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.

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...

Ski Season

It finally appears that winter has decided to arrive and that of course means that the ski season starts to kick into high gear.
Time to strap on the skis, ski around North Campus and log as many kms as you can while still finding time to study and pass the Medieval History class that you decided to take even though everyone told you it was a bad idea.
It also means, that (hopefully) no more comments like " You know there is no snow" as you head out for a roller ski.

Currently Waterloo has a few cm of snow on the ground and more on the way, which is nice, but not nearly as much as places like London who got like 30 + cm of snow.
But Highlands got even more, so that is a good sign for the up coming Waterloo skiing schedule:
-this weekend Yuletide blast and a Team Time Trial/Qualifier race
-the following weekend, Winter Camp and coinciding with that is the first Ontario Cup

So it will be a very busy next couple of weeks for Waterloo skiers as they get through exams and enjoy the snow and the skiing.

Current conditions at Highlands. Thats a promising amount of snow (http://www.highlandsnordic.ca/snow_conditions.cfm)

Skiing, Waterloo Style

So like a good portion of the rest of Ontario, Waterloo did indeed get some snow over night, which of course meant one thing. Golf course skiing at Westmount.

With about 2 sm of snow on the ground and more falling, it was not kind on par with Kussamo, but it created some solid grass skiing. Since it was nice and powdery it provided a semblance of glide and overall was a very good grass ski experience.

No pictures this time, as the photography staff was worried about their equipment being damaged during the game of snowball tag. They probably made a good decision with the reckless abandonment that Ryan was displaying.

Looks like Highlands is currently getting dumped on, so it looks like there will be some quality skiing there tomorrow.

Rollerski Duathlon "R U Bad Enough for Badenoch?"

Editor Note: This blog entry is very much overdue, seeing as this race happened earlier in the month. UWNN would like to point out that other important events have happened since then that have led to its delay. Such as the start of the World Cup season, there was a little race in Gallivare last weekend and a mini tour coming up this weekend in Kuusamo. Which meant that all of the staff was on assignment. If you haven't been paying attention, go to your favourite skiing news outlet and catch up. Oh, and you should probably watch some of the races this weekend, seeing as there are two sprints which are always exciting. Now, on to the race report, with lots of pictures!

UW skiers traveled done to Badenoch to participate in the annual rollerski dualthon organized by the University of Guelph. Entitled "R U Bad Enough for Badenoch?", the event tested the shear determination, will and endurance of every athlete, pushing them to their physical and mental limits.
Okay, so it was a little tamer than that with the women running 2 km and then rollerskiing 10km and the men running 4 km and then skiing the same 10km with the women.

The event was well attended with athletes from the University of Toronto and Queen's joining those from Guelph and Waterloo. In all, there were approximately 30 participants, with 6 Waterloo athletes/coaches taking part.

Everyone lined up at the start waiting for the go.

Alison and Katie, among others, running off of the start.

Katie coming into the transition off of the run.

Alison and Katie in the transition.

Katie heading out from the transition into the rollerski leg.

Coach Rhodes coming in from the run to the transition.

Nathaniel (Top) and Ryan (Bottom) coming in off of the run.

Glenn heading out on the rollerski.

At the end, Glenn was narrowly edge out at the line to end up in a solid 2nd place and earn himself some baked goods. Overall, the Waterloo athletes had successful days and everyone was deemed "Bad Enough for Badenoch".

Editorial - No-Good November

For most cross country skiers, the end of October and most of November is useless. This is especially true when you attend a post-secondary institution in Southern Ontario.

You want to train after school? Do it in the dark with the sketchy dude drinking beer by himself on North Campus. You want to rollerski? Wear a vest and a light, or some crazy soccer mom from the suburbs will have you as a hood ornament for her Acura MDX. You want to ski? To &*%$ing bad – it’s Southern Ontario, probably between 5-10 degrees and raining and cold, but with no real hope of snow. Want to go out of town to ski? Tough – you have classes and midterms, or if not, a bunch of lazy jabroni’s on your ski team who say they don’t have time to drive 10 hours each way to Quebec. So what are you left with, you ask?

You’ve come to the right place.

Last year, the UW Nordic Ski Team pulled off a pretty solid November session that involved a figure eight loop, a bunch of shovels, and a shit ton of enthusiasm.

In previous years, we’ve rocked Westmount G and CC with minimal snow, which is more fun that you might think, unless you’re a G and CC member, in which case, those were not my ski tracks on your greens.

But if you’re still without snow in the middle of November, there is really only one activity I can truly recommend to avoid a complete and utter skiing meltdown.

A trip to St. Jacobs Market.

That’s right, eating. Who cares how much ass your workout sucks when you can come home to awesome (and cheap) Mennonite bacon? Or those sausages that you know are legit, because they cut them off a 200 foot roll for you when you buy them? How about 20 lbs of potato’s for $5 from a guy who is still covered in dirt from the field where he dug them out of? Fresh bread? Apples? Or maybe a Sherpa jacket?

November – the month to come home from your miserable, rainy, cold, dirty, not-quite-snowing, school-work-talk-filled hell of a workout and settle into some good food, and not moving for at least an hour. Get it in ya.

Snow! and Skiing!!

Well attending "R U Bad Enough for Badenoch?" rollerski dualthon on Saturday (results and post in the near future), word was received that Highlands Nordic had received 10cm of snow and then had panned some trails for skiing!!! Excitement was rampid with all of those in attendance and the very, very easy decision was made to head up early Sunday morning for some skiing. Upon arriving back from the duathlon, most members of the ski team obviously went and checked the Highlands website to verify the snow and no one was disappointed as this is what greeted them.

Photo credit: Highlands Nordic (www.highlandsnordic.ca)

So a couple car loads of skiers headed out at 7 am to make their way to Highlands and get some early season skiing in. What greeted them did not disappoint, as there was in fact snow and the trails were in good/excellent rock skiing conditions.


The trail leading up to Larry's Glacier had some water/mud portions, but it was possible to ski up. The good skiing was at the glacier, as the yellow, along with portions of the orange loop were panned and very excellent for early season skiing. Overall, the loop was long enough to ski about 20 min continuous on the loop. And so the skiers went out putting in numerous loops in order to take advantage of the snow.

Lots of snow and good coverage on the trails made for some excellent skiing conditions, considering it is only November 7th. Now the countdown begins until their is consistent snow, but obviously everyone was very excited to get the opportunity for some skiing this early in the season.