Campus Trails!

With all the new snow in the East, we've been putting to use the snowmobile and grooming equipment we got through a SLU 'Innovation Grant' last year. The SLU Campus now has groomed skating trails open to the public! The trails are groomed into the multiple practice fields behind Newell/Augsbury.

To check the latest trail conditions, I've set up a Twitter account: @SLUSkateTrails

I have been working on a way to have this set up as a feed displayed directly on the side of this site. Until then, simply bookmark this twitter page to check on the status of the trails! Ethan, Bob and I will update as frequently as is possible, though keep in mind that when we are away at camps or Carnivals we may be unable to keep tabs on the trail network.

Happy skiing!!!

Eastern Cup Openers

With the school schedule a bit odd this year exams are taking place this week, this we had only a small field of racers in this weekends opening Eastern Cups in Craftsbury. Ethan and I decided to split up, and he stayed back in Canton with the majority of the team while I was in charge of the racing crew (Erin, Sienna, Kate, Margot, Evan).

SATURDAY

Saturday's classic sprint was cool but warming, initially klister conditions on a transformed sugary track. Women raced first, and I had a klister combo that was in the "alright" range, I'd say. As our women's start times got nearer and nearer I apparently missed the memo that many were switching to a hardwax cover or simple warmer klisters, and the SLU girls weren't entirely thrilled with the boards. In general most everyone looked to be struggling at least a little bit on the final climb to the finish, though, probably a combination of the tricky conditions and everyone's (except for Craftsbury Green Teamers) lack of time on snow this winter.

Because of the track being closed,  I also got reports from the girls of the sugary and extremely soft 'back hill' on the course, which nobody had been able to get to as the women started. With that info I had a better plan lined up for Evan: A real warm klister underfoot to get some purchase on that back hill, covered with a corn snow klister to prevent icing. Coming through he looked strong and smooth, and really powerful on the final climb. He told me the wax worked well, so I was 1-for-2 in that department.

...Women's results took an oddly long time to appear...while waiting I told everyone to change clothes, cool down, and eat some food. "Treat it as if you know you made the heats. What would you do? How would you prepare?" The girls mostly laughed at me, but I kept pestering them: dry clothes, food to refuel...

...Women's results finally appeared, and sure enough Sienna had made the J1/OJ heats (top 12 J1/OJ racers outside the open heats) in 6th place among that field. I began getting her skis ready... 

...Women's results appeared again (???) and now despite Sienna moving up a place, there were not more Junior women in front of her, bumping her down to 15th...Everyone began travel waxing and packing up. (Evan is a U23 and was fairly confident that despite his good race it would've taken a lot to make the guys heats)...

Next thing we know, Fred Griffin is running down to the shanty-tent wax village, informing everyone that they've decided to re-run the qualifier. No heats, just the qualifier. Again. In an hour a half.

So the day began anew. Good thing the girls had listened to me and all changed, eaten and prepared as if they had another race all along, because it turned out everyone did! This development met with a pretty positive response from the whole SLUSKI crew...a chance to race again and correct mistakes, as well the opportunity for Coach Terko to get the kick right. This time conditions were stable, and I found a hardwax combo that the girls were all really happy with. Sienna again showed a lot of speed, and ended up 42nd (she would have made the heats OFFICIALLY this time in 9th if they had run them, though they did not) and Kate really made the most of the opportunity to race again. I told everyone to think about what they struggled with the first time and correct it, and Kate looked like a whole new racer this second time: speed, power and most of all, quickness were all 100 times better.

By the men's race, the sun was setting and it was getting cold. Martell and I worked out a combo we liked together. "These will be awesome" he told me, and headed up for his start. Somehow though, he almost missed that start and was forced to pull the newbie move of racing in his Swix pants. Additionally, the wax didn't work out quite as well as we both felt it did on the testing track. Evan was none too psyched with his race after having a good one that morning, but that's racing.

SUNDAY

Things were straightforward for this one. Sienna and Evan were no longer present, and Margot now joined the action. Kate looked really strong in this race, and had a nice crew of college racers to ski most of the whole race with, pulling away from them at the end and posting a very respectable finish. Erin and Margot ended up right next to each other and had mixed feelings about the day, but were nonetheless competitive in the massive field.

It started snowing heavily for the guys race, but since we had nobody racing we decided to jet before road conditions got worse and our drive home got even longer.

None of the snow made it to Canton, but Gatineau is open for business so we will be skiing this week as the team size whittles down as exams end and Winter Break looms.

QC World Cuppin'

I could write all day about everything that happened last weekend. Bob even asked rhetorically "how many blog posts do you have floating around in your head right now" before we drove off for Canton on Sunday morning.

