Karl Hoechtl (Vail) and Travis Jones (RMN) lead a strong crew of RMN Select and Development team athletes on our first camp of the summer in Park City, UT.
In attendance were:
Shana Keilson, Ian Havlick and Calvin Delamere from Boulder
Carly Moore from Vail
Tom Sawyer and Tyler Reinking from Summit
Sarah MacCarthy, Missy Krause, Mary Rose, Molly Newman, and Marty Smith from Steamboat.
Day One: Meet up and eat up... after gathering the crew in the late afternoon at the Soldier Hollow Lodge (our home for the camp) we headed up the hill to grab some mex at the famous El Chubasco (spanish for "the chubasco") in Park City. Went to bed happy and ready to rock...
Day Two: Up early for a run and stretch. Morning Workout was a long run (1:30-1:50) on the Soldier Hollow trails followed by some pretty tough strength training based on a Norwegian Junior Team workout. Afternoon was a skate rollerski workout - we were lucky to have Pete Vordenberg, former RMN athlete and current US Ski Team Head Coach, join us for the workout. He worked technique with the kids, had some great suggestions, and assured us that RMN would most certainly dominate New England at this years JO's - like there was any question... Dinner at this place with a big fire outside and GIANT lemonades all around
Day Three: Agony! The Agony Hill Time Trial behind the University of Utah Stadium is one of the most painful 13-25 minutes of any athletes life... Records for times up the hill go back over 20 years, and the who's who of American nordic skiers have been up the thing more times than most of them care to count... The all time records belong to X US Ski Teamers John Alberg and Nancy Fiddler. Our RMN kids ran up the hill very quickly - much faster, I must say, than I had expected them to this early in the season... They rocked it and posted some of the best junior times seen in years. We are still waiting for confirmation of this, but we believe that Ian Havlick's time of 14:51 is the 3rd best junior boys time ever recorded, behind only Rob Whitney and RMN boy Glenn Randal! Here's the score...
Men:
Ian Havlick (OJ) 14:51 (3rd fastest junior ever?)
Tyler Reinking (J1) 15:32
Calvin Delamere (OJ) 15:33
Marty Smith (OJ) 16:46
Tom Sawyer (J1) 19:17
Women:
Sarah MacCarthy (OJ) 18:52
Annelies Cook (SR - U of Utah) 20:11
Mary Rose (J2) 20:36
Molly Newman (J2) 21:06
Shana Keilson (J1) 23:27
Tyler and Calvin's times were both likely top-10 all time junior marks (out of 200+ juniors up the hill) as was Sarah Mac's. Other times were solid across the board with very strong times as well by J2's Rose and Newman.
The afternoon workout consisted of a nice long drive to a somewhat elusive venue (translate - I got lost) followed by a bit of double-pole rollersking (OK - it was actually 2 hours or so...). The boys all got out and crushed it while on the girls side, Shana Keilson and Sarah MacCarthy showed impresive strength. The J2 girls spent some quality time working on technique with Coach Karl and all came away feeling better about their poling. Great day...
Dinner at this pizza place in Park City that was just nuts - they charged you for every little thing. Want ketchup with your fries? Extra $.75... Get your paper napkin dirty? $.50. Want a fork with your pasta? $2.25 - you get the picture...
Day 4: Most of the kids in attendance told me that they had come to the camp for this day, Karl included... This morning, we made an attempt on the beautiful Mt Timpanogos (11,750'). Timp is the mountain you see in the backround as you are driving to SoHo from Heber - it's a spectacular sight from a distance and a beautiful hike as well - waterfalls everywhere! In June, the mountain seems to live up to its name, or the second half of it, at least - it was a no-go on Timpanogos. We made it to about 9500' and got beaten by the snow - trail was gone, pitch was steep, snow was slick and the consequences of a fall were just two darn high, so we turned tail and enjoyed an epic glissade back down the mountain - still came to about 2.5 hours of solid hiking.
The afternoon workout was, unquestionably, the most important of this camp. A full-scale assult of the Seven Peak Water Park in Provo left us all tired, sunburned, and sore, but most of all, proud of our accomplishments. The mighty orange slide and even the terrifying blue monster (Karl - keep those legs crossed!!) were conquered by nearly the whole group and with technique that was the envy of all the other guests. We rocked that place!
Dinner (I'm not so sure why I keep writing about what we had for dinner...) was at this Mexican joint called Don Pedros in Heber - pretty good, and obviously run by smart people, as they put us in our own room. Really pretty, free, helium baloons. Walked down the street for milkshakes and spent some time giving beginner longboard lessons to US Ski Teamers and all around good kids Liz Stephens and Ida Sargent.
Day 5: Everyone is looking a little tired this morning - it's been a tough few days with about 15+ quality hours of training. Last workout is among the hardest of all. Being here at SoHo, the site of the 2007 JO's gives us a great chance to go out and work on specific courses, and today we hit the sprint hard. We started off with a little carnage, as I led the whole group in to a totally un-skiable corner at high speed. 5 of us went down - and, as karma would have it, I got the worst of it - some pretty solid road rash... After we all pulled the grass out of our helmets and the gravel out of our wounds, we jumped in to a brutal interval workout aimed at helping the athletes to better understand the JO sprint course and the tactics, skills and fitness that it will take to bring home the gold... It's pretty much in the bag...
After it was over, we all went our seperate ways - to meet again in a few weeks (Either the REG Camp in Sun Valley or the Crested Butte Camp).
I'd like to thank Karl Hoechtl who gave his all and was a huge help and inspiration to everyone (get well soon!) Pete V. from the US Ski Team, Eli Brown from the University of Utah, the person who left their key in the $6 locker at the water park after they cleared their stuff out, the waitress at the resturant with the fire outside who put up with everyones bad jokes (even mine and Marty's) all the way through dinner and lemonade, and most of all, to the RMN Select and Devo Team athletes - you guys rocked it - Keep it up!
Eye of the Tiger,
Travis.