Fall Camp Video

I'm a bit late posting this, but here's a video recap of our Sugarloaf camp over Fall Break, courtesy of Tim:

10th Annual Phil Soule Phlail

We hosted the 10th Annual Phil Soule Phlail 5k on Sunday.  The race honors the memory of Phil Soule, a longtime Bowdoin coach of many sports who passed away in 2006.  The ski team has been organizing the event since it's inception, and I always feel a strong obligation to run a good event that Phil and the Soule family would be proud of.  Happily, the event went well - a sunny fall day, a good turnout (80 finishers), and a great effort by all the racers.  As always, we had generous support from a pair of anonymous benefactors (old friends of Phil's) who helped fund some great racer gifts:  tech shirts from Atayne and also Nike gymsacks - not bad for a humble, inexpensive 5k race.  The skiers did great work keeping the event running smoothly, and a good time was had by all.  As we've done for the past 3 years, we also hosted a free kids fun run before the main event - several scrappy future 5k runners worked hard to earn their finish line lollipops.  Overall, a fine day and a quality event!

Fall Camp 2015

Fall Camp 2015 was one of the best camps we've ever had - three perfect days in the Sugarloaf area.  The location was perfect, the fall colors were stunning, and the team crushed the workouts - good energy and good times.

We started off our break with a pre-camp trip to Morse Mountain for some beach skiing intervals - a warmup for the rugged workouts to come.

 The next morning, we drove to the mountains for the Sugarloaf Uphill Climb - the first time we've done this race since 2008.  About half the team raced while the other half did a tough bounding workout.  After years of finishing second in this event, Tim finally broke through and took the win, adding to a proud Bowdoin Nordic history of coach victories in the Uphill Climb.  Ellie rocked it for a third place women's finish, with Sam as our top man in seventh.  We closed out the day with an recovery jog on the nordic ski trails with the late afternoon sun lighting up the fall colors - perfect.  The men made a nice pasta dinner, volunteer assistant coach Tara Whiton gave a talk about sports nutrition, and everyone went to bed tired and happy.

On Monday the team got a little crazy.  I had planned to have the crew do a long hike/run on a section of the Bigelows, but a few people decided that they wanted to do the whole range - 18+ miles over one of the most rugged ranges in the northeast.  Next thing I knew, nearly the whole team was on board.  This was a bit scary for me, but I love it when our skiers want to challenge themselves, so I wasn't going to say no.  We worked out a plan with multiple bailout points, and the team started hiking from the Stratton trailhead early in the morning.  Old friends Tyler DeAngelis and Jackson Bloch joined the group and set a brisk pace at the front, while Tim and Tara served as sweepers.  I hiked up Firewarden's Trail to meet the group halfway through with water refills - I met the men on top of West Bigelow, and I couldn't believe how fast they were moving.  The women were a bit behind, having stopped for a swim in Horns Pond, but they were making good time as well.  After refilling everyone's bottles, I absolutely hauled down the Horns Pond Trail and back to the van so I could drive to the finish at Flagstaff Lake to meet the boys - despite my best efforts, they beat me to the end, completing the whole traverse in under 5 1/2 hours.  The women finished in about 7 1/2 hours and still had enough energy to go for a swim, go grocery shopping, and cook a tasty dinner of huevos rancheros and apple crisp that evening.  Overall, a day to be proud of - a very impressive effort by everyone.

 Our final camp workout on Tuesday was pretty tame by comparison - we did a classic OD ski on the Long Falls Dam Rd, a Fall Camp staple.  Traffic was minimal, the pavement was perfect almost everywhere, and the overcast sky made the colors pop.  The group was chatty and having fun, but they were still locked in and skiing well.  Tim and I chased them around in the van, filming and giving technique feedback - we were very happy with how the group was skiing.  Overall, a perfect ending to a really successful camp.  Many thanks to Alison Welch '85 and Bob Bass '79 for letting us use their respective condos - this camp would not have been possible without their help!

Start of Tryouts

We're moving - the 2015-16 season is underway.  We started off with a fitness testing day on Saturday, the Morse Mtn time trial.  Newcomer Lucy Skinner (senior cross-country captain) set a new course record in 6:36, breaking the five-year-old mark set by Hannah Wright '13.  The men showed good depth, with three people under 6 minutes and the whole group fairly tightly clustered.  Almost everyone set a PR - very good sign that everyone's summer training is paying off.  The first-years did a nice job with their first time through this course - off to a good start.

	Women
Lucy	6:36
Tess	7:27
Emma	7:35
Ellie	7:49
H. Marshall	8:08
Men
Sam	5:50
Mac	5:58
August	5:58
Wil	6:09
Sean	6:09
Jake	6:14

Testing resumed yesterday with the 2000m erg test.  The captains stepped up to show the rest of the group how it's done - Mac broke his own record by a couple seconds, and H. Marshall was less than 4 seconds from H. Miller's record.  More PRs and a great effort by everyone on this very tough test.

Men	Time
Mac	07:04.3
Jake	07:14.5
Sean	07:17.4
Sam	07:44.7
August	08:11.3
Wil	08:31.4
Women	Time
H. Marshall	08:18.8
Tess	08:30.3
Ellie	08:56.9
Lucy	09:14.2
Emma	09:38.8
Rachel	09:42.2

This morning, we did some technique, speed, and agility work on skate skis.  I can see that several of our skiers have put in some time working on this stuff over the summer, and it's made a noticeable difference.  The group as a whole seems a bit more nimble on skis than in past years - looks like they're ready for increasing challenges as the fall goes on.

This afternoon, we'll keep things rolling with a strength and spenst workout before concluding our team selection phase with a classic distance ski and technique session tomorrow.  More updates to come!