The first OUA race of the season was hosted by Nippissing in North Bay this past weekend. The original schedule for the weekend was a 10 and 15km freestyle race for the Saturday and a 6 and 9 km classic race for the Sunday for the women and the men respectively. However, the schedule for the weekend was in constant flux from the middle of the week due to the temperature forecast. From the middle of the week before, the temperature forecast for the weekend was calling for temperatures in the -20 to -25C for highs and lows in the -30C. As result, before even departing for the weekend, the races were pushed back to a noon start as opposed to the traditional 9 am start in hopes that the temperatures would be above the racing limit of -20C at start time.
The Waterloo team departed on the bus on Friday morning and then headed to Guelph to pick up their team and from there all headed towards North Bay. The bus continued the tradition of having some sweet artwork on the side, with the pattern this time being a Tiger. This was a close rival to the purple Gorilla that was the bus for a trip to Easterns last year. The drive up was a little interesting as there were multiple accidents on Highway 11, with lots of vehicles in the ditches and some fender benders slowing the drive. However, the bus driver did a masterful job of manoeuvring the Tiger and the arrival in North Bay was only slightly delayed over the original schedule.
Everyone on the bus proceeded to bundle up to prepare for the pre-ski. With everyone having looked at the forecast earlier in the week and the temperatures were forecasted to plummet from about -10C to -20C in the afternoon on Friday. Assuming that this plummeted was going to coincide with the arrival in North Bay, significant amounts of clothing was put on by most people. However, as everyone headed out, it was a balmy -12C and as such most were overdressed for the occasion.
After this, it was time to head back to the hotel for the typical pre race activities, like a delicious dinner, team meetings, and ski prep as required. Additionally, based on the forecast of a high of -19C for the next day, everyone had to mentally prepare to be racing in these conditions, along with preparing for dealing with keeping their extremities warm to avoid the potential for frostbite.
Saturday dawned with the meteorologists being correct with their forecast. It was approximately -24C when everyone arrived a little before 11am and proceeded to head out on course. Based on the forecasted temperature, the night before the organizers had decided to change the course to keeping the health of the racers in mind. The course was changed to a 3km, loop since these loop had smaller climbs and descents. With smaller climbs, the racers are less likely to burn their lungs breathing heavily than the larger climbs on the red loop. Additionally, the smaller descents mean less cold wind on the face and the potential for frostbite. With a change in the loop there was also a little change in the race distance. The men were doing 4 loops for a total of 12 km and the women 3 loops for 9km.
On the pre-ski of this new loop, all the skiers were getting their bodies and lungs adjusted to the temperature and deciding the best ways to protect their faces from the cold. This included various forms of hats, balaclavas, buffs and of course Vaseline on the exposed portions of the face.
While the race was originally scheduled to start at noon, this was pushed back to 1pm when it was determined that the temperature was not quite going to be warm enough to start at noon. This of course caused everyone to adjust their schedules and as a result, a game of ‘Janitor’ broke out on the bus.
By the time 1 pm rolled around, the temperature was officially -20C and as a result the race was a go. On the startline for Waterloo were: Nolan, Glenn, Tim R, Ryan and Derek, who despite still being on the IR, decided to start the race but classic ski instead. This was based on the facts that the organizers had guaranteed a track would be set on the entire course and the fact that the forecast for Sunday did not look promising, meaning that Saturday might be the only opportunity to race on the weekend. Additionally, Tim H was also on the startline in the Open men category. On the women’s side, Jess, Katie and Martha, who was also classic skiing for the same reasons, took to the startline.
The men got out first and proceeded to ski hard through the pain associated with racing and the temperatures. Once decent results were turned in with Nolan placing 18th, Glenn in 20th, Tim R in 26th, Ryan in 29th and Derek managing to beat some other skiers who skated and come in 31st. For the women, Katie had a very solid race and an excellent placing 14th for the best result among Waterloo skiers, Jess in 23rd, and Martha in 27th, also managing to beat some skate skiers. Full results on Zone4 (zone4.ca).
Everyone had different degrees of how the temperatures affected them, with the area around the mouth and nose obviously being cold from where the cold air was breathed in, to some having cold fingers or toes, but overall everyone came out fairly well. Additionally, everyone’s lung also felt it, but hopefully no major problems there.
After the racing and associated awards etc, it was time to head back to the hotel again to dry out, warm up and rest after a tiring day of racing.
The forecast for Sunday was much worse than for Saturday, as it was calling for a high of -26C and a low of -30C, therefore making it look like it was going to be difficult to get the race off. With this is mind, the Waterloo and Guelph team started to make some contingency plans for the next day. The decision was made to have alternative plans that, if the temperature was going to be too cold to race, then they would head down to Hardwood Hills to get some skiing in where it was forecasted to be a tropic -22C as opposed to -26C.
When Sunday morning dawned, it was -33C and the forecast was for a high of -26C around 3pm in the afternoon. With this as the temperature for the day, there was no chance that the race was going to happen and so everyone bored the bus to head south for some warmer skiing.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Qualifier Season
In the interest of getting some racing experience in to prep for the upcoming racing season, the Waterloo team participated in some time trials recently.
