Some wouldn’t call just two efforts, about 20 minutes of combined time, an entire testing week. But the reality is, our recently-completed Junior timetrials do go beyond just a single week in scope.
We test periodically throughout the spring, summer, and fall. Since ski races need snow and only happen in one of the four(+) seasons we experience in Vermont, tests are one of our key metrics for gauging personal progress and responses to all of the training we do. We aren’t alone, as most every team has their own dedicated uphill run test and double pole test, among others (like the 3000m run, or different types of strength testing).
It is always fun to see big improvements. Often the biggest improvements happen when someone does a specific test for their second time ever…the first time through a test is a bit of the unknown, even if you warm-up by checking out the whole course. Nothing prepares you for the first time pushing yourself as hard as possible through a new experience! When a racers comes into the test the second time, they know more of what to expect and how to prepare both mentally and physically.
Big improvements can also happen over time through personal growth. Because age groups range from U16 to U20, we have people every year doing these tests from 8th grade all the way up through (and beyond) their early years in college. Whether through puberty, changes in school sport focus, or just the nature of being growing teenagers, you can’t always pin a improvement or a decline on the training plan alone. It’s not always a simple input (training) -> output (results) scenario, and that’s where Junior coaching gets complex and fascinating.
With the end of summer training, a tough volume block that included travel and altitude time for a collection of our group, and the start of a busy school year, this testing week was as much about checking for consistency and not just improvement. It was a check to make sure we had all survived the past few weeks!
The early part of the week brought the added challenge of heat and humidity to the double pole tests on Monday and Tuesday, but it was nothing some extra popsicles and hydration couldn’t handle. Sometime in the next month or two we will be rollerskiing with jackets and gloves on, wishing we could have a few minutes of blissful 90-degree temperatures…maybe.
Things cooled-off by the Bolton uphill run test at the end of the week, and a whirlwind of spreadsheets and time calculations had been completed. Across the two very different types of tests, there were almost unanimous PR efforts for double poling and uphill running. Those that didn’t hit a PR were either very close, or setting a season-best for their testing. Seems like we have collectively survived the switch to the next part of the year.
Lorenzo just barely surviving!
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