Ester Dome Ski-Walking

Fairbanks weather in the summer can be absolutely perfect for training.  When you roll up to practice at 8 AM the sun is already well up in the sky and it's nice and warm.  Then later in the day it is still a nice 70-75 and dry so sweating works to cool you down.  I just love that feeling of the morning sun on my face in anticipation of the day's activities.  Definitely one of the nicest parts of the gig.

Yesterday with the Comp Team athletes we continued to roll into the training year.  We are putting a big emphasis on dryland technique to start the year, so we did a ski-walking workout up Ester Dome.  In particular we worked on feeling (and looking) like we were skiing while we ski-walked.  3 miles of steady uphill with 1500 ft (?) in elevation gain was a pretty good workout with most people spending some good time in L2 to L3. 

The afternoon was busy, busy with a big crop of young athletes coming out for the Prep/Devo summer program, and then the Comp Team athletes met for some strength plus a run and/or game in the evening.  I snapped a few pictures of the morning which are below.  It was a bit chaotic and I was a bit tired to remember to get the camera out at the end of the day.  Plus, if you know me, you know how I feel about games...  I LIKE GAMES!!!

The fellas...

Looks like classic skiing to me!

Hips may be a touch back in this phase

These two went up the whole hill seemingly in lock-step - at least when I was watching!

Nick, Helen and Jewel

This was not staged!  Boys face the camera, girls face away, and Nick is halfway.

From the top of Ester Dome with Moose Mountain in the background

Willie joined us today while he's in town.  He heads back to Wyoming to do some presidential campaign work in a few days.