A week late or a week early?

Two week ago I had my first on snow training camp in Norway. But next week I have my second (hence the post title). Seeing as the second training week has yet to occur I will focus on what did happen. There was no snow at, the rumored to be much superior, Liatoppen so we went to Geilo. I was very interested to see what differences there existed in the training camps here in Norway and the ones I have partaken in with SMS. There were a lot (though mostly superficial).

- Single sex housing (do they trust us more, or less?)
Seems like a pretty simple we happen to do it this way and you do it that way. My personal theory is that Sverre uses the girls to make sure all hell does not break lose and or an edible meal is served at least every other day.

- Meals cooked for you
The meals were very good and not having to clean up was awesome but being able to go into the grocery store and buy and then make whatever you want is pretty awesome. Though, that is what I get to do every single day (tonight: bacon, eggs and salad. Tomorrow: who knows)

- Two workouts everyday+ night skiing
This was definitely new having two workouts everyday and also having the ability to really separate them because of the trails being lit. Every day started with a 9 am ski and then we had a 4:30 ski later on allowing for good chillaxing time.

- 5 days long
Definitely prefer the 2 week long training camp as you can get that much more settled in. 5 days felt pretty short.

- Clear favoritism of biathletes
Everyday they got to go to the trails in the bus while we nordic skiers had to walk about 10-15 minutes there. Not that bad until it was as cold as -20C later in the week. When it is that cold it doesn't matter if you brought your puffy, extra gloves and a banana the way back is going to be very cold.

- Use of wood stoves
I guess you could say our house went a little overboard and then found out that there was a hole in the first bit of chimney (the bit that was still within the large brick enclosure. We actually were able to get the frame of the brick enclosure burning (2x4's not bricks) and the stove itself glowing red (neither were intentional). After a night on other houses couches and a good scrubbing we were able to eliminate the smoke smell and all that was left was good stories.

- Less instruction/drills
The camp was very much a go out on your own and train sort of camp. The coaches were around giving pointers but there were no group drills like I am accustomed to.

- Less social gaming
A key part of any training camp is gaming and having those who don't game (the girls) snobbishly accuse you of being antisocial. These claims ring more true in Norway. At SMS we played games that involved killing each other (Halo, Call Of Duty) and generally being very social through trash talking and claiming everyone else is cheating (my poor gaming skills have always required a healthy dose of innovation on my part to stay competitive). In Norway the games (GTA San Andreas and Football Manager 2011) were very much single player games in which your ability to kill your friend is very much lacking.

Here is what you really came for...