Swollen Arms, Shaking Legs, and Blurred Vision

My non-skiing friends think I'm crazy. They don't understand what we do, why we do it, or why it is fun. I cannot blame them, because for someone that does not cross-country ski, why would running until you want to throw up along with doing push-ups, pull-ups, dips, sit-ups, and box-jumps until you can't do anymore be fun? What about waking up the next day to ski for three hours? I can't speak for everyone when I give my opinion on why it's fun, and I don't argue that I am completely sane, because I'm not. The insanity of our sport and our character is what makes it fun. Spending a majority of my time with twenty-five of the hardest working, fittest athletes on campus is what makes it fun. Knowing that on any given day, someone on our team can wake up feeling great and have the race of his or her life makes it fun. It's more than the toughness of the sport, the talent level of our team, and the work ethic instilled in us by our coaches. For me, when I look around the gym at the end of a long, brutal morning of testing, and see someone on the pull-up bar with the other twenty-four athletes and three coaches screaming in support, I realize why this is fun.

We completed our annual fall testing on Saturday morning. While some may not be happy with a result here or there, I think we can on the whole, look back on the day and smile in knowing that we busted our asses for two hours in an effort to separate ourselves from our competition. There were impressive 3000 times on both the men's and women's side with both Sylvan and Beth setting impressive PR (personal record) of 9:25 and 11:09 respectively. It was incredible to see people push themselves beyond what they thought was possible in the strength testing. It was satisfying to see the look on someones face after he or she destroyed their previous personal best, but wanting more. Beyond this, it was the team chemistry that was displayed when people finished the 3000 on the verge of throwing up and found it in themselves to raise their voices in support of their team members crossing the finish line behind them. When someone was getting tired on the pull-up or dip bar, everyone got louder and pushed their teammate to four or five more dips until they collapsed off the bar. I can't explain this feeling to my non-skiing friends as they would have to participate in the insanity to truly understand it.

This team is talented and fit, but I think we gain an advantage with the team chemistry that has been built throughout the fall. This is why I don't mind my non-skiing friends calling me crazy. This is why waking up on Sunday to ski for three hours with sore arms, shoulders, and armpits didn't phase us. And this in turn becomes my answer to my friends' simple question of, "why?"

-Harry

Racing on Rollerskis

Hey y'all-

We just finished racing in two separate dryland races. We had the Second Annual Lobster Roll out on North Haven Island on October 25th. This is always a Bates favorite. We leave Bates at 7:30 in the morning and do not return until 6:30 that night for a thirty minute ski race... and we think this is awesome??? Heck yes we do!!! It is a long day for such a short race but trips like this is what makes a ski team. Starting to race 2 months before actual ski season begins will make us strong when it gets to real race time.

The Lobster Roll was a great first opportunity to check our fitness levels and challenge other Maine Schools (Colby, Bowdoin, and Presque Isle) in a preview of the Maine State Championships, also known as the Chummy Broomhall Cup. We traveled on a ferry to the venue and after a 30-45 minute warm-up, all the skiers were out on course. Ingrid Knowles was the top collegiate skier in the women's race and had the best result of the day. There were many impressive performances from the team and clearly there are also areas that we can work on to get better. One thing that is constantly made clear after these races is the importance of SKI SPEEDS. While some liken bringing training skis to a race to bringing "a little league team to the world series," truth of the matter is that the difference between fast and slow skis is like skiing on klister in powder versus taking the wheels off of Lance Armstrong's bike and putting them on some roller skis: the difference in speed is enormous. This is why our we must only look at success in the race in terms of previous year's times. That is how we can gauge how we are doing individually. A quick lunch, ferry ride back to the mainland, and we were back to Bates.

Results can be found at:

http://www.nensa.net/news/news_more.php?id=2862

The next weekend was the infamous Bowdoin Duelathon, not to be confused with a Duathalon. Somehow former head ski coach Marty Hall coined the phrase "duelathon" when creating the race many years back. It is a mix of a run and then a classic rollerski. This race is also another favorite. The race started in a mass start formation in the soccer field which quickly funneled into a narrow 2.5 foot wide gateway. The race continued over a 4 - 4.5 kilometer course. After the run it was a struggle of the most coordinated to see who could take off their running shoes and get on all of their ski equipment the fastest. I wished this year that someone had a video camera because I know trying to watch me buckle my helmet with freezing, fatigued hands would have been priceless. Not to mention some others (names will not be included) who ripped through ski boots in attempt to put them on causing them a transition time that ended up being 1/5 of the overall ski times.

Again we had a great day. Fast and slow skis included, Bates men were 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 9th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 23rd. Bates Women ended up in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 16th.

Results can be found at:

http://www.nensa.net/sched&result/2009/duelathon_2008.pdf

Back to work. We are in a recovery week right now so less hours means more time to eat, sleep, and for most of us catch up on school work. We are going into another big week next week and are looking forward to keep pushing ourselves so that our efforts now will show up when it counts.

Thanksgiving Camp in the next two weeks. WOOP WOOP.

Cheers

Rangeley Camp

Hey y'all-

Here is a quick update as to what we have been up to since practice officially began on the 6th of October.

RANGELEY CAMP

We left for Rangeley, Maine on the 15th of October ready for another grueling 5-day intensity/volume camp. The boys team were housed at Camp Cushman and the girls at Camp Flynn right down the road (thanks to both families for letting us use your camps as our headquarters).

*Wednesday*...We went immediately into lactate testing making sure that everyone is training at their proper levels. For those that don't know much about lactate testing, it looks at lactate threshold which is the exercise intensity at which lactic acid starts to accumulate in the blood stream. This happens when it is produced faster than it can be removed. This point is sometimes referred to as the anaerobic threshold, or the onset of blood lactate accumulation. When exercising below the LT intensity any lactate produced by the muscles is removed by the body without it building up. The lactate threshold is a useful measure for deciding exercise intensity for training and racing in nordic skiing.

*Thursday*...Again another tough day. We had our third annual Saddleback Hill Climb. Tim Whiton set a new course record 14 minutes 48 seconds. The girls record is still held by Megan McCllelland 17 minutes 57 seconds in 2007. The afternoon was again no walk in the park with an uphill double-pole test. Men and women went on equal speed skis up an incline lasting at the fastest 2 minutes and 41 seconds.

*Friday*...Our easiest day of the camp, we had a distance ski (1.5-2 hours) in the morning and then a run on the Saddlback Ski Trails in the afternoon (1 hour).

*Saturday*...A very eventful day. We had a 10k classic time trial in the morning. It took us over some rolling terrain and then at about the 6k mark climbed to the lodge at Saddlback. A great time trail for everyone. Hard to compare results from past years because there was a slight course change. The afternoon was exciting as the 2nd Annual Rangeley Bowl was played amongst the men's team. Team Woop Woop made up of Sylvan, Sam, Tim, Dylan, and Liam took on Team Booyah made up of Harry, Connor, Ben, Nathan, and Jimbo. It was a tight game with Woop Woop taking a lead at the beginning but Booyah coming back strong and going ahead at the end. A last minute hurry-up touchdown put the game into overtime. Woop Woop came out in the end, but a close game to say the least. The girls team at this time was most generous enough to let the meatheads play their game while they went out to buy ingredients for that nights APPLE PIE CONTEST. The winners of the pie contest was Ingrid, Harry, Dayna, and Liam.

*Sunday*...Our last day at camp we went on an Over Distance run/hike to the top of Saddleback Mountain and then down. It was much nicer and exciting experience than the year before. A great camp overall.