October 11, 2009 (Mammoth, CA) – Our final dryland camp of the year is under way in Mammoth Lakes, California. Mammoth is a grueling 3-week camp spent living and training at high altitude. This is the fifth year in Mammoth for us and this season the Canadian team has been joined by Swedish sprint star Peter Larsson who has been a great addition to our already strong training group.

We started the camp off with some ‘yo-yo’ training, living low and training high. After spending our first night in Mammoth and losing a bucket of recovery drinks to one of the local bears, we headed down to a small dust bowl of a town in the middle of the California desert called Big Pine. At around 1,300m and a population of 52, Big Pine is quite the contrast to the 2,600m we live at in Mammoth!

After checking into the Bristlecone Motel – yes, it’s exactly what you’d picture it to be – we headed out in search of dinner. With very few options for restaurants, we consulted with one of the locals who told us that the best food in town was at the local Chevron gas station…great. To our surprise, the gas station was home to a decent Mexican food joint. We stuffed ourselves with burritos, tacos and rice, then wandered back to the motel to call it a night.

The main idea behind yo-yo training is to have a significant change in altitude through the course of a day, so the next morning we got up bright and early and headed for a place called June Lake. June Lake is right next door to Mammoth and offers some of the best roller skiing around. We started our day rollerskiing at an altitude of around 2,200m and through the course of a 4-hour ski, climbed up and over Tioga pass, finishing at an altitude of 3,100m! The following day would be another long one – four hours of running on trails above 3,000m in the high Sierra. The seemingly endless trail system in the Mammoth area makes for some of the most incredible trail running found anywhere in North America. Add that to the incredible weather that the Mammoth area gets and you’ve got some awesome serious training.

The rest of the week would be spent living between Mammoth and Big Pine, rollerskiing on nearly deserted roads that wind their way out of the desert and into the surrounding hills. If we saw more than a couple of non-team vehicles in a 3-hour workout it was a busy day on the road!

Overheard: ‘If I was going to live in Le Pine [Big Pine] that’s where I’d live’ – Sara Renner commenting on the one of the nicer houses near the Chevron Station and apparently trying to class things up a little by referring to Big Pine as ‘Le Pine’.

In the tape deck: Album: The Looks by MSTRKRFT

On the Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w7sVSMbjyM

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This article, pictures and more can also be found on drewgoldsack.ca