Wasaga Loppet - Let's go for a Long Ski

After five years at UW you eventually get used to the weather in Southern Ontario. Sometimes the icy winds chill you to the bone, other times it's shorts and t-shirt weather in January. This year the new school term was welcomed with fresh snow and cold weather. The first practice of the term had a minus 40ºC windchill. The cold quickly turned to rain by the end of the first week of class and the snow was melting fast. Most winter sport enthusiasts like the UW ski team might fear rain but we persevered and made an early morning drive Sunday, January 12 to Wasaga Beach Provincial Park for their annual ski loppet (last UW Nordic attendance was in 2010). 

I have only skied at Wasaga once before but you forget that the trails are actually very nice. There are some nice climbs along the high dunes, winding trails with the occasional sharp corner, and the potential to see wildlife on the trails (didn’t see any but there were deer tracks on the trails!). This year temperatures around zero and overcast skies welcomed the Wasaga loppet. The course was fast with icy granular snow but everyone came prepared with several klister options to pick to optimal grip wax. The men raced 2 laps of 10km for one of their longest races of the season at 20km and the women raced one 10km lap.

The men started followed 4 minutes later by the women. With a gap between categories, it limited the number of athletes fighting for the track on the narrow trails. Nonetheless, the lead group of women passed many of the slower men. Sunday, UW sent three athletes while the rest of the team recovered from illness and races earlier in January.

Alison Stephenson led the UW women with a fourth place finish. She stayed in the lead pack for the first several kilometers but struggled to keep pace through the climbs when she struggled to get good grip. On the men’s side, coach Colin Rhodes led the men through the first lap in fifth place, seconds off fourth. Unfortunately, Colin injured himself pushing hard in a chase group the end of the first lap and dropped out of the race when he came through to lap.

Men's start - Can you find the UW skiers?

Alison rounding the last corner to the finish

Senior Men (20km)

Place	Name	Team	Lap 1	Lap 2	Finish	Difference
1	Daniel Kerr	Guelph	0:31:23	0:31:56	1:03:19
2	Kai Bruce	Guelph	0:32:08	0:33:02	1:05:10	+ 01:51
3	Michael Solomon	Guelph	0:32:40	0:34:20	1:07:00	+ 03:41
4	Devin Martin		0:33:07	0:35:03	1:08:10	+ 04:51
5	Shaun Guerin	Guelph	0:33:51	0:35:19	1:09:10	+ 05:51
6	Matt Underwood	Guelph	0:33:41	0:35:43	1:09:24	+ 06:05
7	Luke Parsons	Guelph	0:34:02	0:35:57	1:09:59	+ 06:40
8	James Morton	Guelph	0:36:20	0:37:37	1:13:57	+ 10:38
9	Orion Austrup	Waterloo	0:35:38	0:38:23	1:14:01	+ 10:42
10	Zachary McLaren	Guelph	0:44:50	0:47:00	1:31:50	+ 28:31
DNF	Colin Rhodes	Waterloo – Alumni	0:33:10	***	***
DNF	Kyle Smith	Guelph	0:37:01	***	***

Senior Women (10km)

Place	Name	Team	Finish	Difference
1	Elise Huet	Guelph	0:35:43
2	Ashley Huet	Guelph	0:36:02	+00:19
3	Catherine Mallinger	Guelph	0:36:16	+ 00:33
4	Alison Stephenson	Waterloo	0:37:33	+ 01:50
5	Johanna Van Schie-Copol	Waterloo	0:42:09	+ 06:26
6	Ronena Wolach	Guelph	0:44:54	+ 09:11

After a few early season races, the UW ski team is looking forward to more races at the end of January.

Done Exams + Lots of Snow + The One and Only UWNST = Winter Camp 2013

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!

New Season... More Blog Updates

We are well into a new season and everyone is training hard.

Stay tuned for training and race updates

OUA 2013- Race Report Version

The UW Nordic ski team gave a grand finale t to their last official, and most sought after race of the year.  What a season's worth of training was aimed to peak for: the 2013 OUA Nordic Ski Championships.  The event was held by Lakehead University at Lappe Nordic ski club, in Thunder Bay, Ont.

The OUA race format varies year to year, alternating short and long distances between the two disciplines, skate and classic.  This year's format was a middle distance skate race and skate team relay on the first day, and a long distance classic race on the second day.  The race distances were 5 and 10km skate races, for the women and men respectively, a 3.75km relay and 10 and 15km distance classic races.   Results from both middle and long distance races went towards an individual combined score by time and points from all three races contributed to an overall team score.  Six members of the men's team, two members of the women's team and two coaches made the trip to the three day event.

The women were the first to the line and proved some respectable results.  Fourth year Alison Stephenson skied a personal OUA best into 20th place in 20:17, and just twenty seconds behind was Katie Madden in 25th.  In the men's field the Warriors seemed to cross the line in pairs. Oliver Conway-White led the warriors in a remarkable 14th place in 32:55 and a close two places behind was Glenn Hartman in 16th place, in 33:16. Rookies Ryan Fahey and Colin Elliott crossed as 20th and 21st, a mere two seconds apart, while Tim Rhodes and Nolan Beanlands were 29th and 30th respectively.  This gave the Warriors a final day 1 result of having all athletes rank within the top 30 OUA positions.

