That time of year

Thanksgiving break has come and gone once again. It never seems quite long enough, but it marks the beginning of winter (or what we consider winter) in the northeast. I got in my first few skis of the year in the past two days, and while the snow wasn't anything special, it still beats rollerskiing.
Now, as I pack up my skis to bring to school with me I hope that I will be able to use them soon on the trails of Higley.

I hope everyone has a safe trip back to school and returns well fed, rested, and ready to get back to training and prepare for the winter (and finals!)

Make sure your skis have wax on them and your winter clothes are packed. Winter is coming, and I think it's gonna be a long and cold one.
MD

Big News in the Nordic World

Big news for us! As Matt D has described about the ski swap, Bristol Mountain came to the swap to advertise their new trails for nordic skiing. This year they are going to have 3k of trails with snow making capabilities with 1.3k of the trail light with lights. These trails will be at the summit of the mountain where Section V has hosted many of their races along with the State Relay course. These trails are expected to open Dec 7th for use with trail fees. This will be a big boost to the already growing sport of Nordic Skiing. So as long as the temperature is cold we will be skiing in Rochester. This is great resource to have when the grass is brown and the air is cold.

The best news that comes with this, is the future! I spoke to the Head Marketing guy for Bristol and he was told he was impressed seeing over 600 people at the HF-L Ski Swap. He then started telling me that they are having plans to have a team of people who build world class courses for nordic skiing come to Bristol and setting up a World Class course in hopes to bring Top Competition to our area. How great would it be to see Kris Freeman and Andy Newell skiing here at Bristol?

For some good workouts recently, nothing says home like getting your big handed to you by Chad. We have had some great wokouts recentlly. We made our way to Cobbs Hill where they close the roads after dark. We did repeats up one of the hills there. Chad and I were pushing eachother up some of the hills where we got the Heart Rate up. After six of these we then did a few drop ins for some real speed. We followed this workout with a run in Mendon Ponds park. Only in Mendon Ponds Park can I go for a run and have to worry about deer. Chad and I had to come to stop when deer where crossing. I will have to get a picture from Cobbs Hill where you can see the city of Rochester at Night. Hope everyone is enjoying their time off and the great food. Hopefully everyone is having some great workouts as well.

Deer Chaser,
D Day

Snow, Roller Skiing, The Ski Swap, Caffiene, And Food

I'm finally relaxing after a crazy end of the week and weekend. Watching the Pats destroy the Bills and enjoying my hot apple crisp that I just pulled out of the oven.

Last Friday I went out to River Road in Colton for some 4x6 min skate intervals. These were at the end of my recovery week, and I felt well rested and full of energy which was nice to see. Recovery has been something that I have been able to focus on a lot more this fall without feeling guilty about taking a day or two off when I need it. I guess that is the benefit of having a well laid out training plan this year.This is a pic I have been wanting to get all fall of the dam out on River Road. As you can see, it was another beautiful day in northern New York; overcast, spitting some light snow flakes, and barely breaking 30 degrees. Great for getting in the winter mood but not the best weather to get motivated to go out on roller skis. Atleast is wasn't raining today though.

After the ski, I raced back to Potsdam, grabbed a quick shower and lunch, then threw some clothes in a bag, jumped in the car and headed 3.5 hours south to Rochester, for the infamous Rochester ski swap. High Peaks has been heading down for the sale for the past 8 or 9 years and I always enjoy helping out with the sale. I have to say that I am very impressed with the huge turnout of high school skiers that come out. There must have been over 500 people passing through the doors between 9 and 2 all looking for ski equipment. A big shout out has to be given to Ernie Day for organizing this great event.

After standing on my feet for 7 hours, it was time to relax for a little bit. We all headed back to the Day's, ate some delicious food, then went out for a nice little jog around Mendon Park before a nice night of a movie, relaxing, and coffeeeeeee. Being in quite the coffee mood lately, we headed to a quaint little coffee shop, where i got a delicious mocha latte to keep me going.

