Temps a little warmer this week will be a welcome relief from the cold. Highs today will top out around 30 F.
Thursday, 2/03: Skate
It should be a very snowy day and not too cold. Be sure to check the website before you venture out in case we need to cancel due to bad driving conditions.
Sunday, 2/06: Racers Practice at Craftsbury 2:30-4 pm.
It’s a big race weekend at Craftsbury: NENSA Eastern Cup, Supertour and a College Carnival all together. Sunday afternoon will be a little less hectic and easier parking as most of the colleges will have left. We will plan to watch the MNC U-16 girls race their 5 k Freestyle Pursuit to see how a pursuit race works, cheer on the team, and get in a little skiing ourselves.
Plan: Meet Rosemary at 2:30 at the MNC Wax Trailer (its all black, MNC flag outside) in the first parking lot near the coffee truck with your skate skis ready to ski.
Remember, you can find the latest info on Masters training (technique, location, quick summary) at the Masters Training Doc! Even despite the cold we had some great sessions last week. Here is a clip of the Black Group working on a little hop skating technique.
Coming up this week we have a bit more cold weather, but we’re prepared (and acclimated) at this point. Of note, a few of the trails across the road leading to the alpine hill (did you know there was an alpine hill at the Range?) are groomed, and can be accessed by taking a left near the bottom of Pit loop. These trails are all natural snow and there are a few sticks here and there, but otherwise great conditions. Remember that these trails do not have lights, so headlamps are needed if you are venturing after dark.
With abundant snow for the first time this year, our recent Junior training block was better than ever. Without a key race during the past week, it was a great time to get in some additional volume and focused workouts before we’re hit with 4 big weekends in a row (Lake Placid, Craftsbury, Craftsbury, Dublin). The amount of skiing everyone put in, from long cooldowns after high school races to morning sessions in the bright sunlight, and even subzero skis under the lights, shows some serious dedication and a love for the sport. People just want to ski! We’ve never had a group this excited to just be on snow training, and in a recurring theme my statement after a 3 hour ski at Trapps on Sunday was simple…”you are all really good at skiing” and sometimes that’s all there is to it.
The week ended with two great days in a row. On Saturday some of the group got in a mass start high school race at Hard’Ack, while another group braved a -10 start temp (that thankfully warmed to the low teens quickly) at Craftsbury. The Craftsbury group got in a really solid workout prepating for classic sprint racing which we’ll see at the next Eastern Cup. It’s a format that’s quite tricky as you need to nail the balance of going fast but also not skiing frantically in the classic technique.
Everybody did a solid warmup and then one lap of the Craftsbury sprint course in reverse direction (up the Moss climb, because it’s great for classic) with a finish that resembled the Lake Placid course for the coming race. This first round was one racers every 15 seconds, just like a sprint qualifier. We then took a break of 25 minutes for people to do a mini-cooldown and mini-warmup to simulate what happens on a larger scale on sprint day. Next up was 3 rounds of head-to-head racing, where everyone went off mass-start style. While it was more people than a typical sprint heat of 6, it was ideal to get everyone racing in a group. Between heats tactics, wax, pacing, and mentality were discussed, and so trying different approached yielded a lot of good learning.
Here are some video clips…these show the qualifier, the first heat, the second heat, and a bit of the VERY end of the final heat!
But we weren’t done with big ski days for the weekend, as the next day at Trapps saw practically everyone in the ski world out to play. Our Juniors had a huge contingent out for a long tour, where the goal was 3 hours of skiing. The final piece of volume training before everything gets cut back in these busy race weeks.
We couldn’t ask for a better day, and clearly many MNC Masters (and the UVM team) were thinking the same thing. We skied up to the cabin and down to the Stowe Nordic trails including super fun narrow winding trails in addition to wide groomers. After a quick swap to skate skis most ended with 3 hours and over 20 miles/30 kilometers total.
The sun was bright and the trees were snowy, so I thought for this one instead of a fast-paced action edit it would be better to put some nice clips together in slow motion, and create the kind of video you’d want to play on a loop in the background of your living room…or something to watch when it’s 95 and humid out in July and you are dreaming of winter!
Off they go! The Lollipopers kick off the racing at the Mad River BKL Race on a gorgeous winter afternoon!
It was another bluebird day for the Mad River BKL Race at Ole’s Touring Center in Warren, VT. Race organizers Justin Beckwith and Brie Pike-Springer planned well, scheduling all the races for the afternoon when things had warmed up after a very cold night.
It’s been a long time since Ole’s has held a race and an even longer time since I have skied there. It turned out to be a great venue with great snow and grooming. A 1.5 km loop was groomed out in the fields across from the airstrip and we had that whole side of the road to ourselves. The Races started with a challenging Lollipop race where MNC’s Daisy Tremble and others had to ski up a hill, down and around a corner and back to the finish line where they collected their lollipops. Brother Oliver Tremble skied the 1/2 classic race, easily leading the way for a first place finish. Oliver also skied the 3/4 skate race along with MNC’s Mazzy Merritt who came straight from Bolton’s alpine hill, putting in a Ski Meister day.
We had a great squad of 5/6 racers who dominated the field. Liam Vile, Fiona Repp, Oakley Crawford, and Ansel Sprague all skied incredibly well and finished at the top with Liam leading the pack. Fiona had a sprint to the finish and kept two speedy contesters at bay with her incredible tempo and push.
Mary Moyer skied the 7/8 race and did a tremendous job in a very competitive field. She and the other racers had to ski 3 times around the loop which went up a big hill, moseyed around the top and then descended steeply to the finish. She skied very hard and finished fourth for the girls! Congratulations to all these MNC racers!
The MNC Skiathlon is on Sunday, February 13th this year! Join us for the big race that WE host every year, with races for all ages and abilities!
The BKL races are a main highlight, but with Zak Cup and Club Cup points up for grabs the Popular/Citizen races should certainly be a draw for adults. There is even a “what the heck” race for first-time racers and low-key fun competition!
If you are interested in volunteering, please contact organizer Christine Massey (Christine.Massey@uvm.edu) to help out.
Registration can be found at the link below on SkiReg:
