Ok I'm back!

After a breif stint of dead battery i am back to finish my blog.

Unfortunately i can't post pictures because i forgot my firewire cable :(
Well yesterday was a long day, with most the team leaving at 12 from gould and finally arriving here at our condo in stoneham at 8:45 after they got lost in quebec city. Coach K and I left Bethel a little after 3 pm and arrived in foret about 9 pm suprisingly, never getting lost. We stopped in farmington on our way up and I picked up my new boots. Alpina Elite's, a classic pair and a skate pair. They are possibly the most comfortable boot ever!

Well as I said earlier, we are here in Stoneham, Quebec and it is the beginning of a Thanksgiving camp, which will go down in the record books. Why? Because snow, is scarce and the skiers are thick. Basically, our coaches are getting creative for new ways to put us on snow. Whether its rollerskiing at the Military Base biathalon range, or skating at a tubing park, our coaches are deteremined to get us on the white stuff. This afternoon, the team chilled out in the condo while the coaches searched around for our options. This evening, the plan was to walk across the street to the Stoneham ski area and ski at the base of the mountain on the man made snow. The team walked over, all the while i grumbled about how we were going to get yelled at in french. About 20 feet from the snow, a french lady jumped out of a precariously parked car and shouted at us in french. Alice would like to remind me that it was "polite french". We told the lady that we spoke and English and she told us to go away because it was closed. We didn't push it. So we came back to the condo and hung out until the coaches arrived home with grocerys. Yes...more grocerys and its the first day. It seems that a ski team of *ahem* 6 kids goes through a rather lot in one day. We just ate dinner and they began digging in on the icecream as I started to write this....

Anyways that was day one and we will keep you posted!

think of snow!
-peter

Foret!

Here we are in Foret!

Unfortunately I can't blog for long, but i'd just like to say a few things.
Today we went to Foret Montemercy and were refused entry to their 500m. track of blown snow so we found a dirt road with snow and packed it out with the van to get some great rock skiing in. My computer battery is dieing. Blog more later!


-Peter

Back to it!!

It was a great day for the Gould Nordic team today! Many of us got on snow! Sunday River once again came thought with a lot of fun for the ski team.

At about 3:30 10 of us including coaches piled into a school van and made a 5 minute drive to the ski center where there was snow made all around the base area. We got there and the wind was blowing the ice crystals from the snow guns into our faces and the freezing to all of our hair, face and clothing. Fun!! We skied around for about an hour until it was to dark to ski any longer, also many of us where cold enough to go anyway but we had a tremendous time none the less.

I think EVERYONE looked brilliant, particularly my room mate who is an alpine skier never seen the light before. Awesome!! I was happy to have him there. It may take some more time to convert him completely.

As exams are finishing up we are all getting really exited for Canada! We will be leaving this Friday afternoon at about 3:30.

Magnus

Saturday, November 15th 2008

One of the great things about Gould is the large portion of time that we have in the winter dedicated to skiing. Being a college prep highschool, it is a great opportunity to have such a large portion of time dedicated to our sports. Unfortunately, this translates into having more class time in the spring and fall. What a better way to get in the extra classes we need than Saturday class? That is what we had today. Today's dots were 4 and 5 which ment that I had freedot and then Analytical Geometry and Trigonometry.

Unfortunately, I've had to take the last few days off because of a back problem that I've been experiencing. I've already been to the chiropractor twice and I need to go three times next week as well to get x-rays. Who knew? On wednesday during our 2 hr rollerski I realized that my back was hurting and it was hard to double pole. As the workout went on I found myself unable to stride, or double pole kick without pain in my back. Later that night, laying on the floor was about all I could do. The next couple days consisted of sitting in stiff chairs, taking astronomical amounts of muscle relaxant and ibeprofin, and eating as much as I could (due to boredom). Hopefully the pending week will prove healthy and heal me before we head off to Quebec for our thanksgiving training camp.

Over and out

Peter Cowan

November 13,
I am exited to get this blog underway and thank you for checking it out! I am Andrew (Magnus) Nesbitt of Williamstown, Massachusetts attending Gould Academy, as a sophomore, in the Great State of Maine. I have been at the school for almost three months now and have been having a lot of fun with the school and life at school in general.

