Fall Training

Fall is one of my favorite times of year with the crisp air, frosty mornings, and colorful foliage signaling the approach of winter. With the change of seasons also comes a change in training focus with a shift from high volume and distance to speed and intensity. Over the summer we work on building a strong endurance base and come fall our focus turns towards honing our top gears and getting race-ready.

A frosty Craftbsury morning!

After returning from Austria, we spent a few weeks training at home in Craftsbury. During one of our weekends home we hosted an Oktoberfest gathering at the Outdoor Center, which included some fun races and a delicious Oktoberfest dinner. Along with a few of my teammates, I competed in my second biathlon race - the Oktoberfest Singletrack Shootout!

Zeroing my rifle for the Singletrack Shootout
(photo: Steve Whelpley)

The start of the Singletrack Shootout bike race
(photo: Steve Whelpley)

One of the other fun races during the Oktoberfest weekend was the Checkpoint Challenge Adventure Race where teams of four complete a variety of challenges located at various checkpoint stations throughout the trail system. The GRP skiers were in charge of organizing and running the event, and it was great to see teams of all ages out there having a blast.

My checkpoint station: build a 'card'
tower as high as your tallest teammate
(with bonus points awarded for each
additional level) 

Out for an evening dirt road cruise
(photo: Caitlin)

We took a few breaks to appreciate the scenery!
(photo: Caitlin)

We wrapped up our ride just as the sun was setting. 

I had to stop and take some scenic foliage shots while driving home one
 afternoon. Here's Elmore Mountain. 

And Mt. Mansfield in the distance

After a few productive weeks in Craftsbury, the women's team and Pepa headed off to Utah for a training camp. We were fortunate enough to be able to join the US Ski Team and a few other elite teams for the majority of our workouts. It was a great experience to train with so many top-level skiers.

We went on a beautiful three-hour mountain run during our first week
in Utah. While most of the aspens had dropped their leaves by the time
we arrived, there were still some beautiful golden patches
on the mountainsides. 

One of the two Sandhill Cranes that
frequented our backyard

Finishing up our first week of training in Utah with
a classic rollerski up American Fork Canyon

Distance rollerski up Mirror Lake Highway.
We spontaneously met up with some of
our biathlon teammates who were also out in
Utah for a training camp! (photo: Pepa)

Cooling down after strength on the
climbing treadmill (photo: Pepa)

All smiles after the final race of the three-day
mini-tour at Soldier Hollow which wrapped
up our camp in Utah.
(photo: Pepa)

Shortly after returning from Utah, we were on the road again. This time we headed up to Foret Montmorency in Quebec for a short speed block on snow. Foret is a unique place located in the middle of a large Boreal forest. This summer they saved a large pile of snow under a thick layer of wood chips and at the beginning of November spread it out onto a rolling 2.5k loop. The skiing was surprisingly good and we made the most of our time there with double sessions every day - intensity in the morning and distance in the afternoon. 

Happy to be back on snow
(photo: Caitlin)

Sunset ski on the Foret loop (photo: Caitlin)

After returning from Canada, my teammates and I
participated in the Concept 2 SkiErg World Sprints
(1k on the SkiErg). It was surprisingly exhausting
as you can tell from this post-sprint picture...
(photo: Judy Geer)

Excited to wear our bright colors for hunting
season (photo: Heather)

Even stick season can be beautiful in Vermont

Traveling provides me with more time for knitting... Here's
a new Icelandic sweater, hot off the needles.
It's up for sale on my Etsy site here.

And another sweater... which is also up for sale here.

Well, that's all for now. We're currently out in West Yellowstone, Montana with less than one week until our first race of the season! 

Snowy trails in West Yellowstone!

Austria 2.0

It's always exciting to get back on skis, but it's especially exciting when that happens in September! At the beginning of the month, my team and I headed to Austria for our second annual camp in Ramsau. Our main objective was to get in as much on-snow time as possible. Unfortunately, when we first arrived, there wasn't any skiing to be had on the Dachstein glacier. However, after a few days of low temps and considerable precipitation, we were good to go. Our race season begins fairly early and it's quite beneficial to have the opportunity to work on transitioning technique changes from rollerskis to real skis before diving into our first race.

