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Week of Soreness 2018

By Adam Terko on 30 July, 2018 in Junior Blog

You know you just survived an intensity week when every step out of bed brings groans, ever reach downward to put on a shoe or ski boot feels like a gnarly hamstring stretch, and washing your hair sends sharp pain through your shoulders.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to achieve all desired soreness from your intensity week:

1) Start off with a double pole test, then more intervals on top of that, and then go to the gym to do a Canadian Strength Test

The double pole test was an absolute destruction-zone of previous PRs and fast times. The archive showed a massive improvement for so many in the group, and after a long period of time it is exciting to announce that the records have fallen! Olivia set a new women’s club record, while Elliott Ketchel, Will, and Greg ALL went under the previous course record which had stood since 2014.

DP Test Historical Archive

PRs for Ben C, Will, Aidan, Kai, Magda, Julia, Marika, Hanna, Meredith, and Ava…phew! We also got a lot of footage since GMVS joined us for the test. Colin, Andy, and Perry all had the cameras rolling so most skiers have clips of beginning, middle and end!

But we weren’t done after the DP test. We then went to the gym and took on the Canadian Strength Test. This is a test used by many of the college ski teams and Juniors around the country (and, I can only assume, in Canada as well). The test is simple but brutal: one minute on, one minute off, for ten minutes. As many of the following as you can in each respective “on” minute:

-Pullups

-Situps

-Pushups

-Box Jumps

-Dips

Everyone partnered up and pushed hard. Ali, Aidan, and Magda will do this test as part of the National U16 Camp they qualified for in a few weeks, so part of the plan was to get a test in so it’s not such a shock at the main event. But of course, we all should take part in the fun (including Adam and Sara). Here’s a spreadsheet of results. MNC Juniors or Masters, if you want to do this test on your own just have a partner to validate and send in your scores to add to the sheet!

Canadian Strength Test MNC

Strength Test Protocol

2) Easy days stay easy!

On Wednesday we set out for a trail run, but as you can imagine most everyone woke up feeling like they got “hit by a bus” as Jenny put it. The first few minutes of running were excruciating but luckily we made sure to do our Morning Sport exercises (mobility, dynamic stretching, and more) to get ourselves loosened up. Still, it’s worth noting that for us a nice easy trail run is about 12-14 min/mile pace and we’re just fine with that!

3) Towing and mass starts

Time for towing after an easy day Wednesday! We like to use old bike tubes and tow partners for some specific strength, and also to get the hips forward and powerful. We usually do a bit more of this in the fall, but we’ve started earlier this year and we’re already looking strong and powerful. Usually every 2 weeks in the fall we increase the length of the towing “course” and this year will be no different.

We ended the session with some mass start practice! It’s been awesome to have 20+ skiers at the Range pretty much every Tuesday/Thursday. So with a big group, how can you NOT make it exciting and work on those close-quarters mass start situations?

4) Bolton test, round 2 of Summer 18

It was a hot and sunny day for the second round of our Bolton uphill run test. About 1.4 miles of all uphill gravel terrain from the Vista base are to the summit just past the wind turbine. This test is just short enough (14-20 minutes) to mean there isn’t much pacing involved, but long enough to be a full effort on your engine for pushing the limits.

A glance back in the records show that this is the biggest group we’ve had for the test in quite some time: a good indicator of how strong the motivation is with this group, since often the uphill run test is one of the more dreaded things we do all year. We also were joined by MNC Master skier Michael Gaughan who is part of a growing group of Masters prepping for Climb to the Castle in September.

Bolton Historical Record (bottom tabs for individual tests/athlete record)

There was a PR performance by nearly everyone, and Rose smashed the course record by 50 seconds to earn a pint of Ben and Jerry’s on Tuesday! Rose and Meredith took the top honors in most-improved as well, with Dith knocking 1:24 off her previous best time and crossing the line under 19 in only her second test ever. Also PR runs from Sammie, Ben Carnahan, Dakota, Julia, Jenny, and Marika. Charles took the win in the men’s race with an impressive 14:45, going under 15 in what was his first uphill test ever!

Shout-out to the hiker who took our group photo!