The first two time trials were held in conjunction with the Guelph team on January 8th and 9th. Guelph was having their winter camp at this point at Highlands, so the Waterloo team joined in for their trial trials, in order to give some more competition for both teams. Taking part from the Waterloo side were: Katie, Tim R and Colin, with Derek riding the IR and doubling as the videographer for the event.
The first of these time trials was a freestyle team sprint, to prepare for the team sprint that will happen at OU championships. The race was kept pretty short, about an 800 m loop, but it meant that everyone got some experience in this incredibly difficult style of event.
In order to allow for some good competition, the structure for the team sprint was to have a one lap qualification to seed the racers. From this the pairs for the team sprint were matched up to try and even out the speeds overall as 1st and last paired together, 2nd and 2nd last etc.
With this as the structure, it made for a lot of movement in the sprint its self as the faster skiers would attempt to build a lead and the team would try to hold this as they passed off to their potentially slower team mate.
Final results are unavailable as it was an informally time trial, but there is some solid video that can be seen below. Check out the second video, a solid crash caught on film.
The next day, the Waterloo skiers were back up to Highlands for a classic individual start time. It was 5km for the women and 10km for the men. Waterloo skiers involved included: Colin, Derek, Glenn, Jess and Katie.
It had snowed approximately 10 or 15 cm the night before at Highlands and so it meant that some of the trails were soft. Additionally, the time trial was started in the stadium and the Racer Out hill all the way up to the run-up to the glacier was ungroomed. Therefore, on the pre-ski, all involved tried to get the trail semi-groomed through self grooming. However, come race time, the climb up Racer Out involved taking it easy up the climb as it was herringbone in soft snow in order to not tire yourself out for the rest of the race.
Overall, it was a good racing experience for all involved to get some classic skiing experience in. Full results are unavailable, however the order of Waterloo skiers was: Derek, Colin, Glenn in the men’s race and Jess, Katie in the women’s race.
The final time trial was held on Sat Jan 15th and was held just with the Waterloo skiers. On the startlist were Colin, Glenn, Jess, Katie, Ryan. The format was left open, however all of the skiers decided to do the race classic. It was a mass start, with the men doing 10km and the women 5km. Overall the conditions were nice and the race was held on a 5km loop up at the glacier. The end results for the time trial were: Colin, Glenn, Ryan on the men’s side and Katie, Jess on the womens.
Colin leading the way up the first climb, followed by Glenn and Ryan.
Katie working her way up the climb.
Jess pushing her way through some striding.
The first two time trials were held in conjunction with the Guelph team on January 8th and 9th. Guelph was having their winter camp at this point at Highlands, so the Waterloo team joined in for their trial trials, in order to give some more competition for both teams. Taking part from the Waterloo side were: Katie, Tim R and Colin, with Derek riding the IR and doubling as the videographer for the event.
The first of these time trials was a freestyle team sprint, to prepare for the team sprint that will happen at OU championships. The race was kept pretty short, about an 800 m loop, but it meant that everyone got some experience in this incredibly difficult style of event.
In order to allow for some good competition, the structure for the team sprint was to have a one lap qualification to seed the racers. From this the pairs for the team sprint were matched up to try and even out the speeds overall as 1st and last paired together, 2nd and 2nd last etc.
With this as the structure, it made for a lot of movement in the sprint its self as the faster skiers would attempt to build a lead and the team would try to hold this as they passed off to their potentially slower team mate.
Final results are unavailable as it was an informally time trial, but there is some solid video that can be seen below. Check out the second video, a solid crash caught on film.
The next day, the Waterloo skiers were back up to Highlands for a classic individual start time. It was 5km for the women and 10km for the men. Waterloo skiers involved included: Colin, Derek, Glenn, Jess and Katie.
It had snowed approximately 10 or 15 cm the night before at Highlands and so it meant that some of the trails were soft. Additionally, the time trial was started in the stadium and the Racer Out hill all the way up to the run-up to the glacier was ungroomed. Therefore, on the pre-ski, all involved tried to get the trail semi-groomed through self grooming. However, come race time, the climb up Racer Out involved taking it easy up the climb as it was herringbone in soft snow in order to not tire yourself out for the rest of the race.
Overall, it was a good racing experience for all involved to get some classic skiing experience in. Full results are unavailable, however the order of Waterloo skiers was: Derek, Colin, Glenn in the men’s race and Jess, Katie in the women’s race.
The final time trial was held on Sat Jan 15th and was held just with the Waterloo skiers. On the startlist were Colin, Glenn, Jess, Katie, Ryan. The format was left open, however all of the skiers decided to do the race classic. It was a mass start, with the men doing 10km and the women 5km. Overall the conditions were nice and the race was held on a 5km loop up at the glacier. The end results for the time trial were: Colin, Glenn, Ryan on the men’s side and Katie, Jess on the womens.
Colin leading the way up the first climb, followed by Glenn and Ryan.
Katie working her way up the climb.
