Friday, July 15, 2011
Nordic Training Sources
Former Gould Academy coach Dick Taylor has started a new website that explores nordic skiing from a multidisciplinary perspective grounded in sports science. For me, this is an incredibly welcome resource - I think that sports science is somewhat undervalued by the US nordic ski racing community, and consequently there's not a lot of science-based discussion about the sport in this country. This site has some great articles that have challenged me to think critically about my approach to coaching - always a good thing. It's pretty dense stuff, but well worth the time - check it out!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Truckee Sucks - Don't Come to Truckee!
Spencer sends word from Truckee, where he's training with a group of other Eastern college skiers:
This photo pretty much sums it up. Due to a ton of late season snow we've been able to get in a bunch of awesome skiing in. The Auburn Ski Club has done an amazing job grooming, in temperatures that barely get below freezing at night and in the 70's during the day, to give us pretty solid tracks every weekend for over a month now.
This photo pretty much sums it up. Due to a ton of late season snow we've been able to get in a bunch of awesome skiing in. The Auburn Ski Club has done an amazing job grooming, in temperatures that barely get below freezing at night and in the 70's during the day, to give us pretty solid tracks every weekend for over a month now. 
When not skiing there are tons of hills to run and roller ski up. A few times a week we work out with the local junior program. It has been a lot of fun to see a bunch of younger kids excited about skiing. They also have a bunch of really good coaches who have made training so far a blast and have helped me with my technique a bunch, especially in avoiding bad habits while roller skiing. Despite being dominated by Bates skiers, who are actually quite nice, it has been a ton of fun to train with a bunch of other skiers from the East . We've definitely benefited from pushing each other during strength sessions and have done a lot of work on improving our bodies' tolerance for questionable but DELICIOUS Mexican food.
Despite training pretty hard there are still a bunch of opportunities to get out and have fun/shred the huge amounts of vertical here. Aside from the skiing there is also a bunch awesome single track mountain biking to be done. Luckily the 4th of July is on an off day so we get to take full advantage of a bunch of alpine areas opening up for the day. If that isn't one of the best opportunities to ski in jorts and a cut-off t-shirt I don't know what would be.
Despite training pretty hard there are still a bunch of opportunities to get out and have fun/shred the huge amounts of vertical here. Aside from the skiing there is also a bunch awesome single track mountain biking to be done. Luckily the 4th of July is on an off day so we get to take full advantage of a bunch of alpine areas opening up for the day. If that isn't one of the best opportunities to ski in jorts and a cut-off t-shirt I don't know what would be.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Reunion BBQ!
We hosted a ski team alumni barbecue at the Schwartz Outdoor Leadership Center last Saturday. We had a decent turnout of alumni, ex-coaches, and family members - almost 40 people all told. It was great to reconnect with old friends and meet a few new folks, and it was especially fun to hear people share their experiences with the team. It's actually a bit humbling to learn more about team history - over the years a lot of people have worked really hard to keep the team alive and build the program, and we wouldn't be where we are today without their efforts. As importantly, it's clear that Bowdoin Skiing was an important part of many people's college experience - this event was a chance to rekindle some of that energy. Over the past few years, we've been gradually working to reconnect with ski team alumni, and I think we're off to a good start. In the months and years to come, we'll be looking for more ways to get the alumni together - keep an eye on this blog and the Friends of Bowdoin Skiing Facebook page.
Thanks to all of the folks who turned out for the get-together! Thanks also to Andy and Betsey Shepard for helping to get the ball rolling on the event, to Outing Club Director Mike Woodruff for use of the Schwartz Center, to Alumni Relations for helping get the word out, and to Dining Service for a fine spread.
(photo courtesy of Hannah Shepard)
Thanks to all of the folks who turned out for the get-together! Thanks also to Andy and Betsey Shepard for helping to get the ball rolling on the event, to Outing Club Director Mike Woodruff for use of the Schwartz Center, to Alumni Relations for helping get the word out, and to Dining Service for a fine spread.
(photo courtesy of Hannah Shepard)
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Finley's New Best Friend
Back before school ended, several skiers generously offered to babysit the kids while Shannon and I went out one evening. The next day, Finley remarked, "Spencer is my best friend." When I asked him why, he said, "He is kind and sweet." So there you have it - Spencer really is a good guy. Thanks to all of the skiers for their thoughtfulness!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Graduation 2011!
