Saturday, November 26, 2011

The before and after shots

The group before heading out, and then stretching in the sun after the ski. Beautiful day for rollerskiing... if it were September! I think we're all a little antsy to get on snow by now, but everyone still has a great attitude.






It was also fun to have Jimmy, Isaac, and Hannah joining us, back from their collegiate skiing programs for a few days.

Hill Road

Another unbelieveably beautiful day to roll through the orchards of Littleton.  I confess I'm starting to get worried about it getting cold enough for snow, but it sure was pleasant out there! 

 One CSU jr, 2 coaches and one ex-CSU college skier.  I hope Olivia didn't get too much advice and coaching today!
John returns to rollerskiing.  19 miles is a lot of work for the arms when you've been running xc!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Time Trial Video

Classic Time Trial

We had a beautiful day for the classic time trial up the big hill in Littleton.  13 people raced and 5 or 6 others skied and watched.  Sure didn't feel like the weekend before Thanksgiving, but if you can't have snow this wasn't so bad.  The time trial was run as an interval start on 15 seconds.  The only misshap was that Rebecca kicked her ski pole and lost the tip, but fortunately I was able to give her a pole of approximately the correct length so she could finish strong.  Here are the results.  Photos and video to follow later.

1   Calvin     16:24
2   Max        17:58
3   Olivia      18:54
4   Sean       19:01.5
5   Jacob     19:45
6   Robert   19:46
7   Hank     20:16
8   Rebecca 20:45 (broken pole tip)
9   Rosie      21:13
10 Clara      22:50
11.Meg       22:58
12 Mary      24:28
13 Phoebe   25:22

CSU Hot Box Experiment Goes Awry

I had a little trouble getting to the CSU time trial today.  I headed over early to get in a rollerski with Bob Haydock and didn't quite make it in this car!  It was a good Volvo for the last 10 years.


Saturday, November 19, 2011

Another Nice Day in Littleton

Rolling along with Kathy, Bob, Rebecca, Rosie, Nick, Max and Sean on the 19 mile loop

Fall sports are nearly over and so the crowd at Littleton gets bigger and bigger.  We probably had over 20 juniors and about 10 masters out on the roads in the bright sun.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Team Kearsarge

Here are the hardy CSUers that raced up Kearsarge today!


Friday, November 11, 2011

Double Pole TT - Applying Power!!

Just a bunch of photos from today's DP TT on the theme of applying power.
 The warmup









Clara crushing her poles!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

CSU Fall Classic Rollerski Race 2011

The 2011 edition of the CSU Fall Classic rollerski came off without any problems, in large part due to the great help I got from Marsha Rich, Candace Nelson, Sara Cousins, John LaChance, John Skahen, Ed Despard, Tom Smith on video and Jeff Nottonson.  Thanks all!

I would also like to thank my sponsors, Jenex and Bikeway Source for providing a large number of prizes.  Thanks for your support and remember to thank the sponsors if you purchase equipment from them.

While it was pretty cool to start, by the time the race began the brilliant sun had warmed things up to a comfortable race temp.  Up the first hill a couple of Harvard skiers, Chris Stock and Akeo Maifeld-Carucci

grabbed the lead, followed by Frank, Andy and new CSU junior Nathan Moreau, along with Tanner Weigand, Bill Farrell and Max LaChance.  A little further back I was having a fun time going back and forth with Alex as we tried to close the gap to Bob Burnham while behind us was another good pack of Victor, Robert, Ben Smeltzer and Brad Bates and then a big pack of Harvard women.  With the breeze, it was a good day to have someone to draft off of.

In the junior 1 lap race Max got a good lead, followed by Sean and Lewis.  On the girls side, Rebecca got a good lead followed up with the pack of Rosie, Hadley and Clara.

On lap two Chris and Akeo continued to hammer, coming home 1st and 2nd overall in very fast times of 36:47 and 36:52, which I think are classic records for this course.  Then another hammer-fest was shaping up with Andy, Frank and Tanner, Nathan and John.  Frank got the jump on Andy somewhere on the home straight, from what I heard, with Tanner coming in just behind followed by Nathan and John.  On the women's side Alex skied well in 1st place, followed by the Harvard women Alena Tofte and Jennifer Rolfes.

