Back to School

It's that time of year again. We're back in class and back together as a training group once again. We have a solid 600% increase on the men's team this year, with myself coming back from injury and four first years coming onto the team (Isiah, Alex, Sam, and Bryan). The girl's team has increased by three as well with first years Mariah, Chloe, and Emily. This fall Katlyn and Larissa are studying abroad in Ecuador and France respectively, but will be back in the winter for some EISA action.

We'll be updating on fall training as it develops, but for now we're [or at least I'm] getting back into the swing of things. It looks like it'll be a good one, as long as my ankles stay intact.

-Colin

Block M Dinner

Last Thursday was the last official ski team event of the year. We went to the Block M Dinner, which is an awards night for all of the varsity teams on campus. There are picture slide shows of each season, various awards, and senior gifts in the form of embroidered blankets. 

It was the last time all seven of us (plus coaches) will be together. Next fall it'll be much more different as Larissa's going abroad for the fall semester, Kat is going abroad for the whole year. Silke and I are the only two left at SMC who are not running cross country.

It was a fabulous event. Sadly, that is all for Big Purple during the 2010/2011 school year. Now we're all focused on trying to make it out of finals week. Summer is ALMOST here.

-Sam

Pre-dinner ski team love.

Our new hedgehog, Big Purple!
Courtesy of Silke from her trip to the Czech Republic.

Foooooood

Just clarifying...

The team.

Alpine and some nordic girls (top left)

post season blues

blues as in blue skies, we are not very sad people.

Anyways, thought we could put up a little something about the wonderful post season that we Purple Knights have been experiencing.

The most recent team workout for all of us was a trip to Ben and Jerry's (women's team bonding)

haha, but seriously, we have not given up training yet.
I personally have been doing a bit of cross training working on my rock climbing skills and kayak rolling skills. Joe happened to spot me at the rock wall last week and gave me some (useful?) tips on how to get up that ridiculous wall. Thanks.

The team as a whole has done quite a few post season races. We could be spotted both at the Trapp Family Lodge 10k on April 3rd and also at the Jericho 5 or 10k the following day. It was a warm weekend and crazy outfits were encouraged by all, sported by many. We got to test out the biathlon guns at Jericho (Silke would have been proud) and I'm happy to announce that we're all quitting the team to become biathletes. Just kidding. It was fun though.

In these past couple week individual, possibly adventurous runs seem to be the style. Everyone is quite busy with finals season upon us, yet lets not forget the wax box clean-up that needs to happen. hmmmmm?

note: Trapps is looking a little lean snow wise, but there are still some lingering drifts at the cabin along with the cutest, fattest chickadees ever so it's worth the trip.

love,

Big Purple
(and kat)

Last Carnival but WE'RE NOT DONE!

And so, just as rapidly as the race season came upon us, so it has gone. It is sad, but it must happen. There is always another year to look forward to (unless you are going abroad like me).

Anyhow, Big Purple finished with some of the best places the Knights have ever seen in nordic skiing. Though our men's team was absent from this race, the women managed to do pretty well. In fact, I'm pretty sure we (meaning Larissa, Gabby and I) had our best skate results of the season! WOOHOO. The wax was right and the mentality was right, something was right.

The next day of races proved a bit more challenging as we had to summit Mt. High-school Hill 3 times in a nice long 15k classic race. The competition was fierce and I was impressed with the UMPI girls who were skiing their first races ever that race. Go them! So much for easing into the sport.

Seeing as Black Mountain is kind of like my "home course" it was interesting racing there as a college student. I raced there countless times in high school and honestly, I don't remember high school hill being that tough. I also didn't have to do it three times in high school ha! Also, with my home being only 30 minutes away from the venue, we were able to stop by my house for dinner Saturday night. Unfortunately, we missed the banquet, but I think my mom's spaghetti was probably way better. Thanks Mom <3

And we would not have gotten through those races without the amazingly large vat of oatmeal that was made for us each morning by the owners of the Mountain Spring Inn in Andover, ME. (Larissa would not agree with me on this) But I like oatmeal.

