Making hay while the sun shines
Great winters are made in the summer. How well I perform racing this winter at the Olympics will largely be a reflection of how well I prepare now. Snow might be the furthest thing from everyone’s mind but I like to think about it at least twice a day.
Usually, I train twice a day. When I leave my house for a workout, I think of the snow that will be falling in February in the Callaghan Valley, site of the Cross Country events at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. As the summer heat reflects off the hot pavement and sweat drips off my nose while I am roller skiing, I remind myself of the upcoming opportunity to be my best. I think of the coastal mountains and the big trees plastered in snow and I can feel myself skiing strongly and powerfully through the snowflakes.
Summer training takes your breath away. It involves a lot of oxygen moving in and out of my lungs. Sometimes, the pace is easy but the workouts are long. These are my favorite endurance sessions because they last six hours and I can run deep into the mountains. I do interval training. These are painful and I go as fast as I can for predetermined period of time. The purpose of these is to make racing seem easy. Also in the mix is strength training and this takes place in the gym and on skis. A cross-country skiers strength diet is heavy on chin ups and double poling (skiing using only my arms) up steep hills.
And I love all this stuff. It is challenging and there is always room to improve. Above all, I want that confidence to stand at the start line knowing that I made this summer count.
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