How Did this Post End Up Being All About Andrea??

It's been quite the little week here in my life. The homework hasn't been too excessive, although the assignment I had last night was one of those things that seems completely pointless and therefore takes 5 times as long to finish. While this week is going by fairly quickly I'm still DYING for the weekend.

Highlights of my life lately:

Weekends with SMC WXC
As it turns out I absolutely love the girls on my team. Pics from the weekend of XC love:

Andrea, Little Margaret Miller, Doogs, Mary Margaret Miller, me

Brookie, Doogs, me, Andrea, Alli

I really love my roomies too!

Lauren, Lauren, Erin, Carly, Sam, me, Abby (missing Julliette)

Fresh Beats with AP (and a bunch of SMC WXC)

My friend Andrea has a radio show (Sundays 3-5) on WWPV, the campus radio station. I join her every few weekends to guest DJ, meaning I introduce a song or two, and just hang out and avoid homework. This past Sunday was the "All Disney, Almost my Birthday, Best Show of the Semester Show". It's exactly what it sounds like. Playing only Disney music (with the exception of my fave song from Anastasia, "Once Upon a December") along with fun facts from each movie right before Andrea's 21st birthday the next day. Andrea is what you might call obsessed with Disney movies. A lot of the girls from the XC team joined in and we had a bit of a Disney party. She'll be around every Sunday with probably at least one or two XC girls so tune in!

Just a few of the guest DJs

Mary Margaret Miller, me, and Elyse (who is being super cute)

Texas Roadhouse mmmmmmm....
Peanuts, yummy bread, steak, baked potato, apple sauce, cherry limeade. YUM. Happy 21st birthday to Andrea!

Pure joy.

The birthday crew

Time for lunch and then class. And then practice. And then it'll be Friday. Give me the weekend!

First Nordic Tracks in NE?

My friend Adam probably loves skiing more than anyone I know. Every single year he watches the web cams for any hint of snow so that he can hike asap for the first ski of the season.

With the ridiculous amounts of rain we've had here came some snow toward the top of the mountains in Stowe. Adam grabbed a group of skiers in the area and headed up yesterday for what could potentially be the first nordic ski in New England for the 2010/2011 season. They even ended up on The Weather Channel! Check out his blog for pics and details.

I'm not sure if this is a record for the earliest ski of Adam's, but I know that the amount of snow doesn't beat out the snow we got in Canton, NY my freshman year. The following pics are from October 29, 2008. Craziness. Cross your fingers for this much snow very very soon. I would love to get some real skiing in!

Pepper, a junior at the time finding his way through the snow

Gorgeous pic...stolen from Adam

The snow in front of my dorm

Boston

Well it's been quite a while since the last post. I thought about writing a day or two ago, but I was waiting for Andrea to get her pics from the weekend up, so go ahead and blame her. This past weekend was October break, which was mahvelous, but, like any other break, far too short. To start it off the XC team made our way down to Boston to race at Franklin Park.

I had a terrible race last year, so I wasn't really looking forward to racing there again. Thankfully I had a really good race this time. I went 50 seconds faster than at Middlebury last weekend, which was really exciting. It was a gorgeous day and the JV woman's race was first. Perfect. After our race we got to just hang out and watch the 7 varsity girls and all of the boys. And eat lots and lots of food brought by some wonderful parents.

Other than the race I just hung out and did nearly nothing. It was just perfect. It's nice to not have a lot of work after the exams and whatnot last week. It's looking like things are going to be pretty relaxed until at least next week. Finally!

How much do you train for XC?

During the summer it really depends on the person. Our coach sends out a training schedule and it's really up to you whether or not you follow it. I have a hard time keeping to it.

In season our schedule is generally
Monday - off
Tuesday - intervals (usually 4-6 x 3-4 min)
Wednesday - hour easy pool workout in the am, 0-30 min run and easy strength in the pm
Thursday - short speed intervals
Friday - easy 30-45 min run
Saturday - race (5k)
Sunday - long run (1 - 1 1/2 hours)

It's actually not as much running as you might expect. Even when I was bouncing back from bronchitis at the beginning of the season I wasn't really overwhelmed by the amount I was running. Plus, you get into shape really quickly.

