Full Scoop from Australia
by Frank Lundeen
June 5, 2002
Greetings from Australia. As you all are moving into Summer,
down here we're moving into Winter and yes, ski season! Everything
has been going great down here, and I've finally gotten around
to putting together a "full scoop" on what I've been doing.
I've been having a nearly perfect time down here and it
is everything I was hoping for and more! The flight down went
well, and as I expected of course was very long. I managed
to get through customs and immigration fine without much hastle
which was nice as I was in a near zombie state. Friends picked
me up at the airport right on time, then we loaded up my mega-quiver
of skis and headed to their house in the suburbs of Melbourne.
We spent the next 10 days there seeing the sights, meeting
people, and more importantly getting sleep and trying to rid
myself of jetlag. I was truly surprised at how long it took
me to get used to the time difference and totally get over
the jet lag. It was about 2 weeks until I felt myself. Anyway,
in Melbourne I slowly eased into training with a bit of rollerskiing,
running, and strength work. I think every day in Melbourne
had highs of around 80'F or so, so at least I got a little
taste of summer before heading up to the mountains and straight
into Fall.
We then drove up to Howman's Gap Alpine Centre near Falls
Creek, VIC, about a 4.5 hour drive from Melbourne, but only
about 150k the way the crow flies. Howman's is at about 4200
feet elevation, with Falls Creek at around 5300ft and the
higher peaks around here around 6300 feet. Most of the ski
trails are between 5400 and 6000 feet. Whatever training you
are doing around here one thing is for sure, you are either
going up or down, and usually it's rather steep. My climbing
has improved an unbelievable amount since being here. As I
said, I really eased into the training down here and went
fairly easy for the first month or so. Lately, I've been ramping
up the hours as well as the intensity significantly. I'm very
pleased with how the training is going and I've been following
my program to the "tee". In the past 4 weeks my training volume
has ranged from 13 to 23 hours per week with an additional
5 hours per week stretching, and core body strength work.
I've been paying a lot of attention in particular to technique
and high quality threshold minus workouts. I can definitely
say that I am the fittest I've ever been and absolutely have
huge room for further improvement. It's amazing what you can
do when training is your job; train better, more sleep & relaxation,
better diet, less stress, plenty of time for stretching, etc.
It really makes a big difference!
There are an unbelievable amount of training options in
the immediate area. Hundreds of kilometers of unbelievable
running trails, a perfect mountain road for rollerskiing with
a 3500 foot climb in around 20k or if you want a flat road,
drive for 30 minutes to Mt. Beauty for excellent flat roads
(there are even warning signs for cars saying, "Caution: Rollerskiers
on road" or "Caution: Athletes train on these roads". For
the past 2.5 weeks there has been descant skiing up in the
higher mountains around Falls Creek and I've definitely been
taking advantage of that! I've been managing to get in quite
a bit of snow time.
The first races are slated for Saturday, July 13 with the
final races on Oct. 5-6. At this point I plan on doing around
13 races down here in Australia.
Well, there you have it. That's what I've been up to down
under. Definitely an awesome place. For those of you who might
have a hankering to come down and do the Hoppet or any other
races, you can get full info at: www.hoppet.com.au
Accomodation is very affordable here at Howman's Gap which
is less than 5k from the start of the race. If interested
please let me know and I can arrange to get you full details
on everything.
Cheers and Best Regards,
Frank Lundeen
| About the author, Frank Lundeen:
It has always been my dream to train and race full
time. Several years ago, it would have been road racing
(cycling), but of course now, skiing is my passion. I've
always known that I stand huge room for improvement but
like most skiers was limited by responsibilities (ie:
work, mortgage, car loan, etc, etc). After several very
encouraging performances in the past few ski seasons in
the Midwest, I decided I was going to try to take the
next step.
Basically I am on indefinite leave from work (but
am still a very enthusiastic member of the Toko Tech
Team), sold my house, sold my car; I basically liquidated
most of my stuff to fund myself for a year of training
and racing. My goal is to become as good as I can possibly
be, which is yet to be seen. I know I have immense room
for improvement, the question is just how much and it
is my mission to see how far I can go. I can say that
in the short time I've been training full time (which
means training, recovering properly, getting adequate
sleep, eating properly, etc.) I have seen huge improvement
and am skiing by far the best I ever have!
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