Last week was our bye week - no carnival. We don't always get a bye week in our schedule, but I'm always happy when we do - I think it's a great thing for the team to stay home, get a jump on schoolwork and rest, and focus on training again instead of the travel/race/recover routine that dominates the carnival season. Although the temps got really, really warm and we lost a lot of snow, we still had a pretty productive and restful bye week.
We started out with a lot of work on downhills and turns - got to shave off seconds wherever we can, and, more importantly, stay on our feet!
We had some beautiful late afternoon workouts, and the snow held up surprisingly well.
With no races to worry about, we had plenty of energy for fun stuff. We did some relays, played some tag, and did our best to catch air on a mini-jump that someone had built in the Oak Hill field.
The skiers took advantage of the laid-back bye week feel to relax in the clean and comfortable confines of the ski room.
On Saturday, we went up to Quarry Road for a duathlon with Colby - 5k classic, mandatory boot change, and a 5k skate. Our skiers were great in the skiing segments and breathtakingly slow in the gear change. This will be a problem if duathlon w/ boot change ever becomes a regular college event. But our skiers did have the best tights in the race, which counts for a lot.
Skiing on Sunday was remakably good - we had a nice long ski and did a few more jumps, just because.
While were were goofing around in Maine, Sam, Tim, and Tara were in Lake Placid for the SuperTour races. Like everywhere else, Placid didn't have much snow, so the races got moved to the jumps, which meant short loops and lots of climbing. Sam finished 76th in the skate sprint and 64th in the 10k classic in a very competitive field - all of the top juniors, lots of college skiers, and the usual SuperTour domestic elite crowd. Although the results weren't quite what he was looking for, he felt good and skied well - definitely an encouraging sign for the rest of the season. Spencer and Kaitlynn were both at the races as well. With expert waxing assistance from Tim, Spencer was 35th in the classic and 32nd in the sprint, just barely missing qualification - this has been a theme with Spencer over the past few years.... Kaitlynn ended up 13th in the sprint after qualifying in 7th, and then came back strong to finish 2nd in the classic - great to see her continue to ski near the top after her amazing success at Nationals.
Overall, a good, productive week for the team. Now we're all eager to get back to carnivals - UVM Carnival at Trapps coming up this weekend!
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