Caitlin Compton

2010 U.S. OLYMPIC CROSS COUNTRY SKI TEAM

Morgan Arritola, Ketchum, ID, 23, 5/13/86
Caitlin Compton, Minneapolis, 29, 11/7/80
Kris Freeman, Andover, NH, 29, 10/14/80 (2002, 2006)
Torin Koos, Leavenworth, 29, 7/19/80 (2002, 2006)
Andy Newell, Shaftsbury, VT, 25, 11/30/84 (2006)
Kikkan Randall, Anchorage, 27, 12/31/82 (2002, 2006)
James Southam, Anchorage, 31, 6/5/78 (2006)
Liz Stephen, Montpelier, VT, 22, 1/12/87

(name, hometown, age as of opening ceremonies, birthdate, (past Olympics))
Source: USSA

More info:

http://fasterskier.com/2010/01/ussa-announces-2010-olympic-team/

We all made it to Silver Star. So far everything has been going really well. We will be skiing in the morning and it will still be really cold. This year we are staying in condos a little bit closer to the Soverign Lakes Trails. The girls have their own, the coaches have their own, and the boys have their own. We have Rebecca, Maria, Kristina Owen and I staying here right now. Jesse Diggins will be here for the weekend.

Brandan and I arrived last night in West Yellowstone, MT and got in a nice 30 min jog in the new falling snow.  We arrived in Bozeman around 2pm and found 2 feet of newly fallen snow. The roads were actually in really good shape and the drive was very uneventful, which is a good thing. Once in Bozeman we picked up Dave Chamberlin and finished getting the last of the supplies needed for our two plus weeks in West Yellowstone. We then joined Brandy Stewart for a quick bite to eat at the Burrito shop before the final hour and a half down to West!

Today I skied in fresh powder, mild temperatures and sunshine. Heaven!

Phew!!!

After a very busy month of training and fundraising Brandan and I are off for my Olympic Qualification races!

This has been one of the most challenges years for me (for many reasons) yet I am so motivated and excited to start the season off strong and continue to get faster every week

Brandan and I are under one of the tightest budgets imaginable. We are leaving with just enough money (not all the fundraised checks have cleared yet) to get to West Yellowstone. Please check in often to hear funny stories (that’s right Dave I will have more to share!) and news of success from both of us.

I cannot thank everyone who helped organize and come to both my Fundraisers eanough! You were all incredible and I wouldn’t be heading out West without your help. I am so lucky that there are such wonderful people in the Twin Cities Ski Community. I know I will make you all proud

A few people I would like to thank here are: Piotr Bednarski, Ben Kremer, Cheryl + Jeff DuBois, Kate Ellis + John Harrer, Kuan + Heidi Teoh, Angie Robinson, Dave Christoperson, Mary Vancura, Kevin +Deb Ivens, Brandan Ostroot, Ahvo Taiple, Jan Guenther, Andy Turnball, Rudi Hargesheimer (Midwest Mountaineering), Kim Rudd, Mary-Beth Tuttle, Luke Skinner, Fast Wax, Ian Harvey, John Munger,  Peter Hanson, Bruce Adlesman and everyone else who contributed to the silent auction items. I would also like to thank the huge crowds that showed up for my fundraiser, and those who could not, who sent their words encouragement and support for this journey. I will never forget what you have done!

I have learned so much from my experience this year and what I have taken from this all is…creating an Elite Racing Team is more than just talking about it. This takes a lot of planning, sacrifice and money. Anyone out there considering starting their own team should have a very thorough budget and business plan before they start recruiting athletes. Especially very poor athletes (no matter how fast they are!) I give CXC and the US Biathlon Team a lot of credit now that I have seen how difficult this all is and how far they helped me get. I hope I can help other athletes in the future pursue their dreams by sharing my experiences and guiding them to the best opportunities available.

I will leave you with a quote I received from a very nice gentelman at the Mobil station where the van is being prepared for the trip.

“The race is not won by the swift and the quick, it is won by the one who endures to the finish.”

Classic Rollerskiing  – Level 3 Intervals – Edina, MN

Well, it has been far too long since I have updated but I have not been wasting any time. After a few months of feeling awful and a very long break from training I woke up one morning feeling great again. I made the difficult decision as an athlete to not train and let myself return to 100% before I resumed training again. I had a few people urging me to just keep training but I have been training and racing for a long time and I realized that I was not getting better or faster by doing this. So I hung up the the shoes and rollerskis and just waited.

