Lauren here checking in from Cable, Wisconsin!
We have about a day left of our camp here in Birkie Land. We came here to check out some new training spots and do some quality intensity sessions at sea-level. We just finished our last intensity session with a skate team sprint. However, we started the week easing into the intensity training so that our bodies could adjust to moving faster. Our first workout was a classic speed session that utilized the rolling terrain and the smooth, low-traffic roads. It’s great to have such low-traffic and smoothly paved roads here in Wisconsin!
The day after our speed session we did some L3 skate intervals on the OO road. It was easy to visualize myself racing the Birkie while paralleling the trail. I love doing L3 intervals at sea-level for a variety of reasons, but one specific reason is that it is easier to ski bigger, stronger and more powerful while maintaining a consistent level-3 heart rate.
The next intensity workout was L4 bounding at Telemark/the start of the Birkie. The rest of the team did a hard 5 minute loop of bounding on the Birkie trail while I did my intervals from the bottom to the top of Telemark mountain. I did less of a running workout because I’ve unfortunately been dealing with post-surgery back issues after having surgery last July. However, I’ve been able to make the best of this camp, and swapping bounding for explosive ski walking up steep terrain is a great substitute when you can’t run. As I mentioned previously, our last intensity session was a team skate sprint. We did two heats, a semi-final and a final with each having three laps. We had both mixed gender and all male teams that allowed us to ski behind different people. The team sprint was my favorite workout by far! It's always fun to add a competitive and teammate component to training. My partner was Magnus who skis for University of Alaska Anchorage, and he always tagged me off in a great position.
Overall this camp has been really great. In particular, the feeling of pushing through the sea-level induced pain-cave has been a great reminder of getting comfortable with discomfort. Check back in a couple days for a recap of the last few exciting workouts, including lake-Olympics from Reid!
