A couple of videos.....

....to keep us thinking about snow!:)

Ian and Casey in the Craftsbury Opener: http://www.sprongo.com/video/525632

Hannah and Eliza: http://www.sprongo.com/video/525639

We're off to find a secret stash of snow for today's skate intervals. I'll post an update with how it goes!

Back in the Purple Valley

The team had an outstanding week of training in Craftsbury. We finished up the training camp with a 3 hour skate ski on Sunday with a big focus on maintaining and improving skate technique. Many of our skiers were able to log over 16 hours on snow over the week and we had numerous opportunities to video and analyze technique. It was a very successful camp overall and we'll look forward to returning next year assuming they can pull together similar snow conditions. We took a couple of days off from afternoon practice, but were back in the weight room today. Snow was falling on and off in Williamstown today, but there's not enough to ski on yet, so we'll be on roller skis Thursday and Friday this week. Here are a few pics from the weight room today:

Phil - Resistance Bands

Olivia - Back Squats

Laura - Back Squats

Team Results and Pictures

Here are the team results and a few pictures from the women's race video:

Craftsbury Opener November 24th, 2012
Men - 6 laps. Women - 4 laps
Weather: Man made loop. Approx. 32 degrees snow falling for men.
Place	Men	Time	Lap Time
1	Phil Tosteson	16:07.9	02:41.3
2	Ian Nesbitt	16:16.5	02:42.7
3	Kalle Jahn	16:18.1	02:43.0
4	Isaac Hoenig	16:30.9	02:45.2
5	Casey Jones	16:47.6	02:47.9
6	Josh Harrington	17:13.9	02:52.3
7	Ben Corwin	17:41.5	02:56.9
Place	Women	Time	Lap Time
1	Hannah Smith	11:34.4	02:53.6
2	Sarah Abramson	11:52.2	02:58.0
3	Elena Luthi	12:06.9	03:01.7
4	Olivia Meyerson	12:16.2	03:04.1
5	Eliza Rorabaugh	13:02.3	03:15.6

Hannah 

Elena

Sarah

Eliza

Olivia

Casey Phil Isaac Ben Josh Ian Kalle

Race Results!

Here are the results. More follow up to come soon....

November 23rd Camp Update

Today brought us another day of beautiful skiing. The classic tracks were a bit more glazed this morning, but still decent and by the end of the ski everything was softening up. Below are a few still shots pulled from our video session. This afternoon the team was on their skate skis working on transitions and doing some speed work. Plans for the rest of the evening include ski prepping and dinner. The women's race is at 10:30 (4 x 1.25k laps) and the men's race is at 11:00 (6 x 1.25k laps) tomorrow. I'll post the results as soon as I have them!

Isaac striding

Elena, Eliza and Hannah

Hannah, Olivia, Sarah and Ian

Thanksgiving Dinner...

was AWESOME.  The team joined hands and Casey said some very captain like words giving thanks for our team and for the chance to all be here skiing and enjoying the holiday weekend together. The dinner was delicious and dessert was incredible as well. We all ate way too much, but it was well deserved as many of the crew skied 4+ hours today. During the afternoon skate session Isaac championed a motion to reverse direction on the 1.25k loop. We gained critical mass and successfully switched to a clockwise rotation. The trail was surprisingly different with more sustained and gradual climbs. All in all I'd say the team had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A picture of Casey's first plate.....MMMMMMMMM!

Thanksgiving Dinner Table

Happy Thanksgiving!

The team is having a wonderful Thanksgiving/Casey's Birthday here in Craftsbury.
Here's a summary of the day so far:
7AM: Wake up Casey with 22 candles burning on a whoopie pie. I tried to upload the video, but the Craftsbury sporadic internet won the battle (see still pic below).
7:30AM: Gourmet Thanksgiving Breakfast
8:00AM: touch up klister
8-10:30: Distance Classic Ski (Bud took 45 videos during the ski)
11-12: Video Analysis
12-1: Gourmet Thanksgiving Lunch
1-2: rest (this is what we're currently doing)
2-4:30 will be a distance skate ski with video. 5:30 is Thanksgiving Dinner!
I'm sitting out in the 50 degree sun as I type this. What a beautiful Thanksgiving Day we're all having!
More to come soon.

