Cold Powder for Time Trial

More and more snow keeps falling at Salmon Hills, and we sure aren't complaining. Especially since it did get colder last night, and this morning's ski on 5 inches of fresh cold powder under clear sunshine skies felt fantastic!
We did a relay time trial with UVM and Middlebury this morning. Each team consisted of 3 men or women, and each person on the team raced 7.5km before tagging off to the next teammate. No times were taken, the purpose for this "race" was for the athletes to get their race legs under them and their motors going, and just to give a real hard effort. Mission Accomplished!

The start of the race: Atay in the cow tights takes it out, with Evan just to the left of him in the red suit, follows.

Sarah and Maddy, who started together, raced the whole 7.5 km together and then sprinted neck and neck to the finish line.

Evan, Keith, Dmitri, Robby.

Alice and Coach Fisher soak up sun

No complaints about this day

A pic and video from yesterday afternoon:


A Most Impressive Effort award goes to Eric Anderson who hurt his shoulder two weeks ago (we won't embarrass him by saying how, but it involved rain, a bike, and a cell phone) and has been skiing the full 3.5 hours a day, every day, with no poles or one pole.

At the end of the classic ski yesterday the tracks started glazing and the kicking was tough. The girls decided to do some double pole speeds. Evan, with his infinite wisdom, decided to do several no wax, no pole, striding sprints.

Thanksgiving Camp on Snow!!

We arrived at Salmon Hill ski area in Redfield, New York yesterday in the midst of a Winter Wonderland. We were all smiles for our first on-snow ski of the season as we ironed out the kinks in our glide. The trails have a good thick blanket of lake effect snow, and we are making tracks on our race skis. It was a bit warm today and the classic skiing was tricky but doable this morning, and with colder temps forecasted for the rest of the week the skiing should only get better!
A two hour ski in the morning followed by lunch, homework, and a quick nap, is followed by another 1.5 hr ski in the late afternoon, hot showers, a hearty dinner, and movies til bedtime. Life is good!!
We are joined here on Tug Hill Plateau by the Middlebury and UVM teams, as well several other clubs who are excited to leave the highway rollers behind for the holiday break.
We are thankful for so many things.

Liz and Holly at the front porch of Salmon Hills Lodge. Even the snowman is psyched about the skiing.

Evan against a backdrop of nordic paradise.

The boys get cozy as they crowd around a laptop screening between ski sessions.

Atay closes out the day with 4 hours of snow time.

Kirsten and brother Dane from Middlebury share a moment outside the lodge at the end of their ski.

Sarah, a Candian first-year and former "piner" tests out the horizontal glide.


Fiona and Dmitri fill their bellies with all the stuffin's at Thanksgiving Dinner

Girls team feast!

The Williams Nordic Women gathered Saturday night at Emily's co-op, Milham, for a pre-season feast prepared by the senior girls, Emily, Liz, and Fiona. The menu included butternut squash / peanut soup, chicken with garlic and onions, salad, fruit salad, garlic bread, and dessert courtesy of our very own Aubrey!

Emily explains the fixins'.

The women discussed the racing schedule and racing opportunities for both carnival team members and development team members. Notably, the proceeds from mitten and hat sales, along with other concerted efforts spearheaded by Emily and Liz, will mean that it will be much cheaper and easier for development team members to race consistantly than in years past. We also discussed team goals for the upcoming season, and many of the veteran skiers reflected on lessons learned from years past.

All in all, there was good company and good feelings about the upcoming season.

Senior girls (and master chefs) Emily, Fiona, and Liz.

Here is the recipe (contributed by Emily's Mom) endorsed by Alice as "the best soup I have had in my life". It is gluten-free, lactose-free (Em left out the cheese) and vegetarian, so everyone could eat it!

(Note: I posted the wrong recipe originally, without really looking at it. Below is the correct one. I hope I didn't screw up too many peoples' meals- my sister Roz definitely had a time of it the other night with the wrong recipe!)

Peanut and Squash Soup

“This mildly spicy, slightly sweet soup hails from Senegal. – recipe by Lia Huber”

1 ½ teaspoons peanut oil

4 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash

1 cup chopped onion

2 tablespoons minced garlic (about 6 cloves)

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon ground coriander

4 cups fat-free, less sodium chicken or vegetable broth

¾ cup reduced-fat creamy peanut butter

2 tablespoons tomato paste

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Heat peanut oil in a large saucepan over medium–high heat. Add squash and the next 5 ingredients (through coriander) to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Add chicken broth, peanut butter, tomato paste, and crushed red pepper, stirring well to combine; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until the squash is tender. Sprinkle with cilantro.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: about 1 cup)

The Bottom Line: Yummy!

Ski Team/Crew Team Workout

The skiers more than held their own with the men's and women's crew team in last Thursday's 4x4 minute interval session.  Teams of 3 (mixed gender/mixed squads) went head to head for 48 minutes of constant erging.   The team who rows the furthest wins!  

