Author Archive | Adam Terko

For some it has already happened, but in general this coming week will mark the start of the 17/18 school year. There’s a lot of excitement and trepidation in the air, as you might expect. The school calendar is also a blunt reminder of the change from summer to fall, and of course invites reflection on the training done over the past few months.

In the car this morning I got to talk about that a bit with Kai and Aidan. We were en route to a long mountain bike ride in Pittsfield, Vermont at the awesome Green Mountain Trails…after Saturday’s session, we realized it would only be the three of us around for training the next day and so we made plans for a big, unique ride to cap off the summer.

Back to the conversation at hand and the summer reflection: the basic agreement, backed up by training plan and training log intel, was that we’d trained more than last year (total hours and number of sessions), trained harder than last year (more time at L4, staying in touch with racing), and also done a better job of coming into most sessions prepared and recovering well. The team is fit, and excited for fall races and challenges rather than dreading them.

Ben C doing some “scenic bounding” drills at the Round Church

Ben L getting some lactate tested by Coach Laurel

On Saturday we had a pretty intimidating workout planned: a hard effort “duathlon” workout involving skate skiing up the Bolton access road, switching to shoes and running to the top via the route of our uphill running test. Although we had a relatively small group for this one, I was surprised many times in this one workout…surprised in a good way!

It was great to see the guys working together at the start, and keeping the pace manageable so as not to blow up late in the ski portion. At the sugarhouse Kai made a breakaway and skied incredibly well: the best I’d seen him in 2 years and, for the first time in those 2 years, uninhibited by injury and pain. As I drove up and down to check on the progress of various skiers, I kept thinking I’d see Kai around the next uphill corner. Often though, he would be out of sight, already several switchbacks or turns ahead of where I thought he would be.

Ali worked her way up the mountain behind the guys, also skiing great…in fact, Ali skied up and then ran to the top on Saturday, when last year she did not even complete the ski portion! Huge steps up this year from so many of the crew.

Ali getting after that V1

Coming up to the top of the run was my next big surprise. As Ali and I started the run together, I was worried the guys (Kai, Ben, Aidan, Dakota) might already be on their way down. Instead, they had all stayed at the top to cheer on Ali so that we could all be at the summit together. Props!

What’s more, I learned that Kai, Aidan, and Dakota had all done the entire workout (ski, transition, and run) in under an hour. At the start, I had said it might be incredibly difficult to do that. Guess that wasn’t the case. Aidan even did the run in 15:45, only 30 seconds off his PR that he had set when he wasn’t skiing up a mountain beforehand!

Tyke was also at the top to support us, of course!

Back on the singletrack today in Pittsfield with Kai and Aidan, all of that excitement was hard to keep pent up. I had been thinking about it in my head during a long climb, and as we rounded an uphill switchback into another ascent I just blurted out “gonna be a big year for the Pugs!”

Huntington Boiz atop the Green Mountain Trails

2 hours and 45 minutes of riding later, we popped out of the woods and into a farm field, and headed in the direction of home, fall, school, and even faster skiing.

With summer winding down, our schedule has been a bit focused on making sure we get in all of our favorite workouts before school starts up and fall sports kick in. Running has already started and family vacations are in their last hurrahs as well, so unfortunately we only had a limited group on Saturday for what is now a favorite workout.

I discovered Road 101 last year in the same way I discover many interesting training spots: taking a random turn and driving down to explore on my own in the middle of some other drive. This beautiful mountain road switchbacks up near Smuggs and is usually pretty free of traffic compared to the bustling, tourist-heavy Notch Road. Perfect for striding, which is something we try to only work on in focused sessions (not just casually striding around on rollerskis).

I put together some edits of individual skiers to watch technique, but of course also made a separate short clip that encapsulates what a cool day we had!

Ski trails in the distance, fresh pavement and skiers in the foreground

We have one more busy week of summer training before things shift to the autumn schedule…if you haven’t checked out registration yet, we are LIVE for our Fall 2017 programming! Visit that page HERE. We’re excited to train hard and get in some fall faces, and get back to our partnership with the St Mikes team!

This past weekend, Jericho was abuzz with the USBA Summer Biathlon Championships. Serving as one of the first stops on the route to an Olympic team this winter, all of the country’s (and many of Canada’s) best biathletes were in attendance.

