We're Back!

Whew, we've been offline for a while! We'll try to get better but for now we have updates!

It was an incredibly busy off season for the Saint Mikes team. Some athletes headed off on adventures with study abroad while others headed home for intense off season training. Where ever they went, the hard work is paying off. The team is looking stronger than ever!

Before we head onto the first carnival of the season this weekend we'd like to introduce our new team members:

Aaron Deeter

Hometown: Truckee, CA

Major: Psychology 

Favorite Race: Skate Sprint

Ellen Emers

Hometown: East Hardwick, VT

Major: Undeclared

Favorite Race: Skate Distance

Liam Schmelzle

Hometown: Saint Louis Park, MN

Major: Economics

Favorite Race: Skate Distance

Amy Duclos

Hometown: Clifton Park, NY

Major: Biology

Favorite Race: Classic Distance

Matt Doyle

Hometown: Salisbury, NH

Major: Media Studies, Journalism, Digital Arts

Favorite Race: Skate 10 km

Caitlin Holmquist 

Hometown: Gray, ME

Major: Biology

Favorite Race: Classic Sprint

We're really excited for the season ahead of us and hope you have a chance to join us at some of our races. We kick off this weekend with the Bates Carnival!

UVM Carnival

The Saint Mikes Nordic team was back in action this past weekend at the UVM Winter Carnival in Stowe, Vt. The proximity of the venue to school offered a reprieve from long travel for the weekend, as well as multiple opportunities to stop at the Cabot Cheese Annex on the way home. The team welcomed warmer temperatures, hitting the starting line substantially more comfortable than the weekend before.

The men kicked off the weekend with a 10 km skate race on Friday. Sophomore Torin La Liberte led the men’s team in 64^th, followed by senior Isaiah St.Pierre in 76^th. Rounding out the scorers for the men’s team was sophomore Cody Putnam, who continued what promises to be a strong season in 86^th.

Sophomore Cody Putnam fights to the finish in the men's 10 km skate. (Silke Hynes/EISA)

Bates Carnival

The team opened up the 2015 Carnival season this past weekend with a strong showing at the Bates Carnival in Rumford, Maine.

The weekend started on Thursday, with the long haul through three states on Route 2. But, after four hours, we made it to Black Mountain of Maine, home of the 2011 and 2012 National Cross Country Skiing Championships.

The weekend kicked off on Friday with the 15/20k Classic Mass start events, throwing us right into two seasons of distance classic events. The women got underway first, with Chloe and Liz leading the way in 61st and 74th. First Year Emma Barnes was third for us, in 81st overall. It was a nice, clean start to the weekend that quickly went cloudy.

A nice sunny Mass Start (Silke Hynes/EISA Photo)

Do you know French? - Quebec Camp Part 1

Yesterday Saint Mikes Nordic made the trek to Stoneham, Quebec for our first ever thanksgiving camp, hoping to find the snow that continues to elude northern Vermont. Our lunch stop on the way up to camp was enough to convince us that, no, as a team we are woefully unable to speak french. After awkwardly butchering the french language (much to the embarrassment of our Canadian coach), we continued on our way, peering out the windows, waiting for the ground to turn white. 

We were not disappointed. We arrived at Forêt-Montmorency determined to catch the rest of the light and were greeted by near perfect ski conditions. Excited about all the snow, the team skied until almost all the light was gone. We headed back to our chalet excited about the week to come.

What we saw out our windows this morning wasn't enough to crush our excitement, but it definitely left us a little less enthused to run out the door. We drove to the ski center in pouring rain, hoping to see it let up. Unfortunately it was destined to be a damp training session, and we headed onto the trails bundled up and determined to get in a good specific strength workout. By the end of the session the entire team was wringing out soaking wet clothing (why was the water running out of our gloves so dirty?!) and there was unanimous agreement that no one wanted to go back outside for an afternoon session. 

