Bates Nordic Skiing

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.