Andrew, the destroyer

Sometimes destroying something is good. Destroying a race course - that's the kind of thing many of us dream of. Destroying a test - that's good too. Destroying the competition - always good .

Destroying yourself, your equipment, and your clothing - not such a good thing.

Well, unfortunately for me, that's what happened today.

So we went on an OD out in Littleton, MA. We had nearly the whole team and it was a beautiful day - late fall color with early fall weather.

The day was going really well up until a little turn-off when some of our group split off. We went up a fair bit of hill - much much more than you see around Cambridge - and then of course, you have to go back down hill.

I have really slow skis - the old nordic rollers make everyone else's skis look like Duncan Douglass'. So I was in a tuck for the entire downhill - double poling on any pseudo-flats amid the long downhill - just trying to keep pace. Anyway, as some of you know, I'm not the most experienced roller skier and going down the final descent I was going the fastest I've ever gone on roller skis. Anyway, the skis aren't the best and I got nervous and didn't hold the speed very well. Before I fell my left ski (the one I'd had alignment problems with earlier) came off and it was game over. I fell all along my side giving myself three big scrapes on my knee, some rather deep gashes on my elbow, a scrape all over my hip, a couple bruises on my chest, and a good scrape on my left elbow. My spandex, which protected me from getting too much debris in my hip, was ripped to shreds. All in all though, I came out of it pretty well for what it was.

But things just deteriorated from there.

I kept skiing with everyone else and we eventually regrouped with the others after a bit of searching. Everyone else was having a great time, but my ski was really having problems and I was running a really high heart rate trying to keep up. Eventually, my ski just succumbed to the wear (I guess I didn't repair it well last time). The bolt fell out of the roller ski and I could no longer skate.

So I was left behind to double pole and wait for the van. After all that one would think it couldn't get any worse, but skiing by myself, a car came quickly around a corner and I as I looked back, I was forced to dive out to the side to avoid the car. In the dive the tip of my pole broke.

So we finally made it back - everyone pretty thoroughly fatigued, but in good spirits after a great workout.

As for me, Chris City was nice enough to see me over to UHS to get fixed up. It actually went quite well - it took a long time to clean out all the wounds, but hey, only flesh wounds. They gave me a tetanus shot, some pain killers for the scrubbing of the wounds, a lot of gauze and sent me on my way.

Anything good to take out of this? Well, spandex is great.

Dave, I'm glad it's snowing in Europe. I'll be very happy when we get off the roller skis.

Final Note - I feel bad I don't have any pictures at the moment - they really are impressive. I can't seem to get them on my computer so when I can I might put a few up. You might be better off though as they really aren't pleasant.

Dachstein Closed

Team:

Sadly the Dachstein was closed this weekend. Thankfully, 100 cm of fresh white allowed 15k of trails to be open in the valley, which I shared with 387 of my closest national team friends. It was pretty hectic on the single lane tracks so I did what any Harvard men's team member would do: latch onto the back of the Czech women's team and follow them around for 2 hours. The snow was quite heavy, but the conditions were mid-winter but some washed out turns made for great beaters and lots of multi-national shouting and drinkbelt throwing. That Czech women's team, jesus. Wicked.

It was quite a structured weekend so I kept precise track of my data for the blog. Got a total of 345 minutes of skiing. My heart rate max was 8 and my average 12. My only strength session was shoveling the Mitter family driveway which took about 40 minutes, mostly spent in level 14. There was lots of lactate testing going on, so I got that done as well. My first pricks were 4 and the next two were both 19. I've graphed the results on excel which I am now getting laminated down at Kinko's. Good people.

Great weekend on the snow, got to catch up with my Canadian team buddy Phil Widmer who I met while backcountry skiing in Canada, their training was going well and it was nice to speak a little of the patriotic tongue and pick women's teams to follow around.

No pictures this weekend, only skiing, but here's the highlight reel:

Highlight Reel:

1. Watching Giorgio di Centa lose a sprint to an 8 year old kid from Ramsau with a killer V2. He may have thrown it away in the end to boost the kid's self-esteem, but I think they just screwed around all summer and are starting to realize it's crunch time.
2. Watching the Japanese national team try to take over the stadium area to do intervals on the one lane track and get cussed out by the Czech women's team.
3. Wishing Nabel and Andy were around to hang out with the Czech women's team.

Fun weekend, winter came in a hurry to Europe. Could only have been better if you guys were around. Europe is a mecca for the IR couple game.

Tschau,

Dave

Climbing to the castle

Ch-ch-ch-check it, children. This weekend some of us raced NYSEF's rollerski race up the Whiteface Auto Road in Wilmington, NY. With a start list that read like a who's who of elite skiing, Schulzy and I lined up to ski up the 5 miles from the toll booth to the castle. We gained 3001 feet over 8k, averaging an 8% grade. According to the web, the first three miles after the toll booth are closer to a 10% grade. There are sections after 3-4 miles of climbing that I was able to V2, but for the most part it was lung-burning V1 all the way up.

Anna with a mile to go.



