Figuring out fall

After what I thought was a productive summer full of training, fishing, and helping my dad with home improvement projects around the house, I once again had to figure out what my training will look like now that most of the guys I was training with over the summer are back in school. For the past three months, my training had consisted of 12-24 hours a week that included roller skiing (only three crashes in the summer, yay!), running with poles, straight-up running, and what my coach Jan considers “strength” sessions, which to me felt like HIIT sessions. This was all done with a group that ranged from high school students to college students who were about to start their first season of collegiate racing and potential World Cup starts as well.

If I’m being honest, I found it so much harder to keep up the same level of high-volume training as well as high-intensity training when I was once again doing the sessions by myself. Once or twice a week (usually on Saturdays), Jan and a masters (older than 40 years) skier, Rich, would be able to join me on a long roller ski or interval session. This was better than having no one to train with at all, but for the other 6-7 workouts, I had to get creative and found a mix of training while listening to music and convincing retired former competitive skiers to join me for parts of my longer sessions.

I had a check-in with Mark Chanloung (the coach of the Thai national team and also my teammate), who informed me that his roller ski racing plans had been canceled, which meant that I would be able to meet him and train with him in northwest Italy, where he lives. In a fortunate turn of events, I found out that my dad would be going to Luxembourg and then to northern Italy for a month-long work trip, which meant that I could have him bring a majority of my gear, and I would be able to stay with him until Mark would be ready for me.

Stay tuned for the next blog post about my training and adventures in Europe!