The MNC Masters have continued to push the envelope, building their uphill rollerski skills in preparation for the aforementioned epic showdown with the Peru Nordic Masters at the Climb to the Castle rollerski race. There is no official counter, but Mic-Drop Millar and Mix Master Mike Gaughan have what we believe is the record for number of skis up Bolton in a single month.
Not to be outdone, Slick Rick Costanza and Steve Craftmaster Flex continue to hit the climb as well, this week joined by Trick Daddy Ric Schaaf.
If you want to check out what all of our Masters are up to this week, and join in yourself, be sure to check out the Masters Training page!
MNC Masters Hip-Hop album cover? (photo from Craftsmaster Flex’s Strava)
Busy first week of school up here in our corner of VT. Not to be deterred, we kicked off the fall with a great week of sessions and events! We got out for a few nice skis, in particular enjoying the morning sessions with MNC Academy in full force. Friday morning was particularly beautiful…cool, calm, and sunny for a classic ski out from the Round Chuch, up the well-packed dirt of Dugway Road and into the center of Huntington!
Timmy, Julia, and Meredith cruising up the dirt with not a car in sight
Made it back to the pavement, heading toward Huntington
Of course we also had some more traditional workouts like bounding intervals on the new trails at Chamberlain Hill, as well as double pole towing. It’s exciting to be back together with the St Mikes team for some joint training a few days a week this fall. On our first day with the Knights we got specific strength in on the rollerskis AND on the pegboard, which we hadn’t visited since early in the summer.
Towing each other to get STRONG
On the weekend we hit up two running workouts. First was the Bolton uphill test. Everyone had a great effort and with 17 competitors we had 16 PRs! A link to the archive can be found HERE. Biggest props of the day go to Ali (who set a PR by almost 2 minutes), Julia (who set a PR by a minute and a half), and Aidan (who is one of only a few to go 14:30 or under)!
Bolton squad! Thanks to Lisa Burt for the pic
The following day, a few of us had a great sunny run at Sleepy Hollow exploring some old classics and newly-built trails. After Bolton we made sure to go at a really relaxed pace, reminiscing on a few workouts past and starting to think about what lies ahead. There was some talk of renting the cabin for the evening to have a team weekend adventure in October!
Beautiful trails, constructed by the one-and-only Charlie Maitland!
And a Junior blog wouldn’t be complete without a little video action! Below are some clips from skate speeds and agility work at Greystone.
We had sun, hot weather, and some of our best workouts so far. I’m so impressed with this gang, and hopefully some of the wealth of video footage we captured will show that excitement AND the abilities of all these athletes!
Tuesday: Classic TT
This year we have 3 longer classic races on the Eastern Cup calendar, and 2 of those 3 are mass start. Not to mention the mass start race at JNs this year is in the classic technique. It was time for a timetrial to match! We had some missing faces as fall sports like soccer and XC running started up this week, but everyone skied great despite a couple of the gnarliest crashes and road rashes I’ve ever seen…needless to say I made a trip to WalMart on Wednesday to re-stock after all the gauze we used up in the first aid kit but everyone finished the race even despite the wounds 🙂
Thursday: Skate Team Sprint
Can’t help but get excited for this format now that America is the REIGNING OLYMPIC CHAMPION in it! We had a pretty large gang and it was fun to have everyone teamed up to race against each other. This was the biggest sign of progress for all our skiers this summer: we had everyone in the same race, young and old, new skier and experienced shredder alike. And all the way to the end things stayed competitive, with tactics also making their way down to all the places as everyone got a sense for when they’d get the tag and who they’d need to chase and who they were being chased by!
Saturday: Island Time Summer Closer
Thanks to the Nolan family for hosting us all at their awesome lake house in North Hero! We all got in a nice easy skate ski on some beautifully-paved and relatively car-free roads in the sun. Then there was lots of swimming, bbq, lawn games, and more as we celebrated the summer season. It was bittersweet as we said goodbye to the college-bound and departing skiers heading in different directions this fall…we’ll see everyone again soon enough though!
Skate Clips
If the clips below of some speedy skiing don’t get you excited for this crew to tear it up this winter, I don’t know what will! From good strength training, to lots of rollerskiing, to long trail runs and mountain bikes, everyone has come a long way improving what they’re capable of these past few months. Now it’s time to keep it going right through fall!
A beautiful day for some skate rollerskiing this past Sunday as the MNC Masters took to the streets of Southridge. Some specific strength, some skate intervals, and some technique work to get ready for the fall and winter seasons! Special shoutout to new member Scott who has recently moved to VT from the Rockies 🙂
The squad ready to roll!
Many may have heard of the MNC Masters Hip-Hop theme and our impending duel with the Metal-Thrashing masters over at Peru Nordic. Things are heating up and the MNC crew is looking stronger and faster with every passing week as we count down to the Climb to the Castle showdown on September 16th. Who will come out on top?? The gauntlet has been thrown down…
MNC college or and college-bound dudes getting after it
It was a much-needed recovery week after a busy schedule of races, camps, and travel recently. Although we’re not quite done with summer, a few cooler days and some grey rain on Saturday definitely put a bit of the “November feels” into the air recently. The MNC Juniors have had an incredible summer and it’s hard to believe school is around the corner. Fall starts have started up, and even more is changing in the next few weeks.
MNC Academyhas been off and running all summer, and our student-athletes have been crushing it with passing grades of at least a B and plenty higher in college courses left and right.
MNC Academy in action
What’s more, we’ve seen huge growth in the summer program and are working with lots of athletes every day and at every level. In the past, I’d run to get the camera if more than 10 people were at practice. Now, it feels empty if there’s fewer than 20 of us skiing laps at the Range. Wednesday and Friday, typically low-turnout days, have also jumped up thanks to more skiers taking part in 5-day training and putting in the work.
We’ve also been fortunate to be able to use the MMU gym this summer, meaning there was no extra cost to work on good strength training…something that’s often been difficult to coordinate and structure in the past. I’d say the huge double pole test PRs are a good indicator that things are paying off.
Hanna getting SWOLE
So, where next? We’re heading into a new era for the Juniors and as any of them (ok, and me too) might say “the hype is real”. We’re offering more training and opportunity than ever before with MNC Academy, but also keeping our traditional structures of 1- and 5-day training options, too. There’s lots of ways to stay involved or get involved. So even if it’s raining out, we’ll keep pushing hard and having a good time doing it:
