Simi Hamilton

    – Hot, but great mountain bike ride at Ascutney with one of my best friends, Tim Reynolds. We didn’t get started until midday during the hottest temps of the day, but being under the canopy of trees the whole time made things a little cooler. Went for a well earned swim in the local swimming hole afterward. Total ride time was 3 hours and made sure to keep the effort pretty chill.

    – Ski walking/bounding intervals up Stratton this morning. We did 7×7 min with 3 minute recoveries, aiming for threshold the entire time (about 4 mmol of lactate). Felt great and was a great interval workout!

    – Long, easy run from Route 11 back to Stratton on the Appalachian Trail. Super muddy and buggy, but I love running that section of trail! It’s a gorgeous stretch in the woods, and since there aren’t any huge climbs or descents, your legs tend to stay pretty fresh throughout the whole run. It’s about 13 miles and takes 2.5 hours at a mellow pace. Off afternoon.

    – We did the double pole test in Stratton in the morning. The test is about 3.5 minutes long, and climbs gradually (with a couple of short steep pitches) for just over 1 km. It’s a hard one! I’ve only done it twice before, both times doing it on different roller skis, so I don’t have much to compare my time to, but I’m planning on doing it between 5 and 6 times this summer. I’m hoping it provides me with some good insight into how my double pole fitness and mechanics are progressing throughout the training season. Strength in the afternoon.

    – 2 hour distance skate rollerski in the morning, with about 10 speeds interspersed throughout the workout (each speed was 10-15 seconds). The point of the speeds was just to get the body moving quickly again, but to keep the number of speeds and duration of each speed short enough that it wouldn’t cause any real fatigue. Got out for a 1.5 hour super easy run in the afternoon (Mt. Styles and Peru Peak loop). Muddy but great running!

    – 1.5 hour run around Gale Meadows in heavy rain and cold temps. Feels kind of like the fall! At least the rain and cold temps makes for great sleeping temperatures! Strength in the afternoon.

    – Off/travel day… Woke up at 4 a.m. to drive to Denver then flew from Denver to Albany. Got back to Vermont at about 10 p.m. Great to be back!

    – Easy 1.5 hour run and then packing all day.

    – Super fun, long day in the mountains. Got up at 5 a.m. to get out for a backcountry tour with my friend Hayden Kennedy, which ended up being a 5 hour ski. We skied a north Couloir on New York Peak, and then the northwest face on Shimer peak on our way back to the car. After skiing, we grabbed a quick bite and headed up to the crag for about 6 hours of climbing. Hayden is one of the best climbers in the world (literally), has put up several 5.14 routes throughout the world, and is just a great dude to hang out with. Here he is on our skin heading up to New York Peak above Independence Pass.

© Simi Hamilton

    – Fun 1.75 hour crust ski up the pass in the morning with my friend Ben Koons, my sister, one of my best friends Maile, my mom, and our puppy Pippi. It didn’t get very cold last night, and the crust was a bit breakable in places, but we still had a great adventure and Ben and I found some fun, steep shots to ski. 1.5 hour zone 2 mountain bike ride in the afternoon. Super fun ride and perfect tacky conditions.

© Simi Hamilton

    – 1.5 hour distance double pole with rolling speeds. Did about 10 speeds on varying terrain, all of which were between 10-15 seconds.

    – 2.5 hour mountain bike ride in Sky Mountain Park with my sister, brother in law, and stepdad. Awesome ride. Strength in the afternoon.

    – Off day… was going to take Monday off, but after looking at the forecast and the crust ski conditions, I decided it would be much smarter to get a great crust ski in while the conditions were perfect!

    – 3 hour crust ski on Independence Pass, above my home of Aspen, CO. Pretty amazing crust conditions, and a beautiful, bluebird Colorado day. I skied with my mom and stepdad, and we skied the Lostman Loop (I added a bit of terrain by skiing Geisler Peak and exploring some nearby basins). Great day!

© Simi Hamilton

    – Awesome birthday ski up at Mt. Bachelor for our first day of Bend camp. Skated 2.5 hours and kept the pace really, really mellow (true zone 1). Fast snow all morning because there was a bit of cloud cover. Lots of kms open. Easy 1 hour jog with poles on single track outside of Bend in the afternoon. Here’s a photo of Sophie and me goofing around during the ski, and one of the coaches and me bringing up the tail end of the running pack in the afternoon.

