Everything We've Done Since Rangeley in a Nutshell

Wow, the Bates Nordic Blog has not been updated since Rangeley camp! This is probably (no, most definitely) a result of us being so busy during November and early December. Once again, better late than never!

It's Christmas Eve and there are white flakes falling from the sky in the Sierra. For the first time after four years of drought, California will have a white Christmas. That being said, I'm feeling for my teammates in the East who are experiencing an unseasonably warm December. Although Bates Nordic is spread throughout the country for Christmas break and are experiencing different training environments, I know everyone is making the best with what they have. 

We have had a whirlwind of a fall that has prepared us well for adjusting to challenging situations. At the beginning of official training, Becky introduced the idea of adding another Lost Valley bounding interval each session. Because we do these intervals almost every week, we did the math and thought she must be joking. She wasn't. 

Whereas last year girls did 4-5 intervals and boys did 5-6 intervals at Lost Valley, we ended our progression with most girls completing 10 and the boys 12! We went to Lost Valley in the rain, mud, dark, and occasionally in the sun. Everyone's efforts were impressive and I know we will all be tougher mentally this winter. 

When we weren't bounding up Lost Valley, we took a weekend trip to Acadia where we stayed at the Lucas' grandparent's guest house. We did classic intervals by the coast, ate lobster by the beach, and went on an over distance run in the park. Overall it was a focused and much needed break from campus. 

Before we knew it, it was time to go to Canada! Foret had 2.5k of skiing and it did not snow more while we were there, in fact we almost lost our snow! By the end of the week we did a short time trial against the rest of the eastern schools that were there on a very thin and icy loop. As James put it, "You either needed stiff skis or ice skates". Regardless, our team kept a great attitude throughout the week and were stoked to have any snow to ski on! 

We returned to school for two more weeks of class, a week of finals, and no snow! We were lucky enough to have nice enough weather to continue dryland training as we had been all fall. We continued going to Lost Valley and kept our roller ski ferrules on. The weather in the east has stayed tropical since. Hopefully things turn around soon!

In the meantime, as we always do, we will keep on keeping on!

Merry Christmas!

- Laurel 

Rangeley Recap

Better late than never, right? The team headed to Rangeley two weeks ago for our annual fall training camp over October break. I think it's safe to say we were all excited to go up there, get away from campus,

and get some really solid training in. 

Because I should probably get back to doing work, I'm going to let the pictures do the talking. It's a busy time right now: the semester is nearing an end (even though it feels like we started last week), exams, projects, and papers are becoming very real, and the hours and workouts are getting longer and bigger– the girls are now up to eight Lost Valley intervals and the boys are at ten!! We have the 15k Lobster Roll time trial with the other Maine schools on Sunday, Acadia training weekend the following weekend, and then Canada the week after for Thanksgiving- ski season is coming!

-Sadie

The ending point for the first ski: Height of Land (Bria photo)

The annual ice bath in Rangeley Lake, with girly magazines
to make the time go by faster

The winning pie! Team #2 was Gracie '16, Max '17, Wade '17, Sadie '17, and Sam '18

6:30 AM wakeup for the 10 k TT

The boys threw an egg at Laurel at the beginning of our 3 hour OD. She caught it and named it Eggy.

Eggy made it over the ice, through the wind, and conquered Saddleback with us.

Eggy also made it down (and shortly passed away after not being caught)

Until next time, Rangeley!

Ski Room Dedication: The Man Behind the “good, better, best” Speech

Friday evening two hundred and fifty people convened in Alumni gymnasium for the dedication of the Alpine and Nordic Ski Rooms to Coach Bob Flynn (Affectionately known as ‘Coach’).  Members of the Bates community (past and present), athletic department, and ski world applauded as Clayton Spencer, Steve Fuller, and Coach himself spoke. A common thread connected each person in the room: Coach had impacted everyone there in one way or another.  

