This is Elliot and Greg writing. We both live in Vermont most of the year so it's quite an adventure living out in Bozeman for the summer. This week was the final week of group training with Andy and the summer Collegiate group, and it was a volume week. We started strong this week with a long workout on Monday instead of our normal off day. For Some of us it was a run on Bangtail, and for others it was a bike. The total workout time was close to 3.5 hours for the bikers and around 4.25 hours for the runners, although most bikers rode a little more after the Bangtail to add some hours. On Tuesday morning we went for an easy classic ski up Hyalite canyon focusing on some DP to build up some specific strength and an easy skate rollerski on the north side of Bozeman in the afternoon.
On Wednesday we did some L3 bounding intervals with the BSF junior program. We began the workout with small groups of a couple NTS athletes and some BSF juniors working on some bounding/ski walking drills and then went on to do 4-6 X 7 min L3 of bounding and ski walking. It was really fun to work with some of the upcoming Bozeman skiers and work with the newer generation of skiers. In the afternoon we did some bodyweight strength focusing on explosiveness and producing power, part of the "conversion to power" strength we are beginning. The goal of this type of strength is to translate the general strength we've been working on all summer into more explosive ski specific power.
After Wednesday we were already super tired from 3 solid days of training, but the week was far from over. We got up nice and early on Thursday morning and started out on our annual 100k rollerski. This year we started around 7 am west of the four corners and began to classic ski. The men's group ended up doing mostly double pole during the classic ski which lasted for about 65 kilometers, which brought us to Gooch hill. There we met the van and swapped classic gear for skate gear, and then kept moving toward Triple tree. After about 95 k we started to bonk pretty hard but we held strong and grinded out the last few kilometers to round out a 100+k ski which took around 6 hours. It was a fantastic day and everybody was definitely pushing themselves to keep the pace moving and check of the kilometers.
After the first 4 days of the week we had checked off all of the major workouts and had already trained for the majority of the hours we needed, so we kept the week going with some more common workout lengths and difficulties. On Friday we went for a super easy hike with poles over on the Stone Castle trail. Our group, which consisted of Greg, Elliot, Conor, and Finn, decided to do a little adventuring and ended up bushwacking down off the trail which was quite an adventure. Looking down from the top of the mountain, we could all see the road where we wanted to end up. As we started going down the mountain we quickly realized how steep it actually was. And since its Montana, the land that appeared to be grass from the top had a little surprise for us on the way down. The grass was on top of a thick layer of loose rocks, varying in size from small thin pebbles to large rocks that could easily roll down into the person in front of you.
Then on Saturday we rounded out the week of training with a nice short easy skate ski and did some strength in the afternoon. The skate ski was a nice chill time where we mostly focused on feeling good and just getting a little training time. Then in the evening we were invited over to the Wyatt's for a fantastic BBQ to round out the summer. It was a wonderful week with beautiful weather to end the summer. It's been so much fun to work hard and watch the other's in our group improve and we can't wait to see some of our summer teammates as competitors this winter!
