Archive | Junior Blog

Two great skis

By Adam Terko on 11 June, 2018 in Junior Blog

This past week was mostly focused on recovery in order to take in all the Spring training and prepare for the Summer Program to start…we had a short easy run on Tuesday but still kept things focused with some double pole intervals in Burlington on Thursday and our second session joined by new MNC summer coach Perry Thomas. Perry is a coach of the UVM Ski Team but we’re pumped that he’ll be working with us every Tues/Thurs this summer! Here’s a short video clip from the intervals…featuring the first appearance this year of recent grads Greg and Olivia (congrats!)

Eli mastering smooth and fast at the same time

For the first time this year, we bumped it up to skiing twice in a week with a skate roll in Milton. We met at the Lelito house on another beautiful morning and the group set off on a long ski…in fact, slightly longer than planned. The summer program can’t start soon enough, when we’ll have Sara with us on Saturdays to help facilitate logistics and shuttling in addition to her awesome coaching. Let’s just say there I burned a lot of miles driving back-and-forth between groups trying to keep tabs on everyone. The end result meant Greg, Aidan, Timmy, and Dakota got a bit of a longer ski than they bargained for but they seemed to handle it well! Only a short video for this one:

Guys group water break

Girls squad psyched on the first long ski of the year!

Annual Fund and Summer Kickoff

The MNC Annual Fund is happening NOW! Please consider a contribution to support the club for the coming season 🙂

MNC Annual Fund

If you plan to attend the Summer Bike/Hike/Potluck kickoff event at the Henry/Solow household please be sure to RSVP! Details below:

Summer Kickoff ’18

Busiest week yet?

By Adam Terko on 3 June, 2018 in Junior Blog

We’ve definitely made it into June, as all of a sudden it seems like we’re capable of more and more every week. This was our first big volume week of the year and featured a little bit of everything.

On Tuesday we went to the Mud Pond trail network for some running intervals. On the north side of the system the mountain bike trail runs along a snowmobile trail, meaning it’s a long climb of pretty continual grade. Perfect for some smooth and fast L3 running. Things were pretty hot and humid but we only had a taste of what was in store.

On Thursday the humidity really hit and we had to sweat it out in the suburbs of Williston for a hot skate ski. The group is looking great on skis, carrying over progress from last year without a hitch. Here’s some video I shot as I rode my bike with the groups:

On Saturday we got to embark on an adventure involving a LOT of running. I’ve had my eyes on this loop for a while but I knew we’d need a good base of running fitness under us before attempting it with the group.

Since we’ve been getting after it on foot this spring, it was no problem! We started at the Round Church, ran on the trails up to the top of Cochrans, and then continued up and over the mountain eventually emerging near Huntington Gorge on Dugway Rd. From there it was about another 6 miles back on the dirt road and river trail back to the church. Nothing you can’t accomplish by running for 2 and a half hours straight!

Magda and Hanna might be over-exaggerating the fatigue a bit. These two crushed it! Super impressive.

Before the run I dropped my car on Dugway Rd and biked to the start so we could have a bail-out shuttle. It wasn’t needed, so Timmy gave me a lift back to the car where we decided to do some fishing. No fish, but we did snack on some Bobo’s

The Tour De Cochrans: up, over, and around

For Sunday, I put out the word for a bonus mountain bike ride at Saxon. It was an awesome turnout and in total (counting Steve, who took this photo) we had 10 Pugs all out tearing up the dirt.

Most of us also unintentionally decided to color-coordinate with blue I guess

It was the first real mountain bike ride ever for the #triplethreattrio (Ali, Sammie, Magda) and they crushed it! Just like the first few rollerski sessions, you just start with the basics and build up the confidence…although we split up to start by ability level, at the end we were all able to go out as a full group snaking our way through some of the lower trails. Pretty awesome feeling.

Ali rocking the turns getting ready to test out a new upgraded ride soon 🙂

Hey who is that stranger..?! Aidan has hung up his glove and bat until next spring and is ready to bust the ski poles back out

Skiing and running uphill

By Adam Terko on 28 May, 2018 in Junior Blog

Another week in the books toward summer training. Everyone is counting the weeks left of school at the start of each session and there is a lot of anticipation building toward what we hope is our best summer yet.

This week we broke out of the bike paths for our first ski on the “open road” down by the Round Church. It’s probably one of the most recreated roads in the whole county so it’s nice to feel like at least a portion of the cars actually know what we’re out there doing as we roll alongside the beautiful banks of the Winooski river with the backdrop of Cochran’s and the Green Mountains on our other side.

The footage is a bit rough but we got after it with a few repeats up the gradual hill on the backside of Greystone.

Coach Rick came out to help lead a group during the ski. Unfortunately a good chunk of the group had left when this photo was taken but the early evening lighting was too good to pass up!

On Saturday it was time for the first uphill run test of the season. We yet again headed up to Bolton to push ourselves as hard as we could for a nice little all-uphill jaunt. It was a good start to the season with Ben and Ali nearly hitting PRs, Magda having her fastest time in 2 years, and Hanna giving it her all in her first (of many?) Bolton tests.

Ali racing for the top, and inching closer to that 20-minute barrier

Time for even more training and bigger, longer sessions this week!

The Fit Summer

By Adam Terko on 21 May, 2018 in Junior Blog, Uncategorized

There’s a Hemingway book called “The Dangerous Summer” that recounts a season’s worth of bullfighting between two masters of their craft in Spain. Each bullfighter has a different style, but they are equally impressive and accomplished.

That’s sort of like reading the plethora of ski blogs out there, as athletes and teams with different styles and methods all try their hardest to be as fast as possible come winter.

So you could consider this “The Fit Summer” as we strive to find the next level of performance that’ll keep upping the bar. Fitness has sort of become a buzzword in the ski world recently…sometimes more sarcastic than serious (as in, posting an extremely short workout and talking about how you are “working on fitness”), but it’s a good reminder that the end-game of skiing, and the way to be fastest in many respects, is to just be one of the fittest racers out there.

We’ve started to turn up the intensity a bit as we get more and more comfortable running and rollerskiing, and I think the Pugs are definitely looking Fit.

Ben and Timmy getting in a little L3 running on the Richmond River Trail

On Tuesday last week we did some running intensity on the River Trail in Richmond, and on Thursday we were on a different sort of trail; the bike path at UVM. In fact, UVM coach Perry Thomas joined us for that ski and is going to be working with the group this summer! The roster of awesome coaches, both new and returning, continues to grow. Sara, Perry, Laurel, Rick, Liam…what a time to be a Pug!

With athletes qualifying for camps and trips regionally, and more camps and training collaborations opening up for everyone, the summer is more fitness-goal-oriented than ever. We’ve got things to prepare for, not just when the snow flies but throughout the year and months ahead. That’s a good thing, since it narrows the focus and keeps everyone tuned-in to the next challenge and benchmark heading toward winter.

Speaking of winter, we DID still find snow up on Bolton Saturday morning scoping out the course for next week’s first uphill run test of the season. It looks like there’s probably going to still be some white stuff to navigate during the test next week at this rate!

A few patches of snow dot the trail on the upper reaches of Bolton!

Biathlon Summer Opportunities with EABC

By Kort Longenbach on 14 May, 2018 in BKL Race Blog, Junior Blog, Masters Blog

This summer Ethan Allen Biathlon Club will be offering a variety of programs including a running biathlon race series, Junior and BKL aged training programs. Youth program training starts June 5 and you can sign-up online to reserve your spot.