As current members of the team, we know Coach only in the capacity and role that he has recently played on the Nordic team. Coach has a rich history of enhancing Bates Athletics; his initiative and dedication have been instrumental for taking many sports programs at Bates to the next level.  On Friday night we listened to the stories and successes recounted from his time as Head Ski Coach, yet some of those same things still hold true today. When Steve Fuller said “I can safely assume that every person in this room has had a Bob “talk” at some point in their lives,” I could hear all current and former skiers chuckle to themselves because, whether or not we realized before that moment, Coach has impacted us all as skiers. 

In a team meeting on Monday, Becky pointed out that whenever we come into the office to see her, Coach is in there. Often his back is to us- facing his computer, doing work or making a phone call. Yet, whether or not it appears so, he is listening to and observing each conversation. Sometimes he may not say anything; sometimes he may chime in with his opinion, but either way he is always listening: Always listening because he cares about us –as athletes, students and individuals in the greater picture.  

Coach cares so much that he will tromp out through the snow with two ski poles in hand and watch us do intervals, cheering and providing the classic Coach phrases of encouragement: “ya look good”, “glide”, or providing us with a chuckle of inspiration by telling us we “need to get it together.” Although Coach has left the head ski coach position behind, his support is unwavering and his passion for and impact on the sport, especially at Bates, has been tremendous. From silently listening in the office, to cheering on the trails, offering valued words of wax wisdom or his presence at EVERY carnival weekend, Coach leaves an impact that each of us feels. Although much of the dedication on Friday focused on what some may deem “ the glory days”, the Bobcats of the present feel that the glory days of Bobcat skiing have continued, and Coach’s prime has yet to pass. Coach Bob Flynn has shaped Bates skiing into the successful program(s) (Nordic & Alpine) that we are lucky enough to be a part of, and one thing is for certain: he isn’t done yet. 

So, Coach- we thank you. For everything you have done and everything you will continue to do for the future generations that pass through your office everyday. If you haven’t been fortunate enough to have a conversation with Coach, do it. Whether you’re swinging by to check out the new ski rooms (believe us, you should do that), or just on campus, go say hi to the man in the ski office. If you’re lucky enough, you may even get a quote at the end of your talk.

Coach
(photo: Josh Kuckens/Bates College)

Bates Nordic '15-'16
(photo: Sandy Gray)

- Maddy, Sadie, and Halie

Yelling at Kids to Get their Hips Forward and What it Taught Me

Saturday at 6:30 in the morning we drive down a one and a half lane road with no guard rail. The boys are smashed into the backseat of my mom’s Subaru Forester talking about rollerskiing up this road, or even worse, down it. As we navigate the cracks and bumps, Trace launches into a discussion of GoPros and chickens. Chicken’s have incredibly stable heads, he tells us, therefore strapping a GoPro onto a chicken would be your best bet for catching any sort of bumpy ride on video. This is the kid that duck hunts on the weekends, has (finally) chosen Nordic over football, and has been known to wear full camouflage long underwear as his race suit. Connor eats a Cliff bar and laughs along, his hair sticking straight up from oversleeping and almost missing the workout. Earlier in the summer, he considered dying his hair blue (we luckily talked him out of it). Calvin sits in the middle, ever prepared, but not prepared for the bonk awaiting him several hours down the trail. I can’t stop laughing and I exchange a glance with my mom, knowing it’s going to be another one of “those days”.

We met up with the younger group at the trailhead and split up- Nancy and Laurel with the older boys and Bryce with the U16s. Our day would consist of a run/hike loop that we had been preparing for all summer. It ended up being a success for both groups. I finished the day with the realization that I only have one more week left of the best job ever.

When people ask me what I’ve been doing this summer for work I respond, “Yelling at kids to get their hips forward,” which is basically my summer job in a nutshell. In reality, it’s more complicated.

Two summers ago, I got an assistant coaching job through our local club working with my mom and Bryce, one of her former athletes. It was great, so this summer I decided to try it again, but with a little more vigor. I wanted to be more involved in the planning and execution of the workouts than before, which was a little nerve racking as many of our athletes aren’t much younger than I am. With some confidence and careful planning, I earned the respect of our athletes and continued to have the best summer of my life.

