Lewiston, ME- Normally on these Sunday night posts I get to regal everyone with tales about our races. Since it's an off weekend from racing, I don't get to do that so you will have to hear my talk about what I want to talk about. And what I want to talk about is the teams slow transition to cross country running JV squad. With the forecast next week calling for mid 40s and rain, Becky had us break out the running shoes last week and do a few jogs so we don't kill ourselves trying to do an entire week of workouts on foot. I think if we keep up our training we can get the whole mens team down to a sub 20 minute 5k in the next few months.

Training: It wasn't all running last week, Pineland has held snow surprisingly well, and we actually got to skate a few times. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent skittering around on bombproof ice, and have convinced me to invest in a pair of edged nordic skis. Fortunately, it snowed ever so slightly on Friday afternoon, and so we got a real solid set of intervals in on Saturday. We did an L4 ladder workout, with varied rest at the beginning and end. Here are some reactions:

Nate Moreau: "Ouch."
James Upham: "You didn't look pretty, or fast, or smooth, but at least you showed some heart."
Laurel Fiddler: "Sadie snowplowed every downhill and so that's why I did too."

Today we traveled all the way to Bethel, ME to find some classic tracks for our OD. Wax call of the day was Gold Rex Klister. Although lacking the temperature range of universal klister, it was effective for today's conditions. Many people hate klister, but personally I love it, if only to watch the poor Colorado kids try to figure out how to put it on.

Little known fact- rubbing klister in your hair is a great way to clean it off!

The best skiing of the day was ironically found on the ungroomed "Corkscrew" trail. By best skiing I mean the trail had the coolest downhills and icy creek crossings. I think I saw at least six good falls out there, which means we must have been sending it.

Racing: From here on out we are racing every weekend, and things start to blur a little bit. We have UVM on the 5th and 6th, and fortunately Trapps has plenty of snow. As a team we will try to stay focused on racing, and look to match or improve upon our earlier results. Personally, I have my eye on Dartmouth Carnival, where I'm hoping to PR in carnie crush results and maybe even break into Mid Top Ten.

Seniors: The final edition of our team bios, here is the senior class!

Britta Clark

Class of 2016, age 21

Hometown: Middlebury, VT

Major: Philosophy

Favorite Song: I'm So Paid by Akon

Dream Date: Corky Harrer

Currently pursuing the title of "Most Academic Skier," Britta can often be found practicing debating herself in the mirror. Although she loves getting into debates with the rest of the team, most of us find ourselves lost after she starts talking about "Inherent value," "Nebulous concepts," and anything that she heard on NPR. Britta was not always like this, in fact in High School she was a basketball standout and was proud of her record as three time Homecoming Princess.

While racing, Britta follows a carefully outlined warmup designed to maximize her Arousal Curve. She spends 23.5 minutes before breakfast reaching the Alpha State, before putting on her self recorded pre-race pep talk. None of us have ever heard the entirety of this pep talk, but a highlight is 7 minutes of Britta yelling the chorus for Eminem's Lose Yourself in French to herself. Whatever the rest of the tape is, it must be good at getting her in the zone because she can be relied upon to produce the best pain face on just about every race.

Corky Harrer

Class of 2016, age 22

Hometown: Minneapolis, MN

Major: Philosophy

Favorite Song: RGF Island by Fetty Wap

Dream Date: Britta Clark

Passing up on a promising  NJCAA Football scholarship to Bismark State College, where he was recruited for both Wide Receiver and Quarterback. After deciding that he wanted the intimacy of a Liberal Arts school and choosing Bates, Corky signed up for skiing on a whim. He now brings his skills as QB to the annual Rangeley Bowl and All-EISA Quebec Pro Bowl. His stats currently stand at 26% completions with an average of 5.7 TDs a game. Analysts point to his mediocre receiving squad as the cause of his low completion rate.

Recently, Corky has found himself leading the Bobcats in many races, posting extremely solid results especially in Classic races. I find him to be the best draft on the team, mostly because he is the only one on the team who puts up with me skiing on their tails for 13k (I usually get dropped on the last lap). Throughout the rest of the season keep an eye on Corky, not only for good results, but because he is always up to date on the current ski fashion.

