Pineland Open

Pineland had 3 inches on the ground last week - with another 4 on Friday, they were able to open yesterday. Decent skiing for such a small amount of snow - a bit scratchy, but it won't take much more to bring out the good skis. How many places in New England can have good skiing with 7 inches of snow? With Pineland open, I took the opportunity to get together with the Mt. Ararat HS team yesterday morning for a skate clinic - I had a great time. We had a nice mix of beginners and some more experienced folks. We worked on some fundamentals and a little more advanced stuff as well - everyone was fired up and did a great job of staying focused on a cold morning. They're a great group with lots of talent - I'm excited to see how their season goes this year!

It's blizzarding right now, so we have some great skiing to look forward to, including groomed trails at Farley and some other local areas. Today's the last day of exams, so most of the team won't be around to enjoy it, but the weather bodes well for our chances of good skiing in January. In the meantime, I'll be keeping in touch with the team over break - everyone has some pre-season races planned, so we'll get a early look at their fitness. I'll post updates as we go.

Sugarloaf

We checked out Sugarloaf today - skiing was decent, with 30k groomed and good coverage everywhere. It's been years since I've skied up there - I'd forgotten what a nice trail system it is. Nice rolling terrain, with some easy flat stuff and some long climbs. Lots of winding downhills that are technical enough to challenge you, but not so tough that you can't step turn. Fun stuff. We skied for 3 hours and then headed home - time to get ready for exams.

Pineland Bounding

Gorgeous day for bounding at Pineland this morning. We were hoping for rollerski intervals, but an ice storm on Thursday took that option off the table.

The women looked sharp today. With XC and injuries, we've had small numbers at practice on the women's side, but now we're almost at full strength.


First-year guys - kind of scary when they show up in large numbers, especially when they're chasing you. Coach Ollie was the rabbit for this interval.


Walter getting it done.

A great day to be in the woods.

Tomorrow we'll hit the road in search of good skiing - one more solid OD on snow before we back off for exams.

GG Sprints

First race of the year yesterday - the Atomic Sprints at Great Glen. This is a pretty low-key event - a good way to break back into racing. A good crowd turned out, including Bates and UNH. The snow was nice and fast - pretty good coverage for this time of year. Our team showed pretty well - nothing amazing, but we held our own and looked pretty sharp for this early in the season. Several people won their first round heats, and most of the team advanced as far as the third or fourth rounds. Grace and Colman had the standout performances of the day - both made it to the semifinals.

For some great photos and video by ski team alum Ryan Triffitt '97, click here. For some less great photos by Ollie and me, keep reading.

Spencer cruising through his second round heat. He ended up in a great duel with a UNH guy in the forth round - neither advanced, but it was fun to watch them mix it up.

Colman got away quickly in his second round. Polasky is in third, duking it out with a master skier - they had some near tangles. He got pretty aggressive yesterday for such a mild-mannered guy.

Grace was burning it up in her first heat, headed for a bye to the third round, before crashing on the backstretch. She recovered and won her next heat for a trip to the semifinals.

Olivia and Maren looked solid in their first race effort of the year - they finished 2nd and 3rd in this first round heat.

Nat and Scott got out in front immediately and eased into a second round bye.

Le Monstre de Biscuit. Total domination.

Nick showing good form - nice modeling of the new unis as well. He was loving the one-lap format of the second round and won his heat easily.

Wilson looked pretty good for his first day on snow. He had the misfortune of going out in one of the early heats, before we figured out that the best strategy was to power to the front since there was no room to pass out of the course. He tucked in behind the leader and skied easily until getting squeezed out around the final turn.

Chase Sprints

The bike path is a perfect venue for speed work - good pavement and no cars. The only obstacles are other path users, who are few and far between at this time of year. Today we picked a nice flat section preceded by a small hill for drop-in sprints. We added a competitive aspect, though - people paired up, with the first person getting a short head start and the second person chasing. This added incentive resulted in some nice fast skiing and one sweet crash. Good work today - the team looks ready for the Great Glen Sprints tomorrow. Tomorrow's also the debut of our new unis. Race report and photos to follow. Can you handle the suspense?

The Mounds View/White Bear Lake rivalry plays out once again.


Walt vs. Wilson. The old man's still got it.

DP Test

We tried out a new double pole test today - sort of a pilot test. The test was an uphill sprint on the bike path, probably around 150m or so. Short sprint-type double pole tests are just as good as longer tests when it comes to predicting race performance, and they're easier to administrate and less disruptive to training. This fall, we acquired 2 pairs of brand new V2 920s that are specifically dedicated for testing, so theoretically they're the same speed or at least very close - this allows us to compare test results between athletes. Here are the results of today's test:

Women
Grace - 32.62
Olivia - 33.44
Erin - 39.1
Maren - 39.22

Men
Nat - 23.68 (added 0.5 seconds due to jumping the gun)
Spencer - 26.28
Colman - 26.29
Wilson - 27.72
Chris - 33.32

These results are like the uphill time trial results - they don't necessarily tell us who'll finish where in the races, but they help shed light on an individual's strengths and weaknesses, and repeated testing allows us to measure improvements. More information is usually a good thing. We probably won't be doing any more of this testing this season, but today was useful as a learning experience - we'll have a better sense of how to run this test next time, and we've established baselines for the skiers who did the test.

More Camp Photos

Grace and Maren working on the pies (super good).

A partial view of the spread.

Polasky's plate.

Old Town Quebec City.

Sunday morning - clean.