Enjoying it All

This past week has been another rest week for us, and being that fall is certainly in full swing here in Lake Placid, we took full advantage of the time off.



Zach and I started the week off by going apple picking, because what good upstate New York resident lets the fall pass without picking apples?? Since we went on a Monday, we had the orchard all to ourselves, which was fabulous. It couldn't have been a better day: sunny skies and pleasantly cool temperatures made for a beautiful drive over and a great time in the orchard. We picked two baskets full of Cortland, Macintosh, Golden Delicious, Gala and Honeycrisp varieties. Currently, the enormous pile is sitting in my room and quickly disappearing. Most people would be amazed at how Zach and I are able to go through apples! The best part, though, was sampling all the different apples. If you've never eaten an apple right off the tree, you are REALLY missing out. Supermarket apples just can't compare. My favorites? It's hard to choose since I like them all, but the best would probably be the Cortlands and Honeycrisps. We'll be back in the orchard before fall is over for sure.


On Wednesday afternoon, Zach and I hiked into a shelter on Copperas Pond, about 15minutes from Lake Placid and an easy 1.3 mile hike (or 0.5 miles if you take the short way that we didn't know about). It was absolutely beautiful in the mountains. The shelter is right on the pond, so waking to the first light hitting the pond in the morning was amazing. Perfect weather, of course, and a great one-night trip.


Then it was time to begin some easy training again. Today we took a run up a hill overlooking Lake Placid and Mirror Lake (the lake around which the town of Lake Placid is situated). It was beautiful (this is getting to be a welcome theme here...) and we had a great time exploring new trails and taking in the views. We had to stop and get our bearings as we looked over the town, I guess we're not quite locals yet!

Tomorrow we have some tough bounding intervals up Whiteface Mountain (the alpine ski area here), which marks the end of our easy week. There is really nothing that can compare to a Northeastern Autumn, and each day I am reminded but the beautiful foliage how lucky I am to be living my dream. September is more than half way over, which means snow and racing are quickly approaching. I can't wait!

September?!

It's been a little while since I've written, and all the sudden fall seems to have crept up. I can hardly believe that it's September already, but the wildly variant weather proves that another New England autumn is here.

Let's catch up on things. The end of my off week was spent taking my brother to his freshman orientation trip at Yale. Being a Dartmouth girl through and through, I spent much of the time deciding why Yale was clearly inferior to my alma mater. However, I must admit, it was pretty nice there and my brother seems to like it, so that's all that really matters.


Next, I headed off to Alaska to meet up with my boyfriend, Zach. We spent a great week training and helping his family get ready for his brother's wedding. The wedding was outside, with the beautiful Matanuska Valley and surrounding mountains making for a perfect backdrop. It was a great time for all, and well worth my short trip to Alaska.

I then flew back to Maine to spend a couple days with my parents and aunt and uncle before my parents headed back to Idaho. After a slight hiccup of car trouble on the way back to Lake Placid (luckily it happened in Hanover, with lots of friends to help and beds to crash in around), I finally arrived back at the OTC, only to leave the next morning with the rest of the Development Team for a weekend in Jericho, VT for training on the rollerski loops there. When we arrived on Friday, it was incredibly hot and humid. We had a tough couple of workouts on Friday due to the heat and humidity, and were so exhausted after the morning workout that the four of took naps on the hard picnic tables in the building near the range. The weather was no different on Saturday which made for tough conditions for the NENSA rollerski race. Thanks to great organizers, though, the race went off great and I think everyone had a good time.


Sunday was an off day, so we returned to Lake Placid to lounge. We were back in Jericho yesterday to significantly cooler temperatures. After an easier day Monday, this morning was spent with some level 3 rollerski interval combos (meaning after each interval we stop to shoot, making it more like an actual biathlon race). The temperatures have been cooperating nicely, but we'll be lucky if we can hold off the rain this afternoon for one last workout before heading back to Lake Placid.

Next week is an easy/off week and then we'll have a 10 day block of training then more rest before heading to Utah for our October camp with the National Team. Things are really moving in high gear here as we all get ready for winter, which like fall, will no doubt close in fast!