24 hours are not enough. Can we all agree on that? This week has been a bit of a gauntlet of training and socializing. Broken only up with some failed sleeping attempts and whole lot of driving. I thought my "to do this week" list was pretty tame and yet here I am updating this blog on the last day of the week so I can finally cross it off. There are a few key objectives left to accomplish, but when I look back on last Sunday so much has happened.
Let's start off with the important part of the week. That was the plan from the beginning. Knowing that the fourth was coming up I wanted to get the key workouts in before hand. This was a high intensity week. Monday kicked off with a 6x4min race pace effort. Not the most original work out but very effective. Did I mention it was hot out? Yeah this was day one of the 2014 summer meltdown. You know that feeling when you open the oven after you've been baking something for hours. Replace what ever homemade food that was in that oven with zeroing and a roller ski warm up and that's what it felt like.
This level of heat didn't let up after one day and neither did the hard workouts. Tuesday was full blow time trial. About 15 km with four stages of shooting. Pacing held up surprisingly well. I could feel the sun pouring it on going up the last hill on the roller loop in Fort Kent. Shooting was solid with 80%. I'm still in the midst of trying to nail down a better prone system. It's getting there, but still a limiting factor.
Even after some strength in the UMFK weight room/ sauna that afternoon the feeling in the legs was good enough to push the third intensity session on Wednesday. Cumulative total it was an hour of threshold effort. 15 minutes of one shot range loops. a 15 minute semi time trial, 15 minutes of no pole skiing and just to balance to universe out, anther 15 minutes of double poling. And yes, I think it goes with out saying that it was sweltering hot out again.
Sleeping was a tricky endeavor. Naturally I didn't think to bring a fan up with me, so I had to innovate. If you take a cold shower before bed, maybe add in some melatonin, put an ice pack or two on your head and sleep as spread out as you can you should be able to make it to four in the morning. This is the kind of weather happens all to often during the Jericho race series. The sooner you can learn to work with it the easier it will be race come August.
Thursday was round four. It just so happened to be my least favorite workout. This is how you know it's effective. 3x8min 15/15sec L5 bounding. So basically you just pretend you skiing as fast as you can uphill for 15 seconds, stand around for 15 seconds. Do this for eight minutes, and repeat two more times. Try it some time. As annoying as those kinds of mornings are it sure does feel nice when it's over.
This is where the week transitions from eat, sleep, and train to drive, smile, and say hello. I made my way down to Houlton to help out an old friend. I didn't run the Miracle Mile this year, but was glad to be around and help out. The turnout wasn't as large as expected, but everyone was in good spirits and the Houlton was packed.
I made it back to Stockholm by six, had breakfast, took a nap and got ready for the parade. As of this year in Stockholm the fourth is referred to "Russell Currier day" I'm not complaining, but as soon as the parade started there was no amount of modesty to be had for the rest of the day. I didn't want to lead the parade alone and thankfully the bulk of the MWSC athletes came out to join me. There was a lot of smiling, waving and picture taking, but I have to say the most memorable part was the fall I took. Not sure if the wheel picked up a rock or hit a crack in the road, but the grand marshal Olympian went down in front of the masses. Who doesn't enjoy some good irony now and then. The rain held off and everyone was having a good time, but when you're as introverted as me the sensory overload can be lot. I wanted to exit ASAP. A two hour nap and a two run was enough to recover. I spent some more time with old friends for the rest of the day.
I didn't do much of anything on Saturday. The almost non stop rain was more than enough sign to take the day off. After all the overbearing heat the thought of starting a fire was amazingly tempting. I stayed inside all day and enjoyed every second of it.
Sunday is usually the off day of the week for me, but all things considered shifting the rest day to yesterday was good move. Now it's between me and that to do list. I still have a short ride, some work on the rifle, some paper work, so and so fourth. As always there is nothing worth really complaining about, but the sense of accomplishment when it's done and over is something to go for.
