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.

Long Drives for a short Carnival - Bates and Colby @ Quarry Road

Well, the carnival season is upon us, and things got off to a very interesting start. Our first weekend, the Bates College Carnival, is usually supposed to be at the historic Black Mountain of Maine. But unfortunately, due to a few days of warm and rain, the race was moved a few hours away to Quarry Road, home of the Colby College Nordic Team, and, you know,  my first ever collegiate race.

After leaving training camp at Sleepy at 8:30, we arrived at the venue at 3:30 for our course preview. The course in question was a 1.4km loop to be used for both the sprint and 10km races this weekend. Oh boy.




Many laps were skied, and the course looked the same each time. One big uphill out the start, followed by a descent through a field, then back up to the stadium.

Day one went about as expected, with classic sprinting not quite my forte. At the end of the qualifier, I sat in 79th. Oh well, I was more focused on the 10k the following day.

No Classic Sprint Photos at the request of myself.

For the '10'k, we skied six laps of the short course, so it ended up being much closer to 8.5km. There was also snow. A lot of it. That, coupled with much traffic, resulted in the course quickly devolving to sugar, so it was a battle as to who could better balance light feet up the climbs and power through the field. In the end, I could do neither, and ended up 45th. I also couldn't see.

T'was a bit snowy...

We returned home eventually, and then came back the next weekend for the Colby Carnival!!!

This time around, we had a fun 15k Classic Mass Start, followed by Freestyle Team Sprints! New things!

The classic race actually went pretty well considering I had been sick for three weeks leading into it (oh yeah, that was a thing). I tried to keep a fairly even pacing for it, and ended up finishing the three lap race (full race course!!) in 51st overall (45th collegiate). I hung with a good group the whole time, and nobody passed us!

Then, it was time for the most serious race of the weekend. The race to determine no NCAA points, but still saw teams out testing fleets of skis. That's right, the Team Sprint. Two people, three laps each, 18 minutes of madness.

Liam and I partnered up to lead St. Mikes to a 26th place finish, which we'll take considering neither of us are sprinters.

 The course was the Colby Sprint Loop, different than the previous week's course in the addition of another climb and descent. Three times.

 It was a fun race in the end. Not very often do we get races that stray from our usual routine, so it was nice to be able to not take one as serious.

We're in an off week this week, back next weekend at UVM/Trapp Family Lodge!

Season in review.

Well, this is awkward...


So, I've been kinda busy as the author of the SMC Nordic blog, so if you want to see the results from the EISA circuit, see here.

Well, where to begin...

On New Years Eve, I made my way out to Lake Willoughby, VT for the Mt. Hor Hop, a 10km Skate on some very technical trails. This race tends to bring out some good skiers, such as North Conway's own Sean Doherty, who won this years race. I bonked on the second lap, but still managed a 6th place effort.

After the second SMC training camp, Silke and I ventured out to Lake Placid, NY for the Harry Eldridge Memorial Classic Race and JNQ. That day, it was about 45 degrees and raining, so waxing for the 7.5k race was a little challenging. The race was held at the base of the K90 and K120 ski jumps, and featured a single-track obstacle course right after the start, or a pond-skim if you so chose. First lap, I chose the pond, and was immediately soaked from the chest down. Silke toughed it out as my support crew of 1, and I finished 16th overall, after SMC alum Colin Delaney won it. The day was capped off with a trip to Adirondack Chocolates and a quick tour of Lake Placid.

The struggle of warm weather racing in the rain. It is real.

Up next came the first college race of the year, the Colby College Carnival. It was rough, a 2.5-ish kilometer loop to ski a 10 and a 15km race on, things got pretty monotonous. 

On friday, it was a 10km classic, in constantly changing conditions. It was the opening carnival, so I wasn't expecting huge things, but nothing really went as I had hoped. it ended up being a 10km double pole with almost no kick. Turns out yellow klister isn't always the answer...

The next day went a little better, 15km skates are my preference anyways. That day, I started in a pack of very strong skiers, and ended up racing trying to fend off Paddy Caldwell and Akeo Martucci, two of the strongest skaters in EISA. I lost count of laps on lap 4 (kinda like this race), but was back on track the next time around thanks to the rest of the team. It was a tough race, and I ended up 63rd overall.

To finish up the weekend, I competed at the Eastern Cup at Rumford, a 10km Classic. Things didn't quite go as I had hoped, but I needed to try and get my points down. I was 58th.

The season continued with collegiate racing (again see here), and towards the end of February came the last Eastern Cup, my last shot at qualifying for JN's. 

It came the day after the Williams Carnival, at the Holderness School in NH, my second triple of the season. It went rather well, not being passed by anyone and coming in what I thought was a respectable 30th, my second best classic result all season, in what felt like a very solid, relaxed race. But, the points didn't line up, and I was well out of the running for a JN's bid, by almost 15 places. 

After that, I started figuring out what I needed to do for next season, and prepped for the EISA Championships. They went much better than I had expected, and I hope that I showed some other coaches what I can accomplish, in beating their JN-experienced athletes. I was 55th in the Classic, a race that I finished as the last one across the line, and was 52nd in the Skate Mass start, after leading a train of UNH and Colby skiers for 10km. It felt good, and hopefully things go better next year.

-tl..