This past weekend, XC Ottawa enjoyed our annual training camp at OWL Rafting. Located in Forester's Falls, about 1.5 hours away from Ottawa, OWL Rafting is a whitewater Rafting that does tours down the Ottawa River. In addition, it's also the perfect place for a training camp, with great roads for skiing, lots of trails to run, and lots of miscellaneous playground equipment to do strength on!
The campground at OWL
We started out the camp on Friday with an afternoon classic roller ski around the quiet roads near OWL. After a particularly chilly night, we headed out on Saturday's (in)famous "Loosener" before being treated to a delicious breakfast at OWL. We were then quick to head out for some zone 3 skate ski intervals and some technique work for the morning!
Liza looking exciting for some intervals!
After an excellent lunch and nap, we headed out on a long run, followed by some playground strength. The strength workout has varied over the years, but always seems to incorporate some use of OWL's playground structure that I'm sure the engineers never thought of.
Pull ups, dips, and other neat training methods you can use in a playground.
Sunday morning initially dawned wet and rainy, but we were fortunate that things cleared up just as we began our day. Informally dubbed as a "triathlon", Sunday's workout consisted of a roller ski to the rafting put-in, followed by ~2 hours of rafting, and finished off with a 1.5 hour run back to the campground. In most cases (aka all but ours) guests will bus to the put-in, raft down the river, and then take a leisurely tugboat back to the campground. But we were there for a training camp, and took the extra time to get in some beneficial distance training.
The rafting journey is one of the most anticipated workouts for the year, and this year did not disappoint. Instead of taking one of OWL's more common rafts, the team opted again for the Sportyak, a two-person raft that not only increases the amount of arm-work required to move, but also flips much easier. This year was a great success, with everyone navigating down the rapids without flipping or swimming.
After getting thoroughly soaked during the rafting, we headed back into the trees for the humid run back to OWL, where we were greeted with a delicious lunch.
The team would like to thank Dirk and Claudia Van Wijk for hosting for another great training camp. You can check out OWL rafting at: http://www.owl-mkc.ca/owl/ and you can check out their partner company, MKC at: http://owl-mkc.ca/mkc/
The team with Dirk at the end of the camp.
Interesting Reading. . .
"Winning Moves"