Blood, Sweat and Skiers

Lap City, lap lap city

2012-02-15T20:19:00.004-05:00

Snow in the North Country has been...nonexistent this year. We've still only skied at Higley once, but thanks to a grant we received earlier this year the team purchased a snowmobile and some equipment for a campus loop on our soccer fields. It proved to be pretty useful yesterday and today. Everything in sight is snowless and bare for miles, but in the far corner of the soccer practice fields is a patch of snow that has sat in the shade all winter and retained some of the white stuff. Yesterday Bob took out the new gear and groomed us up a small but very skiable stretch of fresh corduroy. The perfect amount of snow for some fast relay races and speeds, and it was refreshing to ski right from the equipment room without any van time. It'll be even better when we have enough snow to make a full course on campus.

It's Carni Crush time!

2012-02-12T19:23:00.007-05:00

I'll skip the stories about the last few races for a bit a focus on what everyone will be talking about regarding last weekend (aside from Tarling's squirrel incident), CARNI CRUSH! This year, aside from the usual personal crushes between skiers, each men's and women's team received another team of the opposite sex to do a team crush for. We were in charge of impressing the Midd girls, and decided to keep the tradition of musically-accompanied parodies after last year's wildly successful rendition of Billy Joel's "Piano Slam". Despite the warning to keep it "clean" and "grandma friendly" this year, Eric, Ziz and I went ahead and re-wrote the lyrics to John Denver's "Country Roads", skipping any innuendo and going straight to the vulgarity. It was a big hit, and there'll be Youtube video to come.

Preparing and performing our team Carni Crush song

After our performance it was on to the crowd mingling, where our guys team received personal pints of Ben and Jerry's from the Bowdoin girls (thanks Hannah) and a sexual cookbook from Harvard (interCOURSES). Sam gave me a nice card, and the biggest surprise was when Lucy Garrec, fresh off winning the girls race, crushed me with a card and poem about this blog...(I don't know if you actually read this, but if you do, happy Valentines Day Lucy)

After wussing out last year, I worked up the courage to give Dartmouth's Erika Flowers the crush I had planned out 12 months earlier...the only conversation I'd had with her (when we gave her a ride back from a race at Nationals junior year) involved some talk about pancake making, so along with a poem professing my love (with a phone number at the bottom, of course) I gave Erika a plate of homemade pink, heart-shaped pancakes and a bottle of Vermont's finest syrup. She texted me later and said she'd hang out with me when Ryan, Ben, Steve and I move to her hometown of Bozeman, Montana next year.

The pancakes for Erika, and the recital of my poem..

Basically everything worked out as well as it could have. Except for the racing, but that's another story...

On knowing

2012-01-30T14:34:00.003-05:00

The race played out before me in exactly the way I had envisioned it would in the weeks, days, hours and minutes prior. As I skied around before the race began I knew I would do well. Sometimes you simply know, like the time I stopped in the cold night air on the way to my car after waxing skis before the Jericho Pursuit race my Junior year of High School. I stood quietly for a few moments, watched my breath curl and smoke in the yellow wash of a streetlight, and knew I would win the next day. The night before many good races and many bad races I have paused outside in the cold to watch my breath, but I never knew the way I knew that night.

But on Saturday, I once again felt and lived my race before it happened. I was calmed and near-mute. Dixon called my name in the starting pen, and I only turned and nodded in silence. The gun went off and I started near the front of the pack and simply stayed there. Nothing more, nothing less, but exactly enough to do what I knew, and had always known, I could.

UNH Carnival 20k Skate: 16th place

NEW SLU

2012-01-24T09:00:00.006-05:00

Last Saturday night I was driving alone on a barren stretch of North Country road between Champlain and Malone. I had turned the radio off, and the dashboard lights down; the only visible stretch of land was the pavement my headlights cut through along the straight, open road ahead. More light wouldn't have shown much else, however. This section of New York is cold, open and bare. The mountains stand far to the South and West, and the St. Lawrence river is a long drive North. Roads this straight and land this simple forces exploration to be introspective, so the events of the weekend raced back and forth through my mind.

