NP to NYC !!!

On Saturday the group hit the roads early and got in some agility and speed work. It was a short and sweet workout to allow some extra time for the real business of the day. A trip to NY City!

New Paltz is only about an hour and half outside of the city. So we took advantage of the proximity and hit the road after lunch. I have a love hate relationship with the city. I love the atmosphere, people, shops, and entertainment, but hate the over indulgence, waste, and pollution that the city produces.

Sorry to go all Al Gore on everyone but was blown away by the fact that all of these huge stores have the AC blasting and the doors wide open!?!?!? No wonder the weather is whacked out Up State!

The trip was great and well worth it. I have attached a few pictures of our day!

Group Shot in Times Square

I have heard of the Naked Cowboy. But the Naked Cowgirl?

You always gotta pay attention to what's going on in the city. I would not want to step on this thing!!

I’m a big fan of DMB and the bands new song “The Way it is” about sums up the City in my mind.

We all made it back to NP safe and Sound and have a time trial to get after next!!

New Paltz Day 1

I arrived in New Paltz yesterday with Adam and Amy. We made the journey east to attend a camp being put on by Nick Mancuso. Other coaches at the camp include myself, Janice Sabila , Art Stegan, and Jon Stern. I was a little hesitant as I got off 87 and was instantly stuck in the New Paltz traffic but to my surprise as soon as we turned off the main drag we were smack-dab in the middle of the picturesque Hudson Valley. The Mancuso’s have a sweet set up right on the banks of the river and it provides an excellent base camp!

After arriving and a short camp meeting it was time to get down to business. We broke the athletes up in to small groups and focused on technique. We utilized the coaches and set up three separate stations with each station focusing on specific technique V1, V2, and Alt. We were also able to have a coach drive around to each group and video the athletes. Things were off to a great start!!

When we had finished the ski we jumped in to the cars and headed up the road a mile or so and swapped our boots for the sneakers and started out on our run/hike/rock scramble/bad ass workout!!!!! We ran from the cars up to Mohonk Mnt House!

This place is for strait up balers!!! With rooms in the $300-600 range!! But we were able to take advantage of the great views and the rock scramble they have set up to make our way up to the fire tower! It was an epic adventure and the entire way up all I could think about was how awesome NY really is!! This state has is all and though I often find myself bitching about lack of snow, the size of the state and the fact it takes 5 hours to drive to a local race this state is truly amazing and impresses me more and more with all it has to offer. I wish I had my camera but the threatening skies forced me to leave it at the car. I will link in some photos from the Mnt Houses website but they don’t even do the place justice! Not to mention that during the winter there are over 50k of groomed trails at this joint!!!!!!!! I gotta make a trip out here when the white stuff is flying!

That’s it for now I gotta get out of Starbuck and back to the ranch to wake the kids up!!! More to come from New Paltz…

*Images from the Mohonk Mnt House Website!! Check it out at www.mohonk.com

Work and Play !!

There is no doubt that to become faster you need to work hard, but you also need to know how to have fun! Today we did 90min of specific strength on skis. (45 min no pole skate/45 min double pole) We had a great break in the middle in the form of a couch and love seat found on the side of the road! Who ever dumped this thing off should be beaten with it for in proper disposal but none the less we decided to have a little fun. Here are a couple of pictures of the foolishness!!

Have Fun!

But don't forget about the work!!

We finished off the the day with some sprint work. It always fun to line it up against the youngsters and test not only your own speed but also to judge the improvement that is being made by the kids. Tonight a couple of the boys and I were bum pin heads with a little best 2 out of 3. My man Sway-Easy took the first one with a nice move from the start line. On the second one he also got a good start and was leading right up until the last second when I was able to sneak past him. To my amazement he decided to bypass the boot throw and just strait up dive for the finish line! I was psyched to see how bad he wanted it but a bit worried to see what he looked like after I turned around. As usually he was a little bloody but he's tough and was pissed when I decided to leave it at a 1-1 tie!!! Gotta love effort!!!

Now that's what I call

ALL-IN!!!!!!