DATA!!!!!!!!

For fun I collect data on my heart rate. I don't have any means to analyze it, but it sure is fun to look at! The little info box says 181 bpm, and the zones aren't set right yet.


Cornell Invitational: 10k Classic.

The Eye of the Tiger

This weekend at the chateau Delaney, there was an inspirational viewing of Rocky III, followed by Rocky IV and obviously Rocky V as well to complete the series (the men were controlling the tv if you are having trouble guessing). Naturally, this led to domination of the races by all people involved in such viewing, but more about that later.

The Eye of the Tiger is now my official song of the season and will be played before every training session and race, no exceptions. Bonus points if it is played by an old guy in sweats holding a boom box.



The rocky Marathon was followed by a delicious Italian dinner cooked by the top chef's Chad Day, Matt Delaney, and Jason Hettenbaugh, which was consumed by all, including Derrick, the infamous Sam Morse, Alex, Maddie, and her friends Carly and Jess.

Anyways, on to the racing. The NYSEF Harry Eldridge memorial races consisted of 7.5k classic on Saturday followed by a 15k mass start on Sunday for the guys and 10k for the girls. Result wise, I was pleased with my races, placing about as expected, but more importantly I felt much better in the races than I have been lately. Results can be found at www.nyseg.org for those interested.

This weekend the whole team will head back to Lake Placid for the Cornell Invitational and all the fun and excitement that it will bring with it. Watch out for an update on some intense 10k pursuit style racing next week.

Until next time,
The Stallion

I'm gonna blog SO HARD about this...

2nd ANNUAL CLARKSON CUP!!!!!

We pulled into the parking lot at Higley Flow State Park mid-morning. The air was cold, dry crisp; the sky was the majestic blue that saves itself for those special days. The snow was pure from the recent dusting of the night before, and crinched and crunched under our feet as we got our skate skis ready for the race. The girls then promptly complained about the cold and ruined the whole experience. Great, thanks guys...

Nah, j/k, lol, it was a perfect day that was just a bit on the cold side. We started off with Jim "Killer" Allott's Nordic Jacks to try and get blood into our fingers and toes. Then we ventured down into lower Higley to where we would be racing (The "F" loop, officially. Pretty F'd up, huh? LOL J/K). The sprint course was about 1.5K with slightly undulating terrain, and it was a bit icy. See, the temperature was slightly above freezing around 6pm last night, with a little drizzle mixed in. Then it dropped to nearly 0 F at night, and rose to 12 F this morning. Also, because of the cold, the new snow was dry and slow. It was going to be a pretty technical race because of the track switching from slow to fast seemingly every other stride.

After a qualifying run (I think Andy won that one), the men's races were organized into 3 qualifying heats, where the winner from each would move onto the final heat. Andrew Nadeau, Dan Smith, and I (Chris L) were the finalists. I would love to give a detailed commentary, but I was a bit busy at the moment and didn't quite take in as many details as I would have liked. Pretty much we pounded the double pole zone, pounded the first uphill, then pounded the downhill, pounded the flats, pounded the next set of hills, then pounded the finishing stretch. And... I won! Yeay! (Note, Matt D, D Day, and Benway were away at Lake Placid for the weekend.)

The girls side was a bit of a different story. There were so few of them that there was a qualifying run to determine starting positions, and then a single mass start to determine the winner. Senior Chelsea Reynolds won 1st place with a commanding lead, followed by freshman Andrea Walsh (from Vermont) with a commanding 2nd place, followed by sophomore Alicia Perras with a commanding 3rd place, followed by Alyssa Dausman (I had to check Facebook to find her last name...) with a commanding 4th place, followed by freshman Kallie Desmond with a commanding finish. I guess you could say the girls were very commanding today...


Yeay! We had our victory celebration and then EVERYONE DISPEARED. Vanished! Coach and I stayed behind to ski around for a bit and enjoy the perfect day that nature had bestowed upon us. As soon as we got to the main road, we found freshly groomed corduroy for us to skate on! It was pure bliss! On top of that, when we got back to the top of the hill after our ski, there was free hot dogs and hot coaco waiting for us. Oh man, you suckers missed out!

And so ends the 2nd annual Clarkson Cup. Tomorrow we go back for the Higley Hustle, which is a part of the Empire State Games. As Porky Pig would say, "That's all, folks!"















