Mt. Ste. Anne Day Deux

Yesterday afternoon the skiing was pretty awful in the mist and sleet with really squirrelly tracks that were very hard to ski in.  But, the real workout of the day was pushing a multitude of cars out of the unplowed parking lot.  Everyone got a good workout doing that.

This morning dawned a bit brighter with some sun poking through the clouds and freshly groomed trails.  However, once the CSU army started up Trail 33 we turned it into mashed potatos so it was a slog.  Up on race trail 22 the uphills were slow and the downhills a bit dicey.  I made a massive bathtub when my skis shot out from beneath me on the uphill after a fast downhill and Andrew Reed broke a ski when it apparently went into a moose hoof print.  Other than those misshaps it was a good 2 hour+ ski.  There is lots of snow here!  Things are firming up as more people get out on the trails, so this afternoon we will work on classic drills.

CSU Takes MSA By Storm

 

Mt. Ste. Anne Report

CSU has taken Mt. Ste. Anne by storm!  On the way up we stopped at Mt. Orford for an excellent classic ski in nice conditions.  There wasn't a whole lot of snow, but plenty for good tracks.  This broke up the trip nicely and we arrived at the condo early in the evening after stopping for dinner.  This morning we awoke to about 18" of new snow on the ground as about 30 skiers headed out there in a blizzard.  It has been snowing hard all day, although mixed with sleet from time to time.  So, classic it was for a beautiful ski in a winter wonderland.  I'll try to get some photos posted later. 

Presque Isle JOQs - Part 2

Sunday were the 5km/10km mass start classic races at Presque Isle.  The course conditions were a bit weird because the organizers decided not to regroom most of the course for fear of bringing up dirt and leaves since there really isn't that much snow there and there is no ice base at all.  So the only parts regroomed were those around the stadium area. 

In the 5km J2 boys race Eli Hoenig and Jack Hegman had what was billed as "The Battle of the Day", skiing tips to tail for then entire race complete with a double pole duel down the finish straight.  Jack prevailed by 1.1 seconds over Eli.  Eli was followed home by Hamish McEwen in 4th, skiing another very strong race, while Rion O'Grady was 13th and Erik Brote 18th.  On the girls side, Corey Stock led pretty much start to finish prevailing over Heather Mooney by 30 seconds.  Rebecca Smith finished in 18th.

In the women's 10km former CSUer Olga Golovkina, now skiing for Colby College, finished a very strong 4th place.  Alex Jospe came in a solid 12th and Hannah Smith 20th in a strong field of college skiiers, while Clare Egan, who has barely seen any snow, finished 54th. 

On the men's side Chris Stock also had a very good race, coming home 12th, followed by Isaac Hoenig in 29th, Jackson Rich in 54th, Neil Garrison in 66th, Rob Bradlee in 70th (1st Master), Chris Burnham in 83rd, Tommy Rummel in 86th, Jamie Doucett in 88th (3rd Master) and Nick Serbedzija in 91st.   Rob and I started in the massive master's only wave of 3 skiiers 3 minutes after all the college and high school kids, so we avoided massive pile-ups on the early downhills, which was good because I did a wonderful face plant anyway trying to figure out which of the many ruts to ski in and clearly making a bad choice.  With no base there was nothing to slide around the corners on, just lots of loose snow that went down to grass in some spots.  Other than that though, the skiing was great.

Prizes for all on the podium consisted of a bag of Maine potatos! 

Presque Isle JOQs - Part 1

J2 Boys Semifinal Sprint

This weekend the CSU Jrs made the long haul up to Presque Isle, ME for the 1st big races of the 2009-2010 ski season.  Without much snow time under our collective belts it was going to be interesting to see how everyone faired in the far north.  We arrived Friday at about 3:15, just in time to move stuff into our wax room, change and get on our skis for a cold and windy shake down ski after the long ride up in the two 15 passenger vans that we rented.  The view of Katadin was breathtaking on the way up and I saw 3 bald eagles while I was driving!  We were crammed in pretty tight so everyone was glad to get out and stretch our legs and lungs and preview the sprint courses for Saturday's races.  With the sun hitting the horizon at 3:35, we mostly skied under the lights for about 30-40 min. trying to get the right line on the switchback corner at the bottom of the fast downhill.  Tomorrow's races would be interesting! 

