Strbske Pleso, SK

We're only a few days into the Europe camp, but we jumped right into the swing of things.  After meeting up with the Czech team (our training buddies for the month) in Prague on Thursday, we drove 6 hours across the Czech countryside and into Slovakia.   Tyler and I rode in one of the Czech vans and quickly learned that they don't speak a lot of English.  I'll have to learn a little Czech.

Strbske's a small town, but an awesome place to train.  Most of the people here seem to be tourists taking advantage of the scenery and outdoor activities.  We're sitting right on the edge of a big patch of national forest, so we can run from our hotel right up the mountain on some sweet wooded trails. The rollerskiing is a little sketchy but still pretty good; it just takes a little getting used to having European drivers fly by you at who knows how many k's per hour. 

Friday we did some plyometrics with the Czechs.  It was a different workout than the stuff we do for sure.  Some of the hurdle exercises involved jumping off balance boards, and for others we had to dive into somersaults on a mat.  I'll admit I'm a little rusty on my gymnastic skills.  Let's just say that I'm sure the Czechs got a laugh at our lack of grace.

We have a competition this afternoon and a running race to follow.  The Czechs are pretty strong on the jump hill, and in general not as fast on cross-country side.  However, our team hardly runs much at all, so we'll see how we stack up today. 

The old K120, with the town and lake in the background.

That's some bucking headwind on the hill.