Mammoth Lakes, California is known for its alpine and snowboard culture. Nordic skiing is very small here. All of the junior programs were initiated by my mom, including our small club team that operates separately from the high school program. Our club had eight athletes in it this summer with a very wide range of abilities, personalities, and levels of dedication. High school is challenging, at least it was for me. In the midst of going to three different schools, skiing was the one thing that was always there. Although our athletes are very different, they are friends and have enormous respect for each other. Skiing is there for them too.

High school athletes are at a pivotal moment in their skiing careers. They are starting more intense strength programs, learning nuances in technique, figuring out how to pace, and generally training harder. Amidst all of this, they are realizing that dedication pays off. They are learning how to be a team. They are starting to grow into the people they will become. And coaches? They do their best to teach, laugh along with the hilarity of it all, and enjoy the ride. 

Yes, I did spend a lot of time on the side of the road yelling at kids to get their hips forward. I also taught them how to navigate the mountains. I watched them make technique breakthroughs. I saw them blow up in intervals and learn the hard lesson. I tried to motivate and push them through hard strength and interval workouts. It paid off seeing how much they have all grown. One of our younger athletes who weighs 95 pounds, wears glasses, and will have his AA degree when he graduates high school, completed four hill repeats last week, smiling. At the beginning of the summer, he could barely run a mile and complained on a daily basis. That alone is reason to celebrate.

People often ask my mom, a two time Olympian and fourteen time national champion, why she no longer really competes. She responds that she loves coaching and hanging out with teenagers. While I am very much still in my own college career and am still trying to figure the whole darn sport out, coaching has done something special for my own skiing. Teaching technique has allowed me to work on fine tuning my own in order to demonstrate and better explain. Sometimes I have to suck up my ego and do the right thing when I am doing a long ski or intervals with them in order to lead by example. More than anything, coaching has given me the opportunity to give back to a sport and lifestyle that has taught and given me so much. Watching our athletes undergo that same process leaves me inspired. Their smiles when they have PR’d or finally kicked at the right time in classic reminds me of something familiar.

I am looking forward to going back to my own team and coaches at Bates. As our team’s season approaches, I will wish my team back in Mammoth the best for their own season. I know the hard work will pay off in more ways than they can imagine.

Happy training!
-Laurel 

Roll/hike overdistance

Post ski walking intervals aways called for rope swinging (and capes apparently?)

Adventuring with the older boys

The dysfunction of a typical day

Trace on top of the world

going home

The other day, I got really excited to go back to Bates.

If you’ve talked to me this summer about school, you know I’m happy to have a break from Bates right now. Short Term was tough– I was sick, my track season wasn’t what I wanted it to be, my best friends weren’t on campus, my mind was constantly in worry-mode, and I was taking a tough class. When May 29^th rolled around, I was ready to leave Lewiston. I figured homesickness for Bates would set in within the month of June, but it didn’t. And it didn’t in July.

Don’t get me wrong – I love Bates with all of my heart; it’s home to me. But sometimes, you need a break from home. I definitely needed that break.

Now we’re in August. If you had asked me a week ago if I was excited to go back to Bates, I would say “I’m not quite ready yet.” I would’ve told you the same thing on Friday. On Saturday, though, I would’ve given you a completely different answer.

I was supposed to hike the Bridger Range on Saturday with one of my roommates (Sarah, a skier for Williams), but Mother Nature won and we ended up doing a distance classic ski. Luckily, this meant I was able to cheer Amy on while she did intervals (we’ve somehow lived together for the entire summer but with work schedules/vacations, we haven’t done many workouts together).

Before Amy started her first interval, I asked her what she was going to focus on – something I like to call “pulling a Becky.” After she told me, she was off. I was able to watch a couple minutes of her first interval and then didn’t see her until the last one.  Then I did something I call “pulling a James” – I started yelling, “tempo, tempo, use your gears!” Her technique and power instantly transformed after she appropriately adjusted to climbing a hill.

As Sarah and I skied up to Amy, Sarah told me how cool she thinks it is that Amy’s and my relationship is strong enough that I can give her something to work on and vice versa. She told me it’s not something she sees often– friends, but also teammates that are so comfortable that they can coach each other during workouts because they have the same overall goal: become better skiers.

I thought a lot about that conversation after that ski. It’s something I’ve taken for granted, but is one of my favorite things about being a part of the Bates women’s team: we train together, coach each other, and make each other better skiers because we want to accomplish goals both as individuals, but also as a team.

For the rest of the ski, Amy and I talked about the awesome fall workouts we can’t wait to do once we get back to campus: Lost Valley intervals, Sunday morning rollerskis with the New England fall foliage as our backdrop, intervals in West Auburn, ODs where Becky feeds us donuts halfway through, Rangeley and Thanksgiving camp, and strength session where everyone in the gym turns when they hear us yelling at each other to push harder and do one more pull-up, one more dip, or one more rep.

This morning I did my last workout with Amy for the summer: 2x20 steady state intervals.  I was worried about them. My heart rate while skate skiing hasn’t settled after coming to altitude, and I didn’t know how I would do with these intervals. I followed Amy, and then Amy followed me. She asked me what my heart rate was every few minutes to make sure I was staying in L3, and I was.

Today was, by far, the best interval session I’ve had all summer.

We, as the Bates Nordic ski team, have something special. And it’s those special things that make the team what it is. It’s those special things that make me so excited to go back home in less than a month.

Happy final weeks of summer,

Sadie

Summer Bobcat Sightings

Britta (senior) hiking in Norway

Bria (sophomore) at a training camp in Tahoe

Halie (junior) post-triathlon in NH

Nate K (incoming first-year) running the Burlington marathon

Gracie (senior) running a race in Connecticut 

Testing

Summer training rolls on. Those of our athletes following the Bates summer workouts have been doing some testing the past few weeks. The girls in Bozeman did an uphill double poll TT up triple tree. Corky PR'd in the Harpers Hill Climb TT in Sun Valley-- awesome!! We are spread between coasts but all are working hard and constantly making small gains. That's what it's all about!

gaining fitness out on the trail

skate technique

Ben crushing a very tough route!

The Truth about Injury

This May I skipped short term for several reasons, one of which was to be healthier and get a head start on my training. This was the year things would go right. This was the year I wouldn’t get injured. This was going to be my year. Instead, I came home to an immediate injury to my poor mouth with my wisdom teeth extraction, a persistent cough that lasted a month, and my second bout of IT band syndrome.

Injury is something most of us have experienced. It sucks. It feels unfair. Most of the time it comes out of the blue. It took one run after a week of recovering from my teeth to send my knee over the edge. As with every injury I’ve had, I considered quitting.

Injuries are what athletes fear. We fear not making our goals because we have become “compensated”. The real truth about injury is that it is an opportunity for a fresh perspective. The truth is that through PT, twenty five needles being stuck in my leg, and time off, I learned something valuable.

My first step was recognizing that I wanted to continue. Injuries happen to everyone and they don’t mean that your season is over. Instead, they are an opportunity to expose and work on your weaknesses. I have spent a lot more time rollerskiing this spring and in the Fiddler gym (i.e. my garage) picking stuff up and putting it down. Strength has always been my least favorite part of training, but as I’ve gotten stronger, I have realized the value in it.

During this process, I’ve also learned a lot (maybe more than I wanted to) about my body. Through acupuncture, I learned that the gal bladder channel is linked to the IT band and to the shoulders. It is also linked to the liver channel, which is related to stress and anxiety. Now, I was a little superstitious about Chinese medicine, but somehow all of these channels make sense. I have tight shoulders, IT bands, and am an avid worrier. So now I’m a believer in acupuncture, bring on the needles!

I also had to come to the recognition that my body is bizarre. I have a turned pelvis due to slight scoliosis (how fun!) and my knees don’t align with my shins. So, like everyone else, I’m not perfect. Through PT and a more refined strength plan, I’ve improved my hip strength and overall body strength to help support my weird body.

There have been a lot of things I didn’t expect that have come out of this injury. I’ve gotten to spend a lot more time with my really cool physical therapist and quirky deep tissue masseuse. I have recognized the importance of strength training and stretching. Most importantly, I am more grateful of the things I can do.

When I was in Sun Valley with my parents in early May, I was so disappointed that I couldn’t run the miles of trails that I trained on senior year of high school. That ended up being the first time I realized that I could hike. So I hiked around, with some nagging pain, but one day I said, “if all I could do was walk, I think I’d be a happy person.” It turns out I ended up seeing a lot more of the scenery than I ever did while running those same trails.

I volunteered at our local half marathon this past weekend and watched hundreds of runners with all kinds of weird gates. I wondered how the heck these people could run thirteen miles when I could barely run ten in a week. Then, I backed up and remembered when I couldn’t even run two steps several weeks earlier. Today I enjoyed my first run with little to no pain, progress is being made.

So injury, although feeling like a hindrance, can be an amazing opportunity to slow down. It can remind you of your values, make you learn something about yourself, and spark your determination. Injury is just another challenge where you have to make the decision get up and take the small steps forward. Like my girl KC says, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Exploring SV

There are always sitting activities...

Grateful to be able to hike with the awesome group of teenagers I'm coaching for the summer

Until next time,

Snorel

how many snapchat geotags can we collect from across the country?

10.

Like Amy's previous post says, it seems that Bozeman is the place to be for the Bobcats this summer (kinda funny because MSU's mascot is also the Bobcat). It's great being able to come home to familiar faces, even when I'm not at Bates.

Maddy and I arrived in Bozeman on June 4th after a six-day road trip across the country. We made it out here pretty smoothly to our surprise. My car (her name is Annie and she's awesome) only needed one pit stop to get looked at and she killed it for 2,692 miles.

After packing Annie and scrambling to say goodbye to as many people as we could, we were on our way to Vermont on Friday afternoon. We spent the night with Maddy's family and picked up the statue (long story, but essentially this is one of the reasons we drove out). We were lucky enough to see Halie in Brattlboro for an hour or so. It's weird going from seeing someone everyday to not seeing them for six weeks...we needed our Halie time!

and we're off!

We left around 6 AM on Saturday morning and spent some quality time on I-90W as we made our way to Ohio. Before leaving for the roadtrip, my mom told us to stop in random towns, find a diner, and have a meal– it's the best way to experience the people and culture of that town. So, that's what we did: The Scotia Diner in Scotia, New York was diner stop #1. If you ever find yourself there, I highly recommend the blackberry pancakes. We got to Ohio around 5 or 6 PM and had a family dinner with Maddy's grandparents, aunt, and cousin. We spent two days in Ohio and were totally pampered– pedicures and all. We realized this isn't the typical cross country drive that most people think of, but it was nice to have a day off from driving and for Maddy to see her family.

the second geotag of the trip

We left Cleveland on Monday afternoon and arrived in Chicago on Monday night. Maddy was the real MVP that day because she drove five-lane Chicago traffic in a stick with TWO bikes on the back and didn't stall once. She also remained really, really calm– I think she was surprised by that :)

Chicago was a blast! We stayed with our good friend, Kylie, also a Batesie, for two nights. On Tuesday, we went out to lunch with her mom and sister for her sister's birthday, ate way too much food and then walked around Chicago for a couple hours to get rid of the food baby in preparation for her sister's birthday dinner. We met up with another friend from Bates who lives outside of Chicago, as well, so Maddy and I got private tours of the city.

being tourists at The Bean

beautiful Chicago!

Wednesday was our longest day– we were driving from Chicago to the Badlands in South Dakota. We left at 5 AM and arrived at 7:30 PM. Many rounds of Madlibs were played, as well as every genre of music you could think of: from Taylor Swift to middle school dances to country, rap, and even some classical. We had diner stop #2 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota where we had a late lunch. I have a friend from high school who is working in the Badlands this summer, so we spent the night in the park. The plan was to get up and go for a road bike around the Badlands, but we quickly realized that wasn't going to happen when we woke up to heavy wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. Instead, we drove through the Badlands, took lots of touristy photos, and were back on the road to do touristy stop #2 of the day: Rushmore!

