Kaitlynn and Riley are studying in Svalbard this semester. Kaitlynn has been able to do some exploring - here are a few photos:
Monday, August 27, 2012
Svalbard!
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Maren and Justyna
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)
Monday, July 16, 2012
Graduation 2012
This was a happy day, but we're certainly sad to see this crew go. These guys were my first recruiting class at Bowdoin - they've been fantastic since Day One, and they've helped bring our team a long way over the last four years. They leave a big hole that will be hard to fill. Congratulations and good luck, seniors - we'll miss you!
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Presi Traverse 2012
Last weekend, a few of our skiers continued what has become an annual tradition: hiking the Presidential Traverse. Here's Steph's report on the hike and her recent road trip:
A good friend once told me that the best thing about being an adult is going on vacation. This past week, I learned the truth of these words. For most people summer break constitutes a period of relaxation between grueling semesters at Bowdoin, but for me it’s always been a time for manual labor. For the past month and a half I’ve been in upstate New York working hard for the Adirondack Mountain Club’s professional trail crew, but even I need a break from acting the noble savage. So I’ve spent the past five days embarking on my first “adult” vacation. During the past week I’ve traveled across New England with Kaitlynn in tow; mostly we’ve been causing a commotion, but we also spent time hunting down various members of the Bowdoin ski team.
After leaving Lake Placid my first stop was the Miller residence nestled in the hills of northern Vermont; I had two goals: 1) deposit five weeks of paychecks in a TD Bank, and 2) kidnap Kaitlynn. These objectives were quickly met. Before leaving Vermont for greener pastures, Kaitlynn dragged me on a run up Elmore Ridge Road and fed me massive quantities of beet greens from Hannah’s garden. All and all, I had a successful visit to one of my favorite places.
On Friday Kaitlynn and I followed the faint smell of freedom east to New Hampshire. We met Riley, Shelby, and Emma at the Eusden’s summer house in Randolph. The next day the five of us embarked on the third annual Bowdoin Nordic Presidential Traverse. This was my first time hiking the twenty-plus mile traverse all in one day; I could barely sleep I was so excited. Our hike began with an early morning charge up Mount Madison. When Riley and I stopped to wait for the girls just below tree line; I realized that I had forgotten my lunch in the refrigerator miles below. Luckily for the small and stalwart team, my sandwich calamity did not set the tone for the hours to come.
We had flawless weather (clear, warm, and windy) for the entire hike; as a seasoned New Hampshire wild flower, I can tell you that an entire day of good weather almost never the occurs in the Whites. The five of us traveled at a steady pace; we bagged peak after peak, and stopped for lunch right below the summit of Mount Clay. We bumped into a Nordic skier from Williams on the summit of Washington (she was working for the AMC on the Lake of Clouds Hut Crew) who generously handed out candy bars to the famished crew. After Monroe and Eisenhower, the hike was basically all down hill; by dinnertime, we were off the mountain and on our way to Gorham to pick up an all American feast: pizza and potato chips.
On Sunday morning we parted ways: Shelby headed south to Gilford while Kaitlynn, Emma, Riley, and I traveled to various destinations in Maine. Later that day, Kaitlynn and I met up with Grandma Clare Stansberry for a stormy swim in Sewall Pond. That night, we crashed in Clare’s tent at the Woodruff farm in Brunswick. Kaitlynn helped Clare to do evening chores while I bonded with a pregnant cow (I was on vacation after all). On Monday, we drove to my house in beautiful Bow; en route, we met Erin for smoothies and caught up on her post-graduation exploits.
Tomorrow my first real vacation ends. On the way back west, Kaitlynn and I will drive through Rutvegas in search of the notorious Hannah Wright. In Charlotte, Kaitlynn and I will part ways for the next several months; we’ll be spending the fall semester on separate continents. I hardly know Bowdoin without Kaitlynn, but I feel fortunate that the two of us were able to embark on one epic, final hoorah.
On top of Jefferson - we're throwing the brown claw.
On top of Adams - "The Wilderness must be explored!"
On top of Pierce - the final peak of the day. Very tired with many sore feet.
A good friend once told me that the best thing about being an adult is going on vacation. This past week, I learned the truth of these words. For most people summer break constitutes a period of relaxation between grueling semesters at Bowdoin, but for me it’s always been a time for manual labor. For the past month and a half I’ve been in upstate New York working hard for the Adirondack Mountain Club’s professional trail crew, but even I need a break from acting the noble savage. So I’ve spent the past five days embarking on my first “adult” vacation. During the past week I’ve traveled across New England with Kaitlynn in tow; mostly we’ve been causing a commotion, but we also spent time hunting down various members of the Bowdoin ski team.