Helen Sudkamp-Walker

Class of 2016, age 21

Hometown: Fairbanks, AK

Major: Psychology

Favorite Song: Love Yourself by Justin Beiber

Dream Date: "I just want to hang out with their dog"

Known to wear shorts and a T-shirt to warm up for all but the coldest races, the Alaskan-born Helen can often be found applying sunscreen before in the start line, and triple checking with the TD for moose warnings. She has recently seen a pretty significant improvement in results, a phenomenon she attributes to training only 450 hours  in the past year and "Finishing Thesis."

Off the track, Helen is the only member of the team with the future together, intending to study nursing. Compared to other's plans of joining the navy, manual labor, and failing their Short Term class so they have get to take another semester at Bates, her level of post-collegiate preparation is astounding. More proof that she has her life together on a level we can only imagine is her success at holding a steady significant other for longer than three months, a task that has proven impossible across the board for the rest of us.

Grace Wright

Class of 2016, age 21

Hometown: Rutland, VT

Major: Mathematics

Favorite Song: "Im in Love With the Coco by O.T. Genasis" covered by Ed Sheeran

Dream Date: "I don't do dates"

Much like Batman, Grace used to live a double life. A skier in the winter, and a Lacrosse player in the spring, she confounded all expectations placed on her by both teams. Fortunately, after quote, "Yellow House swallowed my spoon [Lacrosse Stick]," she joined the nordic team full time. Despite skiing full time, she continues to defy convention, refusing to buy into the much lauded practice of having multiple skis for different conditions, she instead keeps things simple, only choosing between a pair of classic skis and a pair of skate skis. Despite this, she still manages to post stellar results, much to the annoyance of those of us who donated plasma for two months to afford a new pair of kilster skis they still haven't used.

Speaking of race results, her recent 12th place finish is a team best for the year, and their is a good chance that more like it will soon follow. She can usually be picked out from a crowd courtesy of her tempo, which averages twice as fast as anyone else's. Grace's non-athletic likes include: The Bachelor, The Bachelorette (and their associated brackets), prime numbers, and selfies.

Okay, so that's the team. I think I've just about filled my quota for selfless reporting on the rest of the team, so look forward to Thursday's post, "An In-Depth interview with Max Millslagle" by Max Millslagle.

Junior Biographies

Lewiston, ME- It's finally here, the moment you have all been waiting for... Ladies and gentlemen I give you the Bates Nordic Juniors! But before we get there, a few things:

First off, there's no carnival this weekend, so I'm just going to call this my Thursday post and cover a few things, saving some stuff for Sunday so it's not too boring. And by all that I mean I left what was supposed to be an extra post unfinished for so long that it's now a normal post.

It has come to my attention (and by that I mean I was bluntly informed) that many of my posts are rife with factual errors, spelling mistakes, and mislabeled pictures. Oops.

Next, I recently discovered that as a perk of my position as Minister of the Blog I have minions! That's right, there are teammates assigned to help me. So expect posts of greatly improved quality as soon as I can convince someone else to do one.

Finally, we are in desperate need of snow here in Maine, so do a snow dance for us. I recommend burning klister and rollerskis to try and appease Ullr, the pagan god of skiing and peppermint schnapps. Or if that's not your thing ship spare rock skis and running shoes to Bates box 456.

Anyways, without further ado, here's the Juniors:

Laurel Fiddler
Class of 2017, age 20
Hometown: Mammoth, CA
Major: English
Favorite Song: In da Club by 50 Cent
Dream Date: Princess Snugglebuns (her 2nd favorite cat) can't be left alone for extended periods of time. So no dates.

Coming from the wilds of the Sierra Nevada, Laurel (or Snorrel as she is known to us) is a rough and tumble cowgirl with an attitude that is up for anything. She began skiing at a young age, following in the footsteps of her mother, Nancy, an olympian and national champion. She never let herself get too interested in skiing, and maintained a healthy breadth of athletic pursuits including surfing and rugby. Here at school, she is best known for beating Halie 83% of the time at HORSE, a record she attributes to her interest in basketball.

The story behind Snorrel's interesting nickname is a good one. It was September 25th, 2013, on a rainy Saturday. The team was readying themselves for a set of intervals, and Laurel wasn't present. This was a surprise to everyone, because Laurel is always on time, often selflessly helping others get ready for practice. This time, however, junior Nick Michaud deduced that she was napping instead of putting her boots on. It was quickly suggested that she was in fact snoring, a realization that prompted Nick to say "Lol Snorrel." And that's how she got her nickname.