The Badlands

Happy to be here!

touristy pictures with some cool guys

After Rushmore, we jammed to some burned CD's courtesy of a friend and Maddy's cousin. I drove the last leg into Bozeman and I'm pretty sure my jaw was dropped for a solid hour– I couldn't get over the mountains! I'm now understanding why it's called Big Sky country :)

So, 2692 miles later, we made it! Maddy's settling in at home and I'm settling into my apartment that Amy, Olivia (Colby skier), Sarah (Williams skier), and I are sharing for the summer. Keep checking to see what adventures we get ourselves into!

-Sadie

There is nothing quite like a crowd of bobcats to make a fun summer! This summer, with some randomness, some planning, and some coincidence, many of the nordie bobcats will end up together in Bozeman, MT. The full time summer crew will include Maddy, Amy, Tara, Sadie, Ben, Nick ‘15, and Filly ‘14. At some point or another we will have visits from Condor ‘15 and Snorel. While so far there are only a few of us here, it is amazing to feel the Bates Skiing family so far away from New England already. We are excited for many many fun hiking, running, biking, swimming, paddling, climbing, and cooking adventures to come ! Stay tuned.

One Last Blog Post from Hallie

47 carnival races 

30+ teammates

24 carnival weekends

4 years

4 assistant coaches (Dylan, Wilson, Matt, and James)

4 Chummy Cups

4 Rangeley camps

3 team carnival podiums

3 trips to Soldier Hollow

3 seniors of 2015

2 Foret Thanksgiving camps

2 continuing to ski 

1 working at a CA start up

1 short term where we were all on difference continents (Africa, Asia, and Oceania)

1 Craftsbury Thanksgiving camps

1 Camp Condor

1 Coach

1 Becky

Here goes my last post on the Bates nordic blog. When I came to Bates as a freshman, I had no idea how quickly these four years would fly by. And fly by it did. On Sunday Connor, Nick, and I graduated amidst a rain storm and lots of family and friends. The saying "once a Bobcat, always a Bobcat" rang true, as there were plenty of alums roaming around, most notably Caroline and Gabby! Of course, teammates past and present were remotely in touch, congratulating us and making sure we were having the best of times. And, Evan Dion visited for a few days at the beginning of the week, which was awesome!

Here are a few pictures from the weeks leading up to graduation and absolutely none from graduation day (and then I had fun looking at old pictures so there's a few that date back to the early days).

Baccalaureate 

Baccalaureate- with PC too!

Gabby!

Caroline!

Coach was inducted into the Scholar- Athlete Society this weekend for his countless accomplishments and contributions to athletics at Bates, in Maine, and nationally

Senior Athletes and Coaches Dinner

With our alpiners too- congrats Emily!

In case you forgot we ski!

Chummy Cup #4 in the books

Thanksgiving Camp Senior Year- maybe a bit too comfortable around each other at this point?

Junior year Turkey Day camp

The first Rangeley camp!

Thanks to ALL who have made these four years wonderful, especially coaches, teammates, and parents. 

Love,

Hallie

And thanks to parents, iPhones, Steve Fuller, and Facebook for the pictures- as always. 

What do nordies do when the season's over?

KEEP SKIING!
A few weeks ago, a group of five, Bria, Hallie, Connor, and two of Connor's friends went to Tuckerman Ravine for an awesome day of backcountry skiing.
With Connor as a trusty guide, we hiked up to the bowl, where we were greeted by hoards of people- people everywhere. People were skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, sledding- you name it!
Everyone except Hallie had boards with edges, so when they ventured up, she did some hotlaps around the bottom on the skinny skis.
We saw some wipeouts, a lot of good skiing, and two people go down the headwall on inflatable animals.

Here are some fun pictures from the day:

If you look closely, you can see them hiking up!

Nordie crew

Connor staying hydrated

The whole crew!

Hallie's action of the day came skiing down the hiking trail 

Girls!

 Happy Spring!
Bria and Hallie