Figure 1. Clarkson Cup victors with crazy old man crashing photo. Photo Credit: Sayuri Yapa.

-Lamothe

P.S. I still can't get the font to change sizes. Oh well...

Scandelous!

I recognized the pic Derrick put up, and something didn't seem right. After an exhaustive search of the entire internet, I found the original photo.














That's right, the Day brothers are in league with the Black Bears. Watch out Bruce!

-Lamothe

Week of training for a weekend of racing

After a great weekend of racing, it was time for all of us to get back out training. Monday and Tuesday were full of an OD and an off day. Delaney and I went out to the Hig on Monday and had a nice easy skate OD which had its most exciting moment when a classic skier got tangled up in his skis when we tried to avoid Matt and I coming around a turn.

Wednesday was a great interval workout. Again Delaney and I made it out to the hig and did a nice warm up. We did the workout classic and really had the hammer down by the end. Thursday was all about the speed in the fresh powder, which always adds some fun.

As the week comes to an end, Clarkson Nordic separates to go its different ways this weekend for races. The infamous Clarkson Sprint Cup will be held on Sat. and the Higley Hustle will always add some excitement for the ones who stay local. Other of us are going to try and see what they can do at Lake Placid. Benway, Delaney, and Myself will try to go at it against a good field. I will try and see what I can do against my brother and alumni, Chad Day. This weekend should be full of exciting races and I can't wait to give you an update when we return.

Quote of the week "Double pole is like trying to kill a bear with one arrow; Kick-double pole is like trying to kill a bear with a whole quiver of arrows."

I thought of you Bruce.

Clarkson Wax Bus

Now, before you all get too excited about the thought of having a sweet bus that travels around with us, houses all of our skis, is filled with every wax imaginable, and comes with the top Swedish wax techs in the world, I would like to inform you all that we don't have one...yet.

If anyone is reading this that has a few extra bucks they want to throw our way and give us a nice little surprise, here is a pic of what the inside of our bus should look like. Feel free to throw in a few more skis, and maybe a few Swedish ladies as well.

Jericho

We had our first USCSA race of the year this weekend at the Ethan Allen Nordic Center of Excellence in Jericho, VT hosted by Army in the freezing cold weather that we have been experiencing lately. The team started their travels at the crack of dawn on Saturday at 5 am, loading the bus and heading off to the races.
The weekend included an entertaining and close knit stay in the barracks where the team got to know each other even better, an excellent pasta dinner cooked by army, a biathlon relay where we got to see who the true sharp shooters were, and two tough races.



The weekends races were changed to a 10k classic on Saturday and 10k Skate mass start on Sunday. The team ended up victorious both days in team scoring, and it was an excellent start to the season. Results can be found at the link on the right of the page.

Lamothe from Vermont

This is more a personal post than a team post. I'm going to lightly analyze my races we had this weekend out loud and find some things to fix/ work on.

First off, all the heart rate data I collected over these past two days is garbage. For some reason while they existed on my watch my computer couldn't detect those workouts. It worked for the team time trail, but not these races. I don't have any scientific system to put these numbers through or any other data to compare it with yet, but I was hoping to create a database as to see what a good race's data looks like compared to a bad race. This way instead of saying "Oh I felt bad at this part", I can see if I really did overstress my body at any time before the infamous 'bonk'. Also, I seem to have a low 'high end' heart rate. I was hoping to get data this weekend to find out what's up with that. If it was low, I would put in more high intensity workouts to get my body used to a higher work load. If it was higher, like in the 180's on average, I wouldn't worry at all about it. In one sense, your HR is what it is, just go with it. On the other hand, I love looking at data!

Surprisingly, my 10k classic race felt better than my skate race. I was ~2 min behind #1, which is a bit like where I was last year placement wise. I can't say much except that I paced myself well and felt strong most of the race. The thing for me to work on these next two weeks are my classic double pole strength. There's not much more to say there, its just one spot I feel that I can make improvements.

The 10k skate race started out fine. I felt like I cruised the first lap; essentially drafting off Derrick for 5k. I would gain ground on flatter ground, but would lost a little of it on uphills. I don't think I went out too hard, but I did bonk around the 7k mark. Talbs had the same problem too, so I'm not alone there! I think was in sight of 3rd place (USCSA racers) for a bit too! Oh well. Next time I'll try to eat more for breakfast, and maybe have a guu or Banana before the race starts. In the meantime, I'll do an over-distance tomorrow, rest the next day, and get in strength/ intervals in. No more messing around!



