Altitude Training - Week 4

Week 4 of altitude training is officially over, which means I only have a few more days left of thin air before I head down to Occidental College to open up my racing season. The time seems to have flown by and it’s hard for me to believe May is nearing an end. While I am excited to get home to see my family and friends, it will be sad to say goodbye to my coach, my teammates, and to the great set up that we have enjoyed here in Albuquerque. Fortunately, it’s sounding like I will get to enjoy all of the above again very soon.

This week was a good one. Al Berrin, my on site coach in SF, and Nick Alvarado, my training partner, both came to visit, which meant that we had a full house again. It was really nice to see their smiling faces and to get updates from home. They definitely added some great energy to the group. Together we discovered my favorite food place in Albuquerque, La Montanita Co-op, which in addition to having great groceries, also serves delicious sandwiches, smoothies, and extremely yummy gluten free muffins (my favorite is the Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip, although everything I have tried has been good).

Grabbing Lunch with Nick & Al at La Montanita Co-op.

In driving through Albuquerque, we also came across Manzano High School. It would have been cool just to see a school featuring my teammate’s last name. But then we saw their crown-toting lion mascot. I just had to take a picture in honor of Leo Manzano.

The Manzano Monarchs.

This week also included some fun team activities. For the past month, every time I drove down Tramway Blvd, I would the Hinkle Family Fun Center (which I call Fun Land), and talk about how I wanted to go. Yesterday, I finally did! Fun Land has everything...Laser Tag, Mini Golf, Paintball, Bumper Boats, Go Karts, and Arcade Games. I only did the last two, but I had a blast. It’s fun to feel like a kid again.

Go Karts! Feeling fast. Unfortunately I got the slow car.

We also took the tram up to Sandia Peak again (this time with the whole team), to celebrate our teammate Kyle Miller’s Birthday and to bid farewell to Coach Cook. I had fun the first time when I went with just the coaches, but getting to go up with the whole team was really great. We watched the sunset as we enjoyed a tasty dinner at the High Finance Restaurant, reminisced about the past 4 weeks, and looked forward to the races to come.

Me & Pablo on the tram up to Sandia Peak.

With Coach Cook on Sandia Peak.

As for Athlete’s Honey Milk, we’ve all been drinking it daily. In fact, after our last hard workout on Saturday, I’m pretty sure I saw one of my teammates down three bottles of Vanilla AHM. I continue to experiment with smoothie combinations in the blender. Recently I bought some fresh ginger and today I had a very taste smoothie for lunch. The recipe and some pictures are below.

The Ingredients.

Shannon’s Recovery Smoothie
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 bottle Honey Flavored Athletes Honey Milk
1/2 tsp fresh ginger

-Blend and serve. It it’s too thick, either eat with a spoon or add more AHM.

Yummy!

Comments

[Kaycee]

Wham bam thank you, ma’am, my questions are asnwered!

[Shannon]

:)