-snow (hopefully) training before heading to Minnesota in December for our first Nor-Am Cup races of the ’10-’11 season.
October took us to Midway, Utah for a two week stint of training at Soldier Hollow, home of the 2002 Winter Olympic Nordic events. Overall the camp was a success, complete with lots of training, cooking, baking, Bananagrams, pool, and team bonding. We also got a bunch of skis stone ground while we were there, so lots of waxing took place in our very spacious garage which was also the only spot where we had wireless internet! The weather held up wonderfully and handed us but one rainy day. The rest of the time we had chilly clear mornings with temps warming up into the 60s and low 70s most afternoons.
Aside from training at Soldier Hollow, we hiked at Park City Resort on their single-track mountain biking trails, classic skied up East Canyon, and hiked andran on the slopes of Mount Timpanogos (2nd highest mountain in Utah’s Wasatch Range – 11,749’). The trip to Timpanogos was probably the most scenic of our trip even though we didn’t have enough time to make it all the way up the mountain. Free-time activities included a trip to the Zermatt Resort’s mini golf course, shopping at the outlet malls in Park City, visiting with our neighbor’s dogs (Iggy, a pug, lived to the left and Cajun, a black lab, lived to the right), and visiting the Park City Farmer’s Market.
Our condo was very well equipped for cooking and we found ourselves quite inspired to do so. We were joined by Andy and Betsey Shepard halfway through our camp for an awesome Shepards Pie (or should we say three awesome Shepard’s Pies!) and pecan pie for dessert! Bethann went crazy baking loaves of molasses-oatmeal bread, Ben and Raleigh made an awesome peach crisp one night, , Corrine made a huge (and delicious) pot of chilli, and we all chipped in on a huge Thanksgiving meal (a little early, we know). Over all the food rating for our camp had to be pretty high.
This last weekend a half of our team (Kat, Raleigh and Ben) traveled with Seth down to two rollerski events near Freeport. The first was the Lobster Roll, a 15k skate race that took place on North Haven Island. Most of the MWSC XC team actually joined us for this one, along with collegiate skiers from Bates, Colby, Bowdoin, UMPI and UMO. We got really lucky with the weather (cloudy and very windy but NO rain!) and the roads out there were really great for a ski race. No traffic, potholes or angry dogs. It seemed like everyone put in a solid effort and had a good time. Sunday took us to the Eyes on the Pies race at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester where we did a skate, mass start, 10k. The race was a fundraiser for the Southern Maine Biathlon Club so skiers of all ages were in attendance. Raleigh took the win in the men’s overall category followed closely by Ben in third. Seth and Kat both won their respective Masters categories (if you can be a master when you’re still in your twenties!).
This week has been chilly for training but it’s good to get an adjustment period before we plunge to much colder temperatures when the snow really flies. Sunday night brought snow in Fort Kent but most of it has melted already. We have our computers locked on the webcam for Canmore and we’re watching the forecast. Hopefully we won’t have to bring rollerskis. Think Snow!
