Here's post from Wilson, enjoying the privileges of mountain living:
DON'T GO ROLLERSKIING!
Well, maybe that was a bit uncalled for. Today marked my first official training day of the 2010-11 ski season. As some, many, or most of you know right after the ski season ended I got mono and was sidelined for the next month. Since then I have been concerned about going too hard and risking getting chronic fatigue syndrome which has, in some studies, been linked to mono. Well, a couple of days ago I went for a 5 or 6 mile run and it just crushed my knees and ankles. It seems the workouts that I did this spring kept my main muscles in shape while entirely neglecting the supporting muscles. I was pretty frustrated to say the least. With few other options (except rollerskiing which seems to have gone out of style - see Nathan's previous post) I was forced into the mountains. I drove up to Alta early this morning with my mom. We got out of the car and the "summer road," the normal xc route, looked horrible - dirty and filled with chunks of ice. After just a short way up we ditched the road and headed out onto the alpine hill. After a bit of really steep skiing we were in the "Albion Basin." There was nowhere that was unskiable, and the only obstacles were tree wells and the occasional pot-gut. Beyond the occasional animal track, the only places that the snow had been disturbed were the tracks that I had left earlier. Strangely for CRUST skiing, the crusty places were actually the worst skiing; last night Alta got a dusting of new snow so most of what we were skiing was silky smooth. I figure this was probably a bit of the opposite of the hamster wheel. Toward the end of my ski I took a pretty good fall on a fast gradual downhill, and I got some nice roadrash - mostly I was thankful that I wasn't on pavement. After 2 hours the altitude (oh, and the general lack of fitness) got to me. We were a bit nervous about skiing back down, but the east facing slopes were just starting to soften up and the ski down was incredibly smooth. Basically, everyone should drop what they are doing fly, drive, or walk out here and we'll do a bit of a camp - on snow - in June. Pictures coming soon. About half way down I bumped into some people who were skinning up the mountain for some corn-skiing. They asked "you having any fun skiing on those things?"
GUESS!
Friday, June 4, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Graduation 2010
Last Saturday was Graduation Day - a fine sunny day to close out the school year. We sent four seniors out into the world: Jeff, Niko, Elissa, and Matt. No photos, unfortunately - please send them along if you have any. Congratulations, all of you! This group has been the heart of the team for a long time, and they've seen the program through a coaching change and continued upward progress over the last four years. They'll be missed.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Thoughts on How We'll Get Faster
As the current school year wraps up, we're looking ahead to next season with some thoughts about this past season in mind. It's been a good year - excellent grades, solid results, and amazing team chemistry - and we're hoping to build on this for the future. With Baby Charlotte's arrival, I haven't had much time for posting, but I've had plenty of time to think about what we learned this year and what we need to do to continue improving. The skiers gave some really helpful feedback in our spring meetings, and I feel good about the plans we've made. All of the little details are too numerous to describe here, but here are three big things that I've been thinking about:
Classic Skiing - All of our exciting results this year were in skate. We had some decent classic days as a team, and plenty of people had classic PRs, but overall there was a pretty huge gap between our performances in the two disciplines. Why is this? Waxing is always a convenient explanation, and it's true that we didn't have good skis as consistently as we should have. In particular, both skiers and coaches need to do a better job of figuring out the nuances of individual wax pockets (a few pairs of Zeros on the team wouldn't hurt either). But waxing isn't the big reason we struggled in classic. Here's what I think: A) Most of our classic rollerskiing last fall was distance and specific strength work - not a lot of speed or intensity. In particular, our 200/100m skate intervals on the bike path seemed to be very productive - we didn't have a comparable workout for classic. Skate intensity is a better fit for the gently rolling terrain we have around here, but we can't afford to neglect classic intensity. We can get to the terrain we need for productive classic intensity work - I just need to make it a priority and do a little planning ahead. B) We need to make a bit more time for working on classic technique - more no-pole striding, particularly on snow. Now that we're settled into our new ski room at Farley, it should be fairly convenient to follow our general strength work with a few rollerski sprints and drills, which should be a nice opportunity for technique work.
Speed - We've been here before - pure speed is still a weakness for us. Our best results were in 15-20k races (and the Rangeley Loppet). As a team, we're clearly less competitive at the shorter distances. This mirrors the kind of training that we did - respectable training volume and a lot of threshold work, but not as much speed work. Actually, I think we did a pretty good job of speed work in the fall and early winter, but we were much less diligent about this in the summer - and when I say "we," I mean "the athletes." Speed work is ESSENTIAL for us, even more so than for other teams. Many of our skiers have a bit less experience than the typical EISA racer, and this really shows when it comes to speed - less comfort on skis, less polished technique, and thus less ability to go through good clean movements at high speed. So, we have to practice going fast on skis, and we have to do it A LOT. I'll be doing a lot of nagging via email this summer. We have a lot of catching up to do and we can't afford to ignore one of our biggest weaknesses for the next three months.
Running vs Rollerskiing - In the past few years, the large majority of our fall training has been on rollerskis. Running has always been a significant component, but we spend far more time on our rollerskis. That's great from a specificity and technique standpoint, but I feel like we're missing out on the pure fitness benefits of running. I don't know of any scientific data to support this, but it feels to me like nothing gets you fit more efficiently than running. Obviously rollerskiing will still be the backbone of our training, especially given the two issues I've described above, but we'll try a slightly more balanced approach next fall.
