Author Archive | Adam Terko

With the last of the trails beginning to wane and possibly one shot at a combination of temps, trail lengths, and late-season fitness, some of the MNC squad is gearing up for an “epic ski day” on Monday.

There is a lot of talk about doing a “100km day” but I want to stop short of publicly calling it that (although I may have been guilty of if this whole season). Not everyone will, and not everyone should, go out and ski 100km in a single effort. We should think of it more as a celebration of the ski season where we set out to ski as far as we can!

A lot of this was inspired by events of last March…when the World Cup was cancelled due to COVID, many of the top skiers in the world were left with nothing to do and a lot of late-season form and energy. What else were they to do? Many set out on insane ski days, some of which are documented here.

It looks like we may be possibly, maybe, eventually coming out of the COVID tunnel. With the last in-person race of the year on Sunday and a long break to look forward to after that (with the last of the legitimate ski trails probably melting-out by the end of next week) the time is now-or-never to give it our own shot!

Many of our skiers thinking of doing this are already asking questions about how they can best fuel for this ski before, during, and after. I’m no expert, but I’ve tried to do a bit of reading and research ahead of this endeavor.

The Day Before

If racing on Sunday, a really critical window is the 30 minutes immediately after the race. We want to be consuming lots of carbohydrates to replenish what our bodies went through in the race, as well as protein along with those carbs in order to help muscle rebuilding.

Chocolate milk contains that ideal 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein, so downing some of that right after completing the race will jump-start the recovery for the next day. But there’s way more than just a bottle of chocolate milk involved for optimal recovery. Below is a photo of some helpful charts from the book Roar by Stacey Sims. Note that these are just photos from my phone of the book, so sorry for any copyright infringement…

This chart can be useful for all sorts of training, be it weekly ski training, managing an Eastern Cup weekend with two races back-to-back, or preparing for an especially long or tough workout. Given the body’s high rate of burning both carbs and fat (especially fats as we focus on longer, easier distance pace for extended time on Monday, for example) we really need to be making sure we are fully fueled both the night before and the morning of our ski.

You’ll also notice that many of the “during” foods focus on salt/sodium. When we sweat it is important to replace more than just water, since our sweat is more than just water. Pretzels and potato chips are popular mid-effort snacks for ultrarunners because of the combination of fats and salts…not everything needs to come in a fancy “endurance” package like Gu or Clif products!

An article from Runner’s World suggests that long distance runners burn about 240 calories per hour while running, which of course fluctuates from person-to-person and is just a rough guide. On a recent test ski to check out calorie burning (as a way to make sure to replenish with enough of them!) my own watch suggested that I burned about 400 calories per hour. We weren’t sure how accurate that was, but given skiing’s more full-body involvement than running, as well as some more strength components, this 400 calories/hour seems within a good range of possibility. As referenced in the blog, this equals about 2 Nature Valley bars per hour.

It might not be very tolerable for your stomach to just go out and chomp down 2 crunchy, dry granola bars per hour on a long ski, which is why that fueling beforehand is so critical. Our bodies pull from those energy stores along with our fueling mid-workout. As the chart from Roar above shows, uncoated energy bars are only in the “okay” category during exercise. Mixing in some other types of fuel would not only add better mid-ski replenishment, but also be more palatable than just munching the same thing for hours on end.

So…a rough guide for people embarking on this big Monday ski:

• Replenish immediately after Sunday’s race, if you are racing. My personal plan is to down a chocolate milk within 5 minutes of crossing the finish line, and then go on a cooldown ski! It’s a good idea to have a sandwich, some lean protein, and fruit before even heading home.
• It’s also a good idea to try and get in some foods rich in antioxidants to fight off muscle soreness…beets and beet products in general are really popular for this, but other options include tart cherry juice or blueberries! Something to incorporate either with your post-race lunch or with an afternoon snack on Sunday.
• Have a great dinner on Sunday night. Go big on carbohydrates! This isn’t necessarily “carbo-loading” so much as just making sure your body has enough carbohydrates to provide a great and full fuel tank.
• Aim for a big breakfast on Monday: remember, this isn’t a race so it’s ok to start the ski with plenty in the system. This is where I might deviate from the Roar chart and be taking in some more carbohydrates closer to ski time, rather than switching to the usual smaller and race-stomach-friendly bites, gels, and fruits.
• Have a great selection of snacks for mid-ski…some bars, some pretzels or chips, some candy, a couple sandwiches, and extra water.
• Have hydration that is ideally more than just water. Sports drinks are ok, but we don’t want a huge sugar crash either. Better to dilute a bit if using Gatorade or Powerade. Let’s have extra water bottles on hand!
• I’m planning to go to the store and pick out a few post-ski treats. It’s almost a given that we will order some pizza to pick up afterward, but having something tasty and nutritious for right after will be huge. I may craft a delicious turkey sandwich with all the fixings, and a nice big cookie too.

Other notes for Monday’s long ski:

Temps will start colder and icier, but it’s supposed to get up to the 50s with sun. The snow will start fast and get slow and dirty. Here’s how to handle this:

• Bring sunscreen! We don’t want sun poisoning to make it even harder to complete this mission!
• Bring multiple pairs of skis. Even a clean, freshly-waxed pair of rock skis will be faster than a pair of race skis with 20+ km of dirty snow skied into them…moreso after it heats up.
• I will probably wax and bring 3 pairs of skis:1) a pair of training skis (for the first portion where the snow is fast no matter what skis I’m on)
  2) my colder/universal race skis for when it starts to warm up
  3) my white base slushy skis for the last part of the ski. Basically, switching to nicer and nicer skis as I get more and more tired, so that I have at least something going for me 🙂
• We can set up a “ski transition zone” for this, and we’ll also have NF spray wax to add boosts to our boards during the ski if needed.
• I may use the same type of running vest that many of us have taken to for long distance runs in the summer/fall. While a ski water belt is great and a vest/pack may look weird for skiing, I’ve found I am much more likely to remember to eat and drink consistently when there’s a hydration tube right at face-level and pockets with snacks easily accessible.
• I’m a diehard caffeine junky but I’m going to try and spread this out…saving the most caffeination until the last third/quarter of the effort.
• Want to get in on this craziness? Craftsbury, 8am on Monday the 22nd. Don’t forget your reservation!

