Amazing Thanksgiving Camp this year - Foret Montmorency came through with tons of snow! We drove up on a beautiful Sunday morning, enjoying the diverse musical offerings of this year's team playlist, and jumped right into the action with a nice long skate ski that afternoon with half the population of Quebec City - so great to see the Foret trails thriving! We moved into a couple of nice houses in Stoneham that evening and settled in for a week of skiing. Our daily routine was pretty simple: drive up after breakfast, long ski in the morning, early lunch break, shorter ski, and back home for a quick jog and dinner. All the trails were open, so every day we got to explore the wilderness on beautifully groomed trails - some of the best skiing we've ever had at this camp (or any other time, really). For the most part we stuck with long easy skiing with a little technique work, but we threw in a little intensity mid-week and a weekend skate time trial with the other teams at Foret: Colby, SLU, St. Mike's, Laval, and an assortment of Canadian club teams. The course was a good grind with lots of tough climbs - a great early season fitness test and our first chance to compete against some fellow college skiers. Our team looked pretty good, with solid technique and fitness - just need to sharpen up with a little more racing. We wrapped up camp with one last long ski the next morning before a rather adventurous drive home in a snowstorm - as always, sad to leave Foret but glad to be back home!
Team meals are always a huge part of Thanksgiving Camp, and we had some great dinners: green curry with rice and potatoes, soft tacos, pizza, curry noodle soup, and smash burgers. Deliberations are underway, and the winning meal will be announced soon - stay tuned. As always, the team rallied for a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner: mashed potatoes, stuffing, mushroom gravy, sweet potatoes, peas, squash, cranberry sauce, pumpkin rolls, rat rolls, brussel sprouts, green bean casserole, pies (apple, pumpkin, and nutella) and of course Chef Mike's final turkey (fortunately Chef Ian's apprenticeship was successful, so our future turkeys are in good hands). It always amazes me how this meal comes together every year - so much work goes into it, and every year the skiers do a great job. Sharing meals as a team is one of the great joys of Bowdoin Nordic, and we're so lucky to get to spend time together in beautiful places.
Since coming home, we've enjoyed some early season snow and even some local skiing. We've had a couple good workouts on a skier-groomed loop behind Farley, and a nice ski on the Brunswick Golf Course. Last weekend we raced the Quarry Road Opener - a double event this year, with both skate and classic. One week into December and we've already raced on snow three times - what a gift! One more week of team training before we take a pause for exams and break - we'll make it count.
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