Bears on Skis

Shelby has a new blog:  Bears on Skis.  Check it out to follow her summer adventures with Gunstock Nordic.  We'll also post updates on the exploits of other Bowdoin skiers.  People are scattered around the country for the summer:  Alec and Riley are out in Truckee training with Spencer and the Far West crew; Kaitlynn is training and doing research in a remote Alaskan outpost; Tess is somewhere in the Wind River mountains; and Tyler and James are right here on campus.  Other folks are out doing all sorts of other interesting things, so we should have some good stories as the summer goes on.

Graduation 2013

Another year come and gone!  Last weekend, we sent the Class of 2013 out into the world.  Strangely, Hannah was the only skier in that group - Emma and James will be finishing up next year due to their exploits abroad.  We're sad to see Hannah go, but we're excited to see what the future holds for her.  Congratulations Hannah!

No graduation photos, sadly - it was a cold, wet day, not so suitable for picture taking.  Instead, here's a classic Hannah and Emma moment:

Season Thoughts

As always, I've spent a lot of time this spring thinking about the season and trying to draw lessons from what went well and what didn't.  The skiers have given their usual helpful feedback, and I've had some good conversations with others as well.  Here are a few of the things that are on my mind:

First-years:  We're going to dial back the training for our first-years in the future.  The transition to college is tough, and even first-years with a strong training base from high school often struggle to recover from all the training and post good results.  At this point, I'm willing to have them take a step back in terms of training volume in exchange for easier recovery and better energy as they make the transition.

Body weight strength:  I'm more convinced than ever that general strength training for skiers should be about moving and controlling your own body.  We already do a lot of body weight strength work, but I'd like to add more challenging and productive exercises to our routine - I'm looking at sports like gymnastics and parkour to get some ideas.  We won't be able to get into the more advanced stuff that these guys do, but playing around with some basics should be helpful.

Running vs. rollerskiing:  A few years ago, we started moving toward more running and less rollerskiing.  After watching several of our skiers have great seasons with little or no rollerskiing due to injury or study abroad, I'm ready to nudge that balance a little further in the direction of running and other on-foot training.  Rollerskiing is essential for speed, specific strength, and technique, but nothing gets you fit like running and bounding.  We'll still do plenty of both, but running/bounding will take over just a little more of the space that was previously occupied by rollerskiing.

Recovery:  As usual, some of our skiers got bogged down this season with the heavy load of training and schoolwork, and in many cases this hurt people's racing.  Our seniors handled this challenge as well as anyone, and I don't think it was a coincidence that they both had their best results ever.  As a coach, it's easy to look at performances and link everything back to the training plan.  Good results = good plan, and vice versa.  But more and more I'm starting to realize that what happens outside of practice has as much of an effect on racing as anything we do for training.  This is nothing new.  Every coach knows this in an abstract sense, but since we don't see what goes on when an athlete leaves practice, we tend to focus on what we can see and control - the training plan.  This isn't good enough.  Our skiers need to do a better job at recovery and time management, and I need to do a better job of helping them learn how to do these things.  Can we accelerate the learning process for younger skiers so that everyone can manage time and handle the pressures like our veterans?  I guess we'll find out.

JN 2013

Three Bowdoin skiers competed at Junior Nationals in Fairbanks last week:  Tyler, Shelby, and Jackson.  We've only qualified a handful of skiers for JNs over the years, and never more than 2 in one season, so getting to the championships was a major accomplishment for these guys and a big milestone for our team.  The skiing in Fairbanks was excellent, according to Jackson - "extra blue conditions under bluebird skies every day."  Our crew had a challenging week leading up to the races - lots of schoolwork in the final days before Spring Break, followed by an endless series of flights to get all the way across the continent.  This showed in the first race of the week, a 5/10k skate, but everyone came back strong with solid results in the 3x3k classic relay.  In the skate sprint, Shelby qualified for the heats in 16th and ended up in 18th after finishing 4th in her quarterfinal.  The 10/15k classic mass start was the highlight for everyone - all 3 of our skiers had outstanding races to close out the championships and the season.  Overall, a great experience for the whole crew, and another reason for all of us to be excited about next year.

RESULTS

NCAA Recap

We had fantastic conditions at Middlebury last week as Bowdoin Nordic returned to the NCAA Championships for the first time in 16 years - a fun course, plenty of snow, and a well-organized, high-energy event.  The races themselves didn't quite go as we'd planned - Kaitlynn got sick just before we left campus.  We were hoping she'd be healthy by the first race, but instead things went the other direction and she ended up battling a nasty cold and fever throughout the week.  We thought about having her sit out one or both races, but she decided to give both races a shot despite knowing that she was far from race ready - a courageous decision.  It was equal parts heartbreaking and inspiring to see her out there fighting with nothing in the tank.  I couldn't be more proud of her!  Although the ending wasn't perfect, it's been a great season for Kaitlynn and a great season for our whole team.  Just being at NCAAs was a major milestone for Bowdoin Nordic - hopefully this will help all of us get fired up to make next year even better.

We had great support from several ski team members and fans at the event.  Here are some photos from Deb Miller:

Rangeley Loppet 2013

Beautiful skiing at the Rangeley Loppet last weekend!  A good-sized crew made the trip up to enjoy the perfect mid-winter conditions:  Jordan, Alec, Riley, Hannah M, Lucy, James, and Mike in the 50k, and Abigail and Jackson in the 25k.  Tyler also tagged along - he was looking for a long threshold workout, so he classic skied the 25k loop on his own.  Mike upstaged the youngsters with a 4th place finish in the 50k - old man's still got it.  Since the 25 & 50 started together, Jackson skied with the leaders for about 20k before taking off to post a clear victory (complete with a nice spin move to cross the line backward) - he won a nice black bear carving for his efforts.  Tyler timed his threshold workout - turns out that he would have won the classic race by a good margin, which is kind of cool.  Good skiing all around - everyone felt good and learned a lot about pacing and fueling.  This is such a fun race for our team - always a good learning experience and confidence builder, especially for our young skiers.  Looking forward to bringing a big crew back next year!

RESULTS

Bates Carnival Photos

A few photos from Regionals, courtesy of Deb Aseltine:

The women's team at the Aseltine house.

 

Cake for the seniors on the eve of their final college race.

 Emma

 Hannah W.

 Kaitlynn

 Shelby

 Tess

Eva

Lastly, a photo of the Alsobrooks from Lydia Eusden:

 

Always nice to have my family at a carnival.