There’s a Hemingway book called “The Dangerous Summer” that recounts a season’s worth of bullfighting between two masters of their craft in Spain. Each bullfighter has a different style, but they are equally impressive and accomplished.
That’s sort of like reading the plethora of ski blogs out there, as athletes and teams with different styles and methods all try their hardest to be as fast as possible come winter.
So you could consider this “The Fit Summer” as we strive to find the next level of performance that’ll keep upping the bar. Fitness has sort of become a buzzword in the ski world recently…sometimes more sarcastic than serious (as in, posting an extremely short workout and talking about how you are “working on fitness”), but it’s a good reminder that the end-game of skiing, and the way to be fastest in many respects, is to just be one of the fittest racers out there.
We’ve started to turn up the intensity a bit as we get more and more comfortable running and rollerskiing, and I think the Pugs are definitely looking Fit.
Ben and Timmy getting in a little L3 running on the Richmond River Trail
On Tuesday last week we did some running intensity on the River Trail in Richmond, and on Thursday we were on a different sort of trail; the bike path at UVM. In fact, UVM coach Perry Thomas joined us for that ski and is going to be working with the group this summer! The roster of awesome coaches, both new and returning, continues to grow. Sara, Perry, Laurel, Rick, Liam…what a time to be a Pug!
With athletes qualifying for camps and trips regionally, and more camps and training collaborations opening up for everyone, the summer is more fitness-goal-oriented than ever. We’ve got things to prepare for, not just when the snow flies but throughout the year and months ahead. That’s a good thing, since it narrows the focus and keeps everyone tuned-in to the next challenge and benchmark heading toward winter.
Speaking of winter, we DID still find snow up on Bolton Saturday morning scoping out the course for next week’s first uphill run test of the season. It looks like there’s probably going to still be some white stuff to navigate during the test next week at this rate!
A few patches of snow dot the trail on the upper reaches of Bolton!
