Fabio's Fabulous Fotos

Fabio sent along several nice team photos for the blog from the weekend up at Craftsbury.  Now that I've been on snow I'll be looking at the weather site about 50 times a day!  Let it snow!

The Master Rallies the Troops

On Snow at Craftsbury!

The skiing this weekend at Craftsbury on their manmade loop turned out to be fantastic!  I didn't get there until Saturday and it was still reasonably warm and soft skating, but it was cooling down and some snow flurries were in the air.  Everyone who had been there since Friday was starting to get tired and Eli had done 70 laps at that point!  The snow was reminiscent of skiing at Weston, but with hills and woods!  Woods with wildlife too as a bobcat, a snowshoe hare and a deer were seen.  Don't get those at Weston!  Several college teams were there including Williams, UVM, U Maine at Presque Isle and several other groups.  Janice held a masters clinic in the afternoon and there had been a race in the morning, so the joint was jumping!  In the afternoon we slapped on some Toko Red and Silver klister for classic skiing with marginal tracks in places and good tracks in others.  In the evening, while the kids were hanging out socializing with each other the parents and coaches had a great game of charades with lots of amusing acting out. 

Overnight 2-3 inches of nice, fluffy snow fell making the place look very wintery indeed. Couple that with low temps below 20F and a nice gusty wind and darned if it wasn't suddenly winter!  About half the group got in a skate ski while I skied classic before breakfast.   Everyone did about 90 min. of classic after breakfast and we fired up the two iPads so each skier could get some video instruction out on the course.  The iPads are a great tool so you can look immediately at the video.  They need a hood so you can see better in the brightness!  Then we switched to skate for a final session, also with some video.  At this point some were getting very tired, including several coaches, and we finally broke for lunch and then the ride home.

This was a really successful mini-camp and I think everyone was happy to finally get on snow and off the rollerskis, even if only for a couple days.  Everyone is skiing well and seems to have made the transition to snow quite well.  A few photos:



Liza



Jack Dawley

Zoe

Julia

Leah

Nate

Jacob and Eli

Hadley

Rosie

Kearsarge Rollerski Race

CSU On Top of Kearsarge

John LaChance held Kearsarge #2 this past Sunday on what turned out to be a spectacular day (and provided the results and photos).  Just as the race was about to start the clouds thinned and at the finish it was bright, sunny, calm and very nice.  Not a bad way to finish a grunt of a race up a mountain!  While Rob and I grabbed early rides down so we could go give the parent wax team a clinic, most everyone else climbed up to the top of Kearsarge for some great views.

A good crowd of CSU juniors and masters made it up along with a good sized group of others who mostly skated while the rest of us did classic.  Us old guys lined up at the back, being very careful about not trying to go off like a shot with the juniors.  This turned out to be a good strategy for climbing an unrelenting hill that has some very steep sections in the early part of the race. 

I didn't feel all that peppy and so didn't try to stay with Rob, Bob or Gunther and just tried to settle into a sustainable pace so I wouldn't blow a gasket.  My morning coffee seemed not to have kicked in, so I settled in for the long haul watching the boys and the masters drift away from me.  I skied a bit with Hadley, but when I got to a flatter section with some double pole I gapped her and started chasing Eli B, catching him and skiing along for a while, gapping him on the longer flat section where I was thrilled to use my double pole and give my non-responsive legs a break.  Burnham, Kern, Bradlee and now Hank drifted ever further away and I had no chance of catching them.   I now started looking for the top and I couldn't remember how soon it came after which view.  It was such a nice day I did sneak in a look at each of the various view spots, but then back to work because Eli was right on my tail all the way to the top.    No slacking off!  

This was a fun race, in that kind of sicko way that we all seem to enjoy.  

Nathan was the overall winner, gapping everyone early in the race and never letting up.  Meg was the overall women's winner, putting in a big surge somewhere in the middle of the race to catch Hadley and finish strong.  On the masters side, Rob caught Gunther later in the race, much to Gunther's chagrin.  In the skate race Blaine Ayotte captured the race with Steve Piotrow taking the masters race with Darrin Piotrow grabbing the top spot for women.  Everyone appeared to race well and the winners I know enjoyed the Prize Pies.  Thanks for a great event John!

 Mt. Kearsarge Roller Ski Race - November 18, 2012

Time Skier M/F Age Cat. Technique

27:36 Nathan Moreau M 18 OJ Classic
28:28 Jimmy Burnham M 22 Senior Classic
28:32 Lewis Nottonson M 15 J2 Classic
30:30 Sean Skahen M 17 J1 Classic
31:47 Rob Bradlee M - M Classic
32:04 Gunther Kern M - M Classic
32:35 Hank Yoder M 18 OJ Classic
32:59 Bob Burnham M - M Classic
34:16 Jamie Doucett M - M Classic
34:24 Eljah Bucher M 16 J1 Classic
35:15 Meg Yoder F 16 J1 Classic
35:56 Mary Lagunowich F 16 J1 Classic
36:07 Hadley Moreau F 15 J1 Classic
36:23 Janelle Deneau F 14 J2 Classic
37:52 Rebecca Smith M 16 J1 Classic
38:15 Carina Wallack F 18 0J Classic
40:04 Clara Cousins F 16 J1 Classic
42:37 Sophie MacArthur F 16 J1 Classic

31:20 Blaine Ayotte M 17 J1 Skate
32:02 Steve Piotrow M 49 M Skate
32:19 Dave Cahill M 33 M Skate
37:59 Darrin Piotrow F 13 J2 Skate
38:18 Joe Ayotte M 49 M Skate
39:21 Greg Larkin M - M Skate
40:48 Scott Betournay M - M Skate
41:28 Merideth Piotrow F 44 M Skate

Sean

Meg

Mary

Hadley

Carina

The start

Beginning of the race and Nate has gapped the field already!

Sophie

Rob

Gunther

Nate closing in on a pie

Rebecca

Hank

Bob

Jamie

Janelle

Double Pole Test

With the end of fall sports for most, the number of CSUers doing the double pole test increased for the last DP test of the season.  Many who just finished fall sports decided to forego the test and just get some rollerski time in with their ski friends and get back into ski mode.  After the DP test we all headed over to Bemis Hall in Lincoln for the opening meeting of the ski season.  With almost everyone there, ski suits for sale, old equipment to barter for and a run down on the upcoming season from Rob, the excitement to get started was obvious.  Its time.....Bring it ON!

Warm up loop



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Meg

Hadley

Mary

Janelle

Nathan, Sean and Jacob

Carina and Clara leading it out

Rosie, Liza, Charlotte and Julia

Specific Strength for Runners

A small but motivated and fast group came to work on specific strength after qualifying for States next week for their respective xc teams.  A few photos:

Single stick

Fabio got in a few tough hill intervals

Julia

Gavin, Zoe and Eli

Zoe

Kathy

Eli

Gavin

Julia

Rob and Lilly