Last Saturday was Graduation Day - we sent Grace and Walt off into the world. Graduation is always a happy and sad day, and this one was no exception. Grace joined the team at the same time I arrived - she's the first Bowdoin skier I've coached through a full 4 years. During that time, she's been an integral part of the team - the character and leadership she brought to the team won't be easily replaced. It's been a pleasure watching her develop as an athlete and a person. As for Walter, it's been a long road - for him, this day was many years in the making. He's done as much as anyone to put our program on the map these last few years, and he's set a high bar for future Bowdoin skiers to strive for. It was a real privilege to have him rejoin the team this year as a volunteer assistant as well. Both of them will be dearly missed, but I suspect that we'll be seeing them both around in the not-too-distant future. Congratulations Grace and Walt!
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thoughts on This Season and Next
Earlier this week I sent the team the outline of our 2011-12 training plan. As usual, before finalizing this plan I did a lot of thinking about last season and had a lot of good conversations with athletes about what worked and what didn't. Here are a few thoughts:
I'm pretty pleased with the season. Our fall training was excellent - definitely the best fall we've had in my 4 years. People were focused and positive, team chemistry was good (aside from a few bumps), and most people stayed pretty healthy. Our results continued to improve - I would say that this was perhaps our best overall team performance ever. We've had some great individual performances over the years, and occasionally one half of the team or another has been outstanding, but this year we got very solid skiing on the men's and women's side alike. We improved our classic skiing in particular - in fact, I felt that our classic results were actually a bit stronger than our skate, if anything. We haven't been anywhere close to even in the 2 techniques since I've been here, so this feels good. So, a very good season.
But, of course, there are lots of things we can improve on - although we're taking baby steps forward, there's still a long way to go before we can be consistently competitive with the rest of EISA. Here are a few of the things we'll be tweaking for next year:
1. More hills! How does one train on hills in Brunswick? I don't have a good answer yet, but I'm going to spend the summer figuring this out. I've known for a long time that our lack of hills was a disadvantage, but this year it really hit me when almost every skier noted a clear disparity between their ability to be competitive on flats versus climbs. An occasional trip to Pineland or Bradbury for bounding isn't enough. Next year we'll be headed to these places more frequently, as well as Gloucester Hill, Penny Rd, and Ridge Rd for rollerskiing. We may also try to do more with the short hills that we have in the area - I just need to get creative and break out of the "3-minute hill" mindset. I'm also not above using artificial hills once in a while - ie, stadium steps, treadmill, etc. We won't be caught dead running up the Tower stairs, though - ugh.
2. Quicker start to the carnival season. This has varied over the years, but our team often seems to be a bit flat to start the carnival season. It's been nice to improve throughout the season, and we consistently put up our best results at Regionals, but I think we can have it both ways - be more competitive in January without peaking early. One of our skiers pointed out that we don't time trial much, and this is certainly true. In fact, we don't do much high intensity training of any sort until late fall. I think this is generally a good thing, but recent patterns would seem to indicate that we can be a bit more aggressive. Specifically, we'll have a more even sprinkling of high-intensity training added to our threshold work throughout the summer and fall, as well as a few more time trials. Some skiers will also need to be more assertive about finding race opportunities over Winter Break - this is a critical link between fall training and the carnival season.
3. Modified strength program. Nothing new here - I tweak the strength plan every year. Truthfully, I don't think anyone really knows the best way to do strength training for cross-country skiing - there are a million different approaches out there, and lots of highly successful skiers use very different programs. So I'll keep playing around with different ideas - one of these years I'll find the perfect plan and win a Nobel Prize for Nordic Skiing. For next year, I think we can make some small but productive changes. I may end up recycling some old ideas that perhaps I gave up on too soon and patching these together with some of the stuff we already do. Not sure how/if I can make it all fit together smoothly, but that's what the summer is for.
We'll mix up a few other things as well - more "unpredictable" training, an adjusted speed workout, and a really awesome treadmill test - but in general, we have a good training framework that seems to be effective. We also have a really motivated group of skiers coming back and some fired-up newcomers - next season should be fun!
I'm pretty pleased with the season. Our fall training was excellent - definitely the best fall we've had in my 4 years. People were focused and positive, team chemistry was good (aside from a few bumps), and most people stayed pretty healthy. Our results continued to improve - I would say that this was perhaps our best overall team performance ever. We've had some great individual performances over the years, and occasionally one half of the team or another has been outstanding, but this year we got very solid skiing on the men's and women's side alike. We improved our classic skiing in particular - in fact, I felt that our classic results were actually a bit stronger than our skate, if anything. We haven't been anywhere close to even in the 2 techniques since I've been here, so this feels good. So, a very good season.