But I'll keep it simple. THE WORLD CUP WAS AWESOME. We went for the individual sprints on Saturday, waking up at 4am and booking it Northeasterly. We saw the qualification, we got the SLU flag on Eurosport, we watched Kikkan win, and we went out on the town for dinner before settling into our classy Old City hotel.

The next morning we went for a scenic 2 hour run around the city. We threw ourselves down snowy hills on our stomachs, the girls team talked with Kikkan and got her to sign all their clothes, and we stopped for a quick pic with Devon Kershaw and Lenny Valjas as they trained on the course before taking off for Canmore. Incredible to think about everything we saw and did within a 48 hour span of time...

A week of snow-hunting

The weather really came through for us this week. We were able to basically extend our on-snow volume we began in Canada with skiing in the North Country that got better and better as the week went on, the result of a little more snow each night and being in the right place at the right time. Though the early week saw me spending a fair amount of time behind the wheel (when is a ski coach NOT spending time behind the wheel) in search of the best snow, it was well worth it for everyone to have our options dialed in.

TUESDAY

We began skiing at Star Lake on a few inches Tuesday, mostly sticking to the upper areas that drain water well as the ground wasn't quite frozen. People were icing up but the repeated laps meant we 'self-groomed' a loop that was much better by day 2 (Wednesday).

WEDNESDAY

Our self-groomed loop was in great shape by Wednesday after setting up overnight. The team got in some solid skate intervals in a dark blizzard, which actually helped narrow the focus on balance and staying in control. Headlamps became the norm when darkness fell.

Boys team getting some skate intensity Wednesday

THURSDAY

Snow fell into Thursday, enough so that we attempted a classic ski at Higley. It would've been great in the morning, unfortunately temps warmed considerably by practice time and kick was hard to come by if you weren't on fishscales (a good lesson to the team about the value of always having a crappy pair of Grandma's old skis with you...you never know) 

FRIDAY

When things cooled down overnight and into Friday morning in Colton, Ethan and I fired up the snowmobile and made a few passes at Higley...no grooming equipment yet, but three trips around with the machine itself made for more great skating and some longer, easier intervals on the smooth terrain.

SATURDAY

This was the real treat. Ethan and I were up at dawn, and I took the snowmobile, this time with a roller attached, and made a nice loop at Star Lake. I was having a blast, really trying to make use of every space there. In the end, we may have even had up to 6 or 7k totally groomed, mostly wide enough for two abreast. I even groomed a twisting downhill run that slalomed between some trees...right after creating it I sent three of our girls down it and everyone ended with their faces in the powder. Guess we need the practice! Additionally, I groomed a smaller loop on the highest, driest part of Star Lake, with the intent of having it left unskied and able to sustain the rain and warm temps we now have...don't think it's gonna happen. 

Wide tracks and good skiing at Star Lake. Looks just like Gatineau, right?

The second highlight of Saturday morning was the trip Ethan and I took to the extremely rustic 'Hillside Diner' after we finished grooming (the team hadn't arrived yet). With our snowpants strapped on and reeking of two-stroke, we fit right in with the two other people in the joint. I ordered 3 large pancakes, which got our waitress and the kitchen staff all riled up. Apparently in 22 years only 2 people have finished all 3 cakes. They were 14 inches wide and almost an inch thick. I take my breakfast food very seriously, so despite already having eaten breakfast that morning (oatmeal and 2 eggs) I wasn't about to back down after placing my order. It took me an hour, but as the team vans rolled past I triumphantly choked the last few bites down, much to our host's surprise. I ate the pancakes at 9am and wasn't hungry again until 8pm that night, so for $4.95 I'd say you can't go wrong if you're ever hungry in the Star Lake area. 

Hillside Diner...breakfast of champion groomers

The team skied for 2.5 hours Saturday, as we swapped overdistance days knowing it would unfortunately be all melted by today...campus is now awash in a downpour, but as we head into a recovery week it's been incredible to get this skiing in right when we needed it!

Early snow

The North Country has been blessed with a good amount of early-season lake-effect snow. While it seems most other parts of New England woke up to some powder this morning, we have been skiing all week. Star Lake has been prime, and after a day of "skiing it in" we had a track suitable for fast skating intervals. The big treat came yesterday as a good amount of additional snow fell even down in the lower elevations (campus) and combined with cold temps (single-digits this morning). This means that in a few minutes Ethan and I are bringing out the groomer! We'll try Higley first, and perhaps Star Lake. We'll also try to call on some people in the know to figure out of a trip to the VIC at Paul Smiths or Van Ho is worth a trip either tomorrow or Sunday.

The new Big Rig truck was prepared for grooming with our snowmobile this morning

Intervals in a blizzard at Star Lake on Wednesday. Headlamps have become the norm

Check out www.xcearlysnow.com for the latest ski info (or to submit your own report!). It's a great site by some SLU alums. I've already submitted quite a few posts as my job currently connects well with the purpose of the site right now...

