Mansfield Nordic Club

Sunday marked a big end-of-summer feat, as 27 of our Junior and Collegiate athletes descended upon the quiet roads of Ferrisburgh for a 100km rollerski.

Across the fresh pavement by Kingsland Bay and around toward the outskirts of Vergennes and back on a 20km loop, the crew skied around, and around, and around until ticking off all 100km! The general timeframe ended up being about 6 to 6.5 hours of on-time.

This is a huge feat…big skis like this have become increasingly popular after COVID led pro skiers in Norway to end their summer and winter seasons with epic distances. But is it possible that this was the biggest collection of Junior skiers completing 100k? I’m not sure…but let’s just say that an impressive crew hit those roads yesterday.

When we did this ski in the spring at Craftsbury, the conditions turned from ice to slush and we had to absolutely slog through the final 65 kilometers. There were a lot of stops, sitting in chairs, and questioning our life choices. This time, the sun got a little bit toasty, but the skis didn’t slow down and the loop was very flat. The kilometers clicked-by as the crew was laughing and vlogging and downing some snacks on the move.

At the end of the ski we made sure to grab some ice cream as the temps were about 80, although we were all a little bummed that the McDonalds right across the street was closed because at 75km a bunch of us decided that McFlurrys would be our best post-ski option. To the Jolley station it was, where we also stocked up on recovery chocolate milk.

Soon most of the team starts pre-season for fall sports like XC running and soccer…it’s always a bit of a sad time to see such team camaraderie go in different directions with the onset of other obligations (oh yeah, there’s school classes somewhere in there too). But more than ever I think this crew is excited to find ways to keep working together, be it morning sessions, weekend adventures, or just staying in touch while we all keep preparing for winter.

Due to the recent surge of COVID cases in Vermont, the MNC Board of Directors is instituting the following policies for our Junior training programs. We ask that all athletes comply with these policies in order to best protect the health and safety of our coaches, fellow athletes, and their families.

1) Only vaccinated athletes will be allowed to participate in indoor MNC activities (e.g. van rides, indoor training, etc). As a precaution, we will also ask that vaccinated athletes be masked while indoors.

2) All athletes can participate in outdoor training regardless of vaccination status, but athletes must continue to follow safe social distancing protocols (e.g. 6 ft spacing) and avoid clustering for extended periods of time.

3) We are requesting all athletes to inform coaches of their vaccine status.  Information will be sent to currently-registered athletes, and a space to input vaccination status will be included on Fall registration forms. 

4) The MNC Board will be evaluating this Fall whether to allow only vaccinated athletes to train if the rate of community spread remains high and our outdoor social distancing policies are not being adequately followed. 

If there are any questions or concerns in regard to this policy, we ask that you direct them to the MNC Board at president@mansfieldnordic.org and not our coaching staff.

The third edition of Mini Mountain Camp wrapped up yesterday, and once again this trip highlighted some of the coolest parts of club skiing. Mountain Camp is extremely tough and demanding, and often very experienced skiers are taking part. This camp, by contrast, is more of an introduction to training camp life.

Some of this crew have been racing since the young BKL days, and others are totally new to the sport. Everyone got to spend some fun time together though, whether training or just hanging out in our team house.

In both summer camps this year we’ve gotten to do some joint race efforts with local teams. In Stratton we had a classic timetrial with SMS, and on Saturday the Mini Mtn Camp group travelled to a favorite road of Ford Sayre to do a team sprint race. With one partner from MNC and one partner from Ford Sayre (team sprints have 2 skiers on each team) it was a cool way to meet some competitors and bring teams together!

Niko leading the charge in on a team sprint lap

After the team sprint we were welcomed to FS parent Jay Davis’ house for swimming and lunch!

We also completed some favorite workouts like a rollerski up the Killington access road, this year making two trips on on skis instead of switching to bounding/running equipment. We wanted to get some extra work on skis for a group that in some cases is just picking up classic rollerskiing.

Always gotta have some lounging time

Thanks to Ford Sayre coach Hilary for joining us at camp this year!

You can check out lots of photos from camp at the albums below. Time to start planning for 2022!

Mini Mountain Camp 2021

Mini Mtn Camp Team Sprint w/Ford Sayre

The best yet? Mountain Camp 2021 featured the most consistent and high-level training the club has ever put to trails or pavement. It included a timetrial with SMS on a fleet of matched NENSA rollerskis, and a warmup/cooldown with the World Cup skiers from T2.

Fast athletes, hardworking friends, fun-loving teammates, and an incomparable vibe. The most rewarding and exciting training or racing trip I have ever been a part of, bar none!

I sent a note to the team including a few bullet points on why I thought this went so well…

• Willingness to work harder than any group has at Mountain Camp, and for the right reasons/with the right attitude about it. There was a lot of push for personal goals and improvement, but it never felt competitive among our own group. There was also plenty of team motivation, like whole groups asking to ski longer, do more intervals, and extend camp more days 🙂
• The USST often talks about various skiers on their team falling into “roles” within the group. They reference descriptors/roles like “caretaker” or “listener” or “cheerleader” and that goes one level deeper than just saying someone is a “role model”. It was fun to see this group define and develop these roles, and watch skiers in action bringing out the best in each other.
• This group knows how to have fun and bring everyone into it. It’s too easy to be on a team where the hard work is the focus and the fun is forced. Or a team where the fun is paramount at the expense of hard work. I don’t think either were less than 100 this week.

You can check out some photos from the week on the MNC Flickr album HERE.