In other news, the team did good. Good job team!

I hope results come up soon.

Oh god, its so awkward trying to end these things...


-Lamothe

Off to the Races!

This weekend marks the first USCSA race of the year at Jericho, VT.

Friday: 15km individual start classic for the men
10km individual start classic for the women

Saturday: 10km mass start skate for both genders

Weather Forecast:
Friday- high of 9, low of -1
Saturday- high of 14, low of 9

Not to bad considering the weather we have been having lately.

Let's go get 'er done!



--Matt

The post post TT post (sorry for the lame name)

I have decided to overrule Chris' decision of the last post to not post the results, so I will add them at the bottom here for your perusal.

But first... This Saturday marked the most recent installment of the annual Clarkson Team Time Trial to decide who gets first dibs on the team uniforms and the seed order for next weekend, and it was a fierce day of competition.

We woke up to -15 degree weather in the morning, with a few inches of fresh snow on the ground and the prospect of not knowing what the conditions would be like at Higley for the day. The game plan was to do a ~7km classic race take a short 45 min break and then get into a ~7km skate race and call it a day. However the groomers did not seem to get the memo and left us to alter the plans a little bit.

The classic race got off as planned with nice tracks and blue hardwax conditions. The course was in good enough shape and the occasional tourist was the only real battle of the day, and trying to avoid losing your stride/falling into the snow on the side of the trail while they seemed oblivious to the fact that a race was going on.

However, by saying that the tracks were nice, it also meant that the skate lanes were non-existent, so we were forced to result to plan B. Go back to campus and ski on the ROTC trails, a 1.5 mile loop littered with people, dogs, footprints, the occasional rock and ice patch, and a hill not quite wide enough to skate up efficiently. It was destined to be an eventful race. While we sadly had no casualties or wounds to account for, everyone was a trooper for the day, braving the cold conditions and adverse schedule.

Up next we head to Jericho, VT for the Army invitational this weekend for a 15km classic on Saturday and a 10km skate mass start on Sunday.

Sorry for the lack of pictures and creativity, but my camera is in a sad state and keeps telling me to see the user's guide for error # E45. If anyone knows what that is please let me know. In the mean time here is a video of Gregor Schlierenzauer setting the hill record on Kulm's ski flying hill this past weekend.



Results:

	SKIER	CLASSIC	PLACE	SKATE	PLACE	TOTAL
1	MATT D	0:21:36	1	0:20:03	1	41:39
2	ALEX	0:21:56	2	0:21:00	2	42:56
3	ANDY	0:22:37	3	0:22:16	3	44:53
4	DERRICK	0:22:48	4	0:22:28	4	45:16
5	LAMOTHE	0:23:43	5	0:21:50	5	45:33
6	TALBS	0:24:35	6	0:24:22	7	48:57
7	JOSH	0:25:30	7	0:24:07	6	49:37
8	DAN	0:25:53	8	0:24:46	9	50:39
9	MATT G	0:25:55	9	0:25:03	10	50:58
10	NED	0:26:00	10	0:25:22	11	51:22
11	BRIAN RE	0:27:22	12	0:24:40	8	52:02
12	DREW	0:27:10	11	0:25:53	12	53:03
13	BOB	0:28:10	14	0:26:00	13	54:10
14	NEAL	0:28:00	13	0:26:26	15	54:26
15	BRYAN RO	0:29:23	16	0:26:02	14	55:25
16	TIM	0:30:20	18	0:26:52	16	57:12
17	ERIC	0:29:13	15	0:28:30	17	57:43
18	DAVE	0:35:58	19	0:31:30	18	67:28
1	CHELS	0:22:04	1	0:18:58	1	41:02
2	ANDREA	0:24:30	2	0:21:09	2	45:39
3	ALICIA	0:25:22	3	0:21:40	3	47:02
4	ALYSSA	0:28:26	5	0:23:23	4	51:49
5	KATHLEEN	32:20:00	9	0:32:50	9	52:50
6	AUDREY	0:29:20	7	0:24:10	6	53:30
7	HOLLY	0:28:40	6	0:26:09	7	54:49
8	SUZIE	0:32:50	10	0:23:55	5	56:45
9	KALLIE	0:30:25	8	0:28:22	8	58:47
	EMILY	0:28:25	4	TBA
	BRUCE	0:29:53	17	DNS

A post TT post!