We have since retreated to home base for the afternoon for a much more sheltered strength workout. 

.skh

A friendly reminder from Julia!

When you reach the end of summer and it's been a while since you've seen your ski team family, here's a reminder to stay safe both in and out of training so you can make it back in the fall.

Williams and Middlebury Carnivals

Well, it's been a busy past couple of weeks for the team, prepping for the EISA Championships at Middlebury this past weekend.

Last weekend, the team was down in Bennington, VT for the Williams College Carnival at Prospect Mountain. We left earlier than usual, thanks in part to a HUGE snowstorm, one that gave Prospect almost 30" of new snow in the hours before the first race. And by early, I mean we were at our hotel before check-in, and got to tour Bennington for a little while.

Torin and Isaiah wanting the Nintendo-64 in the window.

The snow did more than just alter our departure time, though. With the sudden deterioration of road conditions, most of the restaurants in town were closed. Including the one we had reservations at. We had fun, though, driving around mostly empty Bennington, eventually stopping at the Bennington Pizza House, along with the Dartmouth men and the entire UVM team.

Dartmouth Carnival

On Thursday, the team traveled to Craftsbury Outdoor Center for the Dartmouth College Carnival, hosted in conjunction with the Craftsbury USSA Supertour, which brought some of the best domestic racers to Vermont for the weekend.

When we arrived, we did our usual course preview, getting a nice tour of the Craftsbury FIS Homologated loop. Afterwards, though, rather than just packing up and leaving for the night, as is almost often the case after arrival, a large portion of the EISA community remained, waiting patiently in the stadium until 4:15. It was at that time when Dartmouth seniors Annie Hart and Erik Fagerstrom led the group into the woods for a touching memorial to former Big Green skier Torin Tucker, who passed away at Craftsbury the weekend before, during the marathon. 

(Annie Hart photo)

UVM Carnival: The Fire Inside.

Last weekend, the team didn't travel per se for our carnival, but made the short hop over to Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe for the UVM Carnival/NENSA Eastern Cup races.

The Eastern Cup seems a much more relaxed atmosphere than just straight Carnival racing, with more people of varying ages and abilities, it seems more like an actual carnival!

The weekend actually started on a Saturday this week, as the event was kicked off with a 1,3km classic sprint. As it turns out, the SMC Nordic team isn't a strong sprint team. Oops.

In the men's race, Torin was the first SMC skier to race, sporting lucky bib #7. He was also the first place Knight, coming in 116th overall. He was followed closely by Isaiah, coming in 127th overall.

For the women, Chloe was the first finisher, coming in 116th as well. Behind her was Julia and Liz, in 135th and 137th.

Liz has the fire...

UNH Carnival: 2014 Edition

            After a solid week of classic practice, the team headed back out for the University of New Hampshire Carnival at Jackson Ski Touring last Thursday.

Upon arrival, we checked in to our hotel, which was right next to the stadium! The course after a bout of cold temperatures was fast and firm that afternoon, with the whole 5k international course available to preview. A whole 5k loop!

After our preview, the team went down the hill to the Shannon Door for dinner. Pizzas and pasta were the hot items at the ‘Irish Pub’ and we were accompanied by the Dartmouth Women, who were at the table next to us.

Dinner at the Pub

Colby Carnival

This past weekend, the team traveled to the Quarry Road Recreation Area for the first Winter Carnival of the season, hosted by Colby College. It was a long drive, nearly 6.5 hours by the time we arrived at the venue Thursday night. We arrived to a shortened course and tough conditions, with the area having been plagued by rain and mild temperatures the week before.

On Friday, the women started off the season with a 5km Classic race, two loops of the roughly 2.5km loop which still managed to include some of the tougher sections of the original course. The first race had some adverse conditions, with the hills being turned into a challenging mix of sugary-slush. The results weren’t all that great in the end, with Chloe leading the team in 84^th place (21:46.6), and Silke right behind in 85^th (22:15.4). Julia rounded out our top 3 in 89^th, coming in with a time of 22:56.3.