In many ways it's been a quick four years here, but not in every respect. My first carnival seems almost a lifetime ago, but I still remember it vividly. And why not? Just like last weekend the first college races took place at Rumford, and exactly four years later things seem similar. On that first day I remember coming in to sit at the scoreboard and watch the names of other races pop up in electronic green lettering, one by one bumping [ADAM TERKO - SLU] down the results list 65 places. Each carnival after that, for two years, was almost the same. 64th, 56th, 55th, 65th, 60th. I remember a story and battle for each of those 50s and 60s results. For some reason, I kept putting myself through that agony...

Friday's 10k skate

So when promising freshmen Austin Meng saw his name in 55th after Friday's 10k skate race, I knew what he was feeling. The next day was something I've never seen before, though. As I watched Meng put in an incredible surge of pace and pass five skiers in the last kilometer of the mass start, I almost smiled. Or, rather, I would have smiled had I not been in intense pain of my own. I could see Meng sprinting for 21st place in the lanes ahead of me as I slid across the line in 26th. I hardly had skied over to Meng in the finish area to give a hug and a overzealous "F#&K YES!" when Eric came across in 29th. On any other day I probably would've been disappointed to have stamped up yet another mid-20s race when I know I can be in the teens. But after Eric's season last year, and Meng's first Carnival race in the 50s, how could I be mad? Both of these guys had gone through the same struggles I had, and were already reaching breakthroughs. If that's not motivating enough for another breakthrough of my own, I don't know what is.

There's always a lot of talk about the "Big 3" on this team, and I'm probably one of the biggest perpetrators. Those days are over now. Quick math tells me that this is the first race in at least 5 years where SLU has put all top three of it's scorers in the top 30, and NOT ONE of those scorers has been Ziz, Beano or Wolcott. It's a NEW SLU ERA, and I can't wait for the mass start this weekend...

T-minus

2012-01-19T16:21:00.002-05:00

Just a few hours till the first Carnival...the last few days were spent at the AMC Lodge at Pinkham Notch, essentially a base camp for Mt Washington. It was a perfect place for a pre-carnival camp: No cell service, mountains all around, and 50k of skiing at Jackson, NH a few miles away. Now we're back at the Riverview in Bethel, skiing at Rumford. Game time!

Race time

2012-01-15T14:54:00.003-05:00

Heading out in a few to Gorham, NH, then to Jackson for our pre-Carnival team camp this week. Only a few days till the show starts! Before I take off, here's some pictures from Sleepy Hollow yesterday. You could say they got a little snow...They were only able to open for 3 days this season prior to this snowfall, so if you get a chance go there for your ski! Costs less than Trapps and Bolton, the trails are better maintained, and they actually groom the snow! Possibly one of the best places to ski in NE, but I'm biased since I've trained there for at least 10 years now...Enjoy the pictures of what winter actually looks like in Vermont when it shows itself.

Some snowy trees [insert Robert Frost poem here]
The climb to the cabin
Niiiice tracks

Final prep

2012-01-12T07:50:00.003-05:00

Carnival season is RIGHT around the corner. Just a week and a day away. After driving home from Rumford I took the next day entirely off. Entirely. I don't think I left the kitchen counter. I didn't race a ton at Nats, but hotel rooms and gas stations are probably the least healthy places skiers spend time in. So I gave the body a break.

Lazing around in Shelburne wasn't hard because to date there's still been no snow on the ground yet this winter. Luckily VT skiers have been blessed with Craftsbury, Bolton and Trapps. Plenty of options to get in some good training to eek out that last bit of speed before the main course of the season kicks in. Trapps has 45k open on great conditions, so for a few days I made the trip. $14 only worth a trail pass in dire times, and these were such times. Eric, Jake Hollenbach, Eli and I had a great 2+ hour ski the other day, and we never took the same trail twice. I'm now up at Bolton Valley in my dads condo.

I've put off writing it here but there's no way around it really: My parents are getting divorced, and my dad is currently living in a trailside condo at Bolton, about 5 steps from the XC trails. This is a ski blog, so family talk is irrelevant and I say this only to give context to my occasional stints up on the mountain. So there you have it.

The snow situation is great here: enough cover for race skis, though the grooming is suspect (yesterday they were grooming at 1pm, the warmest part of the day. Also, I'm pretty sure you need to put weight on the classic track-setter in order to get tracks deeper than a quarter-inch...) Currently it's gusting and snowing a good amount. This is when it helps to live right next to the trails, and not face a drive up the treacherous access road for a ski. Living in the heart of a ski village is a sure way to get focused for the season: there's little to do other than ski, use the Nordic Center's sauna. The only downside? The back of the condo looks out on the grooming barn...but I guess there's worse experiences than being woken up to the headlights and growl of a Pisten Bully in the morning.