I have now been training and working with Piotr Bednarski and feeling like my old self again! We have been conservative in our approach but kept our goals high and the results have been awesome. I am happy to be working with Piotr (I have known him as my coach and friend longer then any other coach). Piotr exemplifies a great coach, he took me under his wing this fall and helped me when others thought I wouldn’t make it. Thanks, Piotr

Postural Tachycardia Syndrome is what the Cardiologist told me I have.

I have been struggling with fatigue since the beginning of the summer. At first it was between my training sessions, then it was while I working with the kids, then it was on my off days and then it started to affect my training as well. I was so busy I figured that the fatigue would end when I had a little break between programs and a rest week of training. It didn’t.

I couldn’t figure out what was going on and, I was way too busy to see it coming, but once it did I knew I had to do something. After a few days off and a number of easy sessions I started to feel better and shrugged it off as just a period of too much going on in my life. I started the next week feeling alright but by the end I knew something was up. I entered a local 5k and was 1-1/2 minutes off my usual pace for this time of year! I immediately began to review and rethink what I had done leading up to these feelings.

I couldn’t figure it out. Nothing was different from a typical summer of training for me. As I proceeded with a cautious attitude I focused on my training zones and other daily routines. I thought it was hydration so I started drinking more sports drink, I thought it was hunger so I started eating a bigger breakfast, and I stayed very low in my training zones at all times. Then one day out of the blue I was lifting at the gym and after a set of squats I felt the world begin to spin beneath me.

I quickly removed myself from the gym and put my feet above my head. I managed to avoid passing out and got a ride from my boyfriend to the ER. After a lot of tests I was sent to see a cardiologist. What! How could there be something going on with my heart?

The Cardiologist preformed a number of tests as well and determined that my heart was showing signs of Orthostatic Intolerance, which means that when I stand up my pulse jumps over 30 beats but my blood pressure also drops significantly! It is this drop in blood pressure that causes me to feel light headed and pass out!

I told him it was probably just over-training! Unfortunately he shook his head and told me it wasn’t. He said no one knows for sure what POTS is from but it wasn’t from training. I have few more tests this week, one is on a tilt table where they will try to make me pass out (or come close anyway) and a few other tests to rule out anything else more serious.

So for now I have the all clear to train as usual and just ignore my heart rate. I have taken a number of days off now and I am feeling really fresh. I went for a fun urban rollerski with Jojo Winters and Brian Gregg today and although the pace was very easy my heart rate was easily 150+. I have to learn to train by feel and leave the monitor at home for a while. I did some lactate testing with a coach and sure enough I am in the right zones just not the right heart rates. This is so strange and after years of hearing about the importance of heart rates for training it will take some time to get used to.

From what I have been told POTS often develops after an illness or trauma and will progress for months getting worse and worse before it suddenly begins to subside. The last time I was really sick was at US Nationals and if I have been through the fainting period and other symptoms I should be in the clear! Right? I am keeping my fingers crossed and spirit high. I have to admit that this would be a lot harder if I didn’t have other team members and ITA members who have faced adversity and set backs and climbed right back up to keep me inspired and optomistic! So I guess now it is my turn to just stay positive and focus on the process.

This week I have decided to talk a little bit about my dog Lahti again. Ben and I rescued him from the Animal Humane Society about 3 and a half months ago. He was scared, scarred, and very skinny.

I am happy to report that Lahti is doing Great! He has turned into an awesome dog and great addition to our apartment life. It’s hard to believe that we have a Husky living in our small apartment but we make sure he gets plenty of exercise. The goal is to get his fitness high enough by this winter for him to compete in a few Skijoring races with Ben. So looks like I am not the only athlete in training at our place.

We have been working on his long slow distance, his sprints and even a few plyo’s! It’s awesome to see how excited he gets now when he realizes we are going out for a workout. He has been running, Rollerskiing, Skateboarding, and biking with us. I think we hit top speed last week when I brought him biking on the greenway. We usually head away from home nice and easy for a warm up and when we hit the open straightaway of the bike path he gets to go all out. The return trip is a nice and easy trot home after a a long water and sniffing break.

The weather has been much cooler than usual here in Minneapolis so he has had a lot more opportunity to join us. When the temps are more then high 70’s he usually has to stay inside by the AC and keep his runs short. I know I get hot and I don’t have a fur coat on! It was only in the 60’s yesterday so we brought him out to Afton Park for a nice OD. Lahti is getting better and better at running off leash and during the early hours of the AM when we were running there wasn’t a lot of people out yet so he had a very full morning. As Ben and I follow the trail Lahti usually heads as far down the path as he can see before he comes barrelling back to find us. Based on the number of times he did this I would say he probably doubled our mileage for the run!

My training camp in Bend was very successful. The US Ski Team was great with helping me find a place to stay and offering training opportunities while I was here.