After a typically-rainy and cold April, the days turned a bit warmer and brighter for our first week of Junior spring training. With new goals, new teammates, and a fresh couple hundred days of the year ahead it was easy to be excited.
For one thing, I don’t think we’ve ever had a spring group quite this ready to hit the ground running. I’ve found myself trying to be assertive in grabbing the reins and keeping some of the team from doing too much and if it weren’t for the excellent 2021/2022 season we’re all coming off it, we may not be in that situation.
What it all has added up to has been a “Week 1” of the highest quality I can remember.
We started off on Tuesday with an easy run at Allen Brook School in Williston. Most people familiar with the area probably wouldn’t take ABS for a good running location…there’s a bike path and some suburban sprawl and that’s about it. But the goal was to have the first day be on foot in order to maximize the ability of everyone to participate without rollerski experience coming into play.
Earlier in the afternoon I separated a few jigsaw puzzles into plastic bags, spaced them around the various neighborhood spots we’re used to rollerskiing (a side-benefit of this workout was familiarizing new skiers with our routes). With a map and two teams, the gang spread out to find the puzzle pieces, with the key rules being:
- Don’t do on people’s lawns
- Don’t cut through any woods or water
- Stick to the main roads to get from Point A to Point B
I went along with one group and of course all three of those rules were broken within about 8 minutes. In typical MNC fashion some fun was had trying to find the best way to navigate the suburbs and get pieces fast enough to “win” (even though the two teams were seeking different puzzles and had different routes, so it was not even a competition). We followed a dirt path and eventually came to a dead end at a stream which, naturally, was jumped-across and forded in any way possible. This led to a scramble through the back of a few condo units in order to arrive at the road and pick up a bag of puzzle pieces.
One of the scavenger teams scanning the map
Jonah crossing Allen Brook
Workout isn’t over until the puzzle is complete
Not every training session can be a ridiculous scavenger hunt though (well, it could, but that wouldn’t help us achieve all our goals) and it was time for some more traditional business on sunny Thursday, when the wheels came out for the first team rollerski of the season.
Despite having a mix of experienced veterans and some who had never rollerskied with the Juniors before, everyone was able to mix it up and get in a great effort. It’s already shaping up to be our biggest spring training group yet!
And in another lucky day of sun and blue sky, everyone teamed-up to get dirty and contribute to Green Up Day. The Juniors were signed up to do their part on Nashville Road in Jericho, and after meeting for a run on some trails and roads in the area and eating some bagels to refuel, the green bags came out and the gloves went on. Fun to get in a little alternative additional exercise and help remove the litter from the roads we travel and train on.
There’s a new GREEN RACING PROJECT in town!
Now, it’s onto more solid training as we incorporate some staples like intensity sessions and a schedule of fitness tests that we’ll use as benchmarks for improvement over both the summer and the long-term. Here are a few important links!
Sign up for training (Spring and Summer) programs, and training camps, HERE
Order apparel (spandex shorts and sweatshirts) by May 10th HERE
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