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Why PRO?

By on 9 June, 2025 in BKL Race Blog, Junior Blog, Masters Blog

As we exit the transitional spring period and start seeing more structured training, more athletes arriving, and more group sessions, the excitement around the Mansfield Pro Nordic team feels palpable. At least to me.

It may not be breaking the surface just yet, but speaking from the perspective of someone who is now entering their 10th summer with MNC I can say that there’s a different feeling in the air.

When Coach Perry and I sit down each Friday and look ahead to the upcoming week, we are coordinating locations, sessions, and workouts with young Juniors, collegiate champions, and World Cup skiers alike. The conversation is open and productive. “Does it make sense for Juniors to join this one? What is one of the Pro skiers came to this day with the high school athletes? What if we all start from here as a big group?” etc…

This is just the start of something that has potential beyond just competitive Junior athletes…when we need coaches in a pinch for regular sessions OR when traditional coaches are at a camp, we’ve got a rolodex of insanely competent older athletes to reach out to. What about a BKL game day? Certainly cool to have great role models attending. Would the Masters want to have some of the Pro Team share their strength training exercises? No doubt.

But it trickles down much further…we have a chance to expand the visibility of skiing in Vermont and beyond.

Wouldn’t it be cool to have that road sign on Cochran Rd say “rollerskiers” in addition to “cyclists” and “pedestrians” and other athlete users on the shoulder? It seems like having a team of professional skiers, maybe with some Olympic hopefuls or one-day Olympic athletes could help sway a town to make that addition.

Speaking of roads, we’re also in more places at once as a club. Rollerskiing can start to be a more visible part of our communities. We can reach out to other clubs in the running, biking, or youth scene and bring even more to the table. And that’s just the summer…

I hope you’ll consider supporting and engaging with this new team! It is a team FOR the COMMUNITY but it also relies so heavily on COMMUNITY SUPPORT. This is a new part of MNC that we want to grow and nurture!

If you are around on June 20th, check out our kickoff event and meet the team, get in a run if you like, play games, and enjoy dinner at Cochrans!

REGISTER HERE

“Feels like a day at training camp”

By on 9 June, 2025 in Junior Blog

It has been a productive few weeks! A few surprises came our way recently, such as getting BACK into the Range for rollerskiing on the track there…truly one of those resources with a value beyond measurement for so many reasons. Unfortunately we are almost always at the mercy of other forces that dictate when we can actually utilize that resource.

When the [paved] rug could get swept out from under you at any moment, you never waste a day or session up at that track! We got right down to business doing speeds on the super-steep grades, practicing carving turns and building downhill confidence, and ripping speeds in a group with no fear of cars or trucks.

We are also building up in group size as a few elements come together:

  • School sports ending and classes coming to a close
  • Pro athletes beginning to make their pilgrimage to Vermont!
  • MNCU athletes moving into their summer housing

    Sydney Palmer-Leger showing us the way of classic speeds

We’ve also made use of other great resources in our area…some natural, others put together by us! This includes strength at theMNCC which now features a host of new tools and implements. It also includes the great roads we have both paved and unpaved…we recently completed one of our more “standard” workouts on Saturday, some 1-mile running repeats on Governor Chittenden Rd in Williston. Beautiful scenery, trackable workout, focused threshold and metrics, and good vibes!

When we finished the running intervals on Saturday, we drove a few miles north to the Essex Family Fun Center to take on a different type of sport: golf!

Some may or may not know that one of the top high school golfers in the state happens to be Isaiah Bowen, and so a group of us got to smack some hits at the driving range while, in the of the lineup, Isaiah blasted some golf balls far into the horizon. Then it was off to the mini golf course where a heated round determined who was set to do dishes on the first night of Mountain Camp…

After the golf adventure it was time for lifting, wherein some athletes went home and others chose the gym route. Afterward, Astrid made a comment that I swear I have heard before and maybe even written about before: “That feltlike a full day of training camp.”

It was in reference to the mix of structured workouts, team activities (even including walking through and picking out recovery snacks in Hannaford between sessions) and good vibes that Saturday brought forth. It’s the best scenario we could have at practice, particularly just a regular Saturday workout. Training camp is where people connect by both training and living together. The most important factor toward connection is often not the skis or the lifts, but what happens in between the skis and lifts. It was great to have a good buy-in for the in-between, because we had a great time!

