Kid's of All Ages!

It’s great! I get to work with kids of all ages…not just 6-10 year olds but 30-50 year olds as well! This past weekend, I had the opportunity to help with a roller-ski clinic for the Idaho Nordic Masters Ski Program. When I was informed that only a hand full of the athletes had been on roller skis this summer, I have to admit, I was a little frightened. Roller skiing is not the easiest task to pick up right away...the balance and coordination takes some getting used too.

I was pleasantly surprised by the effort and skill of these athletes on roller skis for the first time this summer! Wow, they looked better than me the first time I go out for the season. It was fun working with people who have such an eagerness to learn and improve upon their ski technique. At this particular clinic, we focused on poling, both for double-pole classic technique and V2 skate technique. More specifically we focused on getting our hands and hips up at the same time, “tucking our tails,” keeping our arms closer to our body and crunching with our stomachs. Once we practiced our upper body technique, we progressed to mastering our lower body skate technique. We worked on getting a forward lean, pushing off our feet to the side (rather than back), and pushing to each side evenly. So much to think about! While all these tid-bits seemed over-whelming to think about at once, we saw a lot of progress within the 2 hour ski session.

I really enjoy working with the Idaho Nordic Team! They are a fun group of skiers who share the same enthusiasm for skiing as I do. They are a very supportive group of people who are always interested to hear how our summer training is going and eager to hear what our ski results are.

Thank you Idaho Nordic for all your support! Keep up the good, hard work!

Joe Jensen laying it out there at the 2008 World Master Championships

Mixing it up...

Last week I had the opportunity to go on a rafting trip with some of my fellow teammates down the Salmon River. Now, when you think of a rafting trip, you most likely think of sitting in a raft all day floating down a river, throwing in a few paddles here and there. While this was somewhat true, we managed to find several great running trails along the river to keep us on track with our training. A recovery week enabled us to enjoy a week with less volume but it in no way allowed us to sit in the raft all week...especially when our coach was on the trip with us!

After a 4 hour drive, which turned into 7 hours, we finally arrived at the put-in at the North Fork of the Salmon River. Much to my surprise, we managed to fit the gear of 13 paddlers into 3 gear boats!!! I was convinced that there was no way we were going to fit everything, but such was not the case. I learned that you can bring whatever luxuries you desire on a rafting trip...there is always a way to fit more. Who would go rafting without, bochi, horse shoes, a folding lawn chair, or 4 coolers full of gourmet food? These become necessities on a rafting trip!

Yep, all that gear fit in 3 boats!

The first couple days we enjoyed warm sunshine and the freedom to sleep outside without a tent. By day 3 the clouds had caught up to us and we got stuck in a thunderstorm, which lasted all night! The clouds, wind, and cold stuck around for 2 days and we were forced to sleep in our tents and bundle up in the all the clothes we brought with us.

A beautiful, sunny day on the river!

Danielle and I bundled up, the AK way, with our full-body rain suites!

Rain or shine, Mikey, Colin and I always found a way to accomplish our training for the day. There was a great trail along the river that we ran on most days. While it was a pretty well-traveled trail, we had to be very careful of poison ivy! I quickly learned what it looked like and made a cautious effort to dodge and jump over anything that resembled the plant! Luckily, we all came away from the trip unscathed! In addition to running 2-3 hours each day, we managed to do a couple strength workouts on the beach. We got creative and came up with some great exercises that I must admit, made me a little sore.

Running through the woods

We had a great trip, and I would definitely suggest doing rafting trip on your next recovery week. It is a great way to mix up the monotony of training while maintaining good fitness and experiencing a new activity.

Paddles up!