Thanksgiving Camp 2022 is in the books and the semester is just about done. We've done all kinds of good stuff in the past few weeks - here's a rundown:
Mid-semester was loaded with classic Bowdoin Nordic workouts: mystery intervals, roll/run OD to Pineland, Bradbury to Pineland run, water tower hill repeats, knockout, and of course a ski on the beach at Morse Mountain. We also tried out some new stuff - a point-to-point OD rollerski to Luke's house in Manchester, where the Bartol/Moss family hosted us for an amazing post-workout lunch, and a classic time trial with Bates and Colby on some recently paved roads in Durham. Fun stuff and a great foundation for the fall grind.
As much as we enjoyed our dryland, we were all pretty thrilled to head up to Lake Placid for Thanksgiving Camp. LP got some nice natural snowfall a few days before camp, which complemented their artificial snow beautifully. When we first arrived, we were able to cruise all over the Mt. Van Hoevenburg trail network on rock skis - so nice to get out and stretch our legs a bit. As the week went on, warm temps ate away at the natural stuff, so we stuck mostly to the snowmaking loop, which had great coverage throughout the camp. Between sessions, the crew hung out at our home base (a pair of cabins not far from the venue), watching not only the start of the World Cup season, but also the men's World Cup soccer games. The team pulled together an impressive Thanksgiving dinner despite having lost long-time turkey expert Elliot Ketchel '21 to graduation.
Toward the end of camp, we did our traditional time trial with the other schools at LP: Bates, SLU, St. Mike's, UVM, Midd, and Paul Smith's, along with a few NYSEF and Ford Sayre juniors. This is always a fun wake-up session - nice to put on a bib and go against a bunch of other college skiers. We had a respectable showing, with Aggie and Emma leading the way for our women and Zach first on our men's side. Of course, the more important competition was gradually unfolding night by night, as our three cooking squads put their best culinary efforts forward in a bid for glory and gold stars. This year featured a variety of outstanding dinners: Sweeney-style chili with Richter-style guacamole; massaman curry and snickerdoodles; and mac and cheese from scratch, along with brownies and real whipped cream (as always, the judging was agonizingly difficult, but Team Curry triumphed in the end). On our final afternoon at camp, most of the crew went out to explore the Whiteface toll road, where they found just enough snow to ski on and some gorgeous views. After one last long ski the next morning, we headed back to Brunswick tired and happy - a remarkably successful camp!
It's always tough to come back to dryland after a great on-snow camp, but we've risen to the occasion with some quality training these last few days, including another beach ski workout and a barnburner soccer match. We were able to keep in touch with snow feel with a couple trips up to Quarry Road, where they've done an amazing job putting together a small loop despite uncooperative weather. Last weekend's Quarry Road Opener was a super fun 7k drag race around a mostly flat loop on fast snow - our crew popped some decent races, with Emma taking a spot on the podium in 2nd. And today we did a 2000m erg test just for fun, because why not? Lots of PRs, plus Zach set a new men's record (6:49.5), and Morgan (7:58.4) and Mia (8:03.5) both broke the women's team record - wow! Lots of good stuff happening. Now just a few more days of team training and then it's time for exams and Winter Break!
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