A few hours later, the men’s race was a different story. After the women’s race, the course was very different than the wax testing area, and any kick we thought we would get while going uphill during our 10km just wasn’t there. For many of us, it ended up being a 10km double pole. Add to that the increasing temperatures during the race, and you end up with bad times. Torin led the men in 79^th place (39:26.8), with Cody Putnam next in 84^th (42:12.6) and Simba third in 86^th (43:31.3). Over the day, Chloe and Torin were our only two scorers, with one point apiece.

After Friday’s race, we knew that Saturday had to be a different story. It was a 10/15km skate (so no wax to miss!), which meant 4-6 laps on course. Overnight, though, it had cooled off and left a nice base layer of ice under the granular that was left from Friday. This made for some interesting cornering and downhills.

In the women’s 10km, Silke led the group in 76^th, with a time of 34:50.2. Just under a minute behind, in 82^nd and 83^rd, Julia narrowly edged out Chloe for the second spot (and carnival points), with times of 35:45.2 and 39:49.5 respectively.

For the men, the course had been turned into even more of a sugar/ice track, with over 400 laps already having been skied into the course.  There were ruts, piles of snow, and tracks still left from the classic race. Torin led for the second day, coming in 63^rd in 41:34.4. Isaiah was next, coming in 81^st (45:38.1) and Boquist third in 83^rd (46:42.5). As a team, we tripled our point total, with Silke and Julia each scoring points (2,1), and Torin scored 3 points for the men.

Overall, both teams ended up in last for the weekend, with alpine’s points bringing SMC up to 14^th out of 16.

We are back in action this Friday at Jackson Ski Touring in Jackson, NH for the UNH Carnival, starting off with the men in a 10km Classic. 

Meet the Knights: Men's Team

Hey everyone! We thought it would be a good idea for you to get to know us a little bit!

These posts will be coming in two segments, with the Women's edition coming later this week.
Enjoy!

Name: Isaiah "Caveman" St. Pierre (Captain)
Hometown: Charlestown, NH
High School: Fall Mountain
Class of 2015
Major: Biochemistry
Skate or Classic: Classic
Favorite Distance: Sprints or marathons, don't really like anything between 3 and 25 km.
Favorite Skiing Memory: I raced the real Birkebiener a week after getting over the mumps.

Name: Torin La Liberte
Hometown: Madison, NH
High School: Kennett
Class of 2017
Major: Civil Engineering
Skate or Classic: Skate
Favorite Distance: 15km
Favorite Skiing Memory: Placing 13th at the 2011 Eastern High School Championships at Black Mountain after being seeded 104th.

Eastern Cup 0.5

This past weekend, a handful of us made the trek to Craftsbury Common, VT for the first set of Eastern Cups for the 2013 season!

On Friday, Chloe and I arrived at the Snyder house in Fairfax for the night, in order to beat the impending storm that would be arriving in the night before the first sprint. In the morning, the three of us (Julia included) drove up to the venue to meet Molly, and Ryan who came up with his home club.

Upon arrival, the place was packed, with almost 400 racers signed up for the days event.

As it got closer to the start time, it began to warm up, creating an interesting race surface: not firm, but not quite slush. My race went okay, coming in 91st in a group of stiff competition, about 25 seconds off of the leader. Behind me was Ryan in 102nd, about 4 seconds behind.

For the women’s race, Chloe and Julia fared about the same as Ryan and I, coming in 90th and 87th respectively. The track had softened up a lot by their race, and it had begun to rain a little.

By the time the Fairfax crew left (around 12:30, as nobody had qualified for the heats), it was raining even harder, and by the time the heats started (about the time we returned home) it was pouring. Maybe it was a good thing that none of us made the heats…

It looks like we all will need a little more sprint training by the time the UNH Carnival rolls around, starting off with a classic sprint.

