Mansfield Nordic Club

In search of snow the Junior team took a journey to Stowe this morning. The webcams hadn’t looked great the day before, but it turned out they were just pointed in the wrong direction! We found lots of snow on one of the main trails right from the base lodge leading way up the hill…no hiking required, just put on your ski boots in the parking lot and hit it! We didn’t stay too long on the flats before skiing straight uphill (much to the enjoyment of the alpine skiers and boarders trudging uphill).

We hit some jumps and managed to challenge our nerves a bit on the icy descent back down. Nothing builds up your confidence on downhills than taking your nord-boards to a black diamond alpine run! We may not have done drills or intervals, but we took a step toward getting our “snow legs” under us and hopefully when we hit the real nordic trails at camp next week the skinny skis won’t feel quite so weird and long!

Scroll down for a few photos and a video recap:

Getting the gear on. Excitement is high!

Only one way to go…up!

Everyone knows Kai loves to climb! This is just the first pitch: far from the top of the trail!

What’s wrong with this picture (hint: it was taken after hitting a few jumps)

Tim enjoying some bluebird conditions

VIDEO EDIT!

Last weekend at the MNC Annual Meeting I gave a short presentation that was grounded in references to my earlier years as a skier. With one look at me, however, you can tell that there was plenty of history in the sport before I came along.

I may have English Literature and Educational Leadership degrees, but I am also somewhat of a history buff. Truth be told, I should’ve had a History minor in undergrad but never tracked down the paperwork and final class or two (too busy training, right?). Ski history is a big interest for me, nordic or alpine. I love reading about and visiting “Lost Ski Areas“, and even contributed to a book on the subject last year. The old alpine hill at the Range is definitely an amazing spot to me that probably goes under-appreciated by many!

Exploring the lift at the old alpine hill (aka Hurley Hill) at the Range earlier this summer.

So what does this have to do with out training? This week I got myself on a bit of an “old school” kick after that club event, and the past two days the juniors have embarked on two workouts that have been around a long time.

On Saturday we braved cold, wind and light snow flurries for 5×4 minute running intervals at CVU. This brought a whole new layer of “old school” to the table as I remember doing this workout over and over during my high school days at this very establishment. Many memories came flooding back as the lactic acid came flooding into the legs.

I guessed wrong on distance, however…I assumed 4 minutes might get us near the infamous white rock atop the very highest soccer field. Turns out we blew right by it and kept going uphill on the road.

“I have to remind myself” I told the group, “that you guys aren’t your average high school skiers!”

We began with a warmup run around the property at CVU. We usually like to do some sort of dynamic warmup, and at a school with lots of areas and obstacles to explore we added some new warmup strategies to the routine and then got down to business.

Wall climbing on the ropes course

Synchronized long-jump practice

The real heart of the session: running uphill, the true old school workout!

It was a good effort and challenge, and with the cold weather and light snowfall many of us got our first taste of metallic lungs from deep breaths of chilled air. We took to the rollerskis again the next day for some double poling, and then capped off our fall training (many athletes start High School practice next week and will not be around as often) with some heavy lifting, wood chopping and log-hauling at the small one-room cabin I am moving into. Doesn’t get more old school than that! We capped the event with some pancakes, homefries and bacon for a Sunday nordic brunch!

Will impressed the group with his splitting skills

Marching into the deep woods with rotten logs

Group brunch: apparently my side note to “wear your flannel” only hit home with Ben…

Old school things are old school for a reason…they aren’t around anymore! That doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable, though, whether it be a workout, a work activity or a bunch of homestyle breakfast food. It’s important to connect the past and the present to help you achieve what you are aiming for in the future, so little moments where we can key into the heart of former champions, memorable workouts and more will only make us better skiers and humans.

We are entering a big shift at the High School season begins, the snow arrives (we hope? please?) and we gear up for Thanksgiving Camp! Do your snow dance!