The qualifying round went off in the morning and CSU faired well with Alex Jospe and Chris Stock qualifying for the elimination rounds in the J1 and OJ age group, while  Corey Stock, Eli Hoenig and Hamish McEwen qualified in the J2 age group.  Both Alex and Chris were eliminated in the quarter-finals.  However, all three J2s advanced to the A final races.  Corey Stock took off in her final as the sun was heading down, but was dogged by a very persistent Heather Mooney, who managed to draft for the whole race and sneak by Corey on the finish straightaway.  In the boys A final Eli Hoenig jumped into second place at the start and finished a strong third, while Hamish McEwen, a first year J2, raced very well to take 4th place.

It was a very good day for CSU, especially considering that much of the competition has been on snow a lot of late.  Stratton has been on snow for 2 weeks at Mt. Ste. Anne, Burke has been out west, many groups got on good snow at Thanksgiving.  We got on 500 meters at Weston!!!

A few photos from the sprints.

Alex in the Quarterfinals, smiling about her fast skis

Nick and Isaac on the final climb to the stadium

Sprint Time Trial

At Weston today the kids did a skate sprint time trial as part of practicing the entire routine for warming up for a race.  The goal was for each skier to do a complete warmup just as one would do for a sprint race.  Here are the results:

Male:

Hamish McEwen 2:59
Neil Garrison       3:04
Rob Bradlee       3:06
Rion O'Grady     3:08 Tie
Eli Hoenig         3:08 Tie
Erik Brote         3:22
Greg Holdman   3:37

Female:

Alex Jospe    3:16
Hannah Smith  3:36
Ellen Goldberg  3:58
Katie Cosman   4:12 Tie
Julia Schiantarelli 4:12 Tie

Windblown! 1st On-Snow Practice

12 CSU juniors and 4 coaches met at Windblown today under blue skies for a classic workout in the morning and a skate workout in the afternoon after a relaxing lunch period where most of the kids even pulled out their homework.    As you can see from the photos, the weather was very nice, although pretty windy.  Windblown is in very good shape given the amount of snow.  The classic was excellent as was the skating.  I even skated on race skis.  In the morning we toured all around and finished up with a number of no pole drills.  The afternoon skate consisted of a good warmup ski followed by skate drills in the field.  Lots of smiling faces!  It was, however, not wise to venture off the groomed trail given the crust, as Rion discovered.

Other familiar faces out there included Wes Denering, Robert Faltus, Dave Currie and Aims Coney.

Nice face!

 

Ed Summersby Captured by the Herald!

Ed Summersby was captured by a Boston Herald photographer while rollerskiing on Huron Ave in Cambridge during the hot spell last week.  Hopefully we won't need to rollerski much longer! 

Yellowstone Classic Races 10 km and 5 km

 Today were the 10km and 5km classic races at Yellowstone.  Alex's results and those of several former CSUers or CSU friends below. 

58  BRIGGS, Matt 22 Craftsbury Green Racing ProjecMU23 17    32:44.5       +3:18.7
84  BURRUSS, Ollie 23 Craftsbury Green racing ProjectMS 36      34:01.3       +4:35.5

35  DONG, Evelyn 24 Fischer Craft Team FS 19           17:41.1         +1:24.2
64  JOSPE, Alexandra 25 Alpina FS 29                         18:42.8         +2:25.9
80  SNYDER, Jessica 25 Alpina FS 33                          19:16.5         +2:59.6
108 TIERNAN, Carolyn 58 FM6 1                                21:45.4        +5:28.5

Alex in Yellowstone, continued

Here is the line on Alex's and Jess' races and also Ollie Burruss today, 10km and 15km skate:

50  JOSPE, Alexandra 25 Alpina FS 25   27:51.0     +3:14.1
57  SNYDER, Jessica 25 Alpina FS 28    28:13.2     +3:36.3

58  BURRUSS, Ollie 23 Craftsbury Green racing Project MS   32 35:19.5      +3:41.1

One Photo Says It All!

