Adapt and Overcome and You Will Surely See the Sights.

Day two of our Thanksgiving Training Camp dawned bright and early with a 7am trip to Commons then a 7:30 departure to…oh wait. Where are we going? We were planning on going to Mount Washington, but too much snow and ice changed those plans so we headed to a road just outside of Bethel for a classic ski up to the mountain, Old Speck, for a hike. The ski was gorgeous; it started a little chilly, but was still beautiful especially because there were very few cars. As we climbed, there was some ice on the road and snow on the sides, which reminded us that winter is coming. After passing many signs for different parking lots and waterfalls and somewhere called “Moose Cave,” we got to final destination #1. After a quick lunch, complete with sandwiches, cookies, and brownies, we got ready to hike/ run Old Speck. We were unsure if there were hunters in the area, so we tried our best to not look like deer, and avoided wearing white hats and headbands. We went up the mountain and saw some beautiful views of various mountains. The rocks started to get slippery as we went up and about an hour in, the girls turned around, but the boys were still set on their summit bid. We all reunited back in the parking lot for some more food and the trip back to Bates. Our post dinner entertainment for the evening was watching an awesome snowboard movie The Art of Flight, which probably got everyone even more pumped up for some snow!

Who needs snow in Canada? I'd rather have a double session of kicking butt and taking names.

Today turned out to be jam packed with strong racing turnouts, good mental attitudes and a serious amount of Bobcat pride. The team piled into the vans at a leisurely 8:00am this morning, headed to a skate rolle-rski sprint race against Bowdoin at Pineland Farms. The races ended up going really well, with Bates skiers stealing the top three places for both men and women. The sprints today gave everyone on the team a chance to realize how strong and competitive we’ve become in the last few months of training, as well as what things we can work on to get ready for the upcoming racing season. And as for those polar bears, I think they were reminded that a bobcat is a ferocious beast, and when you let it run free there’s no telling what it might accomplish.

After returning to campus and spending a good amount of time at lunch, luckily it was all-you –can-eat Commons day (again), it was time for a friendly game of football. In the first annual Turkey Bowl 2011, the girls stepped up their game and scored several early touchdowns. The boys ended up catching back up to us, but with a huge amount of spirit and strategic guidance from coach Dylan we held them of and the game may have ended with a tie (the results are controversial).

In the words of coaches Becky and Dylan, today the entire team showed a whole lot of heart. With times like these, who needs snow in Canada? This was an excellent start to Thanksgiving break.

T.T.F.N.

-Caroline

Go East, Young Bobcat

This weekend the team took a brief trip “down east” (I still don’t know how that makes sense) to Acadia to get away from campus for a bit and get some solid training in. Friday evening we pulled into our digs - the “Winter Haven” - with the ever-generous Milliken family waiting for us at the door. Becky and Dylan passed out goodie bags of new gear, and everyone was looking good as they tried it on before bed...that probably wasn’t just the clothes though.

Saturday morning we went for a team jog along the beach (in matching new apparel, of course) and rolled into the national park to do a skate time trial up Cadillac Mountain. It was a mere fifteen minutes into our warm-up when the law showed up to shut down our endeavor, the white park ranger Suburban screeching to a halt with lights flashing, idling during the interrogation (shouldn’t they be a little more conscientious?):

“Are you with Bates College?”

“Umm...yeah.” [Panting from an L4 warmup piece, wearing 100% new, Bates-logoed clothing]

“You know you aren’t allowed to rollerskate [not what we were doing] in the park?”

“Umm...no?”

“Your van is parked on Cadillac, right? Go back there right now.”

“Umm...okay.”

After some deft legal maneuvering by Dylan and Becky, we escaped the authorities and made our way to another road for some hard - but probably less exciting - intensity.

The afternoon consisted of wood-stacking, lobster-eating (in the “traditional” way - boiled in seawater over a wood fire on the beach and cracked with a nice-sized rock), and the Acadia Bowl, which saw the men’s team taking on the girls, who were aided by Dylan, Tucker, Tess and one-hand-touch downs. Despite this formidable opposition, the boys pulled out a win as the sun set, turning the view of the harbor orange - it coulda been a TV show.

Tired warriors were treated to a spectacular dinner and a long-rehearsed rendition of Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Wagon Wheel,” with Jordan on the fiddle, Dylan on the guitar and pretty much everyone on vocals.

The next morning we rose early and went for a (totally legal) OD run, starting outside of the park and hitting summits on our way in. The girls headed up and over Sergeant Peak to Penobscot Ridge and down to Jordan Pond; the guys opted to take a slightly more roundabout route, with a casual six peaks bagged on the day, including the addition of Cadillac after reaching Jordan Pond. It was gorgeous: 50 degrees, sunny, and hardly windy at all. Oh - the views were alright too.

All in all, the weekend definitely didn’t suck. ENORMOUS thanks go to Peter, Linzee, Lucas and the whole Milliken family for their incredible generosity - we can’t wait to do it again!

HALLOWINTER

The week following Rangeley we kept it rolling with another big one, replete with traditional Lost Valley Wednesday intervals and some long, cold threshold rollerski pieces Saturday at Pineland under some rather ominous clouds.

On Saturday night, as costumes were being donned about campus for the Halloween dance (the men's team all toga'd up as Greek Gods, naturally), we were blessed with a solid half-foot of snow. This meant that early Saturday morning, as the rest of campus slumbered from the night's festivities, we were up and on skis. Unfortunately there wasn't quite enough white stuff to make a trip to Pineland reasonable (but a bit too much to make it quick).

We had to "settle" for a game of skis-on speedball in lieu of our planned over-distance roll to Freeport for the 2nd Annual Fuller Family Ski'n'Shoot. Sunday is still OD day, though, so after 2.5 hours of fierce competition and no-pole skating on the baseball field, we caved to the smell of bacon wafting over from Commons - besides, Dylan had told us that it was all-you-can-eat day (Caroline was ecstatic).

Unofficial MVP honors for the match go to Connor "Condor" Regan for his very physical head-to-head play against co-MVP Sean "Get At Me Condor!" Woods.

Unfortunately, we were so caught up in good times and the competitive instinct to catch any photos, but don't worry - the blog won't remain boring and wordy for long. This weekend we head to Acadia - thank you Milliken Family! - for some relaxation...but mostly training, including a time trial up the Cadillac Mountain access road.

Stay Tuned.
-Filly