Sadie James
Class of 2017, age 20
Hometown: Avon, ME
Major: Psychology
Favorite Song: Boyz-n-the-Hood by Easy E
Dream Date: Brunch and apple picking

Sadie's a down to earth farm-girl, although you will never know it. She spent her childhood hiding Cosmo magazines in the milking barn, and sneaking the truck down to the mall to stock up on current fashion trends. Today, she can be spotted wearing J-Crew and Lulu Lemon. As such, it was a surprise to everyone when she was not only the sole member of the team correctly able to name how to birth a calve, but additionally the best at driving manual transmission (a skill she learned hauling hay in a tractor).

Sadie found an escape from the small town of Avon through her pursuit of skiing. Victories at the state and national stage propelled her into attending Bates and living in the relative metropolis of Lewiston. Today she is a consistent scoring member of the team, and specializes in classic distance races.

When asked where she sees herself in 10 years, Sadie replied "I don't know."

Halie Lange
Class of 2017, age 20
Hometown: Brattleboro, VT
Major: Environmental Chemistry
Favorite Song: Photograph by Nickelback
Dream Date: T-Pain Concert with BAE

At the age of 9, Halie watched the movie Mean Girls in theaters. At that exact moment, her life found true meaning. Teaching herself soccer, makeup, and the art of looking bored, she was soon ready for the life of a popular high school girl. In her first soccer game, she established a reputation by breaking another girls leg. To date, she is the only member of the women's team to have beaten Corky in both the shuttle test and 40 yard dash.

Recently, she has toned down her high school persona, attending a Dungeons and Dragons group every other week where she plays a 7th level Orc Barbarian named Grok the One-Armed. From a skiing perspective, she has brought her experience leading group grapevine warmups to the collegiate level, and can often be heard encouraging the team before races with "big game today girls," and other soccer jargon.

Max Millslagle
Class of 2017, age 20
Hometown: Bend, OR
Major: Global Environment and Social Change, History
Favorite Song: Dark Horse by Katy Perry
Dream Date: Anything as long as she's paying

The unchallenged Three Week Team Champion of the Blog, Max spends 90% of his time asking the rest of the team about their favorite songs and dream dates. The rest is spent wondering if writing in third person makes him sound pretentious. While some have accused him of being a "lazy bum" and "not NCAA compliant" for not taking classes during the skis season, Max has focused on his life goal of becoming an assistant coach. His current skills include incorrectly making wax picks, blogging, and Microsoft Word.

From an athletic standpoint, Max is resting on his high school laurels of being a member of three time Oregon State Band Champions the Summit Winds. Although he has lagged behind on playing trombone, the ability to count to four over and over again has helped him in numerous four lap races. When his mother was asked about his choice to come to Bates, she replied "Well the community college [in Bend] also has a Bobcat mascot and we think he got confused."

Nathan Moreau
Class of 2017, age 21
Hometown: Falmouth, ME
Major: English, Classical and Medieval Studies
Favorite Song: Shake That by Eminem ft. Nate Dogg
Dream Date: Tea and book discussion

A contrast to his quiet and studious sister, Nate "Nate Dogg" Moreau is considered the bad boy of the team. He can most often be found sitting in the Frye House driveway working on his 1963 Honda CA72 Dream Motorcycle, upon which he will "totally dip out out of this joint" as soon as it is functional. Despite the rough exterior, Nate is a studious man, and has attended (by my calculations) 1,435% more time at Oxford than anyone else I know.

On the ski trail he can be recognized by his full, non-patchy beard, a fact that leaves many of the rest of the team feeling slightly inferior. Fortunately, he shaves twice a day so that we don't feel too bad. While he is a fully invested member of the team, Nate is rumored to moonlight as a freestyle rapper in the highly competitive Lewiston Underground.

Wade Rosko
Class of 2017, age 20
Hometown: Breckenridge, CO
Major: Physics
Favorite Song: Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana
Dream Date: Rock climbing in the Mediterranean

Wade is a model citizen, having spent his childhood attaining his Eagle Scout in the great state of Colorado. As such, he is (nearly) always prepared and has bailed the team out on multiple occasions, procuring such items as duct tape, jumper cables, and a fully functional golf-cart seemingly out of nowhere. Often described as the "Best engineer Bates has to offer," Wade is chasing his lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut. Unlike literally every other member of the team he is not disqualified by his eyesight, criminal record, or future possession of a degree in the humanities.