The birthday boy and Eliza (pulled from the video)

Lighting Grannie's Whoopie Pie Torch at 7AM

Day 1 is in the books

This afternoon the team was out on snow for a distance skate ski. The track conditions held up quite well despite the temps pushing 50 degrees with bluebird sun beating down on us. The bonus is that we all got to work on our mid-winter tan a bit! More teams are showing up daily (Bates, Harvard, UNH, UMPI and UVM are all here) and the track is getting busier, but the one way flow of traffic really keeps things from getting too congested and there is plenty of room to work on technique and to ski your own pace. Our afternoon training session was followed up by another delicious meal at the Craftsbury Dining Hall. It is so nice to have these gourmet meals waiting for us three times a day to power us through the volume week of training! Tomorrow the team will hit the trails early for a classic ski and will follow that up in the afternoon with a distance skate. We'll have the cameras out there to capture the first on snow video of the year. I'll try to post some video, but the internet has been a little spotty. It's also Casey's 22nd birthday and Thanksgiving, so it will be a busy day! Check back soon for more updates from the Northeast Kingdom:).

Craftsbury Update

We rolled into Craftsbury around 8:30 last night and after a good night of rest woke up to a beautiful day in the Northeast Kingdom this morning! The weather enhanced by the fact that we were all on snow of course! The skiing here at Craftsbury is quite amazing and the 1.25k loop offers some great early season terrain. We started the morning on Rode Multigrade klister and at the end of our ski a little Rossa under the foot did the trick. The Craftsbury dining hall has been excellent (YUM) and the team is quickly getting into ski camp mode. Ski, eat, rest....repeat. Our plan is to classic ski every morning and skate in the afternoon except for Saturday as the team will be racing the Craftsbury Opener skate race. The focus for today is just to get some time on snow.....we'll break out the video camera tomorrow!:)  Here are a few pics from this morning:

Isaac and Phil on the climb

Hannah and Eliza 

Elena with a joyous smile!

Ben

Olivia, Sarah and Jenna

Sarah and Jenna 

Bud's quote for the day: "I paid for the ticket, so I'm going to see the whole show!"

Quote from the girls during their morning ski: "It's a beautiful thing!"

Smiles all around at lunch

A little post lunch football

Craftsbury Here We Come

We depart tomorrow afternoon after class for our Craftsbury training camp. The skiing is on a short loop (currently .85km), but looks good and everyone is excited to be on snow for the rest of the week! The internet coverage is spotty at Craftsbury, but I'll do my best to post updates when we're there. Here is a link to their nordic center snow report page: http://www.craftsbury.com/skiing/nordic_center/snow_report.htm

Skiing!

Looking good for classic and skate skiing!

Ski Room Upgrade

Many current and past Eph Ski Team members have experienced at one time or another the sliding and crashing of a pile of skis and poles in the ski room. Check out the new rubber mats with custom eph purple 2x2's to keep everything in order for years to come! We also added a new roller ski cabinet in the women's room in an effort to bring as much organization to the ski rooms as possible before the snow starts falling!

Men's Room

Women's Room

Some of the freshly stone ground skis being picked up from Caldwell Sport. (Photo Courtesy of Caldwell Sport)

Intensity Week

Last week the team was able to get in three great intensity workouts in an effort to work the upper end before our on snow camp this week at Craftsbury. The workouts were very successful and included 4x4 L4 Classic Intervals on Stratton Rd, an approximately 35 minute uphill skate roller ski pace session up the east side of Petersburg Pass and L4 track intervals. The display of fitness has been outstanding!! We have been very fortunate with the weather lately and enjoyed a beautiful distance classic roller ski on Sunday ending on the top of Petersburg Pass. Here are a few pictures from the week:

Driving by Prospect on the way back from Caldwell Sport. A little snow on the trails!:)

A beautiful sunset after our Thursday classic roller ski

Casey and Ian striding up the back side of Petersburg Pass during Sunday's OD

Phil, Isaac and Ben

Hannah, Eliza, Christina, Olivia, Laura and Sarah. Go women's team!

Women's team climbing Petersburg (A little over two hours into their workout)

Men's Team

Casey and Josh near the summit

The rest of the men's team near the summit

Post workout

A smiling Women's Team enjoying the sun after a successful 2.5 hr classic roll.