Girls team gettin RAD this summer

5) Long skis and summer swimming

On Sunday we geared up again for another favorite session; our long ski in Milton down to the shores of Lake Champlain and back to the Lelito house for lunch and a swim. The girls ended up skiing 20 miles and the guys 30 on a hot, sunny day. With the combination of heart-rate monitors, vests, and water belts there were a lot of interesting tan lines after the 2-3 hours endeavor.

Kai rolling along the shoreline

Magda, Ali, Julia, Meredith on some pretty perfect-looking rollerski roads

Thanks to the Lelito family for hosting us after for lunch and a swim. Next up, be sure to make sure you’re registered for the App Gap Challenge rollerski race in 2 weeks! We’re looking to have a BIG club presence there for such a cool event. Find more HERE.

Mid-Summer Vibes

By Adam Terko on 23 July, 2018 in Junior Blog

The summer is a busy time, with all sorts of opportunities cropping up. Go on a mountain bike ride with this group? Race this weekly 5k? Head over to XC captains practice for running? Ski with another training group for their session?

The best part is that without a lot of conflicts, this is usually a great time for that sort of thing. This past week, though, recovery was the name of the game as we tried to give ourselves time to absorb all the hard work of Mountain Camp.

What impressed me the most was how many times I had to hold the gang back a bit.

“Can I do another interval??”

“What if I also trained on this day? I know it says off day but…”

That’s a good problem to have, since it means everyone is FIRED UP and pumped about training. It can be a little dangerous though…you’re always feeling the boost from a camp and it’s hard to take a break right away. Mentally, at least. And then it can all catch up to you. So the phrase I kept repeating all week was “take the rest while you can get it!”

Even in a recovery week, we’re still putting in work, and here’s a bit of evidence:

We were visited this week by Sharon and Lucas who were doing a study on force application, coordination, symmetry and motion in skiing…so of course we were the natural test subjects!

Working on classic speeds, with one partner having “clean snow” and the other partner having to ski over some wet ferns to cause slipping…since those ratchet wheels work so well, you gotta make it realistic somehow!

Magda, Meredith, Sammie, and Julia cooling down after some bounding intervals at Honey Hollow on another sunny day

Got a busy week coming up, with the Double Pole Test tomorrow and the Bolton Uphill Run test on Saturday. Anyone and everyone is welcome to test their mettle at Bolton…we’ll meet at the Vista base lodge at 9AM and plan to start the test at 9:30! Up up up!

Mountain Camp 3

By Adam Terko on 16 July, 2018 in Junior Blog

Pug Nation, convening on the slopes of Attitash for one of the best weeks of the year. The 3rd annual Mountain Camp! This camp has a reputation, and boy did it live up to the hype this year. Helping that hype was the most motivated and driven group this club may have ever seen. We used to include one or two double-session days into this camp…this year, everyone was hungry for more. After our traditional brutal bounding intervals up the alpine trails, we had one group later that afternoon pumped to pedal 2 miles of 17% grade on a Lincoln Gap-esque brutal mountain road all in the name of an epic 15-minute downhill run.

That kind of motivation pervaded camp, and it was the manifestation of a huge change within this group. The “ski lifestyle” has embedded itself within the climate of the team.

Skiers are filling out their training logs before the van has even arrived back at the house for lunch (thanks smartphones!)
Skiers are asking to start as low as possible on the Kanc double pole, and still hitting the top in record time (thanks strength training!)
Skiers are hiking in the Presidential Range for 7 hours, and then spending the 8th hour RUNNING out along a flatter stretch of river (thanks fitness!)
Skiers are finishing the bounding intervals, and then turning back down the hill to run up with teammates that haven’t finished yet (thanks team!)