This morn we had a delicious breakfast cooked by Mrs. Day, where I ate more than I have in the past few months. The mountains of waffles, french toast, fruit, coffee and eggs kept growing and i definitely don't get this treatment at school. Full of food, Drew, Alicia and I then packed in the silver bullet and cruised back to Potsdam, where I have been finishing up work this afternoon and looking forward to having the next week off from classes.

I am now off to bed, looking forward to a nice cold roller ski tomorrow morning, and then a long 8 hour drive to michigan to visit the fam.

Think Snow
MD

Student Athlete

As we start going through this week, many of us now know the true term of "Student Athlete." I know everyone is facing a hard week before break, along with a week of some great workouts. For myself, I have 3 tests, a quiz, and a 12 page paper before this week is out. This is harder than my finals week. This is where you can tell employers, "Yes, I have time management skills." So far this week, we started off with a easy pole run on the "Ski Trails" (ROTC) and followed that off with a good ab and strength work out. Yesterday a few of us braved the darkness over on the golf course hill for some 3 min Double Pole and No Pole repeats. We also were able to enjoy the stars in the sky, even at 5:30! Everyone looked strong and ready because on thursday we will be having a 1 mile Double Pole time trail followed by a one mile no pole time trail. I am really excited for this, though you still can't tell a lot from rollerskis because of different speeds, but it should be good to get up to race pace physically and mentally. Today we will be going out on a 2 x 20 mins threshold workout. This should be the first day with everyone able to make practice for the most part. So keep the strong effort to get through the school stuff and be ready to go come practice. Should be a great week.
Student-ATHLETES,

D Day

Placid

I think this pic does a pretty good job at explaining why i always enjoy going home. I took this at the end of a roller ski saturday on bear cub road in Lake Placid. So as you all may have guessed, I escaped the thriving metropolis of Potsdam for the weekend, and headed over to placid for some change of scenery. I saw my first real snow of the year, icicles hanging off of roofs, and a thin layer of ice covering the lake behind my house.

I got in two solid interval workout's to finish up my interval block, and am looking forward to a few days of rest now. Although that rest will be filled with studying as i prepare for the math/engineering onslaught of tests also known as this tuesday and wednesday. I have exams in e-sci, statics, and calc III, should be a fun first half of the week.

The main reason i went home though was to go to a little celebration that some family friends were putting on.
It was a lot of fun. I got to hang out with some friends that i haven't seen in quite a while, and met a lot of new faces as well. The food was also incredible, and i think i ate more than i have in the past month combined, but it was well worth it.

During my travels thi weekend i happened to run across the honorary member of clarkson's nordic team, Ms Melinda McAleese. I just so happened to be driving by the OTC and sitting in the parking lot was a car that looked an awful lot like hers, so of course I had to investigate. and sure enough it was her. We had a nice b'fast this morning at soulshine bagels and then I had to pack up the car and head back to 'ole Potsdam, and the onslaught of paper writing and studying that was beckoning, and which i should probably get back to now.

Procrastination, the best cure for school work.
MD

Into the Sunset

Well it is that time of year again. Darkness comes quick, which can leave every man for themselves. Skiing gives you many challenges, skiing in the dark gives you more. Before I go on I would like to extend a congrats to our running team after a very respectful finish in regionals. Now with the running "Training" season over, practice should start to be more of a normal turn out. Been pretty slim. Thursday, four of us went over to the Five Corners. We did 2x15min off into the sunset. Friday, Delaney and I went out to Pumpkin Hill and did some classic intervals. Delaney did 8x2 min double pole, while I did 5x4 min repeats. Good workout, Delaney looked strong and ready to go. I busted to hard on the second one leaving a tired third repeat. I really felt the core, which seems to be a strength for many this year! With the weather getting colder it is a constent reminder that winter is coming. Today, many of us many of us made it over to the High School State Meet for XC. There were some great races with Pat D setting the pace with the fastest time of the day, and my boy Alex Deir winning the Class B race. Everything looks set for a good week of training coming up with a OD tomorrow. Lets hope we can fit in some good work between all the tests. Study hard, ski harder.

