As always with roller skiing, the type of ski can greatly influence the results.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Time Trial
To get a little race pace into the training, a roller ski time trial was held this past weekend. 30 sec individual start race, on the road out to Bamberg. Injuries and school commitments limited the number of participants, but here are the results.
As always with roller skiing, the type of ski can greatly influence the results.
As always with roller skiing, the type of ski can greatly influence the results.
Friday, October 15, 2010
What the.....?
You will notice that there is a new poll! Here at the UW Nordic we value your feedback in order to create the best possible reading experience for you. Let us know what you want most, and we will try to accommodate you.
Except if you like really weird things. Then we can only refer you to the team psychologist. If that is the case, please email glenmacintyre@unlicensedpyschology.com.
Thank you!
UW Nordic News Management
Glen asking about your problems.
What you are reduced to afterwards.
Except if you like really weird things. Then we can only refer you to the team psychologist. If that is the case, please email glenmacintyre@unlicensedpyschology.com.
Thank you!
UW Nordic News Management
Glen asking about your problems.
What you are reduced to afterwards.Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Guest Editorial!
Today we have a guest editorial from former UW Nordic skier Kieran Jones. In his day, Jones was an avid racer, even more avid blog-writer, and had the reputation of being the fastest man on the team over 100m, and being the proud owner of a mini-van.
For the last four years, the University of Waterloo Nordic Ski Team has been a pretty cool part of my life. Now, some may remember my first few outings with the team, where I gasped along, blaming frosh week, after-frosh week, and just about everything for my lack of cojones and skiing ability. I whined about how the ski team did different things than I was used to, was a different group of people than I was used to, and above all how awesome I was.
Kieran was so awesome when he first joined the ski team, he made pies.Some things haven’t changed – I still talk about how awesome I am, the ski team still does different things, and above all, the group of people could definitely be called ‘different’.
However, a month into graduation from the ski team, I’ve realized a few things. This is my first fall in four years not suffering through Mountain Mania at fall camp, rollerskiing out to Bamburg on a crappy road full of angry church goers, running on North Campus in geese shit, or fighting traffic – foot and motorized to get to practice on time. No more wet, stinky and muddy Craft shirts, tights, and socks cluttering up the floor of my room at the Barn, rendering it practically uninhabitable.
Some lads year one.It’s also meant some other things. No fall camp tuna melts, or hiking on the Bruce Trail into the caves where somebody tries to crawl through a small whole and inevitably gets stuck. No Mennonites in carriages, crazy dudes on gigantic scooters, or Glen handing out banana’s at a corner in the middle of nowhere on a long rollerski. No discussions about the value of an Arts degree, the chances of getting sick after swimming shit creek from Student Services to Ron Edyt Village, or chirping people who are playing Beginner Campus Rec soccer while doing running on North Campus. No more debate about whether it’s possible to pick up girls when you are on rollerskis and they aren’t. No more afternoon naps on the massive couch at the Barn while you watch The Matrix, or Top Gun, or The Green Mile on free cable for the second time in two weeks.
Over the time that I was on the UW Ski Team, there were too many people to name or count. People who had nothing to do with skiing, but came out to hack around anyway. People who knew they sucked at skiing, or weren’t in great shape, but were out because they wanted to get better. People like Surabhi, who was obsessed with lower backs and having a shit-storming good time. Natasha, who no matter how enthusiastic she was, seemed to always get injured. Yudai, who started out as the man with the awesome calves, but turned into the man with the killer climbing skills. Mike, with his fancy car, his mad gym workouts, and taking his chirps as the old guy. Andrew, who came in with little ski experience and a truckload of heart and hustle, and left as an OUA All-Star.
