Happy National Coming Out Day (a few weeks in advance)!
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
The VIP Austrian Training Camp
Now that I am home with reliable internet and all my pictures
downloaded I have no more excuses for postponing my report from my time in
Austria on the Dachstein Glacier. After
four trains, two buses, and one taxi, I arrived in Ramsau am Dachstein on
Saturday, July 28th. It was a
long day of travel but it exposed me to two new countries and left me rested
and excited for my upcoming days on snow.
I stayed at a Farmhouse hotel five minutes form the center of town and
the bus stop. They had about twenty-five
rooms and they provided a filling breakfast each morning of Austrian sausage
and bread, cereal, and fresh milk and yogurt from their cows. It provided a great basecamp from which I had
only a thirty-minute commute on the bus and cable car to reach the glacier. I skied everyday, usually doing a longer
workout in the morning when the snow was a little harder followed by a shorter
afternoon workout of the other technique.
The first day had extremely variable weather, experiencing everything
from dense fog, to full sun, to strong wind and even rain! This was followed by heavy fog all of my
second day, which was an interesting experience as it made it feel like it was
4pm all day, but also distracted me from the fact I was going in circles on a
5km loop. It was a good first two days
getting used to the feel of skis and snow again and it made the sunshine and
company of the US Men’s Ski team extra welcome for my next three days! I classic skied for a short while behind Noah
Hoffman on Tuesday and on Wednesday I caught the whole Men’s team for the last
half hour of their workout. These first
two experiences were helpful for helpful for my technique and their lessons
were solidified and expanded upon on Thursday morning when I got to ski with
Tad Elliott and Eric Packer for an hour and a half, meet both Jason Cork and Chris
Grover, and join the full Men’s team for their strength routine that
afternoon. It was a wonderful
opportunity to ski with them and to get to see what they are doing in the
weight room. While lots of their lift routine
is similar to what we do at Harvard, I also picked up some new exercises that
will be nice additions to our current routine.
While the Men’s team left Friday morning for the Ski Tunnel in Germany,
I had two more great days of skiing that included making friends with two
French skiers and even getting them to take some technique video of me! Skiing with people from Norway, Austria,
Germany, Japan, France, and the U.S., with good grooming and on the whole
cooperative weather, I was able to ski over 300km and had an amazing seven days
on snow!
I hope everyone’s training is going well and I am getting
really excited to see everyone at school
soon!
Akeo
Picture courtesy of the French skiers!
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
No regrets, just love
Why hello there! Akeo and Chris here, thinking we'd dust off the ol' blog for an update on our summer in Grenoble.
We've been here for a full five weeks now, which neither of us can really believe because the time seems to have gone by so quickly. But this place is undoubtedly starting to feel more like home, with a daily routine pretty much set, the city layout now feeling familiar, and training opportunities well known at this point.
Chris's update: The awesome thing about living next to a mountain is that you don't have to travel far (i.e., at all) to start climbing. Just this morning Akeo and I went on a casual ski-walk before work and, in a little over an hour, found ourselves 2500 feet higher than when we started (we live at about 700 feet). I guess if you live near mountains this isn't such a big deal, but coming from the Boston suburbs it makes me pretty happy!
The metropolitan roads of Grenoble are pretty narrow and busy, but we don't have to go far to get to great rollerskiing: After about 10 minutes of scooting around the city, it's a really pretty, low-traffic road that climbs for two hours straight through smaller villages. The route is well supplied with water stops along the way, but we've found that the effect of increasing in altitude is decreasing temperatures, eventually landing at Col de Porte, a mountain peak at the relatively modest 4350 feet. I say relatively modest because forty-five minutes later, skiing on the stickiest tar pavement you've ever laid rollerkis on, up a switchbacky mountain road, you end up at the gorgeous Charmant Som, which at 6100 feet makes you feel pretty accomplished for the day!
Cute selfie on our way up to Col de Porte. In the background is Chamechaude, the highest mountain in the Chartruese mountain range. Don't worry, we'll hike it soon.