Oh, and there's all the steezy skiers littering the place...

Winning

2012-01-09T08:21:00.003-05:00

Photo by Flyingpointroad
All proceeds go to National Nordic Foundation

Nationals wrap

2012-01-08T14:42:00.006-05:00

The 15k skate was a strange race. Unlike the sprint, I wasn't nervous at all. I started calmly and just never sped up. I didn't do poorly, but I didn't ski great either. I was just literally on cruise control, skiing smooth the whole race but never pushing it to the next level. That's why Nationals is such a strange thing: for the best in the country it's the biggest race of the year. But for me, the pressure is almost nonexistent. There's nothing to win OR lose, really. So with that in mind a little too much I just went out and skied a solid but unspectacular 15k. When the carnival rolls around you can be rest assured that lollygagging has to stop.

The biggest news of late? The Lustgarten brothers just went 2-for-2 in the last Junior races. That's right: Ben won the Junior 10k classic, and one just race later Eric won the Junior Classic Sprint. Wondertwin powers! Twin it to win it! SLU now has a National Champion among its ranks!

Caroline also had a great 20k classic, and the men's 30k proved the race-of-the-week if you were a spectator. Here are a bunch of pictures from various races.

Wolcott in the 30k
Hegman in the 30k
Pack tactics in the 30k
Artistic feed-zone interpretation
Diggins/Gaiazova in the 10k (Diggins skied up High School hill while winning, turned to Brian Fish and asked "split?" calmly. He replied "race leader". She calmly looked at him and said "How much?" and then kept winning by over a minute. Debatable whether or not she was trying.
Pat O'Brien is out-lunged by Brian Gregg. 30k skate.
Jennie Bender had a great week

Wax attack

2012-01-05T16:31:00.002-05:00

Race report and photos from today coming. First though, this might be the most complicated wax preparation tip ever assembled. Also, all the talk about 'thin mint' is making my mouth water. Here's Toko's info for tomorrow:

US XC Nats: For tomorrow's mass start classic races, we recommend the following: Women - LF Moly followed by HF Blue. I anticipate you'll be racing on JS Blue, but we'll see. Men - LF Moly followed by HF Blue/Red mix. I anticipate you'll be racing on JS Blue/Red mix. We will test all top coats again in the am. Kick - A thick application of Base Green ironed in, smoothed, covered with more Base Green, corked, covered with Carbon Mint, corked, covered with thin Base Green, corked, covered with thin Mint, corked, working your way to the inside of the pocket (build the pocket to the middle) and so on. About 10 thin layers sandwiched total. It has been truly super. Durability tested and it showed basically no wear at all after 12km. Will test kicks in the am, but this is what I am anticipating. Men might be the same with with Nordic Blue sandwiched in. Thanks. Cabin #3 (we have Base Green, Nordic Blue, and Carbon Mint as well as all of the HF and JS waxes).

Nationals Sprint

2012-01-03T15:51:00.002-05:00

Top honors go to Amanda in the women's field, Teo in the guys race, and Eric who made the Junior guys heats. Today was clear, cold and fast. Fast racing and fun spectating for those of us who didn't make heats (that means everyone but Eric..). After his 18th last year turned a few heads it was no longer a surprise to see Dixon nab 30th spot in the open heats. Unfortunately he never was able to move up and was relegated to the back of his heat. Still, 30th at NATIONALS?? Here are some pictures of random people in random order.

Skiing near Rumford

2012-01-02T15:42:00.006-05:00

Notice an increase in updates lately? That's because the typical Rumford symptoms have set in: postponed races, low snow and boredom. It's almost a mirror of last year: early races pushed back, warm temps and "1000 Ways to Die" marathons on Spike TV. We found snow today though, and while everyone else was out running on Route 2 we were hitting the speeds hard in preparation for tomorrows rescheduled sprint. Black Mountain did a great job of making snow, so even though the temps and rain ruined things for a day, we should be all set to go tomorrow.

