Taking the Plunge

Last week was thankfully a wonderful recovery week to help rejuvenate the training batteries for this next coming training block. I can personally say with an immense amount of gratitude that I was ecstatic not to have 6:30am practice last Tuesday or 7am practice last Friday. I was actually able to catch up on that mysterious thing called "sleep," something that so many students around here seem to be lacking. Anywho, while it was technically an easy week for hours, we did do some quick workouts that happened to be pretty intense. Tuesday was one of the first times I had done classic sprints on roller skis in an extremely long time and for the next couple of days, my hip flexers were pretty tight. Thursday brought another hard workout, although not because of the workout design itself. Thursday happened to be extremely windy and cold and while it felt like we were skating in level three, we were moving at what felt like a snails pace. It was a little discouraging and my lungs were burning with the first taste of that crisp winter-esque air. But, with the help of Zach and his advice giving skills on the bike, I puttered my way through the rest of the workout at a decent clip feeling really strong. Our highlight of the week however, belongs to our Sunday workout. Due to our snow extravaganza last Sunday (SKIING FOR REALZ) we switched last Sunday with this Sunday and we ended up doing a 3.5 hour ski/run adventure around the Pineland area. The ski was a lot of fun with the girls, we all really pushed our V2 which was the main point of the workout (V2 everything unless your technique completely falls apart). The run was a hard follow up after a 2 hour ski but we managed to do it and when everything was said and done (2100 calories later) we celebrated with delicious cider and donuts from the Pineland Market. DELICIOUS WAY TO END THE DAY.

But this week is going to be our first step into the hard blocks of November and December. I'm pretty pumped. I do feel stronger thanks to our GSA and I feel like my threshold has improved. I guess I'm just nervous to start collegiate racing. Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing else I want to do besides race. It's literally my favorite feeling in the entire world. But I guess it's just taking the next step up into another league. It happens every couple of years. As soon as you get comfortable with the level you're at, be it J2's, EHSC, Junior Naitonals, Nationals, even World Juniors, you always have to end up taking the next step up. In my case this happens to be collegiate racing. It's a good nervous though. My technique feels solid, I'm relatively pain free, and I'm really starting to feel my focus sort of center in on my goals for this coming season. I'm gearing up for this next block of training by starting with my mentality before each workout. Just some positive visualization and race-prep practice. Anything I can do that is going to help put me in the right training mindset is going to help me in the long run.

So with that in mind, good luck to all of you! I'll be seeing you in Canada in about two weeks! YAHOOTIE! CANADAAAAAAA :D
Cheers!