D Day

29:20, He's Fit

That's the result of today's 10K double-pole kickfest out on River Road. I decided to lay it down on SLU's time trial course out there. Overcast skies, stiff cold wind, plummeting temperatures, and a dusting of snow on the ground combined as a nice reminder of what it is going to be like when we get on skis this winter. The warm-up for today was finding the small red "S" spray painted on the road that indicates the start. Once Talbs and I found our mark, it was time to ditch the warm-ups, unleash some hot spandex bottoms, and put the gameface on. The first 2.5K were by far the most challenging, consisting of the three most substantial hills of the course. Unfortunately, they weren't quite steep enough to force me into my ill-used diaganol stride, so it was a power DPK test. I passed through the 2.5K mark just under 9:00, which had me worried that I had pushed it too hard in yesterday's no pole intervals. The next 2.5K were pretty uneventful, just try to pace it right and push the slight downhills and flats. I crossed the 5K mark in 15:10. From that point to the turn-around point (around 8.5K) the terrain was mostly little rollers, and lots of double pole. I missed the 7.5K mark and hit the turn around with no idea of how far I had gone. Double-pole kicked hard until I found the finish line at a time of 29:20. At first I was pretty disappointed with the time, but realized that the goal of this session wasn't to set a PR, but to get in a quality TT in the middle of an intenstiy week. Mission accomplished. Three more interval days left in this block, as long as I train smart I'm sure to see big dividends in the future.

The race season is coming, train hard, recover well

JT$

“There are only two seasons -- winter and Baseball.”

I figured I'd start this post off with a quote from baseball player Bill Veeck. Since the Red Sox just won the world series (instead of the Yankees, who we all know should have won), it is now time for the snow to start falling and the intensity to start picking up in our training.

I got the first official snow report back from Lake Placid today, and tracks were spotted going up the Whiteface tollroad this morning. I'll be heading home this weekend, so i'm hoping the snow holds and i'll be able to get in my first tracks of the season soon! The snow was reported as wet and mushy, so skiing would best be done in the morning in order to avoid the always unwanted faceplant caused by your skis coming into unexpected contact with the pavement underneath.

This week is the middle of my intensity week, and today I did a nice time trial on the pumpkin hill road. The course is an out and back, basically all uphill on the way out with a steep downhill right before the turn around (always convenient), and then a fast, mostly downhill, race to the finish. I was on my own today, and of course I put my heart rate monitor strap on as I was about to head out the door, took off my normal watch, set it down on my desk, and totally forgot to grab my other watch before i left. So i started skiing, went to start my watch, and there was nothing there. I knew this was going to be a good workout when that happened. Next as I went to take off my warmups, I stepped down on my binding and broke off part of the binding plate. Sweet. but nothing a little tape can't fix.

So I finally started my race at 2:06 or about then according to my back up watch, aka my cell phone, and got into a good rhythm from the start, focusing on not starting out too hard and keeping a smooth, even tempo throughout the tt. I finished at approximately 2:29, so by my exact calculations, i figured i was somewhere in the high 22's or low 23's, which I was definitely happy with. I did this same course Sept 22nd in a time of 24:10, although I was on slightly faster wheels today, I felt that progress has definitely been made since then.

I believe the team did some skate drills and uphill double poling today, and I'm waiting to hear about the Time Trial that JT$ was talking about doing on River Road today. maybe he'll put up a post later ;)

Anyways, I'm leaving with a few pics from my roller ski yesterday at Brown's Bridge.
MD

Getting Started

Soo...this is the first post of our Clarkson nordic blog.
I have been getting into this craze known as blogging over the past few weeks, checking the blogs of several rival ski teams, and decided it was about time to start a blog we can call our own. A place that we can post the intense workouts we are doing. A place where we can share random stories that have nothing to do with skiing. A place where we can post ridiculous pics of our teammates. A place where we can come together as a team.

I expect everyone to set this as their homepage and check at least 10 times a day. We will be having daily blog quizzes at practice and the punishment for getting questions wrong will be one of my choice...

...just kidding...

I attached a sweet link with some motivational pics for my first post.
Check it.
MD