Prospect Fun: White-out O.D. and Intervals at 0

Yesterday we had a 2.5 hour over-distance workout scheduled. After Monday's rain the trails were still fully covered, but a bit icy in places. Not so after yesterday. It was snowing so hard that you may as well have been skiing the downhills blindfolded. Steve had freshly groomed the trails, but halfway through the ski the tracks were already invisible. It was a winter white-out. . . . And we LOVED it. I thought that I had the most fun out there, but when I stated this fact after the ski was over most of the team assured me they had more fun than I did, so I guess the storm and all that snow brought out the 5 year-old kid in all of us. . . ..
This morning we had a very hard, 4x4 minute interval session scheduled. The temperature at Prospect when we arrived was 0 degrees F. And windy. But blue skies and sunshine, combined with some diamond-cut Paana tracks made the skiing bearable and the workout - although short - a success.

Coach Fisher skates through the white-out

Hausman collects some snow

Torinator

I can't really see anything. . . .


Sweet tracks!!!

Evan, Keith, Atay turn it over on an interval

Atay

Mojo workin'

Napster

Photos from the Weekend

Despite Phil's best efforts to the contrary, we were able to get to Burlington and back with minor delays. To celebrate that, Phil, Casey and I took some time to capture the beauty of the weekend before the rains came. With bluebird days and extra blue wax, it turned out that capturing beauty was not hard in northern Vermont.


Mt. Mansfield from afar

Me admiring the view

More admiration



Poor insulation at the hut allowed for a great desktop on my computer



The valley

Stay dry...think snow.

St Mike's: Day 2: Classic Sprint Relays

Quite a chaotic day - some fun, some craziness, some disappointment. The format for the day was teams of 3, each leg completing 3 x 1km loops. The waxing was easy, the kick was not: a steep, harringbone hill at the start of the loop made for tricky racing, especially when trying to navigate through 30 other teams. There were a couple falls, but no broken equipment for the team. The boys raced first and had to compete with an extremely competitive field. The starting pace was blistering fast and it never let up. The team of Keith, Caleb, and Evan raced well, but unfortunately several other teams had stand-out performances, and our trio finished in 7th despite their speed.
In the women's race Alice set a blistering pace for her teammates Sarah and Kirsten by blowing away the rest of the field in her scramble leg. But a fall and a missed tag waylayed the ladies team and they finished in a disappointing tenth place.
The rest of the teams did well and everyone got a fantastic sprint workout (very sore hip-flexors at Sunday's O.D. ski).
We had a fantastic ski yesterday at Prospect, but unfortunately it is now raining and 55 degrees, so we are crossing our fingers the cold weather will be back soon.
Looking forward to our weekend off racing, as we would like to get some good training and good resting in before our next carnival at Stowe, VT.

It is a gorgeous morning - all sparkle and shine

Caleb

Robby tags to Atay

Phil tags off to Erik

Evan tags to Keith


Ian takes a breath

Robby gives Blair, Christina, and Sarah some tips on the race course

Kirsten

Hannah tags to Christina

Alice

Holly, Blair


Sleeping Beauty

More pictures

Cows Rip Up Track at St Mikes

A good day for the team, as we had nine racers inside the top 30. The snow cover was thin, but proficient, and cold tracks led to fast skiing for this morning's 10/15km individual start skate races. It was a gorgeous day, bright and sunny for the most part, with temps in the teens. The course was tough; wickedly long V1 uphills and wickedly icy downhill S-turns.
The women's race was first. Alice Nelson and Kirsten Johnson had great races, placing in 7th and 11th. Our third score was Sarah Tory, a very solid result with 27th. The women's team took 4th place.
The men stacked the top twenty: Keith in 12th (ties best result), Caleb in 13th (best-ever result), Evan in 17th (best skate result), Atay in 18th. The men's team took 6th for the day.
Results


Coach Fisher gives a split to Sarah Tory


Maddy Wendt starts off the day of racers with Bib #1

Coach lets Alice Nelson know she is "in the mix"

Christna Knapp rounds a corner

Kirsten Johnson and Coach Fisher rehash the race

Robby Cuthbert

Alex Taylor

Team Work: Caleb Lucy and Mark Johnson

Casey Jones

Ian Nesbitt rounds the corner toward the finish line

Snow Heaven at Prospect

The team (and coaches) were pretty darn tired yesterday when we started driving to Prospect at 8:30am yesterday for our Sunday over-distance training. But 10 minutes into the ski - on Paana grommed tracks over fresh snow, with the morning sunlight beaming down through cracks in the clouds, the weariness melted away and was replaced by the familiar endorphin high and love of glide. Glad to be skiers. :)

SLU carnival, Day 2

The weather was mild and cloudy on the morning of the mass start 15/20km skate races at Lake Placid. There were 90 racers in each of the mens and womens fields, and each race was run on a 5km track which lapped through the biathlon stadium. Needless to say, the mass starts were action-packed and the spectating was spectacular.
The mens race was first, and Captain Alex Taylor led the team with an 11th place finish. Evan Dethier, getting back into form after several weeks of struggling with his health, was our second finisher in a solid 20th place, while Caleb Lucy was close behind in 24th.
In the women's race Alice Nelson and Kirsten Johnson skiied strong near the top ten until losing touch with the lead pack in the middle of the second lap. Meanwhile, teammate Sarah Tory had a slow start, but moved her way up the field and came to the finish close behind her teammates. Johnson placed 15th, Nelson 20th, and Tory 22nd (her best-ever finish), to put the women's team in 4th place for the day.
Full Results
Pictures from weekend

Alex Taylor and Keith Kantack at the front of the pack in the men's mass start.

Evan Dethier

Alex Nelson in the lead pack of the women's mass start

Kirsten Johnson heads for a 15th place finish.

First Carnival! Lake Placid, day 1: Individual Classic 5/10km

The weather was uncooperative, but it didn't bring down the spirits of the team, who rose to meet the challenge and ended up placing 6 skiers in the top twenty-five. Half of the team raced on the new zero/multi skis, a waxless racing ski which has become a popular alternative to "harries" skis in the nordic race world. The other half raced on a klister or klister-covered mix. The zero skis were a bit slippery in places, the klister skis iced on top of the hills. When it came to race skis today you did, as Evan put it, have to "pick your poison". Luckily, the rest of the field had the same conditions. :) One minute it was lightly raining, the next was light snowfall, the next saw sideways sleet. . .
The women raced first on the 5km loop, which was a series of hills that climbed past the 3km mark before plummeting down a series of wide straights and skiable corners, before spitting the racer back into the stadium. The men had to complete two of the laps. Most agreed that the course was very tough, but also great for racing.
The women's team had a tough time choosing skis and wax combinations, and on a whole did not have the best day of races, though freshmen Christina Knapp and Blair Robinson were psyched with their first college carnival race. Alice Nelson and Kirsten Johnson were the top two finishers, in 16th and 17th, with Sarah Tory finishing third for the team in 35th.
The men had a pretty solid day as a team, Keith Kantack heading the charge in 10th, with Evan Dethier close behind in 14th. Caleb Lucy and Robby Cuthbert came in 24th and 25th.
The mens team is currently sitting in 6th, the women in 8th. Watch out for the cows tomorrow!
Race Results HERE

Christina has just completed her first College race - and is all smiles!

Maddy: Bring it on.

Holly waits for Coach Fisher to put the finishing touches on her race skis so that she can test them out.

Robby Cuthbert double poles his way into the second lap

Keith Kantack: stride-out

Kirsten is bundled up to cheer on the men's team

Caleb Lucy comes through on his second lap as the snow starts to accumulate

The boys team relate post-race battle stories.