Standing around after crawling through some tight spacesIn my four years of fall training, I learned that it is possible to puke every Saturday morning after an interval set, and still feel good about yourself. That wearing tights in residence gets you some odd looks, but because everyone else is still asleep when you get back from practice, it’s not a big deal. That showing up for a 3 hour rollerski practice after having eaten a granola bar and some water isn’t a lot of fun. That just because you think you know how to ski doesn’t make you any better or any faster than the guy who goes out and does the work. That doing your laundry on a regular basis is a good idea. That $200 in groceries is a lot, especially when 4 people with the same amount have to jam it into one car. That kites which can lift a 110lb person off the ground in a strong wind are awesome. That sometimes it’s difficult to remember what you’re actually at school to do.
It's possible to fit two grown people into a deep freeze. I shit you not.Basically my message for those just getting on the team is; go out there, get into it, and suck it up. In four years, you might look back and realize you took something out of the experience, even if it was just the fact that there are some weird people in Waterloo, and that rollerskiing in a thunderstorm is a bad idea. For those on the team now, realize that the time on the ski team can be whatever you make it to be. If you want it to suck, then it’ll suck. If you want to go out and have a rad time, then do it. Maybe I never jumped off that concrete pad into Laurel Creek swamp on my rollerskis, but it sure wasn’t for lack of talking about it.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Fall Camp Part II- Mountain Mania Horror
Sunday morning brought out a nicer day than the previous, as the rain had ceased. It also meant that it was time for mountain mania. For those unfamiliar with mountain mania, it is a roller ski race from the town of Duntroon, nearly completely uphill for 4.6 km to the top. This makes for a grueling long climb.
While this photo does not quite do mountain mania justice, this is about the gradient of the hills that are seen for about half of the course.
This year there were 10 participants willing to accept the challenge that mountain mania presented. Double poling was the most popular option this year, however no one is really sure why, as double poling is in no way the easiest way to transcend mountain mania. At points, it is very much a struggle to keep moving up the hill. There are also rumours that someone’s arms have in fact fallen off when double poling mountain mania, however unverified at this point. Even with this in mind Ryan summed up his reason for double poling as “Sometimes you just need to show the hill who is boss and conquer it without the use of your lower body.” (and sometimes you need to show Andrew JeffERY what’s up and beat his double pole time)
Everyone took off and managed to survive to the top without issue, only with the pain that mountain mania dishes out.
The results are seen below:
Impressively Natalie managed to take the win in 12:03, which appears to be a new record for the course. She also did this the day after beating dad, Justin, in the AHS fun run, where she narrowly lead him wire-to-wire and just outsprinted him at the end for the W.
Strick managed to set a new running record for the course by 1:10, while Tim Hughes also set a new road biking course record, taking down the previous time by 1:37.
One none participant was Head Coach Colin Rhodes, who wimped out of mountain mania for the much, much easier task of running the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. He completed it in 3:06:09 and therefore crushing his personal best and qualifying for Boston! Congrats from all here at UWNN.
No one was up for round 2 of mountain mania, so all headed back to the farmhouse for the process of eating all of the remaining food. An impressive dent was made in the remaining food, however ultimately all were unsuccessful in this challenge. This was followed by cleaning up of the farmhouse and after some down time, it was time for the final activity of the camp, a trail hike on the Bruce Trail to visit the caves.
The caves give the opportunity for a little climbing, crawling and squeezing through a number of small crevices and cracks between the rocks.
Photo Credit: Heather Foley. File Photo.
After the caves, it was back to Waterloo, where everyone would proceed to crash and recover from the camp.
While this photo does not quite do mountain mania justice, this is about the gradient of the hills that are seen for about half of the course.
This year there were 10 participants willing to accept the challenge that mountain mania presented. Double poling was the most popular option this year, however no one is really sure why, as double poling is in no way the easiest way to transcend mountain mania. At points, it is very much a struggle to keep moving up the hill. There are also rumours that someone’s arms have in fact fallen off when double poling mountain mania, however unverified at this point. Even with this in mind Ryan summed up his reason for double poling as “Sometimes you just need to show the hill who is boss and conquer it without the use of your lower body.” (and sometimes you need to show Andrew JeffERY what’s up and beat his double pole time)
Everyone took off and managed to survive to the top without issue, only with the pain that mountain mania dishes out.
