Fall Semester Wrap

Exams are winding down and campus is emptying out - time for break!  As always, the last couple weeks of the semester kept us on our toes.  We had a pretty good run for the first several days after Thanksgiving Camp - a nice storm set us up for great skiing at Pineland.  It's rare that we're on snow in December (not counting an occasional Quarry Road trip), so this was a wonderful gift.  We took it easy for a few days after camp and then came back strong with a couple good speed/intensity sessions.  After that it was time for another pre-season test at the Quarry Road Opener.  The team looked pretty solid despite the mounting academic load weighing everyone down.  Elliot took the men's win, with Christian 3rd and Peter 4th.  Gabby was 4th for women and Lily was 5th.  So great to get another early season race under our belts!

Sadly, the weather turned on us a couple days later - two downpours in one week wiped out all of our beautiful snow.  Refusing to come back to rollerskiing, we patched together a solid training week with a mix of run, erg, and strength - it was actually kind of nice to get back to a little dryland after weeks of skiing.  We made one more trip up to Quarry Road for a 15/20k threshold workout, a workout that's become a Bowdoin Nordic staple.  It's a dry run for the upcoming 15/20k races, but it's not a race - just a chance to get a feel for the pacing and duration of the long races.  Conditions were a bit dodgy after all the rain, and we had some impressive crashes and some ragged skiing as wax wore off, but grinding it out is always a good experience.  I'm confident that we'll be ready when the time comes to go long in carnivals.

For the last few days the skiers have been on their own - easy workouts and lots of studying.  Everyone's going home with an individual plan to make the most of the break and patch up any areas of need.  Overall, it's been a fun and productive semester, and the team looks strong - don't want to get carried away, but if we can stay on this trajectory we're going to have a really good year.  We'll be starting up again in just a couple weeks - can't wait!