Most of the athletes end up staying in the barracks facilities at the Range, which are notoriously cramped, dull, and bland. In a nice twist of convenience, however, Coach Adam and Coach Liam are renting a house right outside the back gate to the Range. What’s more, this house feature a basement ski workshop abutting a bunk bed, futon, carpeting, and shelf storage. Obviously it doesn’t take a few ski coaches long to identify this as the “MNC Athlete Housing” and open it up to guests.

This option started off with some high-profile candidates, beginning with soon-to-be-SLU skier and friend-of-the-Pugs Tim Cunningham. Later in the week, we stepped it up to the National level, hosting US Biathlon Team members Paul Schommer and Jake Brown. The biathletes were eager to get out of the barracks in prep for their races, and of course it helps that Liam knew them both from his days in the Midwest.

Liam captured this sweet photo of Jake during the race

It was great to sit back and chat with the guys between races back at the house. Despite World Cup and Olympic selection criteria on the line, both Jake and Paul were really friendly and if they were tense, they did a good job not showing it. Liam and I were both a little paranoid that something would go wrong like a fire alarm getting set off or a noisy neighbor ruining someones Olympic chances, but luckily all was well in the house. We analyzed race video, talked about the state of US skiing and Biathlon, and of course had an impromptu roundtable discussion of who the most “savage” nordic skiers are out there. Wouldn’t you know, the biathletes are all about analyzing hip position and engagement right now too, go figure!

Although Jake didn’t have quite the weekend he was hoping for, he still stayed positive and it sounds like he’s made a ton of progress in a sport he’s relatively new in. Paul had an outstanding weekend, especially in Saturday’s mass start where he raced to 4th overall behind World Silver Medalist Nathan Smith (Canada), World Champion Lowell Bailey, and World Silver Medalist Tim Burke. When the only guys that beat you are World Champs medalists it’s a pretty great result I’d say: plus, since they scored an American podium Paul got to be up there with only Lowell and Tim ahead of him.

American mass start podium: Bailey, Burke, Schommer

Not to be outdone, Tim Cunningham laid down the heat in the Youth races. He’s been doing biathlon for about a week, and was third on the first day despite many more penalties than the two ahead of him. On Sunday, he didn’t even give the competition a chance as he shot consistently and smoked the field by almost a minute and a half!

Since he’s done a lot of training with us these past 2 years, Tim is an unofficial Pug and of course I had him toss on an MNC shirt for the podium PR. Looks like he is bound for good things in both biathlon and at SLU this season!

MNC was also out in force with Eliza, Marika, and Tim Cobb. Eliza skied really well Saturday, and Marika had a great pursuit on Sunday highlighted by cleaning the final standing stage to much fanfare from the crowd. Timmy struggled with his shooting so despite skiing smoother than I have ever seen, a bit too much of that skiing was around the penalty loop for his liking on Sunday. He still showed that he is training well and is a threat for the World Junior team this winter by being the 3rd American on Saturday!

USBA Summer Rollerski Trials results

A big thanks to EABC for putting on such fun and well-run races. Many MNC skiers came out to watch on Saturday (having practice scheduled at the Range right after didn’t hurt) and we’ve got lots of video to look at and compare to our own recent timetrial on similar courses…you can check some of the footage out below. Thanks again to Tim, Jake, and Paul for spending time with us, and best of luck this season!

Paul and Jake: honorary Pugs for a weekend

To learn more about Paul and Jake, I highly recommend listening to their interviews with Kizkzone Media which you can find on THIS PAGE below is a bit of race footage from the past weekend! Jake and Paul are slightly “featured” since we were trying to capture a few key sections to review as a group.

What a busy week, starting off with specific strength on Tuesday and ending with some very big-scale workouts toward the end of the week.

Thursday, MNC hosted several other groups at the Range for a big rollerski timetrial…with 61 competitors and even more skiers, this might’ve been one of the biggest rollerski gatherings in the area! The day was hot and humid, but the Pugs hit the course and raced alongside the Craftsbury and GMVS summer camps for a grueling 5 or 10k skate race.

