Archive | Junior Blog

A few notes on Junior Fall Training as we prepare to enter a new season. We’ve never had such a productive summer with such a motivated group! It’s time to keep the momentum rolling.

The Range

We have access to the Range one day per week in September, October, and November. Right now we have Tuesday afternoons slotted-in but the consensus seems to be that Thursday afternoon works better for the majority of skiers. The primary weekly rollerski day would therefore be Thursdays from 4-6PM.

Afternoon Training

We will plan afternoon training (4-6PM) on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Morning Training

There is a really great interest in more morning sessions for either skiers with free periods, OR skiers just willing to get up a little early. Based on athlete feedback and schedule notes, it sounds like the following allows for the most flexibility and attendance:

Tuesday OR Wednesday morning 8AM (may change weekly, may be 7:30): Morning rollerski at Cochrans in Richmond

Thursday OR Friday morning 7:30AM (may change weekly): Morning rollerski at Burlington Bike Path (meeting at skatepark)

Weekend Training

With most XC races taking place on Saturdays, we will try to parallel our own MNC training with a harder running or skiing workout on Saturdays, balanced with a long easy-distance rollerski on Sundays.

Rollerskiing vs Running midweek

We will rollerski in the afternoons on some days as long as daylight provides, in addition to our time at the Range (where lights allow for skiing after dark).

Once it gets dark earlier, we will need to switch to trail-only (running/biking) options and be off the roads in the afternoon. We will then rollerski during

• Our Thursday Range timeslot
• Our morning sessions
• Either Saturday mornings, Sunday mornings, or in some cases both days

1-Day? 2-Day? 5-Day?

1-Day program is ideally for skiers looking to add one weekday (Thursday) rollerski session, which will often be upper-body focused

2-Day program is for experienced skiers looking to add weekday rollerski training and possibly a weekend ski such as an overdistance roll on Sunday

5-Day program is for athletes not competing in a fall sport. This is realistically more like a 6-Day program, with Sunday often being a training day and Monday as our “off” day

You can read more sample details on this page, and sign up for MNC fall programming at this link.

Waiting on some bad news…but it won’t slow us down!

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