Dave wrote a blog post about breakfast pizza

Right after Thanksgiving camp, Coach City announced to us his observation that despite some pretty long training days, we all appeared to look more rested and healthier by the end of camp. He attributed this to sleeping more than we usually do when at school and told us that we should begin to prioritize sleep and focus on being rested and healthy.

I, of course, took him quite literally and proceeded to attend a grand total of 7 hours of class last week. This week, I’m trying to sleep enough AND go to class, which means I’m sitting in “Molecules of Life” vaguely paying attention to stem cells, but paying much more attention to the abominable shape in which David left our blog. Breakfast pizza? Really? That’s not even one of the most interesting or bizarre things on the HUDS menu. For example, today’s list of offerings includes (but is not limited to) the following items:

- Italian Wedding Soup: is the color of mucus and has lumpy things in it that I think look a lot like eyeballs… was never and will never be served at a wedding in Italy or anywhere else.

- Mahi Mahi Honey Ginger Glaze: unclear what this actually is, though it’s listed under entrees. Mahi mahi might be fish, which would make this dish a fish-honey-ginger glaze. What would you glaze with that, I wonder?

- Portobello Lentil Pattie: not altogether disturbing, unless you consider the fact that it constitutes the third appearance of the word “pattie” on the day’s menu and also looks like lumps of poop.

- Candy Roaster Squash: evidence that HUDS lies, because (a) it does not taste like candy, not at all—it just tastes like squash, and (b) it’s still being touted as fresh, sustainable, local produce (but it was fourteen degrees in Boston yesterday, and I’m pretty sure that all things shrink into nonexistence when it gets that cold).

Note: Nabel, I just looked up and saw on the board “neuraminidase inhibitor R-125489 mimics structure of sialic acid like Tamiflu,” which means I’ll probably need your help on my homework.

- Spicy Black Beans: only unnerving because it was on the breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus, which means that our van to and from practice will smell like death. If Chris Nabel were here, he would guarantee such a stench by bringing spicy black beans to practice with him in a paper cup that also contained sour cream and probably pudding.

- Sticky Rice: is only thing that Oliver Burruss would eat for dinner with the exception of four pieces of grilled chicken, given that the menu otherwise lacks pasta sauce, cheddar cheese, saltines, and oreos.

But we only have another week of HUDS food to get through and then it's back to 730 Swamp Road, which means that all of our meals will look like this:

Trapps got 5" of fresh white stuff yesterday, so we're hopeful that the snow will live through some of the rain forecasted for this week and that we can all get on our new race boards for the Eastern Cups. More importantly, I promise that this will be the last blog post about HUDS. Ever. Sorry for leaving the blog in even worse shape than Dave did,

-Schlutz

For the Very First Time...

Today is a special day indeed. For the first time in my 3.4 year career at Harvard College USA, I was brave enough to walk into the dining hall and face my greatest fear to date: the HUDS breakfast pizza. Now hold on- I know just what you're thinking: How could one realistically stomach such a medley of stale crust, last week's shriveled green peppers, and mystery meat? Good question. 

Well, I just grabbed a wedge with the oatmeal scooper, and dumped it on board next to my bowl of steel-cut. Verdict? It sucked. Totally sucked. No surprise there. But then I got up and got another slice, becasue the prospect of HUDS Breakfast Pizza was just one of those special college memories I can't let slip through my fingers during this senior year. Anna feels the same way, and she's planning on trying some breakfast pizza next Thursday. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go help Nabel clean his room: 

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/hou/852526961.html

D

Editor's Note: Has anyone else noticed a sharp decline in the quality/content of Dave's posts?

Inspiration

Sometimes, all we need in life is just a little inspiration. Quite frankly, I'm not sure how people seemed to find this in the dark days before youtube. Perhaps inspiration just didn't even exist back then. Whatever.