Jess pushing her way through some striding.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Winter Camp - The Summary
With the OCUP#1 being held at the same time as this year’s winter camp, it created a slightly different atmosphere to the camp and its activities. Most years, as is typical with ski camps in general, the camp is about getting in volume and working on technique. However, since there were two races going on for the weekend, it meant that the volume training needed to be more or less cut out so that the races could at least be a useful experience. However, other than this change from volume to racing and a slight decrease in the amount of time spent skiing, this was a typical ski camp.
The camp got going on Friday, (December 17th) with people showing up at various times throughout the day. The first crew up was Colin and Alison who were bringing all of the food with them. Since there is a copious amount of food consumed at a ski camp, this resulted in a significant amount of food to pack into a not so significantly large car, along with skiing gear and waxing gear. As a result, there was a good game of Tetris that got to be played by Colin and Alison in order to fit all of the food. However, unlike Tetris they had the distinct advantage of being able to resize the pieces to make things work. This included going to the extreme of packing groceries items inside of the wax bench, under seats and wherever else they could find to fit the food in. They were successful in managing to fit all of the food in the car without having to resort to packing food in the engine compartment; however if this had been the case, time could have been saved on the cooking of some of the food ala Red Green style of cooking in his van engine compartment.
While those two managed to get up to Highlands earlier in the day and as a result get some skiing in and some wax testing, most of the rest of the crew strangled in at various points throughout the afternoon and evening. The cast of characters that arrived included: Derek, Glenn, Katie, Nathaniel, Ryan, Tim Rhodes and Nolan, who was down from Ottawa for the occasion. Also, there were a few none ski team guest with Heather (Ryan’s gf), Chrissy (Tim R’s gf) and Ian (Derek/Glenn’s brother) also making an appearance to have some time away and enjoy a bit of skiing on the weekend.
With the various arrival times for all of the skiers, the Friday night did not entail too much in the way of activities with waxing skis for the next day being the only defined task. The decks of cards got brought out and the game of Euchre was attempted to be taught to some of the members of the team. Nolan appeared to be over thinking the game, perhaps trying to determine the race results for each of the cards in his hand, which lead to a few mentions that he should hurry up and play.
The Saturday morning dawned as usually at 7am, with some oatmeal to line the stomachs of all and fuel them for the sprint races ahead. The qualifying sprint got going at 10am, so it left ample time for everyone to test their skis, warm up at their pace and get ready for the sprint. With the races being literally 200m out the front door of the farmhouse, it made for a very relaxed environment as everyone could come and go at their own pace and no sitting on the bus waiting for it to get closer to your start as either the men’s/women’s race got going, as is typically the case at team races.
The sprint qualifier is exactly that, a quick 3 min of racing and you are done. Along with some cool down and getting changed into some dry clothes; everyone was ready to go by about 11:30 for some classic technique work. With the sprint heats not going off until the 2:30 range, this left for an hour and a half or so for technique time and then lunch. With many of the Waterloo skiers being less experienced with classic skiing, Coach Rhodes was tasked with trying to help out everyone with this. Unfortunately, with the limited timeframe available, he could not get into any technique games or drills, just mostly focusing on looking at and suggesting technique improvements.
A major advantage to having some other guest with the ski team was that with proper planning, lunch could be prepared by these other guests and that the skiers could come right in and enjoy lunch, without the normal delay associated with making it after the workout or activity. The ever delicious tuna melts were on the menu for lunch and the thought of tuna melts, almost made alumni Kieran Jones, who was at the OCUP in his capacity as coach at Nakkertok, abandon the kids he was in charge of out on the course as they raced etc and come and join the team for lunch. Surprisingly, his stomach did not win the battle this time and was unable to enjoy the savoury taste of tuna melts.
After lunch was the sprint heats, with some decent results turned in from the Waterloo skiers as was described previously in the race report. After these heats concluded and associated cool down, most headed back to the farmhouse for some downtime or napping as deemed appropriate.
Dinner helped no surprises as the veteran members of the team had learnt their lesson from the Fall camp and did not let team rookie cook the dinner solo and as a result, no smoked spaghetti was experienced this time.
Saturday evening brought the arrival of assistant coach Justin, along with his three year old daughter Natalie. Of course, anytime a kid is brought into the company of those who aren’t regularly around them, they are the life of the party and Natalie was no exception, providing a great deal of entertainment. And of course Justin got the benefit of having a dozen babysitters to watch out for Natalie as well.
The rest of Saturday evening brought a night ski, and then followed by the annual gift exchange, where a $5 limit is placed on purchasing items, but other items which you did not purchase are fair game. As a result, the type of gifts can vary from items that are gifted because they were not needed in a household as they were a duplicate, to random items that have no practical use but are re-gifted through the gift exchange every year to random items that have accumulated in the barn over the years and our gifted in order pass them on to other skiers, or potential return them to the owner who originally left them there.
This year some of the items in the gift exchange included (Sorry, you should have been there) and (Can’t tell you or UWNN would have to kill you) and a really neat item, (You are invited to come next year and experience the festivities for yourself). With that, Saturday night came to a close as everyone headed off to rest up for the race the next day.
