This morning the group gathered up and went for a short run (about 15 minutes) into town before breakfast. Well, almost everyone gathered up; I digress though ...
Breakfast was another fine continental affair. I'm really happy about the coffee here. I find it odd that breakfast is similar to lunch, lunch similar to dinner and dinner is ... dinner. They have some eggs and bacon, but I think that they only put them out for tourists. Bread, cold cuts, cheese and sliced vegetables are out at 6am, but oddly absent at noon.
I went out and waxed up a pair of test skis to try out later, then we all got together and walked over to the stadium. We did a workout that was a little more intense than the usual day-before-race training -- two X 2:30 at level 3, with 2:30 recoveries, followed by five minutes of 45-15s. Nothing ridiculous, but we're trying to get everyone in the mindset of moving fast. I think that people are almost switched over to Swedish-time, but not quite, so we're working to get that going.
Lunch involved potatoes, rice, bread, salad and (sticking with the meat-in-sauce theme) fish in saffron sauce and beef in gravy.
The kids are racing about an hour away tomorrow, and Gary and Matt are heading up there right now. Yesterday we found a race schedule and it read, "H/D 15, H/D 16: 2.5km F Jaktstart 5km" ("H/D" means "Male/Female," and we're guessing that 15 and 16 are ages.)We were under the impression that the race was a 10km skate, but are now thinking it is some sort of pursuit, as the hotel desk clerk told us that "jaktstart" means "hunting start." Gary and Matt are investigating this matter.
I'm loosely overseeing a study/article-writing session. Everyone has been assigned themes, and they've been paired up to write them. As I finish up this article, they are still struggling through getting started.
OK -- pictures:
Everyone gathered up a trail junction, getting ready to drop jackets and do the workout. We skied the 10km Motion trail, which was less insanely steep than the trails we did yesterday. This was also a loop; yesterday we just went all the way up a trail and found out if was a out-and-back.
Alex Howe had 8 X 200m. on his schedule today. Here, he leans on his poles after finishing his last interval.
Reid Pletcher skates down the trail, while the sun threatens to overwhelm the photo. The sun doesn't get very high up in the sky here at this time of year.
As I skied down the trail, this little truck came out from intersection and cut me off. I followed the two old guys in it for a couple kilometers. Alex tells me that this is a John Deere Gator. It did surprisingly little damage to the ski trails.
I still am unsure if they were doing trail work, or if they were just rednecks.