Fun at Shirley Lake Canyon

Back at home this weekend, the Tahoe City and Truckee devo squads joined up for a hike to Shirley Lake on Saturday, led by Sally and Stefan. Despite a bit of bushwacking, everyone made it to the lake in time for an icy cold plunge -- a highlight of Saturday practices as of late on the hot summer days. After a refreshing dip, the team scrambled up to High Camp at the top of Squaw for a scenic and relaxing tram ride back down to the Village. A fun day for all, and a well-deserved reward after putting in some hard work on Thursday with some running intervals!

Big Weekend Ahead

Good Morning!

It looks like a beautiful day to head off for a four-day excursion of training, camping, friends and fun!

That is precisely what some of us will be doing this weekend, as a portion of our Auburn Ski Club athletes and coaches -- myself included -- will be on our way to June Lake in a few short hours to meet up with other juniors from throughout the Far West region for one of our annual summer training camps.

On the menu will be rollerskiing, running, hiking, strength, swimming, climbing, s'mores, star gazing, tent pitching, and more. It's going to be a blast!

Meanwhile, back at home, those who couldn't make the trip will have some fun of their own, with another long adventure hike at Shirley Canyon, some rollerskiing, running and strength, and a chance to GO HARD! with some short running intervals.

Either way, it's going to be an awesome end of the week/weekend and a great opportunity to make some strides toward becoming a better athlete.

So far this week, the comp and Truckee devo athletes put in some hard work with skiwalking intervals at Squaw Valley; the Tahoe City devoers turned in their longest distance run to date, and the comp team got in some skate rollerskiing and some strength work on Wednesday. Look out skiers! We are on a roll!...

An update and some fun photos will no doubt be in store for you all on Monday, but in the meantime, please keep in mind that we are still looking for volunteers for the Squaw Valley Mountain Run on Aug. 6th. This is a fundraiser for our junior skiers, and also a really cool day! Please come out and help, cheer, or take on the mountain yourself! I've done it a few times, and trust me, once you are able to breathe again, it really is quite the reward at the top! See www.truckeefunrun.com for details, or email sjones@assoc.auburnskiclub.org to find out more about how you can help (no special skills are needed!).

Enjoy the weekend and get outside!

:) Coach Kara

Well on Our Way...

Believe it or not, summer has finally arrived, and it's already flying by! But instead of lounging around in the sun, the comp team and both Truckee and Tahoe City devo teams have been busy "gettin' after it" week after week.

We were incredibly fortunate to have snow to ski on at the Auburn Ski Club until the third of July, which has made for some major ski technique progression and given us a huge advantage over our competitors -- many of whom were done skiing at the end of March.

Now that the snow has finally dwindled from the trails and the sun seems to be out for a while, the transition to full-on summer training mode has taken place. Comp team members dove in head-first, quickly progressing into longer workouts, intensity sessions and ski-specific training, including rollerskiing, skiwalking and hillbounding. In addition to a variety of daily endurance-, speed-, technique or intensity-focused workouts, agility and strength training have been a major focus this summer, with group sessions taking place twice each week. Devo athletes are also invited, and encouraged, to attend these sessions.

Likewise, the devo teams have wasted little time "getting the ball rolling" this summer. Both the Truckee and Tahoe City teams have already gotten a taste for rollerskiing; nearly perfected their soccer/speedball/ultimate frisbee skills; increased their distance runs each week; gone mountain biking; completed some epic weekend adventure hikes (garbage bag sledding included); done technique work through classic/skate progressions and skiwalking; and also put in some solid intensity and speed sessions.

In addition to all the awesome adventures we've been on and hard work we've already put in so far, one unique highlight of the past few weeks has been a nutrition presentation we received from Registered Dietician Dana Lis (check out her website here: http://www.summitsportsnutrition.com ), who talked with us about fueling for proper recovery after our workout sessions, and assisted us in making some delicious post-workout smoothies and giving us other ideas for post-workout snacks for home or on the road.

Check out the slideshow of what we've done so far this summer (click on any image to make it larger), and check back frequently for updates as we continue on our quest to become better, faster, stronger!

-Coach Kara

Welcome!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the new Auburn Ski Club Junior Nordic Program blog. Here you will be able to follow along as the juniors and their coaches explore the mountains, seek out adventures and train hard all summer long in preparation for the upcoming ski season. If you don't want to miss out on any updates, please "follow" our blog, and feel free to participate by adding commentary. Thanks for visiting!