Tabata!!!!
(and other visits to the Pain Cave from Week 2 of dryland)

The tabata is a new form of torture that Meghan introduced to the telemark team last season. She learned the work-out her senior year at Bowdoin College from hockey coach Terry Meagher and her own personal telemark consultant, Matt O'Donnell. Simply put, the tabata is brutal. It hits balance, aerobic, and strength conditioning all at once. It might be the fastest route to the pain cave known to man.

The camera can barely capture Aisha's blazing speed at box jumps

Let's paint the scene here for a minute: a large group, spread all over the fitness room, throwing balls against the wall, slamming them into the floor, lunging, doing push-ups, crunches on a bigger ball, balanced squats on a half-ball, and the dreaded box jumps and burpees. Burpees are the demise of us all. They're where the telemark athlete's legs go to die. Laying on the floor on your stomach, jumping as high in the air as possilbe, then hitting the deck only to repeat it all over again. As a team, we've been know to look like we're collectively performing different actions of a simple machine. But on a personal level, it's much more complicated. You start to feel it in the first few sets. Eventually twenty seconds seems like an eternity, but then ten seconds becomes the blink of an eye. It's all about digging deep and not giving up, making the most of the last few reps of every set, as MC Hammer or some bluegrass version of an Ozzy Osbourne song blares in the background. (Different students come up w/ the tabata playlist each week!) All the while, the fitness room gets a little bit warmer and a little bit stinkier with each new exercise.

Tele Team alums Dillon Smith and Sam Stevens show their

love for tabata (and each other) with buddy lunges

But, the telemark team is killing it! We perform 8 different movements at separate stations. Each person stays at a station for 4-8 sets and does 20 seconds on, 10 seconds resting for each movement. We started week 1 with 4 sets and hit 6 sets this week. We'll do one more week of 6 before finishing the dryland season with 8. It's always great to have just finished the first day of it (4 sets), barely being able to stand up, and then hear, "Congratulations! By the end of dryland, you'll do that-- but double!!!" Oh yea, and there's a good chance you'll be sore for the next few days. The tabata is the ultimate sufferfest, but we love it!

In other news this week: SNOW! Lots of it. Probably 5 inches on the ground Tuesday, making for a lovely, wintry, aerobic romp around tick ridge, followed by push-up pyramids in the silent auction tent, and Grady's Abs of Steel work-out in the library. Don't worry, everyone passed the ab test at the end. Kayo dropped a book on everyone's chest and they all bounced a foot in air! We rounded out the week with an equipment fitting session at Bristlecone and game of ultimate in the snow with the alpine team. Our group was bit larger this week, but we're anxiously awaiting the return of our soccer players once their season is over.