Friday and Saturday were the EISA Middlebury Carnival held at Rikert Ski Touring Center in Ripton, VT (aka Breadloaf). This week at work was fairly trying; two days of a company-wide strategic planning meeting. Lot's of talk of proaction, synergy, et al. On Friday, I could not bring my self to go back to the office, so after about an hour of work, I took the day to head over to Breadloaf to take in the carnival. It had been several years since I have been able to see a carnival. They are a blast. I was able to catch up with my coach from Bates, Becky Woods, and former "boss" Cory Schwartz of UNH. The conditions were excellent. Fresh snow the night before and a broken piston bulley lead to an hour delay, but the skiing was fantastic. The racing was super exciting. Both men and women were pulling a 10K classic. The day was lead by lots of green. Dartmouth men put their 6 guys in the top 11. UVM went 1,2 in the mens, while Bates' Sylvan Ellefson came in 6th after leading the race for the first couple kilometers of the race. In the woman's race, Dartmouth proved their might again going 1,2, 5 and 9. The lady bobcats kicked in hard with little Natalie Ruppertsburger coming in 3rd followed by teamates at 13 and 14, giving them 2nd place on the day. My throat was sore for 2 days after the race. I get so jazzed up athat I end up cheering myself hoarse. It was awesome.
The highlight of the day, however, was getting a chance to catch up with Becky. We talked about the team, skiing in general, and the struggle of skiing fast in college. I wish I had the chance to talk for hours more. The perspective that I have gained since graduating through coaching at UNH, trying to ski train with a family and job, and finally understanding how to train have lead me to a place of near remorse for not taking better advantage of the opportunity that I had while skiing in college. Serendipity as it is, however, I could also argue that I would not be the person that I am today if I had followed a different path: married to the love of my life with a wonderful family. What this translates into is the realization of how much I love this sport. It pushes me out the door into sub zero temps at 8:30 at night, gets me out on the roller skis in the summer, and urges me to put in that extra effort on interval days.
So Good luck to the bobcats, wildcats, catamounts, big green, panthers, mules, polar bears, saints, and knights. For some, this next weekend will be your last collegiate race, enjoy it while you can!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Sleepy Hollow
Today was the Ichebod's Revenge 10 K classic ski race up at Sleepy Hollow. It was my first trip up to Sleepy Hollow, but it will not be my last. Despite the nasty rain we had this week, which transformed Morse to boilerplate, Sleepy Hollow was skiing pretty nicely.
The race course was pretty a-typical: three laps on a 3.5 Km loop that was essentially one half down and one half up. The up was very skiable, and the downhill, although starting out as a screamer, provided decent rest. Unfortunately, I was feeling pretty flat to start the day. I'm pretty confident that it was due to lack of sleep and a fairly hard workout yesterday rather than lack of fitness, but the effect was the same: I just didn't have it today. The race was pretty sparse, so even with feeling flat, I ended up fourth for the day, second in the 30-39 group. The guys that were in front of me put a pretty decent gap on me by the end of the first lap, and after that, I don't know that there was a lot of change in position.
All in all, it was a good workout and another start. One of my goals this year was to simply race more. So to that end, I am pleased that I did the race. I also ended up bringing home some LF wax for my second place finish. $20 entry fee for a nice, low-key race and a $24 dollar prize. Not bad.
The race course was pretty a-typical: three laps on a 3.5 Km loop that was essentially one half down and one half up. The up was very skiable, and the downhill, although starting out as a screamer, provided decent rest. Unfortunately, I was feeling pretty flat to start the day. I'm pretty confident that it was due to lack of sleep and a fairly hard workout yesterday rather than lack of fitness, but the effect was the same: I just didn't have it today. The race was pretty sparse, so even with feeling flat, I ended up fourth for the day, second in the 30-39 group. The guys that were in front of me put a pretty decent gap on me by the end of the first lap, and after that, I don't know that there was a lot of change in position.
All in all, it was a good workout and another start. One of my goals this year was to simply race more. So to that end, I am pleased that I did the race. I also ended up bringing home some LF wax for my second place finish. $20 entry fee for a nice, low-key race and a $24 dollar prize. Not bad.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Craftsbury
This past Saturday I competed in my fourth the Craftsbury Marathon (CM). The course, conditions, weather, and wax were awesome. This year, the CM organizers opted to base everything out of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center rather than a point to point race starting at Highland Lodge in Greensboro and ending at the Common, using the trails at the center for about half of the course. I had mixed feelings about the redesign. This model would be much easier logisitically, since a racer did not have to get bussed to the start with all of our gear (skis, wax, wax benches, clothing) only to return there afterwards to retrieve it all. Last year, this manifested in a particularly nasty way when I realized at the 10 Km mark that I had forgotten my keys at Highland and did not prepare a bag with my warm ups to be brought by volunteers to the finish. I ended up coming in from the race, shivering without dry clothes and had to search for a friend to bring me back to Highland to retrieve my gear, clothes, keys etc.
This year was different in many, many ways. Our club (Onion River Nordic) had a large contingent this year. I don't know exactly how many raced or toured on Saturday from our club but it was over twenty. Friday night, we had a pot-luck waxing party at Morse Farm. It proved to be a great spot for such an event; thanks to Dave and Burr for hosting. As a result of the wax party, everyone came prepped with glide (moly covered with CH6/LF6) and binder with a layer of V30 iron in to help cement the day's kick to the binder. When we showed up Saturday, we set up the ORS tent, wax table with forms, and got to work putting a few layers of VF30 followed by 4 to 6 layers of VF40. This was a little draggy, so we ended up covering with a little VF30. All set, no panicking, everyone knew what to do. Compared to the panicked klister applicay that happened last year, it was a dream.
