October 05, 2010 (Park City, Utah) – Going from sea level to 2,400 meters is a big jump to make, but that’s essentially what the Canadian National Ski Team has done going from their recent intensity camp in Quebec (read more here) to Park City, Utah for a three-week altitude camp.  The team arrived in Park City last week, and according to Alex Harvey, things have been going very well.

“It’s a really nice place to train,” said Harvey. While some of the Canadians had a short stop over in Canmore that helped ease the altitude shock, Harvey came straight from his home in Quebec to the Park City camp, and the jump in altitude was immediately noticeable. He spent the first few days of the camp training a little lower, around 1,800 meters, to help with acclimatization. The fourth day was a rest day for the whole team.

“The fourth day can be really rough at altitude,” says Harvey, “so we often take the fourth day as a rest day, just to be safe.”

After the brief respite, day five saw the team back in action again. Harvey said the camp schedule has had them doing two-hour workouts in the morning, and another 1.5-two hours in the afternoon.

“It’s not huge volume, but it’s pretty constant.” As well as volume training, the Canadian team has also been doing intensity workouts three times a week. All told, that adds up to a significant load over three weeks, especially at altitude.

Along with the Canadian National team are some ‘guest’ athletes from Canmore and the US. According to Canadian coach Justin Wadsworth, Kikkan Randall is now “a Canadian for three weeks” training and living along side the Canadian women, as are fellow Americans Noah Hoffman and James Southam.

The camp will continue for another two weeks, which brings the team awfully close to the start of the FIS xc ski season opener which begins on November 6-7 in Rybinsk, Russia.