This year we nailed most all of the logistics, from a real and properly-outfitted van to enough real sleeping room for all athletes. We still had our traditional “Mountain Camp Departure SNAFU” as the lock on the trailer broke and we had to make a quick pitstop at Ace Hardware to borrow a hefty pair of bolt cutters, but from there onward no more issues. (Side note: looking for that sponsorship hookup from the Waterbury Ace Hardware. Please contact me if interested)

On Day 1 (Wednesday) we hike Mount Tremont, a pretty nondescript but beautiful mountain at the base of Crawford Notch. There was a nice view at the top, and a better swimming hole at the bottom. We then did a little team PlayDoh building competition to earn this year’s big hit: the first-edition of our new Pugtagonia Hats. This is a summer fashion line that’s about to take the outdoorsy world by storm (until the lawsuit).

Pugtagonia Summer ’18 Collection

On Day 2 (Thursday) we kicked things off with one of our biggest and best workouts: the Kancamagus Roll! This is one of the 2 workouts we’ve done at every single Mountain Camp and it’s always a great time. Nothing like a 2-2.5 hour ski ending atop a mountain pass with a picnic lunch. Every year folks try to double pole as much as possible. It’s very cool to see the progression of newer and less-experienced rollerskiers starting up higher, and more experienced skiers getting dropped off further from the end point. Each year, everyone basically “graduates” to starting further down, as well as doing less and less striding or kick-double-pole, until the whole this is just double poling. As Aidan would say, YEET!

First catalog shot for the Pugtagonia brand atop the Kanc

That afternoon, we took to the trails in North Conway for either a run, or the MNC BikeGang NH Edition. After a chain and derailleur malfunction caused Will’s bike to become an adult strider-bike we had to call it and slog back to the trailer, but all in all it was a great ride on some fun local trails.

Not in VT, but the MNC Bikegang rolls on

The morning of Day 4 (Friday) brought our second traditional Mountain Camp workout: hard bounding intervals. Each year we start at the base of an alpine mountain (first Attitash in 2016, then Cranmore in 2017, back to Attitash in 2018) and get some L3 skiwalking in before I attempt an inspiration speech and start yelling and hollering while everyone bounds until they collapse. Good old-school training at its finest.

Flyin Solow starting his mission to the summit of Attitash

We all gathered at the summit where there is a nice little viewing tower, gave a cheer, and headed down to the base. Coincidentally, this part of Attitash is named “Bear Peak” and partway down the mountain on the gravel access road we startled a mother black bear and her 3 cubs, who scurried out of a tree and away from us as fast as possible. Good thing we were all chatting, yelling, and being loud as we went down which is the usual course of action for us!

Jenny demonstrating how we feel about the Slow Zone

That afternoon, instead of hitting the couch and laying around in lactic acid puddles, the gang rallied for another sesh. After the MNC Bikegang ride the day earlier, a very intriguing downhill run called the Red Tail Trail had been scoped out on some maps by Eli, Aidan, Will, Ben and myself. Despite having crushed our legs earlier that morning, we had no problem saddling up for a grueling hour-long climb that really put the “mountain” in mountain biking with a summit of Black Cap Mountain.

Mountain biking…can definitely take you places!

Stone steps? Not a problem

After the long climb, we were rewarded with an amazing 15-minute descent that Aidan described as the “best bike trail he’s ever been on”, a statement he made approximately one minute before shredding his tube and rear tire apart from riding so aggressively. Luckily it gave us a few minutes to shoot this edit with Eli hitting the large berms and jumps at the bottom of the trail:

Day 5…the legendary Mount Washington day. Every year we’ve done a pretty simple hike taking us to the top of Mt Washington and back. This year, we split up and one group attempted a pretty ambitious endeavor: a half Presi-Traverse up Madison, Adams, Jefferson, and finally Washington. It turns out Sara’s group had a very fun and uneventful trip up Tuckerman’s Ravine and a nice lunch at the summit.

Before that Tuckerman’s group took off, Sara drove me and the other half of the team to the Dolly Copp campground where we embarked on our point-to-point mission.

Will, Ben Carnahan, and Aidan pushed the pace and beat the odds to summit Washington after bagging all of those peaks…but a troublesome knee forced an unplanned exit via car rather than a hike out.

