Eastern Cup Opener

A late report on the Eastern Cup Opener in Presque Isle last weekend. Niko, Dan, Spencer, and Scott drove up with Tim on Friday. Decent results overall - Spencer qualified for the heats in Saturday's skate sprint, finishing 25th in the final standings. Niko pulled off a remarkable feat, skiing 2 laps in the qualifying round - never heard of anyone skiing an extra lap in a sprint race, so this is quite noteworthy. His NENSA points for the race were 1582.49 - this has to be a record. I'll have to ask Pat Cote to research this for me. Anyway, I'd like to think that I won't be teasing Niko about this for the rest of his Bowdoin career, but I don't think I can resist. Somewhere, Chris Sanville is smiling. Sunday's classic was decent as well, especially considering that most of the guys were doing their first real classic skiing on snow this year. All in all, a nice start to the season. Big thanks to Hannah Shepard for hosting the guys!

Niko - photo courtesy of Steve Fuller at Flying Point Road.

I also have some photos from Andy Shepard that are giving me some trouble - I'll post those when I'm back on campus with a faster connection.

Biathlon Trials Update 2 - Walt Wins!

Good weekend for Walt at the Biathlon World Team Trials. In Saturday's 10k race he scored a solid 3rd place finish, and he won today's 12.5k race with solid skiing and 19 of 20 shooting. Walt's shooting has been outstanding these last few days - he has the top shooting percentage of all competitors at nearly 90% over the first 4 races. Today's win makes him the overall series leader with one race remaining. I'm told that he's assured of a spot in the finals in Germany - a huge accomplishment. One more trials race and then it's on to the last and toughest challenge before the Olympics...

Results
MWSC Press Release

End of Semester

We're wrapping up the semester - exams started up earlier this week, and most people have made themselves scarce. Those who were able enjoyed some great skiing at Pineland - there's not a ton of snow, but coverage is good in most places. The snow is frozen granular - nice and fast. Good start to the winter - we should have some good skiing to look forward to when we come back in early January. But right now it's time for a break - a nice chance for people to train at home, do some local races, and catch up on sleep. We have a few folks racing this weekend at the Presque Isle Eastern Cups - I'll send out an update on those races and others in the next few weeks.

Biathlon Trials Races 1&2

Biathlon World Team Trials are underway at Mt. Itasca in Coleraine, MN. Walt is off to a good start, with solid results in the first two races last weekend. He finished 5th in Saturday's 10k and 2nd in yesterday's 15k mass start, just 2 seconds from the win. Sounds like he was feeling a bit flat in both races, but he skied well enough to stay close, and strong shooting gave him some decent finishes. Andy Shepard crunched the numbers - right now Walt has the best shooting percentage of all competitors and is ranked 2nd in the overall scoring. Lots of guys right behind him, though, and it's early - still 3 races left. Each racer's best 3 results will determine the final rankings, so the standings will change a lot by the time it's over. Anyway, a good start for Walt - once he gets back to feeling good, he'll be a real threat.

For those who aren't clear on how the whole qualifying process works, the top 4 athletes at these trials will join the 5 current National Team members on the World Cup circuit in January. Five men from this group of 9 will make the Olympic Team - results from a series of Europa Cup races in late January will determine the final team.

Results and photos available at Minnesota Biathlon.

GG Sprints 2009

Great Glen Sprints - first on-snow race of the year yesterday! Most of the team headed up to Pinkham Notch for the Great Glen Sprints. There was some solid competition, with Bates, Burke, and Gould in attendance, among others. I wasn't able to be there, unfortunately, so I can't give a first-hand account, but by all reports our team showed well. Maren, Hannah, Jeff, and Niko all made it through to the semi-finals. Sounds like the snow was outstanding and the event went pretty smoothly - a good way to break the seal on the season.

Here are a few photos courtesy of Ryan Triffitt '97:

Niko

Emma

Maren & Jess

Jeff. I'm told that he skied fast enough to get away with the Santa hat.

Video and more photos here.