Sunday morning was prep time for the race and the luxury of being able to step out the front door for warm-up being enjoyed yet again. With the race being multiple loops, including Racer Out as the major hill, everyone was pretty tired coming out of the race. However, seeing as it was a camp, there was no time to be wasted, and so after some lunch, it was back out on skis to work on skate technique. With some more time to work with, there was a number of drills working on body position and improving skate technique all around. When it came time to work on hill climbing technique, the tired legs started to show as those who had raced struggled a little bit at the sight of Racer Out yet again. The final activity in the skate technique work was downhill balance and for this it involves going down some gradually inclines well working on balancing on one ski up with various levels of complexity. The top end of this complexity is the Zorra, where you are going down the hill on one ski and you take your other ski off and perform some tricks and then attempt to get your ski back on. There will be some video posted of this feat in a future post.
Sunday night brought Lasanga for dinner and not much else of substance as most of the skiers were pretty tired from the day and disappeared for bed at various times. As well, a few of the skiers also began to head back to Waterloo as there were some exams to be written the next day.
Unfortunately Sunday night brought some unpleasant news to a few in the farmhouse, as Glenn and Ian both had rough nights, coming down with some sort of sickness, possibly a bit of food poisoning.
Come Monday, with a bunch of the skiers having headed home and more being sick, Derek, Colin, Justin, Katie and Ryan were the ones left to head out and enjoy some more skiing and just put in some kms and enjoy the skiing. With the final clean out of the house, the camp was concluded and everyone headed back to Waterloo to enjoy the beginning of their winter holidays.
The camp got going on Friday, (December 17th) with people showing up at various times throughout the day. The first crew up was Colin and Alison who were bringing all of the food with them. Since there is a copious amount of food consumed at a ski camp, this resulted in a significant amount of food to pack into a not so significantly large car, along with skiing gear and waxing gear. As a result, there was a good game of Tetris that got to be played by Colin and Alison in order to fit all of the food. However, unlike Tetris they had the distinct advantage of being able to resize the pieces to make things work. This included going to the extreme of packing groceries items inside of the wax bench, under seats and wherever else they could find to fit the food in. They were successful in managing to fit all of the food in the car without having to resort to packing food in the engine compartment; however if this had been the case, time could have been saved on the cooking of some of the food ala Red Green style of cooking in his van engine compartment.
While those two managed to get up to Highlands earlier in the day and as a result get some skiing in and some wax testing, most of the rest of the crew strangled in at various points throughout the afternoon and evening. The cast of characters that arrived included: Derek, Glenn, Katie, Nathaniel, Ryan, Tim Rhodes and Nolan, who was down from Ottawa for the occasion. Also, there were a few none ski team guest with Heather (Ryan’s gf), Chrissy (Tim R’s gf) and Ian (Derek/Glenn’s brother) also making an appearance to have some time away and enjoy a bit of skiing on the weekend.
With the various arrival times for all of the skiers, the Friday night did not entail too much in the way of activities with waxing skis for the next day being the only defined task. The decks of cards got brought out and the game of Euchre was attempted to be taught to some of the members of the team. Nolan appeared to be over thinking the game, perhaps trying to determine the race results for each of the cards in his hand, which lead to a few mentions that he should hurry up and play.
The Saturday morning dawned as usually at 7am, with some oatmeal to line the stomachs of all and fuel them for the sprint races ahead. The qualifying sprint got going at 10am, so it left ample time for everyone to test their skis, warm up at their pace and get ready for the sprint. With the races being literally 200m out the front door of the farmhouse, it made for a very relaxed environment as everyone could come and go at their own pace and no sitting on the bus waiting for it to get closer to your start as either the men’s/women’s race got going, as is typically the case at team races.
The sprint qualifier is exactly that, a quick 3 min of racing and you are done. Along with some cool down and getting changed into some dry clothes; everyone was ready to go by about 11:30 for some classic technique work. With the sprint heats not going off until the 2:30 range, this left for an hour and a half or so for technique time and then lunch. With many of the Waterloo skiers being less experienced with classic skiing, Coach Rhodes was tasked with trying to help out everyone with this. Unfortunately, with the limited timeframe available, he could not get into any technique games or drills, just mostly focusing on looking at and suggesting technique improvements.
A major advantage to having some other guest with the ski team was that with proper planning, lunch could be prepared by these other guests and that the skiers could come right in and enjoy lunch, without the normal delay associated with making it after the workout or activity. The ever delicious tuna melts were on the menu for lunch and the thought of tuna melts, almost made alumni Kieran Jones, who was at the OCUP in his capacity as coach at Nakkertok, abandon the kids he was in charge of out on the course as they raced etc and come and join the team for lunch. Surprisingly, his stomach did not win the battle this time and was unable to enjoy the savoury taste of tuna melts.
After lunch was the sprint heats, with some decent results turned in from the Waterloo skiers as was described previously in the race report. After these heats concluded and associated cool down, most headed back to the farmhouse for some downtime or napping as deemed appropriate.
