Colby Carnival 2022

 At last - our first carnival!  It's been a long wait, and everyone's been through a lot in the past couple years, so this Colby Carnival felt really good.  The folks at Quarry Road had the course in amazing shape as always - a 2.5k loop with tough climbs, technical downhills, and a nice wide open stadium area.  On Day 1 we made history with the first ever EISA women's 20k - fantastic!  Several of us coaches have been pushing for equal distances for the last couple years, so it was extra rewarding to see everyone racing the longest distance in college skiing.  The women's race went out hot, as usual - the exciting thing was that Renae was the one in the lead coming out of the stadium.  For the next 18k she was in and out of the lead - she kept pushing the pace, and although the lead pack left most of the field behind, there were 5 others she couldn't quite shake.  On the final lap they slipped past her, and she crossed the line in 6th, just 10 seconds from the win.  It was a fantastic effort and a great learning experience.  Meanwhile, our newcomers were thriving in their first ever collegiate races.  Aggie stayed within sight of the leaders for much of the race, despite a long stretch of skiing by herself - she paced it beautifully and picked up a few places in the final kilometers to finish 11th.  Morgan took a more extreme version of this strategy, going from 60th place after her first lap to 15th at the finish - just an amazing display of fitness and determination.  Ingrid (33) and Ellie (37) were not far from the top 30, and Mia finished 53rd.  Just a really impressive showing by the whole team.  They were rewarded with a 3rd place team finish - right up there with the best performances in Bowdoin Nordic history.

On the men's side, Elliot skied smoothly but couldn't quite match the pace of the lead group.  Like Aggie, he skied by himself for a long time - absolutely brutal in a race of this length when most others are working in packs.  He ended up with a respectable 14th - a good step forward in his comeback from a shoulder injury.  Carson skied a well-paced race, moving up several places and edging Zach in the final sprint - the two of them finished 32nd and 33rd, respectively.  Adam (39) and Silas (51) also acquitted themselves well in their first EISA races - really an impressive showing by all of our newcomers.  The men were 7th on the day - a decent finish, and one that we'll hope to better as we ease our way into the season.

On Day 2 - actually, there was no Day 2.  Cold temps and high winds led to the cancellation of the classic race, much to everyone's disappointment.  It was pretty sad to lose half a carnival after waiting so long for the season to start, but we've got lots more good stuff to come.  And as a consolation prize, we did a great little time trial with Colby the next day when the winds had died down.  Overall, a fine start to our season.  Many thanks to the parents who showed up to support our team - check out these photos courtesy of Tom Bartol.  Also, thanks to alumni parent Jim Ahearne, who counted a LOT of laps to keep our skiers on track during the 20k.  St. Michael's Carnival in VT up next - can't wait!

Jackson Camp

 Jan Camp is rolling along.  We just wrapped up our traditional mini-camp in Jackson, NH - 3 1/2 days of great training at one of our favorite venues.  For our first afternoon, we did a nice easy ski at Prospect Farm - remarkably good snow considering the tough weather throughout the East last week.  Snow fell the next morning - just in time to freshen up the course for a little 5k classic time trial.  Classic racing opportunities have been minimal so far, so this was an important chance to get into classic race mode and preview the Regionals course.  Next day was the big show - a 10k mass start skate with skiers from several other EISA teams.  UNH, Bates, Colby, SLU, St. Mike's, and Dartmouth were all represented - not a bad little field to prep for the season!  Elliot and Zach skied with the top group in a closely contested men's race, finishing 5th and 10th.  Aggie went off the front of the women's race for a solid win, with Ingrid in 4th place.  Overall a really productive effort by the team - just what we needed to sharpen up for the real thing next weekend.  Big thanks to UNH for organizing, and Jackson XC for hosting!

In between all these ski sessions, we did our usual team stuff - hanging out in the Eagle Mountain house, Thai takeout, and our first round of Maine vs World challenges.  Luke led Team Maine to victory in the memory challenge, while Team Central dominated Name That Tune.  The overall competition will only heat up as several members of Team West make their way back to campus in the next couple days.

We closed out the trip with a nice long classic cruise up the Hall Trail to Maple Mountain, where my 26-year-old Rossis met their end going over some fun little dips on an ungroomed trail.  Ah well - all good things must end.  Great camp, and great team energy heading into the last few days before our first carnival!

Meanwhile, several of our skiers were out in Utah - Renae, Morgan, Carson, and Mia all competed in some or all of the Senior Nationals races.  Good solid showing by all of our people.  Carson made the junior heats in the skate sprint, while Renae was the top EISA skier in both distance races and finished 16th in the classic sprint - fantastic!  Great quality race experience for all four of them.

Now we're just a few days away from the Colby Carnival.  It's been a long, long time since our last carnival - hard to believe this is actually going to happen!  We're knocking on wood, doing everything we can to stay healthy, and getting ourselves in race mode as the big day draws nearer.  Can't wait!

