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Dog Days of Summer
Dog Days of Summer
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\r\nBy Andrew Johnson
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\r\nUp at 6:45. Breakfast, enough time to gather and put on appropriate gear, wax the skis and out the door we go. Skiing by 8:30. Ski for a couple-three hours, wax and put away skis, shower, stretch, eat, nap, repeat. Ahhh… The dog days of summer!
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\r\nIn a nutshell, that’s pretty much an average day for the next three weeks of training camp here at the Waiorau Snowfarm, Wanaka, NZ. It’s not bad work, if you can get it!
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\r\nLet’s start at the beginning. A brief battery of fatigue testing immediately upon waking up monitors our heart rate, oxygen saturation, hemoglobin level, hydration, lactate level…if we’re not sent immediately back to bed as a sort of penance for over-zealous training on the previous day, we can head to breakfast. Every great day of training needs a great breakfast to start. Eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, oatmeal, toast, cold cereal, coffee, orange juice are just part of the breakfast smorgasbord here. This consumption festivus is also a great social scene, as the single guys of the group try their luck with the couple available single women from other teams and groups staying here, and us unavailable dudes proffer our priceless advice to our comrades.
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Rebecca Dussault enjoying some skiing that is simply phenomenal...
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\r\nAs we commence our morning workout, the sun is just coming up if it’s a clear day, and if there’s a cloud layer, it’s still nearly dark at 8:30. These are the workouts where we focus strictly on skiing, whereas afternoon workouts are an assortment of skiing, strength, running, spenst, and soccer sessions. Athletes ski from 1:30 to three hours, with lots of technique work, video review, and skiing without poles. Thursday morning we did 3-by-10 minute level three intervals, classic. Tomorrow morning we’ll do 5-by-7 minutes skating intervals. Next weekend the Snowfarm is hosting the New Zealand national championships (as they’ve done every year since their inception) and we’ll race the 10/15 K classic on Saturday.
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\r\nYesterday we skied long in the morning so we took the afternoon off. Most of the team piled in the big van and made the 40 minute pilgrimage to Wanaka. The drive is an adventure in and of itself. The access road to the Snowfarm is thirteen kilometers long, and is steep, turny, muddy, icy and generally very unsafe. Think about the road to Boise’s Bogus Basin, turn it to dirt, make it a lot steeper, throw in some mud and ice, and you have a rough idea of what I’m talking about. If you happen to draw the short end of the stick and end up in the back of the van, you’d better hope your stomach is settled and you don’t have a serious propensity for motion sickness.
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\r\nIn Wanaka some shopped and drank coffee. Others just drank coffee. Still others played golf. All of us bought the necessary snacks and supplies. Wanaka is nice because the weather is a little warmer and dryer than up here on the hill. No snow down there…no green grass but good conditions for running, kayaking, soccer, and the all-important golf.
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On clear days, this is a pretty typical view to start your day with here at the Snowfarm.
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\r\nOn the way home we stopped by the famous Cardrona Hotel. This is a 150 year old hotel in the bottom of the valley, originally built to fill the needs of the traveling gold miners of yesteryear. Back in the eighteen hundreds the town of Cardrona wasn’t so small. 7000 inhabitants called this valley their home until a flood wiped most of the buildings, and therefore the people, away. Today, it’s a unique and crowded après ski hangout, and a great place to grab a Speights (New Zealand’s South Island beer). We enjoyed the scene and met up with a couple friends who are also here for some skiing, before heading back up the hill for dinner. Of course, every time we drive up that sketchy hill we have to try and set a new rally time record. The snow and the mud and the weighted down van slowed our progress. Our time for the 13 K’s was way off the team record of 11:30 minutes, but we had the good fortune of making it safely home for grub.
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\r\nDinner’s generally followed by a game of poker or movies or generally laziness. Sleep comes early after a full day of skiing, and the cold winter nights make for great slumber conditions. This isn’t the August of sitting on the beach and getting a tan, but I wouldn’t trade this skiing stuff for anything. Right now I’ve got to ante up and play some poker!
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\r\nStay tuned for more updates, and results from this weekend’s race!
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Wendy Wagner. Her face pretty much says it all!
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Written By: andrewjDate Posted: 8/10/2004Number of Views: 364
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