Dinner helped no surprises as the veteran members of the team had learnt their lesson from the Fall camp and did not let team rookie cook the dinner solo and as a result, no smoked spaghetti was experienced this time.
Saturday evening brought the arrival of assistant coach Justin, along with his three year old daughter Natalie. Of course, anytime a kid is brought into the company of those who aren’t regularly around them, they are the life of the party and Natalie was no exception, providing a great deal of entertainment. And of course Justin got the benefit of having a dozen babysitters to watch out for Natalie as well.
The rest of Saturday evening brought a night ski, and then followed by the annual gift exchange, where a $5 limit is placed on purchasing items, but other items which you did not purchase are fair game. As a result, the type of gifts can vary from items that are gifted because they were not needed in a household as they were a duplicate, to random items that have no practical use but are re-gifted through the gift exchange every year to random items that have accumulated in the barn over the years and our gifted in order pass them on to other skiers, or potential return them to the owner who originally left them there.
This year some of the items in the gift exchange included (Sorry, you should have been there) and (Can’t tell you or UWNN would have to kill you) and a really neat item, (You are invited to come next year and experience the festivities for yourself). With that, Saturday night came to a close as everyone headed off to rest up for the race the next day.
Sunday morning was prep time for the race and the luxury of being able to step out the front door for warm-up being enjoyed yet again. With the race being multiple loops, including Racer Out as the major hill, everyone was pretty tired coming out of the race. However, seeing as it was a camp, there was no time to be wasted, and so after some lunch, it was back out on skis to work on skate technique. With some more time to work with, there was a number of drills working on body position and improving skate technique all around. When it came time to work on hill climbing technique, the tired legs started to show as those who had raced struggled a little bit at the sight of Racer Out yet again. The final activity in the skate technique work was downhill balance and for this it involves going down some gradually inclines well working on balancing on one ski up with various levels of complexity. The top end of this complexity is the Zorra, where you are going down the hill on one ski and you take your other ski off and perform some tricks and then attempt to get your ski back on. There will be some video posted of this feat in a future post.
Sunday night brought Lasanga for dinner and not much else of substance as most of the skiers were pretty tired from the day and disappeared for bed at various times. As well, a few of the skiers also began to head back to Waterloo as there were some exams to be written the next day.
Unfortunately Sunday night brought some unpleasant news to a few in the farmhouse, as Glenn and Ian both had rough nights, coming down with some sort of sickness, possibly a bit of food poisoning.
Come Monday, with a bunch of the skiers having headed home and more being sick, Derek, Colin, Justin, Katie and Ryan were the ones left to head out and enjoy some more skiing and just put in some kms and enjoy the skiing. With the final clean out of the house, the camp was concluded and everyone headed back to Waterloo to enjoy the beginning of their winter holidays.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
The Story of Racer Out
The second race of the OCUP weekend was a medium distance skate race, 10km for both the men and the women. And as is typical for distance races at Highlands, the course was created to feature a significant amount of climbing. This meant that the course was selected as a 3.3km loop, which meant that the Racer Out Hill leading from the stadium up towards Larry's Glacier was feature 3 times in the race, along with the associated descent back down to the stadium. This made these portions of the course very important, as a significant amount of time could be made or lost on these climbs and descents over the 3 laps.
The Waterloo racers were similar to the day before, with assistant coach Justin Faulkner also parachuting in for a start. Having come off the sprint the day before and not necessarily having rested as much the day before, owing from the fact that it was a camp and significant amounts of technique and skiing had been fit in and around the sprint, meant that the Waterloo skiers were not necessarily as fresh as some of their competitors. However, this did not deter any of the Waterloo skiers, as they all stepped to the line looking to inflict damage on their competitors and the course itself.
The race was a mass start and so all of the men gathered at the line and headed out up Racer Out for the first time. There were a total of 41 men on the startline. Justin, fresh from not racing the day before and none to happy about being seeded at the back of the field due to his lack of a CCC number and the fact that all of the university skiers now have them, took the opportunity to double pole on the outside of the track around three quarters of the field and get a good position leading up the first climb. This would appear to be a little overzealous of a move on his part, as his arms would let him know later in the race. Something about being a stay at home day and not having time for a significant amount of training leads to decreased ski specific strength and endurance.
The rest of the Waterloo skiers settled into the field and worked their way up the large climb for the first time and in their minds did the tally; Me: 1, Racer Out: 0.
Over the top of the hill, the field would start to string out as each skier was left settling into their pace and trying to lead a pack or stick with a pack around them.
The women then started off to attempt to chase the men down the course. It was a smaller field, with only 21 taking to the line. Up the first climb for the women, the pace at the front of the group was noticeably slower and this led to most of the skiers bunching up on the climb. It was clear that the women were determined to not let Racer Out win overall and were saving a little bit for the next couple times that they encountered it.