But don't let his academic resume distract you, Wade has more abs than the rest of us combined. Literally. Although no one has ever seen him lifting weights, he still has the best body on campus, and even has a promising side career as an underwear model. His muscles serve him well on skis, and he can often be spotted double poling past the field up steep hills, or simply intimidating them into letting him by.

Colby Carnival

Lewiston, ME- It turns out that I'm getting progressively worse at deadlines the longer I spend out of classes. It's 10pm and I just started my blog post. I'm not sure I could handle any essays right now. But fortunately, my responsibilities right don't extend beyond basic spellcheck on this blog.

Anyways, for anyone so caught up in NFL playoffs they didn't spend their entire weekend glued to Bart Timing watching the live results, Bates had a pretty good weekend. Overall, we finished 7th place (alpine and nordic combined), which is pretty respectable in my books. Our ladies finished 6th on Saturday and a blistering 4th today, while we finished 6th yesterday and tied for 5th today.

Saturday: Saturday was the Mass Start 15k Classic, for both the men and the women. Us guys started at the frightfully early hour of 10am, and in what I thought were quite frigid conditions. So frigid, in fact, that we did not use Rode Blue Multigrade, but instead some strange wax in black containers covered in what looked like Finnish. It must have worked because we had some of the fastest skis out there, which was good news for us in the chaos of a mass start. It was one of the roughest starts I've been in for a long time, and lots of people went down. But it's a three lap race, so even if you found yourself wrapped around a tree you had some time to try and make it up.

On that strand of thought, Henry Colt earned MVP of the weekend for skiing 1.5k of hard downhill with a single ski and a single pole. His teammates were not much help: when we finally got him a ski it was the wrong type of binding. It took Halie quote "running as fast as I've ever moved" to ensure he could finish on two skis. So props to Henry!

The women's team was out in force, and Gracie showed some real grit skiing to a PR of 12th place! I got to watch their race from the comfort of the steepest hill, and so I saw everyone's best pain face. The effort everyone put out was impressive.

Sunday: Sunday started even early than Saturday, but it more than made up for it in awesomeness. We had solid performances all around, and nordie alumni Lucas and Caroline showed up accompanied by the always popular nordie groupie Peter Cole. The story of the day was our women's C relay team of Helen and Halie fought their way into a scoring position, despite being in a whole different wave than the majority of the competitive field. Helen crushed the scramble, and Halie, no doubt warmed up from her run the day before, led an incredible finishing lap that put her 20 seconds in front of the next finisher and in an unbelievable 8th place overall. So that was fun.

All in all, it was a great two days to be a Bobcat (but then again it always is). Here are some pictures taken by yours truly, I'll add more taken by someone actually competent as soon as I can find some to steal borrow. Plus, I might actually get all our Junior bios out sometime. Not tonight though, because there are six of us and I'm rather lazy.

Gracie skiing the downhill. The boys were in the background yelling "French fries!"

Sadie probably won't like this picture, but she crushed it so whatever.

Britta making a very tired tuck

Awww yea, Gracie killing it in the relay.

Colby Carnvial and Meet the Sophomores

Lewiston, ME- So here we are, once again on a Thursday night, and I just realized that not only do I have a blog due, I didn't do my promised blog on Monday. It turns out having nothing to do is very taxing on the memory. Anyways, since our carnival (again in Waterville) is a Saturday/Sunday carnival rather than a Friday/Saturday event, we aren't actually racing tomorrow. But that's not going to stop me from writing a pre-race blog post.

The Past:
We've spent the last couple of days really feeling our way into race season, while simultaneously praying for snow. It hasn't snowed, but I at least am feeling pretty comfortable with where I'm at ski-wise, and I think most of the team is in the same boat.

We did our usual race week routine, with intervals on Wednesday instead of Tuesday because the carnival is a day late. We did repeats of a 3 minute piece, where the first minute was L3/L4, the second was L4/L5, and the last minute was lower L4. Men did 6 or 7 while the women did 5. The idea was to simulate attacking in races, where you have to hop out of zone for a while before relaxing again. With the chaos of a mass start this weekend, it's going to be helpful.

The Future:
Speaking of this weekend, it's looking like it'll be a super fun set of races at Colby Carnvial, with both the men and women skiing 15k Classic mass starts on Saturday, followed by sprint relays on Sunday. I don't think anyone on the team has done a sprint relay before, so we are both excited and maybe a little nervous.  James sent out an example video of the 2013 US women's World Championship win as an example. I'm afraid I don't have the ponytail required to quite mimic their performance, but hopefully Connor Gray can make up for it.