So if you're stuck with three ultra-lame papers to write before you can bust out of here before Christmas Break/Camp, I figure you'll need a little extra motivation. This first video is good for those days when you wake up feeling like you can just wake up and crush it, you know? Think-Ethan Weibrecht shredding up Lake Placid:

Good. So if you're already in a crush-it state of mind, watch this video. Then, head out to the ski tracks, start yelling at some random skier, tear off one of your pole-tips, and forcefully challenge them to a head to head 100m sprint. Don't worry-chances are they've already seen this video, so they'll totally understand why you just kicked their Chariot child carrier out of the "sprint lane" to make for a "fair Norway-Sweeden  fight".  

But maybe you're not already in that kind of mood. Maybe you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Hell, maybe you just fell out of the bed altogether, and you just need to watch something to affirm the fact that other people have bad days, too. Here's one. Looks like David Millar had a pretty bad day here. 

Well, that should take care of your daily inspiration. Take away points? Hmm. I guess either start tearing off pole tips, or tossing bikes over barriers, but either way, you should walk away from it pretty charged up.

Did I really just write this garbage? Yes. Yes I did.

-DMac

Gratuitous Photo Post

Synchronized no pole uphill

Beginning of the Gravy Train

Harvard Nordic's #1 fan!

Our team is patriotic

Almost all of Harvard's nordic and alpine crew at the Thanksgiving table

Dave and the Schulz brothers carve one of the four turkeys

We can't thank the Schulz family enough for opening their home to us this Thanksgiving, giving us a wonderful meal, and talking us into that third piece of pie.

Love and leftovers,
MB

"Total Meat Wagon"

On Friday, November 28th, Harvard Nordic epically united in a train of love, singing in unison these five, powerful, team-building words to prove that they could, in fact, make a highly technical and mind-blowing film, shot from the most dangerous angles and capturing the extreme edge, wildness and bravery that defines them.

Title: Love Train

Summary: Eleven athletes streamline on twenty-two skis, hands to asses, demonstrating advanced skills in a serpentine train, obliterating jagged shards of boulder with the mere might of their ferocity--their skis untouched and exuding crazy speed!

Setting: “Telemark” trail @ Trapps in Stowe, VT

Starring:
1) T-Revs: conductor; known for his exacting precision on icy, treacherous turns; “snow plow” isn’t in his vocabulary.
2) Schlutzer: train instigator/initiator; wild ginger, rosy-cheeked from her passion for team-building in the form of the love train.
3) Bad Man/D-Mac: train instigator/initiator; recognized by husky petergravian accent; snow plows so little, the tails of his skis meet.
4) A-Devs: sick but tough- nothing will get in the way of this fierce skier’s way; don’t trust that steady, sweet and innocent smile.
5) Audwee44@gmail.com: the weak link; likes to see where she is going (vision is overrated); is harassed endlessly at dinner and will be made to lead “Love Train: The Sequel” and write the next blog.
6) Mer: brings nasty style and pizzazz to the love train, overcoming a (lovable) lumberjack cough and staph infection; would win the tough cookie award, but Cara ate the last one.
7) Spraguer: damsel rescued from the xc-running team just in time for the love train!; has likely already said “That’s what she said” five times while reading this blog.
8) Coils: blond babe bravely succeeding infamous #5 (see above); bites snow with a graceful somersault and a smile (no more pavement!).
9) Clare: Freshman #1; screaming and smiling all the way down; recommends we try again with poles (last time she stabbed her sister [lovingly])--nevertheless, this promises great future feats of bravery.
10) Mannon: Freshman #2; also screaming and smiling all the way down; known for hill-fright, but demonstrating a quick recovery thanks to tender, supportive words from her captains; annihilates her baby skis.

Casting:
Tofters: Badass cinematographer performing turns facing behind, backwards skiing and advanced 360˚ wild tumbling footage. Mad props.

Featuring:
The “We Can Make a Video” song by Petros
Hysterical Screams of Terror by the Harvard Nordic Freshmen.

Reviews:
Having discovered the magic of Clare’s video camera, Harvard Nordic ski workouts have become a significantly less productive…
BUT there are important strategic values that may, at first be overlooked. These being: team-building and bonding, balance, coordination, trust, overcoming common sense and living on the wild side...walking along the razor's edge, and the like.
Audrey is going to live longer than all of us.

