HURTATHON UPDATE! LOCATION CHANGE

Sunday's HURTathon (1/18/15) had been moved to the Queensbury School Trails. Park behind the Elementary school, 1/4 mile West of Exit 19 of the Northway. Race starts at 9am, registration 7:45-8:45.

Sunday January 18th HURTathon at Crandall Park

Crandall Park has great conditions right now, just in time for a full weekend of racing.  Come out both days to race the Glens Falls Freestyle on Saturday and the HURTathon Classic race on Sunday. 


Register for the Glens Falls Freestyle here!
https://www.skireg.com/glens-falls-freestyle

Register for the HURTathon here!
https://www.skireg.com/hurt-athon

Certainly MEGA

The HRT newsroom filed this report:

This past Saturday HURT-nation held their 6 hour MEGA-Relay event at Garnet Hill Ski Lodge. Despite the single digit temps, cold wind and slow snow more than 50 racers came out to pack the 4K relay loop looking to tally laps for their respective teams.  It was the largest Mega-Relay to date and the pot-luck table was stacked with tasty chili, soups, dips, snacks, drinks and energy-packed food.

The relay teams were filled with skiers from U14 all the way up to M9 and great time was had by all* (editors note...skiers surveyed were only those sufficiently thawed).  In the hotly contested "Mixed Relay" event the HURT powerhouse team of Bob Underwood, Heidi Underwood and Tim Huneck took advantage of superior ski speed, veteran strategy, age bonuses and good-looks to grab the top spot and most importantly....Sunday's breakfast.

In the Men's relay the powerhouse-quartet from Peru Nordic stole the honors, beer, pretzels and pie. But the might of the HURT Laydz could not be outdone! (and you should have seen their socks!)  Full results and total lap counts can be found here: http://nyssranordic.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mega-relay.pdf

visual approximation of the Peru Nordic powerhouse quartet.

We, at the HRT newsroom would like to be able to show our readership all the dynamic video, action stills, racer profiles and in-depth interviews from the day of racing.  However, we are sad to report that our camera was nabbed during our camera-persons 3rd bowl of taco soup and the memory was erased and filled with following selfies from this HURT band of misfits.  Little did they know that not only would they implicate themselves but their actions would be posted all over internet.  Looks like we won't be seeing "President Duclos" or "Senator Putman" anytime soon...people might start asking questions...

The Ups and Downs of December

December is always a tough month for nordic skiers in New York.  It has been a long, wet, cold fall and everyone is ready for real winter snow.  Everyone is excited about racking up early days in snowy tracks, packing the rollerskis away for a while, and lining up for first period races.  This December was especially full of ups and downs and as HURT nation gets ready to enter 2015...here's the recap

1) Snow, Snow, SNOW....slush

This November/December started out with some of the best early season snow in recent memory...maybe ever (no hyperbole there, folks).  It was seriously awesome!  Many nordies were out skiing for their own version of West Yellowstone ski festival here in the East during Thanksgiving and early K's were enjoyed across our area.  The NYSEF season opener was on some of the best VanHo conditions in recent memory...maybe ever (no hyperbole there, folks). It was seriously awesome and felt like skiing in Finland (not that I have been...but the pictures looked the same).

Now we've hit December 20's....and it looks like late March with a heavy dose of mud and rain.  #blurg

2) Low numbers...high numbers.

It is important to have poor short term memory as a ski racer....one weekend you may pull off great results and one week later fall flat and miss expectations.  This is the nature of the game.  HURT was out for the NYSEF season opener as Owen, Aaron, DPK, Chris, Pete and Eric H put up solid results and scored big points against rival clubs.  For the HURT high school skiers things started off great as well as many of them packed the top 5 and podium positions.  The Rikert Eastern Cups wrote a slightly different story. It was awesome to see HURT alums ski so well over the course of both days and current team members (despite the poor finishes #blurg) found new goals to set.  Those races serve as a reminder that more work can always be done and new goals can be set...but it can be done!

Chris Y storms up the Ladies 5K at the NYSEF opener

Amy fights her way through a tough Eastern Cup at Rikert

MWSC and HURT Alum, Austin H skis his way to a 16th place overall Eastern Cup finish

DPK and Aaron H sprint their way to a 10th-11th respectively at the NYSEF opener. All about the boot slide!

