Utah report

I have just returned from our last off season, dry land training camp of the year in Utah. We were training at Soldier Hollow (the site of the 2002 Olympics). This was my first time at Soldier Hollow which was very cool since 2002 Olympics was one of the first winter Olympics that I really remember watching with much interest. It was cool for me to be at the place where Ole Einar Bjørndalen won all four Olympic Gold medals in biathlon. Not only its historical significance but also everyone that I met and got to train with while I was there was a real treat. Soldier Hollow, which is just outside of Park City (where the USSA Center of Excellence),is where a lot of the nation’s best cross country skiers spend some time. The Andy Newell was there for a few days, along with Noah Hoffman who are both on the US ski team. The whole Nordic Combine team was there one day including Olympic Gold Medalist Billy Demong. It felt like every other day we ran into Olympians.

The venue was great (but to be expected as a former Olympic site). It boasts the nicest roller ski loop in the country and in general is a great place to get ready for the season. But we did not just roller ski every day at the venue. We took advantage of everything that the surrounding area had to offer, including going on hikes both in the mountains outside of Park City and at Sundance resort (site of the Sundance Film Festival). I came to understand why the film festival was put there and why everyone loves going so much. The scenery in the area was just beautiful. We tried to get to the ridge line so that we could look down on the valley but that would have required another hour hard hike and we are no longing in the summer when long hikes are the focus. We are now in the fall were intensity workouts like intervals, time trials and races are the priority so we had to sacrifice the better view because we had a time trial the next day.

We did three time trials while there. One went well, one I was pretty tired and the last one I broke my pole and I was pretty much out of it. I was pleased that I was able to win one of the time trials that included 3 of the 4 top Juniors in the country even though it was at altitude which seems to affect me worse than most. I did not have the fastest ski speed but made up for it with good shooting and won 17 seconds over Eliot Neal.

Utah was great but I am heading to Canmore, Canada in a week or two to get on snow and that should be even better.