Parking Lots and Mountain Bikes

After a quick 5 day trip back east, I returned to a full day of training back in Fairbanks.  Nick had kept the crew rolling in my absence so they were more on top of it than I.

We are in the midst of our early summer testing week for the Comp Team, so Tuesday was meant as a recovery session after the group did the 3000 meter run and the strength test on Monday.  We hit the West Valley HS parking lot for some agility and technique work for a short 1.5 hour session.  The group looked good.

Good training for sprint racing - high speed and close contact!

Kevin, Kira and Helen

Burnin' Rubbah!

Vanya

Ian

Kyle heads into the circle while Ian is about to exit.

Benny and Johnny - Bros!

Skeeto and Joe

Action!  Lizer looks to be pulling some sort of old school turn...

Megan

Claire

The Prep/Devo summer crew convened at Birch Hill in the afternoon for our first mountain bike.  We've learned through years of trial and error that the technical aspect of mountain biking, while good for building athleticism, tends to spread our group out and make it a bit tough to manage these sessions.  While we know we'll never have everyone be quite as homogeneous as we do on skis (hey, we're a ski program after all!), we do want to make it a safe and fun activity for everyone, so we spent the first afternoon working on skills before getting together for a relay at the end.  The skiers worked on shifting going over hills and breaking and turning with Nick, while we worked on going down steep hills and over obstacles at my station.  This time I was able to snap a few more pictures of the 'Gunners' at my station as they challenged their skills and fears and built their comfort.

Maggie

Logan

Jewel

Ari

Kevin went for the bunny hop

Once we were done with the logs, we moved onto the stairs.  Here's Colin.

Jenna

Maggie D.

Ethan leading Zach

Kevin charges out of the exchange

Joe salutes the finishline