Nationals Recap

We had a small crew racing at Senior Nationals in Rumford this past week: Shelby, Nate, Kaitlynn, Alec, and Spencer all competed. Going in, I wasn't sure what to expect - like most Easterners, our crew has had limited snow time, and even more limited racing time. Not exactly the way you're supposed to prepare for a big race series, but it was the best we could manage - not such a big deal, since we were looking at these races as tune-ups for carnival season anyway. All told, the week went very well - some good races, some not so good, and a couple great ones. Our skiers looked good out there, especially considering the lack of snow and racing time. Alec in particular looked super smooth and efficient, posting perhaps the two best races I've seen from him so far - he seems to have reached a new level this year.

A pair of other highlights came from the 20/30k mass start classic races - Kaitlynn and Spencer, for different reasons. Kaitlynn has been working through some fatigue lately, and she clearly didn't have much energy on this day - extra difficult considering that the short race loop meant 6 trips up the notorious High School Hill. It's pretty common for people to drop out of a long race when they're not having a good day, in order to save energy for later races - I wouldn't have blamed Kaitlynn if she'd chosen this route, but she stuck with it, pushing hard until the finish. Sometimes, just grinding it out through a bad race is as much of an achievement as a great race - from my place on the side of the trail, that's what Kaitlynn's 20k looked like. In the men's 30k, Spencer settled into a good rhythm near the back of the pack. After a few laps, he ended up in a small pack with Tim (now coaching at Gould and still occasionally racing) - it was pretty fun watching their little group cruising steadily through the field and picking people off one by one. At one point, it looked like Spencer was going to get dropped, but he found something extra, hung on, and ended up mounting a final charge to pick up several more places in the final kilometers - easily his best classic race ever. I was incredibly impressed by how well he skied - he's been working diligently on his classic technique for a long time, and it's clearly paid off. As importantly, he held his technique together for the entire race (which has often been a weakness for him in the past). A very exciting race and a fantastic effort.

Overall, it's been a very encouraging week - if these 5 skiers are representative of the rest of our team, we have good reason to feel optimistic about the season. The whole team will be back together on Tuesday, and we'll have several days to prepare for our first carnival without the stress of classes - should be a very productive couple of weeks.

The Second Annual Camp Miller

Last week, several Bowdoin skiers got together at Kaitlynn's house in VT for a training camp of sorts. Here's Steph's report:

After a brown Christmas in southern New Hampshire, I decided to drag my aging mini-van up Interstate 89 to the Miller residence in northern Vermont. Rain began to fall in the vicinity of Hanover, which turned to snow somewhere around Montpelier. At home it was fifty degrees but Vermont was in the grips of a blizzard, relatively speaking. On Wednesday afternoon as Kaitlynn dragged me around the woods in the midst of a “winter weather advisory,” I could hardly contain my glee. Real skiing with one of my favorite people - what could be better? The very next day I was about to find out.


Throughout the week skiers, drawn to the snow like moths to a flame, congregated in Stowe. By Thursday evening I was joined on the floor of the Miller house by Alec and Jackson. Over a game of Boggle, the four of us decided to seek the answer to the age-old question: which state is better - Vermont or New Hampshire. Two days of intense debate followed. As far as word games are concerned, Team New Hampshire reigned supreme. Alec and I amassed an untouchable 26 points in 3 rounds of Boggle. The following day, when Sierra, Tess, and the Wright sisters joined us for a very unofficial 5k skate time trial, the competition heated up. Although Jackson took home the crown for Maine, Alec still managed to pass the majority of the field while skiing classic. Due to an unconventional start format, the girl’s results from the time trial are somewhat muddled, but I have reason to suspect that Tess’s strong skiing may have contributed to a victory for the Granite State. That being said, Team Vermont provided something that New Hampshire could not: snow. In the interest of remaining unbiased, I am forced to accept a stalemate between states. On Saturday, after a skate speed workout in the rain and a quick stop for legendary donuts at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill, the boys and I headed our separate ways.

And now, for the denouement: entering New Hampshire via West Leb, I noticed the near imperceptible tang of bad air.

Name This Skier

Slow times here on the Bowdoin Nordic blog lately - the calm before the storm. Here's something to keep our loyal readers busy - a gold star for anyone who can name this current Bowdoin skier:

Photo courtesy of Flying Point Road.

TUNA Race

Wilson capped off a great week by coming home to Utah and jumping into a 10k classic race on Saturday. The Salt Lake/Park City area has a thriving ski community, and there are a lot of good racers in the area, so this was a great opportunity to get some on-snow race prep. Some travel and baggage hassles left him arriving at the venue with barely enough time for waxing and warmup, but he pulled off a strong performance nonetheless, finishing a close second in a competitive field. More importantly, he felt good throughout the race - very encouraging considering that he missed a lot of training while rehabbing a back injury this fall. Unlike most of the team, he'll have regular access to training on snow these next few weeks - in lean snow years like this one, it's good to be a Westerner.

