Sunday July 24th, 2011.

  I am back in Pittsburgh again. I slept so well in my big bed here. Wow. The dorms were cool but its nice to have a real bed again.
  Friday, the last full day was indeed a killer. Tons and tons and tons of laps at fairly high speeds. The hardest drill on the ice was a relay in which each person only had one other on their team. Each partner went out and did 13 laps having to stay at a certain lap time before the relay push. Each partner did TWELVE sets! It was a mad struggle by the end. Real crazy, all out, mental toughness training. The track was so bitten up by the end it was crazy. We actually skated through the ice to the concrete yesterday morning! Poor Dan Fiorenza was skating through the turn and all of a sudden his skates just stopped gliding as he hit the patch of concrete and he went flying forward onto his stomach. haha. Friday Afternoon was incredibly long and after the dryland workout the whole camp went out for a team dinner in "downtown" Marquette. Actually Marquette has a certain charm about it. By Friday it was much nicer out - clear, cool - and the great Lake Superior was white reflecting the sun next to the restaurant we ate at. Saturday Morning directly after ice we went to the Sand Dunes again for the last bang. We had to sprint straight up the X-games ramp of sand and jog down 15 times in sets of 5. I'd say it was maybe 40 meters (imagine less than half a straightaway on a track) from bottom to top but it was so steep, and the sand gave out from under our feet as we climbed up; it took over 21/2 minutes to the top. The way down was extremely fun. Imagine standing on the top of a huge drop-in ramp then that moment when you shift your balance and plunge down but with sand. I could take huge leaps down and slide about 3 feet every landing. However it got dangerous when we started reaching our max. John-Henry sprained his ankle on the way down one set and still tried the way up on one leg before he quit! So he's on crutches for a while.
  Overall, I had a great experience training with the National Team, showing off the mental toughness and fighting Pittsburgh training breeds, hearing the great stories of World Cups and stuff from Shani, Simon Cho, Katherine, and the rest. Now its back to the character-building, rugged, no half-ass, grinding training of coach K that will improve me for the next time we train with the National team at the end of August.