October 28, 2010 – After almost forgetting my passport, forgetting my training shorts and dealing with a small head cold, I settled in to have an amazing Park City camp in October.

Dasha saved the day by helping me remember my passport, after packing and forgetting it. Brent and Len saved another day by lending me a couple pairs of shorts and happily I wasn’t too run down, so the head cold lasted all of a couple of days. Things could have turned out differently, but after getting over these minor setbacks it was great to get down to business in Park City.

The goal of the camp was to live high and train low and the team did an amazing job of carrying out the goals of the camp. We were living at 2400m so it meant a lot of driving to get low enough to not feel too affected by the altitude but it was worth it. It felt like my body absorbed the training well after getting down to around 1800m for most of our volume and intensity.

Training high is training that brings an athlete’s metabolism closer to the edge. Your body is working harder than normal to live and train and that’s why you get this great effect after coming down. It also means you have to monitor your energy levels and the amount of training you do while living high. Taking altitude into consideration, I didn’t have a huge training load while in Park City, but the quality was high and there was a normal amount of intensity and strength. We had a skate sprint time trial, which was awesome. We ran a full sprint protocol and Len, Stef, Ian Murray and I battled it out for three rounds, after a quail effort. I know I skied well, but also got some good feed-back and there is always room for improvement. I feel like I got better throughout the race – but in sprinting you have to be able to find to top gear quickly! Something to work on before we hit the snow in early November.

Other than the altitude, the other fun element of the camp was “the East meets West effect”. The boys from the west came to train out east, in Mount St. Anne for 10 days in September. It was a great camp (other than the weather, rain most every day!) with some hard intensity sessions, and it was a great way to get ready for the camp in Mammoth.

Bringing the whole team together provides a great opportunity for everyone to work together and work together we did. Coaches, athletes, support staff, everyone was pulling in the same direction, and it felt like some good work was done.

The two week camp in Park City flew by with some highlights including an afternoon taste of Mexico – and the best Mexican restaurant I’ve been to outside of Mexico. We walked in and were taken into another world. The language spoken, music, products and people in “Anaya’s Market” were straight up Mexican and they served up an authentic (and mean!) quesadilla. After that a little tennis and some Scrabble over coffee was one of the better rest days I’ve had this year.

After PC I got to see my gf and family, which was awesome. I haven’t been home that much this year and miss the most precious things at home – my family and my dog! But you know, absence only make the heart grow fonder so needless to say I’m pretty fond of my home team right now.

It’s October 23 and at this very moment, I’m in Mount St. Anne getting in some hard intensity and strength in to get ready for the first races of the year, which are coming up quick! Things are going well and my health is good which at this time of year counts for a lot. I hope y’all are having a great fall and are ready for some snow. It feels like it’s banging at the gate.

Till the next time – check yourself before you wreck yourself!

¡Hasta la vista!

Phil