This week we are tackling “30/30 speeds”, henceforth referred to simple as 30/30s. These are a staple of the Junior program but they are incredibly beneficial for any skier! The combination of hard work but short bursts and equal rest is very unique, with a very direct technique-focused application in addition to just pure fitness or strength.
The short nature of the interval means that on rollerskis (or on foot!) you should try to execute good technique for the whole speed. The recovery period is equivalent: 30 seconds on, 30 seconds easy but continual moving. Hence the title 30/30s. The tricky part is that the more of these you do, the harder it is to maintain that good technique. These intervals truly are “easy to lean/hard to master” because it’s quite easy at first to go hard…but it can catch up to you fast!
As Scott Johnston writes in “Training for the Uphill Athlete”, 30/30s are “a good way to introduce Z4 [Level 4, or race pace] into your interval routine and add in a bit of speed to what may become some fairly slow but hard uphill efforts. You’ll need a good warmup that culminates in three to four minutes at Z3 [level 3, or threshold pace]. Then you’ll be ready to roll right into the 30/30 sets.”
Johnston suggests starting with 2 sets of 6 minutes of 30/30s. Give yourself 5-10 minutes between set one before rolling right into set 2. As you progress through the summer or fall, bump it up to 2×8 minutes, then 2×10…eventually you could shoot for a whole 30 minute block, which is 15 minutes of intensity time!
It is great to see such positive action and awareness being taken by groups like NENSA within our sport. MNC shares the sentiments expressed in this NENSA piece, and we encourage our members to take a look at what they can do to help be a force for equality and compassion both within and beyond our sport. Our board of directors will be discussing further actions and steps we can take as club.
MNC would not exist without the support and engagement of a just and caring community. Going forward, we will strive to be even more aware of our own place within that community and how we can educate ourselves further as individuals and as an organization.
Thank you for taking the time to read, learn, reach out, and contribute in your own way. MNC will be doing the same-
Continuing this non-traditional spring and summer season, most of MNCs contingent has now graduated. Whether from 8th grade into high school or from high school out into the rest of the world…the crew is going places! We’ll end the post with a little shoutout to the college-bound skiers, but first here is the week in order, with media to share.
We hit it big with a volume week, meaning high total hours, a few double session days and a big epic adventure on the weekend. Very impressed to see a good-sized crowd on morning run or bike days: in years past, it was like pulling metal off a kickwax tin just to get people to try a 2nd training session in one day. With some steamy weather on Tuesday, intervals mixing the CVU track and the hillier running trails were pretty tough…but for the most part it was just a beautiful Vermont summer week.
A college contingent has begun rolling in, so athletes from UVM, UNH, and SLU are mixing it up with the squad. On Thursday we had some skate speeds and while we’re kind of getting sick of the Southridge neighborhood for rollerskiing (looking at you and tapping the watch, Camp Ethan Allen Training Site…) the quality of work has been high.
The weekend was reserved for running long distances. With a lot of grad ceremonies on Saturday we split it up to have the U16 crew out on Saturday and the older kids on Sunday. Everything centered around what some people call the “Triple Crown” section of trail networks in Hinesburg/Huntington. The three networks are:
-Sleepy Hollow
-Hinesburg Town Forest
-Carse Hills
Each of these networks is its own small hill, bisected by dirt roads between Huntington Road and Richmond Road/116. A connector trail from each network leads down to a dirt road where you can pick up the next network…
-“Yoda” at Sleepy Hollow leads to Texas Hill, where you can pick up Hinesburg Town Forest
-“Back Door” at Hinesburg takes you down to Lincoln Hill road, where you can pick up Carse Hills
-“Front Door” at Carse takes you onto Hollow Road, where a few miles of pavement lead you back to Sherman Hollow Road/Sleepy Hollow
I hadn’t planned to accomplish the whole Triple Crown loop with the group on Sunday. But it was an amazing day, and the mood just felt right. People had shown up with running vests, good spirits, and focus.
First stop, the cabin at Sleepy
Perry was with us on a bike and with easy car access, so we had numerous bailout options along the way. But the crew made it happen and to my unbridled excitement there was not a complaint to be heard. The trails were dry and the air was cool. Mountain bikers were getting after it as well, but it was actually pretty quiet out in the woods despite the nice weather.
Texas Hill/Hayden Hill East the connector between Sleepy and HTF
That includes the 6 miles of pavement we had to slog through after being on beautiful trails for the 2.5 hours preceding. Probably my promise (which I delivered on) of picking up some Red Bull and potato chips at the general store in Huntington kept the spirits just above water. When you’re doing an “ultra run” you’re allowed to have the common items in play at ultramarathon aid stations around the world, I say.
Vermont is looking its best right now!
During the last few miles the pace was still consistent and you could tell that the energy was coming from 30% fitness and 70% endorphins, but that’s what a big ski training week SHOULD feel like. The connection was made, and the “Strava loop” was completed for a full 17 miles, 3.5 hours, and 2,200′ of elevation.
Psyched to have a great squad accomplish that and still be pumped at the finish!