Alex and Jess in W. Yellowstone

In the sprint held yesterday Alex was 60th in 5:46 (110 racers) and Jess was 74th in 6:01.  Sounds like a longggg sprint!  There were no elimination rounds.

Skate Time Trial

The fall training group did a 5km (approx.) skate time trial at Annursnac while everyone else worked on skate drills and getting back on rollerskis after fall sports.  Results of the time trial are:

Chris Burnham      14:22
Hamish McEwen   14:35
Rion O'Grady        15:58
ErikBrote              16:21
Hannah Smith        16:27

CSU Jrs at State XC Meet

Here are results of CSU Juniors at the state high school cross country championships.  The Lincoln-Sudbury girls took the top prize! The photos of Corey and Eli are from Brian Holtzman. 

Girls
5     Cory Stock            19:32
65   Olivia Meyerson     21:15
121 Catherine Benson   22:53

Boys
46   Eli Hoenig              17:27

Double Pole Time Trial Results

Frank's summary of last Wednesday's double pole time trial results:

Hi Folks,

Wanted to share the results from last week’s DP test.  Great improvements! The club is getting a very strong upper body!  Doesn’t matter how old you are – everybody can improve as shown by an incredible 6 new personal bests (PB):

M4 Andy Milne lead the charge of most improved, setting an incredible new master’s course record of 11:18, taking over 1min off his previous best.  That’s what you get for doing Ercolina every morning at 5:30am. Next most improved is J2 Hamish McEwen, taking almost a minute off his Sept best for a very strong new personal best of 12:10.  Third in the list of most improved is our very own president for life, M5 Rob “Robolina” Bradlee, who took off 26 s of his previous PB to finish at 12:41, closely followed by 25 sec improved J1 Erik Brote who is soon going to show the Swedes how to do upper body training, finishing at 13:46.  Fellow J1 Rion O’Grady is bouncing back from injury, improving by 19 sec to 13:33 and coach Alex improved her Sept 08 best by 7 sec to finish at a very strong 12:39.  Congrats everyone!

Here all the results:

11:03	Chris	Stock
11:18	Andy	Milne	PB
11:36	Frank	Feist
12:10	Hamish	McEwen	PB
12:39	Alexandra	Jospe	PB
12:41	Rob	Bradlee	PB
13:02	Hannah	Smith
13:16	Bob	Burnham
13:33	Rion	O'Grady	PB
13:46	Erik	Brote	PB
15:54	Jamie	Doucett
17:06	Cate	Brams

Littleton Roll and Afternoon Jr Practice

The coaches pulled a double today, starting with a damp Littleton roll in the mist followed by the usual Sunday afternoon Jr practice at Annursnac Hill.  Yin and yang, mist and sun.  One unnamed master took a fall as Andy and Robert discuss a matter of technique.   Rob demonstrates the scooter drill.

Andrew Reed Flies the CSU Flag at the Head of the Charles!

CSU Jrs. Have Fun in the Mud

Here are the CSU Jrs that I could find in the results from yesterday's E. Mass XC races at Franklin Park  Apologies if I missed anyone.  It was a real mud fest out there!  Franklin Park can be very dicey when it is muddy, having slogged through some of those myself in years past, but this looks way worse than anything I've seen there before (see CSUer Henry Finch's photo).  Kind of fun, actually, if its not too cold, but you'd better have the long spikes in your shoes!  Eli Hoenig was tops for CSU Jr boys and advances on to the state championships as an individual.  Catherine Benson and Olivia Meyerson advance as part of their teams.