Some scenic rollerskiing while waiting for snow
(photo: Nick Brown)

Looking up at the Dachstein Mountains from the tram base.
The top of the tram is on the tallest peak at the far right.

Riding up to the glacier!

Liz and Caitlin enjoying the ride on top of the tram

Views in all directions!

Looking down onto the Dachstein glacier and the 3k of
switchbacking ski trails. Each switchback ended with a
sharp 180 degree turn which was good practice for
cornering espcially on the icy days. We had to ski on a
different section of the glacier this year as the part we
were on last year was full of crevasses.

Skiing in September!!! (photo: Caitlin)

Team picture on the glacier (photo: Caitlin)

On a few mornings it was quite foggy in the valley, but
on the glacier we were skiing above the clouds!

Short adventure ski to the
Seethaler hut above the glacier

Our guesthouse which doubled as a small farm

Having pigs in the backyard made us feel right at home!

The youngest members of the herd

Burger night on the patio
(photo: Caitlin)

First clear evening in Ramsau

View from our backyard. I actually painted
this last year... I brought my watercolors to this camp,
but unfortunately didn't get around to painting.

Midway through the camp we had a day off and visited
the exceedingly quaint town of Hallstatt

The village was nestled in the mountains on a beautiful lake

Lunch in Hallstatt

There were colorful flower boxes on almost every dwelling!

Some roadside flowers in
Ramsau Kulm

We had good skiing for about a week, but a rise in temperature caused most of the snow to melt off the glacier leaving only ice and dirt. Fortunately, the dryland training options in and around Ramsau are fantastic so we kept quite busy with long run/hikes in the mountains and quality rollerski workouts on the track and local roads.

Liz and Casey hiking up
to the Silberkar hut

Looking back towards the Silberkar lake

Mike enjoying the view

The summit of Mount Sinabell

The Guttenberghaus

Monkshood (Aconitum)

Chiltern Gentian (Gentianella germanica)

Looking down on the valley towards Ramsau

Back below the tree line

The forests here are really
beautiful with lots of thick
moss and lichen, and very
tall pines

Finishing up the hike along a farm track in the valley

One of our more memorable rollerski workouts was a 3,000ft climb (1,600ft of which we double poled) from the bottom of a nearby valley to the base of the Dachstein tram.

Liz and me at the top 
(photo: Pepa)

Skate speeds on the rollerski track
in Ramsau (photo: Nick Brown). The
track featured some sharp s-turns that
were quite scary at first glance (especially
since the nearby trees were plastered in
padding), but were actually quite fun
as the turns were so well banked. 

Casey, Liz, and Mike after the climb up to the ridge
during our final OD of the camp

The valley behind the ridge was dotted with Moss
Campion (Silene acaulis), which is a low-lying
herbaceous perennial found in alpine and arctic
tundra throughout the northern hemisphere.

One of the few Moss Campion plants that still had flowers.
These plants are early colonists and take over disturbed areas
in the environment such as glacial moraines
(Billings and Mooney, 1968). Due to its long life span and
 cushion growth form, there's been an interest in using
this plant for dating substrates and past disturbances
(Benedict, 1989; McCarthy, 1992). My seeming
obsession with this plant stems from the fact that I
researched it while studying in the Norwegian Arctic.
Our study investigated the demographics and patterns
of colonization in two populations and linked the findings
with environmental characteristics and past climatic events.

Thick valley fog

Descending back into the cloud layer

That's all for now. We're back in Craftsbury for a few more weeks before heading off to Park City. I'll leave you with a video (curtsey of Pepa) of our most pleasant day on the glacier. Thanks for reading!

Benedit, J.B. 1989. Use of Silene acaulis for dating: the relationship of cushion diameter to age. Arctic and Alpine Research 21: 91-96.

Billings, W.D.; Mooney, H.D. 1968. The Ecology of arctic and alpine plants. Biol. Rev. 43: 481-529.

McCarthy, D.P. 1992. Dating with cushion plants: Establishment of a Silene acaulis growth curve in the Canadian Rockies. Arctic and Alpine research 24: 50-55.