Sunday, October 13, 2013

Park City

The first week of camp is completed here in Park City, and already we have fit in a whirlwind of activities.
USSA photo
Before camp started, I had a few days of acclimation followed by a weekend full of Fast and Female events and some family time with my cousin and uncle.

The Fast and Female went really well! We had a record number of Park City participants, 130 little girls! It was great fun!
The group of Fast and Female Ambassadors
My little cousin from Jackson, who has started to do really well in Alpine skiing was planning to come down for the F&F, but unfortunately she got sick. My uncle and cousin still made the trek over, so it was so great to catch up with some more Bjornsen's! I can't wait until they are old enough that they too will likely be racing on the US Team!
My uncle Jeff and little cousin
A little mini Bjornsen
Haakin checking out the Center of Excellence
After a couple days of adjusting, the actual camp started at the beginning of this week.

US Ski Team girls- taken from Hoff.com
Monday started with a collection of all types of testing. Treadmill testing, strength testing, mobility testing, body comp, blood tests and HB mass. Everything! I haven't done treadmill testing now for 1.5 years because of injury, so I was actually excited to jump on and go to the hurt zone. Nothing has changed though. You get on, breath through an uncomfortable tube, push yourself to extreme limits... chasing that finish line that never seems to come. At some point, you legs just can't hold on any longer, and you fall down in exhaustion, only to be caught by the harness before you go shooting off the back. Good fun! Especially after your buddies send you a youtube video of "treadmill gone wrong"...

Some good Treadmill testing

Going to the real hurt zone!
Doing some squat testing
Chad, our awesome Sports Science guy who decided nordic is best! :)
Eventually after getting all of our tests taken care of, we got back into the real training camp business. The weather has been a real collection... t-shirts and shorts to full on snow storms! The usual fall in Park City.
Soph and I stoked about an awesome meal our teammates made us! (HB photo)
Some Skate Threshold training out at Soldier Hollow. Matt Whitcomb photo
some sweet training happening here! (ussa photo)
It has been so fun to have our full team together, setting goals and looking ahead into the winter!
The US Ski Team... dressed up!
I finally got to join the team for an OD yesterday with a ski up East Canyon followed by a run in the mountains! It was so fun to finally be able to join! A huge shout out to our PT, Zuzana Rogers who has traveled down to Park City with us for this first week to help keep us healthy and get to know the team more. She has been a huge help, she even came up this morning for a Sunday morning therapy in our house!! She is incredible!
An army of bright skiers hitting the road. (Zuzana photo)
Headed up the hill.
Nearing the top of East Canyon (Zuzana photo)
The bright group headed through hunting zone! (Zuzana photo)
Next week is a week full of more speed, more distance, and a Sprint TT on Tuesday. It should be good fun!
Zuzana doing some great morning therapy!