The relay portion of the day gave the men's team an opportunity to show their strength as a team.  Each team consisted of three athletes, each to ski 3.75km and tag off to their next teammate.  Waterloo had one team, consisting of Glenn Hartman, Colin Elliot and Oliver Conway-White, step to the line.  The Warriors battled it out for places 3rd, 4th and 5th, along with Queen's and Laurentian's A team's.  In the final lap, Conway- White secured a solid lead on fourth, narrowly missing out on third place in a sprint to the finish.  The combined results of the individual skate and relay races gave the Warriors a solid team result- which, given the right effort the following day, could mean a top 3 OUA placing for the men's team.

To finish off the OUA Championships, once again, the only two women on the UW ski team stepped to the line for the 10km classic event.  The course was different this time- two 5km laps, consisting of both uphills and downhills of considerable size.  The coaches were able work out an outstanding wax combination of both optimal grip and glide, which rang in some terrific results.  Stephenson and Madden claimed places 24th and 36th in the women's race, in 41:24 and 43:58.  Conway-White continued to lead the men's team with a stellar performance, coming in 8th place with a time of 47:15- just above a minute off the leader.  The remainder of the men's team followed eagerly in a close pack behind with Rhodes in 16th, Fahey in 18th, Hartman in 19th, Beanlands in 23rd and Elliott in 32nd.

The combined results of the weekend proved some outstanding rankings for the Waterloo Warriors.  Oliver Conway-White’s combined times awarded him with a top 10 overall finish, naming him a 2013 OUA All-Star.  This, along with other team member's personal best's, led the men's team to an overall 3rd place OUA finish- notably the top result for the Warriors in recent years.

Tis the Season

          Hard to believe that we're already past mid-February.  Somehow the season that you spend the rest of the year training for and daydreaming  about the day when there will be snow seems to pass in an instant filled with a flurry of weekends with long car rides, hotel rooms, warm ups and start lines, and weeks with exhaustion, midterms, and skiing at Bechtel in between.

Who says we have to ski on snow? 

          Skiing at Bechtel?! Yes, we've been doing lots of skiing at Bechtel, and the skiing has been good. The racing has also been quite good.  So good, in fact, that I can say that it's been the most successful season, results-wise, that the UW Nordic ski team (UWNST) has seen in a few years.  Since the past update we have been in attendance at the third stop of the Haywood NorAM race series in Duntroon, Ont. and more locally, Mono Nordic invitational in Orangeville, with some nothing-short-of-epic training weekends in between.

          The weather  in Southern Ontario this season has been a tad bit moody.  Our first supposed-to-be-race weekend of the year turned into more of a water ski show than anything.  And although the official Snow Dog race was cancelled, we still managed to squeeze a race in at good ol' Highlands, which had a surprisingly high attendance.  Only two UWNST member's were keen enough to suit up, so Coach Colin and Katie took on the entire field consisting of Guelph, U of T, and various members of Highlands.

Oliver and Glenn take
on the quarter finals

Ryan powers up yet another climb

 The next event was Walden (see previous post), and somehow within those two weeks Highlands was able to accumulate enough snow to host a great NorAM event.  The first day of racing was a classic sprint day, and the course couldn't have been better.   Backwards up the stadium and racer out, around the haripin , lots of double poling and back down.  The second race day was a 10km for the women and 15km. for the men.  The course was just as epic- but in a much different way.  To directly quote Coach Colin, "the course will be good for those who like to suffer"...  It was a 5km loop- but in the course of one loop was two trips from the very lowest point of Highlands to the very top.  So that's 4x up for the ladies, and 6x for the men.  Yup, it was a lot of climbing, my quads thought so too.  For a full race report of both days  check out the official Warriors website  http://www.varsity.uwaterloo.ca/news/2013/1/28/NORDIC_0128135545.aspx.

          The UWNST was not in attendance at the Easter Canadian Championships, as it would have been the third consecutive weekend in a row of racing.  Although most other universities did choose to go, the UWNST is bound to see some direct benefit from this by being more fully prepared for the OUA championships this upcoming weekend.  Instead, the trip was made to Hardwood Hills for a fantastic training weekend.  Mother nature decided to turn itself against Highlands once again, as they were still closed from lack of snow from the second meltdown of the season.

Skiing and Studying- easily done when you can ski to
school.

          To continue with the moodiness, Southern Ontario got the biggest dump of snow it's seen in a while.  Really though.  UW was even closed for the first time since 2008.  This of course led directly to members of the UWNST suiting up and hitting the streets, libraries, Laurier, Waterloo park- anywhere and everywhere that was skiable- and that was everywhere.

 The amount of snow that we got also meant that the Mono Nordic Invitational was a go, so the next day 5 athletes travelled to Orangeville:  Alison, Katie, Glenn, Ryan F. and Colin P.    The snow was soft and the course tough.  It was the same as the invitational trail run that Mono hosted in the fall- 5km of seemingly unending hills.  But it was a gorgeous sunny day and a real treat to have a race that close to home, which made for a positive attitude all around and a great race day.

Lots of sunshine and snow at Mono
Nordic

The OUA championships are now in the line of sight, and they will be hosted by Lakehead University at Lappe Nordic in Thunder Bay, Ont.  Eight Waterloo athletes and two coaches will make the trip and be competing at their very finest in a deep field of Ontario's best university skiers.