Teo took us on a sweet icy trail run at Great Glen, after which we tossed on the ski boots for a ski on their loop. 200m meters of perfectly-groomed and rock-solid PistenBully tracks. The loop wasn't great for a distance ski, but we got in what we needed: some hard speeds and sprint starts to ramp up the speed again for tomorrows (cold!) race. Stay tuned.

Meng reps all his Salomon equipment he got from his new sponsorship
Can't get anywhere in Rumford without your athlete credentials! Just kidding, nobody gives a crap about them.

Nationals Video Update

2012-01-02T09:28:00.003-05:00

Because you thought Rumford was boring last year, when there were actually RACES to go to.

Skis for sale

2011-12-31T16:00:00.003-05:00

Billy Mays here,

Thanks to the ever-dwindling budget of the College skier and the questionably economic/employment/lifestyle status ahead of me, I've decided to part with a pair of skis. The Salomon Equipe 10 Skate skis (you may know them as the "Stealth Bombers") that have been sitting in my basement forever need a good home. There's nothing wrong with them other than the fact that they're just flexed too heavily for me, and as such I've always almost ended up racing on my Fischers. They've seen a lot of love, a touch of Caldwell magic and a few heaping blocks of glide wax in their day. You can read all about them, see more pictures and purchase them through craigslist right here:

CLICK HERE

But that's not all! As a thanks to those who've followed my endeavors through the years on this site...if you want to buy these skis and you mention "Blood, Sweat and Skiers" in the email, I'll knock $20 off the price. That's right, 200 bones. What a wonderful infomercial deal! Get 'em while they're hot!

Nats: The Big Show Round 2

2011-12-30T13:25:00.009-05:00

Oh, and we be Tweetin'. Read more about that at the bottom.

Yesterday afternoon was the last hard workout before Nationals. Race-prep classic intervals at Bolton. Starting at the base of Broadway (really just a long groomed access road that mirrors the actual Bolton access road) I skied uphill classic intervals. 4x2 minutes hard with 1 minute rest in between, followed by a 10 minute recovery period and another set of 4x2. It was tough, but I really wanted to get in a classic intensity session before yet another week of skate-only racing...

That's right. NATIONALS! Sunday Schliggity Schleric, Amanda and I will be setting off from Btown en route to Rumford, picking up Teo along the way. Last year the season began and ended in this beautiful part of Maine, and it's crazy to think we're going full cycle again. Sadly, I'm sure it'll feel like my final season of racing will be over and done with faster than you can say "Chummy Broomhall", so there's nothing left to do other than soak up every minute of it. Oh, and race as fast as possible.

About Twitter:

Yeah, this site is now officially Twit-enabled: TERK0Skier (that's TERK(zero)skier). I held out on this for a while, but broke down for a few reasons. The first is the fact that people (mostly Steve) get pissed at me when I don't update this site every few hours. Thanks to Jared's suggestion the other day we've got Twitter all up in here. Now that there's a Twitter feed everyone in the whole world can know what's going on in my amazingly interesting life every single "hour of the waking day", as Ryan says. That should keep the masses happy.

I'm also not sure yet if I can update the Twitter from my phone (which still flips open, the kind they don't make anymore), but if I'm at a race and know the results before they're on the interwebs (like Nationals) maybe I can attempt to provide some insight. Also, for those that know me and my ski fandom, this will allow me to keep more up to date on my favorite Canadian skiers Devon Kershaw (who I want to be when I grow up) and his Olympic-champion girlfriend and megababe Chandra Crawford (who I want to marry when I grow up). So there you have it: The blog is hip, fresh and ready for 2012.

Oh, and for those who want to get pumped for Maine, here's some Spose:

The original "power strap"

2011-12-29T11:10:00.004-05:00

It makes perfect sense: The year I decide to finally get some new skate boots, duct tape ones become all the rage. And yeah, they did kick ass. Some of us can't afford to blow $300 on a new pair of boots every year, oh no!

Sam Tarling's Annual Christmas TT Extravaganza Roadtrip Event

2011-12-28T07:52:00.005-05:00

Since I don't have my camera cord I'll just steal another shot from Sam to show just how nice the skiing has gotten lately in VT.

