7 Springs trail work

This past week was a recovery week, and in order to change it up and get some different muscles involved in the training game, the team volunteered I volunteered the team for some trail building work at Seven Springs.

Heading into the trails, led by master trail crafter Ben Yandeau!

The Saint Lawrence Mountain Biking Association [SLMBA] has been doing a ton of great work for mountain biking (which for us often equals trail running) in the area, and two new trails are nearly complete at one of our favorite training venues in Parishville. 

The trailhead for Kenny's Climax..err...Climb Ax, that is

Branching off from the top of the old Clarkson ski hill are two singletrack trails, Charly's Run and Kenny's Climb Ax. Although based on the names one would assume more excitement happens on the Climb Ax trail, we were actually over on Charly's Run doing a lot of sweating as we grabbed stones and laid pipe...literally. 

Chumley was intent on proving the size and quality of his stones...

...which were used to create a bridge over some drainage pipe

Meanwhile, another group built a banked corner and transformed this fern grove into the start of a trail

Look for a post from a team member in the next few days as we are head into a big volume week culminating with the Ski Team Cookout during parent's weekend this Saturday...after that it's on to the start of official training with some of our favorite fall tests and workouts!

Team Post: News from Dana...NOT the dining hall!

By Dana Hatton ‘18

Hi all,

I’m Dana, a freshman coming from Cape Elizabeth, Maine and yes my name is the same as the dining hall here on campus.  What’s even crazier is that my initials are DDH as in “Dana Dining Hall”…mind=blown, yes.  Now that we got that out of the way, I can excitedly say that these first few weeks of captains practices have gone really well.  Everyone seems to be excited and eager to work hard; it must be from all the valuable training we’ve done this summer.

At the end of June, my mom, sister and I went to Spain.  We stayed in Madrid and visited Toledo and Cercedilla as well.  My junior year of high school, my family hosted an exchange student named Claudia from Madrid and the purpose of this trip was to visit her.  It was an excellent experience, but I had to make sure I was still training too.  We hiked in Cercedilla, Spain and my sister, who skied for Bowdoin all four years, and I added some running in and made it more of a workout.  The hike was rocky and challenging.

The hike up, in Cercidilla, Spain

The view from the hike in Cercedilla, Spain

When I came back from Spain, I added more roller skiing in to my workouts.

Roller skiing in my hometown

I did a lot of running, hiking, and swimming and went to NH and NY, but Spain was the big highlight for me this summer.  It was definitely a new challenge to keep up with the bigger amount of training I needed to do and enjoy the summer, but I know that it’s all worth it.

As I’m getting to know everyone and everything at SLU, the team has made the adjustment easier.  We’ve gone to so many different places to train, which has made working out that much more fun.  Some of the highlights from this week included, venturing to Seven Springs yesterday, an old downhill ski mountain for Clarkson, and running on some very rolling hills.  We played soccer for the first time as a team, usually we add in some Frisbee to an easy day, but decided it was time to mix it up.  A few days ago we went to SUNY Canton and did some fantastic skate intervals around their campus.  I do have to say that the freshmen were killing it.  Despite the rain spitting on us at the end, it was a great workout before eating a warm brunch at Dana....the dining hall.

Team Post: Isaac Wright builds the trails he trains on

By Isaac Wright '18

Greetings family, friends, alumni, and teammates.  My name is Isaac Wright and I am a freshman on the Nordic team. 

A little about myself:  This past summer I worked at Pine Hill Park, a local mountain biking/hiking trail system, helping to build new trails and help fix things up too. Of course I also spent a lot of time ski training too! I was lucky enough to have some nice roads for roller skiing, trails for running, and other training facilities and events that I was able to go to. 

Trail work at Pine Hill Park 

(this was going to be a gem but my eyes are closed, oops)

A big part of my summer however involved me and my family (I am one of four kids) moving from Rutland, Vermont to Amherst, Massachusetts. I am sure that I will deeply miss my home venue, Mountain Top Inn and Resort, but hey maybe an Eastern Cup will be held there very soon, fingers crossed!

We soon realized that we were going to need another truck

I enjoy being outside, hanging out, going off ski jumps and you might even see me with a lacrosse stick shooting around. I don’t know if I should put this next one in but, an extreme hobby that I love to do is freestyle skiing. This past winter I bought a pair of twin tips skis and was “hooked”. Every chance I got I was outside going off a jump or sliding a rail. And when summer rolled around I found a way to even “train” for that too. Of course I will have to take a break from this though because as athletes we shouldn’t be doing anything other than our sport during the season right?

How I ski in summer!

So far SLU has been awesome and I can’t wait for the season to actually start!

Here are some pictures of how I spent my summer. Enjoy!

A volunteer and I clean out a water drain

Laying down some rocks

The final product!

Team Post: Gramps reports on the weekend

By Kyle Curry '16

On Saturday nine of us departed Canton for Climb to the Castle-- An annual roller ski race that takes racers up the backside of Whiteface Mtn. via the toll road in Wilmington, N.Y. We left Canton at 5:30 a.m. in order to allow for a warmup before the 8:00 a.m. (women) and 8:10 a.m. (men) start times. When we left it was raining, making the potential for a soggy ski seem real. Luckily, the rain stopped, and held off for the entire race.

