All is well here in Lake Placid. I am still at home training until the the end of May and then I will be headed back to Maine. Training has been going really well and I feel that I am already in pretty good shape. I was very conscious to stay active during my downtime, and this really has helped now that I am back into my training routine. The first week back training full time is always the hardest, your muscles and mind are always a bit shocked. I am now starting my fourth week of planned training and my body has finally adjusted to the work load. My motivation to train seems to be at an all time high now with the Olympics coming up this winter. This is my first time training during an Olympic year where I have a very legitimate shot at making the team. Thinking about this everyday has definitely provided some extra motivation getting out the door every morning.

May is a very big month in terms of overall training hours, but most of my training in May is done at a very easy intensity. May is considered a "base building" month which basically means that you need to put in a lot of training hours at an easy intensity before your body will be able to handle shorter, more intense workouts. For this reason May is definitely one of my favorite training months because I get to do a lot of different cross-training activities like mountain biking, hiking and kayaking.

My first training camp with the team starts this weekend at the Olympic Training Center here in Lake Placid. The camp will be very short and our coaches will use it as an opportunity to put us through a few physical tests to determine what kind of shape we are in and what training needs to be done. I am definitely looking forward to meeting up with the rest of the team and having a few other people around to train with.

The weather has finally started to clear up here. It seemed we had two weeks in a row where it either rained or snowed everyday, and that's not much fun to train in. Last week, during our first sunny day, I took the chance to get up into the mountains and do a long run. It was amazing to see how much snow is still up in the mountains, in some places their was three feet of snow that I had to walk over. I attached a picture from this trip while I was on top of a mountain with my training partner from home (my dog, Belle). You can see some of the snow on the other mountains in the background. From the picture you can definitely tell that their's a big difference between Northern New York and New York City!

I hope all is well in Florida.

My Best,

Tim