But, of course, there are lots of things we can improve on - although we're taking baby steps forward, there's still a long way to go before we can be consistently competitive with the rest of EISA. Here are a few of the things we'll be tweaking for next year:
1. More hills! How does one train on hills in Brunswick? I don't have a good answer yet, but I'm going to spend the summer figuring this out. I've known for a long time that our lack of hills was a disadvantage, but this year it really hit me when almost every skier noted a clear disparity between their ability to be competitive on flats versus climbs. An occasional trip to Pineland or Bradbury for bounding isn't enough. Next year we'll be headed to these places more frequently, as well as Gloucester Hill, Penny Rd, and Ridge Rd for rollerskiing. We may also try to do more with the short hills that we have in the area - I just need to get creative and break out of the "3-minute hill" mindset. I'm also not above using artificial hills once in a while - ie, stadium steps, treadmill, etc. We won't be caught dead running up the Tower stairs, though - ugh.
2. Quicker start to the carnival season. This has varied over the years, but our team often seems to be a bit flat to start the carnival season. It's been nice to improve throughout the season, and we consistently put up our best results at Regionals, but I think we can have it both ways - be more competitive in January without peaking early. One of our skiers pointed out that we don't time trial much, and this is certainly true. In fact, we don't do much high intensity training of any sort until late fall. I think this is generally a good thing, but recent patterns would seem to indicate that we can be a bit more aggressive. Specifically, we'll have a more even sprinkling of high-intensity training added to our threshold work throughout the summer and fall, as well as a few more time trials. Some skiers will also need to be more assertive about finding race opportunities over Winter Break - this is a critical link between fall training and the carnival season.
3. Modified strength program. Nothing new here - I tweak the strength plan every year. Truthfully, I don't think anyone really knows the best way to do strength training for cross-country skiing - there are a million different approaches out there, and lots of highly successful skiers use very different programs. So I'll keep playing around with different ideas - one of these years I'll find the perfect plan and win a Nobel Prize for Nordic Skiing. For next year, I think we can make some small but productive changes. I may end up recycling some old ideas that perhaps I gave up on too soon and patching these together with some of the stuff we already do. Not sure how/if I can make it all fit together smoothly, but that's what the summer is for.
We'll mix up a few other things as well - more "unpredictable" training, an adjusted speed workout, and a really awesome treadmill test - but in general, we have a good training framework that seems to be effective. We also have a really motivated group of skiers coming back and some fired-up newcomers - next season should be fun!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tuckerman's Trip
Spencer sends this post about a classic spring ski trip:
Each year there is a narrow window when the race season ends and there is still some lingering snow to be exploited. Over the last few years some of have used this time to get in our fix of the other type of skiing. Last Saturday, Maren, Riley, and I went and skied Mt. Washington for what turned out to be one of the best days of skiing I've ever had. First off the weather and conditions were amazing, which brought people in the thousands - one of the Rangers there guessed about 2500 people made the hike up that day. The combination of a high number of people there and the pretty technical level of skiing led to a ton of spectacular wipeouts in which people would slide up to several hundred yards down the bowl, almost always followed by cheers and applause from a very sizable peanut gallery, including a few Colby skiers.
After the 3ish mile hike into Tuckerman's Ravine where most of the skiing takes place, we first hiked up the main headwall into the upper snowfield and skied back down to the bottom of the bowl. Maren pretty solidly proved that she was a far better skier than Riley and I and ripped down the headwall leaving us to more cautiously make our way down. Next we hiked up almost to the summit for an awesome view of Wildcat and the Northern Presidentials. It was a great day, way cooler than I can give justice to, so here are some awesome photos we took along the way. . .
A view above the top of the headwall.
Riley and Spencer (below) climbing up the headwall.
Maren and Riley near the summit.
The three of us with the mountain in the background.
Each year there is a narrow window when the race season ends and there is still some lingering snow to be exploited. Over the last few years some of have used this time to get in our fix of the other type of skiing. Last Saturday, Maren, Riley, and I went and skied Mt. Washington for what turned out to be one of the best days of skiing I've ever had. First off the weather and conditions were amazing, which brought people in the thousands - one of the Rangers there guessed about 2500 people made the hike up that day. The combination of a high number of people there and the pretty technical level of skiing led to a ton of spectacular wipeouts in which people would slide up to several hundred yards down the bowl, almost always followed by cheers and applause from a very sizable peanut gallery, including a few Colby skiers.
After the 3ish mile hike into Tuckerman's Ravine where most of the skiing takes place, we first hiked up the main headwall into the upper snowfield and skied back down to the bottom of the bowl. Maren pretty solidly proved that she was a far better skier than Riley and I and ripped down the headwall leaving us to more cautiously make our way down. Next we hiked up almost to the summit for an awesome view of Wildcat and the Northern Presidentials. It was a great day, way cooler than I can give justice to, so here are some awesome photos we took along the way. . .
A view above the top of the headwall.
Riley and Spencer (below) climbing up the headwall.
Maren and Riley near the summit.
The three of us with the mountain in the background.
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