Hope that helps! Let me know if I can clarify!

Ask me anything!

LOVE LOVE LOVE

I was going to wait to put this on my blog. At least until, you know, tomorrow considering I already posted today. But it's too good to wait.

The extended version of this was heard all over the Tyler Place all summer.

Now that it's a popular song all over the U.S. it's spread to SMC XC.

As far as I'm concerned (and as far as Andrea's concerned...she's had it on repeat for the last week or so) it's the official SMC WXC song. Others think that it's Teenage Dream, but they're oh so very wrong.

I hope you love it as much as we do.

Fall Has Arrived!

View from about half way up Madonna at Smuggler's Notch

It finally really feels like fall in VT. It's the time of year when girls are pulling out the boots and sweaters and putting away summery dresses and the time of year when you actually have to remember to wear a jacket when you walk out of your building. There's nothing worse than rushing off to class and realizing half way there that wearing just a cardigan is not going to do it for the day. It's also the time of year when VT is absolutely gorgeous.
When thinking back and trying to decide what to write about today it seems that the past week was filled with the usual math work and Ben & Jerry's consumption. (The flavor of the week was Dublin Mudslide)


One thing that I'm really excited about is the first ski team workout. There were only three of us there, but we were all really happy to get things going. I was really glad to hear that the other two girls there, Katlyn and Larissa, have been working out on their own and are both serious about getting things moving in the fall. Ahhh, I love fall, but I love winter even more. I can't wait to ski!

Me, Katlyn, and Larissa chillin' at the top

We did a hike up Madonna, which is one of the mountains at Smuggler's Notch. My dad had a "creative way" to go up the mountain. This sounded terrifying, but it wasn't all too bad. At first we did some 6-6 1/2 min bounding/ski walk intervals with a couple min rest. After doing a handful of those we just hiked the rest of the way to the top. It was a good workout, especially after racing the day before.

Fave pic of the day

As far as XC goes this week we had a couple of crazy muddy, rainy runs. We also had the VT State Meet at Middlebury on Saturday where the boys came in 3rd and we came in 2nd! We were obviously pretty happy with our finish as a team. As far as my race goes, I was really surprised to find out that my time was faster than last time. Before I even hit the first mile mark I started feeling pretty sick. It's the absolute worst when you've got yourself ready to work really hard in a race and your stomach just doesn't want to go there. I felt like I wasn't running as well as last time, but I still kept my head in the race and worked the flats and the uphills. I think it's a really good sign that even though I felt much worse and thought I was going much slower that I actually came out with a faster time. Getting faster every race definitely helps the motivation during the week. We head for Boston on Friday and race Saturday. Wish us luck! It's a HUGE race.


This week should be a fairly easy one. I have an exam in Abstract Algebra, but I'm not overly worried about it. Because I had a Prob/Stats exam Friday and have the Abstract one coming up I have no math homework for the week, which is pretty much unheard of. I'm not sure what to do with myself. I should probably start with cleaning this room. It's completely absurd.


Check out the slide show for more XC pickies! Ah, what a beautiful weekend.

What advice would you give to me, a high school senior looking at a bunch of colleges like St. Mikes?

I would say that if you're looking at schools that are all similar to SMC in terms of size or academics try to look at the school in terms of the people that go there instead. Campus' each have their own feel or atmosphere. From my own experiences, I've found that the SMC is really open and friendly.

If you can visit each school you're looking at it's really helpful. When you've really narrowed down your choices visit each of them and, while you're there, do a little people watching. By looking at how students interact with each other you can decide whether or not it's a place you'd like to be. It really all depends on how you feel at the school. If you've found a place that makes you feel comfortable and you can picture yourself there it's probably a school you should put at the very top of your list.

Ask me anything!