Canada Wrap-

ON SNOW

That camp was legit. After a week of on-snow training at Foret Montmorency the team is getting primed for the season. Each year it seems like this training camp is tweaked more and more, (and not just to account for the dwindling lack of snow each year) with good returns and more productive sessions.

A photo from the nearby tower looking down on the manmade snow loop (Photo: Reed Likly)

Only a few years ago when this camp was as simple as it gets. Ski a lot, eat a lot of anything, and ski again until you are too tired to move. In the space of a few years we’ve gotten more professional, more thorough, and more organized. We meet at night to discuss topics like recovery, race mentality, goals and warm-up routines. We plan meals that will best suit our training, and talk about why we eat what we do. We upload, modify and watch video of technique (sometimes even before we’ve left the lodge).

Video analysis

Skiing around a 1.7k loop can be arduous in some ways, and extremely beneficial in others. Ethan and I can see everyone on the team multiple times, at multiple places. We can ski ourselves, take video, ski some more, pull team members aside, send them off with things to work on, and (my favorite) ski with just about everybody at least once a day. “Let’s take a lap” was probably my most common phrase I said all week, uttered whenever somebody came by with a technical question or if I wanted to get a sense of how someone was skiing.

Erin Perryman is the technique-master of the women's team. She is always thinking and modifying to improve how efficiently she skis

ON RACING

And while technique and easy skiing are the foundation of this camp, a little early season racin’ is usually in the cards. There’s not much at stake with these early TTs, but we competed well. A few of the top guys weren’t too happy with their races for one reason or another, but our women’s team was incredibly impressive. For a group composed entirely of freshmen (with the exception of sophomore Kate, and senior Kelsey who was not present) these girls were in the MIX, stacking the top 10 against much older Colby and Bowdoin teams. The part that keeps impressing me with this group is how similar in ability they are (and it showed here) and how that enables them to keep pushing each other and improving. People have probably been led to believe we’re in a bit of a rebuilding year with such a young team, and even I have been thinking “man, give these girls a year or two together and things are gonna get real fast”. But after seeing this group on snow I get the feeling we might start seeing some killer results sooner than expected.

On the men’s side, Will Frielinghaus is continuing to improve and impress in every hard effort. He’s probably most known for being on the eccentric side, both in personality and ski technique…but as he skied by the waxing benches while Ethan and I were prepping the women’s skis, we saw a whole new Will. Calm, smooth and efficient, but with all the snap of that wild side. He was carrying out absolutely everything that we’d talked about and that he’d worked on this summer and fall, and doing it all without prompting. It was clear within 10 seconds of watching him ski that he would be our top guy on the day. Eric was struggling a bit after tweaking his leg skiing the day before, but opted to gut it out and race, still coming out competitive in the end. I’ll still hold to the statement I’ve made all fall that Eric is possibly the best classic technician on the EISA Circuit (and not far off in skating), and when he’s at full throttle there’s gonna be some impressive races from him this year.

Reed also had a solid race, and looked powerful throughout. He ended up less than a minute off some consistent top-20 Carnival racers, and I’m confident he can keep chipping away at that gap by the time the real race season gets underway.

Foret TT footage

RESULTS

The night before we left, some of us took the customary trip down to the Stoneham Terrain park after dark to hit some jumps and boxes. Here's some photos of Reed and Austin Hart gettin' it done and working on their balance:

Box grind

Stair gap

ON CAMPUS

In a rare move, mother nature decided to throw us a bone and give us a  little early-season snow at Star Lake this week. It’s always a treat to finish up Thanksgiving camp and keep skiing, and we’ll be heading out this afternoon for a little skate ski on the golf course. I spent most of yesterday driving around and checking out other options, but Star Lake, like usual, is where it’s at.

We’re eagerly awaiting Exam Week, the end of the semester, and the beginning of the racing season!

Star Lake, 11/26/12

The Mysterious Quebon

Milk comes in bags in Quebec, and this year we've got a real-life Canadian (Philip) with us demonstrated the simple solution everyone knows and we were too stupid to figure out. Turns out you keep the milk IN THE BAG, put it in the jug, and THEN cut it open. We'd been doing it wrong for four years...

Thanksgiving Camp

We've been up in Stoneham and training at Foret Montmorency for a few days now. Currently we're relegated to the same 1.8k loop as last year, which as far as little loops go is pretty sweet and?varied. The weather has been cold upon arrival, changing to mid-40s by noon, with bluebird skies and solid tracks. Essentially, we're doing laps in midwinter conditions in the morning session and spring skiing in the afternoon. Since the other college teams (Colby, Bowdoin, etc) aren't arriving until tomorrow, we've essentially had the place to ourselves for the entire time with the exception of a few locals and XC Ottowa members. 