That night, Catie and Silke came over for dinner and for a place to stay. The next morning, we woke up with three things:

1). A phone call from Molly.

2). No power.

and 3). About a half inch of ice over all of our cars.


Molly had called the house, saying that due to the weather and the horrid driving conditions, that she would not be attending the mornings classic race. This was right before the power went out. Right after this happened, we received word from NENSA that the days event would be cancelled, as to not put the 250+ registrants at risk on the icy roads.

And with that excitement, we spent the next while either indoors in the dark, or outdoors scraping ice off of vehicles. When Silke and I left at 11:30, the Snyders still had no power.

The next race opportunity we have as a team will be the Santa's Revenge skate at Sleepy Hollow on the 28th. See you there!

-Torin.

Training Camp Part 1

The first on-snow camp of the season wrapped up earlier this week after six days of quality training. Steadily improving ski conditions made up for the frigid temperatures throughout most of the week. Everyone on the team showed improvement with technique coaching from our new assistant coach Ian.

We started training camp with a 5km skate time trial on Saturday morning to give the team some racing experience this season, after waiting for the temperatures to rise to a more tolerable 0 degrees. Eli Enman (Molly’s brother) won, with Torin coming in a relatively close second (17:13). Isaiah was next for the men, fourth overall with a time of 19:07. For the ladies, Chloe led the pack in 22:11, with Silke close behind in 22:22.

Between all of our extra training sessions, the team bonded over Christmas celebrations, old ski race footage (that none of us understood, Norwegian maybe?), and Pajamagrams.

On Sunday, in an effort to raise funds for the season, the team went to work at the Vermont Teddy Bear factory for a few hours. While we were there, we helped pack (and ship) boxes for their Pajamagram operation.

In the evenings, we managed to entertain ourselves outdoors despite the temperatures. We spend a couple of nights outside skating, sledding, and sauna-ing, and finding out that Bocce balls make poor alternatives to hockey pucks.

And finally, we ate. A lot. One of the major highlights of training camp is the homemade food we all prepare. Some of this weeks dishes included Christmas Dinner, Burgers, pasta, and egg frittatas. And donuts.

We’re back!

Snow is on the ground, and it is ski season again!
After a productive fall full of time trials and solid training, we are back on snow at our first training camp of the season!
Since we last posted, we are now bigger (and younger) than ever (8 men, 7 women), with a large group of First Years; and are going into our second season with “new” coach Molly Enman (Middlebury ‘97) and our first season with assistant coach Ian Nesbitt (Williams ‘13).
Our captains this season are some familiar faces, with Isaiah St. Pierre ‘15 leading the men’s team, and Silke Hynes ‘14 taking charge of the women.
We are are currently into out THIRD WEEK on snow and in the middle of our first training camp at Sleepy Hollow.

More to come!

-Torin.

Rolling into February

We're rolling into February in a snow challanged winter! The walk across campus has been easy. Warm days and a lack of the huge snow banks to crawl over has made it simple for the team to get to the ski room and into the vans.  The talk at the early Eastern Cup races and carnivals is all about the difficult snow year.... 

But not so fast! The SMC gang, it seems, has had no problem finding the white stuff.  From long over-distance days on the rolling terrain at Craftsbury to mid-winter conditions at Trapps to interval training at The Range, the Purple Gang has not missed a beat.  It seems that it is good to be a nordic skier in Northern Vermont. 

The season is well underway and the Big Purple is getting fit and looking foward to another great weekend of skiing at Trapps in the UVM Carnaval and Eastern Cup races.  We'll see you there!

-Lary

(Once again, this was posted by Sam and I couldn't help but share pics of my dear old dad absolutely KILLING it in the coaches race. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the massive wipe out at the finish...I think his face in the last pic says it all.)

Last minute decision to join the race!
Big Purple was PUMPED!

Off he goes! Just look at that form!

Nice work, Lar!