Those are a few of the big things we'll be thinking about as we prepare for next season. Right now, everyone's taking a well-earned deep breath and making the transition to summer plans. I'm hearing lots of good things about training so far - sounds like people are really getting after it now that exams are over. This is good. The future is bright.
Classic Skiing - All of our exciting results this year were in skate. We had some decent classic days as a team, and plenty of people had classic PRs, but overall there was a pretty huge gap between our performances in the two disciplines. Why is this? Waxing is always a convenient explanation, and it's true that we didn't have good skis as consistently as we should have. In particular, both skiers and coaches need to do a better job of figuring out the nuances of individual wax pockets (a few pairs of Zeros on the team wouldn't hurt either). But waxing isn't the big reason we struggled in classic. Here's what I think: A) Most of our classic rollerskiing last fall was distance and specific strength work - not a lot of speed or intensity. In particular, our 200/100m skate intervals on the bike path seemed to be very productive - we didn't have a comparable workout for classic. Skate intensity is a better fit for the gently rolling terrain we have around here, but we can't afford to neglect classic intensity. We can get to the terrain we need for productive classic intensity work - I just need to make it a priority and do a little planning ahead. B) We need to make a bit more time for working on classic technique - more no-pole striding, particularly on snow. Now that we're settled into our new ski room at Farley, it should be fairly convenient to follow our general strength work with a few rollerski sprints and drills, which should be a nice opportunity for technique work.
Speed - We've been here before - pure speed is still a weakness for us. Our best results were in 15-20k races (and the Rangeley Loppet). As a team, we're clearly less competitive at the shorter distances. This mirrors the kind of training that we did - respectable training volume and a lot of threshold work, but not as much speed work. Actually, I think we did a pretty good job of speed work in the fall and early winter, but we were much less diligent about this in the summer - and when I say "we," I mean "the athletes." Speed work is ESSENTIAL for us, even more so than for other teams. Many of our skiers have a bit less experience than the typical EISA racer, and this really shows when it comes to speed - less comfort on skis, less polished technique, and thus less ability to go through good clean movements at high speed. So, we have to practice going fast on skis, and we have to do it A LOT. I'll be doing a lot of nagging via email this summer. We have a lot of catching up to do and we can't afford to ignore one of our biggest weaknesses for the next three months.
Running vs Rollerskiing - In the past few years, the large majority of our fall training has been on rollerskis. Running has always been a significant component, but we spend far more time on our rollerskis. That's great from a specificity and technique standpoint, but I feel like we're missing out on the pure fitness benefits of running. I don't know of any scientific data to support this, but it feels to me like nothing gets you fit more efficiently than running. Obviously rollerskiing will still be the backbone of our training, especially given the two issues I've described above, but we'll try a slightly more balanced approach next fall.
Those are a few of the big things we'll be thinking about as we prepare for next season. Right now, everyone's taking a well-earned deep breath and making the transition to summer plans. I'm hearing lots of good things about training so far - sounds like people are really getting after it now that exams are over. This is good. The future is bright.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
MWSC Nominated for FIS Award
Exciting news for Maine Winter Sports Center - they're a finalist for a major FIS award. Full story here. Congratulations to MWSC and President Andy Shepard - it's great to see them get recognized for their outstanding efforts to promote skiing in Maine!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Walt Article
Here's a nice article about Walt from last weekend's Maine Sunday Telegram (check out the great photo of High School Walt).
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Ergebeiner!
Ollie Burruss is working on a new project that's sure to take the nordic ski world by storm. Here's a press release on his latest endeavor:
Inspired by the rousing success of the Ski Erg World Sprints, I would like to announce the First Annual Ergebeiner. The “Erkie” will combine the best elements of the American Birkebeiner with those of the Ski Erg World Sprints. This 54-kilometer Ski Erg race is one that skiers of all ages and ability levels can enjoy. It will bring families together and bring world class competition to the sport of Ski Erging. Of course, there will be the BarnaErgBerkie for the tots who can’t erg the entire 54 kilometers.
The rising threat of global warming makes skiable snow less and less likely for the traditional jaunt from Cable to Hayward, Wisconsin. Not only is the Ergebeiner an adaptation to the new climate, it also reduces our carbon footprint, since people can participate from the comfort of their own training center or basement. For those wishing for the traditional excitement of mutual suffering with thousands of other skiers (perhaps a trip to Bonktown?), the event will be centralized at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Skiers from the Midwest can come to the Mall to participate and cheer on skiers from other waves. Look for more details on the First Annual Ergebeiner to be announced soon!
Inspired by the rousing success of the Ski Erg World Sprints, I would like to announce the First Annual Ergebeiner. The “Erkie” will combine the best elements of the American Birkebeiner with those of the Ski Erg World Sprints. This 54-kilometer Ski Erg race is one that skiers of all ages and ability levels can enjoy. It will bring families together and bring world class competition to the sport of Ski Erging. Of course, there will be the BarnaErgBerkie for the tots who can’t erg the entire 54 kilometers.
The rising threat of global warming makes skiable snow less and less likely for the traditional jaunt from Cable to Hayward, Wisconsin. Not only is the Ergebeiner an adaptation to the new climate, it also reduces our carbon footprint, since people can participate from the comfort of their own training center or basement. For those wishing for the traditional excitement of mutual suffering with thousands of other skiers (perhaps a trip to Bonktown?), the event will be centralized at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Skiers from the Midwest can come to the Mall to participate and cheer on skiers from other waves. Look for more details on the First Annual Ergebeiner to be announced soon!
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