As the men lapped through, the different groups of skiers were clearly starting to form in the race with a lead group of about 5 skiers, a first chase group of about 8 or 10 and then a second chase group of another 8 or 10. Nolan had settled himself into the back of this second chase group and was skiing a fairly strong race. Tim and Glenn were then a little bit back of this group, with Glenn skiing hard to make contact with Tim and settle in behind him. The two coaches, Justin and Colin were also skiing together and were trading leads back and forth over the different sections of the course. Colin, with significantly more training under his belt on the year was holding his own over Justin on the climbs, who was clearly feeling the wrath that Racer Out was dishing out. Ryan was skiing on his own a little ways back of these two, trying to find a good pace and have a sound technical race.
On the woman's side, the pace had settled in over the course of the lap and all were skiing a more consistent pace for the second lap. Both Alison and Katie were skiing around the middle of the pack as they headed up the climb a second time.
It was clear that the second time up Racer Out was significantly harder then the first, as the toll of the first loop and trying to find that proper race pace was having an effect on the racers. For some of the racers, Racer Out won that second time, exacting some revenge and leading to some tired looking technique and struggles getting up the hill. Me: 1, Racer Out: 1.
Coming around for the third lap, the racers had started to string out significantly more, with less defined groups beyond the first lead group and more skiers on their own, trying to keep their pace up. Tim and Glenn were still skiing together and working their way up the field picking off a few skiers ahead of them, as they managed to work together. Justin and Colin were also skiing together and were exchanging leads depending on the point in the course. Justin would manage to sneak by Colin on some of the downhills, and the area in and around the stadium, where as Colin had a little more to give on the uphills and the top portions of the course.
On the third lapped, the skiers were more prepared to deal with Racer Out, as they had experienced its wrath on lap 2. Having settled into a consistent pace and being prepared for it meant that the skiers were able to successfully climb the hill for the third and final time. While the technique and tempo may not have been perfect, the fact that it was about 7 km into the race meant that this round went to the skiers. Me: 2, Racer Out: 1.
Finishing up the last loop and then heading into the finish, the skiers attempted to pick off that extra one or two skiers in order to improve their finish. Or in the case of those skiing together, like Tim/Glenn and Colin/Justin, they were still jockeying to see who would come out on top. In the pairing of Tim and Glenn, they both went hard over the top of the climb and Tim had more to give, ultimately gapping Glenn and besting him by 8 sec and two places as he got an extra skier at the line. In the Colin and Justin pairing, Justin tried to use the same strategy as the previous two laps where he went by Colin leading into the downhill and led into and around the stadium area. Colin however was not going to have any of that, knowing that he did not have another uphill to go around Justin again. As a result Colin lead Justin to the line, taking him by 2 s.
In the final standing, Nolan had the best results of the Waterloo man's group, skiing a respectable race into 20th place. On the woman's side, it was Alison in 10th place.
Nolan: 20th
Tim: 21st
Glenn:23rd
Colin:20th
Justin: 30th
Ryan: 35th
Alison: 10th
Katie: 14th.
Full results can be found at Zone4.
The Waterloo racers were similar to the day before, with assistant coach Justin Faulkner also parachuting in for a start. Having come off the sprint the day before and not necessarily having rested as much the day before, owing from the fact that it was a camp and significant amounts of technique and skiing had been fit in and around the sprint, meant that the Waterloo skiers were not necessarily as fresh as some of their competitors. However, this did not deter any of the Waterloo skiers, as they all stepped to the line looking to inflict damage on their competitors and the course itself.
The race was a mass start and so all of the men gathered at the line and headed out up Racer Out for the first time. There were a total of 41 men on the startline. Justin, fresh from not racing the day before and none to happy about being seeded at the back of the field due to his lack of a CCC number and the fact that all of the university skiers now have them, took the opportunity to double pole on the outside of the track around three quarters of the field and get a good position leading up the first climb. This would appear to be a little overzealous of a move on his part, as his arms would let him know later in the race. Something about being a stay at home day and not having time for a significant amount of training leads to decreased ski specific strength and endurance.
The rest of the Waterloo skiers settled into the field and worked their way up the large climb for the first time and in their minds did the tally; Me: 1, Racer Out: 0.
Over the top of the hill, the field would start to string out as each skier was left settling into their pace and trying to lead a pack or stick with a pack around them.
The women then started off to attempt to chase the men down the course. It was a smaller field, with only 21 taking to the line. Up the first climb for the women, the pace at the front of the group was noticeably slower and this led to most of the skiers bunching up on the climb. It was clear that the women were determined to not let Racer Out win overall and were saving a little bit for the next couple times that they encountered it.
As the men lapped through, the different groups of skiers were clearly starting to form in the race with a lead group of about 5 skiers, a first chase group of about 8 or 10 and then a second chase group of another 8 or 10. Nolan had settled himself into the back of this second chase group and was skiing a fairly strong race. Tim and Glenn were then a little bit back of this group, with Glenn skiing hard to make contact with Tim and settle in behind him. The two coaches, Justin and Colin were also skiing together and were trading leads back and forth over the different sections of the course. Colin, with significantly more training under his belt on the year was holding his own over Justin on the climbs, who was clearly feeling the wrath that Racer Out was dishing out. Ryan was skiing on his own a little ways back of these two, trying to find a good pace and have a sound technical race.