For me, I ended up with my new Madshus which had LF6 and Moly mixed covered with old-school Swix F16. The stiffer skis did not seem to be a hindrance and were both fast and kicking all day. In fact, I had two fellow racers tell me during the race that I had really fast skis.
The race went really well. I lined up about 5 rows back, having entered the coral pretty late. The course went along a series of fields that gradually dropped to Little Hosmer Lake. Without a warm up prior to the start except to test glide and kick, this first couple K's were much better than the usually blast up Barr Hill from Highland Lodge.
The pack settled into groups pretty quickly. I ended up skiing with a group of about 6 for the first half of the race. At which point, the course headed back towards the Center after going on Little and Big Hosmer and past Wind Ridge resort. Here I past Nick Petterssen who had pulled over and was having trouble with a pole strap. Our group kept on doing its thing for the next 10 K until Nick came back in to join us. He had crashed hard on a long, fast downhill where I had seen him and lost the wedge from his grip. He and I quickly moved to the front of the group and skied a solid pace up to the Common. The group sort of spread out at this point. By the time we got through the lap lane and down to Hosmer, we had caught a couple of other skiers. At this point, I was feeling pretty good. 30 K in to the race and feeling pretty strong. Despite holding in the reins, knowing full well that Elinors Hill and the climb to the Common were still lurking, I began to pull away from the group of skiers that I had been with. I ended up skiing with the couple of fellows that we had caught coming down to Hosmer. One of which was Ron Newbury, an M6 from Freedom Maine. I remember Ron from when I skied for Bates; he was always this soft-spoken Master skier that hammered. If you didn't have a good day, Ron would get you. This was back when he was an M4 and I was a S1 and had a lot more time to train. Ron and I skied with another skier up through Ruthie's Run, before he pulled away.
The end of the race is always hard. There gets to be a tipping point when you shift from "I can catch that guy that is up ahead of me" to "I can slow up this much before the guy behind me catches me". Everyone is deep in the pain cave, skiis that were working all day suddenly seem like they are going backwards, and the hills become steeper, longer, and covered with beach sand. I managed to hold on to my place and finish 35th in the open class; some 44 minutes behind Kris Freeman. I am pretty pleased. Next year, watch out Bird and Freebase, I'm coming....
This year was different in many, many ways. Our club (Onion River Nordic) had a large contingent this year. I don't know exactly how many raced or toured on Saturday from our club but it was over twenty. Friday night, we had a pot-luck waxing party at Morse Farm. It proved to be a great spot for such an event; thanks to Dave and Burr for hosting. As a result of the wax party, everyone came prepped with glide (moly covered with CH6/LF6) and binder with a layer of V30 iron in to help cement the day's kick to the binder. When we showed up Saturday, we set up the ORS tent, wax table with forms, and got to work putting a few layers of VF30 followed by 4 to 6 layers of VF40. This was a little draggy, so we ended up covering with a little VF30. All set, no panicking, everyone knew what to do. Compared to the panicked klister applicay that happened last year, it was a dream.
For me, I ended up with my new Madshus which had LF6 and Moly mixed covered with old-school Swix F16. The stiffer skis did not seem to be a hindrance and were both fast and kicking all day. In fact, I had two fellow racers tell me during the race that I had really fast skis.
The race went really well. I lined up about 5 rows back, having entered the coral pretty late. The course went along a series of fields that gradually dropped to Little Hosmer Lake. Without a warm up prior to the start except to test glide and kick, this first couple K's were much better than the usually blast up Barr Hill from Highland Lodge.
The pack settled into groups pretty quickly. I ended up skiing with a group of about 6 for the first half of the race. At which point, the course headed back towards the Center after going on Little and Big Hosmer and past Wind Ridge resort. Here I past Nick Petterssen who had pulled over and was having trouble with a pole strap. Our group kept on doing its thing for the next 10 K until Nick came back in to join us. He had crashed hard on a long, fast downhill where I had seen him and lost the wedge from his grip. He and I quickly moved to the front of the group and skied a solid pace up to the Common. The group sort of spread out at this point. By the time we got through the lap lane and down to Hosmer, we had caught a couple of other skiers. At this point, I was feeling pretty good. 30 K in to the race and feeling pretty strong. Despite holding in the reins, knowing full well that Elinors Hill and the climb to the Common were still lurking, I began to pull away from the group of skiers that I had been with. I ended up skiing with the couple of fellows that we had caught coming down to Hosmer. One of which was Ron Newbury, an M6 from Freedom Maine. I remember Ron from when I skied for Bates; he was always this soft-spoken Master skier that hammered. If you didn't have a good day, Ron would get you. This was back when he was an M4 and I was a S1 and had a lot more time to train. Ron and I skied with another skier up through Ruthie's Run, before he pulled away.
The end of the race is always hard. There gets to be a tipping point when you shift from "I can catch that guy that is up ahead of me" to "I can slow up this much before the guy behind me catches me". Everyone is deep in the pain cave, skiis that were working all day suddenly seem like they are going backwards, and the hills become steeper, longer, and covered with beach sand. I managed to hold on to my place and finish 35th in the open class; some 44 minutes behind Kris Freeman. I am pretty pleased. Next year, watch out Bird and Freebase, I'm coming....
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