Thunder Bay Training Camp
Hello again loyal Team Birkie Blog readers. Tony checking in after our training camp in Thunder Bay with our friendly neighbors to the North. Last week, our team joined forces with NDTC Thunder Bay for a week of racing, intervals, distance training, and barbecues.
NDTC Thunder Bay is a Canadian elite team located on the beautiful Canadian north shore of Lake Superior just 6 hours away from the Twin Cities. They were gracious enough to host us during their intensity week and show us how they train. The goal of the collaboration was for both teams to learn from each other and to expose us to other athletes that are skiing at a high level.
Team Birkie after a Tuesday night 6km running race. The omnipotent evening light beams designated me as the chosen one to write this blog post!
NDTC Thunder Bay has had considerable Continental and World Cup success in the past several years, so the opportunities to learn from athletes and coaches on their team were prevalent. One element of their training that I really admired was their devotion to fantastic ski technique. The camp seemed to be characterized by several sessions dedicated solely to technique and efficient movements. We would spend 30-60 minutes going back and forth with coach interventions to identify inefficiencies and pinpoint areas to improve.
Ski walking technique session. Ski imitation is a great way to improve classic technique in the offseason.
The training camp offered no shortage of opportunities to train hard with some fast skiers. Much like Minneapolis, Thunder Bay doesn't offer the plethora of uphill opportunities that many of our mountain dwelling competitors get to enjoy. NTDC TBay, much like Team Birkie, has found creative ways to take advantage of the terrain that the area does have. We were fortunate enough to join for two intensity sessions: a skate L3 and a classic L3/L4. Training with new athletes definitely pushed both teams to ski better.
The women's teams racing in some sprint starts before our L3 skate intervals
Zak’s phone can take high quality, aesthetic photos! Pictured: The team enjoying a TBay sunset over ice cream.
We capped off the week with an OD long run on the north shore. A huge thank you goes out to NTDC Thunder Bay for being such welcoming hosts and making this a productive and fun camp. We hope that we can continue this training partnership in the future!
The whole crew was eager to start our final run that was 34 degrees at the start.
Gus couldn’t decide if he wanted to be an Instagram model or cool down in the lake after his run.
Cooking some tasty and entirely safe to consume food over the fire at a barbecue hosted by the NTDC men’s team.
