Ski to Hallowell, Morse Mtn

Catching up on some of the fun stuff we did the week before camp. First, we did our annual Ski to Nat's Mom's House in Hallowell. It was a fine crisp fall day, made even better by the presence of Walt and Nat himself. There were lots of freshly-paved sections on the route, and the skiing went almost without a hitch. We covered the distance faster than ever this year - not sure if this was due to new pavement, good weather, knowing the route better, or some combination of all these factors, but I'm going to chalk it up to our team's improved fitness and technique. The lunch was even better than the skiing. Nat's Mom (aka Naomi Schalit) cooked up her usual delicious chili feast for us - even with Polasky in attendance, we were totally overmatched by the sheer volume of food. It was a great day - always one of the year's highlights. Much thanks to Naomi and co-host John Christie!

(photo courtesy of Hallie Herz)

We also took a trip to Morse Mountain for a combined VO2max workout and time trial. Times were comparable to the self-test that most people did in September. This is encouraging, considering that we've done very little hard running lately - we've maintained our general aerobic fitness over these last few weeks while focusing on ski-specific speed and strength. A few people made big gains, while a few others lost a bit. In any case, we'll get the edge back as we build high-end fitness throughout December. This weekend we'll find out how well we've done with the whole package, as we'll repeat our bike path time trial from a few weeks ago.