The results are seen below:
Impressively Natalie managed to take the win in 12:03, which appears to be a new record for the course. She also did this the day after beating dad, Justin, in the AHS fun run, where she narrowly lead him wire-to-wire and just outsprinted him at the end for the W.
Strick managed to set a new running record for the course by 1:10, while Tim Hughes also set a new road biking course record, taking down the previous time by 1:37.
One none participant was Head Coach Colin Rhodes, who wimped out of mountain mania for the much, much easier task of running the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. He completed it in 3:06:09 and therefore crushing his personal best and qualifying for Boston! Congrats from all here at UWNN.
No one was up for round 2 of mountain mania, so all headed back to the farmhouse for the process of eating all of the remaining food. An impressive dent was made in the remaining food, however ultimately all were unsuccessful in this challenge. This was followed by cleaning up of the farmhouse and after some down time, it was time for the final activity of the camp, a trail hike on the Bruce Trail to visit the caves.
The caves give the opportunity for a little climbing, crawling and squeezing through a number of small crevices and cracks between the rocks.
Photo Credit: Heather Foley. File Photo.
After the caves, it was back to Waterloo, where everyone would proceed to crash and recover from the camp.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Fall Camp Part 1
Excess amounts of napping, copious amounts of food consumption, many skiers in one place and lots of training can only mean one thing; a training camp. The particular training camp in question is the annual fall camp held at Highlands Nordic. Turnout for this particular camp was quite impressive (by Waterloo standards), with a total of 14 athletes, coaches, alumni and future athletes in attendance, led by the rookie crew of Glenn Hartman, Katie Madden, Nathaniel Reilly and Dan Sabau.
Friday evening marked the beginning of camp and the first event after everyone’s arrival and dinner is the strength circuit. However, snuck in before the strength is a little event known as cheap drugs. Of those in attendance, only 2 had experienced cheap drugs before and so the others were left in wonderment and worry about what it could entail. They would quickly discover its mystery and be dumbfounded by its effects. Details, however, cannot be reported or mentioned; only experienced by those who have attended one of the annual fall camps held over the past number of years.
Editor Note: No illicit drugs were consumed in this activity.
After this experience, the strength circuit proceeded to leave all participants a little sore and then shortly thereafter, all retired to the farmhouse to rest for the fury that is the remainder of the fall camp.
Saturday morning greeted the athletes as a nice, bright crisp fall morning with the leaves on the trees just beginning to change. Except this was the scene in the photograph hanging over the breakfast table. The actual weather was not so kind, as it proceeded to rain intermittently throughout the morning, along with fairly large gusts of winds. This was the weather that the athletes had to deal with as they headed out for the first training event of the day, a long rollerski with technique sessions with Head Coach Colin ‘Marathon’ Rhodes.
Athletes Derek Hartman, Alison Stephenson and alumni Matt Strickland headed out into the headwind and skied to ‘forever’ and back. The trip out resulted in numerous changes in the leader of the echelon as the job of breaking the wind almost proved too much and required near constant one-skating just to keep moving. The trip back was significantly easier, but all those involved decided that one long ski into the wind was more than enough. Therefore, they joined the rest of the crew, including the 4 rookies, Ryan McNamananananara, and new rollerskier Greg Cartmell, who had all been working with coach Rhodes on rollerski essentials, such as grass stops. It was evident that coach knew what he was talking about as all involved seemed to have mastered the skills, with only one injury report. From there it was time to work on some technique, specifically skate. After a solid technique session, all the very wet athletes decided to call it quits a little earlier to get out of the miserable weather.
Lunch was the usual excess consumption of tuna melts, and before and afterwards mutterings of molar mass and cross product could be heard as athletes managed to sneak in some homework time or some shut eye for many of the others. The first casualty of camp was report as Ryan McNamananananara decided joining in the trail run after lunch would not be beneficial to an injured knee and therefore decided to use his time to nap instead. Additionally, Colin and Martha Sutton departed back to Waterloo.
