This is what a typical day at training camp looks like in Ushuaia.
We wake up at 6:30am which has slowly started to feel earlier and earlier.
I’ve been sleeping pretty well, but definitely starting to feel the training volume as my resting heart rate has slowly ticked up every night we’ve been here and my HRV has slowly fallen to around 80 where as it’s usually closer to 90 - I think lack of vitamin D down here might be a factor in this. I use my Oura ring to judge fatigue which is sometimes hard to differentiate from stress, but my HRV and Resting HR are good indicators of how hard I can push it on the hill and how many runs I should aim for. Obviously, you can always push the limits more than you think (shouldn’t let the numbers dictate everything), but I’ve been trying to focus more on quality runs. I usually fall victim to; if I’m feeling tired or my recovery numbers are bad I stick to the number of runs the coaches suggest, and if my numbers are good I fight to take one or two extra runs :) (this is the time of season for more volume generally speaking).
Mornings consists of warm up, eat breakfast, get ready for skiing, pack skis in the big trucks we use for transport and then a driver picks our team up from the hotel at 7:30 in a big van and we start the 30-40 minute (depending on the previous night’s snowfall) drive to the hill. I try not to fall asleep on the van ride and have been listening to books on tape or watching Netflix sports documentaries :) But it is a very sleepy drive.
We then get to the hill, unload all the skis and warm up in the lodge, usually drink an espresso to wake up, and then load the lift at 8:45. We have slowly been getting more and more daylight (4 extra minutes each day down here!), so each day the first run has been a little less dark!
Today we had one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen. The whole sky was pink, then purple and the horizon was a bright turquoise blue. It’s really cool to see the sun reflecting down on the mountains from the north since we’re in the southern hemisphere.
Here’s another photo of the sunrise because it was so beautiful! Safe to say I was a little distracted during Super-G inspection.
After inspection and a couple warm up runs, we are ready to train! Today was super-g with the US Speed boys and our team. We brought out 4 pairs of my new super-g skis because we are trying to ‘run in’ the speed skis, which basically means use as many skis as possible so they can all go through another wax cycle to hopefully make them faster. Zoran, mine and Keely’s technician, is on the far left of this picture. He helped me a ton last year when I was struggling with skis and I am so thankful and excited to work with him as my technician this year - he is a very seasoned pro!
One of the lifts broke during the storm, so we have been using the ski-doo to get to our Super G start which is pretty fun, but you have to be careful so you don’t get pelted by a random snow chunk every now and then.
This is me pushing out of the start of the super g! The course today was very flat glide turns up top (not my specialty but something I’m working hard at getting better at) and then straight and fast down the pitches, which was quite fun. We skied 6 runs of a 50 second course. The surface broke down a little bit because the snow is still pretty soft from all the fresh snow, but it was still awesome training and it’s been so nice to ask the older boys for advice on my speed skiing.
I then took some free runs with Alice who is pictured here with some potatoes. Sometimes, when you get on the lift, the lifties will hand you things to bring up to the lodge at the mid station (food, skis, etc.). Everyone has been super friendly down here and there are a TON of tourists skiing. Luckily we get to skip the lift line, but during the weekend the lift line at the bottom was at least 45 minutes long.
After skiing we usually get lunch at the hill and then load up the truck with our skis and bags and make the drive back to our hotel inUshuaia.
This is also usually nap time! Training is hard work :)
We then do some sort of a dryland workout. Today was lift day in the small local gym in town. But other days we’ll do core, bike intervals, spike ball, or another game.
By this time it’s usually 3:30 or 4 pm (the days truly fly by here). Afternoons consist of a walk around town to explore, computer work, chilling, churros, or an ocean dip! (pictured below)
We have video review from 5-6 pm and team meeting at 6:45. Then it’s time for dinner in the hotel which is the same buffet food every night - I would give it a 6.5, but it is the only meal we eat vegetables! There have been a number of food poisoning incidents on the boys team, who is also staying at our hotel, (we are hoping its food poisoning and not a stomach bug) but so far our team has been unscathed (knock on wood!) After dinner activities include more work, reading, mario cart, beading, or movie watching. I’ve slowly been getting tired earlier every night and have been trying to be in bed by 9:30.
So far the camp has been amazing and it’s pretty hard to believe we only have four more days of training left!
As always, thanks for reading, and feel free to leave any thoughts or questions in the comments :)
Living vicariously.... GO TRISH!