AWCA Torsby
Day 3: Monday
We began our travel day with a scenic roller ski around Oslo, guided by Tormod Vatten, who pointed out various landmarks, including the school where Julia (Canada's Head Coach) studied. Afterward, we bid farewell to our wonderful host, Havard Moseby, and made a couple of stops at sports stores to stock up on essentials for our upcoming races.
Three hours of driving later, we arrived in Torsby, Sweden, where we'll spend the next week skiing inside the Skidtunnel (the Swedish term for "Ski Tunnel"). We reunited with teammates Amelia Wells and Sonjaa Schmidt for a quick, hour-long ski session inside the tunnel. After a busy travel day, we kept our trip to the grocery store brief and straightforward.
Day 4: Tuesday
The on-snow skiing has officially begun! The Skidtunnel is an underground ski trail kept cold by refrigeration stations throughout the track. We’re fortunate to have this opportunity to ski on snow during the summer, which helps us maintain our technique and stay in top shape. Due to the cold air and confined space, we wear cold weather air filters over our mouths to prevent freeze burns in our lungs.
Our morning workout consisted of three hours of skate skiing around the tunnel, focusing on technique and getting comfortable on skis again. It feels fantastic to be back on snow! We had the afternoon off, allowing us to nap and recharge after all the travel and training.
To cap off the day, we were invited to Julia Mehrystgaard and Nathaniel Mah’s Airbnb for a pizza dinner and to watch the Olympics.
Day 5: Wednesday
Wednesday brought more of the same, with another chance to ski. We’ve settled into our routine nicely. In the morning, we spent three hours classic skiing, with continued focus on technique and video analysis from the coaches. We paired up to help each other work on specific technical aspects of our skiing.
After our ski session, we returned home for some rest and relaxation. In the afternoon, our fearless coach, Tormod, led us through a core workout following our hour-long run around the outdoor ski trails.
Day 6: Thursday
This morning, we woke up to what can be described as classic Swedish weather—rainy and overcast. Fortunately, we had planned to spend the morning indoors at the ski tunnel, arriving right as it opened to start our workout. Our session consisted of a 3-hour classic ski with some short 10-second speeds. The purpose of these speeds was to get our bodies moving a bit faster in preparation for tomorrow's intensity. While the first few sprints felt a bit shaky, everyone quickly found their rhythm.
After the session, we returned to our accommodation, had lunch, and relaxed while watching the Olympics. A few hours later, we made a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up dinner ingredients. Afterward, the boys headed out for a "disc golf run," which combined a jog around the scenic disc golf course with a round of disc golf. The course was beautiful but full of spiders. Nathanial, our cameraman, did his first run of the season, reaching a peak heart rate of 180 BPM. Meanwhile, the girls enjoyed an easy run along the rolling cross-country ski trails, taking a few breaks to pick wild blueberries along the way.
After dinner, we had a technique video review session, where we analyzed each other's techniques and provided feedback from the morning's training. At the end of the session, everyone had specific technique goals to focus on during tomorrow's intensity session.
Day 7: Friday
Today was our first (and only) on-snow intensity session. Today's intensity was a 5x10 minute threshold. This intensity is important to get enough time in a race-specific technique as we prepare for the roller ski races in Trondheim. Training on snow is important because it helps us improve our classic skiing technique. Kicking on snow is harder since we have to use the wax pocket, whereas, on roller skis, we can just rely on the ratchet. After the first interval, we tested our lactate to ensure we were not pushing too hard right away. After the intensity we had lunch and Max made Finnish pancakes before having some downtime.
The afternoon involved some much-needed downtime, allowing us to recharge. It is pouring rain so it was good that we had a gym session in the early evening. We had burritos for dinner and cheered as Team Canada clinched gold in the Olympic 4x100m relay. Go Canada!