The now shrinking group headed out again into the rain, which had conveniently just started up again after it too seemingly had a lunch break. The ski hike was capped with a team hill sprint, which was won in close fashion by the duo of Glenn and Matt.
Team bonding activities were next on the agenda and it consisted of a blindfolded obstacle course. The rest of the athletes looked on in confusion as Alison, Derek and Matt proceeded to set up various structures which were to be climbed over, under, around and through. The task of the obstacle course was for one non-blindfolded guide to lead two blindfolded teammates through the obstacle course by commands. For the latest arrivals to the camp, coach Justin Faulkner and toddler Natalie, it was an amusing sight as the blindfolded athletes struggled through the course. Glenn ‘Sonar’ Hartman was able to successfully pull teammate Dan through the course; lead by guide Matt who simply clapped in the direction he wanted them to go. On the flip side, the group of Nathaniel and Greg, lead by Alison had a little more trouble, and were therefore more amusing for the others, as they were more hesitant to respond to their direction. The afternoon wrapped up with a game of ultimate, after which everyone retired back to the farmhouse, where it was found that Ryan was still napping. At this point, some prank should have been pulled on him, however he was spared as most were too tired.
Dinner brought an interesting attempt at cooking as 3 of the 4 members of team rookie were in charge of dinner, alone and since they all have just finished moving out of home, there should have been immediate concern by those anticipating dinner. On the menu was spaghetti, which most would think is an easy meal. Unfortunately, the rookies had other plans as they tried to create a new dish known as smoked spaghetti. While smoked salmon and bacon are delicious, smoked spaghetti does not fit that bill. Excessive amounts of cheese and pasta sauce were needed to consume this meal. For those looking to try this new delicacy at home, just put way to much pasta in a pan, with not enough water and do not stir often and voila, smoked spaghetti.
The rest of the evening consisted of oatmeal crisp (which was nicely cooked), a team meeting and then rest, preparing for mountain mania the next day.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Fall camp report.
Editor Note: The staff photographer was on another assignment and as such there are no pictures available.
Friday evening marked the beginning of camp and the first event after everyone’s arrival and dinner is the strength circuit. However, snuck in before the strength is a little event known as cheap drugs. Of those in attendance, only 2 had experienced cheap drugs before and so the others were left in wonderment and worry about what it could entail. They would quickly discover its mystery and be dumbfounded by its effects. Details, however, cannot be reported or mentioned; only experienced by those who have attended one of the annual fall camps held over the past number of years.
Editor Note: No illicit drugs were consumed in this activity.
After this experience, the strength circuit proceeded to leave all participants a little sore and then shortly thereafter, all retired to the farmhouse to rest for the fury that is the remainder of the fall camp.
Saturday morning greeted the athletes as a nice, bright crisp fall morning with the leaves on the trees just beginning to change. Except this was the scene in the photograph hanging over the breakfast table. The actual weather was not so kind, as it proceeded to rain intermittently throughout the morning, along with fairly large gusts of winds. This was the weather that the athletes had to deal with as they headed out for the first training event of the day, a long rollerski with technique sessions with Head Coach Colin ‘Marathon’ Rhodes.
Athletes Derek Hartman, Alison Stephenson and alumni Matt Strickland headed out into the headwind and skied to ‘forever’ and back. The trip out resulted in numerous changes in the leader of the echelon as the job of breaking the wind almost proved too much and required near constant one-skating just to keep moving. The trip back was significantly easier, but all those involved decided that one long ski into the wind was more than enough. Therefore, they joined the rest of the crew, including the 4 rookies, Ryan McNamananananara, and new rollerskier Greg Cartmell, who had all been working with coach Rhodes on rollerski essentials, such as grass stops. It was evident that coach knew what he was talking about as all involved seemed to have mastered the skills, with only one injury report. From there it was time to work on some technique, specifically skate. After a solid technique session, all the very wet athletes decided to call it quits a little earlier to get out of the miserable weather.
