Testing WEEK!

What a good looking team :)

Last week was the first week of official practice! Having the vans and water bottles was a welcome change, oh, and coaches too J It also meant the arrival of testing week! This was the first time in my years that we’ve done all the tests in one week. Needless to say, it was a lot. However, the team absolutely rose to the challenge!

Meg cruising to the finish!

Jordi on the PR train!

Tuesday started with the strength test, because we got thundered out, again. It went well, though! Congratulations to Brian for breaking the dips record (he did 79)! I broke the pull up record (I did 15).  Throughout, * denotes a PR.

Lucy – 233*

Steph – 222*

Gabby – 217*

Jackie – 185

Jordi – 183*

Robyn – 147

Natalie – 146

Meg – 120

Brian – 336*

Ian – 287*

Tim – 266*

Cam – 258

Charlie – 229

Matt – 219*

Graham – 216*

Natalie V2ing so strong

Steffi hammering!

We did the 3k that afternoon, which was tough in some very humid weather! Congratulations, Ian for being only one second off his PR! Very impressive considering the conditions.

Brian – 9:37

Tim – 10:02

Charlie – 10:05

Ian – 10:06

Matt – 10:45

Graham – 11:05

Cam – 11:19

Lucy – 11:17

Gabby – 11:55

Ian hauling to the finish

Jordi – 12:13

Steph – 12:15

Natalie – 12:23

Meg – 12:25

Emily – 13:18

Ben crushing it!

Matt lookin' snazzy!

We had a nice easy classic with speeds over at River Road on Wednesday. The calm before the storm! It was fun to be back to real practice.

Brian en route to a massive PR!

Kai's still classic skiing, but at least he's flying!

Graham looking snazzy too!

Thursday we did the 7.5/10k River Road skate TT. This one depends a lot on conditions. It was a bit chilly and there was some weather moving in; however, it was definitely better than last year, not as good as two years ago. Huge congratulations to Jordi and Brian for both PRing by over 3 minutes!!! 

Lucy – 23:17

Steph – 24:26*

Jordi – 25:46*

Robyn – 25:57

Natalie Jelley – 26:10

Gabby – 26:17

Meg – 27:28

Brian – 25:09*

Tim – 27:07

Ian – 27:56

Graham – 28:15*

Cam – 29:06

Charlie – 30:05

Matt – 32:18

Ben – 33:01

Charlie looking strong

On Friday, we did the double pole and the no pole test. This was one of the highlight of the week in terms of overall team performance, I would say. Super impressive! Although no records fell, we had Brian, Tim (classic skis), Kai (classic skis) were all within five seconds of the men’s record, and I was within five seconds of the women’s record. Also, congratulations to the whole men’s team for having the fastest average time since 2013 when the previous record was set and there was a slight tailwind.

Brian – 7:11*

Kai – 7:13

Tim – 7:16*

Ian – 8:17*

Graham – 8:23

Cam – 8:27

Charlie – 8:32

Ben – 8:34

Mat – 9:09

Lucy – 8:58*

Steph – 9:25

Gabby – 10:12*

Jordi – 10:19*

Natalie – 10:21

Robyn – 10:22

Jackie – 10:41* - tied PR

Meg – 12:52

Next, the no pole. Congrats to Brian for a new record! The men also had the fastest average time ever recorded (we’ve only been doing this one for a few years)! So speedy.

Brian – 8:03*

Tim – 8:38

Graham – 9:01

Ian – 9:24*

Charlie – 9:24

Cam – 9:35

Matt – 10:36*

Ben – 11:14

Lucy – 9:56

Natalie – 10:34

Jordi – 10:40

Steph – 10:47

Gabby – 11:07

Meg – 11:29

Cam skiing so well

Lastly, St. Regis. This day showed our strength as a team. A great way to end, good views and a whole lot of sore legs. Basically everything was tired and sore actually. However, we rose above the clouds and got some good photo shoots J And that’s all that really matters anyway, right? Congrats to Emily for PRing by over 3 minutes!!!  Also, congrats to all the women for having the fastest average time ever recorded (goes back to 2011)!

Tim – 32:43

Charlie – 33:54

Graham – 34:10

Ian – 34:22

Matt – 35:02

Cam – 35:58

Ben – 36:36

Lucy – 36:50

Steph – 38:16

Gabby – 38:22*

Jackie – 39:20

Natalie – 40:13

Jordi – 40:25

Meg – 41:30

Emily – 41:44*

We did Volt, our strength program, that afternoon and finished the week off with a fun and easy distance classic (2-2.5 hours on Sunday). It was a wild week, but it was amazing to see how well everyone handled it. People kept showing up with a great attitude every day, warming up well, cooling down, bopping in the van, and PRing. I mean, 25 PR’s in 5 days! Really cool to see. Also, congratulations to all our new members for doing so well! While they don’t have any PRs since they haven’t done the tests before, they're already bringing so much to the team, as evidenced by our amazing average times (and smiles). It’s gonna be a great year!

Smiles after a good week! (back l-r: Matt, Ian, Graham, Ben, Tim; front l-r: Cam and Charlie)

ALSO, congratulations again to Brian for qualifying to go to the National Training Group Camp in Park City. That’s why he didn’t run up a mountain with us. I guess that can be forgiven J Thanks to Em for taking some awesome pictures of the skate TT (she ran instead). And thanks to the coaches for getting us through the week! Keep an eye out for more introductions and tales from official practice!

Fastest girls EVER! (L-R: Natalie, Meg, Jordi, Emily, Lucy, Steph, Jackie, and Gabby)

Meet Jaden!

Hello friends!

My name is Jaden Phillips; I was born in Burlington, Vermont and grew up in Evergreen Colorado. This will be my first year on the SLU nordic team, and I started off this fall running cross country. I am a freshman here at SLU and am super excited to be a part of the team. Growing up, I spent my summers enjoying the ocean and racing 420s on the coast of Maine. In high school I played lacrosse, ran cross country and track, and skied.

Also, growing up in Colorado my family went out and adventured whenever possible, whether it be backpacking to hot springs in Conundrum or seeing how many days we could get downhill skiing. Every weekend, we went to find a new fun thing to do. On breaks we would find a fun new place and activity to do. Sometimes it would be mountain biking in Moab, Utah, or canyoneering in Corsica, France. Needless to say, if anyone is ever looking to go do something fun and new let me know! Over this past summer I worked as a sailing instructor at Dillon Marina, where we always had to hope the weather didn’t turn bad within seconds. Microbursts were always unpredictable, and as soon as they hit all of the young children would be in the water screaming. When I wasn’t at work, I was either training with Summit Nordic Ski Club, or driving the hour commute.

The transition to living in New York has been all exciting and good except for the humidity and heat. Coming from the dry weather of Colorado has been sweaty.