Last week was the final Junior races of the season. Things got underway during the week with the State Championships (Boys on Monday, girls on Wednesday) and continued into the Open Junior Championships on the weekend (Boys on Saturday, girls on Sunday).

MNC was heavily represented at both events! Notably, skiers affiliated with MNC took 9 of the top-10 spots in the women’s D1 races. Hattie Barker swept the classic and skate D1 races, and Ava Thurston swept the classic and skate D2 races.

The Open Junior Championships were a great testament to the strength of VT skiing. Much like the U16/Eastern HS qualifier race, this was a solid look at how juniors from across the state stack up. Ski academies, club teams, and high school programs were all represented, and there was one race for all the groups: a 5km freestyle with two jumps and a couple of Nordic Cross features thrown in!

The boys kicked it off with a strong showing for the MNC U16 squad. Taylor, Rye and Brady continued a strong string of efforts to lead the way for the club in 12th, 14th, and 15th for U16 skiers.

You can find full men’s results here, and a separate U14/U16 result compilation here

It went from slushy to snowy overnight before the race, but the sun returned for some great race footage!

After the men’s race, it was time for the coaches to have a quick lunch and then keep the train moving ahead for the next day. A small gathering from the girls team arrived to do a course preview, and we had a blast checking out the jumps and getting in some pre-race work. What does that mean? A lap of the course, some speeds on key sections, some L3 to fire up the engines, and some fast speeds to be fully ready. Given the sun and the handy action from the GoPro we also have a short video for this ski:

The women’s race the next day was not quite as sunny, but the heat came from the skiing as the girls completely TORE UP the course! MNC had 5 finishers in the top 10, led by a 1-2 punch from Ava and Rose, with Hattie only 4 seconds away from the podium sweep in 4th! Rebecca continued a strong week after placing 2nd at States to rock a 7th here, while Emma Crum snagged 9th.

Close behind was Virginia in 12th, taking the U16 crown in her best skate race of the season! There was a lot of MNC up and down the field…we had 21 racers in this event!

You can find full women’s results here, and a separate U14/U16 result compilation here.

The women’s video can be seen below!

Bringing out the flag for a little group cooldown

What’s next? We will keep skiing as long as the snow holds out! There is a FIS race this weekend at Craftsbury that looks to be the final in-person race of the season. Not everyone will be competing in this race, but the snow is going to stick around (particularly at higher elevations and on snowmaking loops) and the move is to keep the skiing going.

The VT State Championships are coming up Monday and Wednesday this week. MNC was on-site at Craftsbury both Friday and Saturday in prep for (and competition in) the Craftsbury Spring Classic race.

With temps and conditions looking to remain similar, here are some notes from our testing and waxing over the weekend.

Glide:

Stable firm and icy conditions are the name of the game at Craftsbury. Cycles of very cold nights, no significant new snowfall, and daytime temps in the low teens mean tilled tracks and some ice lining the classic tracks.

For underlayers, we have NOT found that graphite adds anything to ski speed.

Traditional blue glide waxes should work well. We used Briko BP Blue wax over the weekend, but also had strong test results from SkiGo XC Green. More familiar solutions like Swix CH5 and Toko Blue can provide a great first step.

For NF glide top layers we have liked both Rode RL Cold liquid as well as Rex G41 spray. In current conditions, waxes like Ulla Black and Toko Base Performance Blue spray are also speedy.

As temps warm up for the women’s races, a hard underlayer like CH5 is still recommended, to be followed by one warmer NF layer such as CH8 or Toko Red.

Bumping up the warmer topcoats to things like Rode RL Warm liquid, Start RG Red liquid, Ulla Red/Black, or Toko Yellow spray (if dirty snow) or Swix PS10 spray (if clean snow) can be great options when the snow gets slushy.

Structure: 

In the colder any icier conditions such as Saturday, a medium-sized linear structure (such as Holenkol’s larger of the two linear options) or Toko Blue structure was great on both tips and tails of classic skis for the tracks.

Structure should be tested on skate skis before being applied. It is easy to “over-structure” in corn snow and tilled ice: remember that just because the air temp is warm, structure should also be based on the snowtype.

Kick:

Although hardwax provided some kick, we found klister to be far faster. Guru Extreme 39 Hard was durable enough to race on for 5km without a binder klister. Swix KN33 Nero klister (added in the middle of the kick zone) provided additional grip at the expense of some speed. Swix KX30 ice klsiter gripped well but did not offer great glide, and Oslo waxes, while extremely kicky, were also extremely slow.

Other great waxes in this range are Rex Purple and Start Blue.

For Wednesday races as the heat increases, it may still be wise to begin with a purple klister but be ready to adapt with some universal klisters that can handle some ice and abrasion such as Rode Multigrade, Guru Extreme 39, Rex OV/Brown, or Swix KN22.

If things get very wet, klisters such as Rode Rossa and Guru Red excel.

Good luck to all the racers!