First Week of Class Endeavors

We have a Facebook page! This is going to be short and sweet because it is late and we leave for Rumford tomorrow, but I wanted to make sure it got on the blog before the weekend. This is a new thing for the team and I'm going to see if maybe when I have service/wifi at carnivals I can post results and whatnot to the page before they're online (although the EISA is usually pretty speedy.)

The boys (and Gabby) give the van a little push

An exciting adventure the team had this week was when we attempted to get in some intervals on Tuesday. We went up the the Range in Jericho only to find that the road leading up to the biathlon range was a little icy. And by a little icy I mean a complete ice rink that was impossible to even try to walk on. We got part way up the hill in the van only to have my dad maneuver us carefully into a driveway. After getting slightly stuck for just a minute we unpacked our skis and began to walk up the ice covered hill. On the walk up we encountered a school bus in a snowbank, a woman in a Subaru that gave my dad the keys and let him do the driving, a fishtailing, skidding van, and, finally, a dirt truck that came to everyone's rescue.

High fives for getting the van out of the snowbank

Pumped for the arrival of the dirt truck

We made it to the top and the skiing was still good, but unfortunately just before we really got rolling the National Guard decided to call it quits and shut down the operation. While our workout was less than desirable we got to ski the Range and test out potential interval loops for the following weeks.

Big Purple leaves tomorrow at noon for the Bates Carnival at Black Mountain! I made the girls purple and yellow hair ribbons earlier in the evening so we're officially ready for the race season to begin!

Make sure to check out and like our Facebook page and wish us luck!

- Sam M.

Let the Games Begin (Fall '11 Recap)

Things seemed to get off to a slow start back in September as I headed out to Sun Valley with Evan.  As I returned for the first of October the team was somewhat splintered. Joe and Molly were keeping a large part of the troops on their game with the cross country team.  Sam M., Emily, Silke, and Brian (BFV) were all ready to roll, and so we did. 

Night time bounding at Cochran's in November

Halloween seemed to come out of nowhere and we were hitting the road for long rollerski days, intervals, and technique.  Cochran’s became a staple as we bounded right into the dark, but even the dark could not derail the pain. “Just pull this switch,” said the incredible friendly folks at Cochran’s.  Let there be light, and the team was as one.  3 hour roller skis, bounding and Joe’s team core were all part of a great fall of training.  But… the fall would not be complete with out Joe’s fun…. “It’s time for SMC to TT up the Bolton access road.”

Gabby and Sam-Dan were treated to a Thanksgiving with the Martell’s and a great week of on snow training.  Hard’Ack, Mike B’s gym, and incredible skiing at Craftsbury all came together to provide a great week of training.  By Friday the numbers began to grow as the on snow skiing was extended right though Saturday.  Sunday found everyone back on campus and a long roller ski.

Isaiah in the EC sprint

The Craftsbury gang worked their buts off and pulled things together for a fun weekend of racing as the first Eastern Cup went off with out a hitch.  Sam M., Gabby, Colin, Isaiah, and Sam-Dan jump-started their season against some of the toughest competition in the country.

Winter camp found the gang putting in long hours of skiing at Trapp’s.  The team put together 10 days of long skis, countless intervals, and a TT with the UVM and Dartmouth ski teams. But wait…we could not stop there, so we headed northeast to the long rolling trails at Craftsbury for a 3 hour ski and the 11^th day of skiing followed by pizza all around.

The girls putting in a solid 3 hours at Craftsbury 

Three more training days and the games will in fact begin. The college season kicks off as we roll into Rumford, Maine for a 5 & 10K interval start skate on Friday and a 10K mass start classic on Saturday.  This weekend is the first of six weeks of Carnivals and the team is ready, so… “Let the Games Begin”.