Some more roadside scenery from the ascent:
Akeo's update: Five weeks in also means that we both have operational road bikes and have been able to start exploring more than just the ascents (and best locations to catch rides). Last Friday, I was able to fully appreciate this by taking a morning work break and going on a short road trip for an amazing morning cycling adventure with my "boss," Max. We drove about an hour to the heart of the "High-Alps" where we started our epic ride. We rode two Cols (a Col is like a valley/mountain summit). The first was Col du Lautarait, after which we (Max) took a quick café break while we waited to be joined by friends. With our new members we headed up the real climb to the top of Col du Galibier (in the picture my head is blocking it but for those watching the numbers that is a summit of 8,678 ft, the sixth highest mountain pass in the Alps)! It was an awesome climb. As one of the most frequently included climbs in the Tour de France, it has a ton of history behind it and you feel very epic riding up reading the same words of encouragement that countless Tour de France winners have read on their way to victory! After lots of pictures from the top we started our descent, and it will suffice to say that I tied my all-time speed record on a bike (70kph) without even pedaling!! It was a fantastic morning and we were still back to work by early afternoon in time to finish up our protein purification for the week! (To view the video from Max's GoPro, including the descent, click here and for the full picture album look on my facebook wall.)
Summit:
View from the top:
While this was an especially epic day, we have had workouts from numerous other days that have been just as, shall we say, adventurous and instructive... We will not bore you with the details, but here are some highlights:
There's an accordionist outside our window right now, and I just got back from exploring Grenoble's centre-ville (below). Just another day in the life, feelin' French!
Keep on summering, training, and summer-training,
Chris and Akeo
We've been here for a full five weeks now, which neither of us can really believe because the time seems to have gone by so quickly. But this place is undoubtedly starting to feel more like home, with a daily routine pretty much set, the city layout now feeling familiar, and training opportunities well known at this point.
Chris's update: The awesome thing about living next to a mountain is that you don't have to travel far (i.e., at all) to start climbing. Just this morning Akeo and I went on a casual ski-walk before work and, in a little over an hour, found ourselves 2500 feet higher than when we started (we live at about 700 feet). I guess if you live near mountains this isn't such a big deal, but coming from the Boston suburbs it makes me pretty happy!
The metropolitan roads of Grenoble are pretty narrow and busy, but we don't have to go far to get to great rollerskiing: After about 10 minutes of scooting around the city, it's a really pretty, low-traffic road that climbs for two hours straight through smaller villages. The route is well supplied with water stops along the way, but we've found that the effect of increasing in altitude is decreasing temperatures, eventually landing at Col de Porte, a mountain peak at the relatively modest 4350 feet. I say relatively modest because forty-five minutes later, skiing on the stickiest tar pavement you've ever laid rollerkis on, up a switchbacky mountain road, you end up at the gorgeous Charmant Som, which at 6100 feet makes you feel pretty accomplished for the day!
Cute selfie on our way up to Col de Porte. In the background is Chamechaude, the highest mountain in the Chartruese mountain range. Don't worry, we'll hike it soon.
Some more roadside scenery from the ascent:
Akeo's update: Five weeks in also means that we both have operational road bikes and have been able to start exploring more than just the ascents (and best locations to catch rides). Last Friday, I was able to fully appreciate this by taking a morning work break and going on a short road trip for an amazing morning cycling adventure with my "boss," Max. We drove about an hour to the heart of the "High-Alps" where we started our epic ride. We rode two Cols (a Col is like a valley/mountain summit). The first was Col du Lautarait, after which we (Max) took a quick café break while we waited to be joined by friends. With our new members we headed up the real climb to the top of Col du Galibier (in the picture my head is blocking it but for those watching the numbers that is a summit of 8,678 ft, the sixth highest mountain pass in the Alps)! It was an awesome climb. As one of the most frequently included climbs in the Tour de France, it has a ton of history behind it and you feel very epic riding up reading the same words of encouragement that countless Tour de France winners have read on their way to victory! After lots of pictures from the top we started our descent, and it will suffice to say that I tied my all-time speed record on a bike (70kph) without even pedaling!! It was a fantastic morning and we were still back to work by early afternoon in time to finish up our protein purification for the week! (To view the video from Max's GoPro, including the descent, click here and for the full picture album look on my facebook wall.)