On the woman's side, the pace had settled in over the course of the lap and all were skiing a more consistent pace for the second lap. Both Alison and Katie were skiing around the middle of the pack as they headed up the climb a second time.
It was clear that the second time up Racer Out was significantly harder then the first, as the toll of the first loop and trying to find that proper race pace was having an effect on the racers. For some of the racers, Racer Out won that second time, exacting some revenge and leading to some tired looking technique and struggles getting up the hill. Me: 1, Racer Out: 1.
Coming around for the third lap, the racers had started to string out significantly more, with less defined groups beyond the first lead group and more skiers on their own, trying to keep their pace up. Tim and Glenn were still skiing together and working their way up the field picking off a few skiers ahead of them, as they managed to work together. Justin and Colin were also skiing together and were exchanging leads depending on the point in the course. Justin would manage to sneak by Colin on some of the downhills, and the area in and around the stadium, where as Colin had a little more to give on the uphills and the top portions of the course.
On the third lapped, the skiers were more prepared to deal with Racer Out, as they had experienced its wrath on lap 2. Having settled into a consistent pace and being prepared for it meant that the skiers were able to successfully climb the hill for the third and final time. While the technique and tempo may not have been perfect, the fact that it was about 7 km into the race meant that this round went to the skiers. Me: 2, Racer Out: 1.
Finishing up the last loop and then heading into the finish, the skiers attempted to pick off that extra one or two skiers in order to improve their finish. Or in the case of those skiing together, like Tim/Glenn and Colin/Justin, they were still jockeying to see who would come out on top. In the pairing of Tim and Glenn, they both went hard over the top of the climb and Tim had more to give, ultimately gapping Glenn and besting him by 8 sec and two places as he got an extra skier at the line. In the Colin and Justin pairing, Justin tried to use the same strategy as the previous two laps where he went by Colin leading into the downhill and led into and around the stadium area. Colin however was not going to have any of that, knowing that he did not have another uphill to go around Justin again. As a result Colin lead Justin to the line, taking him by 2 s.
In the final standing, Nolan had the best results of the Waterloo man's group, skiing a respectable race into 20th place. On the woman's side, it was Alison in 10th place.
Nolan: 20th
Tim: 21st
Glenn:23rd
Colin:20th
Justin: 30th
Ryan: 35th
Alison: 10th
Katie: 14th.
Full results can be found at Zone4.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Winter Camp - Race Reports
The timing of the UW winter camp this year corresponded with OCUP#1 held at Highlands Nordic on the weekend of December 18/19th. As a result, the format for the weekend was a little bit different than a normal camp, with a bunch of racing involved.
So UWNN will start with a race report from the skate sprint and the medium distance skate race and will follow up with more comments on the weekend. While this report is dated, things like Christmas break got in the way. So read it anyway, even if you already know the results and what happened, we will attempt to provide something humorous or insightful (the latter is probably not going to happen).
On to the race report...
The Saturday morning got going with a skate sprint qualifier 1.3 km for both the men and the women. The sprint qualifier was a new experience for a number of the athletes and so it was treated as a learning experience for them. 4 men (Tim R, Glenn, Nolan and Ryan), two women (Alison, Katie) and one head coach took to the start line.
Some decent results were turned in from the group with Nolan placing just ahead of Tim, in 7th and 8th place respectively in the Senior Male field. In the same field Colin placed 16th, just edging out archrival and U of T head coach Hans Fischer by 0.7s. Glenn placed 10th in the Junior Male field, while Ryan followed up in 14th place.
On the womens side, Alison was 7th and Katie 9th in the Junior Female field. Full results can be found on Zone4 (zone4.ca)
As a result of less than full fields in the junior and senior male and female fields, there was some deviation from the standard sprint heat set up. With 17 or 18 racers in each of these 4 fields, it meant that the set-up was 4 heats of 4 or 5 racers in each of the categories. Top 2 from each heat advanced to the semi-final. From the semi-finals, top 2 went to the A Final and 3rd and 4th from each semi-final went to the B final.
With this as the set-up, the heats got off to a start. In one of the senior male heats, Tim, Colin and Hans were all matched up, which resulted in a very interesting heat for Waterloo supporters. Tim skied to a fairly convincing victory to move onto the semi-final, while Hans and Colin battled it out for supremacy. Overall the last climb and entering into the final 150 m home stretch, Colin manage to open a small gap over Hans and managed to hold it as the both struggled towards the line. Both obviously realizing that sprinting is hard, especially when you get less hours of training than you would like as a result of things like full time jobs and being a ski coach. Neither was available for comment after the race to determine if they wished that they had just stayed on the sidelines and coached or whether the sprint was worth it.
Nolan also managed to ski well and move onto the semi-final, while all of the other Waterloo skiers were unable to advance past the quarterfinal heats.