Take 1:


Take 2:


In all seriousness, today was a great training day. We hit it off with a long classic ski and some drills to work on hip drive and power. We learned (as we do every year) that klister is a bitch, but after rollerski season, we only care that we’re finally on snow!

Love,
Freshman #2

DANGER: Nordic Pteradactyls

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you and welcome back to the Crimson Nordic Blog.

Yes, it's true. We haven't written on our trusty blog in many moons, and your efficiency and performance reviews at work have no doubt improved because of it. We sincerely apologize. However, you're in for a real treat, because today is a special day. No, no blog readers really don't care that today happened to be Crimson Nordic's first day on snow for the 2k8/9 season, but it happens to be the birthday of notable Ski Team Alum Andrew Roberts Moore.
For those whose most recent copy of Crimson Tracks seemed to have been lost in the mail along with their GM 3rd quarter dividend payout checks, Anders has since moved to Marquette, MI, and is currently the assistant Nordic coach for the Marquette Ski Club. Learn 'em good up there, Anders! (And if you run out of boring ski drills, calmly read them some Habermas and they'll peel out for an OD ski faster than you can say "American Pragmatism").

So happy birthday to you, Andy. Also, we've made a pact to be better with shout-outs to recent CrimsonNordic alums on the blog, so buckle your seatbelts.


Alright. Oh, yeah! First day on snow! As we speak, the Nordic A-Roster is packed into the cozy "Chateau La Femme", or annex cabin of Stowe's favorite five-star: the Innsbruck Inn. After a tasty dinner of steak and shrimp stir-fry (to the cooking/clean up of which I offered very little), we're all unwinding on the couch watching the episode of "the Office" where Jim dresses up as Dwight. Read, "Which type of bear is best?"

Skiing rocked. Solid cover on the notch between Stowe and Smuggs, we ended up with 1:30 of tasty skate skiing, just enough to get the lats and tris pumpin'. And yeah, we got it on video with our new helmet cam! Dive in below:

So that's our news. Beyond that we're simply busy embodying the lifestyle of "all-in", "all-out", "no excuses", and "live to win... 'til you die".

Happy b-day Andy, wish you were here.

Best-

Crimson Nordic, back from Hibernation

Bam.

Oktober.

For the past seven weeks or so, the Harvard Nordic team has been consumed with academic endeavors so gruesome that all of its members have had no more than precisely 11 seconds per hour to commit to blogging. From reading every footnote of Choper and Fallon's tenth edition Constitutional Law casebook to investment banking interviews and professional etiquette dinners, our google calendars have had so many overlapping obligations that today, my friends, is the first time that any Crimson skier has had time to blog since early September. And it's being sent from my mobile device, which is so perilously small that I've nearly sent it through the wash four times. Luckily I get texts so often that I've always heard it beeping in a pocket before I can actually start my laundry, which really only consists of jeans, because everything else I own needs to get dry-cleaned.

And by all that I mean to say that David McCahill and I have been so busy baking apple crisps (and then eating said apple crisps... and then evading the subsequent waves of horrific and unavoidable flatulence brought on by the digestion of said apple crisps) that we've been too preoccupied to blog. Apologies. But look!

Dave demonstrates his domestic prowess.

Fall training has been going well. The men's team is small but determined and the women's team is both sizeable and committed. Unusually nice fall weather in Cambridge has allowed to get in numerous OD skis out in Littleton and runs on the trails around Walden Pond. Today we worked on skate technique at the closest safe rollerski venue: the Cambridge Cemetery, which is not only plagued by bloodthirsty coyotes, but has recently been fallen victim to a copper theif as well. Needless to say, we're leading suspects.

Audrey, me, Alyssa, and Clare doing some pickups

Joe and Dave getting off the starting line quick-like

Katie and Meri drag-racing

Stay tuned for updates, which will come much more regularly now that apples are getting to be out-of-season.

- Schlutzer