Mixing Things Up- Spring Recap
Spring for me is not about following a training plan; it is about staying active and doing whatever I feel like doing on that day. When it was raining, I would do something inside—when I was tired, I would do nothing—when I was antsy from studying all day, I would go on a long adventure. I decided my “training plan” in the moment, while making sure I was still building up running to prepare for the summer.
I took “moderation in everything” to the extreme this spring and really mixed things up. I had so many different interests that I found myself exercising twice a day pretty often (but not training twice a day necessarily). To give you a rough idea, in an (ambitious) week, I:
- rock climbed 2x
- triathlon team swim practice 2x
- strength 2x
- run 2x
- mountain/road biking 2x
Obviously I didn’t do this every week, but I hit each activity at least once a week. I think mixing things up in the spring is especially important for me because I tend to “break” easily if I am doing the same receptive motions over and over. Not only is cross training good physically, but also mentally. It is refreshing to mix things up, especially when the approaching summer season is filled with a lot of hours of rollerskiing and running.
Towards the second half of spring term, I started to ramp back up my training to prepare for our first U.S. Ski Team camp of the year in Bend, Oregon. I worked by butt off in school before heading out so I could enjoy the training and be able to make the most of the camp. 7 weeks into the term, I flew out to Bend really excited to be back on snow, skiing in a place I had never been before!
The camp started off with mid winter conditions, perfect skiing, and endless feet of snow in May! Quickly, the weather transformed to the typical Bend 60-70 degrees and sunshine weather and we were skiing in tank tops and shorts for the rest of camp. Every day we skied 3 hours in the morning and then did some type of non- skiing workout in the afternoon, including a run at Smith Rock!
My absolute favorite workout was the crust cruise! I had never been crust cruising before and I must say it really lived up to all the hype. I don’t even really know how to describe what I felt in words, but I do know crust cruising encapsulates all the reasons why I love cross-country skiing and adventuring in nature.
After 2 weeks of a lot of training, my body was tired and ready to rest. I came back from camp and headed straight into finals….it was the perfect way to rest the body by sitting on my butt studying all day. I have now finished my first year of college and I am going to keep the ball rolling by being at school for the summer term. But first, a short 2.5 week break from school to spend time with my family!
-JKern