-Lary

                  

Early Season Racing

Perfect tracks on Saturday 

Isaiah racing the 1.4k sprint

I'll be darned, nordic racing on man made snow, who'd of thunk it!! That's just what happened over the past weekend. The SMC gang loaded up the ski gear and headed northeast to Craftsbury for a great weekend of ski racing. The Craftsbury folks put on a first class event on an 1.5 K loop that was a spectator's dream.  Well over 400 of the northeast's top nordic skiers showed up for the first Eastern Cup of the 2011/12 season.  The competion was non-stop with a 1.5 K sprint and 3K prologue on Saturday and a 4.6K and 9K skate race on Sunday.

Colin heading up the hill in the 9k

Gabby, Sam and Isaiah jump-started their seasons by racing all three events. Colin tested the waters on Sunday after missing most of the 2010/11 season. At one point as Colin ripped past several skiers through the stadium the announcer declared "St. Mikes, has a real gun this Colin Delaney kid!!"  Sam-Dan, a mid-western freshman wastreated to the fast, hard, ice typical of eastern-type skiing in the 9K skate on Sunday. Sam-Dan looked good in the climb and had a great time througout the race. Mostly he seemed happy just to see klister being applied...freshman.

Sam-Dan in his first race in Big Purple uniform

Sam and Gabby while cheering the boys on

Lary looking quite stoic.
(This post was actually published by Sam and I couldn't
let this incredible picture go unseen...)

I hung out for the weekend visiting with old freinds and watching some of the most exciting nordic ski racing I have ever seen. Cold sunny days filled with fast ski racing and no cell service. What more could I ask for?

-Lary Martell

Thanksgiving Pictures

Gabby has promised a post about Thanksgiving break and the activities that occurred. For now, check out my blog for my take on the weekend and enjoy the vague summary via pictures below.

Awkward picture of no pole work on Thursday.

Thanksgiving afternoon at Craftsbury

Lunch time.

Nap time.

Hanging with Lary

Gabby loves pictures. 

It got a little iffy Saturday morning.

By Sunday afternoon it was clear we would
be on rollerskis the next day.

High School vs. Collegiate Running

I know I sound like a broken record when I say “back in Minnesota”, but truly the difference between Minnesota and Vermont is astounding to someone who has only lived in one place all their life. So, back in Minnesota, My high school program was considered something of a joke within my conference. Our “long runs” were 40 minutes long and they were not fast by any means. We did brutal intervals starting in June and ending in November. Tapering? What’s that? We always were fast as lightning bolts in August but in October we were struggling to not place in the back half at any given meet. Our recovery days after races (Which we often had two a week) consisted of 20 min with a short “flush out” sprint afterwards. That is but a quick glimpse at a program that reduced runners to jelly by September. I arrived out here for preseason, nervous because I knew that this would push my body beyond its physical limits, ready and rarin’ to go. I was not disappointed. Day one we tackled 4 miles running at 7:30 pace (a previously unheard of practice pace for me), it was a refreshing experience for me to know that I was surrounded by people who actually cared about running for more than the six-pack it gave them. As for recovery days, it turns out those are our longest runs of the week, averaging 10-12 miles at a crack. As we say back in the North Country, “UFF DAA!!!”, this program was intense and rewarding. after getting a personal best in the 5k in an 8k my times have continued to improve. Good Work Coaches for having a killer program!!!

           

Ok, so I primarily view myself as a skier. With that thought in mind I was a bit hesitant to join the cross country team, thinking of horror stories in which runners overtrained and fried their bodies out by the time ski season rolled around. But with the cc coach being the nordic coach, I knew I was in good hands. Seeing as how Nordic Skiing is the most cardiovasculary demanding sport, any sport that worked the heart would be a good form of cross-training for skiing. However, you can’t limit yourself to just cardiovascular strength. Strength is also very important. If I had to bet on who could do more reps 225 lbs, between elite skier Petter Northug and Viking’s Running Back Adrian Peterson, all my money would be on Peter. 

-Sam H.

Sam super pumped for a roller ski a few Saturdays ago.