PS - In other news, former Bowdoin assistant Ollie Burruss beat a bunch of fast skiers to win the Craftsbury Opener yesterday - nice work, Ollie! I was already looking forward to the potential Ollie-Spencer showdown at Presque Isle next weekend - yesterday's result only heightens my anticipation.

Farley & Commons

Decent skiing so far this week.

Very good threshold session on Tuesday - here's Erin and Jess.

Yesterday we got a classic coastal Maine storm - several inches fell before turning to rain. Still plenty of snow on the ground.

A few of us ventured out into the Commons for yesterday's specific strength workout - not bad.

Today the fields are groomed - our snowmobile is up and running. Pineland is looking good to open tomorrow, and the next few days should be cold. Looks like we're all set through exams - hopefully beyond!

Snow in Brunswick

First real snowfall last weekend. Sunday's OD workout turned into a flail session around the athletic fields supplemented by a run. The skiing wasn't too bad after we'd packed down a bit of a trail - somewhat reminiscent of Foret, though. We're getting really good at skiing in small circles. More snow on the way - Pineland should be able to open soon. For now, we're working with what we have - just glad to be skiing.

Ridge Road Time Trial

Did I mention that I love Ridge Road? Well, I do. Today we had a time trial with Bates on said road - 10k classic, point to point. Some nice climbs in the first half and lots of double poling in the second. Our team was solid - Elissa was second for women, and Spencer was near the top as well (although not quite ahead of Tim...). Jeff had perhaps the most impressive performance of the day, though - he was our second-fastest guy and was not far behind some very good skiers. Nice to see his hard work paying off. Polasky also deserves a special mention for skiing the whole race without poles. Quite a fun day - thanks to Bates for coming out to ski with us!

Men hamming it up next to a very happy mailbox.

Elissa and Sarah enjoying Ridge Road's sublime rollerski offerings.

Results
Women

1	Dayna	Stimson	37:16
2	Elissa	Rodman	38:19
3	Kelsey	Dion	38:52
4	Hannah	Wright	38:58
5	Sophie	Leonard	39:00
6	Beth	Taylor	39:08
7	Maren	Askins	41:20
8	Jessica	Caron	42:28
9	Sarah	Glaser	43:34
10	Catherine	Tuttle	44:34

Men

1	Harry	Poole	28:18
2	Lucas	Milliken	30:04
3	Tim	Whiton	30:10
4	Spencer	Eusden	30:30
5	Ben	Knowles	30:35
6	Cory	Hill	30:56
7	Jeff	Bush	31:22
8	Dan	Brodhead	31:35
9	Isaac	Kreisman	31:55
10	Scott	Longwell	32:00
11	Chris	Sanville	32:09
11	Niko	Kubota	32:09
12	Nate	Fuller	32:49
13	Ben	Smeltzer	33:06
14	Matt	Bowers	33:08
15	Jimmy	Burnham	33:32
16	Colman	Hatton	34:14
17	James	Crimp	35:30
18	Rainer	Kenney	36:38
19	Dan	Polasky	38:22
20	Will	McCartney	44:36

Speed & Mt. Ararat

Another ridiculously warm week with some good training. We did a pair of speed workouts on the bike path - the team looked great in their striding sprints on Tuesday. Today's V1 sprints highlighted some things that need work, but overall the team is looking snappy and strong in their movements. We also did a pair of trail runs, one of which was a run/bounding mystery interval session on the Mt. Ararat trails. I tend to overlook these trails when scheduling workouts, since we have some other great options, but they're pretty sweet - nice rolling terrain with some rugged roots and rocks, and a great sandy section that's a pretty tough slog. All in all, a good not-too-hard week to help people bounce back from camp.

We were also lucky to have an alumni visitor this week: Nick was back East visiting from Fairbanks, and he dropped in to help out with a couple workouts. Nick has his hands full these days - in addition to his assistant coaching responsibilities with FXC, he's also coaching the Lathrop High School team, alma mater of some truly outstanding skiers. Go Malemutes!

The ladies working the dunes.