© courtesy of Simi Hamilton

    – Strength… Camp in Bend, Oregon starts tomorrow, but we didn’t have to be down in Bend until the late afternoon, so Sophie and I made the most of our day by climbing a stellar 5 pitch 5.7/5.8 called ‘First Kiss’ at Smith Rock. It was a bit stormy all around us all day, but we never got wet and we had a great climb. This was Soph’s 5th multi-pitch climb ever, and she did great. Nice to be clipping bolts and moving fast on the rock!

    – Strength… Went climbing with Sophie all afternoon at Smith Rock, Oregon after we made the drive down from Hood River in the morning. It was quite busy, but we managed to get on a ton of the 5.8, 5.9, and 5.10 classics. Nice to be out climbing again!

    – Super busy day of photo shooting, so I was only able to get out for a 30 minute run in between photo shooting. Stormy day and kind of cold.

    – Got out for a 1.5 hour run in between photo shoots in Hood River today. It was a hot one and it felt good to be running at sea level again! Kept the pace mellow but it was nice to feel like I was running pretty fast because I stayed on the Coumbia River path which runs right next to the river so it was dead flat the whole time.

    – Off/photo shoot… First day of shooting with LL Bean. Long but fun day out on the Columbia River, doing some hiking shots and running shots.

    – Off/travel day… Drove from Aspen to Salt Lake City and from there caught a flight to Portland, OR for a photo shoot with LL Bean. Full day of travel, but good to be back on the road!

    – Another great crust ski up high, outside of the ghost town of Ashcroft, CO. Great conditions.

    – 1.5 hour crust ski in the a.m. followed by a short strength session in the gym in the afternoon. Although it’s been super warm during the day down at home, the temps at the higher elevations have been staying fairly cold and the crust is in great shape.

    – Off day… rebuilt the boardwalk with my dad. An all day project, but it was looking pretty good by the time we finished!

    – 2 hour mountain bike ride in the morning followed by a 1 hour double pole in the afternoon. Made sure I kept the efforts for both sessions quite mellow.

    – Fun mountain bike ride in Fruita, CO after many hours behind the wheel. Was hoping to make it home from California in one day, but decided to stop to ride in the desert for a day. Well worth the stop! Ended up riding for 2.5 hours.

    – Off/travel day… Driving from California back to Colorado. Pretty uneventful, lots of miles.

    –  Loooong day in the mountains. Went on a great ski tour with one of my best friends, Linden Mallory, in the eastern Sierra range, California. We were out for 14 hours and skied a line on Mt. Williamson (outside of Independence, CA) called ‘Giant Steps’. Super, super fun day.

    – Last day at the cabin, but we made it a memorable one when we skied the east face of the Tooth. The snow was pretty much perfect all the way from the summit back to the cabin (about 1800 vertical ft). Total tour time was about 3 hours.

    – Got out for a great tour with Soph around the base of Chair Mountain today. We dropped into Rapid Creek and had a 2,000 ft. descent of perfect corn before skinning back up into Chair Basin and getting another 2,000 ft. descent back to the cabin. A gorgeous day with great skiing!

    – Headed back into the cabin with Sophie this afternoon. We got in there in the early afternoon, and got out for a short 2 hour tour when we arrived. Found some great corn snow!

    – Checked out the crust skiing up in Ashcroft, a small ghost town about 20 minutes from Aspen. I got out Sophie as well as my sister and my mom. The crust was in great shape, and we had a blast cruising around the meadows and Aspen tree groves. Total ski was about 1.5 hours.

    – Got out for a short mountain bike ride on Lower Sopris Divide down by Basalt, CO. The riding was great and it’s awesome to be back on the bike! Total ride time was 1.25 hours.

    – Did the Express Creek to Richmond Ridge loop above Aspen our on skate gear. Never had to put skins on and found some amazing crust the entire adventure. Perfect bluebird Colorado day.

    – Big ski in the morning before heading back to town in the afternoon. Skied a really cool tour that involved about 6,000 vertical feet, booting up a steep 1,000 ft couloir and skiing off the 50º back side, and finishing the day skiing a pretty gnarly 500 ft couloir that was about 2 meters wide for most of it’s width.

Tim Reynolds and step-dad Al © Simi Hamilton

    – Pretty big day, skiing about 8,000 vertical feet. Mostly hunted steep, north facing aspects so we could take advantage of the cold dry snow staying on that exposure.

