First Eastern Cups

A small but fearless crew made the trip over to Craftsbury for the Eastern Cup openers last weekend:  James, Shelby, Alec, Emma, Riley, and Kaitlynn (who was already at home in Elmore).  At that point, Craftsbury had pretty much the only skiing in New England, with a 1.75k man-made loop, so things were pretty tight for an event with several hundred racers.  An unfortunate timing malfunction temporarily wiped out the results of Saturday's classic sprint qualifier, so the skiers ended up doing a second qualifying round in the afternoon instead of heats - this was a bummer, but at least everyone got two race starts out of the deal.  Sunday's 8.75/11.25k skate went as planned despite heavy crowding and falling snow that made things tough for the late starters.  Our skiers did well - solid performances punctuated by a few great races, most notably James's sprint and Kaitlynn's skate race.  Kaitlynn's skate was easily the best skate result I've ever seen from her - she finished among several strong EISA skiers, including some of last year's NCAA qualifiers.  Overall, an encouraging start to the season.  Now we'll look forward to a couple weeks of hard training and relaxation before getting back together after New Year's.

Results (scroll down)

Penny Rd Time Trial & Exams

We wrapped up fall semester practices with a classic time trial on Penny Rd to close out our intensity week - 4.5k of rolling climbs to the top of Gloucester Hill.  It was a messy day - temps in the 30s with intermittent cold rain.  The roads were covered with fresh sand - a pre-emptive strike against snow and ice that never materialized.  So, not the greatest conditions for fast skiing, but a good chance to practice racing in tough conditions.  The skiers did a nice job - no complaints, just focused warmup and a solid race effort.  Kaitlynn had arrived in town the day before, having just gotten off the plane from Svalbard - she crushed the time trial with an impressive performance under tough conditions.  She's clearly in great shape despite her somewhat unorthodox training situation in Svalbard (eg, skiing in a roadside ditch, training with a shotgun on her back, occasional week-long research cruises, not seeing the sun for 2 months, etc).  Kevin was the top man - even though he's done minimal rollerskiing this summer and fall, his fitness is outstanding after a season of XC racing.  I should also mention that Coach Mike posted a faster time than any of the athletes - he's at that nice point in his coaching career where experience and residual fitness allow him to compete with the athletes despite sporadic training.  I miss those days...  Overall, a solid workout despite the nasty, nasty conditions (the skiers were little icicles by the time they finished their cool down - luckily no one came down with pneumonia in the days following).

After a pleasant recovery run at Bradbury on Sunday, team training for 2012 was over.  Now the skiers are working their way through exams and trying to get as much rest as possible.  We'll get back together on January 2nd to start our final push before the carnival season starts - until then, hopefully everyone will have a couple restful weeks with some good training at home.  I'll post a few updates with race results from the Craftsbury Eastern Cups, US Nationals, and any other races that people can dig up.

Sandy Skiing and Broken Ratchets

We're into that special time of year when the roads are covered with sand after a fleeting mini snowstorm, but there's still no skiing.  So far we're muddling through.  Last week we took it easy to bounce back from the heavy load of camp - now we're going for one final intensity week before we wrap up organized practices for the semester.  We're doing different things for different people this week.  It's the time of year when we put a bit more focus on polishing the top end race gears with shorter, faster intervals; however, several of our skiers are feeling OK in the high end department and are looking to build more endurance in the form of long, sustained threshold intervals.  A few others are battling illness, injury, or fatigue, and are easing back into harder training.  One unexpected challenge that's cropped up is rollerski malfunction - it seems like half the team has had the ratchets stop working on their classic rollerskis.  Obviously ratchets wear out, but it's a bit uncanny to see it happening to so many people all at once.  My two guesses about the cause are road grit (although this was happening before the snowstorm and heavy sanding) and/or cold temps (the worst of the slippage took place on Saturday, when it was really cold).  Who knows - maybe a little of both, maybe just coincidence.  Anyway, we're passing around skis and making it work.  With any luck, we're right around the corner from snow skiing and a nice long vacation for our hard-working rollerskis.

Here's a team photo from our last day in Foret, courtesy of Shelby:

Camp Wrap-Up

We finished up camp on Sunday with a nice long early morning ski.  A little overnight snow made it look like winter finally - not enough to explore the logging roads, unfortunately, but enough to make for excellent skiing on the loop.  After a peaceful, moose-free drive home, we returned to reality and bare ground.  This was an excellent camp - although we spent five days and countless hours skiing on a 2k loop, the crew never seemed bored.  We accomplished a lot of solid training and good technique work, as well as our first time trial.  As importantly, the skiers got to spend a lot of quality time together and get to know each other better (for example, we all learned that Jackson can't tell the difference between tofu and yoga, and that the coaches are the best fooseball team).  Overall, five good days that should set us up well for the early season races that are coming up fast.

I should also give a quick recap of our last two camp dinners, since all Bowdoin Nordic fans place food right next to skiing in importance.  On Friday night, Babyen Isbjorn made a Thai chicken stir fry with tons of delicious vegetables (and high-class pressed tofu for the vegetarians), with carrot cake for dessert, without which no Bowdoin ski team camp would be complete.  Enano Loco closed out the competition with an impressive presentation:  enchiladas, spinach gorgonzola salad, and fake margaritas (with a nice touch of salt on the glass rims).  Dessert was KEY LIME PIE with homemade graham cracker crust - Jeff Bush would have been proud.  In short, we ate really well during this camp.  Picking a winner will be tough, and undoubtedly controversial.

