In a striking change of pace, this weekend did NOT feature an Eastern Cup event for the Juniors. So, what’s a team to do?
The truth is, there’s a lot to be done in an “off” week. Intervals continued, strength training was amped up a bit without a race to prime for, and overall the week was a bit tougher and more training-heavy than a usual race week. This was done on purpose, as the team found strong results in earlier races with a certain progression going into Eastern Cup races:
- A pre-Eastern Cup week of relatively big hours, with higher amounts of intensity and strength (both specific and gym-based)
- An Eastern Cup week of very low hours, with intensity settled around the 2- to 1-minute range
It takes a lot of guts to put in a hard, long week right before a race week but the truth is, the body really revs up and needs hard efforts in order to be able to fire on all cylinders on race day.
With a few back-to-back Eastern Cup weekends we had missed some opportunities to put in the mix of longer sessions and longer intensity (4-5 minutes L4) to carry skiers through the late-season championship events like JNs, Easterns, and the U16 Festival. This week was a chance to get back to basics with a little bit specific strength double poling (and alpine hill skills-development) on Tuesday, a full set of strength at Dee PT on Wednesday, and some tough uphill 4×4 minute skate intervals on Thursday.
What helped was a healthy dose of new snow and IMMACULATE grooming by the Range crew. Big thanks to Rob, Dan and the gang for laying down perfect corduroy all week!
This was Tuesday…
And this was Thursday…nice!
While the natural and artificial snow combined to make some fantastic skiing on every trail, the lights have been out on the “S-Turn” loop all year. Seeing as that was where our intervals were planned (when skied backwards it is a great 4-minute climb with a few transitions in the middle for good measure) we had to innovate and once again bring out the torches to light the way. Nothing like making good use of some quality Family Dollar merchandise:
Aidan, Will, Ben, and Dingo getting in some torchlight intervals at dusk
While the Junior Team may not have gotten a true race in, lots of other events were happening all over. MNC Alums Jack Hegman and Bill Harmeyer had an incredible week at World Junior and U23 World Championships, with Bill taking a 12th in the classic sprint and Jack taking an 11th in the Skiathlon. Way to go!
Charlie, Ava and Camille all raced the Flying Moose Classic in Bethel, with Charlie taking 4th overall and Ava and Camille going 1-2 and showing their efficient classic skiing is paying off in events from 3k to 22k!
There was a fun BKL race at the Range that some Juniors helped forerun, while the second stage of the “Tour De Chittenden” race took place right after featuring many MNC faces.
There was even college racing going on just down the road with the UVM Carnival at Trapps. I snuck up on Friday morning to catch some action at the skate sprint and captured video of a couple racers from the men’s and women’s events. All of the footage will be online soon but here is a clip of MNC alum/World-Champs-bound skier/local Nordic hero Ben Lustgarten showing everyone that even on the steepest hills he doesn’t even need to V1!
We’ve been talking about having enough ‘pop’ and forward/upward momentum in the hips when using a V2 technique, even in uphills, and Ben demonstrates this perfectly. You can see his heels come up ever so slightly on each push: this is a factor of high hips and good quick return to the start of the poling cycle, NOT just Ben standing up high on his toes superficially. Big power and quick tempo allow him to ski smooth up even the steep stuff!
This week it’s all prep for the final Eastern Cups of the season in the Granite State. Stay tuned!
Junior World/U23 World Champs Interviews
MNC alums Bill Harmeyer and Jack Hegman just wrapped up a great week in Soldier Hollow at World Junior and U23 World Championships. Both notched top-12 finishes, with Bill 12th in the classic sprint and Jack 11th in the Skiathlon. Check out some fun interviews with them on Fasterskier: Bill Harmeyer / Jack Hegman
