Monday, November 24, 2014

Do you know French? - Quebec Camp Part 1

Yesterday Saint Mikes Nordic made the trek to Stoneham, Quebec for our first ever thanksgiving camp, hoping to find the snow that continues to elude northern Vermont. Our lunch stop on the way up to camp was enough to convince us that, no, as a team we are woefully unable to speak french. After awkwardly butchering the french language (much to the embarrassment of our Canadian coach), we continued on our way, peering out the windows, waiting for the ground to turn white. 

We were not disappointed. We arrived at ForĂȘt-Montmorency determined to catch the rest of the light and were greeted by near perfect ski conditions. Excited about all the snow, the team skied until almost all the light was gone. We headed back to our chalet excited about the week to come.

What we saw out our windows this morning wasn't enough to crush our excitement, but it definitely left us a little less enthused to run out the door. We drove to the ski center in pouring rain, hoping to see it let up. Unfortunately it was destined to be a damp training session, and we headed onto the trails bundled up and determined to get in a good specific strength workout. By the end of the session the entire team was wringing out soaking wet clothing (why was the water running out of our gloves so dirty?!) and there was unanimous agreement that no one wanted to go back outside for an afternoon session. 

We have since retreated to home base for the afternoon for a much more sheltered strength workout. 

.skh