One last note:  Shelby made a great camp video, which I was sadly unable to post.  We'll try to sort this out shortly.

Time Trial and Camp Photos

This morning we got up extra early for a 6/10k classic time trial with Colby, St. Lawrence, and a few skiers from the Southern Ontario Training Centre.  After some rain last night, wet snow was falling, making the waxing an interesting challenge.  The skiers were in charge of waxing their own skis (with some help from coaches), so this kept everyone hopping right up until start time.  Despite the chaos, everyone did a great job of staying calm and getting their skis taken care of.  The team looked solid in the time trial - people were moving well and working hard to hold technique together at race speed.  Overall, a very good effort, especially for Day 4 on snow.  Here are results:

Women 6k	Name	Time
1	O. Golovkina	17.25.8
2	M. Susla	17.26.1
3	S. Searles	17.32.0
4	S. Brockett	17.39.0
5	C. Cichowicz	17.44.0
6	K. Mulcahy	17.45.0
7	S. Aseltine	18.01.5
8	A. Hotopp	18.08.0
9	E. Donohoe	18.24.5
10	S. Lynn	18.32.4
11	M. Nitschke	18.44.0
12	T. Hamilton	18.46.5
13	C. Ball	19.02.6
14	M. Hitchcock	19.04.0
15	L. Nolan	19.10.0
16	K. Bourne	19.23.8
17	J. Hill	19.24.6
18	E. Spaeh	19.39.7
19	E. James	19.51.2
20	H. Marshall	19.55.0
21	N. Hefner	20.09.0
22	S. Frisbie	20.13.0
23	M. Swick	20.30.0
24	L. Knowlton	21.30.0
25	A. Mahoney	21.47.0

Men 10k	Name	Time
1	J. Barton	23.37.1
2	J. Dixon	24.27.0
3	W. Frielinghaus	24.49.0
4	J. Crimp	25.01.5
5	J. Supple	25.02.5
6	E. Lustgarten	25.06.0
7	P. Defrancis	25.12.4
8	C. Raynor	25.15.7
9	A. Meng	25.19.3
10	J. Tucker	25.19.8
11	J. Bloch	25.35.9
12	E. Odell	25.55.2
13	C. Wight	25.56.0
14	C. Burnham	25.59.6
15	R. Likely	26.09.6
16	C. Regan	26.10.5
17	B. Osorio	26.12.5
18	E. Martell	26.14.3
19	N. Murphy	26.17.4
20	H. Austin	26.37.6
21	A. Hart	26.45.4
22	K. Curry	27.08.5
23	M. Dier	27.12.2
24	J. Belk	27.21.3
25	J. Richmond	27.45.5
26	A. McGovern	28.59.7

Also, here are a few photos of camp so far, courtesy of Shelby:

Thanksgiving Camp 2012 So Far

Day 3 of Thanksgiving Camp is winding down - so far, so good.  There's no natural snow at all here, so we've been skiing on a steadily growing mandmade loop - about 1.5 on Wednesday, 1.75 yesterday, and an even 2k today.  It's a nice little loop with some good climbs and good coverage.  It's been warm, but the nights have been cold enough to keep the loop in good shape, with great classic skiing in the mornings.  Although it would be nice to have more trails to explore, the big benefit to the loop is that it's great for technique work - Mike and I are seeing the athletes constantly, so we can pull people aside for some quick work and then have them rejoin the rest of the crew a few minutes later.  I'm pretty pleased with the technique improvements we're seeing so far - I feel like everyone has made some good progress.  Most people have been skiing 3-4 hours a day so far, so everyone's starting to feel a bit worn, but there's still plenty of energy and enthusiasm to get us through these next 2 days.  Classic time trial tomorrow, so that should be fun.

As always, we've had some good meals.  Pierre Tueurs Froid got us started with chili on Wednesday, supplemented with a tasty spinach salad and an incredibly delicious brownie/peanut butter/cookie concoction (avec whipped cream) - they've set the bar high.  The whole team also pulled off a great Thanksgiving dinner last night.  I was a bit skeptical when I discovered yesterday afternoon that the turkey hadn't been fully thawed, but Tess and Tyler made a heroic effort to get a perfectly cooked bird on the table - with an array of fantastic side dishes, everyone had a great meal.  Another fine Thanksgiving for our team - we truly have a lot to be thankful for.

No pictures yet - I should be able to get some posted in the next couple days.

Speed & Intensity

Somehow, we've already arrived at Thanksgiving Camp - that was quick.  The last 2 weeks have been pretty busy, with some good, focused training - speed last week and intensity the week prior.  The intensity week was probably the heaviest training load we've had this fall - 3 VO2max workouts and 2 thresholds in 5 days.  The speed work was a bit less taxing, but still very focused - 2 of our usual sprint/agility workouts on rollerskis, timed 200m striding intervals on Doughty Rd, an erg workout supplemented with lots of jumps, and a spenst-type workout with a series of short bounding intervals.  We finished the week with a re-test of our bike path time trial.  Shelby and Tyler once again came out on top.  The team as a whole put up mixed times - some gains, some losses, some flat.  Part of this was probably due to colder temps and slower rollerskis, but I'm also reminded that this is about the time of year when people start wearing down after a hard semester of schoolwork and training.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with how the team's looking - as long as we keep an eye on everyone, monitor the energy levels, and back off when necessary, we should be in a good place by the time we head into Winter Break.  For now, though, we're only thinking about getting on snow.  First ski tomorrow!