We're gonna ramp it up and get some intervals in tomorrow before the loop gets too packed. Rumor has it they'll be spreading out some extra piles of snow on the lower section to add a few hundred meters...can you say 2+ kilometers baby!?

Here's a few photos:

Snowdancing

All eyes are on the Laurentides' long-range forecast this week as everyone tries to push through one more week of dryland before heading to Canada for Thanksgiving Break training camp. Last week everyone got a bit of a break, as the hard training and shorter days were really starting to take a toll. We backed off just before the breaking point, eliminating an interval workout and morning practice from last week's schedule. On Saturday, we headed down to Mt Arab, just outside of Tupper Lake, and did some hard uphill running intervals as our one focus workout of the week. This "mountain" has a fire tower and cool views of the northern Adirondacks, yet it only takes 11-12 minutes to get to the summit when you're fit and running fast. The men went up three times, the women twice. The conditions were cold and clear, with mud, ice and snow. That's all likely out of the picture now that we've had back-to-back 60 degree days, but hopefully the snow guns are still running up north.

Longboards were all the rage at SLU my Sophomore year (2009/10). Then they fell out of style, only to come back this year for some reason. The access road to the Mt Arab trail was really nice for carving (if you're Reed), sitting (Calvin) or skeleton-ing (Kelsey)

The other big news, which you already know if you follow the various other social-media outlets of the team, is the newest addition to the ski team armada: The SLU-Haul. A gigantic heated, insulated, wired wax trailer that will be towed to races behind our new Chevy 3500 Duramax HD Diesel pickup truck. Everything is big, loud and red:

The giant snowflake-logo on the side is forthcoming...

"East-Coast Bulls#!&"

First-year Evan Martell grew up in Vermont, but he was a Sun Valley transplant for the past few seasons before coming to SLU. After being pampered with bright, dry, bluebird weather for the last 24 months, he gets irate at the first drop of rain or cloud in the sky.

     "Look at this straight-up East Coast Bulls#!%!" he proclaims loudly on any workout taking place in less-than-perfect conditions. Meng, also used to West Coast summers of hard-packed manicured trail runs, brings out the old "we don't have this crap in Tahoe"  speech whenever he trips on a tree root or a pile of wet leaves. 

     "Having such nice conditions all the time out West is great for training," Meng mused Tuesday as we ran alongside the Raquette River at Stone Valley.

     "Yeah, and it also makes you complacent and soft!" I replied (maybe with some more aggressive language), eager to defend my East Coast upbringing. 

Instead of fighting back, Meng agreed with me.

Being uncomfortable is a natural part of ski racing. If you live and train in a cold, wet, empty landscape like we do, you get to ingrain a certain level of toughness with every workout. And when you add tough workouts to a tough setting, you really induce a final layer of mental-strength: either suck it up and get it done, or you just won't survive

With that in mind, Ethan and I have a list of all the toughest and hardest workouts SLUSKI has, and we've been incorporating one per week starting after Mid-semester break a few weeks ago. The Dpole Derby, the Higley Bounding Loop, Russell Hill yesterday...

It's too bad the body can't sustain these hard efforts day after day...instead of getting dreary and whiny, everyone's been getting more fired up for these workouts than ever. The hardest workouts were my favorite as an athlete and they're by far my favorite as a coach: everyone is really into it, technique and fitness gains are really brought to light, and there's a definite sense of complete satisfaction on the van ride back to campus. Everything we do is geared toward getting faster, but on a cold November day these are the workouts where you really feel like you're faster before you even finish your cooldown.

Connor came out to help shoot some video at Russell Hill yesterday, as Ethan and I were shuttling skiers back down the steep hill after each repeat. Here's a little footage -

Continuous bounding intervals

One of the tougher workouts we do, very Scandinavian in style, effort and even setting. A set number of loops (5 for women, 7 for men) run continuously (no standing time) around a hilly 1.5-2k loop at Higley Flow. Mostly old logging roads and the trail we cut a few years ago...mossy, leaf-covered trails through pine trees with a setting sun in the background reminded me of Finland. Or pictures of it at least, since I've never been there.

I set up cones on all the uphills, the goal being to bound hard from cone to cone, with running recovery in between. There were four sections of bounding each loop, two longer ones at the beginning and end of each loop, and two shorter middle sections.

The first few laps are conservative. The team generally adheres to the policy of recovering in between bounds. After about 2 or 3 laps, however, rest becomes less and less effective. By the last few laps, the workout is simply a hard effort non-stop; hard running mixed with hard bounding. In a lot of cases, this is discouraged, but this is a good workout to put the hammer down and really see what you've got. Ethan took video, and I ran everywhere around the loop (another benefit of a set and circular course) jumping in with groups as they came by and trying to exaggerate powerful bounding to encourage explosiveness. Here's the footage:

Higley Digley Doublepole Derby 2012

Ethan and I tested out a new TT yesterday: The Fist Annual Higley Digley Doublepole Derby!