Results for the Pugs were mixed, and overall I’m confident in saying it was not our strongest showing as a group. That’s not to overshadow some really strong individual performances, but it would be untrue to say that the results we put up on Thursday accurately demonstrate the work and time this group has put in on the whole this summer. We’ve seen many PR efforts in the double pole test, and saw more PRs and strong first-ever times at Bolton earlier this summer and again just 2 days after the skate timetrial…that, combined with some analysis after Thursday’s race, gives me a clue that we need to work a bit on identifying and sharpening our race-day mentality and preparation. It’s time for a little sports psych discussion and maybe some light homework 🙂

61 racers! Quite a big crew at the Range

The rolling continued the next day with a double pole down in the Charlotte/Shelburne area. As this was my high school and college stomping grounds for summer training, I know all sorts of infinite loops and routes that can be used for any length ski. The group that skied the longest this day did just shy of 25 miles!

Covered bridge tour of Charlotte

On Saturday we ran our Bolton uphill test as our second intensity session of the week. While it was pretty wet and gross out, we did have some brave souls and fast times. At the start and during the warmup, we discussed some mental strategies and ways to tap into a good race mode since identifying that as a goal on Thursday. There were some solid performances, with Aidan notching another PR and Sammie and Ali both running their first uphill test with competitive times. We know we are improving, as these repeatable tests show: now it’s time to take it to the races this winter!

Ford Sayre and soon-to-be SLU skier Tim Cunningham joined the group this week and hit up some of our favorite workouts like Bolton

Group shot atop the chair in the mist

Bolton Historical Record

To cap off a long and tough week, we of course ended on a long workout! This was a nice distance cruise, but it still took everyone up a whole lot of hill…the group skied all of Pleasant Valley and even up into Underhill, before heading up Smugglers Notch (with a little extra climb up Road 101, of course). Phew!

Elevation profile of the ski from Will’s Strava…found some hills out there

Also of note…it’s now August if you can believe it, and MNC Fall Training is now LIVE for Juniors and Collegiate athletes! Be sure to sign up for an awesome autumn of hard training and prep for the winter.

MNC Fall Registration

In anticipation of a big week ahead, this past week was pretty mellow for the Junior team. That being said, there were three great sessions that stood out, and both happen to have some media to go along with them. That makes them perfect for sharing and re-living!

Ben Lustgarten Ski #2

For the second time in a summer, we were fortunate enough to have Ben Lustgarten come out and ski with us! This time the group was quite large and Ben led us through a lot of great drills and talked some serious body position. What was equally as rewarding was the Q&A Ben did afterward…I filmed the entire talk and edited it down to a PugCast that is definitely required-viewing!

Talkin’ about body position…

And demonstrating some great body position!

Double Pole Test

This was round two for the summer, and we saw a lot of improvements. At the start line there was a bit of grumbling because the pavement was wet from a bunch of rain the past few days, and typically rain makes for a slower rolling surface. Conor was even so resolute as to dispute my pump-up speech by saying “nobody’s gonna PR today”.

I replied that he should “prove himself wrong” and he said “no I’m going to prove myself right” and then proceeded to pole to a PR a few minutes later.

Other skiers who either matched or set a personal record:

Kai, Ben C, Matt,  Conor, Magda, Sammie, Ava, Camille. Special shoutout to Ben L who was 1 second from a PR, and Will who was 2 seconds off.

First-time test takers:

Charles, Dakota, Alex, Rose, Lily, and Quincy get shout-outs too!

Below is a video of the racers taken about 1/3 of the way in. We took video on a flatter section to see how people were getting their hips up and forward, similar to some videos from Norway we’d been watching and discussing at the start of practice.

DP Test Archive

Milton Skate Roll and Swim

The DP test may have been a little bit soggy, but that day marked the turnaround for a gorgeous weekend! We took advantage with a very nice ski up in Milton that brought everyone along rolling farm roads and right past the lake. Special thanks to the Lelito family for letting us park at their place to start the rollerski, and providing us with some snacks and pool time after the workout. Everyone skied for at least 2 hours, and some got in 2:40 and 25 miles!

I’ve lately been watching a lot of the Vlog from World Cup winner Johannes Klaebo…pretty interesting stuff. I decided to go that route with the video for this session. It’s a bit different but hopefully enjoyable and at least entertaining!

Directions at the start

Rolling through farm and field

Vermont does it again

Post-ski water recovery