Casey Smith Biathlete: Rest week

This past week I had a rest week which was very nice. Most days I only did morning workouts that were about half as long as normal and I had an extra entire day off. This gave me lots of time for other fun activities.... One afternoon Maddie and I made s'mores cupcakes which have a graham cracker crust, chocolate, a marshmallow, and more chocolate on top. They were insanely sugary but very tasty. We also made pizza for dinner one night, it was deluxe!!! On my second off day of the week four of us traveled 45 minutes south to Caribou where we picked blueberries at Circle B Farms, I ate berries until I felt sick then picked a bucket full to take home.

This week I did two exceptionally fun workouts, the first was a bog run speed workout, where we used ski bounding poles and did 15 second sprints every minute. This was the first time I had done a bog workout and it was not what I expected. I expected to be up to my knees in brown, soupy, grassy, moose poop filled water running around, with a chance of swimming. I have had northern Maine running workouts turn into that before but this bog workout was not that at all. I learned that a bog is an old pond where moss had formed on the top making a very squishy damp surface, kind of like a trampoline that is wet and covered in a foot of really loose sand that your feet sink into, what I had originally pictured was a swamp and I was very glad that the bog was different. The squishiness of the bog made it really easy to get your heart rate very high in 15 seconds and therefor the sprints were pretty tough. After doing the sprints we played ultimate frisbee. The bog made it hard to run fast but you could dive and tackle people without getting hurt at all because the ground was so squishy. The game started with the MWSC nordic team coach Will tackling me down and grinding my face into the bog. After that I had no problems diving into the bog and tackling anyone who had the frisbee.

Pictures of the bog are coming soon, I am waiting for my teammate Ben to email them to me.

The second extra fun workout I did was mountain biking in Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada. It is only a 30 minute drive from Fort Kent but I had never been there before. I have heard claims that it is the best mountain biking on the East Coast, and after riding there I would believe it. Most all of the trails were free of roots and well built with banked turns and fun bridges. Riding there reminded me that mountain biking on real trails is really fun, much more engaging then road biking.

The week was finished out with a house monopoly game where I came in 2nd, and an amazing Monday morning off day breakfast.

Another thing that I have to mention that is not biathlon related at all is that my mom was on the Seattle evening news, ON THE TV! The link is here