While the Doublepole test is a good indicator of fitness and strength, it does little to simulate the kind of double-poling situations found in an actual race. So what better way to achieve that than by holding a longer-format, mass-start double-pole race? It's incredible how fortunate we are to have Higley Flow State Park at our disposal...the hills may not be too steep while descending on snow, but the twisty camp loops make for a perfect rollerski course: good pavement, varied terrain and no cars (which allows for the mass-start format). The women raced 5k, the men 7k, roughly.

I arrived at the park early and swept the pine needles off the side loops, and the race went off with only one broken rollerski tip for damages. Obviously rollerski speed varies, and especially comes into play more on a course such as this with substantial sections of gradual downhill, but the benefits outweigh the negatives in this case: A good chance to practice skiing in a group in a race setting, navigating tricky turns and descents, and a difficult effort that also has specific-strength benefits.

The men's race was led out most of the way by a pack composed of Reed, Eric, Austin (Meng) and Will. Near the very end Meng and Eric broke away to sprint for the line, with Eric just taking the win. Will lost a pole tip but still hung on for third with Reed close behind.

Kate led the women's race from start to finish, but never really pulled away from Cassidy, who was on the hunt the entire time just out of contact a few seconds back. A few of the girls skied together in pairs: Sienna and Margot worked together for the majority of the race, as did Melanie and Kelsey. Kate held her slim lead to the finish over Cass, and Lauren took the bronze. Here's the results and a quick video I put together. I was filming from a bike and obviously need a little practice with the technique of it, but I'll get the hang of it soon.

MEN
Lustgarten 21:33
Meng 21:34
Frielinghaus 21:43
Reed 21:52
Hart 23:42
Dier 24:2-

WOMEN
Mulcahy 17:40
Cichowicz 17:48
Olson 18:45
Searles 19:34
Margot 19:35
Perryman 20:28
Nichols 21:05
Swick 21:10

Foliage week

Fall rolls on, and the team wrapped up another solid week of training under peak foliage today with a long point-to-point ski through the Adirondack foothills in Colton. Austin Meng, Reed Likly, Kyle Curry and I made it just under 3 hours before we were finally rescued by Ethan and our team bus, piled high with bagels, trail mix and granola bars forgotten by the crew team over the weekend.

Key workouts this week were the introduction of morning circuits, some hard classic intervals at Irish Settlement road, a rainy ski-walking and bounding at Seven Springs, and a specific strength workout at Higley. For the specific strength workout Ethan and I designed a set course to be skied continuously, with stations along the way involving either drills or repeats of double-poling and single-stick. We ended with a few head-to-head sprints, complete with a K-Mart capgun I bought this summer to set off each heat. 

Here's a quick video of  the guys going through one of the balance drills that I think is particularly effective. The goal is to stride only once per cone, holding the striding position between each as well. Also included is some footage of Reed and Evan Turner getting some additional balance training in while skateboarding around outside the ski room after practice. 

The Legend of St. Regis

Testing week has come and gone...Brown's Bridge testing went well, with the men's double-pole record being taken to a new level by Eric. This marks the third year in a row the record has been broken. With his 7:13 on Friday, Eric took 6 seconds off the time we shared together last year. Additionally, Will was only a couple of second's off former coach and athlete Zach Wetherell's no-pole skate record from 2008. Kate took the win in both women's tests among a field that had very encouraging times.

But the real test of tests is the St. Regis mountain run. With standard conditions for this test being a rainy, typhoon-style mudbath, the relatively light drizzle Sunday morning had me anxious to see some records broken. And if there ever was a record to break, it was Tommy Lepesquer's 29:21 performance from 2006, the longest-standing record of all SLUSKI's tests. And if there ever were two guys to do it, it was Will and Meng. They didn't disappoint, with Meng clocking in at 30:11 and Will at 30:20. Counting those two times, there are only 8 finishes under 31 minutes, and still only Lepesquer can lay claim to a sub-30 Regis effort. With Meng and Will so close, and with a stellar performance by first-year Kyle Curry in 31:04, the stage has been set for another great showdown in 12 months time...

Speaking of stellar performances, the guys team in general absolutely murdered the mountain. From 2006 to 2011, only 17 men have gone under 32 minutes.

In this year's test, 7 of the men were under 32:00.

Kelsey hits the summit for 3rd place

The women's race was no less impressive, with first-year Cassidy Cichowicz clocking a 36:19, challenging Caroline's record only a year after it was set. For reference, Caroline's record of 36:07 was a full minute over the previous record, so essentially in the last two years Cass and 'Roline have been in a class of their own.

