October 5, 2008 (Lake Placid, NY) – The Adirondacks received its first snowfall yesterday on the summit of Whiteface. It was business as usual though at camp. The air is colder here now and there was snow on several of the surrounding summits yesterday morning. Rollerskis prevailed however and the NENSA group set out with CXC to do a skate distance workout. Along the way Bryan Fish worked the group through several drills on an uphill to emphasis the main points in V1 skating.

The weather held until the very end of the 2-hour workout when the sky opened up a bit (it was rain, not snow!). No one seemed worse for wear and everyone dove heartily into lunch back at the OTC. Friday afternoon a huge group of us hit the trails for a run…it was quite a sight to see so many people out running at an easy recovery run! Coaches and athletes were treated to an informative presentation Friday evening by Susie Parker-Simmons about the Female Athlete Triad. Susie did a great job and I encourage all coaches to get as informed as possible about this very important topic.

Today the weather cleared and at 9:00 am CXC, Sun Valley, NENSA and USST set out for DP VO2 Max intervals. Wow! This was super to watch and impressive in terms of power and speed that these elite athletes are putting out. We had several visitors today join us in the workout and the main comment was how much more ground the top skiers cover with each pole plant. Good reasons to continue building the strength necessary to do effective double poling.

The first couple of intervals were at a slightly easier pace and the groups stayed together for the most part. In the men’s group, during one of the later intervals, Kris Freeman and Andy Newell put the hammer down stringing out the group. In the end it was Freeman who prevailed and skied powerfully away from the group.

Late afternoon we ran through one last strength and agility session of our camp – it is always fun to watch the improvements made in speed and agility even from the start of the session to the finish. Tomorrow is a combo workout. One and half hours of double poling followed by a one hour run. Athletes have the afternoon off while the coaches attend the coaches workshop at the OTC. The rest is well earned and will help everyone recovery for the skate race up to the Castle on Monday.