Coach Aubrey with skier-turned-rower Crosby Fish '10 and rower Joey Kiernan '10

Sam Kapala '09 went stroke for stroke with the best of the men's crew and led his team to the win

Maddy Wendt '11, Emily Olsen '09, and Gabby Joffe '11 sync up and row together for one of their four minute pieces 

We're headed to upstate New York for Thanksgiving break! Salmon Hills Nordic Area (www.salmonhills.com) is getting lots of lake effect snow and it sounds like we'll be sharing the trails with plenty of other college teams.  We leave Wednesday morning! 

just another day in the office

Maddy Wendt shows off battle wounds from a Level 4 intensity session in the half pipe at Sheep Hill

Fall Pictures

It's been a beautiful fall so far!  Highlights of last week include the annual Schnell time trial with Dimitri, Aubrey, and Alice leading the men's and women's teams to record times, the brutal half pipe workout at Sheep Hill, and Maddy's 20th birthday!  Yesterday we did an OD skate rollerski workout in Savoy, MA and spent most of the morning skiing into a stiff headwind, with chilly temperatures, and even a bit of snow at the end!  This past week the team has really pulled together on an awesome fundraiser to sell mittens and hats during lunch in the student center.  The money will support the development team this winter by covering their entry fees for the NENSA Eastern Cups.  In just five days we've made close to $500!  We are well on our way to make racing available and affordable for everyone this winter!  This week is our last full week of classes and training before Thanksgiving.  If the snow cooperates we'll spend Thanksgiving as a team at Foret Montmorency in Canada before returning to school for one more week of classes in December and then a week of exams and final papers before break!  Keep your fingers crossed for snow!

       

Above: Liz, Amy, Dimitri, Nick, Kirsten, Alice, and Evan cheering on the runners at NCAA Div III Regionals at Mt. Greylock High School.  Men were 1st, women were 2nd and both teams are competing at the NCAAs this weekend!  

Apple picking in October followed by dinner and massive birthday apple crisp for Caleb and Robby!

The ladies at the end of a technique/speed workout in October

Robby, Matt Cranshaw (ski team friend), Keith, David, and Evan on Mountain Day with WOC Director Scott Lewis and WOC President Jay Cox-Chapman '09

Hannah and Holly in the apple orchard 

Coming up this week: 4x4 relay erg intervals on Thursday with the crew team!  Feel the burn!

Pictures from Liz, Alice, & Keith.

November Rain

Keith, fully prepared for November.

Guns ’N Roses once wrote a song about November Rain, and how it is hard to hold a candle in it. In our lives, the candle could be a metaphor for spirit, or for hope, or the flickering desire to keep training while the heavens drop 34 degree rain on us as the day gets dark at 4:30, or 4:00, or just never really gets light at all.  Sometimes the snow gods tease us with a late October cold snap, and a snowstorm that blesses Middlebury, but not quite us, with skiable snow.  Maybe this year, we think, there will be no November Rain. Maybe everything that New England has taught us—that this month should be endured with Stoicism, with Strong Resolve and a Stiff Upper Lip—will be unnecessary, because we’ll just glide through November in hard packed tracks.  But this has not ever happened.  And while the sixty-degree weather last week was fine, we know that when everything shakes out, it’s going to be pouring rain on us as we do intervals on Petersburg Pass, or slog through four inches of freezing mud on the Taconic Crest.

So why keep trying? How to forge on through this month of despair? We have a bottomless pile of work, only a minor vacation on the horizon, and we have no friends because we only hang out with the Ski Team. Fortunately, we only need to look back to Slash and the gang for inspiration.  As we hear GNR belt it out: “so never mind the darkness, we still can find a way, 'cause nothin' lasts forever, even cold November rain,” the words ring true in our minds and hearts.  No matter how bleak the outlook, December is on the horizon.  Promises of snow (knock on wood) and all it brings, a long winter break, and the start of the racing season must drive us forward.  We can look with fondness on the summer months and the blissful beginning to a Berkshire fall, and we realize that all our hard work will come to fruition in the snowy months ahead.

Remember this?

Perhaps November is here to make us appreciate the winter fully.  Perhaps without the darkness and despair the enjoyment would be dampened.  Better one miserable month now than six in a row that are mediocre.  And while it has been nighttime since 2:30 today, I know the sun will rise again (but probably not tomorrow, or the next day… or even for a week at this point, according to the forecast).  So we must persevere, and have fun, and treat awful runs like adventures.  We need to rejoice in the few friends we do have, and try to be supportive, to help each other through this month.  And we can wear our team jackets, and wax the boards in the ski room, and listen to The Sounds, to start to get in the winter spirit.

 

November is half over already.

Slash shreds... and provides some insight.

Dry Land Time Trials Promise a Great Season On Snow

Alice, Sarah, and Kirsten do a cool down as the sun sets on Petersburg Pass.

The last of five fitness tests ended yesterday, with a steep run/climb from the base of Hopkins Forest up to the Taconic crest and the top of Petersburg Pass. Records were shattered and nearly everyone improved their time from last year. As Coach Fisher reported:

We had 6 men and 7 women (including Aubrey and Katie) faster than last
years Winning time. Of the the 7 other team members who had previous times
5 improved these times, some by considerable margins. What does this tell us? We are fit, summer training, intensity blocks and general persistence in sticking to a plan does pay dividends!

Congratulations to all of you, you'll soon get to use this fitness skiing
behind the new groomer!

Bud

Last week, the skate time trial up Petersburg Pass was similiar huge success, more shattered records and a majority of the skiers achieving personal best times.

On this chilly morning Atay sets the time to beat, as he time trials alone.

Caleb shows superior speed on his way to the summit

Keith skis up one of the steepest passes on his way to a new PR and the 3rd fastest time of the trial

Kirsten, Alice, and Holly rock the cow in the lead pack of the women's trial.