Austria

Tue, Feb  10, 2009 - By Pete Vordenberg

final prep

If you love to cross country ski...

If you love good food and sunshine...

If you love mountains...

Sleigh rides (well, I mean)...

Consider Ramsau, Austria.

We arrived in Ramsau after a good long travel day from Rybinsk.  The transition from Russia to Ramsau was a welcome one.  Russia has a certain rough charm, almost accidental beauty like clumps of dandilions a pile of red bricks in an abandoned lot.  Ramsau is fresh bread, sun, snow, the smell of cows.  Russia is tough.  Great to see, fun to visit.  But Ramsau, well it is easy to get to work and it is easy to get some rest - a good spot for final prep before worlds.

We got right to work upon arrival.  Some examples of various workouts performed by different athletes:  30minutes steady state.  3 sets of 5 x 30 seconds at sprint race pace + 3 x 5min threshold.  6 x 5min at threshold.  6 x 3 minutes at sprint race pace.  Easy distance.  Over distance.  Weights.  Distance double pole.  This is the last period of real training before Worlds.  From here we'll be tapering down the training and looking for those final seconds through shorter peaking sessions and rest.

(vordenberg images)