Kate and Kelsey rounded out the podium, both also posting times in the top-10 overall.

Check out the testing archive, updated to include this years results, by clicking HERE

With testing week over, the focus shifts to classic fall training: cold days, dark and rainy intervals and morning circuits. Eric asked me on the drive back from Regis: "Why have testing results gotten so much faster these past few years?" and I replied that it probably stemmed from a few causes. The rollerski tests and St. Regis have likely seen improved times because skiers realize their benefit. Club teams and groups know that specificity is important, and access to rollerskis for younger athletes has grown tremendously in the past 10 years. Skiers come to college with half a decade of rollerskiing under their belts, and they're able to really nail down the specific strength tests. Club programs and teams also realize the value of uphill tests. "That was probably the third uphill running test Meng has done this year" I mentioned, before Meng piped up from the back seat, "actually, it was my 5th."

These tests work, and if nothing else they force a hard effort that pushes one's body and mind to extreme levels...sort of like a ski race.

The girls team and coach Terko on top of Regis. No view, as usual...

Halfway through Testing Week

The first two tests (3k run and Canadian Strength Test) went down in the past few days, with two more (Specific Strength at Browns Bridge and St. Regis) coming up Friday and Sunday.

On the men's side, the 3k had been long been slated as a battle between two perennial track speedsters, Austin Meng and Will Frielinghaus. Meng had been struggling with some sickness, but after a week off from training showed up ready to go for it. 200 meters into the race Meng and Will had a 50-meter lead on the field. The win was settled when Will made a move with about 2 laps to go. Meng was impressive in keeping pace after struggling to get out of bed for the last 7 days, but had to settle for second. Will and Meng went 9:46 and 9:50, respectively, both times in the top ten of the Testing Archives. The battle for third was literally waged between the entire rest of the men's field, who hung together as a tight pack the entire race before first-year Matt Dier laid down a finishing kick of Northug-like proportions in the last 150 meters.

The women's race broke up right away, with first-year Erin Perryman and senior Kelsey Nichols setting the early pace. A chase pack, led by sophomore Kate Mulcahy, slowly reeled the two leaders in, however. Kate made a devastating move to turn up the pace with a few laps to go, cruising to the win. Her time put Kate in the top-5 all-time for this test. Kate and Will made it a double-victory for Glens Falls skiers on the day.

Will leads Meng down the back-stretch of the track during sunrise

Yesterday the team did the Canadian Strength Test, a brutal ten minutes apiece of pull-ups, situps, pushups, box jumps and dips. This was a really impressive showing. Eric Lustgarten demolished the USST Senior Male standard of 299 with an incredible 358 points, and first-year Cassidy Cichowicz hit 14 pull-ups in a row. Last year we had maybe 2 or 3 girls who could do a single pull-up, and this year all but one we able to get their chin over the bar at least once. Compared to last year (when we first did this test) the men's average went up by 14 points, and the women bumped their average up by an incredible 31 points! Just as impressive, the women's results were almost all within a 10-15 point range. These girls are not only fit, but able to push each other well since they're so competitive among themselves.

Cassidy hammered out 14 pull-ups en route to winning the Strength Test

The 3k and Canadian Strength tests aren't direct measures of skiing performance, but they're very basic indicators of fitness, and fitness helps win ski races. Things should get really exciting when we hit Browns Bridge on Friday, and St. Regis on Sunday. Regis is perennially wet and rainy, but after this summer of drought and heat, the stage could be set for some records to fall...

Strength and Conditioning Notes

Yesterday Ethan and I attended a discussion (more of a presentation, really) by the strength-and-conditioning coach for the SLU Hockey team. I scribbled down some notes on prominent topics, and I thought I'd re-post them here in raw form (with a few links added). It's cool (yet unsurprising, really) to see how many similarities exist between all sports when it comes to strength training, progression, and philosophy. Here's some of what I took down:

Notes: Strength and Conditioning discussion 9/19/2012

-What energy systems are you using in your sport? Ex: Hockey players are on 40sec shifts, going all out and then resting. 3:1 rest to exertion ratio. Understand where the energy comes for this, and train that system.

-If you want to increase explosiveness/quickness, MANIPULATE THE NERVOUS SYSTEM to achieve this. Don’t confuse this with maximum effort. This is the difference between doing a few pullups with lots of weight and a few pullups with so much explosive effort that you shoot up off the bar. The two are each important, but you need to train the nervous system first to get that quickness. Same goes for technique and skiing (see “Speed versus Intensity of Training”, Galanes 2004)…produce power correctly and efficiently before adding load.

-There is a progression of Speed-->Strength-->Conditioning (Again, see Galanes 2004)

-There is a lack of maximal strength on SLU teams.