What would make me come 5 hours to school when I come from a town where the local high school has dominated Massachusetts skiing for the last 4 years? I started thinking about Private school the fall of 5th grade when the state started to cut of a lot of taxes, taxes would go into the high school. The classes at the high school grew from an average of 18 to 27 in one summer, to a dyslexic student this would have been a hell. I left public school in 6th grade and attended a tiny Private day school in Williamstown with out a ski team. I never wanted to go back to a public school again. After graduating the school in June if my 9th grade year I had made a decision to come to Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine. Hear I am!

Today was a very relaxing day for the Nordic team tough it did start early. A few of us got up at 6 o'clock to get in a small circuit work out in the gym. Some bench dips, push ups, dumb bells, lunges, and giant steps, with some cherries on top (medicine balls).

After lunch it was time to go ski. We drove about 5 minutes to a piece of pavement that was flat and in very good condition. This, as well, was not a hard work out. It was a 45 minute skate technique work with some 200 meter speeds in there. After the warm down we had to speed the van back to campus so we could all make it to class on time. I think we all made it :)

Everyone hear is now focusing on the fall term exams next week.

I was exited to see we had a bigger crew than usually comes roller skiing, and we all hope that the snow comes thick and fast. The weather calls for a bit of an ice storm tonight.
Good luck all!
Magnus

New England Private School Cross Country Runnng Championships

WOW, what a mouthful!

9/9/08
No song
Weather....questionably dry
warm?

Well yesterday we had Nep...somethings at Marinopollis our last cross country race of the year against tons 24 other private schools in New England. It was bout a 4.5 or less hour drive south which most of us slept the duration of.
*refer to photo* What a day, whoof! We started out from gould at 7 am, and got to our destination about 11:15 and the mens varsity race started at 1:30. By my standards, the race course was boring, but the excitment to run with 160 other men was overwhelming! I placed 41st for Varsity, pulling 3rd position for our team, while Andrew Nesbitt, placed 7th and Henry 6th in the overall results. Congratulations to them. Personally, my race hurt. I had excruciating pains in my stomach the whole time i raced, which is unfortunate :(. Gould team spirit was unmatched, our sportsmanship was unique, and our results proved that we are moving up as men placed 5th overall out of 24! The ride home was dark and rainy. Just as the folks in the back of the bus who were constantly splashed by the water from the emergency hatch which was stuck open...oops!


Today's workut

More importantly, today i had a 3.5 hour L1 workout on the plan so my father and I took a hike up Speckled Mtn in Evans Notch. The workout was nice, easy and continuous and I'm looking forward to the day off tomorrow to finish lots of homework!





Well it's almost that time again...as flurries begun to fall the skiers that have trained so hard throughout the summer months begin to see the last of their dryland training for the year! Soon we will all be on snow and racing will begin.
Here's a video compliation of a 2007-2008 season video of the
TD Banknorth Presque Isle EC Sprints.




Enjoy! :)xx

Pete Cowan

11/7/08 #4

Hi! I'm Alice Hotopp, a sophomore here at Gould. As Peter said, I'm a second year J2 and compete with the comp. team.

This year we have quite a few new girls joining the team, which is fantastic. I feel that we will have a strong team this season.

One of the great things about Gould skiing is that we have tons of fun as well as getting in some good training. There has been a group of us meeting two to three times a week for specific nordic training like rollerskiing, hill bounding, hiking, and strength workouts.

Next week the whole team will start practice now that the other sports seasons are winding down. Unfortunately I have been dealing with a minor quad injury for a few weeks now, but I should be back in action before long.

Here is a video from a while ago of the guys rollerskiing. But in about two weeks we won't have to rollerski- we're going to ski in Quebec over Thanksgiving break! Last year we traveled to Quebec as well and the trip was fantastic- great snow, beautiful skiing, and lots of fun!

Here are some pictures from last year's Quebec trip taken by Rosemary Wiser.

Bye, Alice H.

11/6/08 #3

First Post!!!!!!!

Hello! I'm Jeb Clarke and i'm a freshman here at Gould Academy. So my main sport is nordic skiing, but i also run and play baseball. Although im a freshman i've been skiing with the team for a couple years now so i know the coaches and pretty much all the skiers. Last year i did the 8th grade program, so i went to classes at gould and was part of the team.

- so todays workout consisded of some strenght training in the weight room at 7am (my legs are still sore!!!), we were in there for about an hour. And after lunch for xc running practice we ran some "fartleks" on the golf course..for about a half hour (fartleks are some sort of run where you change speeds frquently, i believe). Our whole running teams is pretty excited for new englands in conneticut this saturday, which is out last race of the year.

