National Team Camp

Tomorrow concludes the first week of our two-week National Team Camp. All of the coaches are here in Lake Placid to work with the National A and B Teams as well as the Junior National and Development groups. It is a great opportunity to train as a group and lets those of us here see how well our training is progressing this season. This past week has been challenging for sure, but I'm very happy with my training and preparation so far and feel like I'm on track to have another stellar season.

This past week has included a plethora of tough workouts, several of which were made even tougher by less than favorable weather conditions. Monday and Tuesday were exceptionally hot and it was all any of us could do to just stay marginally hydrated. In Monday's afternoon workout the combination of high temperatures and humidity was especially hard to handle because we were rollerskiing on a section of road that was in the direct sunlight and there was not a hint of wind. I had downed nearly a gallon of liquids in the first 45 minutes and was still overheating. Another of the guys on the team who suffered heat stroke last year in a similar situation spent a fair percentage of the workout running down to a nearby creek to dunk his head and wet his clothes in an effort to get through the drills. By the end of the session most of the team was making laps to the creek. Wednesday's workout, as I mentioned in my last post, was a 7+ hour combined run and bike ride and Thursday featured one of the toughest interval workouts of my career.

Strength Training in the OTC Weight Room

Despite the exhausting days that usually accompany training camps, I love being surrounded by a group of like minded athletes because we are able to push each other to achieve levels of performance that are often unattainable when training alone. It is our ability to train together that will allow us to continue building towards our goal of winning an Olympic medal in 2010. I was reminded today by the team Psychologist that the Olympic Games are only 20 months away. That seems like a long time, but it will go oh so quickly. There is much work to be done between now and then. Tomorrow promises to be another long day starting with dry-fire drills before 7 am with the coaches. That's less than 8 hours away so I've got to wrap this post up for now.