Pushing The Pace

Friday, November 28, 2014.  Craftsbury, Vermont.  We are on day three of our five day Thanksgiving training camp.  With double sessions on snow each day, the team is looking more and more like all their hard work during the summer and fall has paid off.  This morning we did some threshold classic intervals to get in a good effort before Sunday's race.

Jordan Fields powering up the hill.

Rebecca Smith - Looking solid...despite the odd suit combination...

Luke Costley with the textbook technique.

Found Eli!

Tsaina, Sarah A., and Olivia in a winter wonderland...in November?!

Saturday, November 29, 2014.  Today is our last day to classic ski in Craftsbury as tomorrow is a skate race, and we will depart for Williamstown soon after.  Therefore, on Extra Blue kick wax, solid tracks, and beautiful weather, we traversed around the trails for an awesome classic ski.

Morning sunrise as I walked to breakfast.

Blowing snow.

Women's team stridin'

Coach explaining the technique drills.

Tomorrow is the Craftsbury opener.  Both men and women are doing a 10k skate.  The team is psyched and ready to rip!  This week has been so much fun, and I am really excited to see everyone finish strong!

Perry

Skiing All Day, Every Day

Our arrival at the Craftsbury Outdoor Century was that of sheer exuberance.  The vans rolled down the farm roads and into the Craftsbury parking lot around 8:30pm Tuesday.  Everyone was excited to begin our training camp despite there being no snow on the ground.  The workers at Craftsbury lived up to their reputations, and we were greeted with a 1.5k of manmade snow - anything is better than roller skiing at this point.

Wednesday morning, we awoke to the groomers hitting the trail, providing us with some firm tracks.  Given that it was klister skiing, it seemed only fitting that I cover my hands and clothes with it, as well as the team's skis.  Mmmmm I missed the feeling of a klister covered hand inside a ski glove.  With that being said, our klister kick was pretty phenomenal for our morning 2 hour ski.

Coach and Vanya - Damn, that suit looks good!

Tsaina, Sarah A., and Jenna - Everyone is really jealous of our new suits!

It started snowing pretty hard during our afternoon skate ski on Wednesday.

Will, Ben, and Luke enjoying the fresh snow this morning - we got about 8 inches of snow overnight, so in addition to the 1.5k loop of manmade snow, Craftsbury was also able to roll out another 20k of decent skiing.

The ladies enjoying the corduroy!

Gathering for the technique session.

Everyone enjoyed an amazing Thanksgiving dinner in the brand new lodge tonight.  The food was delicious, the athletes were happy, and bellies were full! Can't wait to hit the trails again tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving,

Perry

Rollerski TT and Adventure Run

This past Saturday, the team hammered a pretty challenging classic rollerski time trial.  It was great to see everyone put in a solid effort before getting on snow in Craftsbury.

Wicherski (skated) at the start.

Jordan (Left) and Eli went 1st and 2nd for the men!

Hannah Benson (R) won for the women, followed by Tsaina (L) in second!

Jason found a new trail that connects to the Taconic Crest trail, which we ventured up on Sunday morning.  

How I felt right before destroying my ankle.

Looking down the old Alpine race course that Jason and I hiked up to meet the team.

Happy Women's team!!

The girl's dared me to eat some moldy dog food I found...or maybe it was dog poop...

Jason decided to take me bush whacking at the end of our run.  We had to fjord a couple streams and cross over a ridge or two before getting a little lost (OK, I got a little lost).  This was the scene we came back to...just chillin' on the vans with their shirts off - classic.

Stayed tuned for a Craftsbury update soon...

Perry

Bounding workout on new Prospect trails/Snow in Williamstown

Looking down, onto new trail at Prospect

Team gathers before dropping in!

SO PUMPED!

Heading into banked S-turn

A-Climb

Fresh flakes!!

Fall Update

It's almost that time of year, and each day I'm getting more and more excited to see snow.  Most of the leaves have fallen from the trees, and despite the 60 degree weather we're currently experiencing, it definitely feels like winter is looming.  The skis are being prepped, wax is being organized and stocked, the coffee mugs are always full, and the team is looking ripped!  Today, we're heading up to Prospect to do some L3 bounding intervals.  The new homologated 5k course is complete, and we are pumped to preview what we'll be skiing on once snow flies.

Eliza - Crushing the pull-ups

Vanya - "Is 30 pull-ups bad?!"

Freshman Sarah Becker, and Captain Will Wicherski hammering push-ups

Senior Vanya Rybkin - Who invited this guy?!

Hans, Will, Jack, and Ben during a bounding workout

Jason giving the Women instructions.

Foliage on campus.

Men's team running on the new track

Women crushing L4 track workout!

Classic technique on some new pavement.

Thanksgiving training camp is right around the corner!!

Fall Video Compilation

As you can see from the video below, we've been having a pretty fun time training...

http://youtu.be/NWbfS1EQ5zQ?list=UU9kRDang_a-njNXqbGvMjgA

-Perry