Anna making the pass in the final stretch.

Yours truly, leading the pack (Ben Hickory, Alex Howe, Mark Johnson).

In the overall results Duncan Douglas beat Kris Freeman by 2 minutes on crazy fast skis. Both of them supposedly V2'd most of the mountain. The next dude with Marwes was Billy Demong, 3 minutes back off of Freeman. After the race Bird skied for another 2 hours. Damn.

The day after the race we did an OD classic ski with the remaining camp participants. Starting on Forest Home Road in Saranac Lake, we skied point-to-point all the way to Franklin. It was crazy to be in such a huge pack of rollerskiers. Notables included Lars Flora, Chris Cook, Colin Rodgers, Ben True, Mikey Sinnott, Garrot Kuzzy, and the UVM men. At one point Vordenberg pulled up alongside me while I was skiing next to Flora and gave me technique advice hanging out of the van. It was a dream come true. Here are some pics from that workout:

Pack of boys.

Harvard girls.

That's all for now - peep teamtoday.org for more sick pics.

-- O

Thursdays are for Simona

Let me preface my blog post with a tidbit of sad news. I won't be ski racing this winter. I will remain a member of the team of course, however, I am going to assume my new position as 'Chief Blogger'. I'm just going to sit and blog everything that the ski team does. Eating, sleeping, breathing, blogging. I am going to record it, on the blog. This is so much more fun than actually skiing.

Thursday means one thing: Simonazeitfahren day. Why Thursday?

Well, to quote the most dramatic nordic blogger there ever was:

This is our chance.

Not in four years.

Not next month.

Not tomorrow.

But Thursday.

So there you have it. Day was great. Beautiful, crisp fall weather, the kind that just makes you want to sit in front of the computer playing World of Warcraft eating a bowl of warm apple crisp sprinkled with Cheezy Poofs.

TT was the best yet. 25 min warmup, stretched in front of some cows at the lower Gaesthaus, tried to get them to eat grass out of my hand while standing on one leg, while moo-ing. Thankfully I was wearing no Harvard gear. Legs felt good and fresh, ended up with a 38:32, besting the previous best of 40:30. Followed up with a 55 minute cool down, interrupted of course by a cow-break at the lower Gaesthaus, where I succeeded in luring about 13 cows over while stretching on one leg. Checkitty-check it.


Naturally I included a photo of the time trial. Of course, several people volunteered to take photos and naturally several members of the Norwegian sprint team chose to partake as well and of course I cut and dyed my hair blond to ensure a PR attempt.

Best of luck this weekend, those of you headed to the winter sports capital of the world. Don't let Delaney rough you up with his blatantly doped Ski Skett rocketboards.

Meine Liebe Skilanglaufmannschaft:

Freundliche Grüße aus Innsbruck!

This post has certainly been quite some time in the making and I trust all of you have been on tenterhooks waiting for an update. Or not. So it goes. Therefore, for those of you who may not have met or simply don't remember me, I'm the one simply referred to as : The Kid, D-Mac, or, most commonly, Where the hell is D-Mac?

Things across the pond couldn't be better. We just wrapped up our 'shopping week' this past week. Point of clarification, Universitaet Innsbruck doesn't have a shopping policy, however I proceeded to parade around campus reading the preable to the Constitution, while storming various lecture halls, insisting that I should be allowed to shop as long as the white stripes and the eagle fly. So, classes and german are going wonderfully.

Workouts here have been outrageous. Sadly, rollerskiing on public thoroughfares is strictly prohibited, technically by law, but essentially because roads here are windier than the back route to Anna's house and narrower than Nabel's classic stance. Game over. I've been rollerskiing on the 13 mile bike path around the city, great for OD's and speed-work and thankfully there is a lane for walkers and one for hardcore shredders ... and bikers.

The real asset to the area is the altitude and the pleathora of Alpine terrain and paths to enjoy. I've been doing most of my training in spectacular North Range in town which is covered with hiking trails, switchbacked cat tracks for accessing the tram and lifts, as well as a wide range of goat herd-paths which often lead to feces-laden and incredibly exposed/dangerous rock ledges. Great. Today's workout was one I've been doing for the past 3 weeks, a real staple of my training. Contrary to all popular belief, I do record data on my training and shall follow the present trend of posting cool workout beta. Here it is:

5x5 Classic Bounding Intervals auf den Simonazeitfahrenrennbahn unter die Nordbergen:

-Warmup: 21:45 easy run from International Studentenhaus to Erste Gästehaus.