VT was finally gifted a nice blanket of snow in the days leading up to Christmas. Ironically, right as the snow came I was leaving for two days in Albany to visit family, but it was pretty nice to drive home from snowless NY and take my car straight up to Sleepy for a long skate ski on groomed trails. I even got a good race effort in the next day, with Sam Tarling's World Famous Craftsbury Christmas TT on tap. The former CVU/MMU gang of Jared, Pete, Dixon and I showed up ready to rock. Pete didn't race, but the rest of us did our best to represent our respective schools and...got beat handily by the Dartmouth guys.

With a short 7k course (four laps of the Eastern Cup's six) and tight times, I was still happy with the race. Thanks to GMVS coach Justin Beckwith, who timed the whole event, everyone got lap splits after the race. Though I think I did a better job of holding my speed, skiing smoothly and using powerful movements (skiing on real trails and snow for a week will do that) I fell into the same trap as the Eastern Cup in starting too fast. Its interesting to see exactly where things went wrong: The first four guys held their speed (in the low 4-minute range) for all four laps. I held that speed for two, and then dropped off pretty quick.

I said after the Eastern Cup that I needed to find 30 seconds to be skiing where I need to be. I'm still not there yet, as I was once again 30 seconds out of where I want to be skiing. Hopefully some more on-snow time, intervals, and racing mixed with good rest will get me to that level. It's still crazy to think that I'm only looking for a little more than 30 seconds to be skiing with the Dartmouth guys, when only a few years ago I was looking to cut down 3 or 4 minutes worth of deficit.

Interesting note: Look at the consistency the "Sams" pulled off: Tarling put every lap within 8 seconds of each other, and Marshall put every lap within 4(!) seconds. THAT'S tight pacing.

Lapsbury on repeat

2011-12-22T15:28:00.004-05:00

Starting last year I made it my goal to not half-ass it when it came to finding snow. This is one of the most important training periods of the year, and a few years ago I would waste it by screwing around at Mt Philo, skating on snowy roads and doing sub-par workouts all because I didn't want to fork out the dough for a trail pass. It's a sad fact that in this sport you have to spend a lot of cash, and that's never been more true than right now. There are only two training options available if you want to ski in Vermont: Craftsbury or the Range, and I'm not even sure the Range wants me to be publicizing this. I didn't even know about the Range until today, so Craftsbury was my only option. That golf course ski at Sugarbush was good for a day, but that's what I used to spend all winter break seeking out. It makes for a good adventure, but not the kind of high-quality training that makes you faster.

For the past two day's I've spent more than I care to share on gas to get to the 1.8k (they've expanded marginally since the races last weekend) loop at Craftsbury. I've made it worth the price. Yesterday Sam and I drove up early and I met Connor for some hard classic intervals. 5x4 minutes level four. The entire workout was an hour and a half, and roughly 15 laps. I packed a lunch and chilled in the lodge for a while until the afternoon, then got in another hour of skating, roughly 12-13 laps. Lap lap lap lap lap lap. Drive past Cabot Annex Store, buy Smokey Bacon Cheddar, drive home. Repeat.

Today I drove up again, walked to the lodge again, put my boots on again, and skied laps again. 2 hours of skating, and I didn't bother to count laps. If CVU's new uniforms weren't enough of a reminder of how far removed I am from High School skiing, the packed crowds on the loop today were. There were about 4 school teams, and everyone else imaginable; from toddlers to Bill Kochers to college skiers (Dartmouth, Colby, SLU, St Mikes, Bowdoin) to professional skiers (well, just the Green Team) to the US Ski Team (well, just Skyler) to some very intense master blasters. It was honestly a slalom out there. I tried to do some nopole skating, but gave up after 2 laps because poles were absolutely necessary to narrowly scoot by people every 5 seconds. Things got significantly better after lunch, however: if you're going to ski, I suggest getting there at 12:30. Also, HUGE, HUGE, HUGE thanks to Craftsbury for making this happen. I'm sure it would be real easy for them to close the loop and keep it open only for their own skiers, but everyone and anyone is allowed and that's great. The Green Team was doing intervals this morning right alongside (and occasionally directly through) the groups of youngsters; what better role models could you have?

Still...

A brief note---3 things you should never wear while skiing:
-Pajama pants (even if they have skiers on them)
-Forward-facing triathlon hats...okay, any triathlon hat
-Windpants/sweatpants/jeans/cords. If you are over 50 and have a beard, Carhartts are acceptable

Tomorrow it's off to the Range for some shorter but faster intensity. If all goes well I should be able to get up there without being shot on site. I do drive a suburban tank-mobile, after all.

