Acadia 2012

 Last weekend was Fall Camp in Acadia.  For the third time in the past 4 years, we headed up to Trenton to stay at the Askins family camp.  Our first stop was Bald Mountain in Dedham, where we did a tough bounding workout - 30 seconds bounding up alternating with 30 seconds of an easy walk/jog down.  After a joyous reunion with Maren (just back from New Zealand), we did an easy recovery run around Witch Hole Pond in the park and then enjoyed a fantastic pasta dinner prepared by Joanna and Greg.

The next day was our big run/hike over several peaks - Gorham, Champlain, Dorr, Cadillac, and Pemetic, with some adding on both Bubbles at the end.

 The mountains of Acadia are small - Cadillac is just over 1500 feet - but they're rugged, with lots of roots, rocks, and steep slopes.

We also enjoyed some stellar views - nothing better than an October hike overlooking the ocean.

We wrapped up the day with a mini golf game featuring 5 holes-in-one (4 by Tyler and 1 by Hannah Marshall) and another delicious dinner cooked by our hosts.  Thus fortified, the team was able to rally for another long workout on Monday - a run on the Around the Mountain loop.  This is a roughly 11-mile loop on the Acadia carriage road, with some very long, steady climbs.  Not content with this level of challenge, the team added on some extra distance - the boys intentionally, the girls by accident.  Nonetheless, everyone finished the workout looking fresh, putting a nice cap on the weekend.  Overall, a great camp - three long days of quality training with lots of positive energy.  Thanks so much to the Askins family for making it possible once again!

 Descent from Dorr Mountain.

 Happy hands on Gorham Mountain.

 Girls at the peak of Pemetic(?)

This little pond between Gorham and Champlain was one of the most gorgeous spots of the trip.

The boys and Steph hiked east-west, while the girls and Mike hiked west-east.  We ran into each other on the side of Dorr Mountain for this charming photo op.

A mysterious group of hikers atop an unknown peak.

Bike Path TT & More Fitness Testing

More fitness testing this week - we did a low box jump test and a 200m sprint on the ergs.  Tyler and Steph were tops in the jump test, with James just ahead of Jordan in the erg sprint and Emma and Steph tied.  It was good to get a clearer picture of people's strengths and weaknesses - we'll make some small adjustments to individual training plans to try to address any problem areas.

We also did our bike path time trial - a 4.2k skate, and deceptively hard - the path is very gently rolling, so you're working pretty much the whole time.  Shelby absolutely crushed it, while Tyler was the top man.

We'll do a specific strength workout this afternoon, and then we're off to Acadia for fall camp!

Morse Mountain 2012

At last, we're underway.  We started out with fitness testing on Saturday - after a one-year hiatus, the Morse Mountain time trial is back (at least until I find something better).  Very solid effort all around - at first glance, it looks like the team as a whole is fairly fit, despite a number of injury/illness issues plaguing our women's team.  Times were a bit tighter than usual - everyone reasonably close, with no one off the back - which was encouraging.  Congratulations to James for breaking Chris Sanville's 4-year-old team record!  Good start to the season, completed with a dip in the balmy Atlantic for the bolder members of our group.


RESULTS

Women
Tess	7:20
Shelby	7:40
Emma	7:54
Lucy	8:00
Abigail	8:02
Steph	8:03
HannahM.	8:17
Eva	8:17
Men
James	5:34
Henry	6:05
Jackson	6:20
Jordan	6:26
Tyler	6:32

Alec in Cape Town

Here's an update on Alec's semester in Cape Town:

 

Long overdue report on life and adventures from the past few months.  For those of you who don't know, I've been studying in Cape Town, South Africa, since early July and it has been amazing.  Aside from taking courses at the University of Cape Town, I've been doing a lot of adventuring and hiking.  The hiking here is insanely great.  My dorm is right at the bottom of Devil's Peak, which makes hiking in the NH White Mountains seem tame despite being a bit smaller.  Trails involve shuffling around massive boulders while inches from 100+ foot cliffs in wind with 30 mph gusts.  There are also literally hundreds of trails that go farther than you can go in a day, so I keep trying new ones and have yet to be disappointed.  Sure beats that hundred and fiftieth run through the Brunswick Commons.  Other fun activities the last few weeks have included shark cage diving with great whites, bungee jumping off the highest bridge bungee in the world, visiting beaches, a mountain biking wine and brandy tasting tour with my dad (visited for a week in August), and exploring the city.

