Tomorrow marks one month until the first World Cup race of the season and only 3 weeks until we will be racing our season opener in Gallivare Sweden.
Yesterday we finished our final camp of the training season in Park City, Utah.
The 3 weeks we spent in Utah were altitude focused and we were staying at 2500m.
Prior to traveling to Utah at the start of October, I spent the majority of September at home in Whitehorse. It had been a long time since I had been home for long enough to do a real training block instead of just flying up for a visit on an easy training week.
SEPTEMBER
For me, September had an intensity focus. I started my intensity block in Canmore where I joined the Biathletes for their fall double pole test up Mt. Norquay. I was really happy to get a PB, 35seconds faster than my time last fall. Having a good test up Norquay was an important shift in my intensity feel both mentally and physically from the summer. With the smoke from the local BC and Alberta forest fires blowing in and out of the Bow Valley all September, I made the decision to head home to Whitehorse early and finish my intensity block there. The rest of my interval sessions were done on my own, pushing myself to the max up the familiar hills of my childhood. Not having any teammates to compare to allowed me to really focus on the process and finding my physical limit. I came out of the block feeling in tune with my body and confident in the hard work I had put in.
Even more than providing a great lower altitude training environment to my hard interval sessions, being back in Whitehorse for 3 weeks gave me a much needed break for the ski world. In between my training sessions and recovery naps, I had quality time to do some non training related activites with my parents, friends and my dog. I hiked mountains, played a basketball game, went horseback riding with my mom, did some painting and spent many hours in the kitchen cooking and baking with all the fresh cranberries I picked with my friends. My dad was my coach, timing my hard interval sessions and my training partner, joining me for longer running sessions. My friends were my recovery workout partners, mountain biking, running and lying on the couch with me when I was too tired to move. Almost all my friends in Canmore are competitive athletes like myself so being in Whitehorse and spending quality time with my friends from home who have a differently balanced life than I do was really refreshing and exactly what I needed to recharge and get ready for the race season and 6 months on the road.
Leaving Whitehorse, I felt happy, relaxed and ready to join up with my team for one last hard camp in Utah.
OCTOBER
I have been coming to Park City every fall for the past few years. This year however I stayed up higher with the rest of the National Team in Deer Valley. We had a really good camp with the National Team and truly amazing support staff. Ridges were run, passes were climbed, poles were broken, jokes were made, limits were attained and memories were made. Near the end of the camp we did my favourite ski up the Mirror Lakes Hwy. and I ended the workout by climbing up Bald Mountain, for me there is nothing I like more than ending a long work on the summit of a peak. We also got in a time trial at Soldier Hollow as well as two other intensity sessions. It was great to have the University of Utah women join us for a few sessions throughout the camp. Utah is always best described in pictures so here are some of the best from our 3 weeks in the USA.
READY FOR NOVEMBER
Having such an great camp with the team has gotten me really excited for the race season and the winter on the road with my ski family.
Just two more weeks until we board that plane for Europe. Until then I will be spinning laps on Frozen Thunder in Canmore getting that on snow feel back as well as stressing out about what to pack. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for updates from the race courses.
Dahria
Dahria Beatty 