Mansfield Nordic Club

If the recent heat isn’t enough of an indicator, the sound of poles clicking away on the rollerski track in Jericho certainly means that SUMMER is here. It was great to start up official summer programming with a crew of 40 athletes working hard. While we started off with mostly games like mini-bike races and tug-of-war, it wasn’t long before we were racing through agility courses on skate skis and busting out some core on the grass with Coach Kirsten.

On Tuesday after practice we held a team meeting in the Jericho Community Center. While not everyone was able to attend, it was still a very good experience and one which I’d like to try and do more often, regardless of attendance. Any number of athletes is a beneficial one when you’re having a good discussion. We talked about team goals, team communication, health and body image, social media, leadership, and group dynamics. While individual athletes may be familiar with their own goal pyramids for a year/season, this time we came up with a goal pyramid as a group that could apply to the whole MNC team.

How does a goal pyramid work? The top areas of the pyramid are often tough-but-achievable goals, and the lower, wider building blocks are goals along the way that all contribute to the upper goals.

I like to try and work backward through a year, with the top of the pyramid representing ski-specific goals and late-season stuff.

I also try to encourage a balance of “outcome” (results, times, tec) and “process” (lifestyle, practice, conscientious) goals throughout.

Here is a typed version of the goal pyramid from this meeting, which is now tacked-up at the Range.

In addition to big-picture things like team meetings and goals, we also continued to work hard in everyday training. On Saturday we did the double pole test for the second time this year, and many athletes saw a big improvement or even PR times compared to May. Doing the test before a lot of rollerskiing (last time) didn’t lead to the best times, but that was important for remembering the perspective of it all…we are training to improve ourselves first and foremost, so I encouraged athletes to compare their May time from this year to their first test time last year, rather than their best time from what may have been a whole summer of rollerskiing.

This past Saturday saw a slew of PR efforts! We had Nico, Elsa, Kai, Taylor, Hattie, and Julia all notch new personal bests, and 8 skiers completing the test for the very first time.

We switched it back to sneakers for Sunday morning, embracing the sun and the summer heat by going for a long run that included a trip out and back on the Colchester Causeway. Often, skiers from Burlington are travelling out to the hills of Richmond and Jericho for training, so it was time to switch it up and venture into the urban lands for some fun and different training. Now time to rest up and prepare for some big volume!

Housekeeping notes:

If you haven’t yet signed up for summer, you can do so HERE

Juniors: sign up for the Lost Nation Roll (Sunday the 3rd) at THIS LINK. We will have a van trip to the race!

We REALLY are looking to fill up our summer camps! Please give them a look HERE.

If you haven’t yet ordered an MNC sports bra and are interested, you can do so HERE…the order is going through Tuesday afternoon!

The start of summer training is here! I wanted to take a moment to share some important information regarding the when/where/why/hows of the program to make sure we start off smoothly. I’ll break things into a few categories below.

The Range

This one is critical and so it stays right up at the top. There are several things to know about rollerskiing at the Range, which is where we primarily meet every Tuesday/Thursday morning from 8-10AM (often we go a bit later…).

1. Don’t forget your ID! You will need a photo ID for every person in a given vehicle to enter the base. This is shown at the check-in gate you pull up to right as you enter
2. You will need to say that you are on the EABC (Ethan Allen Biathlon Club) list when you enter. NOT the MNC list. EABC has already scheduled days at the Range for the same Tues/Thurs dates we’ll be there in the summer, but they train in the evening. In order to not use up our own days, we will be accessing the base as members of EABC for the start of the summer, and then we will swap roles (they can sign in as MNC) once their days have been completed.
3.  Drive AT or UNDER the speed limit in the Range. This is VERY IMPORTANT. When penalized for driving over the speed limit (and there will be guards on duty) we risk losing access to the Range…and when we’re on the EABC list, we’re actually putting their organization in jeopardy. No matter how early or late you maybe to training, always always always go the speed limit (20mph) within the base.
4. Directions to the Range, and to the rollerski trails themselves, can be found at this link:

The Range driving directions

Training Schedule and updates

Our main hub for all training-related information (times, dates, locations, links, weather changes, etc) is the MNC Junior Training Doc below. This is a living document that is updated frequently.

Emails are used to send follow-up videos and “debriefs” from practices, but we rarely use email to coordinate training, travel, and workout details. This is mainly because the size and makeup of our group is constantly changing, with many different skiers involved in many different capacities. The Junior Doc keeps things in a simple and accessible format, and many choose to download the Google Sheets app to view the doc on their phones.

MNC Junior Training Doc

My general goal is to keep the current week updated with specific workouts, times, and locations. The upcoming week is usually pretty solidly laid-out, with the third week out being more of a loose idea…often we wait until we have a good picture of the weather forecast and any upcoming events or opportunities to collaborate with other clubs or groups before solidifying a plan three weeks in advance.

What do I bring to practice?

We now have a dedicated page for this information on our website: under the Resources tab on the homepage you can find the Daily Training Checklist, which is also linked below.

Daily Training Checklist

It’s important to note that as of this year, wearing a shirt or tank top is required at the Range. This is a rule from the National Guard and while we intend to have a meeting to discuss training clothing in general (more on that below) this rule within the base comes from a different authority and we will adhere to it.

Training Day 1 (June 21!)

Tuesday, June 21 marks our first day of summer training. We will meet at the Range (remember, you are on the EABC list at the gate) and will use skate rollerskis. That said, the first day is often not a ton of skiing…rather, we will do some games off-skis, some introductions, some fun challenges, and some teambuilding even before we put on the skis.

The Range has hills and corners but also a very novice-friendly section of flat terrain in the stadium for those who have not rollerskied as much. We will gradually try to work up to a level of comfort where the hills are not so intimidating: a big goal of ours every summer is to be able to have the last practice be a session where all skiers (newer and more experienced) can do a relay workout on the same loop!

After training on the 21st, we have a space reserved at the Jericho Community Center by the town green from 11am-1pm. The plan is to have a team meeting for anyone who can/wishes to attend to set some team goals, discuss training theory, and have a discussion about training attire and guidelines we agree on. We’ll pick up some chocolate milk (and creemees??) from the country store across the street.

This meeting isn’t mandatory (certainly some skiers will have other obligations after training) but it’s a general goal to spend some more time outside of training as a group having good discussions and input from coaches and athletes alike on all sorts of topics.

COVID Policy

Updated on May 23: click here

For questions or concerns:

My email is adamRterko@gmail.com if there are questions. The email address “adamterko@mansfieldnordic.org” also exists, but that account just forward to the Gmail so easiest to go right to the source!

Looking forward to a great summer!

Big squad on day 1

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.