By Mo (Moira) Haggarty
The Ontario Ski Team has finished off our final weekend in Oberhof Germany with a BANG. The past two days have been high volume for most athletes, involving two to three hour skis each morning, followed by easy recovery jogs in the afternoon. (Except for Cam… He did about fourteen intensity workouts). The accumulated fatigue is catching up with us, even the coaches.
Pav, after unspoken amounts of coffee
It seems that, by this point in the week, having a restful nine-hour sleep AND power-napping just doesn’t cut it.
When the fatigue starts to set in coaches must resort to more brutal tactics
To top off our skiing filled days we were treated to several other adventures and surprises. Most of us went for dip during yesterday afternoon’s sun, in the nearby “Lake Luetsche”. It was quiet refreshing, particularly for those of us who are accustomed to swimming daily back in Canada. It was also a fabulous opportunity for us to work on our butterfly stroke, inspired by Michael Phelps’ latest win in London.
Pav came sprinting into the lounge two evenings ago beaming with excitement. When I asked what the big deal was, she explained that she’d recently learned (thanks to twitter) that the US Men’s Ski Team would be joining us in the tunnel! As it turns out, her exuberance was justified. It has been a pleasure to ski alongside these world class athletes: to see how to train, and even jump in with them! [as Ben did in this sprint]
OST with USA, Andy Newell, Simi Hamilton Noah Hoffman et al! Such nice dudes!
The most rattling news I received all weekend was when the Americans confirmed for us that the Norwegian ski team will in fact be skiing in the tunnel beginning tomorrow afternoon… Literally hours after we’ve departed. How incredible it would have been to meet the team, whose country’s national sport is cross country skiing! Pav was heartbroken to be so close to meeting Petter Northug… But I guess it was simply too good to be true! [or IS it? follow Pav on twitter @piratepav to find out...]
Although we have thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Oberhof, we are all ready to go home tomorrow. And although we aren’t pumped for the 15 hour travel day tomorrow, we are looking forward to returning home to our family an friends, and getting some serious ZZZ in our own beds!
