Racing season is right around the corner! We have several big weekends coming up: they both look busy and it is a great idea to get registered sooner rather than later.
It is recommended that most MNC Juniors register for Sunday’s freestyle sprint as this offers the most opportunity for experience in head-to-head racing in heats, as well as matching the technique/distance/course of the following weekend’s Eastern Cup Opener. Those looking to compete in both Saturday’s classic sprint and Sunday’s skate sprint should check in with Coach Adam!
Next up is the Eastern Cup Opener at Craftsbury the weekend of December 22nd/23rd. This is one that every MNC Junior should have on their radar. All signs are pointing to this being an EXTREMELY large event: please register early and avoid any potential hassle later! Registration links for both events are below:
Most snow to be had (30+ kilometers all skiable on race skis for the whole week)
Most food to be had (the size of the dining hall has literally doubled)
Most training to be had (endless options)
Most motivated group (endless enthusiasm)
It’s no secret that we’ve worked hard all spring, summer, and fall. If you’re reading this blog right now, you’ve probably read the rest of the summaries from this website all year. And seen the Instagram posts. And watched the Youtube videos…so you know what we’re about. What’s difficult right now is that there’s just not one single media compilation that can fit or capture everything we accomplished this past week. That goes for training accomplishments, emotional accomplishments, teamwork accomplishments, and more.
The good news is that we have a whole season ahead of us, and it feels like we’re only just beginning to taste the possibilities. We put in hard work when it came to distance workouts this week, but also some important other sessions. We got in freezing cold skate intervals in Murphy’s Field, and showed some guest skiers how far we’ve come with strength training over the course of the year. We dialed out zones with the now-annual “kickwax reduction session” and then dialed in our speed with some of the fastest fifty meter sprints in the Northeast Kingdom.
Then, we raced on Sunday and started to show why we’re aiming to be stronger than ever before. In a 5- and 10-km skate race against teams like Williams, Harvard, UNH, CSU, and Craftsbury the Pugs straight-up threw-down. Just taking video was making me and Sara more excited than ever, and we kept shouting our excitement over the radio to each other as we watched MNC skiers fly by on separate parts of the course.
“Julia has a really good tempo up this hill!”
“Eli caught up to Everett and is hanging on!”
“Ava’s glide is so smooth, nobody’s gonna catch her!”
“Timmy’s V2 is so strong! And Charles V2’d up all of Moss Run!”
Good results were exciting to see, but so was great skiing. Everyone was limited to LF wax so it was a nice simple affair as far as ski prep was concerned. We used up the last of an old chunk of LF8 and put on some structure and let it rip.
So…where does that leave us now? Hungry for more! We are experiencing a boost to start winter off with great on-snow options, we get to kick off the “official” winter season with BKL and Masters programming, and the real races are right around the corner. Go Pugs!
Pausing briefly to look ahead…
Bonus video! Check out Jenny’s edit from Thanksgiving Camp below 🙂
With a blizzard on the way tonight, a solid base up at higher elevations, and the snow guns firing at Craftsbury, we’re off to a lucky start in November. My friend Ben is an actual carpenter (as opposed to the Terko method of “measure 0 times, cut 10”) and helped craft a human-powered tracksetter in addition to our homemade skate groomer. So the Notch Road was partially-tracked for a Sunday morning classic ski. Thanks Ben! Of course we didn’t spend all the time going back and forth in the tracks when there was plenty else to explore…
On a day like Sunday, the Notch Road was a “who’s who” of VT skiing. It was great to see everybody out there and getting the snow time! It looks like we’re in for a lot more in the next 48 hours so be sure to keep tabs on www.xcearlysnow.com for some word on where the getting is good!
Our MNC Board is looking for your help to develop and expand our sponsorship base. Toward that end, our goal is to create a 2-3 minute video that captures what is special about our club.
To that end, we are asking our members to share their experiences and stories. What does MNC and Nordic skiing mean to you?
So please give us your thoughts, your photos, your videos at the email below. Also, if you have video skills and want to help create this clip, please let us know.
