September, according to us.

September, for university students, is a time of change. For first years, it involves many new starts, like moving towns, a new school, new friends and so forth. And for the rest of us it usually involves new living accommodations, new courses and a fresh start to the school year. For us members of the UW Nordic Ski team it means the beginning of team practices - after possibly training alone all summer- new team members and, of course, the Fall training camp.
And there are a few new faces for the team. Joining us on the men's side are Oliver Conway-White and Curtis Mosier and on the women's (woot! more girls!) are Emily Yungblut and Leah Krustafer.

And so comes fall camp.

It began on a rainy Friday afternoon when vehicles packed with rollerskis, poles, lots of food, and skiers with their accompanying gear set off to Highlands Nordic Ski Club for a stay at the farmhouse and lots of training. Those who were first arrived (Martha, Glenn and Katie) decided that to suit the rainy day some napping and other subdued activities would be appropriate. Upon the arrival of a few more team members (Tim H., Nolan, Oliver and Allison) a delicious dinner was prepared and, as per usual, the Friday evening strength work out was laid out. It consisted of various indoor activities such as dips in the kitchen, jumping to the top of the stairs, fireplace leg dips and much, much more.

As Saturday morning's breakfast arrived a pack of skiers headed downstairs, ate and prepared for a morning of rollerskiing. There was much rollerskiing to be done and throughout those hours we bettered our technique with various drills, some video analysis and lots of easy skiing through the sunlit back roads of Highlands. Back at the farmhouse lunch was prepared and the team continued with the next scheduled training session: team nap. After some decent R&R though, the trails beckoned and soon enough we were to be seen ski bounding through the Highlands ski trails. And after this , since we hadn't quite had enough physical activity yet, a game of Ultimate Frisbee was enjoyed by nearly all team members. Dinner, a team meeting and bed followed one another to lead to the end of the first half of the training camp.

But Sunday morning's activities comprised of a different sort of challenge than the previous: Mountain Mania.
For those not familiar, Mountain Mania is a five kilometre race from the bottom of Duntroon all the way to the top, literally. The keeners in this race (which is usually most of the guy's) chose to double pole the whole way, while the rest of us varied between skating, classic, running and biking. The fastest time of the day was Martha who, biking, had a time of 22:45. For the double- polers, Glenn lead in 23:54 and Ryan followed in 36:06 - but it must be noted that Ryan's pole tip decided to jump ship and so a pole swap was needed. Skating, were Katie and Alison in 28:35 and 28:45 respectively, and Tim H., doing classic, came in at 31:14. Mountain Mania proved as much a challenge as it ever was and, without a doubt, every athlete was thrilled to not only be done the race, but to be standing on top of Mt. Mania.

The last planned event for the training camp was a nice ski hike on the Bruce trail. It was a beautiful, sunny day and those who remained gathered what energy was left to hike, cave explore and even do some running. And as the end of the run drew near, so did the end of the training camp and all athletes were content to enjoy a nice quiet car ride back to Waterloo. Overall, a beautiful, warm, sunny weekend of training was enjoyed by many and Fall Training Camp 2011 was a huge success.