Jeff going off-piste. He can do this because he speaks French.

Camp Wrap-Up

We finished off camp with a nice ski on Sunday - a few folks ventured off onto the closed trails again, but most stuck to the loop. Conditions were decent, and we had a solid workout. We left straight from the venue and made great time on the way home. On the drive, we had the odd experience of seeing winter gradually take over as we drove south - the roadside snow increased steadily as we approached the border, peaking in Jackman (apparently the real storm hit western Maine, and Foret only got a little bit around the edges). The snow also drove lots of moose toward the roadside - we saw 5 of them in a 20 minute span after crossing the border. Good spotting work by Elissa to keep us out of trouble.

Overall, I'm very happy with how this camp went. The warm weather and minimal snow could have put a real dent in the team's mood, but everyone did a great job of staying positive and making it work. We ended up with about 14 hours of quality on-snow training and some very productive technique work. The team also had a chance to have some fun together and get to know each other better, which is pretty crucial since we're looking at a long season with countless hours spent together in close quarters. All in all, a very good camp.

Matt and Jeff did some adventure skiing on the perimeter loop before finishing up on the treadmill.

Yasmine worked diligently on balance all week - baby steps.

Colman and Elissa staying focused on their 847th trip up the loop's only hill.

New Snow

Last night's forecast called for 6-8 inches of snow at Foret, with several more falling during the day. Very exciting, but I should know by now to never trust predicted snowfall amounts - turns out that they got only about 3 or 4 inches. In spite of this, the skiing on the loop got worse, not better, because the temps dropped and the packed slush/snow mix became fairly squirrely. Eventually, most of us decided to venture out into the woods to see if the main trails were skiable - turns out that they were. Coverage was pretty thin, and we scraped up our skis a bit, but that's what rock skis are for. The skiing was quite pleasant for a while before we started running into lengthy wind-scoured sections of trail where we had to walk. Still, it was great to get off the loop and onto something different for a change. Sanville liked it so much that he skied deep into the woods by himself with no watch and ended up coming back almost an hour after everyone else, causing much consternation. Ironically, he was rewarded with a delicious cake made by the women's team, since today happened to be his birthday. Scott also got a cake in honor of his birthday tomorrow. Happy birthday to Scott and Chris both, and thanks to the women's team for their outstanding cake-making skills!

Foret Day 3

This the toughest snow I've ever met. Another night above freezing, another morning filled with dozens of skiers doing countless laps, and yet the snow is still hanging on. The Foret crew did some shoveling on a few thin patches and we were good to go.


Polasky has been resting an injured shoulder with some no- and one-pole skiing. Good for technique as well - nice how that works out.

Erin and Rainer working on forward body position - it's coming along.

Hannah and Maren. The team has stayed remarkably upbeat during this damp week on the gerbil wheel.

We finished today's workout with some games, including a round of Polasky Ball. Polasky Ball is basically Ultimate on skis, except instead of a disc you use a balled-up hat wrapped in plastic - works great.

Gobel Gobel (Updated w/ Photos)

Another fine day of skiing. Amazingly, the snow held up through last night's rain and the absurdly warm temps that won't go away. We were reserved for 2 hours, but we were able to do a good solid 3+ hours of skiing since no one showed up for the afternoon. The endless loop has ceased to be exciting, but we're skiing in November and that's enough for now. I'm actually really liking the mini-loop format, because it gives me lots of opportunities to see the athletes and work with them on technique. Also, since we have no variation whatsoever the athletes are eager for drills and cues to give focus to the workout, so they're absorbing the technique work more readily than ever. I feel like we've made a lot of progress in just the last two days - very encouraging. Nice to have a very positive result arising from an otherwise challenging situation.

The rest of the day was very pleasant. The team put forth a heroic effort to pull off a nice Thanksgiving dinner - I was impressed by how well everyone worked together. I have to note Jeff's contributions once again. He's basically the Michael Jordan of Thanksgiving dinner preparation - you can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him. He took charge of cooking both turkeys, led the gravy-making crew, and put together a phenomenal key lime pie (random) in his spare time. With his cooking, language skills, and occasional driving contributions, he's pretty much a lock for Skier of the Week (an award that didn't exist until a couple hours ago). Overall, a wonderful meal and a nice chance for the team to come together - we all have a lot of reasons to be thankful.

