Semester Wrap Up

 Exams are finally over and our people have all scattered for break.  These last few weeks have been productive for our team despite how busy everyone's been with schoolwork.  Coming back from Thanksgiving Camp to dryland is always a bit of a letdown, but it wasn't too painful this year thanks to Quarry Road's early season snow making efforts.  During the week we did a mix of running and strength (as well as a hotly contested game of ultimate/football in the snow), and Friday through Sunday we drove up to Waterville to ski.  This has been a good model for us these last couple years, and hopefully it can be the new normal - it was pretty great to leave the rollerskis untouched post-Thanksgiving!  We made good use of our ski weekends, packing a lot of quality into each three-day block.  After a couple days of speed work and threshold, we did the Quarry Road Opener - it was a beautiful snowy Sunday morning, and a great mix of juniors, masters, and college athletes turned out, including Bates and Colby.  Our women nearly swept the podium, with Emma winning, Jori second, and Mirra in fourth, and Keira (8th) and Kira (10th) rounded out the top 10.  The men weren't quite as sharp, but Michael gave us a nice highlight with a 9th place finish that put him right in the mix with the top guys - arguably his best performance ever and a nice indicator that his hard work is paying off.  As always, we were primarily concerned with process, and this was a fun day and another step forward in our pre-season race prep.

After a few days of dryland that included our annual running tour of the Brunswick/Topsham holiday lights, we were back at Quarry Road for what I hope will be a new tradition, our second annual Fake Carnival - back to back time trial intended to prepare us for the demands of a carnival.  Quarry Road had survived a huge mid-week rainstorm with 50 degree temps, and we were able to put together a short loop for our time trials.  Day 1 was a classic sprint simulation - lots of double poling but also a couple times up a short, tough climb.  The women's race was pretty straightforward - Emma won the qualifier and was off the front in every heat, with Jori solidly in second.  The men's side was much more mixed up, with a bigger group and a couple Colby guys joining us.  Adam won the qualifier, but Colby's Ellis Slover took over in the heats and won the overall despite a strong test from Will and Sawyer in the final.  Next day was our traditional 20k - this used to be a basic threshold workout, but the athletes always ended up racing each other despite my instructions, so I just gave up and made it a time trial, which at 20k is basically a threshold workout anyway.  We had to do 24 laps to get the distance, but we did it!  It was pretty fun to see everyone doing their own thing, with packs forming and breaking up and everyone on different lap counts.  Will had a great battle with Andy DeFor from Colby - Andy pulled away late in the race, but still a great experience for Will to ski with the race leader.  Behind them, Sawyer, Eli, Michael and Caleb worked together for most of the race before Eli made a move that held up until the finish.  Emma went out hard and found herself between the men and women for most of the race, but she was actually able to catch a ride with Will and Andy when they passed her midway through the race.  She hung with them for 3 laps - an impressive show of fitness and determination.  Three other women - Kira, Mirra, and Jori - formed their own pack and stayed together for about half the race before Jori went off the front.  Women's college races often splinter pretty early in mass starts, so it was really nice to see this group get some practice skiing together - hopefully a sign of many Bowdoin trains to come.  Overall, a good solid grind that should diminish some of the nerves that we always see heading into our first long mass start race.  We closed out the weekend with a long easy ski and lots of technique work on a beautiful sunny Sunday to send us into exams with good vibes.  It's been an up and down semester - lots more injuries and illness than we'd like, but also plenty of great training and really positive team chemistry.  A nice (if short) break is going to be a great re-set for our skiers, and I'm positive that they'll come back strong and refreshed.  Can't wait to get started in 2025 - until then, happy holidays to everyone!

Thanksgiving Camp 2024

Thanksgiving Camp 2024 was a trip down memory lane.  The first-ever Bowdoin Nordic Thanksgiving Camp took place in 2008, a momentous time in our nation's history.  Barack Obama had just been elected president, finance bros had just crashed the world economy, and the Detroit Lions were stumbling toward an 0-16 season.  Against this backdrop, our team ventured up to Stoneham, Quebec, in search of early season snow at Foret Montmorency.  We found plenty, and Thanksgiving Camp instantly became a fall semester fixture.  Over the years, this camp has evolved - we moved from Stoneham to the Foret campus in 2013, missed camp altogether due to the pandemic in 2020, and switched to a mix of Lake Placid and Craftsbury in 2021.  This year, we went finally went back to our roots and based our camp out of Stoneham (the Foret campus no longer offers lodging to skiers).  This was a bit of a gamble - Foret no longer saves or makes snow, so we were relying entirely on the weather to come through with some well-timed storms.  At first, it looked like we were out of luck - there was almost nothing on the ground when we arrived on Saturday afternoon, and we settled for a hike/run up the Stoneham alpine trails.  Fortunately, we got a tip from Laval University coach Godefroy Bilodeau about a road up in Jacques Cartier National Park that might have just enough coverage to ski, and the next day we were off to explore Lac L'Epaule.  The classic skiing was surprisingly good, and a light snow came down throughout the day to freshen things up as we went.  Lac L'Epaule was our go-to place for the next couple days, with a little easy running to supplement our rock skiing.  On Monday afternoon, Leslie took a group of skiers into Quebec City for a sightseeing run around Old Quebec - a really nice change of pace and a great chance to explore a truly special city.  After three days of Lac L'Epaule (capped off by a lovely cruise out to Lac Nordet on sweet singletrack trails), we finally got a proper storm - once the snow started, it just didn't stop.  This plus the casual approach to plowing the access road to our lodging made the driving somewhat challenging, but we kept it cautious and enjoyed the snowfall.  By Wednesday morning, we were skiing on groomed trails at Foret - from there, the skiing just kept getting better and better, with occasional dustings keeping things fresh.  Thursday through Saturday were some of the best conditions any of us had skied in a while - certainly better than anything the East had to offer last year.  On Saturday we teamed up with several other college teams for a classic time trial - Laval, St. Mike's, Colby, and SLU were all represented.  Our crew gave a good account - as always, we were focused on process, but it was still fun to test our wings and go up against some other teams.  We headed home that same afternoon, tired but happy.  Many thanks for Godefroy for helpful training advice to get us through the first half of the week, and for excellent grooming to get us through the second!

No Bowdoin Nordic camp wrap up would be complete without a rundown of our meals.  By popular demand, we brought back the cooking competition, and the skiers rose to the occasion with several great dinners:  burritos, curry, peanut noodles, chili, and the fabled smash burgers.  Voting is ongoing as we speak - stay tuned for the announcement of the winning meal.  We also had an exceptional Thanksgiving dinner.  Every year I'm surprised and impressed by how well the skiers do with preparing this meal - it seems like every year they get a little better.  It's always pure chaos, and it always takes a long time to get everything on the table, but it was worth the wait - so, so good this year.  I couldn't begin to decide whether I liked the stuffing, mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, or homemade rolls best.  Outstanding.

Overall, this was a really successful camp.  We were prepared for the worst, and fortunately we got something much better than we'd expected.  Great skiing, great food, and quality team time - not much more we could have asked for.  Every year is a different story, but after this camp I have a feeling that the team won't let us go anywhere else next year.  For now, we're looking ahead to great skiing at Quarry Road and the Opener this weekend!