Happy New Year!

 Happy 2022!  Now that we're on the verge of another carnival season, I should probably catch up our loyal fans on what we've been doing these last couple months.  Here are a few highlights:

- After much agonizing about our Fall Camp venue, we settled on a split camp - 4 days at Craftsbury, 5 days at Lake Placid.  It was pretty sad to give up on Foret - first ever Thanksgiving Camp at a different venue!  But there was just too much uncertainty with Quebec, especially with the border crossing situation.  Fortunately, our split worked out beautifully.  Craftsbury had a great little 800m loop with a nice mix of terrain for all types of technique work.  Lots of other skiers there, but somehow it never felt too crowded for productive skiing.  The food at the Outdoor Center was great and spirits were high.

- Next stop was Lake Placid with a similarly sized loop comprised mainly of a long grinding climb and a nice fast descent.  This felt a bit more like our traditional camp, since we were living in a couple rental houses and cooking our own food.  After a few days of quality training and foosball, we did our first on-snow race of the year - a 6k time trial with a few other college teams:  UVM, Bates, and SLU.  So great to get the season started with a race against college competition!  Renae led our women with Aggie close behind, and Zach and Elliot did the same for men.  With snow falling throughout the time trial, we were set up for a couple beautiful days of exploration around the Mt Van Hoevenburg system - such a nice way to close out the camp.  Nine good days of training, technique work, and team time - a really successful camp.

- As usual, we came back to no snow and short days - tough training in December!  Fortunately, Quarry Road had a great loop open, and we were able to do a the Quarry Road Opener with Colby, UNH, Bates, and a several other skiers.  Zach and Renae again led the team, with several others posting strong results, most notably Ingrid and Luke.

- A semester-long project for our women's team has been upper body power development.  We measured our progress with another round of our 2000m erg test.  Results were impressive, with some huge PRs.  Every single skier beat her previous best time, and Morgan set a new team record in 8:05.  The energy was fantastic - really encouraging to see not just the fast times but also the excitement and encouragement.

- After a typically hectic exam period, people took off for home and holidays and a much-needed break.  Most of the country has limited snow, but from what I've heard everyone's found ways to make it work and get quality training (most notably Ayden crushing a 400m loop at Weston).  Now we're coming back together for Jan Camp - got a small group on campus and we're headed to Jackson today to meet up with most of the rest for a long training weekend and a mini preview of the UNH Carnival.  Meanwhile, US Nationals are well underway - we've got a few people competing there as well.  Look for a report on all this fun stuff next week!

Fall So Far

 It's been quite an eventful fall for Bowdoin Nordic, and we're long overdue for a catch up.  Here's a recap of what we've been up to these last couple months:

The full crew came back to campus at the end of August after a LONG time away - I hadn't seen some of these folks in person since March 2020!  During that time people have had all kinds of amazing and occasionally challenging life experiences - it's been remarkable to see the personal (and physical) growth that's taken place in the past year and a half.  From a skiing standpoint, this group used their time away to train really well - I can honestly say that I've never had a group of skiers train more or better than this team has in the past year plus.  So it was really exciting to finally get everyone back together.

After a solid September somewhat disrupted by illness and injuries, we started official practices in early October with fitness testing and tryouts.  James and Renae scorched the bike path time trial to lead the team (Aggie actually posted the fastest women's time, albeit on a different date - more on her later).  Mia and Elliot had our top erg times - Elliot's was a new team record.  Renae broke her own team record in the Morse Mountain run, and Morgan broke the old record as well.  James was the top runner for the men, finishing just one second off the team record set by the other James (Crimp '13).  James and Renae also set new team marks for combined erg/run times.  More important than the individual heroics was the solid performance of the team as a whole - judging by these tests, the overall level of fitness and skiing on our team is quite good, as expected.

From tryouts we went almost immediately into Fall Camp.  This year was extra special - we went to a new venue (Brooksville, ME), hosted by the Eysenbachs as well as family friends Bob and Donna Hamill.  For the first time ever, I missed a Bowdoin Nordic camp due to a cold and an abundance of caution that we felt was appropriate in the COVID era.  This was pretty sad for me, but the team hardly noticed - Leslie and the seniors kept everything running smoothly, with great support from Peggy Eysenbach and the Hamills.  The trip started with a long trail run at Frye Mountain, made extra exciting when one of our skiers got a little lost - after some searching, everything ended well, and the crew made it to Brooksville for an easy afternoon roll and a delicious dinner.  The next day was our traditional OD hike/run - in this case, a traverse of the peaks of the east side of Acadia National Park.  Of course most of the skiers insisted on doing every little peak, so something like 11 or 12 total - they were wrecked but very, very happy that evening.  Camp concluded with a long rollerski along the seaside roads around Brooksville - some of best rollerskiing our skiers have ever seen.  It was a really fun and productive camp, and it wouldn't have been possible without the incredible hospitality of the Eysenbachs and Hamills - we can't thank them enough!