Summit:
While this was an especially epic day, we have had workouts from numerous other days that have been just as, shall we say, adventurous and instructive... We will not bore you with the details, but here are some highlights:
- Discovering (on day one) that walking 6km back down the road (in ski boots or bare feet) and then hitch-hiking the rest of the way down is less desirable (and worse for post-workout recovery) than riding down form the top.
- Discovering (not on day one) that this rule still holds true if it's a weekday and 11pm (and, yes, pitch-black out). [***Safety Side Note: We were not rollerskiing in the dark and would never do that! In this case, after finishing our rollerski and waiting an hour and a half at the top of the mountain with no luck getting a ride, we realized that if we didn't start hiking we'd be spending a rather chilly night in the mountains.]
- Discovering that, in the case of getting separated from one another, just keep skiing in a generally upwards direction and with a little luck you can be reunited after an hour at a random mid-mountain bus stop 3 minutes before the bus arrives to take you down.
- Discovering that it is rather easier to enter our apartment with the key through the door, than picking the clasp on the shutters and using the window (although Tor and Esther's Lowell basement training sessions proved very useful this day).
- Discovering, even though we are Nordic skiers, it is possible to buy more groceries than you can physically carry, with or without a bike, and no, even on those days it doesn't count as a strength workout regardless of how long it took you to traverse the 10 blocks back home.
There's an accordionist outside our window right now, and I just got back from exploring Grenoble's centre-ville (below). Just another day in the life, feelin' French!
Keep on summering, training, and summer-training,
Chris and Akeo
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Thanksgiving Camp!!!
A report by Akeo:
This year marked the beginning of what looks like will become an great new Thanksgiving camp tradition for Harvard’s nordic ski team. This year we went to Craftsbury, VT instead of making the customary Thanksgiving break trek to Canada. In Vermont we stayed at the local outdoor center in an olympic-village like setting, with skiing out the door, weight facilities, and an excellent dining lodge. Our first day was spent dry land training, but thanks to a large snow that night we were able to ski twice a day for the rest of the week. It was such an amazing time being back on snow after the long summer months, and spending so much time bonding together as a team. Our first few days on snow were dedicated to easy distance skiing, with lots of technique work to transition and adapt all our hard work from roller skiing to snow skiing. The week built in intensity culminating in a 4.5km skate race. This was a great opportunity for everyone to push themselves and get a in a really good hard effort.
Off the trails we also had a fantastic time. After a few months of Harvard dining hall food it was a nice change to have home-style cooking. We also had a suite with a nice common room where we were able to spend lots of time together studying, watching movies, talking about skiing and baking pies and cookies! Everyone was sad to leave after such a fun camp, but with only a few more weeks before local skiing, spirits are still high and the air is filled with excitement for the upcoming races.
This year marked the beginning of what looks like will become an great new Thanksgiving camp tradition for Harvard’s nordic ski team. This year we went to Craftsbury, VT instead of making the customary Thanksgiving break trek to Canada. In Vermont we stayed at the local outdoor center in an olympic-village like setting, with skiing out the door, weight facilities, and an excellent dining lodge. Our first day was spent dry land training, but thanks to a large snow that night we were able to ski twice a day for the rest of the week. It was such an amazing time being back on snow after the long summer months, and spending so much time bonding together as a team. Our first few days on snow were dedicated to easy distance skiing, with lots of technique work to transition and adapt all our hard work from roller skiing to snow skiing. The week built in intensity culminating in a 4.5km skate race. This was a great opportunity for everyone to push themselves and get a in a really good hard effort.
Off the trails we also had a fantastic time. After a few months of Harvard dining hall food it was a nice change to have home-style cooking. We also had a suite with a nice common room where we were able to spend lots of time together studying, watching movies, talking about skiing and baking pies and cookies! Everyone was sad to leave after such a fun camp, but with only a few more weeks before local skiing, spirits are still high and the air is filled with excitement for the upcoming races.
Friday, November 11, 2011
The Air was Sweet and Fragrant...
...on the van ride home from practice yesterday.
More scintillating conversation from Esther and Chris:
Chris: "What's the French word for air?"
Esther: "Err?"
Chris: "No, I mean, what's the word for air."
Esther: "Err? Huh, I don't know."
Chris: "No, air, this stuff."
Esther: "Oh, air!"
