Day 1:
The ski team is
alive and well, still up and running (literally), good to go. And so is the
snow. Mother Nature gave a generous
early Christmas present of beautiful amounts of snow to both Waterloo and
elsewhere in Ontario at the same time- an anomaly if I dare say.
As a matter of fact, the UWNST is currently
in attendance of their annual winter/Christmas training camp and is out, as we speak, doing a final training session (aka night
ski) in preparation for the Yuletide Blast race to be held tomorrow. The training camp is already well under way,
with the first section of the camp focusing on some training technique, and
the latter portion of the camp focusing on some intensity; a race Saturday and
a time trial on Sunday. The snow
conditions are fabulous here at Highlands, a rather snowy race course pre-ski
proved that the snow just might not want to stop. The races are underway at approximately
11:30 tomorrow morning, stay tuned for
the results of the Yuletide Blast and for the remainder of UWNST's winter camp
2013.
Videos from Friday:
A UW classic: The Zoro Drill
A technique point
that it seems everyone is consistently being harped at for is getting those
darn hips forward. While ___ is doing a
good job at that in the two skate, Ryan seemed to take this concept quite
seriously (*note the questionable hip
thrusting in the background)
Ok, it wasn't all fun and games. We really did put in a lot of work in in technique. Here, Oliver demonstrates a nice, fast one skate:
Day 2:
Much to the dismay
of the majority of the UWNST, the late start times today meant that we had to
do a ski before the race. The race course was covered in a beautiful
layer of ice from last night's ice storm which made for stunning scenery and fast snow. The UWNST overall had a great start to the
season and whether fast conditions gave the allusion of good fitness is still
to be determined. Though the results
might be able to confirm: all of the UWNST placed well within team as well as
within the other OUA skiers.
Yuletide Race
Results:
Women- 5.0 km.
Place
|
Name
|
Time
|
Senior
Women
|
||
4
|
Alison Stephenson
|
17:15.7
|
6
|
Katie Madden
|
17:27.0
|
Junior
Women
|
||
6
|
Johanna Van-Shie
Copol
|
20:03.9
|
Men- 7.5km.
Place
|
Name
|
Time
|
Senior
Men
|
||
3
|
Oliver
Conway-White
|
18:46.7
|
4
|
Max Kneissl
|
19:03.8
|
5
|
Glenn Hartman
|
19:05.9
|
8
|
Colin Rhodes
|
20:32.3
|
9
|
Ryan Fahey
|
21:03.7
|
13
|
Jean-Phillipe
MacLean
|
24:36.9
|
Junior
Men
|
||
3
|
Colin Elliott
|
19:04.4
|
6
|
Orion Astrup
|
23:26.6
|
After the race we
re-fuelled and rested and then went to pound-town with some classic
technique. Being the elite athletes
that we are, this was obviously a quick trip and the day was finished off with
a nice, easy lap of the red trail.
Day 3:
Sunday morning's
classic time trial proved to be more of a challenge. After an entire night of freezing rain there
was a centimetre thick layer of ice covering everything. The snow conditions included said layer of
ice, which was also covering the accumulated powder from the day before. A fairly accurate description of the snow
conditions would be: giant chunks of ice mixed with powder, or the team
favorite "triangles and squares".
Superb for waxing. But we did
find some sticky stuff that worked, slapped that on our skis and took off from
Larry's glacier for a classic time trial- 5km for the women and 10km. for the
men.
The majority of the
team had a large number of driving hours ahead of them- numbers that were sure
to be increased by the amount of freezing rain that was still pelting us from
the sky. After the time trial most people
were keen on packing up and heading out asap.
Bags were packed, skis cleaned, leftovers scarfed; the closing steps to
any good training camp and which concluded UWNST's winter training camp 2013. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good
ski!