Lunch was the usual excess consumption of tuna melts, and before and afterwards mutterings of molar mass and cross product could be heard as athletes managed to sneak in some homework time or some shut eye for many of the others. The first casualty of camp was report as Ryan McNamananananara decided joining in the trail run after lunch would not be beneficial to an injured knee and therefore decided to use his time to nap instead. Additionally, Colin and Martha Sutton departed back to Waterloo.
The now shrinking group headed out again into the rain, which had conveniently just started up again after it too seemingly had a lunch break. The ski hike was capped with a team hill sprint, which was won in close fashion by the duo of Glenn and Matt.
Team bonding activities were next on the agenda and it consisted of a blindfolded obstacle course. The rest of the athletes looked on in confusion as Alison, Derek and Matt proceeded to set up various structures which were to be climbed over, under, around and through. The task of the obstacle course was for one non-blindfolded guide to lead two blindfolded teammates through the obstacle course by commands. For the latest arrivals to the camp, coach Justin Faulkner and toddler Natalie, it was an amusing sight as the blindfolded athletes struggled through the course. Glenn ‘Sonar’ Hartman was able to successfully pull teammate Dan through the course; lead by guide Matt who simply clapped in the direction he wanted them to go. On the flip side, the group of Nathaniel and Greg, lead by Alison had a little more trouble, and were therefore more amusing for the others, as they were more hesitant to respond to their direction. The afternoon wrapped up with a game of ultimate, after which everyone retired back to the farmhouse, where it was found that Ryan was still napping. At this point, some prank should have been pulled on him, however he was spared as most were too tired.
Dinner brought an interesting attempt at cooking as 3 of the 4 members of team rookie were in charge of dinner, alone and since they all have just finished moving out of home, there should have been immediate concern by those anticipating dinner. On the menu was spaghetti, which most would think is an easy meal. Unfortunately, the rookies had other plans as they tried to create a new dish known as smoked spaghetti. While smoked salmon and bacon are delicious, smoked spaghetti does not fit that bill. Excessive amounts of cheese and pasta sauce were needed to consume this meal. For those looking to try this new delicacy at home, just put way to much pasta in a pan, with not enough water and do not stir often and voila, smoked spaghetti.
The rest of the evening consisted of oatmeal crisp (which was nicely cooked), a team meeting and then rest, preparing for mountain mania the next day.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Fall camp report.
Editor Note: The staff photographer was on another assignment and as such there are no pictures available.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Fall 2010
With the calendar officially turning over to fall, it means a lot of things are changing like the leaves and the weather, but UWNN doesn't really care about those things. The important part is what hasn't changed and that is that it is time for another ski season at the University of Waterloo. With the new ski season, it means that UWNN comes out of its summer hibernation and starts up again.
Over the summer, a few things have changed with the budget for the blog, which unfortunately means cutbacks in a number of departments, such as in the dry wit and ridiculous departments, as well as proper grammar and spelling. However, there appears to be room to add a staff photographer, so hopefully there will be a lot of pictures added as the season progresses.
Recent activity with the ski team has included the annual fall camp, as well as a number of new rookies joining the team. So in the near future, UWNN should have some new articles posted including:
Fall Camp Part 1 and 2, and a look at the team for the 2010/2011 racing season.
Over the summer, a few things have changed with the budget for the blog, which unfortunately means cutbacks in a number of departments, such as in the dry wit and ridiculous departments, as well as proper grammar and spelling. However, there appears to be room to add a staff photographer, so hopefully there will be a lot of pictures added as the season progresses.
Recent activity with the ski team has included the annual fall camp, as well as a number of new rookies joining the team. So in the near future, UWNN should have some new articles posted including:
Fall Camp Part 1 and 2, and a look at the team for the 2010/2011 racing season.
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