Chris: "L'air?"
Esther: "I thought you were talking about err!"
Chris: "No, I meant air."
More scintillating conversation from Esther and Chris:
Chris: "What's the French word for air?"
Esther: "Err?"
Chris: "No, I mean, what's the word for air."
Esther: "Err? Huh, I don't know."
Chris: "No, air, this stuff."
Esther: "Oh, air!"
Chris: "L'air?"
Esther: "I thought you were talking about err!"
Chris: "No, I meant air."
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
The past few weeks have been busy for
the ski team!
 |
| Chris's backyard on October 27 |
 |
| Maggie's Immediate Reaction to the Snow |
A few days later, the Stocks graciously hosted brunch for us at their house. We were all impressed with Professor Stock's cooking abilities. Pumpkin pancakes and french toast have never tasted so good. As good as the food was, the highlight of the brunch was the babies! Both Sara's and Chris's children came. Maggie was quiet and cute, while Sara's son Loki spent most of his time rolling around on the ground.
 |
| Everyone was very sleepy after brunch |
This Sunday (November 6), was the
annual CSU classic rollerski race. Chris Stock and Akeo took turns
leading during the race, but Chris came out ahead to win the overall
15 k title. Alena was the second woman behind Alex Jospe to be the top
Crimson female finisher. The weather was great, sunny and 50
degrees, so everyone enjoyed the day. We were happy to return to
Cambridge with pumpkin, apple, and blumberry pies.
Two weeks until we're on snow!
JRR
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Skicircus
Update from Innsbruck, Österreich
After navigating through blogspot in German- yes the language of all the websites change while I'm over here- I have finally figured out how to log in (anmelden)... Even the facebook ads are in German:
On 19 September I left Vail with my parents and headed off to the land
of yodelling, frolicking in the hills, and weinerschnitzel- of course!
After a long 2 days of traveling I finally arrived in my new home,
Innsbruck! I was greeted by towering peaks and 40cm of snow. For us
Americans that means something like 16 inches.. Not bad for September,
and I was already getting pumped to ski. From there my parents and I did
a little bit of traveling in the Austrian state of Tirol. We first went
to Alpbach, then Höchfilzen, and Gerlose. All three were gorgeous ski
towns, but as far as I can tell every town in Austria is a gorgeous ski
town and there is a lift on every hill, so it makes no difference where I
am as it is all wunderbar! In Höchfilzen I was lucky enough to shred
their rollerski track... yes I did say rollerski track!
Yes
I am wearing lederhosen! My German friends are wearing Dirndls
(traditional decorative dresses in Bavaria and Tirol)- I'm a big fan!
The
next day classes were suppose to start, however, due to some scheduling
miracles (all class meetings on Wednesday and Thursday!!!!), I managed
to have my first class on Wednesday the 5th of Oktober. It was the
longest summer ever, but I'm not complaining. Since then I have been
attending the occasional classes, and been exploring Innsbruck and
Austria during my long weekends!
Morning skiing at the glacier..
Train
Station and sign. Pay special attention to the route name top and
center, just right of OBB. I feel it is a most fitting description of my
semester here.
Me with the Dachstein in the background.
Miss you all and can't wait to see you in January, but until then keep up the good work and I'll do my part here in Austria!
Update from Innsbruck, Österreich
After navigating through blogspot in German- yes the language of all the websites change while I'm over here- I have finally figured out how to log in (anmelden)... Even the facebook ads are in German:
Yeah
pretty cool. Mein Deutsch is getting a little better here everyday, but
I fear my English is getting worse, so it could be problematic when I
return in January.
It's been a while since my last blog post so I'll give a rundown of my journey thus far.
On 19 September I left Vail with my parents and headed off to the land
of yodelling, frolicking in the hills, and weinerschnitzel- of course!
After a long 2 days of traveling I finally arrived in my new home,
Innsbruck! I was greeted by towering peaks and 40cm of snow. For us
Americans that means something like 16 inches.. Not bad for September,
and I was already getting pumped to ski. From there my parents and I did
a little bit of traveling in the Austrian state of Tirol. We first went
to Alpbach, then Höchfilzen, and Gerlose. All three were gorgeous ski
towns, but as far as I can tell every town in Austria is a gorgeous ski
town and there is a lift on every hill, so it makes no difference where I
am as it is all wunderbar! In Höchfilzen I was lucky enough to shred
their rollerski track... yes I did say rollerski track!