Big congrats to the 6 who underwent this epic run journey! Silas, Julia, Rose, Isabelle, Jessie, and Hanna! Here are 2 maps that show the route…the left is from Trailforks, which highlights the individual trail networks. The right side is the Strava data which shows where we went and the loop itself!
And, on a graduation note…this is far from a comprehensive list given the wide number of athletes our club has. BUT here are many of our high school graduates and their upcoming adventures!
NENSA has started their #JuneTerm programming with weekly challenges for masters, competitive regional athletes, and youth skiers…but we’d also like to share some ideas every week that our MNC masters can tackle as part of a well-rounded training program!
We have great options every week, including Monday rollerskiing sessions, Thursday running opportunities, and Sunday bike rides (for an update on all these activities, click here).
But our weekly Masters Challenge is going to be focused on an intensity session that can be done in any mode: running, skiing, biking, paddling, hiking, you name it. We will be taking some “traditional” training workouts and styles and sharing them here.
This week’s challenge is a continuous uphill effort (CUE for short!). This is similar to our Uphill Challenge in May, but you’re not limited to running in this endeavor. The goal is to find a hill about 15-25 minutes long and try to go up at a steady pace. For some this will be an all-out effort to maximize the pain, but it doesn’t need to be brutal to be effective. At the end of the summer, you can re-visit your CUE site for a progress-check.
Some might choose to use the same course they tackled for the Uphill Challenge: it has been over a month since that challenge and now would be a good time to see if some continued work has paid off!
Some might choose a different mode…find a long road to bike up, a challenging section on a path to rollerski, or a windy day for a paddle: waves count as hills in a watercraft 😉
You can also choose to take on the MNC Bolton uphill run test, which has GONE VIRTUAL! The Juniors did this test on Saturday, and before the race I re-mapped the course on Strava to ensure it would more easily show up as a segment. The “start” and “end” of the segment are not a little bit inside the actual course…so if you start 15′ uphill from the lower gate (by the “Waffle House”) and end at the plateau just before the top of the chairlift (above the wind turbine) and then add 10 seconds to your Strava segment time, you’ll have your Bolton test record time.
There’s no online requirements for weekly challenges…no submission platform, no media that needs to be sent in…just a chance to get inspired to try adding something to training! Next week (beginning June 15th) we will discuss and implement the always-beneficial “30/30s” into the challenge!
Bolton test…now virtual!
From the Vista base area, up Sherman’s Pass on the gravel road!
Online school is winding down, and you can tell the hunger for summer is here when morning sessions are just as well-attended as afternoon ones. Luckily I think this is one of the most comprehensive and available (for obvious reasons) coaching staffs we have ever been working with! Our crew of leaders is able to spread-out and cover a wide range of abilities, with the added benefit of keeping group sizes down.
Although VT guidelines permit outdoor recreation in groups of 25 we are generally sticking to the 10-12 range as our group is mostly split among age group every session.
Last week we got out for some really cool workouts, and I’m excited to report that whether it’s running, biking, or rollerskiing, we’re really reaching levels of fitness and preparedness to take on most any challenge this summer.
Finnegan’s first time at the prayer flags in Richmond. It was a little drizzly on this day but that’s actually a great type of weather for trail running
We switched-up the usual track/trail running intervals on Tues/Wed and opted instead for a longer continuous effort on the Cochrans trails. Since we were planning some rollerski intensity Thursday and the Bolton Test on Saturday we took it a bit easier to start the week. The parking lot at Cochrans was PACKED on Tuesday afternoon though. We counted 95 cars in the lot. Hopefully nobody beats my friend Ben and I to our idea of starting a food truck there for weekday after-work hours…
Rose, Isabelle and Lily finish up the run on the River Trail (Tuesday’s group had a bit more sun than the Wednesday group)
Thursday and Friday were back to the sunny, humid stuff we’ve seen a lot of this spring. We had some double pole intervals where the U16 group stuck to one side of the Southridge Neighborhood while the older crew had a set loop in the other side of the development. However, both Perry and I got some bike-cam footage and I was able to compile it together so it at least feels a little bit more like a big, usual summer group!
Saturday was the one-and-only Bolton Uphill Run Test! We usually do this in early may but thanks to the virus (and some late snowfall) we held off for a bit. It was also divided into groups rather than the big mass start we have typically held. Oh, and some lingering fog made it all the more distant-seeming! Our work to run more consistently this spring has definitely paid dividends already…we had a lot of boys doing the test for the first time and we had a girls conglomerate that absolutely demolished the clock! Congrats to Ava on a new athlete record and to everyone who got their first test under them. Personal-bests were set by Julia Oliver, Virginia, Silas, Lydia, and Niko!
Julia en route to a new PR
Ava receives her pint of Ben and Jerry’s for breaking the current-athlete record…oh, and Julia gets a bag of chips too by request
We finished the Saturday off with a mountain bike ride at Saxon Hill. Now, I used to have the hardest time convincing anyone on this team to come out for a second training session in a single day, let alone after the uphill run test. But how the times have changed! We had 12 kids out on bikes and a great time was had. The U16s rode one section while the U18+ rode another, and then we swapped places. Fun times and a great way to get in some active recovery. This group is ready for some bigger riding for sure.
