August 26, 2013 – Check out the latest from the Hoff at the Snow Farm and how great the pancakes taste down under; Sadie Bjornsen and Holly Brooks give us the lowdow on their training schedule in Park City + their cool socks; and Jessie Diggins shares her escapades with us from the Big Apple…

Here are Canadians Ivan Babikov (left) and Alex Harvey © courtesy of Noah Hoffman

Noah Hoffman
Classic Ski
You know there isn’t a lot to do up here at the Snow Farm in New Zealand because we played a double header of Settlers of Catan last night. I won one of the games. It was my first win of the trip. I’ve probably played five or six games now. Perianne Jones won the other. We got a treat for breakfast this morning. Every other morning we’ve been here (and every other year we’ve been here) the options have included oatmeal, toast, hard boiled eggs, cold cereal, canned fruit and yogurt. This morning we got pancakes!

Holly and I rocking the 2XU recovery socks... trying to avoid the elephant feet after bounding intervals © courtesy of Sadie Bjornsen

Sadie Bjornsen
Training at Altitude
For these past two weeks, the APU team has been in Park City, Utah for an altitude training camp. With the Olympics in Sochi taking place at a high altitude venue- we have made it a goal of ours to focus more time and energy at being efficient and comfortable training and racing at altitude. For the past two week we have had several different focuses for the camp.

#1- Footwork!
Having spent the majority of the past year and a half trying to figure out my feet, I dedicated these last two weeks to the “Canyons”. Zuzana and Erik F have been working on a plan of strengthening my feet through uphill hiking. In Anchorage, I call this the “bear march”, because I start at the base of Anchorage and march my way up to the hills… often encountering bear poop, bear tracks, and sometimes bears. The Canyons in Park City were a whole new story! Not only are there far fewer animals, but it is an alpine slope, so there is a gondola you can ride down for free! These past two weeks I finally got to do some intensity on my feet, something more than running from the crunching bushes in Anchorage.

Read more here.

Here is a snapshot of the skate sprint tt © courtesy of Holly Brooks

Holly Brooks
Training Camp in the 84098
Just got home from TWO killer weeks of altitude training camp in Park City; home of the US Ski Team!  Only this time, I went with my club, APU. I’m going to use my blog to focus on a couple of pictures from the two weeks. I was pretty happy with my effort. I felt good for August and have a clear idea of concrete things I want to work on in the next training period. (Can you say, INTERVALS!!!!)

Read more here.

Minnesota girls! Showing off the secret skier presents I got from Annie © courtesy of Jessie Diggins

Jessie Diggins
Little details
As I write this, I’m slumped on the floor of my bedroom, with my teammates in various states of consciousness sprawled throughout the house, though most made it to their beds. We just got back from our annual 100km ski, and after 6 hours out in the hot sun skiing up and down the beautiful hills of New York it’s about time for a nap! But first, an update on the past week. For me, it’s been all about the details. The little things we do for each other that make interesting circumstances much better, and turn a day around.

Read more here.