Happy New Year!

 Happy 2022!  Now that we're on the verge of another carnival season, I should probably catch up our loyal fans on what we've been doing these last couple months.  Here are a few highlights:

- After much agonizing about our Fall Camp venue, we settled on a split camp - 4 days at Craftsbury, 5 days at Lake Placid.  It was pretty sad to give up on Foret - first ever Thanksgiving Camp at a different venue!  But there was just too much uncertainty with Quebec, especially with the border crossing situation.  Fortunately, our split worked out beautifully.  Craftsbury had a great little 800m loop with a nice mix of terrain for all types of technique work.  Lots of other skiers there, but somehow it never felt too crowded for productive skiing.  The food at the Outdoor Center was great and spirits were high.

- Next stop was Lake Placid with a similarly sized loop comprised mainly of a long grinding climb and a nice fast descent.  This felt a bit more like our traditional camp, since we were living in a couple rental houses and cooking our own food.  After a few days of quality training and foosball, we did our first on-snow race of the year - a 6k time trial with a few other college teams:  UVM, Bates, and SLU.  So great to get the season started with a race against college competition!  Renae led our women with Aggie close behind, and Zach and Elliot did the same for men.  With snow falling throughout the time trial, we were set up for a couple beautiful days of exploration around the Mt Van Hoevenburg system - such a nice way to close out the camp.  Nine good days of training, technique work, and team time - a really successful camp.

- As usual, we came back to no snow and short days - tough training in December!  Fortunately, Quarry Road had a great loop open, and we were able to do a the Quarry Road Opener with Colby, UNH, Bates, and a several other skiers.  Zach and Renae again led the team, with several others posting strong results, most notably Ingrid and Luke.

- A semester-long project for our women's team has been upper body power development.  We measured our progress with another round of our 2000m erg test.  Results were impressive, with some huge PRs.  Every single skier beat her previous best time, and Morgan set a new team record in 8:05.  The energy was fantastic - really encouraging to see not just the fast times but also the excitement and encouragement.

- After a typically hectic exam period, people took off for home and holidays and a much-needed break.  Most of the country has limited snow, but from what I've heard everyone's found ways to make it work and get quality training (most notably Ayden crushing a 400m loop at Weston).  Now we're coming back together for Jan Camp - got a small group on campus and we're headed to Jackson today to meet up with most of the rest for a long training weekend and a mini preview of the UNH Carnival.  Meanwhile, US Nationals are well underway - we've got a few people competing there as well.  Look for a report on all this fun stuff next week!

Fall So Far

 It's been quite an eventful fall for Bowdoin Nordic, and we're long overdue for a catch up.  Here's a recap of what we've been up to these last couple months:

The full crew came back to campus at the end of August after a LONG time away - I hadn't seen some of these folks in person since March 2020!  During that time people have had all kinds of amazing and occasionally challenging life experiences - it's been remarkable to see the personal (and physical) growth that's taken place in the past year and a half.  From a skiing standpoint, this group used their time away to train really well - I can honestly say that I've never had a group of skiers train more or better than this team has in the past year plus.  So it was really exciting to finally get everyone back together.

After a solid September somewhat disrupted by illness and injuries, we started official practices in early October with fitness testing and tryouts.  James and Renae scorched the bike path time trial to lead the team (Aggie actually posted the fastest women's time, albeit on a different date - more on her later).  Mia and Elliot had our top erg times - Elliot's was a new team record.  Renae broke her own team record in the Morse Mountain run, and Morgan broke the old record as well.  James was the top runner for the men, finishing just one second off the team record set by the other James (Crimp '13).  James and Renae also set new team marks for combined erg/run times.  More important than the individual heroics was the solid performance of the team as a whole - judging by these tests, the overall level of fitness and skiing on our team is quite good, as expected.

From tryouts we went almost immediately into Fall Camp.  This year was extra special - we went to a new venue (Brooksville, ME), hosted by the Eysenbachs as well as family friends Bob and Donna Hamill.  For the first time ever, I missed a Bowdoin Nordic camp due to a cold and an abundance of caution that we felt was appropriate in the COVID era.  This was pretty sad for me, but the team hardly noticed - Leslie and the seniors kept everything running smoothly, with great support from Peggy Eysenbach and the Hamills.  The trip started with a long trail run at Frye Mountain, made extra exciting when one of our skiers got a little lost - after some searching, everything ended well, and the crew made it to Brooksville for an easy afternoon roll and a delicious dinner.  The next day was our traditional OD hike/run - in this case, a traverse of the peaks of the east side of Acadia National Park.  Of course most of the skiers insisted on doing every little peak, so something like 11 or 12 total - they were wrecked but very, very happy that evening.  Camp concluded with a long rollerski along the seaside roads around Brooksville - some of best rollerskiing our skiers have ever seen.  It was a really fun and productive camp, and it wouldn't have been possible without the incredible hospitality of the Eysenbachs and Hamills - we can't thank them enough!