The rest of October was a blur - trail runs, rollerskiing, beach skiing, gorgeous fall colors, and a wonderful team gathering hosted by the seniors on Family Weekend.  Perhaps our best day was the Maine Event hosted by NENSA at Pineland - an agility competition with all kinds of ramps and turns.  It was a perfect day and we had a ton of fun competing against Colby and several of Maine's top junior skiers.  Our women provided the highlights, with Renae and Aggie going 1-2 and Mia and Grace finishing in the top half as well.

With November now underway, we're doing short, quality workouts with limited daylight during the week, and going big on weekends.  Last weekend we went up to Rome for a skate time trial with Colby on some beautiful country roads with good pavement and some great hills.  Even though it was just a regular old rollerski time trial in November, it somehow felt very significant - the closest thing we've had to team competition against another college team in a really long time.  Between the sunny day, the venue, the camaraderie, and the competition, the skiers had so much fun.  Zach took the win for the men, with Elliot close behind; Renae, Aggie, and Greta were 2-4-5 for women.  Mia won the classic race - the field size was limited, true, but a win's a win.  Thanks to Colby for organizing!

Now we're on the verge of Thanksgiving Camp.  The snow situation is pretty uncertain all across the Northeast, but we're figuring it out - whatever happens, we're going to put together a great camp.  Stay tuned for more!

 

Graduation 2020 - For Real This Time

 Two graduations in one year!  After a long wait, the Class of 2020 finally got their well-deserved graduation ceremony.  It was SO nice to have almost all of our 2020s and their families back on campus - a graduation and a reunion in one.  Everyone's been doing such cool and interesting stuff this past year - teaching, coaching, fish shocking, coding, kettlebelling, and of course lots of ski training and racing!  Some of them even lived somewhere besides Bozeman - what an adventurous crowd.  We're really proud of all of these folks, and really looking forward to seeing what they do next.  Congratulations Class of 2020 - hope to see you at ski race someday soon!

Graduation 2021 and What's Next

Graduation 2021 happened!  What a joy to see the Class of 2021 have a real graduation ceremony attended by friends and family - a wonderful step toward something resembling normal.  With many of our 2021 skiers taking the semester off, Gabby was our only current team member graduating.  Gabby has been such an amazing contributor to Bowdoin Nordic and a huge part of the success we've enjoyed over the past few years.  She graduates as one of the very best skiers in Bowdoin history, with two NCAA appearances, one All-East honor, an EISA podium finish, and a whole host of other outstanding performances in just three years of collegiate competition.  Her calm demeanor and quiet determination have set the tone for our team for the last four years, and she will be sorely missed.  We're also proud of former skier Mary Kretchmer.  Even after stepping away from ski racing, Mary continued to be an enthusiastic supporter of our team, and a fun and friendly presence around campus.  It's been a pleasure to be part of her college journey, and we can't wait to see what she does next.  Congratulations Gabby and Mary!

As we head into summer, we're feeling hopeful that we'll be able to have a normal or normal-ish school year and ski season in 2021-22.  The future is bright!  Although we coaches had only limited opportunities to work with our athletes this year, we know they were doing great work on their own.  I can confidently say that we've never had a year where our athletes trained so much or so productively.  By the time we see our skiers again next fall, they'll be totally different skiers than they were when we were last together in the winter of 2020.  I am so excited to see how they've developed - I'm positive that we'll see some major improvements.  I can't wait to see who emerges as the new stars and the new leaders on this team.  More importantly, I'm eager to see how each of our skiers shapes the culture of the team going forward - with two classes having graduated and two new classes having arrived, it's going to be such a different group.  We have a chance to put together an amazing season next year, and I can't wait to get started.  For now, though, we're all going to enjoy a fun summer with everyone scattered across the country doing their own exciting things.  If anything newsworthy comes up in the coming months I'll update the blog - otherwise, we'll be back in the fall!

February Practice

 We're back! Sort of.  As expected, a regular ski season wasn't in the cards for us this winter - like most of the EISA teams, we weren't able to participate in carnivals.  However, Luke and Gabby are back on campus for the spring semester, and for the past week we've been able to ski at Pineland together.  It's not much, but it's not nothing either!  It feels really great to be training together again, even if it's just two athletes and two coaches.  As bonus points, we were cleared to go up to Quarry Road last weekend for a time trial with Colby - after a winter of no racing, even a small thing like this felt really meaningful.  The skiing was fantastic, and it was super fun!  As we start into March, the snow is dwindling fast, so we'll enjoy it while we can and look ahead to better times next year.

Renae to U23s!

 Exciting news for Bowdoin Nordic fans - Renae has been named to the U23 World Championship team!!!!  She's been training and racing with her home club, Loppet Nordic Racing in Minneapolis, and she posted some fantastic early season results to earn a spot on the team.  She'll represent the US in Vuokatti, Finland, in mid-February.  This is such a well-earned honor - Renae has been training hard and improving steadily for years.  It's a huge milestone for our team as well - first time we've ever had an athlete qualify for U23s, and we're incredibly proud of her.  Congratulations Renae!

