In last week’s blog post, I referenced how proactive the Juniors have been in coordinating workouts and plans even when they have conflicts with regularly-scheduled sessions. I’ve said many times how fortunate I am to be a coach that gets to focus on coaching (as in, this is my primary job) and it helps to make training like this happen…
For example, we had some intervals on the plan for Saturday, but that happened to coincide with multiple graduations (nice job everyone, and congrats!) and family trips. So on Friday morning I was meeting Virginia and Rosemary to support the intervals in Cambridge, while that afternoon I found myself in Williston with Emma, Ava, and Anders. The following morning, the rest of the group arrived at Mud Pond to put in the work.
Version #1 of the intervals this weekend: Virginia in Cambridge on Friday morning
Three separate iterations of the same workout, meaning everybody was able to get the most out of their training. That only happens when both parties (coaches and athletes) are ready, willing, and able to put those pieces together, and I’m very impressed with this group!
With smaller groups it also enabled a little more focus and individual work. Striking the balance between small group structure and large group “hype” can be tricky, and it’s often about reading the room (or van, or street) to figure out where the energy is likely to come from in a given session. Sometimes energy comes from very specific technique changes and analysis, and sometimes energy comes from a loud group chasing each other down the hill and pumping each other up for the next round up the hill.
One thing that ALWAYS takes focus…lactate testing, where you have a limited time to get a blood sample onto a tiny test strip with no sweat contamination…all from the finger of a tired athlete who just finished an interval. Ava displays the aftermath.
On Saturday morning we had the biggest group and, consequently, the biggest “hype” factor as the weather was perfect, the roads were dry, and there was plenty of lighthearted trash-talk about who could get the fastest time/highest speed down the descent from the top of the interval hill. As Kai said at one point, “I was motivated to do another interval mainly because I knew there would be a fun ski down.”
This isn’t the scary downhill, but it’s a cool photo of a group that definitely knows how to handle themselves going fast on rollerskis
With Sara and I trading off van and bike duties, we got lots of great video clips and were able to support skiers who wanted a ride down rather than taking the “Strava Challenge Method” as I guess I’ll call it. Plus of course the van means lots of fruit snacks to keep the energy up, plenty of extra water, and easy access to the first aid kid (only one band aid required this day).
Gathering at the top after an interval, weighing the “ski” vs “ride” down the hill
A photo (from Sara), of a skier (Liam) getting filmed and cheered by another coach (Adam) on the bike. Teamwork!
You can view and download photos from this session, and lots more photos from the season so far, in the Spring/Summer ’22 album on our Flickr page.
You can check out some videos from the session(s) below in our Individual Technique playlist on Youtube. This is there reference center where videos from training go up for athletes to view after-the-fact. I commonly send out a note to the whole group after a session with thoughts, ideas, and clips of pro skiers for a reference point. MNC alum and current UVM skier Aidan Burt joined us for this session, so he provided a great reference point both on-video and in-person! Awesome to have former skiers staying involved and continuing to be a part of what we do at MNC.
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