Tim Reynolds © Simi Hamilton

    – Another big day in the mountains. It was a little overcast all day, so we slept in a bit and made a big feast for breakfast before we headed out for another big tour. Temps were staying pretty cold all day, so we found great consistent conditions during our 6 hour jaunt.

    – Long, long, great day. Went out for a 8 hour tour from the Cabin with my step-dad Al, and friends Tim Reynolds, Ben Koons, and Drew Holbrook. Skied and skied about 10,000 vertical feet, and found some amazing snow. Great Colorado day.

Ben Koons © Simi Hamilton

    – Went for a short run from home this morning (45 minutes) and then headed into our backcountry ski cabin outside of Marble, CO. Got up there early enough for a 1.5 hour tour and found some great, cold snow on the north facing slopes.

    – Got out for a great mountain bike ride at Red Hill outside Carbondale, CO. Trails were dry, fast, and firm, and the temp was about 15º C. Beautiful day and so happy to be back on my bike! Total ride time was 1.5 hours.

    – Off/travel day… Finally made it home in the late evening. Time for a bit of rest now.

    – Off/travel day… Flew back to Colorado from Fairbanks. It was a long one and took most of the 3rd and the 4th to get home. Big snow storm in Colorado so I got delayed in Denver for about 9 hours on the 4th.

    – 15 km skate pursuit start… Last World Cup race of the season. I felt good, but not the greatest that I felt in distance racing all season. My legs were incredibly tired on the 2nd lap, but started feeling a bit better on the 3rd and final laps. Still had a good fight and respectable race, skiing the 42nd fastest time on day and ending the mini tour in 45th overall. Looking forward to a break from World Cup racing, but also very motivated to begin a new training season soon.

    – 15 km classic mass start… Really hard day. My skis were fast but I didn’t have any kick for the 2nd half of the race. I think yesterday really drained me, and it was a really tough 35 minute fight out there.

    – Skate sprint race… Last sprint of the World Cup season, at World Cup finals up in Quebec City, Canada. Had a pretty good day ending up 4th, but for sure bitter sweet to be just off the podium. I felt better and better racing throughout the rounds, and my energy was great all day. I just didn’t ski the final stretch in the final like I wanted to and I have up 3rd place. Oh well, it was still good to end the World Cup sprint season on a pretty high note.

    – Race prep for tomorrow’s skate sprint. Tested some skate skis and did a great pre-race intensity workout with a bunch of the US dudes on the sprint course. I did 1x the sprint loop (about 3 minutes) at zone 3, and then 2x half the sprint loop at zone 4, and then 5x 15 second speeds on the corners and climbs. Total ski time was 1:30. Felt good and psyched to race tomorrow! Easy 20 minute jog in the afternoon.

    – Got out for a workout on the Quebec race trails today. It was really frustrating skiing because it was incredibly soft due to the massive amount of snow we got last night but it was still a valuable workout. I did 2×5 minutes at zone 3 and then 6×15 second speeds on key parts of the sprint course. At this point in the season, were not doing any training that will pay off down the line, rather we’re just doing some hard training in order to keep our bodies in race mode. Today’s main focus was just to get the body moving fast again and get the blood flowing again. Total ski time was 1.5 hours.

    – Off/travel day… White knuckle driving this morning as Soph and I made the trip from S. Vermont up to Quebec City. Conditions were pretty bad, but we took our time and made it up safely. It’s great to be back in Canada for more World Cup racing and we’re pumped to race in front of a huge contingent of North American fans this weekend. Got out for an easy 30 minute jog in the blizzard this afternoon.

    – Got out for an easy 30 minute run this morning and opted to ski in the afternoon when it was a bit warmer (-25°C when I woke up). For the afternoon ski session I did 2×10 minutes zone 3 classic with 5 minute recovery in between. The goal of the session was just to wake my body up a bit after travel back from Europe. I didn’t want the session to be taxing in any way, and it was really nice to get the blood moving a bit again.

© courtesy of Simi Hamilton

    – Another mellow day with easy, relaxed training. Checked out the Wild Wings XC trails (just down the road from Sophie’s house, and the skiing was awesome! Did some exploring their fun single track classic trails (that were ungroomed because there’s still not a whole lot of snow on the ground). Total ski time was 1.25 hrs. Fun day!

© Simi Hamilton