Boys Div I
26    Eli Hoenig       Lincoln/Sudbury            17:37
55    Isaac Hoenig   L/S                               18:06
97    Greg Holdman L/S                               18:49
116  Michael Goldenberg    Newton North   19:08

Girls Div I
90   Catherine Benson  Acton/Boxborough   23:50


Girls Div II
50   Olivia Meyerson   Concord Carlisle       21:47


Girls Div III

84    Katie Cosman   Melrose                       23:16

Donna Smyth Flies in Stone Cat Ultra

CSUer Donna Smyth blasted through the Stone Cat Ultra Marathon last weekend, crushing the 50+ women's record by 43 minutes!!!  Below is Donna's summary of the race.  She had a bit of a problem when she fell and dislocated her finger during the race, but was not deterred from her strong finish.  Photo of her finishing the race and her lovely finger, which soon got straightened out.

I had the race of my life:

·         NO issues (except for the dislocated finger at 44.7 mi. (out of 50 mi.)
·         Personal best by 1 hr. 8 min. + = 9:15.31 J (prev. time, 2003 was 10:23.38) 
·         50+ female age-group record by 43 min.+

·         Felt great the entire race!!! (except when I fell the third time, and had the finger issue, and thought that they wouldn’t let me continue)
·         12.5 mi. loops: 2:07, 2:12, 2:21, 2:34 (including negotiating with the aid station doctor / volunteers, and walking down most of the hills so that I wouldn’t fall again)
·         6^th female of ???; unsure of overall place, but probably 33^rd / 147 starters
·         Only 2 hrs. in the ER, and the finger now points in the right direction
·         Fred ran the marathon, then supported me at aid stations on the last lap, and at the ER

CSU Fall Classic Rollerski Race

Once again I got very lucky with the weather.  I woke up to a steady drizzle, checked the radar and it looked like the weather might just clear and clear it did!  By race time it was a beautiful fall day.  And, for a change, it was shorts and t-shirt weather.

With some new pavement, which much improved the course, 22 people came ready to race, including many CSUers, much of the Harvard team and even one person down from Ford Sayer territory.  The start went smoothly until Erik Brote dumped himself halfway up the hill for the only fall of the day during the race that I heard about.  Erik recovered quickly and duked it out with Rion O'Grady in the 1 lap Jr race, taking the victory by one second.  In the men's race several races within the race developed.  Up front, Jackson Rich and Andy Milne had a hammerfest with Jackson winning in 39:58, 1 second up on Andy.  That may be a course record in classic on this course.  I'll have to look back at past years to see.  Caught in no-man's land was Tony Ryerson, all alone in 3rd, followed by Trevor Petach in 4th.  Bob Burnham, Rob Bradee and Alex Jospe was the next group.  I caught up to Rob and Bob and dragged Alex up with me in the early going and then for being such a nice guy I got dropped on the 2nd half of the 1st lap.  Bob finally pulled away from Rob and Alex on lap two to take 5th.  The next pair to have a good go at each other was John Rich and I.  We traded off taking the lead and on lap two I tried to shake John but he stuck like glue and finally I let him by so I could draft a bit.  Gambling, I launched an attack at the top of the last downhill and got a lead going into the finishing straight, but John ate me up and took the battle of the old guys by 1 second.  Well done!  Will Brote, in his first rollerski race hung in well.  On the women's side, after Alex came 4 Harvard women and then Jody Newton, improving by about 4 minutes over last year!  Those Littleton rollerskis will do that!

Prizes were pies and gift certificates provided by The Bikeway Source in Bedford.  Thanks to my helpers, Lisa Doucett on timing, Marsha Rich, Jim O'Grady and Chris City on course control  Thanks to the N. Andover police for providing traffic control at the start and Chris City for taking the photos.  The rest of Chris' photos can be seen at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/chriscity/

Results from 2007 and 2008 can be see if you go to the archives of this blog.