In other news: my wax pick of the weekend is Rode Blue Multigrade, and our current Men's team MVP is Parker Mcdonald, for his awesome showing in the 10k and all-around good looks.

The wax of champions

Parker skied on Blue Multigrade in a skate race and still won MVP

And Finally, our sophomore biographies:

Henry Colt

Class of 2018, age 20.

Hometown: Whately, MA

Spirit Animal: Bluefish

Major: English

Favorite Song: Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss by Rising Appalachia

Dream Date: Cooking steaks on the grill.

Hailing from the wilderness of Western Massachusetts, Henry spent his childhood skiing from snowbound town to snowbound town. Years of standing in the freezing cold and watching the slow decline of the integrity of the Patriots football program led him to choose to go to school in sunny Southern California. There he spent many months running on the beach and surfing. But something was missing. He longed for the ice and wind of the Northeast, and missed the joy of skiing.

And so Henry left the beach and came to the heart of New England- Lewiston. Although he has only been with the team for a few weeks, Henry has quickly gained a reputation for his dour and taciturn demeanor, which hides a deeply sensitive personality.

Parker McDonald

Class of 2018, age 20.

Hometown: Vail, CO

Spirit Animal: Salmon

Major: Sociology

Favorite Song: My Humps by Fergie

Dream Date: Picnic on a tropical beach followed (45 minutes later of course) by swimming in the clear water below a beautiful waterfall.

From a young age, Parker was raised with olympic dreams. But when a tragic crash in the 2007 doubles figure skating championships left his partner with a crippling fear of ice, he was forced to fall back on nordic skiing. Despite his initial reservations at participating in an individual sport, Parker soon excelled and found himself with a one-way ticket to Bates. There, he soon gained a reputation as a dangerous skier, willing to risk it all on inside-line passes and aggressive downhill lines. His actions in the first mass start of his collegiate career left him with the nickname "The Heartbreak Kid."

Outside the course, Parker is reserved and shy, attributes that have left him unaware as his status as Bates' most eligible bachelor. When not studying, training, or practicing zen yoga, Parker can be found playing frisbee in the quad, enthusiastically cheering on the other Bates athletic teams, and other activities meant to get him a place in the next Bates marketing video.

Dylan Thombs

Class of 2018, age 20.

Hometown: Monmouth, ME

Spirit Animal: American Badger

Major: Biology and Environmental Science (Ecology)

Favorite Song: Ashokan Farewell by Jay Unger

Dream Date: Fishing for dinner and then cooking it and eating it on the banks of a stream.

Known by his self-given nickname of "The D-Train," Dylan epitomizes the essence of Maine. He proudly wakes every morning and downs a bottle of Moxie, followed by a breakfast of potatoes and lobster. Known around campus for his lumberjack-esque flannels, collection of Bean Boots (bought at thrift shops, not in that commercialized strip mall called Freeport), and for sneezing at the mere mention of any spice stronger than black pepper. This is not to say that Dylan is not well traveled, as he is keen to point out that he visits Northern Massachusetts every time he drives through Portland, ME.

On the race course, Dylan can be picked out by his signature curls, which according to him he shampoos every third day, but conditions daily to "maintain luster." Of all of the men's team, Dylan proudly holds the record for biggest bench press (210lbs), biggest bicep curl (55lbs), and largest power clean (no one else has had the guts to try).

Connor Gray

Class of 2018, age 20.

Hometown: Whitefish, MT

Spirit Animal: 

Major: Environmental Economics

Favorite Song: Pimps by 2 Chainz

Dream Date: Back country skiing followed by dinner at a fancy steakhouse.

Known throughout Bates for his trademark long locks of hair and signature laid back style, Connor is much more than his carefully cultivated ski-bum persona. A purveyor of classical music, Connor owns a 1943 Crosley Cruiser record player, which can be heard playing a selection Handel and Bach at all hours. In addition, he is an aficionado of the elite sport of horse polo, an although he has never played, he describes it as quote: "Super underground," and "Totally accessible." While some have accused him of adopting a hipster lifestyle, Connor ignores them and rides into the sunlight on his restored '88 All-Aluminum Schwinn Speedster fixie.

Although he originally got into Nordic skiing as an alternative to the overly "corporate" running scene, Connor soon excelled in his chosen fields of sprinting and 20k classic mass starts. Today he is a staunch supporter of the use of Klister binders, brightly colored boots, and a return to the gracefully upswept tips of the 1980s.

