Sam Cornett Reports on Summer Altitude Training in Utah July 6, 2014
I will not hyperventilate.
The only knowledge I have to support this belief is that I’m less than 100m to the finish. I can do this.
And yet, my legs keep
moving slower and slower. 10m later and I feel I’m moving
backwards. I’m moving backwards and I feel my lungs are going to
burst.
I question why I’m
doing this to myself. I’m trying to give myself an excuse to slow
to a walk. COMMONWEALTH GAMES, SAM!!!!!!!! runs through my mind
and I speed up 0.002 km/h, a huge effort, imagining one of my opponents
doing this ‘sprint’ beside me.
50m to the
finish. I can see it now, I’ve come around the bend. My
legs have never felt so heavy and hysteria is being held off by a
thread of rationality: this WON’T kill me. I will feel better
having done it.
10m to go. Now
I’m stressed because I don’t know what I’ll do once I get across the
line. There’s no space on the trail, it’s filled with other girls
lying on the ground or bent over, exhausted. I’m going to have to
stay standing, what torture. 5m to go.
I cross the imaginary
finish line. Pure grit got me here. And after a minute of
gasping and regrouping, pure endorphins swoop me back down the hill to
do it all over again. In less than a minute, I’ve forgotten how
painful the whole experience was and I’m ready for more.
Selective memory!
I’m in Utah for a training camp, where we pair fun, outdoor cross training with on court squash training.
Activities include
trail running, mountain biking, ropes courses at the Utah Olympic Park,
hill sprints, and a fun day doing yoga on paddle boards in a
crater. All of which are as difficult as what I just described
doing the hill sprints, but in different ways. And all made more
difficult at 1500 to 2500m above sea level!
The squash training is
excellent, and very specific. Damon Leedale-Brown, who runs the
camp, puts us through speed/agility/functional strength work, and then
through focused drills. The girls in the camp this year are very
strong squash players. Myself and Cece Cortes, the other pro
player, got a lot out of the 10 days.
Along with the
training, we are also in such a beautiful place, staying just outside
of Park City. The views are incredible and the weather has been
nice, and the people in the area are all very active. Obviously,
along with training comes food, and Deb Leedale-Brown has made amazing
meals for us this whole trip. She is also an accomplished
cyclist, and helped us all make it through the mountain biking alive.
We leave today and no one wants to go! It’s a beautiful day to have to leave behind for the airport.
