Monday, my off-day normally, Seth and I headed down to the Sweetser/Dominick's to help Sarah make use of their antique apple press. We foraged for apples on an un-managed lot down the road, collecting a pile of less-than-perfect apples before crushing and pressing them in the man-powered press. We came away with about four gallons of cider that tastes awesome considering some of the apples we put through!
Lots of apples!
"How does this rig work?"
Rinsing off after four gallons worth of questionable apples...
This last week I helped my teammates kick off a new program that I'm calling Skiers to Schools. Each member of the ODT and PG teams has adopted a class of kids at a local school for the year and will visit once a month from now till April to talk about things that affect us as athletes but can also be helpful in their lives as they grow up. Topics include: goal setting, healthy lifestyles, healthy eating, being active, and the Olympics. We are also hoping to get a bunch of these same classes to take a field trip to come watch the Biathlon World Youth/Junior Championships in Presque Isle next March. I did my first classroom visit (I have two classes this year as opposed to the nine I adopted last year) at Woodland Elementary School last week. The kids were great and asked all kinds of relevant questions.
One of the students mentioned that he saw a MWSC rollerskier going down the hill near his house and it looked like he "was trying to sit down" so we talked about aerodynamics and they learned how to tuck like a skier....
These kids are great...I'm looking forward to visiting again in October!
On my way to Woodland Elementary I found this gorgeous field....white flowers all the way to the horizon. The pictures I took just don't do it justice.
Since the Jericho races I've made a bit of a return to distance and volume training. We've been combining with the XC half of our team for over distance (usually 3 hours +) workouts on Sundays. This last week we found a road outside of Caribou that got repaved this summer. We skied out for over an hour before we hit old pavement. It always makes me laugh when I realize just how excited a group of rollerskiers will get about new pavement...
(Photo credit: Seth Hubbard)
I found this photo on my camera from our Quebec camp and thought I should share. We were waiting in line for Cirque du Soleil, although we never got in. These clowns were tired from training but obviously thoroughly enjoying the night out in Quebec City.
Another picture from the abyss that is my iPhoto library: this was a group shot from a 10th Mountain Outdoor Club Sunday morning group ride a few weeks back. We had perfect weather and found MORE pavement, this time in Fort Kent. No, I wasn't on rollerskis this time but I still got excited.
For the immediate future I get to stay here in Fort Kent a bit longer before the traveling season ensues in October. I'm hoping to head home to NH for a weekend before heading to Utah with the ODT biathlon team for a few weeks of training and racing. After that we'll be home again for a few short weeks before a big stint on the road in Canmore, Alberta and then Minnesota right up until Christmas.
So basically these are my last weeks of home-time before we really get ramped up for the season! Did I mention that we've already had a light frost here in Fort Kent? Winter is coming....get ready.
