Foret Time Trial

Today was a beautiful day for a time trial - cold dry snow and sunny skies (at least for a while). The course was about 9k, point-to-point partway around the main loop at Foret - some good climbing followed by a couple long descents and then a gradual rolling climb for the rest of the way. Our team got after it pretty hard and gave a good effort. Chris was our big star today, finishing 8th behind some really outstanding skiers. Full results will apparently be posted on NENSA at some point - for now, here are our finishes:

Women
21 - Grace - 29:20

Men
8 - Chris - 21:54
13 - Spencer - 22:37
14 - Scott - 22:38
22 - Colman - 23:30
23 - Tom - 23:31
30 - Woody - 24:31
31 - Dan - 24:36
32 - Nick - 24:45
32 - Shem - 24:45

I'm happy with this showing - there's work to be done, but this is a decent start.

This evening we drove into Quebec City to wander around the Old Town. Ollie and I had a bit of an adventure finding parking - old European style cities aren't built for big vans, especially not on a Saturday night - but we managed. The skiers found some chocolat chaud but no crepes, much to Maren's disappointment. The big toboggan ride was closed, sadly - in spite of this crushing setback, a good time was had by all. The most fun part for me was driving around the city taking random turns trying to find Rt. 175 Nord (which was not to be found by driving the opposite direction on Rt. 175 Sud, for some reason). After considerable help from Nick's instincts, we drove through several more narrow streets and almost ended up on some kind of cargo ship. Eventually, Nat rescued us with some French-speaking skills (he's a baller) and we found our way home. Photos may or may not be forthcoming.

Camp Day 3 - Birthdays

More snow at Foret today - there were a couple fresh inches on the ground this morning, and it snowed lightly throughout the day. The men did some leapfrog sprints on classic skis and the women had a productive technique session.


We had a mini birthday celebration tonight - Chris turned 19 today, and Scott turns 19 tomorrow. We made a couple of cakes on the sly - a nice feat considering that both guys were part of the dinner crew.

Tomorrow we'll do a skate time trial with a few of the other folks training up here - pretty low key, but it'll be nice to find out where we stand at this point of the season.

Thanksgiving Skiing

More good skiing today - two sessions this time. There are several other teams here - Colby, St. Lawrence, UMPI and others - but the trails don't feel crowded. It's hard to imagine anything feeling crowded up here - so great. I forgot how much I love Canada until yesterday.

Nat shredding the gnar.

Just a fraction of our huge men's team.

People are in good spirits right now - what's not to like about being on snow at Thanksgiving?

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we had a magnificent dinner tonight - stellar effort by the team. Parents would have been proud. No photos, but suffice it to say that the spread was impressive. Even Polasky got enough to eat.

Camp, Day 1

We're finally in Canada and finally on snow. It's been a challenging couple of days, but all's well now. Due to some nasty weather yesterday, we postponed our trip until this morning - we left Bowdoin really early and still had to scramble to get some skiing in before dark, thanks to an extended border stop and hassles with the condos. It was all worth it, though - lots of new snow at Foret and 10k of surprisingly good skiing. We skated today and loved it - looking forward to 4 more good days.

PS - New race suits were shipped on Monday - pictures will be forthcoming!

Morse Mtn Time Trial

Yesterday was round 2 of the Morse Mountain time trial. This is a new fitness test for us this year - approximately 1 mile, almost all uphill, on the access road that runs over Morse Mountain to Seawall Beach. I like this test better than the traditional 3000m run on a track, because uphill running is more about aerobic fitness and less about leg speed and running economy. The team did a self-test earlier in the fall to set a baseline, and yesterday was our chance to see what kind of improvements we've made. We weren't expecting a big jump, since so much of our training is on rollerskis, but we were hoping to see some progress, and we did. Most of our skiers shaved off a few seconds, with Chris and Grace making huge gains. Here are the results:

Men
Chris - 5:40
Walt - 5:58
Spencer - 5:58
Nat - 6:17
Woody - 6:40
Tom - 6:52
Nick - 7:19

Women
Erin - 7:27
Grace - 8:25

Hopefully this is some of the last dryland training we do this year - we're headed up to Stoneham, Quebec tomorrow for Thanksgiving Camp. If we're lucky, we'll get on snow at Foret Montmorency - conditions are still marginal at the moment, but apparently some teams skied over the weekend, so hopefully the snow will hold out. If we're really lucky, we'll have skiable snow at Pineland shortly after we return, but that's almost too much to ask - probably bad luck even to type these words. In any case, we have a fun week ahead of us!

Bridge Troubles

Yesterday we tried a new workout - a running warmup with some spenst exercises, followed by sprints on classic rollerskis. The concept is the same as our current strength phase - the rollerski work leaves the muscles with a ski-specific imprint that helps translate general strength/power gains into speed on skis. Things didn't go quite as smoothly as planned, however. Ollie and I dropped the team off east of Wolfe's Neck Farm - they were supposed to run west past the farm and meet us at the state park for rollerski sprints. Unfortunately, the bridge across the mouth of the Little River was out, and they had to backtrack and take the long way around. By the time we figured out what was going on and drove out to pick them up, the running warmup had stretched far beyond its designated time - Walter was sad. Nonetheless, we squeezed in some decent sprints in the waning daylight.

Daniel Blue Polasky. He's tall.

It looks like Nat's standing in front of an oncoming car, oblivious to the danger - however, although this is a very feasible scenario, I don't think that's what's happening here.

Either Wilson and Maren are both moving fast or my hands are unsteady. Probably both - my nerves are shot from watching Nat drift in and out of the middle of the road with no reflective vest.

Long skate rollerski at Runaround Pond today - cold and windy. The ice has come out in a hurry these last few days.

Courtney forcing Grace to stay in L1.

More Polasky - he's very photogenic. Chris in the background - Minnesotans tend to stick together in strange new places.

XC New Englands

The XC team wrapped up the season with a great showing at New Englands last weekend. The women finished 7th, with Courtney in 36th - she was just 0.4 seconds from All-New England honors. The men were 5th and just missed an at-large bid to NCAAs. Colman finished 19th, one place away from qualifying individually, and Scott ended a solid first season in 88th (14th for first-years). Great work, runners! We're looking forward to having these guys back at ski practice - the team is gradually starting to feel whole again.