"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

If you are going to be a Nordic skier you have to live by these words.  Snow is fleeting in most of the world, even the mighty Wasatch.  As we watch it dissipate we realign our training accordingly to find fun and challenging ways to do our workouts.  Surely roller skiing is the closest thing but 6 days a week 6 months straight would be hard to find motivating so we cross train.

            This past Monday I attempted to ski Cascade, a large peak near Provo, with teammate Brett Denney and though we eventually did some time on skis we also hiked and ran a fair amount.  http://app.strava.com/activities/54075722

 

It was certainly fun but a sure sign that summer is on the way!

On Tuesday we rode bikes for nearly 6 hours

http://app.strava.com/activities/54272529

 and finally on Wednesday we did some rollerskiing… 

http://app.strava.com/activities/54347167

We also lifted very heavy Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week and the pinnacle of my favorite Roosevelt quote came on Saturday when our team did a fun local fundraiser to support local education called Running with Ed.  We split 38 miles into 10 segments and did 2 each.  Now having not really run at all yet made it incredibly painful but to try and make it a longer workout we also rode our bikes between each leg.  While I don’t have an accurate Strava I can sum up my own day as such:

9 miles of running about 1/3 trail and 2/3 road with 1200’ of elevation gain while doing about 20 miles of cycling in between.

Adam Loomis tagging me

2nd place out of 170 teams. 38 miles of tough running in 3:49

with Bryan Fletcher, Adam Loomis, Nick Hendrickson and Tyler Smith!

Spring into training!

Well, I’m a bit late on this update as we are well underway in our prep phase for Sochi, but I’d like to share a few thoughts and memories of our pre- pre-season.

Beginning in early April we started laying a foundation of endurance and strength that supports our more quality efforts, which will come later in the training year. Basically our first three months are spent increasing total weekly volumes of endurance training and strength as our bodies adapt and we can handle the increasing load. This past week, for instance, I’ve built up to the point where I am doing 18 hours of cardio training, including one “race pace” effort and one sub-maximal workout, with the rest being primarily easy (or as we call it, level 1) training

Now that snow has left the foothills, we are breaking our training into running, cycling, roller skiing and, if we feel like getting up really early and driving to the mountains, some on-snow skiing as well. Now 18 hours does not sound like a lot but....

to read the rest visit:

http://www.teamusa.org/Team-USA-Winter-Bloggers/Billy-Demong/Spring-Into-Training.aspx

Outdoor Sport

It’s easy to feel lucky or unlucky in life and as such to place blame on extraneous factors.  After winning a bronze medal in the team event at the World Championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy, I felt the momentum building and wanted to carry it into our final events.  The morning of the final individual event I felt great – mentally aware and acute, physically strong, and as pain-free as a child.  It was going to be a great day…

I was the 29th skier to ski jump in the round and I executed my best jump of my year.  I turned to look and I was in third place!  With only 25 skiers left to go, I felt that I was going to put myself into contention in the cross-country race for my first individual podium of the season.   I think the smile showed as I walked past media, friends and family and they asked questions thinking the same good thoughts as I.  Then five skiers later, the wind changed.  Massively....

http://www.teamusa.org/Team-USA-Winter-Bloggers/Billy-Demong/Outdoor-Sport.aspx