A little snow and Congrats to the WC skiers.

We took an easy Thanksgiving week and are getting geared up to head north to Quebec in the middle of this week. The abnormally warm November weather has delayed our trip for 5 days, but we're not panicking. The kids skied a little yesterday and this morning on Mad Tom Notch( top pictures) and Stratton.
It is always fun to get on snow and everyone is very excited with the WC results from Kris, Andy and Kikkan. Kris was only 10 seconds out of first and Andy was just over a minute out and placed 48th (after coming in 7th in the sprint). I guess that it's time to get after it! Those times also show how tight it is at the World Cup level.

Skate Video and Welcome Back Ashleigh

Ashleigh is back, she got in last night from Australia! Cambria got to try roller skiing for the first time since her surgey and it went well. Some of the team came up to school to wax skis and get in a little skate intensity. We are having an easy week before we head to snow next Monday, but it is good to rev up the engines a little bit even in an easy week.

Classic Sprint Practice Concludes Nationals Week(s)

Warming up.
Sisterly love.
Each fall we have our "Nationals Week" and simulate the races at Sr. Nationals. This fall we wanted to train well in early November so we spread the four races over two weeks. This allowed us to get in the Time Trials and train 12-15 hours/week. The goal was to train well and get race practice. Today we had our final TT, a classic sprint race.
We used our double pole test as the prelim and then had two heats. We ran a modified Australian Pursuit for the heats (we started the slowest from the prelims first, but didn't give them their full time back as a lead). This worked very well because everyone could start with a chance to win his or her heat.

Prelim times were: Skyler 2:43, Bridger 2:53, J Austin 2:59, Austin 3:00, Walker 3:06, Heather 3:15, Tyler 3:20, Mac 3:30, Gage 3:48. Rachel 3:50, Izzy 3:53, Hallie 4:15, Issy p 4:17, Brooke 4:34. Congrats to Tyler, Mac and Brooke for setting PR's on a slow day (cool and damp).
For the series, Skyler and Heather were overall winners with the Caldwell twins each placing second. Everyone had some good races and learned some lessons that should help this winter. Congratulations to all!

Brooke and Bridger won the two "flat" Heats.



J. Austin putting the hurt down to win the uphill Heat.
Walker, above, and Issy P, below, striding it out during the final Heat.


Instant video feedback.
The gang is all smiles after two tough weeks.

Fading Daylight and Compartment Syndrome

We had a relaxing classic distance ski today. We took to the back roads, paved and smooth dirt, because during these fall afternoons the colors tend to fade as the sun goes down.









Cambria McDermott had compartment syndrome and was operated on 2 1/2 weeks ago. She has been busy working with our trainer on rehab and upper body strength. Today she got to ride along. SHE WAS PSYCHED! Makes you realize that sometimes we take things for granted.
Cam started having shin problems in mid October. We diagnosed the problem pretty quickly and made the decision to operate. We are hopeful that she will be able to ski by early December and be back to full tilt boogie by mid January. More on her trials and tribulations later.

Skate TT at SMS

We had another busy day at SMS. We started the morning off with a 6:30 am classic ski scavenger hunt. Everyone went together and had to do specific techniques between each clue (d-pole, no pole, single pole, etc...). After classes we headed out for a 5/10/14 km skate Time Trial. Typical of most TT's, some did really well, some didn't. Regardless of results, it was great to see strong efforts from everyone. When you can learn to give it your best when you are not feeling chipper, good things will follow.
These pictures are taken during the warm down. We did our usual classic course, the 14 km started in Wardsboro and finished on the top of stair stepper. The 10 and the 5 km were our usual courses that end on the top of stair stepper. For those of you who do not know the course, the first 4 km is up, the middle 5 km is rolling and the final 5 km is killer.
Here are the results: 5 km (last 5 km)
Tyler 15:47
Mac 16:06
Heather 17:17
Hallie 18:38
Brooke 19:56.
10 km Time (middle 5 km, last 5 km)
Izzy C. 30:29 (14:02, 16:27)
Rachel 32:34 (14:39, 17:55)
Issy P 34:05 (15:09, 18:56)
Gage 34:50 (15:38, 19:12).
14 km Time (4 km, middle 5km, last 5 km)
Skyler 38:57 (10:57, 13:07, 14:53)
J Austin 39:41 ( 10:47, 13:19, 15:35)
Walker 42:07 (12:10, 13:55, 16:02)
Bridger 42:19 (included a big crash in middle 5 km... 11:46, 14:51, 15:42)
Austin Cobb 42:46 (11:57, 14:40, 16:09).


We finished the day with some floor core and med ball tossing.

Updated Results from Ski Erg Champs.

Sure enough, some body weight guesses were off. Here is the new order. Times are the first number and watts/kg the second. The order is based on the highest watts per/kg.

This was a 1k max effort on the Concept 2 Ski erg trainer. Check out the video a few posts down.


FIRST LAST TIME watts/kg
Skyler Davis 03:17.9 4.23
Bridger Tyler 03:34.4 4.00
Austin Cobb 03:42.5 3.68
Tyler Foulkes 04:07.0 3.60
Austin Caldwell 03:48.6 3.49
Magnus Bigelow 03:43.9 3.36
Gage Fitcher 04:00.7 3.19
Heather Mooney 03:54.5 3.06
Isabel Caldwell 04:04.0 3.05
Mac Fisher 4:00.1 3.00
Hallie Grossmam 4:17.1 2.80
Isabelle Pellitier 04:25.9 2.61
Rachel Hall 04:33.7 2.49
Brooke Mooney 04:25.4 2.31

Fun in the Sun

Click to enlarge. Nice day eh?