Intervals till dark

Some long level 3 intervals today at Higley. This will be the last week we can meet at 4:30 for practice. Will need to move it up to 3 or 3:30 next week to have enough daylight after the time change on Sunday. This becomes a problem for those with late afternoon classes scheduled but not much we can do about it. Everyone seems to be feeling the grind of school work and lack of sleep. Such is the life of a college student-athlete. The good thing is that everyone seems to come around and still get it done and done well after their warmup. Sorry about the pic it was already getting dark at 5 when I took it. By the time I next saw the girls it was already to dark to get anything decent. Compound that with my obvious lack of photography skills and this is what you get. Pepper actually looks like he has some pipes sporting the vest, no shirt. Not really but he was trying.

and for more fun

I will let Kalie's posting speak for the time trial. A picture of the time trial start, sorry no action shots as I was busy getting some video. Afterward we raked leaves in the rain for clean up fix up day. A little community service by your friendly neighborhood nordic skiers.

Skiing in the rain

Saturday we had our first rollerski time trial of the fall. Unfortunately, all members of sluski awoke to pouring rain that morning. Anyone who has rollerskied in the rain knows it isn't the greatest; however, by the time we drove to River Road in South Colton, it had lightened up a bit and actually remained at a tolerable sprinkle during the race. It only started to pick up again right as most of the girls were finishing. The women did 7.5k, and the men 10. We started a ways down from the beginning of the infamous River Road in 30 second intervals. For those that know it well, this road is pretty hilly and unlike anything we train on in the winter (Higley digley doesn't have such challenging hills), so it was really great to get some solid V2 and V1 work in. There are some great recovery/flat sections as well with a couple long downhills. There's nothing better than tucking down a hill on wet pavement with your rollerskis spitting up water up onto your face - can't beat it. Even though most of the team was probably thinking about their Halloween attire for the evening, everyone put forth huge efforts on both the men and women's sides. There were some great results. With the rain we were luckily there weren't any accidents, minus Robin's rollerski bolt stopping her wheel from rolling forward. Luckily she was on an uphill when this happened and was able to fix it in order to finish the race. Looking forward to another week of solid training before a lighter week after this one (with no morning practice yay!). Everyone looks great and I feel like things are really starting to come together as a team as we keep putting in the hours and praying to the snow gods.

Before the Sun Rises

Most Tuesday and Thursday mornings we have a general strength session at 6:30am. Its a mix of some lifts, core work, and balance routines. At this time of year we start before the sun rises. Its been interesting over the past 4 years to see how many other programs at SLU have begun holding workouts in the morning, we used to arrive to dead silence but now typically swimming, xc running, and often either the mens or womens basketball teams are already up and running when we arrive. I don't think any of the other programs do this as consistently throughout the entire fall as we do but it is still rather impressive how busy it is over in Athletics by 6:30am.

High quality simple training

This is one of my favorite workouts with the team, we do this a couple of times in the fall. Basically running intervals up a long hill that has some flatter and some steeper sections, takes about 5-6 minutes. Everyone seems to be in really good spirits. It has been oddly warm the last couple days after I made that mention of cooler temps in the last. Shirts off today made it seem more like July than October. Well the weather has a way of changing quickly this time of year so just take it as it comes I guess. I need learn how to use my camera better so my shots aren't so blurry.

Seven Springs resort and spa

Well the resort and spa part never seem to work out but we did have an excellent ski walking and bounding interval day. This was the start of what is planned to be one of our most demanding training weeks of the fall. As a college coach I have found that timing these weeks with the academic schedule is key. Its unlikely that everyone on the team will feel great all week but hopefully most will be physically well rested from Midsemester break and through their first big onslaught of academic work. From about this point on though I tend to focus a bit more on our intensity rather than the overall volume. The reason being that the time demands of quality intensity are less than that of high volume. You need to be realistic in a college setting and work with what you have rather than worry about what others are doing. With the temperatures dropping I think we are all fantasizing about getting on snow. Its happened before in October but I am not holding my breath. As great as it is for them I am rather sick of seeing the pictures from out West and Alaska of already being on snow. Good for them but quit rubbing it in. Of course I would do the same if we were on snow right now.