DPK leads the HURT contingent at the opener

HURT alum, Will F skis to a strong finish for St. Lawrence.  

3) More to come...

The season has just begun and a lot of great events are on the horizon.  You may see mud and gray today, but the best of winter is coming.  The Directress(es) and everyone here at the HURT newsroom want to wish everyone (all 3 of you...) who reads this blog a very happy and festive holiday season and we hope you are looking forward to seeing big results from everyone and hearing the news of new HURT skiers ready to join the ranks....some big signings are in the works.  All the best wishes to you and you family from HURT-nation!

On like Donkey Kong!

Snow making has begun at Lake Placid ski jumps, the toll road has snow, feet of snow fell in the U.P, fast grass is found from the Green Mountains to Mt. Van Greene, and mid-season corduroy is rolled on the Tug.  All over HURT nation skiers are gearing up for the start of the race season and enjoying the early cold snap.  The December NYSSRA membership drive has HURT poised for some solid starting club points despite losing some solid masters points to the evil empire (Burt? in black?) but if you haven't wrangled your closest friend, fittest neighbor, or nearest stranger onto skis and into HURT green do it now before December 1st!  We love seeing your early season pics so when you get on snow post it up on the HURT book-o-faces.... or tweet it @hurtnordic #eastyellowstone.  Here are some of our early season favorites so far....

Mr. Mares is laughing at all us rollerskiers while he stands atop feet of Michigan white stuff.

Barb and Chris cruise the toll road!

 

MDH and Ed "Yeti" Luban enjoy a team ski on the early season white stuff

Directress #1 tests out her fastest boards on the first snow to land on the new trail system at "Mt. Van Greene".  Check out the great weight transfer!

Directress #2 hasn't found the skis yet but is wind-testing the most recent race suit technology. 

Chris Y. is keeping things rolling with Tuesday night workouts, OD skis are planned for the rest of November and with a little luck some team Thanksgiving weekend snow time is in the works.  Keep your eyes on our media empire and plan to join us!  For those at the far edges of HURT nation.....keep us posted on your season with pics and let us know when you are in town.  

Enjoy the start of the season!  Its on like DONKEY KONG!

November Training Days

Come join us for two OD rollerski workouts in November.  Both are starting from Chris' house at 9am.  We will aim for about 3 hrs of L2 skate skiing.  Mark your calendars!

Saturday November 1st 9am (the day before Sufferfest!)

Sunday November 16th 9am

Fall Time!

Fall time is a great time of year...temps get cooler, cider donuts are back and rollerski sessions get more frequent and more intense.  Winter is coming and you can feel it in your bones (along side the exhaustion, soreness and general fatigue that comes from sharing a bedroom with an infant....oh sorry....that's just me).  Fall training days are in full swing and the Directress(es) are encouraging (demanding...they are very demanding...) everyone to come out and get some good team skiing in.  Tuesday night training is still rolling with Chris, Owen, Tim and co. leading the way at SPAC and the interval sessions are starting to ramp up fitness.  We have been planning some wicked weekend training departing from the Yarsevich-Center-of-Excellence in Greenfield, NY.  The first session saw Patrick, Owen, Chris, DPK, Brian and Sean joined by HURT new-comer Eric Rogers for a 30+K roll on some of the best training roads NY has to offer. The next weekend training day will be Saturday, Spetember 27th and following it will be a fall-time-potluck-HURT-celebration for  all team friends and family.  Email Chris for potluck details and directions.  We really hope to see you there! (you don't have to wear a bright yellow shirt either.....it was purely coincidence.....I swear it).  We are working out the details for our October dates so stay tuned for details.

On Sunday, please consider coming down to Siena College to join in the NYSSRA Nordic planning meeting.  NYSSRA is looking for fresh faces and new ideas as we plan for the winter race season.  The general meeting is scheduled for 12:30 and should last only a couple hours.  HURT will again place a bid to host the NYSSRA Championship Weekend up in Lake Placid (which was a HUGE success last year) and will be looking to find ways to implement Jan Mares' great idea of adding 5K race options for adult skiers at some NYSSRA races.  (which the mothers of HURT LAYDZ have already committed to DOMINATING).  Remember....what happens in the fall pays off in the winter....just like training and racing.  When great planning happens in the fall, great events happen in the winter.  We would love for you to be part of the process so please check out the info at www.nyssranordic.org and try to make it if you can.