Today was just like the season never ended however because while two of our team-mates were off racing a 5k classic at Craftsbury, Gabby and I did some intense intervals! (5x 3min. to be exact) Yay! so we can still feel like we're going fast. Our asst. coach Lary wants us all to do the Craftsbury marathon which is the current future goal. . . so those intervals should have been a little longer maybe.

Anyway, just a Big Purple update. The skiing is still good and the team is still skiing. perfect.

-Kat

Midd 2010; a.k.a. "classic skis, we don't need no stinking classic skis"

Just back from the Middlebury Carnival, a furious weekend of skate racing at Breadloaf. For the first time I can remember in my 10 years coaching, other than a couple of weekends where a race got cancelled, our league scheduled an entire weekend of a single technique, in this case skating. The way it turned out with Mother Nature I'm not complaining about that. I'm sure Lary and I would have hit the klister mix on either day (probably some yummy mix of KR60/K22N Friday, perhaps K35 covered with hardwax today), but I'm ok with not tempting fate.

Given the forecast, the trails held up surprisingly well Friday. The Rikert crew has certainly done their homework in January and February (and before that with trail prep). Although there were spots on the race course where your baskets could punch through, step 6" off the packed trail for an idea of how soft it could have been...thigh deep. The lack of sunshine and only 10 minutes of light rain kept the race course consistent for the late starters as for the early bibs, making for a fair race all around.

Bear's a blur early in Friday's race

Congrats to Gabi and Katlyn for having the best races of their college careers, so far. Every week I see somebody step up and have a good race, and it feels good to see us making progress. It may not always show up when you take a quick look at the results sheets, but when you look at "seconds/km" behind we are making measureable progress. Until you start getting in the Top 30 on a regular basis it's all about working to close that gap, which is where we're currently at.

Katlyn strong out of the gate for her best college race

Gabi with a quick early split

Today was a sprint relay, one of my favorite formats to be a spectator at. Since our league coaches decided to implement a "no top coats" wax policy for this race, other than driving the van and brushing a few skis I was mostly in spectator mode for the morning. 3 skiers per team, a ~1km loop (3:33/loop for the top women's teams, 2:53 for the top men's teams), and each skier races 3 laps (non-consecutively of course). A big thanks to Colby and Bowdoin for giving our extra skiers, Bear and Larissa, a chance to join their teams. One of the great things about the EISA circuit is the mix of competitiveness and camaraderie. When we race relays that is on display in full force. If you could have heard the roar of the crowd on that last climb, it was just awesome!

Dynamic tag zone action between Kat and Sam

Larissa heads up on the last climb of the sprint course looking for the distinctive black and white Bowdoin uniforms to tag in her teammate

Bear leads Bowdoin and Harvard skiers on the climb to the tag zone

After the relays it was back across the street to the touring center for an adaptive ski race. Patrick Standen of the Northeast Disabled Athletic Association (http://www.disabledathletics.org/) and I go way back through my other job at Vermont City Marathon. Patrick is one of the top handcycle racers in New England and a philosophy professor here at Saint Michael's. Last year we saw our first adaptive XC ski race at Rikert, and this year Colin Delaney from our team actually competed in it. Colin's still on crutches after his December crash in Lake Placid. Watching those racers climb the hills of the Battell Loop blows me away. Think about skiing up those hills; if you're skating and V2 bogs down you switch to V1 and keep going, if you're classic skiing and the hill gets too steep you switch to herringbone and run up it. In the adaptive bucket your only option is to keep pushing with your arms. Essentially, this is double poling up every hill out there.

Kudos to the dozen or so racers in the adaptive event. And kudos to the folks at Middlebury for providing this competitive outlet.



19:16 later Colin's quote after finishing the 3k was "I'm probably going to be pretty sore tomorrow"

 Also thanks to our parents, friends, and team alums for coming out...Larissa's people, Mom & Pop Sitzer, Chaz (I know you were working it but no matter you were there), Geneseo Andrew, and our melodic world travelers Josh and Claire. Your support means the world to us, so from the bottom of our hearts Thank You!!!

The SMC crew (front: Colin Delaney, Patrick Standen)(back: Katlyn Keane, Gabi Naranja, Josh Lanney, Joe Connelly, Sam Martell, Larissa Spaulding, Claire Eisenberg)(Bear and Lary were still out skiing-sorry we missed you guys!)

(posted by Joe)