Mansfield Nordic Club
Ski coaching, training and playing in the shadow of Mt Mansfield for all ages and abilities
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This past weekend we had our last training of the summer session, followed on Sunday by the Catamount Trail fundraiser “Race to the Top of Vermont” which is either a running or mountain bike race up the Mansfield Toll Road (Stowe). There were a ton of skiers and former skiers in the event: including a group of MNC athletes, Craftsbury Green Racing Project Elite Team members, and coaches.
In the women’s run, 5 of the top 9 are skiers:
Other female skier sightings include current & former NENSA board members and other former coaches and recreational skiers and HS ski families:
In the men’s run, 12 of the top 20 are current or former skiers:
Also sighted in the results:
Mountain Bike:
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| Cally Braun early in the race |
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| MNC folks at the summit: Annavitte, Karin, Ethan, Liam, Bill, Penny, Alice |
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| Pre-race: Annevitte, Bill, Henry, Autumn, Emma, Cally, Tatum |
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| Saturday AM rollerski at Mud Pond: working on skate drills |
Yesterday was a perfect morning for training at CVU. Fall sports are going through tryouts, so there was a lot of activity beyond our training. After warmup, the crew did a circuit-style plyometric and strength routine. The athletes jogged between 5 stations that included plyos, abs, push ups, bench dips, narrow-pushups, and walking lunges. Coach Eli Enman and I supervised the plyos and helped with technique and timing.
After nearly 60 minutes of that, we put on our skis (thats right, snow skis!) and did some short relays. Grass skiing is extremely taxing on the body – it is like trying to ski uphill through about 10″ of heavy snow. There is almost zero glide, meaning you can never really relax your muscles and recover. The benefits of grass skiing are that striding uphill is nearly exactly the same as on the snow: the body position, the balance, the kick phase, and the resistance from the grass is like a steep climb on snow. Rollerskis are nice, but they give you 100% guaranteed kick every stride – no matter how steep the climb. And there is much less resistance (friction) on a rollerski than on snow. If you don’t believe me when I say it is like real skiing, look at the pictures (below) of the athletes on the ascent. Body position is dead-on.
I remember seeing Kris Freeman (US Ski Team) and Pat O’Brien (Craftsbury GRP) doing some short sprints on grass skis last summer with coach Zack Caldwell. Earlier this summer, there was video of the Craftsbury athletes practicing sprint starts. And just recently, the athletes at Rochester Nordic Racing (coached by Jason Hettenbaugh and my dad, Roger Weston) posted video of their own relays on grass!
CVU has such perfect grass and also many steep hills between the fields. The hills were actually steep enough to glide down! It wasn’t fast, but it was fun and good for balance.
Click the pictures to enlarge!
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| Part of the relay included doing some 360˚s. Will Solow on the right catches air. |
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| The crew at the end of the workout. |
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| Nigel, Ethan T and Jordan working on plyos |
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| Emma Hamilton striding up the hill |
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| First crash of the 2013 season! |
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| Ethan T working on the lateral hops |
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| Ethan John striding uphill |
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| Sienna, Cally and Emma doing the 1-legged hops |
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| See, it looks like skiing!! Cally and Molly |
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| Getting the feel of having skis on. |
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| Nigel, Sienna, Cally and Ethan T showing good form |
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| Liam John – lateral skate hops |
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| Liam John trying some tele turns |
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| Liam and Will Solow striding uphill |
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| Lucy Leith with a bunch of skiers and field-hockey players in the background |
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| Lukas Adamowicz ascends the hill |
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| Nigel and Jordan working on plyos and V2 timing |
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| The start of the relay |
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| …and they’re off |
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| Sienna is getting ready for skiing at St Lawrence! |
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| Will Solow finds some glide |
A doctor at the Mayo Clinic recently published some thoughts on a subject that I find intriguing: should “deconditioning” (a fancy term for being out-of-shape) become a medical diagnosis? An excerpt from his article in the Journal of Physiology:
“Physical inactivity and lack of exercise – deconditioning – is one of the most common preventable causes of morbidity and mortality known for an impressive array of diseases (Thyfault & Booth, 2011). . . . If deconditioning were a recognized syndrome or diagnosis . . . it would be easier to educate the general public and medical community about the one universally effective treatment for it – exercise training.”
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Yesterday we trained at the Range on a perfect Vermont summer day. We were lucky to have 2 awesome MNC graduates back: Eric and Ben Lustgarten (Burlington HS alums that now ski at St. Lawrence and Middlebury, respectively). They’ve been training out in Sun Valley for most of the summer. Ben was one of the best XC runners in the state in ’09 as well as State Champ in skiing in 2010. Eric has come on full-bore in the past year, winning 2 Junior National Championships in one season! As a sophomore at Middlebury this past year, Ben qualified to represent the United States at Junior World Championships in Turkey! These guys represent some of the “old guard” that paved the way for the expansion of the Mansfield Nordic Club. Along with Peter Hegman [UVM], Jared Supple [Colby], John Dixon [Colby] and Emily Stitt [Middlebury], this crew of folks is kicking ass in the collegiate ranks. It goes to show just how much talent we have in this area.
The coaches set up technique and skills stations and the athletes did a continuous rollerski with stops to do the drills. We practiced sprint starts, 1-ski downhill balance, running uphill, striding through an uphill slalom, kick double pole, jumping on rollerskis, and bounding up a grassy hill with rollerskis on.
After no-pole warm up and about an hour of drills, everyone did some specific strength work. The big boys double-poled about 3 loops and the gals did a variety of double-pole and single-stick repeats. We ended with some max-power drills on a gradual up: go as far up the hill as possible in 10 poles.
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| Bounding on skis: notice the different body positions of Eric/Ben (left) and the younger guys |
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| Sprint starts |
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| Craig Calhoun working on the specific strength |
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| Destyni catchin air! That takes confidence, power, agility, balance |
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| Ethan Thibault – specific strength |
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| Molly, Sienna, Leslie sprint starts |
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| Most people do slalom downhill… we do it uphill (diagonal stride) |
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| Bounding |
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| Jordan Lamay catching air |
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| Liam John working on the power |
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| Junior National champs (and BHS grads) Ben and Eric Lustgarten are going to ski fast this winter! |
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| Sienna looks excited – like Michael Jordan |
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| Will Kay has got some power for a young guy – not to mention wicked determination. |
Click through to check snow conditions at Tomasi Meadow (Underhill) and the Range (Jericho). These conditions are submitted by on-the-ground reports and are as current as possible. Read More about “Snow Conditions”…
Join us on Sunday, December 15th at Craftsbury for our Masters Mini Camp. We’ll work on both skate and classic, gather for lunch, and review video and talk technique! Read More about “Masters Mini Camp @ Craftsbury”…
Masters athletes…are you looking to build strength and train with friends and teammates? Join us at the Mansfield Nordic Community Center on Wednesday nights! Read More about “Masters Strength @ The MNCC”…