Wilson's Secret Training

Wilson is in Montana right now, ostensibly to do some research for his honors project. It turns out that his schedule is flexible enough to allow for a little exploration - these last couple days, he's been able to do some great skiing on a quiet road out in the wilderness somewhere. Got to love the Mountain West - there's always snow somewhere if you're willing to go high enough to find it.

Merepoint Time Trial

One of my big goals this fall was to add more competition to the training plan - time trials and mini-races within workouts. We've certainly accomplished this, with 4 time trials in the last 4 weeks, among other competitions. Our latest effort was a 5k skate time trial with Bates on Merepoint Rd - a new time trial venue for us and a nice change of pace. We had originally planned to repeat our bike path TT from earlier this fall to measure our improvements, but unfortunately the Thanksgiving snowstorm left the path pretty sandy - not so good for a time trial. Anyway, the time trial went well, and several people - most notably Steph, Dan, Wilson, and Riley - put up impressive performances. Overall, though, our team is clearly feeling several weeks of hard training combined with increasing school stress. Lots of tired faces out there on Saturday. Still, this was not unexpected, and we should bounce back quickly once we start getting some extra rest. For now, we have one more week of training as a team before the skiers are on their own for exams and Winter Break.

Oh yeah - one other point of interest from Saturday. After the TT, Bates invited us to join them in a team tradition - a plank contest, in which everyone held the plank position for as long as possible. There were a lot of stubbon people planking on the grass outside of Farley - some pretty impressive efforts. Ultimately, it came down to Wilson against Hallie Grossman of Bates - they both planked for around 15 minutes before agreeing to settle for a draw.

Here are results from the time trial:

Men

Buetow	Jordan	Bates	11:15.0
Dippo	Wilson	Bowdoin	11:24.3
Milliken	Lucas	Bates	11:28.0
Michaud	Nick	Bates	11:46.2
Hamilton	Alex	Bates	12:04.3
Woods	Sean	Bates	12:11.4
Eusden	Riley	Bowdoin	12:23.5
Deangelis	Tyler	Bowdoin	12:30.1
Regan	Connor	Bates	12:39.6
Polasky	Dan	Bowdoin	12:42.7
Longwell	Scott	Bowdoin	12:48.7
Eusden	Spencer	Bowdoin	12:50.3
Burnham	Jimmy	Bates	12:53.8
Hoose	Kevin	Bowdoin	13:20.3
McGovern	Alec	Bowdoin	13:23.2
Sanville	Chris	Bowdoin	13:51.4
Bloch	Jackson	Bowdoin	13:57.3
Kuzio	Dan	Bates	14:03.0
Women
Dion	Kelsey	Bates	13:03.7
Taylor	Beth	Bates	13:34.9
Grossman	Hallie	Bates	13:35.0
Sellegren	Gretchen	Bates	14:17.2
Lynn	Stephanie	Bowdoin	14:32.8
Aseltine	Shelby	Bowdoin	15:11.7
Daniels	Caroline	Bates	15:11.9
Miller	Kaitlynn	Bowdoin	15:23.9
Forrest	Sam	Bates	16:06.0
Askins	Maren	Bowdoin	16:21.0
Frisbie	Sierra	Bowdoin	16:24.6

Camp Wrap-Up

Back home now after finishing camp with a great OD ski on Sunday morning - everyone scattered and explored various logging roads with just enough snow for skiing and came back tired and happy. We had a quick and uneventful trip home (aside from being briefly detained at the border - should have shaved before the trip), and another Thanksgiving Camp was in the books. This was perhaps our most productive Thanksgiving Camp ever - the limited snow kept people confined to a limited space for much of the time, which allowed the coaches to see a lot of each athlete and do some good technique work with everyone. However, there was enough snow so that when people started to go crazy skiing the same trails over and over, they were able to push the boundaries and find some good adventure skiing deep in the woods. As bonus points, we got to do a quality race effort against EISA competition. All in all, a really productive camp that should set us up well for good training in December.

Here are some photos, courtesy of Maren (who also happens to be the Skier of the Week for Thanksgiving Camp 2011, due not only to her photography, but also her expert driving, outstanding conbread, and all-around excellence):

Sierra and Erin

Kaitlynn
Kevin
Jackson
Chris
Maren
Scott, Kevin, and Riley
Shelby
Steph
Spencer carving the turkey.

Nate and Sierra
Men dressed up for Thanksgiving Dinner. In case any Bowdoin administrators are reading this post, I'd like to state that the empty wine bottle that Riley is brandishing did not make its appearance at dinner. Rather, it's a makeshift foam roller belonging to Spencer (it's covered with several layers of plastic wrap).

Women at Lac Bedard, deep in the woods of Foret Montmorency.

Drew
Alec
Spencer