Mid semester break

So mid semester break was this past week...a few days off in the midst of everything just getting into full swing on campus. I'm assuming by the looks on peoples faces this morning that everyone got a lot of rest in, but was like me and decided last week not to do much work because they would do it over break, and then over break decided not to do any work because it's vacation and hey, we earned it. So my guess, this week will be hectic academically and athletically. We are pushing the volume and the intensity this week, running 3 sets of intervals and some longer workouts this weekend. Should be a fine progression, and the weather looks at least somewhat cooperative, which is always nice. Back to focusing on training and on the upcoming racing season. I got schooled this past weekend at the White Face toll road rollerski race. Granted I almost missed the start and didn't warm up and such, theres no denying that the whole field of Midd, UVM, and Clarkson and Harvard skiers are in excellent shape, skiing fast, and lookin for a fight. This is the perfect time to get a little scared, start picturing some race scenarios in your mind while your out on the road, and really have at it.
Im off to a NCAA conference in Boston this upcoming weekend, so hopefully i can finally get that funding for the team Jet so we don't have to drive as far for all the carnivals...


here, ScubaSteve Vargo and Kyle Marvinney are doing some cross training....

Mt. Allen, conquered again by SLUski

So after we had our fun on St. Regis Saturday morning, I took a van a bunch of the manliest men on the ski team and traveled deep into the south Adirondacks to do one of the worst, most unrewarding hikes of all time...one of the 46 high peaks, Mt. Allen. For the third time. Stupid, I know. After a wet night of camping, a 5 am wake up call, and a little under 6 hours of running on the trail, we all survived and made it back to campus. It was a great trip and will post a longer account with some pictures as soon as they are available. It was a great ending to a long, hard week of training. As we head to mid semester break this week, I feel like the guys and girls are looking very strong and handling the training load well. Everyone is pretty excited and forecasts are calling for mountain snow this weekend...

SLU Quadathalon

SLUSKI nordic won both the mixed team and female team divisions in this years SLU quadathlon. Our first year womens team of Caitlin Smith, Sophie Allen, Libby Hayden, and Hannah James took the female division with 10th overall. Our mixed team of Arla Casselman, Ben Knowles, Kalie Dunn, Robin Brooks, and Bryan Pepper finished 4th overall winning the mixed division. I didn't get to see that much of the event as I was helping with the bike course but it sounds like the most impressive individual showing was by Caitlin Smith who held her own in the swim finishing closely behind many of the SLU swim team members. Several others on the team took the time to volunteer to help run the event which was quite a success even with some very dreary weather.

Probably the sweetest rollerski ever

Under bright blue skies we had a fantastic rollerski out Raquette River Road today in SoCo (South Colton). Several of the guys were doing a Peak Weekend hike which one of them might post about later. Meanwhile the rest of us rollerkskied 2.5-3hrs today. The scenery and new pavement made it almost as enjoyable as the real thing.

St Regis hill climb, Dunn sets new womens record!

Saturdays run up St. Regis went exceptionally well considering some slick conditions due to rain. It looked like it was going to be a rather miserable day but the rain let up toward the end of the warm up, leaving a slight fog and mist for the run which actually was great for keeping it cool. Nera eagerly anticipated the arrival of the team with Beano summiting first in a time of 29:40, 21 secs shy of the record. The rest of the guys followed closely behind. For the women Kalie crushed her previous PR by 2 minutes, setting a new women's record. The first year women also did great considering its hard to know where the top is if you haven't done this before. The rest of the results can be seen on the team information website, I am quite pleased with everyones effort.

Awesome week so far

What great week of training so far, easy distance skate on Tuesday, threshold skate intervals Wednesday, and today we went on an distance run out at the Higley on our ski trails even went for a swim. Our morning strength sessions have looked good as well even as hard as it is to get up early. The weather this week has been fantastic for training aside from not snowing this is about as good as it gets. Next week looks to turn a little wetter but is planned to be a lighter volume week anyway. I wish I had brought my camera for the run today, won't make that mistake again.

Sundays long run

Went on a long run for Sunday's overdistance. Pictured left are Steven Vargo and Tyler Hendrickson both first year members of the team returning from the trails that loop around SUNY Canton. The bridge they are on crosses over the Grasse River that runs through town. It was a fantastic day for a run, cool temps with partly sunny skies.

SLUSKI Tailgate

What a great time seeing all the new families and the returning ones who have supported us so strongly over the past few years. This was the first ever SLUSKI, Alpine and XC, family weekend tailgate party. Knut and Abi deftly worked the grills while Nera greeted families and searched the lawn for dropped food. It was really a great time and something we will continue in the future. If you check out the team information site you can see the results of the double pole and no pole skate tests that were done in the morning. These are some of the toughest tests we do.