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