For a whole summer month, the little cow-town of Inzell becomes an international hub of athletes. They cycle up and down the main road, wether riding between the rink and their "gasthaus" bed & breakfast or on their road bikes getting ready for a long haul through the bavarian countryside. You see their speedskating skinsuits of different countries drying on balconies in the sun after morning workouts. In the evenings we all go to the gelato ice cream shop in the town center and grab a well deserved scoop and talk in english, broken english and whatever other languages we mutually know.
It's interesting training alongside athletes from all over and seeing their methods of training and what technical points they're working on. How hard are they training? Do continue to push training if their bodies have recovered well the previous night? Do they care more about technique or strength and endurance? Who has improved from last year and why? What can we learn from what we see.
Our whole team got pretty sick with soar throats and bad sinuses this last week which messed up our training schedule a little bit. We're mostly back to normal now but we've trained pretty hard the last two days to make up for what we missed earlier this week. Today was the last day of skating because the rink melts the ice tomorrow so most of the teams here have left or will leave soon. Tomorrow we have a long bike ride and then we head to London on Teusday!
Training on the long track ice here is going really well and we're focusing a lot on technique because the beginning of the season can set the tone for the rest of the season. We want to fix the technical issues right away.
Each week here, we have 11 main workouts. Usually we skate in the mornings and then we have dry land training in the afternoons. So last week, one of our dry land workouts were stair runs and jumps and since we have the mountains all around us we try to use them as much as possible. Sylvester Stallone-style. Mother-nature style. Waterfall mist in the air and nothing but dirt, rocks, and trees. It always keeps training exciting!
Stairs + waterfall
Nancy discussing workout w/ coach
Brian doing step-up jumps on the road above the stairs
Last summer and again, this summer, I wanted to get some more power and quickness in my speedskating stroke. So i've been doing speed training at TCBoost in Northbrook, IL, that focuses on the specific needs of your sport and coach in order to increase your speed, strength, and overall athleticism. They've trained professional football players (Bears, Steelers, etc.) to Olympic athletes; tennis, lacrosse, NCAA star basketball players to the local high school and athletes that are rehabbing and they've all witnessed fantastic results. Throughout my training there this past June, I'm pumped that TCBoost put together a short video showcasing their work with me and it's cool to see the finished product! An athlete is never perfect, meaning that there is always room for improvement...so if you are reading this and desire to improve your athletic skills in any way, I highly recommend TCBoost! Check out the video below...
Again, thank you TCBoost for the work you've done on me so far and excited to continue working with you when I am back in the US to carry on our success!
Nancy Jr.
1 Corinthians 9:25