-Understand the physiological vs psychological impact of strength training. If doing some short benchpress reps helps an athlete feel good before a game, for example, let it become routine for them even if it has no benefit.

-In soccer, a midfield player runs an average of 12 miles in a game, including changes of pace and bursts of speed. Additionally, he cannot be fatigued during this time because he has to execute his skill (ball-handling, traps, etc) for the duration of the event.
-In the same way: A skier skis 12 miles (A 20k), including changes of pace and bursts of speed. Additionally, he cannot be fatigued during this time because he has to execute his skill (correct technique) for the duration of the event.

-Recovery has to be incorporated and INGRAINED. Foam rolling, massage, ice bath, recovery drinks/foods. This needs to be something the athlete does as instinctively as showing up to practice.

Climb to the Castle

Saturday morning a few members of the team headed down to Whiteface for the annual Climb To The Castle rollerski race. With competition from the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, US Ski Team, and the National Training group, it was a stacked field. It was great to see so much motivation for this race. Last year only Eric, Reed, Swayze and myself made the trip. This year we had 5 guys and 2 girls, and would've taken more if we had more drivers. Apparently waking up at 5:30 on a Saturday to race up a mountain in the rain didn't appeal to everyone...

Eric and Evan Martell had great races in the men's competition, skiing with strong packs and beating some big names and placing 24th and 29th. In a smaller but no less competitive women's race, Kate and Margot skied to 17th and 21st place. Kyle Curry and Evan Smith got to race for the first time with 'SLU' as their team, and coach Terko only got beat by Liz Stephen by a mere 8 minutes.

Here's a picture of Eric (from fasterskier) that pretty accurately sums up the weather. It was almost helpful to have fog preventing everyone from seeing just how far up we had to climb...


As always, Lakeview Deli in Saranac made for a great post-race lunch after the wind and rain of Whiteface. Here's a link to some results:

MEN
WOMEN

Balance Board UPDATE!

Took 24 hours before I decided to make some ski-specific changes to the balance-board, partly from some suggestions of team-members. I cut up an old Peltonen ski that's been lying around for some time (It belonged to current NENSA Directer Zach Stegeman, who graduated in '02, for the record), as well as one of Austin Hart's busted boards, and integrated them into the design. I spray-painted them for uniformity and installed grip-tape bindings. Now you get the feeling of a racing ski underfoot while balancing.

DIY Balance Board

It's no secret that balance is important for Nordic skiers, who spend the vast majority of their workout time on only one foot. In looking for new ideas for circuit training, I had been thinking about incorporating a balance board for a while. They usually run about $80-$100 a pop (the Vew-Do type), but are really the most simple two pieces of material around. I've had one in my basement for the last few years that was little more than a piece of 2x4 resting on an old dumbbell.

So instead of breaking the team budget, I saved hundred-dollar cost (you could buy a whole ten grams of Gallium GigaSpeed wax for that!) and dug around the ski room for some building supplies.

The steps and photo's below are the process. It's pretty basic, and you don't have to do half the crap I did, like sanding, stenciling or getting grip patches...all you really need to do is saw a PVC Pipe and find a board. But I think it's cooler to fool around with some stuff...

Your basic materials...PVC (4 inch) and a strong board about 3 ft long. I sanded the board smooth, rounding the edges a little. A completely pointless step: I found some stencils in a box so I made a "SLUSKI" one. It came out pretty ugly. Whatever. While the spraypaint was drying on the stencil I biked down to the hardware store and spent the only money of the project: $3 for some stick-on sandpaper, aka griptape. Voila! Saw off the corners and call it good. What more do you need?

Denmark!

Hey SLUSKI,

Sounds like everyone is back and settled into fall training at SLU. I figured I’d post a quick update about my fall semester as well. I have been studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark for a little over 3 weeks now. It is quite different living and studying abroad, but I’m adjusting. I live with a host family outside the city in Allerød, which is a beautiful rural area. I bike to and from the train station every day, where I have a 30 minute train ride each way into Copenhagen. My host family is great, and has really helped me adjust to Denmark.

Copenhagen is a cool city to live in. Denmark is a world leader in environmental policy, so Copenhagen is a perfect place for me to study for my major. One of many examples is the heavily used transportation system and bikes. People bike everywhere in Denmark. I've seen men in suits and women in heels speed by in bike lanes on their way to work, as well as little kids who can bike better than I can. Dodging bike traffic is often scarier than cars! DIS where I study is in the old part of the city, surrounded by old streets and shops. It's fun to explore the city, but can also be costly, as everything in Denmark is expensive.