 

I just got back a few hours ago from our week long spring break during which I did a road trip with 6 friends from the program that I'm on.  We stayed at backpacking hostels and the like while driving up what's called the Wild Coast--- the eastern coastline of South Africa.  We did a short safari in a large national park/elephant reserve, went hiking, tried to learn to surf, and culminated by spending 4 days at an eco-friendly backpacker lodge in a remote village called Bulungula.  This place literally was only accessible by walking or ATV's until 2010, and now is an incredible destination in by far the coolest place I've ever been.  It's partnered with the village community and so 40% of it's profits go to help the surrounding community.  Honestly I don't even really know how to describe it right now--I'm still feeling shocked back into civilization right now being back in the city-- it was so totally different from how I've been used to living, and I can't express how incredible it was.

 

Anyway, I'm back now and will try to be in better touch with people through facebook etc.  I hope orientation and the start of classes went well for everyone.  Don't work to hard at school and have a blast training while you still can before Nathan starts throwing erg tests and intervals at you.

Hei Hei frå Svalbard!

More Svalbard details and video from Riley:

Here is Kaitlynn and my first blog post from Norway/ever. We have now been in Longyearbyen for a little over a month and we are having a really awesome time. We both live in neighboring barracks, formerly housing for Norwegian miners.

It's a 3k walk to UNIS (school) every morning, the northernmost university in the world.  UNIS is the only school in the world that gives out rifles to their students and live rounds for shooting polar bears. While we’re on about record breaking, I challenge anyone to try and swim outside further north than 79º. Classes have been going well and we just got off a weeklong cruise with our respective departments. Every time I (Riley) go running it feels like I’m on a boat. My professor is also a real B.A. (beautiful animal). She and I (rock) bouldered underneath our kitchen table, an activity I am going to bring to our ski team.

Kaitlynn and Maeve (Colby skier/enemy) are teaching everyone how to knit and I am teaching people how to make bread and ski. This past weekend was particularly exciting. Yesterday all three of us competed in a Quadrathalon, which consists of a 5k kayak, 13k mountain bike, 5 rounds of shooting at 40m and a 6k run! Kaitlynn won for the women and I was second. Going into the shooting range I was first but unfortunately my years of getting rid of squirrels on the farm had not prepared me for the big guns and I missed one shot. Kaitlynn missed one too, but not as badly. The guy who beat me was a master Norwegian skier from the mainland who had some game, which makes me feel better. Maeve’s kayak kept turning to the right so she canoed the first part of the race.

Today, we followed Nathan’s training plan and did a 2.25 hr over distance ski w/ specific strength…ON A GLACIER! It took us 50 minutes to hike from the cheese block (Kaitlynn’s barrack) to get the glacier. We brought our German friend Tobias as well, featured in the film.

So far no polar bear sightings yet except for the dead stuffed ones in Longyearbyen, but we have seen whales, polar fox and lots of very fat Svalbard reindeer.

Svalbard!

Kaitlynn and Riley are studying in Svalbard this semester.  Kaitlynn has been able to do some exploring - here are a few photos:

It turns out that there's a glacier conveniently located within hiking distance of campus - I guess Svalbard isn't such a bad study abroad destination.  Look closely at the ski photo above - that's a rifle on her back.  Not a tidy little biathlon rifle, either - it's for shooting polar bears.  Ah, irony.

Maren and Justyna

Q:  How many Bowdoin skiers have shared a podium with an Olympic gold medalist and world champion?

A:  At least one.  This is Maren next to Justyna Kowalczyk after the 42k Merino Muster in New Zealand.  Maren technically finished 4th, but due to a timing mixup she ended up on the podium for the awards ceremony, which is all that really matters, because now we have this great photo, and photos are forever.

(Maren's earlier NZ exploits are richly detailed here)