This is a tough time of year for most collegiate skiers.  Everyone is chasing snow, the intervals are getting harder, the important races are drawing closer and on top of it all… FINALS!  Fortunately for us the skiing has been good close to home and we were able to take advantage of a well run race up at Bolton today.  A few skiers from Middlebury and UNH as well as a bunch of local skiers turned out this morning.  Thanks to Liz and the rest of her staff and many friendly volunteers up at Bolton for putting it all together this morning.

Caitlin and Mary on World Cup…

It was cold up there (7F) but the sun was shining and the course was packed out nicely.  Today was our first opportunity to put on a bib and go hard in a race.   We are still over a month away from our first college race so for most of us we’re still getting the kinks out.  These early races can be tough to get pumped up for because there is so much going on but it is a critical time.  Early races are a time to work on your warm-up and try out new things tactically and technically.  Because it is the end of the term everyone has been on different “peaking programs=)” this week.  For Caitlin her ski on the golf course yesterday morning was the perfect opportunity to dial in her classic training skis for the skate race this morning.  She followed that up with her first final at UVM in the afternoon which really helped her put things together for this mornings race.  For Jennie a couple of long nights of studying early in the week followed by some easy skiing and recovery later in the week was just right.  For Weave it was skiing in some tracks on the golf course yesterday morning followed by some distance skiing in the afternoon with the team.  I think what really prepared Juergen and Alex this week were some killer double pole intervals on Wednesday.  It was one of the more challenging workouts I’ve done recently as our poles punched straight through a crusty layer of snow right down to the ground.  It was a little nerve racking because on each pole plant I was wondering whether or not I was going to leave the bottom six inches of my pole in one of those holes, but you adapt as the workout goes on by identifying the places where you can push hard and when you have to be lighter and quicker.  Getting through a workout like that is important because the conditions for important races aren’t always perfect.  Sometimes the difference between making world juniors, NCAA’s, or the Olympics comes down to how well you can keep it together in tough conditions.

Tomorrow morning we’ve got a distance ski at Trapp’s and then a week of finals, distance, and speed before the Eastern Cups at Trapp Family Lodge and the holiday break…

Results can be found on the Bolton Valley Blog…

There’s nothing like a little warm watered down Gatorade on a cold day, thanks Liz!

Today’s fastest…

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 13th, 2008 at 8:00 pm and is filed under Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.