1, 2, 3....."WILLIAMS"

The Crew/XC Cheer after the workout on Tuesday.

IMG 2460 from Williams Nordic Ski Team on Vimeo.

Finish of the Crew/XC Ski Workout Video

IMG 2458 from Williams Nordic Ski Team on Vimeo.

Crew/XC 4x4s

Yesterday's workout on the ergs was a success! Below are some pictures from the event which saw more than 60 athletes pushing themselves to the limit during their 16 minutes of race time. Our skiers certainly turned some heads given the fact that most of them have little to no experience on an erg, but were able to put up some pretty big numbers. It was a tough workout, but the loud cheering from teammates and energetic atmosphere helped everyone get through it! We're off to Pownal this afternoon for an easy double pole/kick double pole rollerski. Pray for snow!

The warm up

Olivia practicing the hand off

Laura getting coached by a member of the crew team

Sarah - mid-interval

Olivia and Laura duke it out as Vanya and Kalle catch their breath

Josh in the pain cave

Isaac shows the proper transition technique as he hands off to a teammate 

Kalle and Vanya

SkiErging during the workout

Casey complete 6 x 4 minutes on the SkiErg while nursing a speedball knee injury

Will and Jenna

Ben and Isaac erging away

20 ergs in a row

Even though you "sit" on an erg I think it was still PAINFUL (Elena, Josh and Isaac post workout)

Post workout wrap up

Last Week of Classes

It's hard to believe, but this is the last week of classes for the Fall 2012 semester. The team is pretty maxed out balancing training, school work and upcoming finals, but we are succeeding in getting in some quality workouts when we can. Last Friday we found some snow and had a great (i.e. SUPER hard) L4 skate interval workout.  On Sunday we headed out to Cambridge for a long distance skate ski and were surprised with some beautiful weather. We all would have preferred a white out, but the warm weather was a nice 2nd option. There is some salt/sand on the roads, but still skiable and the technique work we've been doing on snow transferred nicely onto pavement. Today's workout is the annual CREW/XC Erg race. Each athlete will race 4 minutes and then hand off the erg to the next teammate. Teams of 3 will race for 48 minutes, so each athlete will get 16 minutes of race time making for a very difficult workout. The cheering will be LOUD! See the pic below for what the setup looks like in Lasalle Gym for this event.

The team spread out on one of the beautiful farm roads in the Cambridge, NY area

The Sunday "office window"

Today's torture chamber

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