October Training

 Ok, we're back! To be honest, we've been back for a month, but it's been hard to find time for a blog post with all the amazing training we've been doing. Here's a quick recap of October:

- We started the month with a great turnout at the Phil Soule Phlail 5k - over 100 people turned out on a beautiful fall day. Bowdoin Nordic legend Tom Cook '09 took the men's win, with Ava Collemore winning the women's category.

- After a few days of low intensity training and skills evaluations, we jumped into testing with our 2k erg and 3k run. Michael set the pace for the men's erg (6:51.8), while Francie and newcomer Ruth Krebs tied for the women's win in 8:05.8 - very impressive showing by the first-year! I should also mention that Michael pulled a 6:47.3 in a self-test a few weeks earlier, breaking Zach Ennis's old team record (sorry Zach, even a self-test counts). Overall team performance was very solid. We've been doing this test since 2013, and it was striking to look back at the historical record and see how much we've improved. Just a few years ago, a 7:30 for men and 8:30 for women would have been among the better times on the team - this year almost everyone beat those marks. In the 3k test, Emma led the women in 11:07, and Lars nudged his own team record higher with a 9:27. Again, the overall team performance was strong, with lots of PRs and five men under 10 - a big improvement and a nice indicator of team depth. Emma and first-year Beckett Cote scored the top combined times. I'm pretty happy with how the team looked in both the skills evals and the fitness testing - we've made good progress in both areas.

- Shortly after testing we jumped right into Fall Camp. This year we stayed at the beautiful Adaptive Outdoor Education Center in Carrabassett Valley. We started off with some technique-focused hill repeats on classic rollerskis on a quiet country road in Kingfield, where a couple energetic local kids ran alongside the team to help with motivation, and finished the day with a nice afternoon trail run. Day 2 was a Bowdoin Nordic classic, a 17-mile hike/run across the stunning Bigelow Range. We wrapped up with a beautiful OD rollerski to Long Falls Dam to close out a very succesful camp. Huge thanks to our many supporters - alumni, parents, and friends - who made this trip possible with their generous gifts to the program.

-  After camp we had a few days to catch our breath and then we tackled our first time trial of the fall, an 8k skate at Runaround Pond. Emma and Ollie blistered the course to take the wins. It was extra encouraging to see Ollie moving well again after lots of grinding rehab to recover from injuries over the past year - so good to see hard work paying off!

- We welcomed a huge crew of family members to campus for Family Weekend. They joined us for our first beach ski of the year - we had a fantastic workout on Seawell Beach at the Morse Mountain Preserve. Later that afternoon, Leslie hosted a nice get-together. We're lucky to have such incredible support from our team parents and other family members, and it's such a pleasure to have these opportunities to get to know them a bit better.

- We closed out the month with another Leslie and DJ-hosted event, our second annual pumpkin carving contest. We had some remarkably creative entries - the winner was a lovingly rendered depiction of a van with wide open doors, an iconic image that truly captured the essence of Bowdoin Nordic.

 That's all for now - off to a good start and looking forward to November!