 Juniors
1.  Erik Brote             23:11
2.  Rion O'Grady       23:12

Women
1.  Alex Jospe           43:52
2.  Audrey Mangan   46:46
3.  Esther Kennedy   51:47
4.  Alena Tofte          52:23
5.  Clare Miller          55:51
6.  Jody Newton       59:31
7.  Anika Petach       62:57

Men
1.  Jackson Rich       39:58
2.  Andy Milne         39:59
3.  Tony Reyerson    41:31
4.  Trevor Petach     43:01
5.  Bob Burnham     43:18
6.  Rob Bradlee       43:23
7.  John Rich           44:45
8.  Jamie Doucett    44:46
9.  Dave Loney       48:04
10. Erlemo Lochan 48:42
11. Robert Faltus    50:52
12. Will Brote         53:23
13. Tor O'Brien      54:30

CSU Skiers Running XC

The Dual County League championships was held today on the famed Franklin Park course in Boston.  CSU skiers had a good day.  Here is what I could glean from the results.  Photo (from Bob Burnham) is of Isaac Hoenig picking up his award for 14th place in the Varsity boys race.

Varsity Boys
10   Eli Hoenig          17.01
14   Isaac Hoenig      17:09
 34  Greg Holdman    17:56


Varsity Girls
27   Olivia Meyerson  21:13
47   Catherine Benson 22:41

JV Girls
23    Kelsey Colpitts    24:03


JV Boys
4    Chris Stock          18:23
6    Chris Burnham     18:29
10  Nick Serbedzija   18:32
13  Neil Garrison       18:41
128 Hank Yoder       22:40

CSU in Cross Country Action!

I stole this photo from John Waldron's Newton North blog.  Great photo of Michael Goldenberg at the finish of the Brookline High vs Newton North dual meet, which Brookline won.  Michael has been running very well this fall on a very strong Newton North team, running 16:40 for 5th place in this race.

Hilary's Report From Middlebury

Editor's Note:  I shamelessly stole this post from the Stratton blog, removed the photo of Hilary in a Stratton suit and replaced it with her dressed more properly in a Mass team suit from EHS! 

Hilary Rich, pictured above, sends a report about her freshman fall at Middlebury. Thanks Hilary!
Middlebury has been great so far! I’m taking an economics seminar, a computer science course and a West European politics class, so I am exploring some different interests here. The campus is beautiful, there are great views from just about anywhere you go, and the foliage was gorgeous. I’ve really been enjoying the roller skiing here, and the team is awesome. Andrew Gardner and Patty Ross (our coaches) have been amazing, and are really great at working on technique, and their strength plan is definitely making me sore…

AG and Patty have been keeping us going with a bunch of fun workouts. The other weekend we did some orienteering; my partner Doug and I were one of the first to go out, and by far the last to come in, but we have some good stories to tell! A couple days later, we traveled over to Keene to take a hike and visit with the McClelland family! We’ve had a couple uphill running time trials, which are not exactly my forte, but they have gone relatively well for me. We also had a double pole time trial, and tomorrow is our skate TT with UVM up at Jericho, followed by a classic TT up Brandon Gap on Sunday! Next weekend we’re planning on going to Hanover to run up Moosilauke, which is going to be a rough one, although I think I’ve come to terms with my lack of running skills.

Another fun thing we do is play speedball, which is the Middlebury Ski Team’s favorite game; I can’t say I’ve been contributing on the field a whole lot, but it’s fun to be out there. Overall, I am keeping busy between work, classes and training, but I am definitely loving it. I can’t wait for the season to begin and to be able to line up at the start!

Morgan Smyth, US Ski Team Talks to CSU Jrs

CSU was pleased to welcome USST member Morgan Smyth to our club for a visit.  She drove down from her mother's house in Vermont to tell us the story of her experiences as an elite skier, to answer our questions, and to inspire us to achieve our dreams.

She started by showing us a video montage of her training, racing, surgery, recovery, and some of the highlights of her illustrious career.  Then she took questions from assembled athletes, coaches, and parents. 

Morgan told us that when she arrived at Northern Michigan University her coach Sten Fjeldheim told her that there are three big S's at college: Schoolwork, Social life, and Skiing.  She could pick any two to concentrate in, but not all three.  She focused on school and skiing for the fall and winter, and then when skiing eased off in the spring she could spend more time socializing.  Leading a balanced life means sacrificing some things.