First Carnival ups and downs

The Weekend:
So in all honesty I'd really hoped to be able to write this blog post telling everyone that we had won the Chummy Cup. As most of you probably already know, I can't do that. For the first time in four years, we did not bring home the cup, and I have to say that it wasn't a fun drive back.

That being said, I'm reminding myself that the Colby skiers earned their turn at the cup, and we'll have another chance in only a year. Ya, I will never be able to say that I held the cup for my whole time at Bates, but it helps the remember that the Colby team is made up of our friends, and for all of them, this is their first time taking home the victory. Their first-year skier Zane Fields had an amazing day, finishing 6th, and any day a Mainer finishes in the top 10 is a good day in my book. So I might be bummed we cant put "Bates" under the 2016 winner, but at least I can be happy that we lost it fair and square, to a team that put out an amazing effort.

But enough about Colby, let's get back to how we did. We finished 7th overall for the weekend (including our alpiners), which considering the loss of Hallie Grossman is a decent improvement from most of last-years places. Our girls team had a solid weekend, finishing 8th in the sprint and 6th in the 10k, while on the men's side a disappointing 10th in the sprint gave way to a much improved 7th in the 10k. I asked Gracie (our resident math major) about trend lines in data sets, and at our current trend we will be finishing first by the first weekend of the UVM carnival.

Some fun results:

Sadie, Halie, and Connor all qualified for the sprints, and put out some super solid efforts.

Parker had a wicked fast 10k, finishing 22nd

Our Girls packed the 20s in the 10k, with Laurel 20th, Sadie 22nd, Halie 26th, and Britta 29th

Freshmen Hadley Moreau and Samantha Pierce (plus sophomore transfer Henry Colt!) debuted to stellar performances across the board. I'm sure that there will be a lot more awesome results coming out of our newest members in the days to come.

Becky had some words of encouragement for us, pointing out that compared to last year we are off to a strong start, and that we will just be getting stronger as the season goes. So even if I (and maybe some of my teammates) were disappointed with the weekend, we can be happy with our efforts and look forward to improvements in the weeks to come.

Here are some photos, shamelessly stolen from Steve Fuller's Facebook. (You should check out his website at flyingpointroad.com for more amazing pictures, and maybe even buy one of your favorite Bobcat.)

Haile Charging

Coach Upham "encouraging" us

Why the weightroom is important: that bib is not filled out

Sadie demonstrating a dope tuck (notice the glitter and bobtat)

Britta hitting the sprint hard, and proving that with the right camera even Waterville can look like Soldier Hollow

Haile putting the hammer down in the quarterfinal

So I know I promised that I would post our sophomore biographies today, but I'm tired, and this post is already getting long, so I'll save them for sometime tomorrow. So until tomorrow I'll be doing what nordies do best, laying in bed, watching Netflix, and calling it recovery.

-Max

Pre-Race food, meet the Freshman, and Waterville

Waterville, ME- We are less than 18 hours from the start of the first carnival of the year. Conditions have drastically improved from the ice and dirt that were left after the rain storm last Sunday. The rumor mill has even got us hoping for a chance at skiing the full 5k loop come Saturday (knock on wood).

Here are a couple reactions to our coming race:
"I'm ****ing pumped!"- Sadie James
"Stoked"- Connor Gray
"Hella' Pumped, it's gonna' be so much fun!"- Henry Colt
Dancing with joy- Britta Clark

In other news, our new jackets (courtesy of L.L. Bean) showed up yesterday. That was huge news, because although we don't need any help being the best looking team on the circuit, our vintage Patagonias were great at looking hip, and not so much at keeping the wind out.

The Past:
We have slipped right into our usual race season routine, but as I write that I realize that most people probably have no idea what that is, so let me elaborate:

Monday: On Monday, we rest. Some people use our official off day to catch up on homework, others like Haile spend it, "Singing the Frozen theme song."

Tuesday: We did intervals at the race venue in Waterville. The idea was more or less to remember how to go fast, which we accomplished by doing 5-6x 3minutes of L4 (Hard) skiing on the sprint loop. Personally I felt real shaky, but hopefully I got that out of myself during the intervals rather than saving it for the races.

The crew before intervals

Wednesday: We did a distance classic ski with some specific strength (double poling on the uphills and no-pole striding) at Pineland. Honestly it was the first time most of us have classic skied in quite a while (the snow's been too shallow for tracks), but everyone seemed to remember how to kick, and the day went pretty well.

