Girdwood Day 4 and 5

Day 4 was our easy day for the week, so after a later morning including a pancake breakfast, we headed out to Indian for a double pole distance session back to Girdwood.  The coaches flubbed the video camera exchange so I don't have any pictures of morning training.  Most everyone took the afternoon off with only a couple of the older athletes heading for an easy run and a soak in one of the glacier-fed creeks running through town.  We also managed to do 15-20 minute meetings with everyone to check-in on training and objectives for the remainder of the summer and the transition into fall.  Otherwise it was time for some downtime and recreation which we managed a few shots of.

The boys moved the ping pong table from the garage to the deck for some extra sun

The ladies added to their tally of 'chick-flicks' for the week.

Pre-dinner game of around-the-world.

What?  The most civilized dinner ever at training camp?

Day 5 in Girdwood started with some spenst work and ski-walking/moose-hoofing intervals on the base of Mt. Alyeska.  We've seen a great boost in quickness, and explosiveness this month, which is good since that's been something we've been working on! 

For the intervals we did two different intervals that both ended at the top of chair 7.  One started at the day lodge and the other started near the base of the tram.  The intervals took between 4 and 7 minutes covering 800-900 meters and gaining approximately 100 meters in vertical.  Our focus was on progressively building speed from interval to interval while staying at or below a 'threshold' intensity, and adapting our technique to the frequent variations in pitch of the climb.  It was a great session, and other than a few 'blips' everyone was spot-on doing between about 6 and 8 trips to the top of Chair 7. 

Nice scenery all around

Checking in with the girls up top

The route up from the base of the Tram and Alyeska Hotel

Checking lactates at the top to make sure we were doing a good job with pacing

After a few hours break we jogged down to Girdwood Elementary for our second strength session of the week.  ANR had arrived in town earlier that morning for their own 3-day camp and they were doing a session in the parking lot while we did strength on the playground.  Both our groups joined up for a great game of ultimate that night (only one bloody nose, thankfully!), with ANR besting us something like 10-8.  It was a fun game with coaches and athletes all mingling on the field. 

Glacial ice bath!

Max making pizza dough for the night's meal to be eaten in front of the Opening Ceremonies!