Snowhunters: Episode 1

2011-12-20T19:17:00.004-05:00

Craftsbury put on a snow-production clinic last weekend at the Eastern Cup. Unfortunately, Craftsbury is the only ski area with real skiing being offered, and it's a haul for me to get there. Every blog on the interwebs is focused on searching for snow and skiing wherever and whenever possible. A run on the roads and lift just didn't seem fair for December 20th, so today I decided there was more to do with my morning hours than drinking coffee and refreshing the fasterskier homepage. I packed a bunch of old skis in the car and spent almost 2 hours driving wherever I thought skiable snow might be found. For all those in the area, here's a complete report on skiing conditions near the Burlington/Waterbury area.

Bolton Valley:
I knew from experience last week that Bolton's "Might Might", aka Bunny Slope, was covered and skiable in a 45 second loop, but the mountain is now open, including night skiing. That means showing up at the right time when nobody else is around.

Cochran's:
My first stop this morning was the tiny but legendary Cochran's ski hill. I could see the manmade snow on the slopes from the interstate, and the area isn't slated to open until this weekend so I thought skiing some laps might be allowed. It wouldn't have mattered, however, as the snow at the base was still lumpy and hadn't been moved around.

Harwood:
I hopped back in the car and headed to Waterbury, and up the small mountain pass road to Harwood High School. The school sits at the highest point on a small gap in the Green Mountains Route 100 (Vermont's legendary "Skier's Highway") . The school has 5k of ski trails on campus, and I had a few HS races back there in the day. I knew chances were slim, but I thought maybe the altitude would give way to some ground cover. Nothing but grass.

Sugarbush:
I continued down Route 100 and into Waitsfield, and snow began to come down heavily as I charged up the Sugarbush access road. I had read online of GMVS attempting to find snow there that day, so I gave it a shot. The mountain was actually buzzing with people, and it didn't look like there was a ton of places to actually ski around. As I headed out from the mountain though, I noticed an enticing sign...

Sugarbush Golf Course:
Just like it's New York sister site Star Lake, Sugarbush's high-elevation golf course provided just enough snow to classic ski around on the pair of beater waxless classic boards I had with me. After finding my way onto the back holes the skiing was actually pretty good, not to mention scenic. Somehow I was able to glide over the frosted grass, and I got in a good hour of on-snow time. Word!

Stowe Notch Road:
This was my other destination, had I chosen to go North on RT 100 instead of South. I got word from Lauren after returning that the Notch Road (the closed section of highway from Stowe to Smugglers Notch, found at the base of Stowe Mtn Resort) was excellent. Apparently skiing there is sweet, and I'll probably head there after tomorrow's double session at Craftsbury. Classic intervals in the morning, and a skate ski in the afternoon. Golf course skiing is alright, but I have to at least take advantage of some real classic tracks while they're available.

Oh, and I did get a lift in this afternoon, anyway. Here are some pictures:

Cochran's had snow, it just wasn't really spread yet
Sugarbush, meanwhile, actually looked like winter
Barely enough snow, but nice scenery
Gotta have a pair of old beater waxless boards!
Looking down a fairway
Getting some striding in. Half grass, half snow
Panorama of the golf course, with Sugarbush in the background

Lapsbury Eastern Cup Opener

2011-12-19T12:41:00.001-05:00

With only one final exam early last week, Bogden and I were able to make the trek to VT on Wednesday in hopes of getting in some quality on-snow time before the first Eastern Cup races in Craftsbury. After a day of easy skiing followed by a hard set of on-snow intervals at Star Lake all signs of snow disappeared. Usually if there isn't snow in Canton by this time there's bound to be some in the Green Mountains. But as we drove East, Ben and I saw nothing but grass and trash along the highway. We relocated our training to Bolton Valley and were able to ski in a few circles around the kiddie slope where snow had been blown. After 15 minutes and about 30 laps we gave up and went running.