The cow above was one of many (approx. 400) my mother took a picture of. Why she likes cows so much... ?
But
yes there are tons of cows with pretty bells that make lots delicious
milk (@Chris Stock). Maybe I'll bring one back so that the Elliot house
milk dispenser doesn't constantly run out.
The
picture to the left is atop a peak in Aplbach. Note the cheesy sign that
the study abroad office wants me to hold. Clearly, I'm "Outside the
Yard!"
From there
orientation began and I met my group from New Orleans. They are a pretty
cool bunch, so it's been fun hanging out with them. During the first
weeks I also met tons of international students from everywhere as far
as Brazil and Taiwan to as close as Sud Tirol (~30km away in Italy). It
is amazing how international Innsbruck is and I am constantly making
friends from all over the globe, so it is tons of fun.
Earmuffs Chris and Scush...
During
the last day of orientation I ventured over to Münich to experience the
famed Oktoberfest! I may or may not of had some beer and enjoyed the
Gemütlichkeit (english equivalent of a cozy feeling of happiness
experienced while drinking or being with friends) of the Hoffbrau Haus.
Yes
I am wearing lederhosen! My German friends are wearing Dirndls
(traditional decorative dresses in Bavaria and Tirol)- I'm a big fan!
The
next day classes were suppose to start, however, due to some scheduling
miracles (all class meetings on Wednesday and Thursday!!!!), I managed
to have my first class on Wednesday the 5th of Oktober. It was the
longest summer ever, but I'm not complaining. Since then I have been
attending the occasional classes, and been exploring Innsbruck and
Austria during my long weekends!
The photo on the left is of Emperor Maximilian
who ruled the once expansive Austrian Empire from 1486 to 1519. Below is
a cow decorated for an Almbtrieb (the Austrians have a huge Fest to
celebrate bringing the cows down from the mountain pastures at the end
of every summer).
As far
as training goes, it has been really great over here. Between the
hikes, rollerskis- on actual tracks- and cool runs, there has been no
shortage of training.
Some highlights include
running a half marathon in Söll, bounding up the Norkette, and most
importantly SKIING on the Dachstein Glacier with the Swedish marathon
team Exspirit!
This past weekend I had the opportunity to train with team Exspirit
from Thursday until Saturday in Ramsau. I got there about noon on
Thursday, so that day we just did an easy afternoon run. The next day we
got up on the glacier and joined the entire Eastern Block with some on
snow training for the upcoming season. When I say the entire Eastern
block, I'm being serious. Roughly 150 Russians (still can't figure out
how they are all on the national team, but they all had the race suits
on and were super legit and even more scary), a bunch of Ukrainians,
Poles, Estonians, Czechs, Slovaks, Turks, Belorussians, and of course
all the Scandinavians! I had never seen so many world class caliber
skiers on one 5km loop, so it was an amazing experience for me. I tried
to ski around with the Swedes, but their "easy" pace is roughly my level
2+/3, so after 2 hours of fighting to stick with them I was about ready
to go into hibernation. That afternoon we had an interval session
4X9min threshold with 1min max efforts between minutes 3 and 4 and 7 and
8 in each interval. Once again I tried to stick with the big boys, but
after 2 minutes of pushing it an promptly blowing up, I was struggling
to fend off the girls. So so fast. The next day we did some classic
skiing and then hit up the world renowned Ramsau rollerski track.
Talking to both the Swedes and the Austrians, they all assured me it was
the wildest loop they have ever rollerskied. Needless to say it didn't
disappoint: 30 mph downhills, crazy banked S-turns, and a bunch of
padded trees that did little to boost my confidence.
I also had the pleasure to run and hang out with former Harvard skier Dave McCahill here in Innsbruck. Great times!
Me with the Dachstein in the background.
Last but not least... a barbed wire toilet seat??
This quite literally scared the s*@t out of me!
Miss you all and can't wait to see you in January, but until then keep up the good work and I'll do my part here in Austria!
Tschüss,
Tony
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