On the other side of the V-Boards

It’s been a long time since I’ve gone a winter without suiting up to compete almost every week. As far back as I can remember, winter weekends have always been spent either running gates, chasing jumping meets, or generally cruising around the northeast race circuits. This winter was no different, except for this time I wasn’t the one doing the racing.

My first winter of full-time coaching was a big learning experience. Jumping from the EISA to the USCSA level opened my eyes to what the other side of collegiate racing is like: wide ranges of attitudes and abilities, teams ranging from the lone Marlboro and WPI skiers to UVM and Clarkson rolling up with 20+ athletes every weekend, and a much more laid-back race organization that values effort over results and ritual.

That last bit is what took the most getting used to. Having raced EISA and USSA, we always took it as SOP to have fully marked courses, a maze of fencing and V-Boards in the stadium, and race officials around every corner. At this level, teams run their own races, each one with their own standards (though technically under the same rules as USSA and FIS). It wasn’t uncommon this season to have athletes warming up backwards on course, something that the next level would’ve been a disqualifiable offense.

The other big change for me this year was how race-days went from a preparation standpoint. With 24 skiers almost every weekend, classic races were very much a race to get skis prepped in time for everyone's start. The skiers were more than willing to help, but at a point it gets to be too much when eight or ten people are testing waxes and they all say different waxes work (or worse, the same wax works for one person but doesn’t for the next).

That being said, my biggest fear this season was not being taken seriously by the athletes, but as it turned out, I had nothing to worry about. everyone on the team was more than helpful with anything I asked of them, including driving personal vehicles through horrid lake-effect snow storms to deliver equipment on less than an hours notice. While the team captains were my primary source of team information, my real brain-trust this season have been the sophomore and junior classes, who have been more than open with me, expressing concerns and changes they’d like to see in the coming years.

The team was very accepting of me as a new (young) coach, to the point where many were looking to me for personalized training plans to supplement/augment the ones provided by the head coach. A majority of them have even asked me to step in as the head coach next year after the current one retires at the end of the season (We’ll see guys, we’ll see).

So far this season has exceeded my expectations immensely, and I can’t wait to see how it concludes. Yesterday, we arrived in Jackson Hole for the USCSA National Championships, which start for us on Tuesday.

Getting back to business

It hasn't really been the kind of season I was hoping for so far this year. Going into a senior season, one hopes they won't be sidelined by injuries for the first month, only getting back to their freshman form with three races left.

I've been battling some Illiotibial Band (IT Band) issues since the beginning of the season, keeping me from participating in many team practices, and limiting my running to only a couple of days per week. As any athlete can tell you, being apart from your team can really get to you, missing out on big events because you physically can't do them. Luckily, I've been able to keep active through cycling, but it's still taken its toll.

Dinner.

Another thing an athlete can tell you is that when you pull them out of athletics, it will affect them in their daily life. For a student, this can mean classes, personal commitments, or just daily function. Trying to pull yourself out of a funk when you just aren't there is one of the biggest struggles you can have, and sometimes you just need to take a break.

This weekend, we hosted the VT Intercollegiate Cross Country championships, where after four weeks of disappointing races, I was able to finally break the elusive 28:30 mark again, having cracked it first at this race in 2013.

Now that I feel that I'm going somewhere with my training, it's time to figure out everything else.

One last shot - Senior Seasons Ahead

Well, here it is. Three years after I first moved into my double in Ryan Hall, I am slowly settling into the townhouse life on the other end of campus. It's been an interesting three years, ever learning how to be both a student and an athlete at the same time, and a large part of that learning happens when there is no school.

Summer break is the time when many students go off and work so that they can afford to come back to school, others do summer research, while some try to think nothing of the coming school year until it's time to start. As an athlete, I was thrown into all three camps: working at a camp to make enough money to get by for a few months of unemployment while I train and compete this fall and winter, research myself to find out how to not overwork myself both mentally and physically, all while trying to not think about the fact that these will be my last seasons as a college athlete.

A large portion of my time this year has been spent sitting on a bike. There's just something about it that makes me feel more free than my ski or running training. From central NH, it's hard to run or ski somewhere that leaves you with both a great workout and a feeling of having taken an adventure. On the bike, I have been able to test my limits and see how fast, far, and how long I can go for, taking me on some pretty cool adventures.

It is on these where I am able to really absorb what is going on in life. Decisions that need some time, I have found, are best made on the bike. Thinking about what is going to happen this year was a big one, like determining what my senior project is going to look like, how to best avoid my injuries (didn't work, already injured), and how to try and lead both the Men's Cross Country and Nordic teams this year. 

Whatever the case, the work has been put in, most of the decisions have been made, and all I can do is keep up and hope for the best over the next few months.