After leaving Lake Placid my first stop was the Miller residence nestled in the hills of northern Vermont; I had two goals: 1) deposit five weeks of paychecks in a TD Bank, and 2) kidnap Kaitlynn. These objectives were quickly met. Before leaving Vermont for greener pastures, Kaitlynn dragged me on a run up Elmore Ridge Road and fed me massive quantities of beet greens from Hannah’s garden. All and all, I had a successful visit to one of my favorite places.
On Friday Kaitlynn and I followed the faint smell of freedom east to New Hampshire. We met Riley, Shelby, and Emma at the Eusden’s summer house in Randolph. The next day the five of us embarked on the third annual Bowdoin Nordic Presidential Traverse. This was my first time hiking the twenty-plus mile traverse all in one day; I could barely sleep I was so excited. Our hike began with an early morning charge up Mount Madison. When Riley and I stopped to wait for the girls just below tree line; I realized that I had forgotten my lunch in the refrigerator miles below. Luckily for the small and stalwart team, my sandwich calamity did not set the tone for the hours to come.
We had flawless weather (clear, warm, and windy) for the entire hike; as a seasoned New Hampshire wild flower, I can tell you that an entire day of good weather almost never the occurs in the Whites. The five of us traveled at a steady pace; we bagged peak after peak, and stopped for lunch right below the summit of Mount Clay. We bumped into a Nordic skier from Williams on the summit of Washington (she was working for the AMC on the Lake of Clouds Hut Crew) who generously handed out candy bars to the famished crew. After Monroe and Eisenhower, the hike was basically all down hill; by dinnertime, we were off the mountain and on our way to Gorham to pick up an all American feast: pizza and potato chips.
On Sunday morning we parted ways: Shelby headed south to Gilford while Kaitlynn, Emma, Riley, and I traveled to various destinations in Maine. Later that day, Kaitlynn and I met up with Grandma Clare Stansberry for a stormy swim in Sewall Pond. That night, we crashed in Clare’s tent at the Woodruff farm in Brunswick. Kaitlynn helped Clare to do evening chores while I bonded with a pregnant cow (I was on vacation after all). On Monday, we drove to my house in beautiful Bow; en route, we met Erin for smoothies and caught up on her post-graduation exploits.
Tomorrow my first real vacation ends. On the way back west, Kaitlynn and I will drive through Rutvegas in search of the notorious Hannah Wright. In Charlotte, Kaitlynn and I will part ways for the next several months; we’ll be spending the fall semester on separate continents. I hardly know Bowdoin without Kaitlynn, but I feel fortunate that the two of us were able to embark on one epic, final hoorah.
On top of Madison - we're explorers.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
End of an Era
Most Bowdoin Athletics fans have already heard that Athletic Director Jeff Ward is stepping down. I'm pretty sad about this. In my 5 years at Bowdoin, Jeff has done a great job of supporting the team and giving us the resources we needed to be successful. The program has come a long way during his tenure, and we'll miss him. Thanks Jeff, and good luck in the future!
Friday, June 1, 2012
Nordic Alumni Blog
Newly minted Bowdoin grad Chris Sanville has wasted no time in transitioning to alumni status - he's started a Bowdoin Nordic Alumni blog, with the goal of building community among alumni. I'm pretty excited about this - anything that strengthens the Bowdoin Nordic community strengthens our team. Check it out!
Friday, May 25, 2012
Evaluating and Planning
As always during the spring, I'm in the midst of evaluating the past season and planning for next year. This season was a great learning experience for me - I had a few valuable realizations, and the skiers were full of creative ideas and insights in our end-of-season meetings. I'm pretty excited - I feel that if we can make good use of the lessons learned this year, we have a chance to take a big step forward. This is why I love the spring - time for thinking, planning, and getting fired up about the future. Here are a few of the ideas I've been thinking about:
Speed and Technique Sessions: Finding time for technique work is always hard. Every practice has a training objective, and stopping to do a technique session of any length makes it hard to accomplish this objective in our limited time frame. I've come to realize that we're going to have to schedule technique sessions into our training plan if we want to do more than just the occasional roadside reminder. So, I'm trying to design a twice-weekly session combining technique with speed work (with a little agility thrown in for fun). We've done variations on this concept in the past, and it's worked out well - making it a regular part of our training should give good results.