Unfortunately, Craftsbury wasn't in a much better spot. Thanks to a ton of work they formed a challenging 1.5k loop on manmade snow, and got enough of a dusting to make it appear as if winter actually existed. I didn't race the first day, but the skate race on Sunday was a good effort. Usually the first Eastern Cups are a disaster for me, and I'm often finishing in the 70s or worse. Last year I was 65th or something, and came into form to post my best season come Carnival-time. I can only hope my 42nd place is an indicator that I'm a notch above last year, but the lessons I'll take away from this race have more to do with strategy and pacing than fitness, which I now know is still alright despite a snowless few weeks post-Quebec camp. With 230 racers, the 1.5k loop was bound to get crowded. Thanks to good points last year I was seeded 37th, and started right as a nice pack was lapping through. I sprinted up to the back of Welly Ramsey (MWSC), Fred Bailey (MWSC), Doug DeBold (Midd) and Jordan Beutow (Bates). These are good skiers and I should have tagged on with them until they finished one lap before my last one. I felt like the man though, and couldn't resist fighting aggressively past all four of them and sprinting the whole first lap, trying to break and drop them. Unfortunately that pace was clearly only manageable for one lap. By lap 2 the group had caught me again, and I found myself hanging on to the back of their train for dear life. They must've all been pretty amused by that; the cocky kid who sprinted by them and thought he was so fast was now trying desperately to keep up. I hung on to them for maybe a lap and a half, but one I lost them it was all over. I was all alone and was caught on the last lap by my friend and very fast competitor Dylan Grald (UVM), who started 30 seconds behind me. Steve was taking splits and informed me that I was even with or ahead of Dylan until the last 3 laps (2nd half) of the race. When Dylan caught me I hung onto him into the finish. Looking at the results was excruciating. I knew I could've stuck with Welly, Fred and Jordan if I hadn't been so stupid on the first lap, and when I saw their placing I cringed. Those three guys had all stuck together and finished 12th, 13th and 15th. Dylan was 22nd. So...I went from 20th to 40th in less than 5k. This isn't the first time I've blown up, or the worst. Last year at the UVM carnival I started out extremely fast and went from something like 16th to 28th in the space of 2.5k. Live and learn. It's good to know that I'm in shape, but I need more races under my belt to get my pacing nailed down. Sadly, it looks like unless it dumps a few feet in the next few days I'll have to be driving an hour and a half to Craftsbury whenever I want to ski...

For all the technique scrutinizers out there, here's a series of some of the top-ranked and other guys in their most powerful doublepole positions. From L-R: Bryan Cook (CGRP), Nils Koons (Craftsbury), Eric Wolcott (SLU->CXC Elite), Eric Lustgarten (SLU)

Starting gate game-faces, L-R: Wolcott, Connor, Bogden, Teo

Skyler, proving even $500 poles will bend if you're strong enough

Getting tired and barely clinging to the group of Welly, Fred, Jordan and Doug.

TerkTech self-groomer

2011-12-10T16:58:00.002-05:00

Skied at Star Lake on a few inches this morning. I kind of wished it was a little more packed out there, so when we got back to school I went back to the dump behind the SLU facilities plant and built a little device to test out tomorrow morning...

GoSnow

2011-12-10T07:48:00.002-05:00

It's 25 degrees outside, the sun is bright orange-red and rising over the trees, and there's two fresh inches of powder out the door. Happy holidays from Blood, Sweat and Skiers!
Did I mention we're going skiing today?

The Golden Era

2011-12-08T10:10:00.004-05:00

Last spring gear supplier Mt. Borah opened submissions for a "Gear for a Year" contest. The rules were simple: Design a nordic race suit with a basic template. The winning design would receive 20 free pairs of that suit, along with 20 pairs of matching warmup jackets. Total value? $6,200. Of course, we went haywire with the idea. Doodling in class now had a purpose, as Bogden, George and I printed out stacks of blank templates and drew our hearts out. Eric's dad, a graphic designer, even jumped aboard and sent in a sweet professional-looking copy of his suit design. I don't have Bogden's designs on file, but here are some pictures of what we created. Each suit is labeled by creator; click on the image for a larger version.

Needless to say we got pretty competitive amongst ourselves. I was even going to put up these pictures earlier and install a poll for people to vote on their favorite, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work and gave up (feel free to comment in the comments section, though). Plus, that would be letting our competitors in on our designs.