-JC

11/6/08 #2

Second post...
7:24 pm
Weather: Warm, Rainy & Dark
No Song.
Ok, so I promised that i would post back yesterday about the afternoon workout, but I was too busy so we'll have to compensate with a description today..from tomorrow. So anyways...with skis on our packs we loaded up in a van from Gould and headed to Sunday River. At sunday river we parked at the North Peak chairlift and begun our hike. It took us approximately an hour and fifteen minutes or more to summit the mountain to Locke and find the snow. At the top, everyone had waxless skis but me. Lucky lucky me put on some spring klister and kicked around up top.
Now lets just say, it would have been smart to bring pants. The temperature at the top of the mountain was fairly warm but the fact that we hadn't been on snow yet that year left us with a couple scrapes and bruises from snow burn. The descent of the mountain was hell. Being on old rock skis. (nordic of course) we had less control than we'd like in the first place and being that the mountain was steep as all hell, and had moguls just made the situation even better. Let's just say about every turn, we found ourselves on our butts. Head coach Jeremy Nellis took the mogul field like a champ...not so good for Coach Ben K.

TODAY: This morning the comp. team took a different route and we did a strength workout in the weightroom. Now i'm lieing when i say a different route because we have strength workouts every thursday morning at 6 am for about an hour and 15 minutes. Lets just say lots of dips, and physio and medecine balls are involved. Gettin' strong fo sho. Mr. K whips us until exhaustion most days and we earn the big breakfasts we eat. it's a shame we are in the weightroom so early as first class isn't until 9:40 AM.

-I can feel bruises from yesterday where i fell and I have a big spot of snow burn on my hip. I've been lucky enough to not havy any roller ski crashes as my team mates have this year which kept me in one peice. A little pain never did anyone harm did it?

All for today. Look for Andrew Nesbitt soon, i'm going to have him start posting in here also.

Out-
Pete

11/5/08 Post #1

8:36 am, 40 degrees, partially cloudy. Song: Someday You Will be Loved -Death Cab for Cutie


FIRST BLOG!!! :D
Apart from having a new President other exciting things are happening today. Today marks the first day that Gould Academy Nordic will potentially be on snow. Today our practice will consist of hiking the local resort Sunday River, to the summit, and skiing on the snow at the top. Sunday River which opened on Halloween jumped the gun so that they could say they were the first resort open in the east. Anyways...we will hike Sunday River with ski's on our backs. Everybody is extremely stoked and I plan to add pictures and descriptions later today of the practice.



And for me? Today i only have 1 class. Dot 7 Biology. Right now, as I write this, I am in Dot 6 free-dot. I probably should be doing homework but i'm too excited about the concept of blogging.

Anyways, so here we are. Gould is growing. We have picked up Andrew Nesbitt, a great skier and first year j1 from Williamstown, Mass. We also have returning Gould veteran's Alice Hottop as a second year j2 and a sophomore and Jeb Clarke as a Second year J2 and a Freshman. This year i'm a second year j1, which puts me as the old man of the team, below our two coaches. Last year as many of you know we picked up Jeremy Nellis as our head coach. Jeremy had been assistant coach for a number of years. We also gained Ben K---------. I can't spell is name but its polish. Easier to just call him K
***SONG: The Only Living Boy in New York- Simon and Garfunkel
Oh, side note, throughout my blogs you may randomly see the name of songs and artists. This is referring to the music that is playing on my ipod which is almost always on Shuffle.

So, i decided to give Izze his own section. So here's to you izze....
Izze is a new enthusiastic member of our team from Lake Placid NY home of the 1980 winter games, and comes to us with experience but limited technique. He's a sophomore this year and first year j1. We all expect Izze to take off this year. On any given day and any given conversation being had with izze you can expect to be talking about skiing. He shows up to practice and he's ready to ski. Even though it's still dryland, i predict that it will be a good season for him. So theres to you izze.

This year we also have various Freshman on the team. There are so many, i don't really know whoes on the race team and whoes not. The comp team is nice and small who i described earlire (Jeb Alice Andrew SCOTT? Peter) We also can probably expect a few other people joining us here and there. So the Comp. team we go to larger competitions such as Canada Cup, Super Tour, and eastern cups. This is the group that's striving towards Junior Olympics. The other team does mostly citizen races and highschool races. We also have a few recreational skiers as well.

So I must sign off now. And go do some homework, but i will post back later with possibly pictures of this afternoon's workout.
SONG: Fix You-Coldplay

-P.C