Mansfield Nordic Club

Membership in our summer programs is growing and the group is having a great time! If you are on the fence about joining in on some great summer training, I’d love to tell you more about what we offer and how you can get involved…for the basics, see the info page HERE!

First up, some photos from this past week. See all of the summer training photos (updated the day they are taken) on the MNC Flickr page: CLICK HERE

Skiing the penalty loop while a lingering thunderhead looms overhead

Aidan and Chloe working on body position and functional strength at Dee PT

Charlie shreds the skatepark while warming up at WCS

Ethan demonstrates a standing broad-jump compared with a no-pole doublepole…both videos frozen in time. Modern technology is a wonderful thing!

–NEWS FOR THIS WEEK AND BEYOND–

• HURT Camp

I’d first like to put in another plug for HURT Camp (click for link) with an updated offer. Coach Dave has offered an MNC pro-rated option to attend the camp on Tues, Wed and Thurs for $175. That is July 21, 22 an 23rd. This is a great opportunity to connect with other skiers and coaches from across the area. I (Adam) will be in attendance as a coach and I’d love for more MNC skiers to take part! This camp is great for all abilities, from new rollerskiers to Junior National competitors. Highly recommended! Contact coach Adam for more details or with questions.

• App Gap Challenge Update

Next, an update on the popular App Gap Challenge rollerski race. After an update from Justin Beckwith this afternoon, I am passing along a change to the event. The new plan is to join with the U18/U20 REG athletes and US Ski Team coach Matt Whitcomb for a combination ski/trail workout. Athletes will do threshold skate intervals up App Gap, switch to running shoes at the summit in order do some dynamic foot drills with coach Whitcomb, and watch/cheer on the REG U16 participants (Conor and Greg included!) in their uphill test at Mad River Glen. Athletes will then switch back to skis after a van ride down the gap and ski back to the GMVS campus.

Interested MNC athletes (experienced rollerskiers only, please) can meet at the Richmond Park and Ride at 7:30am for a carpool on Tuesday morning. We will organize at GMVS with the goal of starting the session at 8:30 and should be done by noon.

• This Week

We are heading into two back-t0-back volume weeks, the ‘heart of the summer’ you might say. It is important to make sure all easy workouts are done at a L1 pace in order to make the most out of all the time we will be putting into training!

Week 14: Volume

Focuses

-Building to longer sessions of both running and skiing

-Some double sessions for older athletes

-Increasing comfort on rollerskis and adding new challenges to technique and agility

The Range is open for business! The first week of summer training was filled with great workouts, excitement for the summer and a tough mountain run in beautiful conditions.

For starters, I’ll share a few photos and point everyone in the direction of the MNC Flickr account, where you will find many more! Our new iPad is synced with this account, so as I snap photos at practice you will see them uploaded straight to this profile and, specifically, the Summer Training 2015 album: SUMMER TRAINING 2015 PHOTOS

Creemee stops at the country store for the morning and afternoon training groups!

Rachel got spin game

Charlie leads some skate dryland

Monitoring strength testing at Dee PT

A bunch of crazy athletes decided to run up a mountain as fast as they could…

Sessions at the Range have been fun and productive. Agility, drills, distance, twists, turns and more. They are doing some construction right now so we’ve been unable to access the “Pit” loop, but it looks like the renovations will be worth it! We’re talking new drainage, better facilities and a Canmore-style tunnel from the building to the shooting range in anticipation of bidding for some international-caliber events!

In addition to this great spot in Jericho, the group also got in strength training at Dee PT in South Burlington, a run from Dorset Park and some rollerskiing at the ever-popular Meadowridge/Mud Pond area.

Our scores from the Canadian Strength Test show that we have some work to do in that department, but the times from the Bolton run on Saturday were very encouraging! Beautiful weather didn’t hurt…check out the results here, sorted by both date and time (use tabs at the top to select): BOLTON HILLCLIMB HISTORICAL RECORD

The next Open Session will be a run with poles and some bounding at Shelburne Farms on July 8. Free to anyone interested in a great workout – MORE INFO

We have a great group together this summer that is still growing…want to become a part of it? Check out the webpage for all the info and more!

Training for this week has been posted on the Google Doc. As always, check back frequently for changes, weather cancellations and updates. From the training plan:

Week 13: Intensity
Focuses:
-Introducing rollerski intervals at threshold (for experienced group)
-Building rollerski comfort and working on ascending and descending hills (for newer group)
-Working to determine pacing strategies and heart-rate data
-Starting up phase 1 of our strength program

The Junior Spring program wrapped up a final week of rainy training…we faced thunderstorms that washed out roads, muddied trails and caused chaos with scheduling. Still, everyone got out to some good sessions including ski walking, running, strength, gravel biking (in lieu of mountain biking on wet trails) and roller skiing.

