Season Kick Off Testing Camp

Had an awesome time at the testing camp this weekend! Had over 20 awesome athletes put in huge efforts and made the camp an awesome experience. The camp started on Friday with a 3000m metre track TT, followed  by a 1000m about an hour later. An arguably tough test, but not for Hardwood.

Kieran, Alex, and Finn leading off the 3000m.

The timing crew.

Matias and others mentally preparing for the 1000m

 After the test on Friday, everyone went over to Coach Ron's place for a team dinner. Everyone crammed onto the back porch and enjoyed copious amounts of burgers and pasta salad. A classic Team Hardwood gathering.

Hardwood veterans, beginners, out-of-towners, all gathering and conversing over dinner.
Having a great time!

The next day was a full day of training and testing. Kieran and I did a nice early morning workout before the camp got started, nice to get back into that routine. 

Day 2 of the camp started with ski erg test combined with strength and balance. The athletes first did a max watt test on the erg. Just pulling the largest amount of watts as you can. That was followed by 1000m TT on the erg, which is a super gutty, tough couple minutes. And then finally the anaerobic test, where the athletes get to their max watt as fast as they can and then try to stay above 85% of their max for as long as they can. In between each test was balance, strength and dynamic flexibility work (because theres no time for rest at hardwood, always working on something). 

Zoe, Dylan and Katjia lining up for the 1000m TT 

After the morning session athletes prepared for their 2nd workout, lunch. Again, copious amounts of pasta salad, burgers and chocolate milk.

The afternoon session was a roller ski test for some, or a roller ski technique session. The roller ski test consisted of two uphill intervals, one skate, on double pole only. A great test to find athletes strengths and weaknesses. I personally got to do this test which was tons of fun. 

The day was wrapped up with the Team Hardwood banquet, which was great as always. Lots of food, fun. Hardwood is an unreal community, proud to be a part of it. 

The next day was the traditional Mt. St. Louis hill test. Pretty simple, run up this rather large ski hill with poles as fast as you can. I was not able to attend the test because I was at the Sporting Life 10km in Toronto (cracked the top 50, placed 46th overall, 8th in U19, with a time of 36:32). But I heard the test ran quite well. Some experts ran the test, and some ran it for the first time. Regardless I'm sure it was super tough and everyone put in a gnarly effort.

As a whole the camp was a huge success, everyone had a great time, including myself. Thanks to everyone for making it such a great time. Looking forward to working with you all this summer.

Until next time, 

Coach Rj out.