Mini Strength Sessions: Every year I become more convinced that general strength training isn't the answer. This is ironic, because most athletes and coaches (including myself) spend a disproportionate amount of time fretting about general strength training - when/how often to do it, which exercises, how much weight, how many reps, etc. But as far as I can tell, it takes a huge general strength improvement to yield even a small change in a skier's ability to apply power to skis and poles. If we had unlimited training and recovery time, I'd probably have our skiers on some sort of carefully periodized strength training plan - maybe Olympic lifts, a really hard circuit workout, or whatever. But we don't, so our time is better spent on specific strength and other forms of training. Next fall, we'll replace our two weekly general strength workouts with frequent mini-sessions added on to other workouts. This should be enough to give our skiers a decent foundation of general strength while freeing up time to do more productive types of training.
Specific Strength: We already do a reasonable amount of specific strength training, but I think we need more - in addition to our regular weekly SS session, we can add more frequent SS to our overdistance workouts, and also perhaps fit in more short ski erg segments as add-ons to running workouts. I'd like to find a way to include more double pole hill intervals and sprints, but I'm not sure yet where these will fit.
5K Training: In recent years, we've tried to close the gap between our performance in long and short races. We've made some progress, but we're not there yet - some of our women still felt a little under-trained for the 5k races this year. We do a ton of threshold training, a lot of 20-30 sec sprints to build speed, and some 3-4 min intervals on hills to build VO2max, but some of our skiers are still lacking the extra pop to ski fast over the tops of hills and through rolling terrain. One idea that we'll experiment with is doing short (1-4 min), fast intervals, which will allow us to work on sustained skiing at 5k speeds rather than just revving the engine on a hill or skiing fast in very short bursts. A couple extra short time trials should also help.
Goals: Goal-setting has always been a pretty low-key exercise on our team - no real process, just occasional informal conversations. We're changing that. A few weeks ago, Athletic Director Jeff Ward was kind enough to lead a goal-setting session for the team. The athletes set team and individual goals and identified specific action items necessary to achieve them. This was a really productive exercise - I think it will give the team a more clearly defined common purpose, which should help people stay more focused during the long months ahead.
Speed and Technique Sessions: Finding time for technique work is always hard. Every practice has a training objective, and stopping to do a technique session of any length makes it hard to accomplish this objective in our limited time frame. I've come to realize that we're going to have to schedule technique sessions into our training plan if we want to do more than just the occasional roadside reminder. So, I'm trying to design a twice-weekly session combining technique with speed work (with a little agility thrown in for fun). We've done variations on this concept in the past, and it's worked out well - making it a regular part of our training should give good results.
Mini Strength Sessions: Every year I become more convinced that general strength training isn't the answer. This is ironic, because most athletes and coaches (including myself) spend a disproportionate amount of time fretting about general strength training - when/how often to do it, which exercises, how much weight, how many reps, etc. But as far as I can tell, it takes a huge general strength improvement to yield even a small change in a skier's ability to apply power to skis and poles. If we had unlimited training and recovery time, I'd probably have our skiers on some sort of carefully periodized strength training plan - maybe Olympic lifts, a really hard circuit workout, or whatever. But we don't, so our time is better spent on specific strength and other forms of training. Next fall, we'll replace our two weekly general strength workouts with frequent mini-sessions added on to other workouts. This should be enough to give our skiers a decent foundation of general strength while freeing up time to do more productive types of training.
Specific Strength: We already do a reasonable amount of specific strength training, but I think we need more - in addition to our regular weekly SS session, we can add more frequent SS to our overdistance workouts, and also perhaps fit in more short ski erg segments as add-ons to running workouts. I'd like to find a way to include more double pole hill intervals and sprints, but I'm not sure yet where these will fit.
5K Training: In recent years, we've tried to close the gap between our performance in long and short races. We've made some progress, but we're not there yet - some of our women still felt a little under-trained for the 5k races this year. We do a ton of threshold training, a lot of 20-30 sec sprints to build speed, and some 3-4 min intervals on hills to build VO2max, but some of our skiers are still lacking the extra pop to ski fast over the tops of hills and through rolling terrain. One idea that we'll experiment with is doing short (1-4 min), fast intervals, which will allow us to work on sustained skiing at 5k speeds rather than just revving the engine on a hill or skiing fast in very short bursts. A couple extra short time trials should also help.
Goals: Goal-setting has always been a pretty low-key exercise on our team - no real process, just occasional informal conversations. We're changing that. A few weeks ago, Athletic Director Jeff Ward was kind enough to lead a goal-setting session for the team. The athletes set team and individual goals and identified specific action items necessary to achieve them. This was a really productive exercise - I think it will give the team a more clearly defined common purpose, which should help people stay more focused during the long months ahead.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