A beautiful day for a race and with 33 racers, the biggest group in a number of years, including several people down from NH and Maine.  Thanks all for coming and making it a good race!

Below are several photos courtesy of Chris City.  Thanks!!
 The start
 Max takes a turn
 Jamie chasing Ben Smeltzer
 Frank
 Nathan Moreau
 Frank, Andy and Tanner.  Check last year's almost identical photo
  John

CSU Rollerski Race, Nov. 6, 2011

N. Andover, MA
Bright sun, dry, breezy, mid 40s

Place First Name Last Name Lap 1 Finish Time


1 Chris Stock                        18:46      36:47
2 Akeo Maifeld-Carucci        18:45      36:52
3 Frank Feist                         20:04      39:24
4 Andy Milne                        20:03       39:26
5 Tanner Weigand                 20:18       39:25
6 Nathan Moreau                  20:05       40:01 1st Jr in long race
7 John Sakalowski                20:19        40:44
8 Bill Farrell                          20:17        41:01
9 Bob Burnham                     21:24        42:51
10 Jamie Doucett                   21:29        42:52
11 Alex Jospe                        21:33        43:48 1st Woman
12 Victor Golovkin                22:17         44:30
13 Ben Smeltzer                    22:02         44:35
14 Brad Bates                       22:34         45:55
15 Robert Faltus                   22:39         46:19
16 Alena Tofte                      23:33         46:35 2nd Woman
17 Tor O'Brien                     23:34         46:56
18 Jennifer Rolfes                  23:58        47:58 3rd Woman
19 Esther Kennedy                24:26        48:35 4th Woman
20 John Rich                         24:32         48:59
21 Claire Miller                     25:00         49:39 5th Woman
22 Adeline Byrne                  26:19         52:53 6th Woman
23 Ainara Arielus                  26:34         54:49 7th Woman
24 Joel Gradstein                  28:01         56:55
25 Scott Betournay               30:57       1:01:20
26 Jody Newton                   31:22       1:01:33 8th Woman

Junior Results - 1 lap

1 Max LaChance                 21:05
2 Sean Skahen                     22:22
3 Rebecca Smith                  22:27 1st Jr Woman
4 Lewis Nottonson               24:07
5 Rosie Cobb                       24:44 2nd Jr Woman
6 Hadley Moreau                  25:05 3rd Jr Woman
7 Clara Cousins                    27:46 4th Jr Woman

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Ellen Rows for Brown

CSU alum Ellen Goldberg, lacking a ski team, walked on to Brown's crew team!  Here are a few photos from Bennett of her race against Princeton with Ellen in the 3rd seat.



Friday, November 4, 2011

1st Tracks in Williamstown

The most important thing to do when you first get on snow is put in practice what your coaches have taught you as they have yelled at you throughout the summer and fall.  Rebecca seems to gotten the Rob Bradlee leaning on poles just about perfect.  Note the fine body position, which is where it all starts........

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Freshly Ground Skis!

Alan McEwen picked up just a few pair of CSU skis after grinding by Zach!!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

In the dark, in the snow, in November

That's how we like to hillbound. A good crew of CSU juniors, with some fresh off the end of their fall sports (welcome back Meg, Clara, Jacob, Calvin, Mark, and anyone else I just totally missed!), showed up with our headlamps and our get-tough attitudes to take on Prospect Hill.

Last night had the added bonus of a massive tree down across the trail. John S. had previewed the trail that morning and reported that we may need to do some cleanup in the evening, as there were trees and branches down all over. Luckily, Gunther and Victor (and possibly others I didn't hear about) showed up before the workout and cleared out most of the trail! Then a work crew of Rob, Robert F, Ed (Alex's bf), one guy I didn't know, and Calvin and Mark showed up and did a good job attacking the tree with bow saws. By the time we got around to actually doing intervals, the tree was mostly out of the way. It was a big tree, with many large branches, so clearing that beast was no easy task. Yeah toughness! Yeah CSU!

Skiers looked darn good out there, until it got so dark that all I could see was a pack of headlamps, bobbing up the hill in unison. The coaches were a little less coordinated, as Rob forgot his headlamp, and Alex ran into a thornbush.

Bring it, November hillbounding!