As our group grows larger heading into the summer, we’ll need to keep finding ways to add little adventures, activities, and team time. We don’t ever seem to lack for a desire to work hard in sport, but that doesn’t mean we can’t also put effort into how we spend time together beyond that.

 

MNC singlet order! (Due by June 4th)

By on 29 May, 2025 in Masters Blog

Looking to stay cool on a run, or be visible to cars on a rollerski this summer? Order an MNC singlet! These are the same super lightweight, breathable singlets worn by our collegiate and pro athletes.

How does it work?

1) Order your size and style below

2) We will place an order on June 5th

3) Screenprinting will take place once the items arrive

4) Happy training!

Thanks to star Masters competitor Carolyn Siccama for helping to put this idea together, and for modeling the piece! Carolyn is wearing a women’s XS in the photos.

MNC Singlets

 

NENSA Elite and Devo Teams

By on 19 May, 2025 in Junior Blog

Congrats to the MNC athletes named to this year’s NENSA Elite and Development teams! You can read the press release from this naming by clicking the link below:

NENSA Elite/Devo Teams

NENSA Elite Team

Sydney Palmer-Leger (Mansfield Pro)

Lauren Jortberg (Mansfield Pro)

Annie McColgan (Mansfield Pro)

Ava Thurston (MNC Alum/MNC University)

Emma Crum (MNC Alum/MNC University)

Gillian Fairfax (MNC Alum/MNC University)

Greta Kilburn (MNC Alum)

Logan Moore (Mansfield Pro)

NENSA Devo Team

Jorgen Pirrung

James Langan

Niko Cuneo

Mia Gorman

Acadia Enman

Astrid Longstreth

Hattie Barker (MNC Alum/MNC University)

 

 

The Scent of Petrichor

By on 19 May, 2025 in Junior Blog, Uncategorized

Last weekend on a long and scenic run on the old long trail, we discussed the smell of evaporating or freshly-fallen rain.

“I know there’s a name for that!” I said, and struggled to recall the term. Of course, these days you can just look up anything you don’t know immediately within a couple of seconds.

Petrichor: a distinctive, earthy, usually pleasant odor that is associated with rainfall especially when following a warm, dry period that arises from a combination of volatile plant oils released by soils into the air and carried by downdrafts. (Merriam-Webster). 

That was a new word for trivia night, and coincidentally a smell we’d be experiencing a lot in the week to come. But it also hits on something deeper. The concept of their being an overarching feeling or atmosphere that you can really pick up on.

There was a distinct moment during training last week where a sense of joy and satisfaction washed over me with the return of familiar feelings in all the senses.

It was a humid sunny day and the team and I had just gone on a run from the MNCC up Dugway road. Along the way we chatted about skiing, training camps, nature, prom, vlogs, and more. We scooted down an embankment to dunk our heats in the water at the Triple Buckets swimming hole on the return trip, and finished that first portion of our session back at the MNCC as the sun was starting to get a little lower in the sky and cast shadows across the gym floor.

We turned on the speakers and distorted guitars began to fill the room, competing for sonic space with two loud and powerful fans also droning loudly with their own tune. Weights clanked on the bars and racks, the flywheels of the two SkiErgs whirred intermittently, and the sound of loud footfalls from box jumps and hurdles echoed as well.

The smell of sweat was unavoidable, and white clouds of chalk floated across the low sunbeams streaming through the windows. Everyone knew what to do; this was a standard lifting day with exercises people were familiar with, so it was not about asking questions or deciphering printed strength sheets. The team just got down to business, and it felt instinctual.

It was a moment you’d close your eyes and recreate if you were talked with embodying “summer ski training” and it almost got me emotional! The sense of “place” was strong literally and figuratively. That energy carried through the rest of the week and it felt like the humid, sweaty, chalky, clanging ski-specific version of petrichor signaled the real start of the training year.

Here’s some more photos:

First team rollerski, featuring some double poling technique work and…

…ending the ski with a roll over to Dominoes to pick up our order

A very wet 3000m that included a delayed-start due to thunder

A nice wooden pug we found on our ski in Vergennes on Sunday!

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