Thursday: The day before a race we ski the course, doing race pace speeds on key parts, and generally getting a feel for things.

Waxing for the first time in forever

The Future:
Friday: the women start their qualifier at 9:30am, and the men follow at 10. If we qualify some people for heats, those will go off starting at 12:15

Saturday: Women start at 10am for a 5k skate, while the men go off at noon. Temps are forecasted to reach a balmy 33 degrees Fahrenheit with high chances of "wintery mix." So keep an eye out for rose tinted lenses, soft skis, and coaches on fish-scales.

Freshman Feature:
I recently decided to begin including brief bios on my teammates in these blog posts, in the hope that cheering parents will be able to recognize us. Since I don't want to write them all at once, I'm going to break them down by class year. So without further ado, I present the Bates Nordic Freshman class.

Hadley Moreau

Class of 2019, age 19.
Hometown: Falmouth, ME
Spirit Animal: Golden Retriever
Major: Undecided
Favorite Song: Boys, Boys, Boys by Lady Gaga
Dream Date: Hot air-balloon ride followed by a picnic in scenic Switzerland

Hadley knew from a young age she was destined for greatness. She spent her early years playing with barbies and tea kettles, but she soon came to her senses when she attended her first Fallout Boy concert. A brief rebellious phase culminated in falling into the Erie Canal, an event which caused her to reevaluate her priorities and sign up for the local nordic team. Initially drawn by the hot chocolate and cookies, she soon discovered the joys of cleaning klister and rollerskiing in the rain. Before long, Hadley new that she wanted nothing more than to follow in the footsteps of her older brother and attend Bates College.

At first, she was quiet and respectful, but it didn't take more than two weeks before she started giving me excessive amounts of sassy responses to simple requests like "can you wax my skis," "will you write this essay for me," and "my toenails need clipping." In class, I am told that she manages to restrain her sass, and sources say she is a model student. Her goals for the race season include collecting a large number of carnie-crushes, learning how to wax, and perfecting her snow dance (which has so far been unsuccessful).

Sam Pierce

Class of 2019, age 19.
Hometown: New Gloucester, Maine
Spirit Animal: Fawn
Major: Undecided
Favorite Song: Rock Star, by Nickelback
Dream Date: "I have a boyfriend, back off Max."

Voted most datable member of Bates Nordic, Samantha Carrs Pierce spends the majority of her time politely declining requests such as "let's study together," and "my toenails need clipping." Despite the burdens of her good looks and charming personality, Sam manages to find time to wax all of Max's skis, excel in her First Year Seminar "The Roots of Non-Violence," and apply this knowledge to beating up Corky. Sam describes her spirit kitchen appliance as a "drawer with lots of chocolate in it," which is fitting given her senior superlative of "Most likely to not know what the word appliance means."

After some digging, it was uncovered that Sam was the most popular girl in her middle school class of 20--she credits her collection of Aeropostale Tees and a personal style modeled after Hilary Duff for propelling her to the top of the social ladder. More recently, she has adopted an interest in astronomy and now spends many nights staring into the night sky, wondering if we are alone in the universe.


Keep an eye out for Sunday's post, which is going to cover our illustrious sophomore class!

Until then, here's a picture of Britta, Hadley, Henry, and Connor making fun of me for having them pose for a picture:

WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE

Protect this House: The Legend of the Chummy Broomhall Cup

Resting in Coach Becky’s office in the hallowed halls of Alumni gymnasium lives a sacred chalice. This holy relic is dedicated to the legendary grandfather of Nordic Skiing in Maine: Olympian Chummy Broomhall. Awarded to the fastest Maine Collegiate Nordic Ski team, the Cup has been collecting dust on its hallowed pedestal for 4 long years. This Saturday, Bates travels into the land of Mules with a single goal: One more layer of dust.

We’ve spent the whole year preparing for this one epic test of body and mind. Hundreds of hours of rollerskiing, running, picking up/putting down heavy objects and crafting our mental game with marathon chess matches and intellectual debate leaves us exceptionally well prepared to infiltrate enemy territory and assert our dominance.

We will don our spandex armour, mount our trusty featherweight steeds, and attach our deadly lances to either hand. The battle begins at 10AM Saturday.

