Mansfield Nordic Club

Our MNC University crowd is continuing to grow, even moreso with the start of June as many leases in Burlington are beginning…meaning more out-of-state athletes are arriving in the Green Mountains!

There were also several special guests last week. Some were invited, others were not. You’ll see what I mean.

Even at the highest levels, you’ll still find yourself connecting with the basics. Coach Brandon leads the crew in arm swing drills

Olympian and World Cup/World Champs medalist Julia Kern in the house!

Things have been going smoothly at the Range, with early access to the rollerski loop meaning safe spaces to gather on skis for any type of training; speeds, intervals, and easy distance. As many know, the hills are short but quite steep, which is a blessing and a curse! One benefit of this terrain is great work on techniques that are harder to do on shallower vehicle roads, like running (on skis) and hop-skating.

It was cool to be joined by Olympian, US Ski Team member, and World Cup/World Champs medalist Julia Kern for some days this week. Julia is spending some time in Richmond this summer, so we’re excited to welcome her to some training when it fits with her busy schedule! She’ll be jumping around to various trips and camps across the continent (and globe) but knowing that our own backyard is also one of those key locations for the best to train at is pretty cool.

We knew Julia would be around this summer, but we (and the Range operations folks) were less prepared for the other guest on the base this week…I drove into the facility on Thursday morning to help get set up for training, and right in the middle of the road was a black bear. As soon as I saw it I knew what must’ve been up to, but first I had to get it out of the way. It was a tense standoff between bear and Subaru, long enough for me to snap a photo, but eventually the creature sauntered off.

Sure enough, when I crested the hill up to the parking lot I could see that the contents of the large dumpster had been emptied and spread all across the road. This bear had enjoyed quite the feast! In the afternoon, as the Juniors were getting ready to practice, Sara exclaimed “did you all see the bear right next to the trails on the way up here?”

It’s not the first time we’ve seen bears around, and they generally seem to want nothing to do with humans (except for our trash). But it’s a good reminder not to ski alone at these trails!

The MNCU group was out on bikes, skis, and foot this weekend. Here’s several who made a loop run on Mansfield to kick off June

This ended up being a week full of nice rollerski sessions! Although we got some rain for our running days, the sun and vibes were high for anything on wheels, it seemed. Early in the week the MNC University crew got in the first rollerski intensity of the year with some skate L3. They switched to classic on Thursday morning, while that afternoon the Juniors had their first skate session of the year.

Each week more MNC University skiers finish their semesters, and the group grows!

First skate ski of the year for the Juniors

Spoon-and-egg racing on rollerskis for balance and coordination

We take a lot of video for rollerskiing, pretty much during every session. Even if we aren’t doing intervals or specific drills, most days I end up emailing out about 2-3 minutes worth of ski clips.

Why so much video? For one thing, it’s just so easy these days. When I was in college, taking video meant coaches dragging out a camcorder, filming in a set location as skiers went back-and-forth. Then we would gather in the lodge or the athletic department (sometimes a day later) to plug-in a bunch of cables and play it all onto a TV or computer screen. I’m not talking about the stone ages here…this was like 2009.

Nowadays at least one MNC coach is usually on a bike for a rollerski session. With a GoPro that can fit in a closed palm able to shoot 4k quality video with automatic stabilization, there’s no reason at least a little bit of every session can’t be captured on camera. I usually sent out an email with follow-up session thoughts and a link to video as soon as possible following the ski, or at least by later that evening.

Here’s some video from a nice Sunday double pole down by Lake Champlain in Shelburne. Our “Individual Technique” playlist, where practice footage goes, is up to 974 videos and counting!

Even if we aren’t critically analyzing each clip, skiers just get to see themselves skiing on such a regular basis that they have a really accurate handle on how they currently move. That means that when they try to make changes, or view clips of World Cup skiers, they are able to better comprehend the steps from here to there…at least, that’s the goal!

Sunscreen necessary

The summer months are approaching, and our training groups are assembling with more and more participants! Both the MNC University and MNC Junior squads are starting to heat up.

This week the Juniors hit up their second rollerski of the year, and things were looking great. Often for the first few rollerskis of the year it can feel like a “one step back, then two steps forward” situation. But this season everybody has just picked up right where they left off on snow, and we’re already onto step two without any backtracking.

The heat started to pick up for our Saturday workout, a really productive set of running intervals on Governor Chittenden road. These are popular intervals and we’ve written about them on the blog before. On this day we did just half a mile for each interval, but this session is one we’ll repeat all the way through the fall with incremental growth in both distance and hilliness.

Warming up from Catamount down to Rt 2 for some running intervals

While the Juniors are hard at week in the mornings at school, the MNC University crew gets going at 8:00am sharp. This year the group looks to be almost 20-strong, but things started small this first week with many still finishing up their semester. A small-but-strong crew took on some rollerskiing and running much like the Juniors.

This coming weekend, both groups will convene to run a 3000m together at the MMU track!

Some familiar faces and recent MNC alumni now in MNC University!