IN THE ARENA WITH CAITLIN: Massive Utah Photo Blog

After spending so many weeks living in Park City last year with the US Ski Team I was thrilled to bring my Loppet Nordic Racing (LNR) Teammates out to Utah to enjoy the epic training and weather. The goal of the camp was to put in huge volume (40 hours!) and learn how our bodies respond to the altitude while throwing in a few key intensity sessions to mimic the week of US Nationals in 2017 that will serve as the qualifiers for World Juniors that will be held at the same venue.

Crushing the almost 12,000 ft Mt. Timpanogos after a massive training block.

The girls 5K/10K Time Trial crew. The skate time trial was a major focus for the week.

Before the fun (or training) could start we first had to complete a massive grocery run!

The camp was the 3rd of 4 training camps this summer for the LNR competition team. We had 25 athletes and 4 coaches attend the camp and everyone who came was ready to put in some serious work and push their limits. The coaches were Piotr Bednarski, Drew Holbrook, Brian and myself. Although we were there as coaches Brian and I were also there to train and thanks to Drew and Piotr we were able to put in all the time that we needed as well as get the rest and recovery to maximize each session because these guys were awesome supporters! Drew spent countless hours shopping, cooking, teaching yoga and watching over the group. Thanks Drew and Piotr for helping us kick butt!

Drew supporting the group from the Bike.

Team Gregg and Piotr

Since we were in Utah for only 10 days we maximized our time by hitting up only the best training venues and routes. Since we have lots of rolling terrain in the Midwest we headed straight for the hills. With endless canyons and mountains to summit we made sure to hit a peak almost everyday!

The boys about to head up Empire Pass for a 3.5 hour morning distance session.

Heading through downtown Park City before the climb.

Working together.

Girls at the summit of Empire Pass.

Boys at the summit of Empire Pass.

One of the best parts of returning to Park City was connecting with the Wasatch Nordic Team and the Nordic Combined Team once again! It was awesome to have some locals open up their schedules and show us some new training locations. A huge thank you to Bill Hokkansen for being an incredible host and support staff as well as Brian Fletcher, Taylor Fletcher, Adam Loomis and Ben Loomis for sharing their workouts and stories about Nordic Combined!

Maddie Morgan of the Wasatch Ski Academy leading the LNR ladies on an afternoon running adventure.

Always having fun.

Exploring new trails.

Getting new peaks.

All ears listening to the Fletcher brothers talk.

The Fletcher brothers training with the LNR girls.

The group after the pre-race workout.

Although we were training a lot we also wanted to dial in some intensity sessions at Soldier Hollow. We decided to race a 10K/ 15K skate time trial similar to the one the USST held last October. We had an enormous group of athletes with the Wasatch crew joining us once again. Thanks to all that came out to help organize, time and photograph the event.

The Ladies!

The ladies and their coaches Bill and Piotr!

Maddie and Hannah

Margie and Mikayla

Annika finishing strong.

I was pretty excited to set a new PR on the course from last October :)

Xavier crushing it!

Happy ladies post race.

My favorite part of training with LNR is that we all work together everyday. We all follow the same training plan, we all cook and eat our meals together and we all push each other and learn from each other constantly.

Enjoying dinner on the back deck.

Occasionally we ran out of bowls and had to improvise.

One of the biggest highlights of the trip was having Noah Hoffman from the US Cross Country Team and Gold Medalist Billy Demong join us for dinner. They each shared motivational stories and advice as well as cute photo opportunities.

The girls seemed to look extra nice for this dinner ;)

This camp marked the last camp for 12 of my girls group who are heading off to college this fall. I am so proud of these ladies for stepping up their training and recovery and I can't wait to follow their progress this winter!

Mikayla found my photo in the COE. A big Thank You to Robert Lazzaroni for giving us a tour of the Center of Excellence and letting us get an awesome strength workout in!

Love these gals! They bought me a massive Kombucha :)

Never leave your phone downstairs during your nap!

I am going to miss these ladies!

Our final day brought us to Mt. Timpanogos for a long OD Run/ Hike. The highlight was reaching the summit and having Brian lead us down the snow field on the return. It was hot and nothing felt better than sliding down the glacier in July!