Meanwhile the group of Meredith, Magda, Rose, Sammie, Ava, Jenny, and myself realized we wouldn’t make Washington in time (or possibly daylight) so much to the groans of that group I made the coaches discretionary call that we head down through the Great Gulf Wilderness off of Jefferson in order to avoid trouble as the day wore on. This proved to be quite the adventure and though we didn’t summit Washington, there was really no “easy” option out from our final high point. We scrambled down ladders and through caves before facing about 6 miles of running in order to make it back to the lodge.

This is where the true strength of this team (and this sport) lies. After 6 hours we all started to feel the fatigue. But we soldiered on, took a few photos for the Pugtagonia catalog to keep our sanity, and made it to the lower elevations.

Running some ridgelines in the White Mountains

After 7 hours, water and food supplies began to run low. If not for the Red Bulls that Meredith and Magda brought along I’m not sure we would’ve had the blood sugar values to keep the spirits up at all.

But from hour 7 to hour 8, we pretty much ran non-stop to the very end. Endorphins were running high, and bonking be damned. We were doing this thing. We ripped the last 2 miles at a seriously fast clip just as rain started dotting our sweaty foreheads as we emerged and met Sara at the van.

It was one of the most memorable workouts I’ve EVER done, and I was so impressed with the group and how everyone handled themselves. Woohoo!

A very good feeling: running out of the woods after 8 hours of work!

Comparatively, the final day of camp, Day 5 (Sunday) was nice and relaxed. We returned to the lower stretches of the Kanc for a double pole on flatter terrain before hitting the road home. This camp was quite the week of training but also a hugely impressive week for the team in general. I think I mentioned to one parent in the parking lot on the trip home (hard to remember, I was a bit doubled-over from dehydration and heat exhaustion…whoops) that “we seem to come back from Mountain Camp 25% more cohesive” and while there are definitely exceptions and we are far from perfect, I think that on the whole that notion holds pretty true. It’s time to start planning and thinking about what more we can do for Mountain Camp 4 in 2019!

Heat Wave Madness

By Adam Terko on 9 July, 2018 in Junior Blog

Although the heat wave hit the area hard, this past week was a Recovery week for the Pugs as we rest up after our volume week and REG camp in preparation for Mountain Camp. I think the photos pretty much capture the epic heat and humidity, but we continued to train hard!

Jenny pushed her skis to the max in Tuesday’s skate intervals! I have to say, it’s not too uncommon in these parts to see a busted V2/Jenex product! Magda and Sammie in the background are giving their approval of the switch to SWENOR…pick yours up at Skirack today!

While the older kids were on their intervals, Carl and Farmer worked on their rollerski 180s!

On Thursday, it was time to take it much easier. Most everyone got a chance to test their blood lactate mid-ski to make sure they were going at a good Level 1 pace! Sammie worked up the courage to give it a go with the test for her first time

We ended the day with some all-team relays. Here’s Conor showing great weight commitment on the classic skis around the corner

On Friday it was time for the MNC BikeGang to get back in gear. After a few rides at Saxon we stepped up our game and ventured to Cady Hill in Stowe

We called and placed an order right from the trail, then jumped onto the bike path and rode straight to…

Piecasso!!!

For a little extra fun (of the skier’s kind) Magda competed in the US Mountain Running National Championships on Sunday! Nice!

A Week in 4 Videos

By Adam Terko on 2 July, 2018 in Junior Blog

I’ve been more excited about MNC this summer than ever before. This has happened for each of the past 4 summers in a row, so it’s not a surprise, but it’s a good reminder of how lucky I am to do what I do. This past winter, it felt like the momentum that had been building a a few years finally snowballed into a fully-formed avalanche of collective drive, teamwork, passion, and speed.

I don’t think that went unnoticed, and we’ve been fortunate to welcome new skiers to the group who have jumped right aboard the Pug Train and kept that momentum barreling ahead.

This week, for whatever reason, I ended up taking more video clips than usual. Some for technique, some for fun. There’s short “edits” put together from Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday which might be a Youtube record for us…so, in lieu of more words for everyone to read on a hot summer day (and because analytics tell us that video clips are always the most clicked-on components of the website and Eblast!), here are some videos…so turn out the lights, crank up the air conditioning, and enjoy a sample of our training week in moving pictures!

Tuesday: Skate Intervals and strength at the gym