I’d like to take this time, however, to focus on the week ahead…the start of SUMMER! We will offer more training than ever this coming week…our traditional Tues/Thurs morning sessions at the Range (now at 8AM!) along with days of training throughout the county. For detailed info, check out the info and registration pages HERE.

-I’m excited to be working with Dee PT to provide quality strength training in an state-of-the-art indoor facility on Wednesday nights, and to collaborate with the Ethan Allen Biathlon Club for some evening Range access helpful to those with summer employment.

-Collaboration continues with the the VT Summer Co-Op series, a group of events brought to you by MNC, GMVS, Woodstock, VTXC and more! Stay tuned to the Google Doc and more for updates on fun happenings throughout the summer.

-Want even more Nordic action? Check out our joint training camp offered with HURT Nordic of Queensbury, NY. A great opportunity to make some new friends, learn from some great coaches and train hard this summer: HURT Camp info

-Speaking of happenings…this Saturday marks our first ‘Open Session’ of the summer, one of four new free opportunities to get a big group together for training and racing. Join in on Saturday for the Bolton Hillclimb and try to break a course record for some ice cream!

This coming week will be a Recovery week…it may seem odd given that so much is happening, but the focus will be on getting back into the swing of training WITHOUT the demands of school! We will have an emphasis on drills and low-key distance training, with minimal intensity other than the tough Bolton race.

Congrats to all of our graduating seniors!

Let the rollerskiing begin!

Whew…this past week was packed full of MNC events and notable happenings, and our Summer Programming hasn’t even begun!

After some high-altitude training last week in Bolton and Underhill, we took our bodies down to sea-level in Charlotte for a classic rollerski. Agility courses on skate skis are all the rage from Park City to Presque Isle, but I think there’s a lack of attention payed to classic ski agility. This is especially true when you aren’t a big jacked racer like Alexander Legkov but you still have to maneuver some long, heavy Marwe or Swenor classic rollerskis around. There are always lots of complaints about how classic rollerskis handle without tracks…the solution? Take control and don’t let your skis be the boss of you!

Some ‘curb slalom’: a traditional slalom made more difficult by going on and off the curb

My favorite place to start a ski from in Charlotte is the Park and Ride, which is really an old train station. For the most part, it is completely abandoned. I’ve probably seen 10 other cars in the past 8 years.

Of course, after the agility warmup we got to enjoy a nice tour down past the lake and up again to the Old Brick Store. Like many others in the area, I ‘grew up’ rollerskiing here. Wide, safe roads, nice pavement and friendly drivers make Charlotte a rollerski haven. Plus, picking terrain is easy: the closer to the lake, the flatter the roads. Head east and you hit hills! Here is Maddie enjoying the flattest of the flats along the beach:

skis, lake, sun and Adirondacks

Uphill DP clip from Greenbush Rd:

Training continued last week with some running and strength. I’d say the most notable event from those sessions was when we learned (by way of an irate resident on a tractor) that the little soccer field right next to the Round Church in Richmond is not, in fact, a public park. Since it was news to me after literally years and years of utilizing that space, it is probably news worth passing on to others!

Saturday marked a big non-training event: the first (annual?) MNC Family Yardsale! We had lots of great donations and some real awesome big-ticket items. Thanks to everybody who was involved…I was pretty nervous as this was an event I had brainstormed earlier in the spring and had no idea what to expect. We ended up bringing in over $500 and had a lot of fun doing it! The expansion plan for next year calls for a dedicated bake sale table so there are already big ideas in the works for version 2.0.

We held practice in Williston to coincide with the sale. Here’s Amy getting some work done on the VasaTrainer…you can tell this is later in the day as much of the merchandise has already been sold!

Another big event on Saturday: the Colchester Causeway races. Brendan, Liam, Tim, Ethan and Will underwent a windy but sunny race day just down the road

Sunday capped off this big week with a more well-established yearly MNC event: the Summer Kickoff bike ride/BBQ hosted by the Solow/Henry family. Over 50 people gathered in Hinesburg to first bike to the top of App Gap and back (40 miles) or enjoy a shorter route around the area. Everyone then convened on the Solow/Henry residence for great food and company and even some swimming. A big thanks for everyone that helped put this together. MNC photographer Gary Solow took this excellent picture of the group before riding off:

MNC cycling crew about to tackle App Gap and more

That seems like a pretty good photo to officially announce that SUMMER HAS BEGUN!