It didn't take long after the deadline for me to receive this email last week:

"Good morning Adam,

Congratulations!! Design 3 that was submitted was the winning design from the college category for our Gear for a Year contest!! From effort to creativity, we thought that St. Lawrence University deserved to take the grand prize, and design # 3 was our favorite. :-)"

BOOM! George's design (black, white and red, top right) was chosen as the winner (click HERE for the press release link)! Thanks to our total of 8 submissions we were somewhat confident that one had to win, and in 7 weeks SLU will have a total of $6,200 worth of new swag. We even elected to change the black to a very dark brown, allowing us to use the suits in school competition. Can you say Day 1 and Day 2 Carnival suits?

In addition to that good news, we received word only 2 days later from SLU that a grant Leah, Bob Washo and I worked on was accepted. The team is also now the proud owner of a blank $5000 check to purchase a snowmobile and grooming equipment to create some of our own trails on the soccer fields and running trails right on campus! Not only will this allow us to eliminate some travel time on certain weekday practices, we can start to make nordic skiing a more established event within the SLU and greater Canton community. Clinics, events, rental skate equipment...this is just the beginning of our vision of bringing SLU back to the golden era of the Snowbowl, when skiing was a mainstream event in the North Country, not a niche pasttime. Here's to skiing..not just a sport, a way of life!

Movember redux

2011-12-06T10:56:00.004-05:00

The most important pictures from Canada are surely the shots that capture our team's feeble attempts at facial hair growth. We were definitely outdone by UVM, but our Movember (a campaign to grow mustaches and raise awareness for men's health) was still entertaining. I didn't get a photo of everyone's complete mustached transformation (maybe Connor can put up his collection as well) but here is a sampling. Some were barely noticeable, while others were downright scary. I myself am a double-edged sword. My facial hair comes in blond and light, yet thanks to my dad's genetics I have quite a thick and rich mustache. As soon as camp ended though, I made sure to get rid of it quick before returning to real civilization. The look definitely isn't for everyone. Brace yourself before you scroll down:

Of course, the 'stache had to be kept even for the race...here are Connor's photos from the TT:

Rollerbound

2011-12-05T09:08:00.005-05:00

Remember snow? Remember snowflakes, snow forts, snowballs, snow storms, snow days and snow shovels? Use your imagination, because there’s not much of that kind of stuff anywhere to jar your memory these days. The 1-2.5k manmade race loop is the current standard for Nordic ski conditions everywhere from Quebec to Montana to Norway; college skiing to Supertours to World Cups. At the top of our 1k loop in Canada there was a giant snowman twice my size and three times my width. The first time I skied past it I stuck out my ski pole and stabbed the snowman right in the gut, expecting it to bounce off the apparent icy surface. The pole plunged through the snowman, the whole basket buried in crunchy Styrofoam. I swore, yanked the pole out with another audible crunch and skied on, ignoring the crown at the large dining room window adjacent to the trail who had probably just watched the whole scene.

Back in Canton the only Styrofoam to encounter while skiing are the old disposable coffee cups and fast food boxes along the roadside. We’re still rollerskiing, taking our shirts off in the hot sun and rolling up our spandex wishing we’d worn shorts. It would be even more aggravating if we knew that UVM was training on snow up at Trapps in the Green Mountains, or if Bates and Colby were skiing on loops in Rumford or Sugarloaf, but everyone is in the same boat. Practice is noticeably dreary. Everyone is in a bad mood, and frequent snow flurries that give way to rain and sun only make everyone more volatile.

But there’s hope. You know the situation is grim when Ethan sends Zach out to drive for a few hours around the North Country in a feeble search for any white groundcover, but things might change this week. Not in Canton, of course, but Star Lake. These few weeks are the time of year for Star Lake, a tiny Adirondack village on a high plateau deep in the woods. Up on this rise sits a tiny golf course, once also the home to a tiny ski hill (see HERE), discernible now only by a few rope tow poles. But at this time of year, when it rains in Canton, it snows in Star Lake. Ethan can take a snowmobile and small grooming tracker up in the morning and lay out a track, and we can be skiing that afternoon. The forecast is iffy this week, but potentially just the right conditions for this very scenario. When we get up to Star Lake maybe I’ll make a small offering to the Snow Gods in thanks: a little white snowman, rolled and packed with freshly fallen snow.

Skiing on personally-groomed tracks at Star Lake, exactly one year from yesterday.