Emma and Maren were clutch - they rescued the meal with a late-game effort to triple the gravy volume.


Scary to see this crowd wielding large knives.

A fine spread.


Tim tried to keep up with Polasky and got dropped. Picture me in a fight with Dangerous Dana Rosenblatt. That's what happened to Tim at dinner. Here he is struggling through the last of the green bean casserole. Speaking of Polasky, we had no leftovers in large part due to his insatiable appetite. The man is a freak.

On Foot & On Snow

Thanksgiving Camp at last. We drove up last night - a painless drive since there's no snow anywhere in the East to mess up the roads. Almost no snow, that is - Foret has a 1km loop of manmade snow, and yes, we came all this way just to ski on it. We almost got shut out this morning - they're limiting access to reduce the crowding, and at first it sounded like we'd be out of luck. Fortunately, we were able to get a reservation for the afternoon, which made our morning hiking session much more enjoyable. We hiked/bushwhacked up the side of the downhill ski area - the base was shrouded in fog, but as we hiked up we broke out into bright sunshine and found ourselves looking down on the fog bank - pretty amazing view. At the top we discovered a great trail and did some running before heading back down to get ready for our ski.



At Foret, we skated the loop for 2+ hours - it was outstanding. The snow is pretty beat up, but it felt great just to be out on skis again. We did some productive technique work - I was pretty pleased with how the team looked in their first day on snow. In spite of the repetition, no one's bored yet - if the next 4 days are similar, I'll be thrilled. Unfortunately, it's raining right now and the forecast is ominous - we'll hope for the best tomorrow.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Jeff's stellar performance today. He's the best (only?) French speaker in our group, and he helped things go smoothly this afternoon by handling communications with the staff at Foret. I was grateful and impressed - obviously he brought more than malaria home from his Madagascar trip.

Ski to Hallowell & Morse Mtn TT (Updated w/ Pictures)

Busy weekend for us - the second Morse Mountain time trial yesterday and our annual ski to Naomi's house in Hallowell today. Today's ski was one of the nicest OD workouts we've ever had - the weather, the novelty of a point-to-point rollerski, and Naomi's fine food and hospitality made this a great day. We were fortunate to have the Cookie Monster join us to help the guys stay on the right route - he kept up quite nicely in spite of the fact that today's workout doubled his yearly total rollerskiing time. We had a couple minor equipment troubles - a broken pole and a broken binding - but otherwise the workout was problem-free. The team looked smooth and strong - we've seen real progress in fitness and technique over the past couple months, and I'm pretty happy about that. Delicious homemade chili and whoopie pies capped off a great day. Sadly, Nat wasn't able to make it home for the weekend - he was sorely missed. Thanks to Naomi for a wonderful day!

It was a peaceful morning on Lewis Hill Rd - nice.

Donuts gleaming in the early morning sunlight - what's better than that?

Men taking a much needed donut feed. This brilliant idea was Elissa's - that's why she's captain, folks.

An impromptu shrine to Nat on Naomi's front porch.

We also had great weather for yesterday's time trial - very pleasant. The team gave a great effort, and the times were quite solid considering how heavy the training load has been these last few weeks. Niko and Will in particular made huge gains, and Yasmine set a new women's team record. We finished the day with some quality beach time, including a brief swim by certain foolhardy members of the men's team. How many college ski teams get to go straight from an uphill time trial to the beach? Pretty sweet.

We love our safety vests - we wear them even when we're not rollerskiing.

Scott and Chris warming up.

