With the advent of cold nights, changing leaves, and drier air (finally!) here in Craftsbury, there are more than a few signs that fall is on its way. However, this blog title alludes to more than that- in under a week, the Green Team is heading to our European training camp to chase snow in Slovenia and Austria! I couldn't be more excited to change up the scenery and feel real snow under my feet. More on that later, but here are some photos and stories from summer training since July. While my May and June were spent mostly in Craftsbury, in the late summer I did a lot of traveling in between training blocks, had some good adventures, and am finishing our last hard block before Europe with high motivation.
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| Of course it wouldn't be the East Coast without the bugs- deer flies are nasty creatures and require special measures if you want to run the trails in Craftsbury |
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| We hosted our second BKL camp of the summer in July and the end of camp prizes came from the GRP- but they look better on this crew! |
In mid July I flew out west for a good friend's wedding in Ashley Lake, Montana. The wedding itself was gorgeous and it was nice to catch up with high school friends. Since I was in the middle of a training block, I got to do a bit of adventuring on foot around Kalispell and Bozeman, which reaffirmed my love for Montana and for jagged peaks, winding rivers, and endless sky. I'm definitely a Western girl at heart.
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| 3 of us from my high school cross country running team, reunited for Hailey's wedding. We keep in touch even 7 years after graduating from PCHS, and it's always awesome to see them and catch up |
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| Post wedding I spent a few days in Bozeman and did the Ridge Run from Bohart to the M. Here's my route looking towards Bozeman |
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| Not sure about this....? Keep on trucking! |
Then it was back to the East and real life! The end of July and August may have been the most humid weather I've ever experienced in Craftsbury. I would wake up in the morning, start sweating, and proceed to continue to sweat through my morning workout, post-lunch work, and my afternoon workout, and then maybe stop in time for bed. I made it through with some serious hydration, but unfortunately picked up a cold that was going around the team. For a summer cold, it took me out for much longer than I wanted when it settled into my sinuses and refused to leave. It's always frustrating to miss training, especially for something as silly as a summer cold, but it's also important to know my body and know when to rest. Anyways, I've been able to rebound and get back into a good training routine, and it only makes me more motivated to head into the fall with renewed focus.
Here are the last few photos from the East, with a smattering of training photos, work around the Center, and other random shots.
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| Our first harvest of summer squash and zucchini in Craftsbury. I think we were still excited then, before we got up to our ears in squash |
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| Summer work- pizza making in the Hosmer Point kitchen for weddings is always a blast. We'll miss you Maggie! |
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| Susan bought a new place on the Common and her blueberries were unreal. Thanks to her for letting us pick while she was out of town |
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| Taking our new summer training clothes from Craft for a spin, they are awesome! Photo Caitlin Patterson |
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| Rolling with a big crew (Photo Caitlin Patterson) |
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| Another Monday, another mountain bike club. The GRP women rocking our new Bliz helmets and ready to coach the little ones at bike club (Photo Ben Lustgarten) |
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| A quick trip over to Lake Placid with Caitlin to visit Clare and see her new apartment,.We got treated to this sunset and dinner on the porch with Clare and Erik |
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| Hiking in the Adirondacks- balancing rock |
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| Working on good power application in my double pole, thanks Sam for the photos! |
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| A scenic drink break in Hardwick |
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| And of course, GRP biathletes Emily and Alex got married this August! Congrats to them. Their wedding was just up the road at Hosmer Point and everything was beautiful, down to the wedding cakes that Em made. Here's the GRP ski contingent at the wedding |
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| Practicing my SUP yoga with Kait and Heather |
Finally, I ventured over to New Hampshire last weekend to take on a hike in the Presidential Range. Kait, Caitlin and I really want to do the full Presi traverse at some point, but since it's almost 23 miles and up to 10 hours of hiking, it wasn't the smartest thing for the last day of our training block before going to Europe. Instead we did the Northern Presi's on the most perfect day and were quite happy to be done at a little over 5 hours of hiking instead!
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| Panorama looking back towards Mt. Washington |
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| Lots of snack breaks to keep us going |
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| Star Lake in the saddle between Mt. Adams and Mt. Madison |
Finally, that brings me up to right now! Sorry for the long wait between posts this summer. The truth is that summer can get really busy between training, work, and travel, and sometimes it feels like I hardly have the time to sit down and blog. However, since we'll be on the road more often from now on, I'll try to use my down time to get a blog up from my next destinations.
The Green Team leaves September 12th for Planica, Slovenia, where we'll be doing an on-snow camp in a tunnel with saved snow from last year. After a week of that, we'll head to Ramsau for skiing on the Dachstein Glacier. Both of these places will have great opportunities to apply our summer fitness to skiing, and make sure that our hard-earned technique changes transfer over to snow. I absolutely cannot wait, Ramsau is one of my all-time favorite places, and from what I've heard about Slovenia, it might be up there as well after this trip! Thanks for reading, stay tuned!
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| Labor Day weekend activities- "Vermonting" with some UNH friends on Mt. Pisgah by Willougby Lake. Loved seeing these wildkittens! |