Now some our competitors over at the University of Guelph had a little bit more of an interesting sprint experience. The four categories were the last events of the day, which meant that the schedule was off slightly by the time the races got to this point. So, after having heard that the heats were running behind, they went with the estimated time they had heard for the delay and did not bother to check back in for the actual timing. So when one of the senior male heats rolled around which had all 4 skiers being from Guelph, 3 were nowhere to be found. The organizers delayed this heat and just before they were going to start the heat with 1 skier, the other 3 decided to show up and proceeded to try and get to the start line. Organizers, for some unknown reason, require that the racers have bibs so that entailed some more last minute scrambling. The heat managed to get going eventually, with most of the racers on their warm-up/rock skis. Hopefully, this punctuality things does not carry over to the travel arrangements on the bus this year...
And on to the semi-finals. From the UW side of things, Nolan and Tim were both unable to get in the top two and therefore were on to the B Final.
In the B Final, it was a tight race between 2 UW skiers and two Guelph skiers. Down the hill into the sprint hill at Highlands, Tim, Nolan and one of the Guelph skiers were battling for second place. Coming up the hill into the finishing stretch, only Nolan emerged, apparently having won some sort of roller derby over the sprint hill. Tim then emerged with a pole grip sans shaft and an extra pole in one hand and finally the Guelph skier emerged as well after a delay.
What had transpired was a typical sprint racing crash, which had been few and far between on the day, with a pole being stepped on and the shaft coming out of the pole grip, resulting in those two skiers going done and Nolan emerging looking like someone you don't want to mess with...
So UWNN will start with a race report from the skate sprint and the medium distance skate race and will follow up with more comments on the weekend. While this report is dated, things like Christmas break got in the way. So read it anyway, even if you already know the results and what happened, we will attempt to provide something humorous or insightful (the latter is probably not going to happen).
On to the race report...
The Saturday morning got going with a skate sprint qualifier 1.3 km for both the men and the women. The sprint qualifier was a new experience for a number of the athletes and so it was treated as a learning experience for them. 4 men (Tim R, Glenn, Nolan and Ryan), two women (Alison, Katie) and one head coach took to the start line.
Some decent results were turned in from the group with Nolan placing just ahead of Tim, in 7th and 8th place respectively in the Senior Male field. In the same field Colin placed 16th, just edging out archrival and U of T head coach Hans Fischer by 0.7s. Glenn placed 10th in the Junior Male field, while Ryan followed up in 14th place.
On the womens side, Alison was 7th and Katie 9th in the Junior Female field. Full results can be found on Zone4 (zone4.ca)
As a result of less than full fields in the junior and senior male and female fields, there was some deviation from the standard sprint heat set up. With 17 or 18 racers in each of these 4 fields, it meant that the set-up was 4 heats of 4 or 5 racers in each of the categories. Top 2 from each heat advanced to the semi-final. From the semi-finals, top 2 went to the A Final and 3rd and 4th from each semi-final went to the B final.
With this as the set-up, the heats got off to a start. In one of the senior male heats, Tim, Colin and Hans were all matched up, which resulted in a very interesting heat for Waterloo supporters. Tim skied to a fairly convincing victory to move onto the semi-final, while Hans and Colin battled it out for supremacy. Overall the last climb and entering into the final 150 m home stretch, Colin manage to open a small gap over Hans and managed to hold it as the both struggled towards the line. Both obviously realizing that sprinting is hard, especially when you get less hours of training than you would like as a result of things like full time jobs and being a ski coach. Neither was available for comment after the race to determine if they wished that they had just stayed on the sidelines and coached or whether the sprint was worth it.
Nolan also managed to ski well and move onto the semi-final, while all of the other Waterloo skiers were unable to advance past the quarterfinal heats.
Now some our competitors over at the University of Guelph had a little bit more of an interesting sprint experience. The four categories were the last events of the day, which meant that the schedule was off slightly by the time the races got to this point. So, after having heard that the heats were running behind, they went with the estimated time they had heard for the delay and did not bother to check back in for the actual timing. So when one of the senior male heats rolled around which had all 4 skiers being from Guelph, 3 were nowhere to be found. The organizers delayed this heat and just before they were going to start the heat with 1 skier, the other 3 decided to show up and proceeded to try and get to the start line. Organizers, for some unknown reason, require that the racers have bibs so that entailed some more last minute scrambling. The heat managed to get going eventually, with most of the racers on their warm-up/rock skis. Hopefully, this punctuality things does not carry over to the travel arrangements on the bus this year...
And on to the semi-finals. From the UW side of things, Nolan and Tim were both unable to get in the top two and therefore were on to the B Final.
In the B Final, it was a tight race between 2 UW skiers and two Guelph skiers. Down the hill into the sprint hill at Highlands, Tim, Nolan and one of the Guelph skiers were battling for second place. Coming up the hill into the finishing stretch, only Nolan emerged, apparently having won some sort of roller derby over the sprint hill. Tim then emerged with a pole grip sans shaft and an extra pole in one hand and finally the Guelph skier emerged as well after a delay.
What had transpired was a typical sprint racing crash, which had been few and far between on the day, with a pole being stepped on and the shaft coming out of the pole grip, resulting in those two skiers going done and Nolan emerging looking like someone you don't want to mess with...
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