First training camp of the year is a wrap. No glacier though. This time I found myself in Bend, OR with most of NDC Thunder Bay, CNEPH, and the World Cup Team (so a pretty legit crew) for a dryland camp. The camp was designed by the WC team coaches for the National team athletes, so the rest of us were playing a bit of tag-along, getting an inside look at what the best skiers in the country are doing.

Turns out they rise and grind everyday, just like the rest of us. Only, they usually do it twice a day, and they’ll go for a bit longer, or go slightly faster, push a little harder… – you get the gist of it. But the most significant difference I found, between the best in the country and the rest of the country (from the most basic training standpoint), is that they recover better. It’s one thing to be able to physically DO a workout, but to keep on doing tough workouts, to keep logging those hours, you need to be able to bounce back and recover from it if you want to do quality training the next day, the next week… If you’re not bouncing back, or you’re not going to be able to bounce back, in reasonable time, you ( I ) should probably take your ( my ) foot off the gas pedal and coast for a bit.

All that said – I think this was the biggest takeaway from the camp, for me, as far as athlete development is concerned.

Anyway. Bend is a pretty sweet place. The best workouts (IMO) were the ski walk/hike up Mt. Bachelor and the 3hr roller ski that took us basically from Bend to the base of the ski hill. The ecosystem/biome is quite interesting, it is very dry and desert-y, but all across the horizon are snowcapped mountains, like Mt Bachelor, which are less than a 30minute drive from town – crazy! It gets quite hot during the day, and stays hot until late in the evening when the sun starts to set. The days are long and the nights are a bit chilly, dropping down below 10C some nights. Bend is also one of the bike destinations in North America, maybe I’ll slip back down for a trip sometime.

Enough about weather though, here’s a vlog for the camp and some pictures below.

pre camp roller ski surgery

NST guys taking a water break during our afternoon workout. Ivan knows where the camera is.

Evening Catan game at the girls house. Peri won.

Casualties of the camp. (Note: no broken Ski*Go’s…)

The motorcycle collection of the person living across the road from our rental unit.

A view on our hike around Paulina’s Lake/Crater (inactive volcano area) – note snowy mountains!

Snow!~

Ben and Evan (aka Bevan)

Not so snowy here

Dave stoked to be almost done our 5hr run/hike

Hike at Mt. Hood on our drive back to Portland at the end of the camp

Cool, thanks for stopping by. Here’s a rundown of the latest, short and sweet.

I’m home with my family for a short stint right now.
The rest of the team is doing an in-reach camp, hosting some up and coming athletes and OST’ers this week.
There was a really exciting MotoGP race in Assen a couple weeks ago. Next race is next weekend, can’t wait.
Went for a nice bike ride with my Dad today. The wind wasn’t so nice though.
Tomorrow is Saturday and I have intensity.
Hopefully go out and train with the Team Hardwood crew on Sunday.
I just did a squirrel catch-and-release.

JennOUT