USST Pictures

The US Ski Team October Camp started today. This is a split camp that starts here in Park City for 10 days then moves to Canmore, Alberta (on-snow) for 10 more days. Most of my teammates are testing for the first two days of camp. They roller ski on a giant 6 foot wide treadmill, breathe into a tube and go as hard as they can while the treadmill either goes faster or gets steeper until they fall off. In this way they measure their VO2 max, max heart rate and max lactate.

I tested consistently for the first three years I was on the US Ski Team. The last two years I have chosen not to test because I didn’t feel I was getting a benefit from it. I never received any results or information from testing that helped me ski fast in the winter. I never had a treadmill test tell me something I didn’t already know (i.e. I’m in good shape or I’m not in good shape.) This is not to say I will never test again. If there is a good reason to test in the future I will absolutely do it.

So, I worked out on my own today. I did a two hour run this morning followed by 10 minutes of short hill bounding on real skis. This afternoon I went for a two hour mountain bike ride. This may have been my last ride of the season and it was really fun.

We also did US Ski Team head shots and group photos today. Here is my teammate Holly Brooks getting her head shot:

Picture day requires a lot of waiting around:

And waiting for instructions:

But we finally got the sweet team shot we were looking for: