Today was a busy, but productive Monday. We started off with a session at West Valley this morning, doing some agility and speed and finishing with some flat, fast skating intervals in three different two-person relays, the first no-pole, the second double-pole and the last skating. The goal was to develop that fast gear that is so critical to being successful at racing - if you have access to a speed no one else does, it's an easy way to gain an advantage!
As a side benefit, doing the legs-only and upper-body only relay helped the athletes to realize relative strengths and weaknesses, and thus opportunities for improvement. I've been really happy with the flow of these parking lot sessions this summer - sometimes they can seem a bit stale, but we seem to be integrating them really well this year and the athletes seem to look better and better each time we do them, instead of hitting plateaus like we have in the past.
This evening we went for a run and strength. We had to skip the trails at Birch Hill because the State Troopers were searching for a woman who was potentially armed and unstable. They said the roads were most likely safe, so we went there instead (turns out she was on the roads, but apparently not dangerous). Strength was good too, although we were adapting to a new location as we've had to move our gear out of the Cave to allow them to do some construction on the inside. And then to top off all the excitement Chris (our new assistant!) rolled up mid practice having arrived in Fairbanks today (a day earlier than expected)! If I was confused by all the new stuff, I'm sure he was in the same boat plus some!
Talk about a wild day - still trying to process it all, so I'll throw up some pictures instead of writing any more.
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| Slaloms |
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| Kevin's not looking bad for 1 month on rollerskis |
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| I like the convergence a couple of circles forces mid-slalom as the skiers have to react quickly and effectively in tight quarters. Not so unlike sprint racing... |
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| Max went for the pass... |
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| But Bobby held him off... |
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| We do still have to learn not to apologize for being assertive (ahem, Helen) |
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| A new level of aggressiveness in the corners... good to see... we are starting to see and go for the opportunity to pass... |
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| Benjamin, 1st year J2, jumping in behind U23s Ian and Jordan - not a bad learning situation. |
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| Snaking through the cones... |
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| Speeds |
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| Skeeto looked really good in these, really using her legs and shifting her weight well. Now a little more upper body power and BAM! Watch out... |
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| Good head to head action, and not just following each other like a bunch of ducklings but really mixing it up. |
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| Who's ready? |
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| Operating in tight quarters during the team sprint |
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| Benjamin showed some improved body position today, a great example here. |
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| Jordan + Helen = Team Bates |
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| Skeeto and Jewel |
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| Lizer |
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| Skeeto |
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| Jewel |
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| Letting it rip right from the start. |
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