AIS Junior XC Camp

From Monday the 14th to the 16th of April the Australian Junior Cross Country Skiing Team headed to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra for a series of testing and team bonding activities. It was a great few days with many personal bests and many new important things to learn. It was great for new athletes to experience the testing and for the other athletes to retest and see if there were any improvements.

 
Satara Moon mid rollerski Sub-Max test at the AIS

Testing is a very important thing to undergo as an athlete, it helps show any improvement or any areas that we need improvement. There were five main tests that were very different from each other. One was the VO2 max test, which for me was definitely the hardest. This test makes sure you push well into the uncomfortable zone to see how long you can last. It is a maximal effort test, so you must push to the best of your abilities. For one of our athletes, he pushed so hard that his legs gave out and the lactate reading was over the limit of the testing machine. Another test was the rollerski treadmill threshold test, which is a submaximal test. This shows how efficient we are at different intensities, without pushing to maximum. The last three tests were a strength and power test, a roller ski double pole time trial on Cook hill and a 1000m run on the AIS track. Many of us achieved new personal best results, showing good progression from last year.

 
Clancy Harvey in the double-pole time trial

 “I love that I am able to push myself to the max in a safe environment thanks to the AIS” - Clancy Harvey 

Spending time with the other athletes on the junior team helped us reunite and come together as a cohesive unit after the last season in Europe. It tested us with some teamwork activities and just some group time all together. Definitely one of my favourite things was just catching up with other athletes that I haven't seen over the past few months, after living and travelling together with each other overseas.

Start of the 1000m run on the AIS track

“It was good to be back in the lab and spending some time with my interstate team-mates”. - Sam Johnson

As a personal experience, It was a really enjoyable group of people that helped me push to my very best. I could achieve this throughout the testing because of the incredible team unity we have. As each of my teammates were there on the sideline encouraging me through the tougher stages in each test. To be honest, as one of the younger juniors I was completely nervous that there would be no improvement from the last time I tested in October. Many thanks to my coaches and all the support from everyone there made it a really fun and safe space.

Elle Sankey mid VO2 Max test with coach Tom Hoogenraad supporting

Overall it was an educational, thrilling and lots of fun training camp, even though half of it was high intensity.  I am sure most of us are looking forward to the coming winter and to being able to ski again. This testing camp has helped us have a baseline to start to prepare us to try and achieve many of our main goals for the coming winter and next northern hemisphere. Lastly I would like to say thankyou to Finn, Alexei, Tom and Giorgia for helping organise this camp and the encouragement and creative ideas along the way!

Satara Moon, Australian Junior Team