The results are in. For fear of giving up VITAL STRATEGIC INFORMATION I will not reveal the exact times the racers came in. I will say that the results are promising and that we will once again be a force to be reckoned with. If we don't get 1st this year, just remember, ALL of us are coming back next year... again...

In other news, the first race is next weekend. It's about time we had a good ol' VT race. In the meantime, we will be doing the usual. You know, training.

Don't forget the maple syrup!

-Blue Whale

P.S. I thought I was going to put something of value into this post. Maybe next time...

The death of the blue whale...

Will never happen. I will make sure that it stays alive.

In other news, it is Wednesday, the 7th day of January 2009 and tomorrow marks the start of classes here at Clarkson University. This is much too early if you ask me, but what can you do. Word on the street is that Higley Flow is not the best skiing and not groomed very well, but atleast there is plenty of snow on the ground with the 6+ inches we received today and at last look snow was still falling.

This weekend are the notoriously fierce Clarkson nordic team time trials to decide the preliminary travel team for the year, and there may be a guest appearance by the infamous Justin "JT$" Tetlow at some point as well.

Tomorrow morning marks my first adventure to Higley of the new year.

Take care and rest up for the busy racing weekends to come.

Winter is Here!

Matt

Shenanigans and fiascos in the Green Mountain State

Time for one last personal race story/ adventure before the team gets back together later this week. The ridiculousness will ease down, and the Blue Whale will go into hibernation.


Last night, my friend Andre informed me of another race: The Craftsbury Classic! I've done a 10k skate race and haven't been able to ski much since then, so it was an obvious choice to go. The Blue Whale got loaded up agian, and we headed out. This is when everything went to hell.

I used Google maps to plan a route to Craftsbury. The original plan was to take I-89 north to exit 18, use Vermont Route 104 to get to Route 15, take a right onto North Wilcott road, then follow the signs to Craftsbury Outdoor Center. Google told me it would take 1 hour 40 minutes if the speed limit was followed. We got a late start, but I was determined to prove Google wrong. Immediately, I missed the turn after getting off the interstate and almost ended back up when we started. All the time made up taking the interstate was lost. We get onto 104 and then 15 , North Wolcott road. Things started getting sketchy again. I didn't remember any of the other directions. We ended pulling a map out of the glove compartment and discovered that we had missed a turn. While trying to pull a u-ey, the Blue Whale got beached. It only took about 5 minutes to dig and push her out, but that's still 5 minutes. Lesson #1, Whales can't handle snow.

More missed turns led to us getting to the race about 15 minutes before the start. Lesson #2, you can't prove Google wrong. This was enough time to get registered and throw on some extra blue kick wax. Both Andre and I got to the start line and had to line up at the back of the pack. That meant that a pluthera of citizen racers, high schoolers, and other youngings were in front of us. This led to an interesting start.

The first 3k of this course were FAST. Its pretty much a double pole course for that time. 8 lanes holding ~120 skiers quickly funneled down into two lanes. People were tripping over eachother's skis, passing by tracking their own paths in the woods, wacking eachother with poles... I amlost got tangled up in someone's skis when they crashed! Then we come to an open field that turned into a fairly steep and fast section with several switchbacks. The snow was fast, and we were still all packed together. We were weaving in and out from eachother, going 4 wide on several of the corners. I got pushed to the outside on the last one, focing me to bail so I wouldn't go off into the woods. The chaos started to settle out after that, and the racing began.

Overall, it wasn't a good race. It was fun, but not a good race. My skis were fast and my double pole was strong. However, my kick was nil and my uphills were disasterous. Lesson #3, find your kick zone and wax it. I was struggling to keep climbing with a few of the D1 college women racers. After the race we discoverd that green would have been the ideal wax. Oh well, I knew this wouldn't be good from the start. I learned a few things over vacation, and am ready for the team time trials Jan 10/11th!

I guess that's it for now.




Wait it's not. Andre and I saw a sign on the drive up. It said, "Watch Children". It wasn't a "Watch out, Children Playing" or whatever sign. It just said "Watch Children". We also saw a road call "Four Wheel Dr." Yea Vermont!

-Lamothe