   

Rain, Racing, and Relaxation

For the rest of the team today is the first day of classes, but for me it marks the beginning of two months of skiing, sleeping, and apparently blogging. Since I will be studying abroad at the end of February, I'm here at campus killing time until I fly out to New Zealand. I think the rest of the team got concerned that I'd be bored with nothing to do but ski, and so they appointed me master of the blog. I'm envisioning a biweekly update on Sundays and Thursdays, probably detailing gossip, drama, and occasionally skiing. In the spirit of keeping everyone's expectations low, I'm posting this first entry a day late. So without further ado, welcome to Max's biweekly blog update (Sunday edition).

The Past:

On Friday, most of the team participated in a lighthearted time trial in Jackson, NH. Words my teammates used to describe it include: "fun," "hard," "point-to-point," and "Becky wore a UNH jacket."

I got to act as assistant to the assistant coach, and stood on what I thought was the hardest hill and took some pictures.

Britta charging

Laurel

Captain Gracie looking awesome

Hadley

Wade (just turned 20) Rosko

Connor

The Future:

With less than a week to our first carnival, we are facing the unfortunate realities of "winter" in Maine. After a determined warm front dropped two inches of rain on us, whatever snow we have is mostly gone. This includes the trails at our home course of Black Mountain in Rumford. As a fallback, we will be hosting our carnival at Quarry Road, in Waterville. While it's always hard to change plans, no one can control the weather, and so we all have to do as Becky says, and adjust.

There will be more to come on Thursday about our race prep, goals, hopes and dreams, and favorite pre-race meals.

The Fun (An interview with Parker):

Parker Mcdonald, 20 years old, is a sophomore from Vail, CO, and agreed to sit down with me for a brief interview.

Max: Thoughts on the Chummy Cup
Parker: The Chummy Cup means a lot to our team, and it would be very nice if we got it back for the [fifth] year in a row.

Max: What have you done to prepare?
Parker: Watched inspirational music videos, eaten a lot of carbs, and had a lot of sleep. I've also waxed my skis multiple times.

Max: Classic or Skate?
Parker: What's Classic skiing?

Max: Where do you see yourself in five years
Parker: Blossoming into a beautiful person

Max: What are your thoughts on invasive procedures to detect doping in high level sport?
Parker: No Comment

In other news, Parker recently told me of his successes on our weight lifting plan, where he gained ten pounds of what he felt was muscle. I felt bad telling him our scale reads 15 pounds heavy.

-Max Millslagle

Tuesday: An Epic

Classic intervals

We skied in the freezing cold

Crushing it today.

Lunch: Annie’s and eggs

Skate distance this afternoon

No naps were taken.

We leave you a link

(Since our poetry is bad):

Sophie Caldwell won > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u041t6e8EA

Love, your English majors

Things We Did Over Winter Break

Greetings! 

Britta and Parker here reporting live from Sugarloaf, Maine, site of the highly anticipated 2016 Winter camp! Making it here was not easy. After a rough finals week, we ventured to our various homes to spend two weeks with our families and high school friends/enemies. Here are a few highlights, quotes and key words from our time at home--we are pleased to report that family fights were kept at a minimum and everyone found a way to get on snow/ice of some form or another. 

Dylan: "Uneventful." 

"I spun some wool with my mom." 

Grace: "It was 70 degrees on Christmas day."

Helen: "Made thai food for 15 people and skied in record breaking high of 40 above temperatures in Fairbanks, Alaska."

Sadie: "I went to Canada with my family."

Wade: "I went on adventures in alpine environments"

Hadley: "I had really good coffee." 

Laurel: Was not around to comment, but after some extensive Facebook staking it seems she did a lot of skiing with her parents. 

Connor as told by Britta: "I'm not at camp yet because I'm busy skiing in Whitefish and bragging on social media to everyone in the East." 

Meanwhile, Britta and Parker, today's trusty bloggers, have fascinating stories to share with our fans. 

Britta: "Hello fans. I had really wonderful and revitalizing break. I had the pleasure of answering the question 'what are you doing after graduation?' 247 times and skiing around a .5 km loop 143 times. I also jumped into our pond on Christmas." 

Parker: "I had a wonderful break. I spent my time back home in Colorado with my family and ski club. I ate a lot of food. I developed a new love of scarves. I also had a killer beard I was very proud of, but my mother made me shave."

We are looking forward to more coffee, skiing, scarves, and relaxing before school starts again on the 12th. Stay tuned for more updates from camp!

-Britta and Parker