Women
Yasmine - 6:59
Erin - 7:12
Maren - 8:12
Elissa - 8:23
Sarah - 9:25

Men
Scott - 5:43
Chris - 5:45
Spencer - 6:02
Niko - 6:08
Matt - 6:11
Dan - 6:21
Will - 6:44
Jeff - 6:55

DP Test #2

Yesterday was Round 2 of our double pole sprint test on the bike path. We had a few people make noteworthy improvements, including a new team record by Emma, but the team as a whole was a little off. The timing of the test wasn't great - we're in the middle of our second hard week in a row, and most people don't quite have the edge needed for a sprint test. Next year I'll have to do a better job of fitting the testing into the plan. Overall, though, things are moving along well - we've done some great workouts these past few weeks, and I like what I'm seeing in at workouts. Now we just need some snow in Quebec...

DP Test #2 Results

Men

Spencer	24.1
Niko	24.47
Rainer	25.69
Matt	25.87
Jeff	26.28
Scott	27.13
Will	29.44
Chris	31.69
Women
Emma	29.81
Hannah	31.68
Elissa	32.62
Maren	33.78
Yasmine	42.28

SkiErg World Sprints

We participated in the SkiErg World Sprints last weekend - this was an event organized by Concept2 to promote the new erg. Skiers all around the world did a 1k sprint time trial on the erg and sent in their times for comparison. A 1k double pole sprint with no terrain variation or rest is pretty nasty - people were wrecked by the end of the test. Our skiers put up some respectable times, though. Not sure if the current list of times is complete, but right now Emma and Jeff are both in the top 10 overall. Pretty solid considering how many good skiers did the test. Current results at the link.

Niko and Jeff - dueling ergs. Watching a side-by-side erg race is actually pretty cool.

XC Regionals - Twin Brooks

This morning the team headed down to Twin Brooks in Cumberland to watch the XC teams compete at Regionals. This was a big meet, with all the New England D3 schools in attendance and NCAA berths at stake. Both teams ran well - the men were 5th and the women were 9th. Colman earned a trip to NCAAs with a 1oth place finish. There's a decent chance that the whole men's team will qualify, but team selections won't be announced for a few more days. Congratulations to our runners on a fine season - we'll look forward to cheering on Colman and possibly others at NCAAs!

Full results here.

Bradbury & Bowdoinham

We did a fairly stout bounding workout at Bradbury yesterday and a classic rollerski in Bowdoinham today - I've rediscovered Ridge Rd. as a great rollerski venue.

All of a sudden I'm really into this grass rollerskiing stuff for technique work - Jeff's antics from a couple weeks ago have inspired me.

Wild stallions gotta run free.

A look at the Bradbury landscape. It's hardly a mountain at all, but it's pretty rugged in places.

Part of the trail we used for bounding. I use the word "trail" loosely - it was more of a secret ninja route. There was a fair amount of tree-dodging and improvisation - always good to keep things lively.

A view from the top.

Elissa and Erin. It really wasn't this dark, but there was a nice gloomy forest feel to this part of the mountain.

Emma looking rather possessed.

The boys, route-finding.

This was a hard workout - Sanville might have gotten his lactate above 2 mmols on this one.

Recovery Week

We've had a few pleasant days lately - some mild weather punctuated by a little short-lived snow. After a fairly tough month of training, we took it easy this week with some short and sweet speed work, a threshold session, a few easy workouts, and a beautiful almost-OD out in Bowdoinham today. We're heading into another challenging period that includes some high-intensity weeks and Thanksgiving Camp, so this was a very necessary rest.

Hannah and Maren striding it out on Highland Rd.

Chris and Jeff were moving pretty fast in this workout, but those skid marks were actually caused by a car.

James doing a technique session on the quad. Our campus is great for so many reasons - we're undoubtedly the only people at Bowdoin who appreciate the rollerskiing value of the countless nice smooth walkways.

The ladies wrapping up an OD on Ridge Rd in Bowdoinham on an absolutely perfect day.

A view from the Bowdoinham Fire Station.

Niko loving the hills on Ridge Rd and overachieving. Note the vest-only look - it's November, but you wouldn't know it from the temps. This warm weather won't seem so nice if it's still hanging around in a couple weeks...