Fall Camp: Where we are, more on where we've been, and maybe a little on where we are going

Senate Meadows, Galena, Idaho

The "High Piney Country" my Dad called it, and he loved it. I do too. Something deep and enchanting lies here. At the same time it makes you feel small it draws you out and into it. There is an almost visceral connection with wildness. In spite of the warm breeze and the soft dryness of early fall some thing still and unspoken suggests survival, and predation, and patterns of life and death. A small breath of air at the same time can caress and comfort and still raise the hair on your neck.

The day before yesterday the team ran the ski trails at Galena Lodge. It was a low intensity workout and designed give each a metric of how altitude acclimatization is coming along. Galena is high at 7200'. I have often felt I noticed the difference between Ketchum at 6000' and Galena more than I noticed the difference between sea level and Ketchum. The trails are a mix of dirt roads, and broad meadows and when the roads dissolve into forest track it is not always easy to follow them. There is a lot of relief to the land. The team connected two or three of the trails for a 90 minute level one to two run and everyone seemed to tolerate the additional altitude well.

We have the luxury of time to get used to the lower pressure up here, and to spend enough time to have a natural training effect take place. It will be interesting to measure times and numbers in certain set tests we use after we come back to Burke. Another factor that seems to be playing a positive role this year is that everyone on the team has been healthy and seems to be able to build on the fitness level with which they came. While we still haven't put down a serious interval session today's morning work out was a series of speeds finishing with 8 times up a steep 100 meter section of trail. Kate and I were pleased with what we saw and the efforts put in. Tough work well done.

This is Steep!

The Girls do Speeds at Lake Creek's South Bench

We have had Burkie Sam Tarling with us for the last week and that has been good fun for the whole gang. Last night we hosted alum Evan Martell who is spending the year with Sun Valley's post grad program and three of his housemates. They come from programs in Montana, the Northwoods of Wisconsin, and of course,Vermont. A fun and hungry bunch.

SAT tests on October first for five of our seven. That will close a chapter and we can turn our attentions to the last full week. Hopefully there will be some pleasure reading. there will be plenty of good training. On the list is a run around Redfish Lake, two or three more long roller skis, moose hoof intervals, a time trial and whatever else we can squeeze in.

All the best and more soon.