-Intervals: 5x5, 3m rest.
1: 5:01 Max 189 Avg 178
Rest 1: 2:59 Max 190 Avg 135

2:5:02 Max195 Avg 187
Rest 2: 2:57 Max 196 Avg 138

3: 5:00Max 194 Avg 184
Rest 3: 2:59 Max 194 Avg 136

4: 5:01 Max 196 Avg 183
Rest 4: 2:58 Max 196 Avg 137

5: 5:28 Max 197 Avg 187
Rest 5: dnf
-----------------------------------

This was a really fun, really typical intensity workout I've been doing here. I've been doing these bulk vo2 max bounding intervals on a mix of trail and gravel access roads with fantastic footing. The course is wonderful for intervals as it bangs on up to the summit of the lower tram station, net 2100 meters elevation gain... ... I've also been doing a weekend time trial on the course which I've named the Simonzeitfahren. There is a wonderful guesthaus at 1487m up in the peaks which serves authentic Tirolean dishes and delicious Zipfer beer. Anyhow, during a hike, my buddy Mark and I stopped there for a quick brew. Our waitress was named Simona and we ended up chatting for a while after we both noticed we were wearing the same Polar watch. Anyway, my future-bride's name is Simona and I proceeded to dedicate my weekly timetrial after her. If that's not a creepy enough story in cliche Vordenbergish prose, then I give up my nordic writing career right now. The TT is ~40 mins, no poles.

Enough regurgitated training beta. Makes me want to cut myself. Innsbruck is living up to its standards as a world-class 2x Olympic village, offering killer hiking and incredible elevation, much better than my own humble mountain home back in South Park... er Lake Placid. Piss. Butthole. (Haha, just watched my required viewing for this evening, thanks Nabel). What sucks is that Seefeld, Stams and the two main glaciers are 20-40 minutes away on roads that really require a car. The glacier busses aren't going yet, but thankfully I ran into a Norwegian named Solveig last night at the pub while watching the All-Blacks lose to France. (Sidenote, at the end of the game all rugby fans were crying: the Kiwis because they'd just lost a rugby game to the Frogs and the French because they had no notion of how to properly celebrate after winning a sporting event). Anyhow, she has high hopes to make a weekend in Ramsau as well as get on the local glaciers, so I'll be up there soon.

Woods and Pearl made a wonderful guest appearance in Innsbruck this weekend, I took 'em some wonderful hikes, as well as let them tag along on my Tirol-Kultur field trip class to Mayrhofen for the Almabtrieb, where the milk cows are brought down from the high alpine pastures and paraded through town wearing incredibly ornate, incredibly Catholic headdresses. Very cool. Delicious food and drink, great photos, good fun. I packed them off and sent them for a week in Salzburg and then Vienna, then back to Innsbrooklyn for two more days with their loving son. Sadly they won't be able to cheer you guys on going around the Whiteface curve on the home stretch to the castle this weekend, but just make sure to hose Delaney as he'll be on his rocket SkiSketts. Whatever it takes. Two questions. Back to school special, whatever.
Keep these killer blog entries a-'comin, I miss my team. More updates soon to follow, especially after I get out on the white stuff that's up in the peaks. Good luck this weekend, I want scars and stories.

Hugs,

Rack'em .... ahhem. Hem.

Euer, Dave

Things Ollie forgot to mention about the 3k:

1. I almost got housed by a 6-year-old girl on a pink bike with streamers on the handlebars (she was booking it around the inner lane of the track).
2. Because we (the women's team) managed to avoid collisions with high school soccer girls, said girls livened up their benchwarming experience by cheering for us with far more enthusiasm than they did for their own team.
3. Every girl who ran the test last spring picked up her time by twenty seconds or more.

Question: What's the best remedy for loosening up your legs the morning after a 3k?
Answer (and there's only one): 2 miles on the airdyne.

-Schulzy

Anders rocks all the ladies ...

Today was the first 3k test of the fall up at Danehey, and all things considered, I'd say it went well. The weather today was beautiful, in the low 70s, sunny, very little wind - perfect track conditions. Turnout was decent - CNabes was out with a foot injury so it was just Anders and myself holding it down for the guys. For the ladies we had Schulzy, Jenn, Katie, and Meri. Tannis showed but didn't race.

After doing my best Cancellara impression from Robinson Hall to the park, I took off for a [too] short warm up while the ladies got underway with their run. There was a high school girls' soccer game going on at the same time, but our girls seemed to have no problem running their races.

Anders and I got started shortly after the girls finished (Schulzy took it over Jenn, then Mer, then Katie) and quickly ran into some problems. We went out fast (like 1:09), too fast for me, so I scaled it back to a more manageable (and right on target) 1:20. A couple laps in Anders nearly got hit by an errant kick, but he soldiered on. Maybe a lap later, right in front of the benches, officials, and spectators, Anders and one of the girls collided as she was chasing a ball out of bounds.

This was where things started to deteriorate. Next time around we got yelled at by one of the coaches to run on the outside of the track (in a 3k, we thought, are they serious? do they not know who we are?). Then the refs got into it, forcing me exchange some less-than-understanding words with the head official as I was finishing up a lap. Next time around a park official tried to physically block my path, forcing me to dodge him yelling something about being unable to stop. Post-race Anders and I conferred and agreed conditions were less than ideal. He took me by probably 10-15 seconds - I ran a 10:05, so he logged something in the 9:50s or lower. After clearing things up with the refs and the dude who tried to end my test early, we cleared out. Leave it to Cambridge to make even a 3k interesting.

-- O