* Alayna checking in!
The last few weeks in Stratton have been great training and we’re starting to gear up for an exciting winter! It’s hard to believe we are only about a month away from the start of the season. As a college athlete, my season usually didn’t start until US Nationals in January because we were busy working toward finals in school. This year will be totally different for me! My first Supertour will be the first weekend in December, but I will have a few races even prior to that to help prepare for it. That means that right now, it’s time to put in a lot of hard work. Personally, the best way I can get into racing shape is to simply race more. We’ve been incorporating more of this into our training; two weeks ago Kyle and I competed in an uphill running race that went from the base of Stratton Mountain Resort all the way up to the top of the gondola. It was a 2.18 mile race but it took me just over 28 minutes! Kyle made it to the top of the podium while I placed second, overall a great day for SMS T2.
This past weekend, we traveled up north to race at the NENSA Roller Ski race in Jericho, Vermont. I headed up a few days early to spend some time with old college friends and teammates in Burlington. It was really nice to feel so much VCat love, which made it pretty tough to say goodbye. I was so excited though to see my old teammates perform so well at the ski race with Bill Harmeyer taking first place and Lina Sutro in third. Personally, I was happy to be in the mix (finished in 5th place) but that also set a nice fire inside me to get down to business this next month.
On top of all this racing and gearing up for the season, a lot of us are starting to move out of our summer homes. Kelsey and I ran into a few challenges with our condo over the summer and decided that the combination of mice and mold did not add up to a great living space for athletes. So, we worked to find alternative living options and decided to make a small move across the mountain. Kelsey and I spent a majority of last week packing and cleaning our condo and putting some of our belongings into winter storage. It might not sound like much work but turns out skiers come with a lot of extra “stuff” required for training and racing. Happy to have gotten that out of the way so our real move-out date will go much smoother!
I am looking forward to heading home in just three short weeks before I head out West for the kickoff to the season!
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