The rest of October was a blur - trail runs, rollerskiing, beach skiing, gorgeous fall colors, and a wonderful team gathering hosted by the seniors on Family Weekend.  Perhaps our best day was the Maine Event hosted by NENSA at Pineland - an agility competition with all kinds of ramps and turns.  It was a perfect day and we had a ton of fun competing against Colby and several of Maine's top junior skiers.  Our women provided the highlights, with Renae and Aggie going 1-2 and Mia and Grace finishing in the top half as well.

With November now underway, we're doing short, quality workouts with limited daylight during the week, and going big on weekends.  Last weekend we went up to Rome for a skate time trial with Colby on some beautiful country roads with good pavement and some great hills.  Even though it was just a regular old rollerski time trial in November, it somehow felt very significant - the closest thing we've had to team competition against another college team in a really long time.  Between the sunny day, the venue, the camaraderie, and the competition, the skiers had so much fun.  Zach took the win for the men, with Elliot close behind; Renae, Aggie, and Greta were 2-4-5 for women.  Mia won the classic race - the field size was limited, true, but a win's a win.  Thanks to Colby for organizing!

Now we're on the verge of Thanksgiving Camp.  The snow situation is pretty uncertain all across the Northeast, but we're figuring it out - whatever happens, we're going to put together a great camp.  Stay tuned for more!

 

Graduation 2020 - For Real This Time

 Two graduations in one year!  After a long wait, the Class of 2020 finally got their well-deserved graduation ceremony.  It was SO nice to have almost all of our 2020s and their families back on campus - a graduation and a reunion in one.  Everyone's been doing such cool and interesting stuff this past year - teaching, coaching, fish shocking, coding, kettlebelling, and of course lots of ski training and racing!  Some of them even lived somewhere besides Bozeman - what an adventurous crowd.  We're really proud of all of these folks, and really looking forward to seeing what they do next.  Congratulations Class of 2020 - hope to see you at ski race someday soon!

Graduation 2021 and What's Next

Graduation 2021 happened!  What a joy to see the Class of 2021 have a real graduation ceremony attended by friends and family - a wonderful step toward something resembling normal.  With many of our 2021 skiers taking the semester off, Gabby was our only current team member graduating.  Gabby has been such an amazing contributor to Bowdoin Nordic and a huge part of the success we've enjoyed over the past few years.  She graduates as one of the very best skiers in Bowdoin history, with two NCAA appearances, one All-East honor, an EISA podium finish, and a whole host of other outstanding performances in just three years of collegiate competition.  Her calm demeanor and quiet determination have set the tone for our team for the last four years, and she will be sorely missed.  We're also proud of former skier Mary Kretchmer.  Even after stepping away from ski racing, Mary continued to be an enthusiastic supporter of our team, and a fun and friendly presence around campus.  It's been a pleasure to be part of her college journey, and we can't wait to see what she does next.  Congratulations Gabby and Mary!

As we head into summer, we're feeling hopeful that we'll be able to have a normal or normal-ish school year and ski season in 2021-22.  The future is bright!  Although we coaches had only limited opportunities to work with our athletes this year, we know they were doing great work on their own.  I can confidently say that we've never had a year where our athletes trained so much or so productively.  By the time we see our skiers again next fall, they'll be totally different skiers than they were when we were last together in the winter of 2020.  I am so excited to see how they've developed - I'm positive that we'll see some major improvements.  I can't wait to see who emerges as the new stars and the new leaders on this team.  More importantly, I'm eager to see how each of our skiers shapes the culture of the team going forward - with two classes having graduated and two new classes having arrived, it's going to be such a different group.  We have a chance to put together an amazing season next year, and I can't wait to get started.  For now, though, we're all going to enjoy a fun summer with everyone scattered across the country doing their own exciting things.  If anything newsworthy comes up in the coming months I'll update the blog - otherwise, we'll be back in the fall!

February Practice

 We're back! Sort of.  As expected, a regular ski season wasn't in the cards for us this winter - like most of the EISA teams, we weren't able to participate in carnivals.  However, Luke and Gabby are back on campus for the spring semester, and for the past week we've been able to ski at Pineland together.  It's not much, but it's not nothing either!  It feels really great to be training together again, even if it's just two athletes and two coaches.  As bonus points, we were cleared to go up to Quarry Road last weekend for a time trial with Colby - after a winter of no racing, even a small thing like this felt really meaningful.  The skiing was fantastic, and it was super fun!  As we start into March, the snow is dwindling fast, so we'll enjoy it while we can and look ahead to better times next year.