She told us that her big focus in training is speed.  Her favorite workouts are speed training. She trains less hours than many elite skiers, but always is sure to get in all the quality training that she can.  Given that she was 7^th in the sprint at World Juniors, 8^th at the World U23 championships, and made the World Championships it seems her strategy has paid off.

She discussed her past surgery for a bad knee injury and her recent surgery for compartment syndrome.  She demonstrated her balanced approach to recovering from such serious setbacks and her exceptional mental toughness in staying positive throughout.

One good question was how she managed to do so well in international competition.  She explained that she felt her secret was that she was not scared of European and Scandinavian competitors.  They are just like her, doing the same training, skiing the same way, so why shouldn't she be just as fast?  What a refreshing attitude.

She told us that she has been dreaming of going to the Olympics since she was in grade school, and that the dream has been solidifying and becoming clearer ever since. 

She finished with the dramatic tale of her recovery from knee surgery and her quest to win the NCAA championships.  Her dream was squashed by over-training and difficult waxing conditions.  She described the pain of listening to the announcer tell everyone she was in 23^rd position as she skied by on her first lap.  After finishing she followed her mom's rule that you are allowed to mourn a bad race for 10 minutes and then you have to move on.  She went to the woods for a good cry and then came back to thank her coaches and teammates.  She had failed to reach that goal, but she realized it only felt so bad because she had been successful at almost every other goal.  So, her record of success was very close to 100%.  With her sunny attitude back in place she moved forward with her Olympic plans.  What amazing resilience.

With surgery in August she faces a big challenge making a comeback for this Olympiad.  The CSU athletes made a poster of positive messages while she signed cards for them and handed out pins.  No doubt that Morgan will be one of America's best athletes for some time to come.  We will be cheering for her this year.

Bonus Day on the Littleton Loop!

The weather was supposed to stink today, but it was gorgeous!  I ain't complaining.  Of course, I was too busy skiing to take pictures of anyone today, but did go back for this shot of foliage.  If you know where it is leave a comment below....there might even be a prize!

21st Annual CSU Fall Classic Rollerski Race

The 21st annual CSU rollerski race will be held on Sunday November 1, 2009 at the usual N. Andover venue. It will be classic.  The first big hill has been repaved and therefore will be much nicer this year!  Come on out and find out what kind of shape you are really in or come help. 

Map of the race course can be seen at: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=192762
For a race entry form email me at:  jdoucett@comcast.net

A Perfect September Day!

What a great day to be out in Littleton, rolling through the apple orchards with a whiff of apple and a hint of fall colors in the trees.  CSU Masters and Jrs. had an awesome 20+ mile skate rollerski this morning.

Dreaming!

It is Labor Day, but one can dream - Classic intervals, Jackson Ski Camp, February 2009. The skiing doesn't get much better than this. Train Hard and Imagine!

Hill Bounding - CSU Ski Camp

A beautiful morning bounding on Mt. Watatic at the CSU Ski Camp.

Rion's Secret Alternative Core Training

Rion's secret is out! Nothing like busting up some cement by hand to work the arms and core....

No Pole Time Trial

Burnhams Rollerski Switzerland

This just in from Bob Burnham.

We are just back from our vacation where we did some terrific hiking and other sites. However, I wanted you to know that Frank convinced us to actually bring along the roller skis. Ann and I wondered if it was really worth it, nuts came to mind. However, we did end up finding 3 incredible roller skis. Grimsell Pass is just something to be seen. It is sort of awe inspiring to ski over such a pass. It is the road you end up taking from Zermatt to Interlaken. I am attaching a photo. The first pass actually had far more switchbacks, but the traffic was a bit higher despite being more of a dead end. Our third adventure is a very long pass outside of Grindevalde called the Gros Scheidell. It is a road set aside for biking, hiking and now roller skiing. There were a couple of tour buses, but to have a gigantic and beautiful pass without any traffic is simply a site to behold. Of course >10KM uphill's are not for the faint of heart. Sorry Frank, lots of classic striding as our double polling eventually gave out. Many thanks to Ann for being the support crew.