 

Fall 2020

Fall 2020 was unlike anything we’ve ever experienced before.  The college looked very different this semester – only first-years and a handful of older students on campus, everyone living in a single and attending classes remotely, take-out meals from the dining hall, and of course masks and distancing.  So we had only 9 skiers on campus:  8 first-years plus Gabby.  We weren’t able to use vans, so we couldn’t get to all of our favorite training venues – everything was based from Farley.  And of course no camps.  Quite a different scenario from usual, and one that sounds pretty sad when you write it all down.  But it wasn’t – we had a great semester!  Fall 2020 was all about being resourceful and making the most of what we could do instead of dwelling on what we couldn’t do.  The skiers were fantastic – positive and energetic every day, and ready to focus on building fitness, technique, and relationships.  We ended up doing a lot of super productive training and having a lot of fun together – really a great experience.  Here are some highlights:

Intrasquad racing:  With winter racing looking more and more dubious every week, we did a lot of time trials to stay in touch with competition.  Since we couldn’t drive to Morse Mountain or other exciting destinations, we brought back some of the classics:  the 3000m run on the track, the bike path skate time trial, and an agility test.  We also did a 5k run with the XC team and an 8k classic on Highland Road.  All good competitive events – fun to try some new stuff and bring some old stuff back into the mix.  Aggie emerged as our top rollerskier - winning at Highland, tying Shelby Aseltine 15’s record on the bike path, and absolutely dominating the agility test.  On the men’s side, Carson posted the top times for Highland and agility, and Marcus edged him out on the bike path.  Morgan scorched the 3k run in a time of 10:16 - wow!  We haven’t done a 3k test since 2007, my first fall at Bowdoin, so not a lot of team history for reference.  But it’s safe to say that not too many college skiers can run that fast.  The group as a whole put up some solid times, with several PRs and 3 other women under 12 minutes.  In the 5k, we were surprisingly competitive with the runners – Morgan, Gabby, and Ellie took the top 3 spots for women, and Carson was 3^rd for men.  Super fun to get together with another Bowdoin team for some friendly competition!

 

Mad skillz:  One of our best rollerski options this fall was rolling laps around Farley/Watson or Pine St.  So we spent a LOT of time working on skills this fall – lots of drills, speeds, agility, and one-on-one technique feedback.  The skiers made a ton of progress – it was remarkable to see how much people improved over the course of a few weeks.  Even better, everyone has a bunch of drills and technique cues to help continue the progress throughout the winter.

Alternative transportation:  Without vans, we were pretty limited in the training venues we could access, so we had to get creative.  We rode our bikes to the bike path (for rollerski workouts, ironically) and to Mt. Ararat for bounding.  We also were able to do a few of our usual roll/run combo ODs by rollerskiing out to a trailhead, doing a nice trail run, and then running or rolling home.  This took us not just to our usual places (ie, Wolfe’s Neck) but also places we’d never been before – Freeport Conservation Trust trails, Kate Furbish Preserve, and some semi-abandoned roads on the old naval air station.  All of this was possible thanks to Leslie’s gear shuttling with her minivan.

(photo courtesy of Steve Fuller)

Game time:  Between shrinking daylight and then the late fall campus lockdown, we were pretty limited for the last couple weeks of the semester, so we added more games to the mix:  soccer, football, ultimate, and lots of knock-out, of course.  By nordie standards, this group is half-decent at ball sports – Silas (aka, the King of Fun) was almost unstoppable in knock-out.  Will this hold up when the older skiers come back?  We’ll have to wait until next fall to find out.

Making the most of campus:  In addition to the skills courses and games, we did made good use of the rest of campus:  running with poles around the XC course, spenst/elasticity in the gully, track work, strength/stability/ski imitation on the turf fields, and of course some pool running.  Two highlights:  a scavenger hunt type workout that sent the skiers running back and forth all over campus, and a Sunday morning rollerski around just about every paved surface on campus.

Overall, this semester was fantastic - the team trained hard, had fun, improved a lot, and became really close-knit.  Can’t ask for much more than that, and I wouldn’t trade this bizarre and unique experience for anything.  That being said, I’m hoping for a return to our usual routine next fall – even these amazingly positive first-years are likely to have a hard time getting fired up for another three years of Pickard Field loops.  For now, we’re all settling in for some time away from campus.  Next semester won’t start until early February – no early return like we normally would do.  Bowdoin is flipping the script for next semester – first-years remote, and only upperclass students on campus.  Almost all of our upperclass skiers are taking a gap year, so we’ll only have two or three skiers on campus.  At least everyone will get a lot of individual attention!  Who knows if we’ll be able to train at Pineland or attend races – with COVID cases exploding all across the country, there might not even be races to attend, although the league is hoping to hold some single-day carnivals.  We’ll have to wait and see how things develop.  No matter what happens, we’re going to make the most of the winter and look forward to better times ahead.