I just returned Saturday from a short trip to Germany and Denmark for a my core class. I got to see renewable facilities, including climbing to the top of a wind turbine. We also went to the Wadden Sea, a unique marine ecosystem. Then on Sunday, I ran in the Copenhagen Half-Marathon with my host parents! Having never run a half-marathon before, I started slow and sped up quickly, using passing skills learned from mass start races. I ended up finishing in 1:24:31, in around 250th place out of 7500. It was a pleasant suprise, as I have been unsure of my fitness. I've been running and going to a gym on my own and playing soccer with a Danish club, so I guess I'm in better shape than I thought.

I'll wrap this up with some photos, but keep training hard everyone! Every so often i'll send an update, and feel free to facebook me, or send me your address if you want snail mail.

 Nyhavn Port, really pretty area of Copenhagen.

 Lake where I went canoeing with my host family.

 Wind turbines. I went out in a boat into Copenhagen's harbor to see them up close for a field trip.

 Copenhagen from the Round Tower.

 A solar panel field in Germany.

 The view from the top of a German wind turbine.

 Standing in the Wadden Sea, we used nets to catch marine wildlife.

Post Half-Marathon, with the medal to prove I finished!

Enjoy the fall at SLU,

Bill Prescott

Alumni Race

The first hard effort of the fall semester was the XC running team's Run For Ryan/Alumni Race held last Saturday. We've been invited to this event for many years now, and it really just boils down to a simple race setting: The current XC team, the current Nordic team, and the alums of both.

This year the men's team (clearly standing out in the crowd by being the only group of 10+ who went shirtless) raced mostly as a large pack, with Sophomore Austin Meng taking top honors of the ski crowd (not counting Alum and 2002 Olympic Biathlete Lawton Redman, 3rd overall) and probably surprising a few XC runners. Not far behind him was first-year Matt Dier and junior Eric Lustgarten, who recently returned from a summer in Sun Valley, ID.
"I didn't even feel the effort" said Meng excitedly afterward, fresh from Truckee, CA. "That's what you get from altitude."

Maybe, but a glance at the training logs from Eric or Meng, who spent their summers at high elevation, shows more than just thin-air oxygen consumption. The two both put in the hours and workouts to be top performers, and the training is already paying off. The rest of the men's team was not far behind, mostly running together and pushing each other as a group. The surprise of the day was when Coach Etown put in a huge surge at mile 2 to pass the guys team and stay ahead of them, crossing the line as 4th SLUSKIer. Yours truly took a more typical coach-esque approach, pretty much doggin' it near the back of the pack and watching the whole scene unfold.

Eric finishing off the Alumni Race Saturday

The girls race was equally impressive, though I didn't get to see as much of it for obvious reasons. The SLUSKI women even managed to make a pretty good dent in the women's XC team, giving a lot of them a run for their money. First-year Cassidy Cichowicz finished in 5th overall, just 2 seconds ahead of Sophomore Kate Mulcahy.

Overall Cassidy and Meng combined for a Cali-sweep of the ski teamers, doing the West coast proud. The race was sunny and hot, but things changed shortly after. As first-year Evan Martell, a Vermonter->Sun Valley transplant, said in the driving rain yesterday, "been a while, guess I'm not ready for this East Coast stuff just yet".

Snowbowl Brochure and website

A project I've looked forward to starting for a while now is the construction of a website dedicated to the former St. Lawrence University Snowbowl. There isn't a single site or group of information on the place...it's all scattered throughout online forums, photo captions and personal memories. I've started to dig through the archives and piece together what I can. First and foremost, many should enjoy this throwback-brochure I found in the front display area of Augsbury. The place really was state-of-the-art!

Prep

After moving into Bob and Flip's Lincoln Street house a few days ago, things have gotten settled pretty quick for me here in Canton. There was of course the now-yearly scramble from office to office while I dealt with SLU's consistently-confusing registration/admittance forms and applications...nobody knows what any form is, who to contact, or where to send me next; and there's barely anyone on campus yet. Luckily, I am still allowed to go to school here, and coach as well. That's good, as the first thing I did here was dump my carload of ski stuff in the team room and begin to organize my cubicle.



As you can tell, there was a lot to go through. Essentially every team document from the last 15 years was stashed in this cabinet. Everything. Van rental from 2001? Silver Star camp in 1999? Dartmouth Carnival packet from 2002? I had a lot of fun putting together some of the more interesting pieces (old timetrials, training plans, retro photos, and more) but mostly I think the custodians hated me for loading up the recycling to the brim every night. Things are organized now, accessible and helpful.

I'm pumped for the team to get here and see everyone again. I've spent the summer reading everything I can on training, writing down my own thoughts on training, inventing new workouts, and testing them out on myself. It's gonna be a fun year. I think this is the most excited I've ever been for a ski season, and I'm not even racing anymore. Well, maybe I can still sneak in a few here and there...