September 13, 2013 – Check out the latest from Canadian junior skier Dahria Beatty in Montana; the Hoff from Putney, Vermont spending time with Gunnar Caldwell; Liz Stephen on the Lake Placid Camp week #1; Canada’s Zeke Williams The Edge (of glory) on his training and his travels across the country; Jessie Diggins take on More Lake Placid and some fantastic yet hard training; and Dasha Gaiazova shares her thoughts on New Zealand and how amazing her life is… plus some cool Tweets

New BPTeam for Kikkan here.
Diggins runs amok here.
Team Freebird’s special tan lines here.
Chandra shows us the way here.
Morning wake up call with SadieB here.

Dahria Beatty
Montana for a great climbing focused training camp
My last 10 days have been spent in the recreation capital of Montana for a great climbing focused training camp. Whitefish is the perfect end of summer training camp location with its warm temperatures, great lakes, Big Mountain ski hill as well as its array of flatter farm roads to balance out the climbing. It is also close to Glacier National Park’s Going to the Sun Road. In my opinion this last one might be one of the nicest places I have ever trained. We were lucky enough to do both of our long workouts there, a roller ski and run combo workout and then a road bike the last day of the camp.
Read more here.

Noah Hoffman
Gunnar Caldwell
I’m in Putney, Vermont this week for my second technique block of the year with Zach Caldwell. Today wasn’t very productive or encouraging. My energy was really low, and I struggled to wake up. We chased good sensations classic skiing for 40 minutes this morning before calling it a session. Zach thought it looked alright, but I wasn’t able to relax. This afternoon was a little better. I was more awake and we were able to touch base with some old technique cues and combine a couple cues that we hadn’t combined before. I expect tomorrow to be a better and more productive day. As we were finishing the morning session Zach said, “it looks like it’s going to start raining soon.” As far as I could tell the sky hadn’t changed all morning. Sure enough, it started pouring about ten minutes later.
Read more here.

Liz Stephen
Lake Placid Camp
We have just completed our first week of camp at the OTC here in Lake Placid. This camp is always one of my favorites of the training season because of it’s proximity to Vermont and the amazing training that can be found around this area of New York. We have been really making use of all of the incredible training venues, with some speed and agility work on the new rollerski track around the ski jumps the first day, some long skis on the quiet, but paved roads around and some epic bounding intervals on Whiteface Mountain. This is our first real intensity block of the training year, and we have done similar workouts here each year, so us athletes have come to know which ones are the really taxing sessions and mentally and physically prepare for them as best we can so as to get the most out of these important sessions. The bounding has been known as one of the hardest sessions of the camp, along with the team sprint workout that will take place tomorrow and the well known (and sometimes dreaded) Climb to the Castle next Sunday.
Read more here.

Zeke Williams
The Edge (of glory)
I apologize about getting my blog post out a day later than usual; I have had a pretty hectic, but super-fun, last couple weeks. “Why hectic?”, you say, “why super-fun?” Hectic because I traveled across the country and back, and organized (with the help of many) a running race fundraiser event! Fun for reasons similar to those stated above and because the destination of my travels was home!
Read more here.

Jessie Diggins
More Lake Placid
This last week of camp in Lake Placid has been fantastic yet hard training! To fire us all up before our classic team sprint time trial, Matt sent out this gem of a photo. Ok, you can stop giggling now. As you can clearly see, the coaches have been putting a ton of effort into planning the best possible workouts for us and keeping it fun. I guess the weather had other plans for us though, because the day of our team sprint it was pouring rain! But it wasn’t cold rain, and simply getting through a tough workout in bad conditions is, truth be told, pretty good team bonding stuff. We still talk about a similar sprint workout in freezing rain from 3 years ago! So although we’ve had some rainy days, it’s nothing to cry about.
Read more here.

Dasha Gaiazova
New Zealand
Sometimes I forget how amazing my life is. I am training to be in the best shape of my life and I get to go to the Olympics! I was reminded yet again how cool it is to be doing what I do when our team traveled to Snow Farm in New Zealand to train in real winter conditions in the middle of August. Even despite one of the worst snowfalls in many years, the ski tracks were absolutely great, and most days I was applying heavy layers of sunscreen rather than reaching for the wind- or the rain jacket. We skied at the Snow Farm for two weeks and even raced in a proper skate sprint race, where I finished 2nd to the World’s #1 ranked Polish skier Justyna K. This race was part of the New Zealand Winter Games, which are the most important winter sporting event in the rugby-crazed country. After the flower ceremony up at the Snow Farm, we attended the medal ceremony in downtown Queenstown (which is an hour’ drive away). We were presented with our medals on a stage and in front of many fans, complete with a ceremonial play of the winner’s country anthem.
Read more here.

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