Women started first at 8:00 a.m. Erin Perryman (13) and Lizzy Landry (21) duked it out with with members of the U.S. Ski Team and other top athletes from around the country. (Terko Photo)

Climb to the Castle provides a great opportunity for junior and collegiate skiers alike to battle it out with some of the best in the country in a low-stakes 'fun' race. Climb to the Castle marks the end of a camp held by the US Ski Team. As a result, many of the top skiers are present from current World Cup athletes like Tim Burke and Liz Stephen to club powerhouses like Ben Lustgarten and Caitlin Gregg. 

The men started shortly after the women. 

Austin Meng (65) and Kyle Curry (63) chase down B. Lustgarden (67) and C. Smith. (NNF Photo)

There has been talk that the Toll Rd. had been getting a facelift, including fresh pavement, over the summer. Many of us were expecting new pavement from top to bottom. 

(Barb Beall photo) 

However, that was not the case. By Saturday's race only a few portions had been capped with new pavement. Those sections that were recently paved were as good as they get for roller skiing- The dry-land equivalent of fresh tracks on an extra blue day! 

  (Barb Beall photo)

Towards the top of the course the wind picked up and summit was concealed in a dense fog / mist. For the last few hundred meters of the race visibility was only a few feet. 

The group together at the finish. (Barb Beall photo)

Highlights of the day included Coach Adam and Kyle both finding a way into their respective age group podiums. 

Adam and the rest of the SR podium: L-R Adam, Simi Hamilton and Leif Nordgren (Barb Beall photo)

Kyle and the U23 podium: L-R Kyle, Ben Saxton and Ben Lustgarten (Barb Beall photo)

Both men's and women's results can be found here. 

On the way back to school the traditional post-race stop at the Lake View Deli in Saranac Lake, N.Y. is always welcome. 

Phil, Calvin, Austin, and Erin decide what to order at the Lake View Deli. 

The race was pretty taxing. Those not driving took advantage to the hour+ drive back to campus to get some sleep. 

Freshman Isaac W. and Drew H. down for the count on the way back to school. 

 Sunday consisted of an easy 2.5 hr trail run for both the men and women. We ran the Stone Valley and Ledges trail systems along the majestic Raquette River.

Heading out onto the trail 

The mighty Raquette River

Will and Calvin check out the river. 

Winding our way through the pine forests. 

Team Post: Captain Kate weighs in

By Kate Mulcahy '15

With the start of a new school year we’ve gotten a little over a week now to get to know our new freshman. On the Men’s side, Drew Houx, joins us from Holderness and has proven to be an awesome ultimate Frisbee player, possibly giving notorious ultimate player (and senior) Austin Meng a run for his money. Isaac Wright, a fiery redhead and last year's VT State Champ, was getting after the strength early this week and could be pumping out a high score for the upcoming Canadian Strength Test. After taking a post-grad year, our third male recruit, Sean Delaney, becomes the new representative of CVU, our Assistant Coach Adam’s oft-praised high school alma mater. 

For the Women, we also gained three new teammates. Dana Hatton hails from Cape Elizabeth, Maine and follows two older siblings onto the EISA circuit. She comes across pretty shy but had a lot of comments yesterday about Carni-Crush, so EISA men take note! Emma Greenough, joining us from junior Erin’s former high school in Lebanon, New Hampshire, encourages everyone to “EAT MORE KALE,” and is looking to get involved with multiple singing groups on campus, and is one of the most eager to improve technique. Lizzy Landry aka Slizzzerd, another Maine athlete, gets her nickname not from illicit activities but because it was felt she needed a more unique nickname than the generic Lizzy moniker “Lizard”. Plus, “Like a G6” is a team favorite warmup song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4s6H4ku6ZY

We kicked off the training year by running the Annual Alumni Race for the Cross-Country team. Having two options of 6 and 5K courses, the guys added the extra kilometer while the girls stuck with the traditional 5K. The course is right on campus and begins on about 200 meters of a grass field before looping around to take two laps through the wooded trails. And the team posted some impressive results: both the men’s and women’s ski team beat the alumni runners in the team score, much to the alum’s displeasure. Individually, we also saw exciting improvement, particularly by juniors Kyle Curry and Taren McGray. Taren knocked off nearly TWO MINUTES from her time last fall and Kyle intimidated all with his prominent six-pack.

(Sophomore Calvin Swomley in navy shorts and freshman Drew Houx in green surrounded by current and former members of the Cross Country team).

After the race we got a chance to meet Ethan’s new baby girl Maya Luna Townsend, or BabyTown, who was less than a week old. Ethan’s parents were also at the event, cheering us on as always and Jenny, Ethan’s wife, was out and about and recovering well. Ethan sat the race out this year, much to the relief of the men’s team because despite his goofy run technique E-Town has some serious speed. The team then took the annual post-race run down to the rope swing for a swim in the Grasse River, with some tree-tipping along the way.

BabyTown working on her "Here we go, Saints!" cheer

We’ll follow-up a great first weekend with an arguably better second: Climb to the Castle. The team will be sure to post some killer results as they power up the five miles of the toll road representing the scarlet and brown!