Sometimes Skipping Class Has Its Perks

Hi Everyone! I've been meaning to update the blog for a while with some of my semester off/ redshirt adventures, so here we go!

I started the semester by visiting Harvard, meeting all our awesome new freshman, and seeing my favorite faces of all our returning Harvard skiers! It was great to meet up with everyone and catch up on summer adventures and the like, and I even had the opportunity to help lead an adventure to Mount Lincoln and Mount Lafayette in the beautiful White Mountains in New Hampshire. Great people, beautiful day, and an awesome workout! I think this picture sums it up well.

(That's a good lookin' crew if I ever saw one!)

Next up was a little adventure up to the Adirondack mountains and Lake Placid, NY for a training camp with the US Ski Team and my club from Vail SSCVail/ Team Homegrown. The camp was awesome: there were tons of fast guys to beat me up on rollerski workouts, but I managed to hold my own pretty well! The camp included the notorious Climb to the Castle rollerski race up Whiteface Mountain (a 5 mile climb with an average grade of 8% finishing at 4867ft): the race lived up to its reputation, and not only was it long, hard, and steep, but it was also 35 degrees and raining with blustering winds. Needless to say, I toughed it out and still managed to have a good day despite nearly freezing to death!

(It only hurts a little)

We also did a cool sprint simulation workout and some awesome speed and distance training. Here is a video if you're interested. Lake Placid Men's Sprint (I'm in the bright blue shirt in heat 4 throughout the rounds).

After LP, I ventured to Bates college to visit my little sister who is a freshman, then back to Cambridge to see my Harvard buddies once again, and then finally back west and home to Vail. 

I missed most of the colors of fall in Colorado, but luckily it was still beautiful out and I got to do some biking with my mom and some more training with team Homegrown.

(Pardon my helmet hair!)

After a short week in Vail, 6 of the Vail juniors and I went to Moab, Utah for a training camp. Moab was really the perfect place to have a mid October camp as the mountains in Vail are getting cold, but not yet snowy, while Moab was still a nice 75 degrees without a cloud in the sky! Not only did we do some awesome Mountain Biking on trails like Porcupine Rim and Flat Pass (Steel Bender if you're in a Jeep), we also did some great rollerskiing around Moab on their 100+ miles of paved recreation paths and in the picturesque Castle Valley!

The crew atop Porcupine Rim!

Classic Ski in the Castle Valley (I'm told that they used to have an adventure race where you zip-lined from the tall spire to the right on me in the picture to the wider spire further to the right!) 

Steel Bender (we decided to walk our bikes up this section ;) )

On of way back from Moab, we stopped on the Western slope of Colorado for 2 days on training in Fruita and to help some of the juniors in the high school state championship mountain bike race. We mostly rode there on some spectacular trails overlooking the Colorado River, but also did a threshold double pole workout near the Utah border. As you can see it is densely populated and we had lots of company!

(Friendly locals!)

I'm now back at home taking a much needed rest week and getting excited to be on snow soon! It looks like they should have a manmade loop here in Vail in the next week to 10 days, so I'm pretty pumped about that. As much as I'd like to be back in Cambridge listening to an econometrics lecture, there are certain times when skipping class (or a semester) has its perks!

Miss you all and can't wait to crush it on 2 come January!

- Tony