We’ve taken a few strides into the dryland season already. It’s likely you have been out running a bit, or have gotten the bike tuned-up in anticipation of some warmer weather for riding. Here’s a few things to check off the list now that winter is in the rearview.
1. Snow ski storage
There’s lots of specific instructions out there, but it really doesn’t have to be complicated. Take care of your skis by cleaning the kick zones with a dedicated kick zone cleaner/wax remover, and clean the glide zones with a dedicated glide zone cleaner. After that has been done, make sure the glide zones are brushed with a metal brush and then put on a layer of ironed-in paraffin wax of your choice for the summer.
To glide wax over the kickzone or not? Doesn’t matter.
To use blue wax, or red, or yellow? Doesn’t matter.
To “soak” in one wax, or “harden” with another? It doesn’t really matter.
Just be sure to store your skis for the summer like you’d store your oatmeal or crackers…a cool, dark place without excessive humidity or excruciating thermal swings.
2. Shoes and running
As a definitive non-expert in running, I will defer to professionals on exactly when to change shoes. But it’s likely that if you got new shoes last spring and ran all summer/fall in them, you might consider a new pair.
If you’re ok not having the “best and latest” shoes you can often find a previous-year model online for a huge discount.
The folks at Skirack, however, are a good bet to help you analyze your running form and help identify some of the best footwear or orthotics for your feet and gait.
It’s important to start out the running season in a controlled way, and for an outline feel free to take a look at this April Running Progression doc…despite the title, you could use this as a 4-week starting protocol for any month you are working back into running.
3. Strength, PT, “Pre-hab”
Doing some work in the gym is one of the best decisions you can make all year, but never moreso than in the spring when we are transitioning to new forms of movement like running or cycling. Having enough strength to gradually increase our training volume and intensity will help stave off injury.
For some it’s a dreaded term, but now is a good time to at least make sure you are ready to rollerski, even if you don’t begin yet. For reference, Juniors don’t usually start rollerskiing until early/mid-May, but now is still the time to be checking things like:
Wheels
Pole tips
Helmet
Bindings
If you need new skis, our yearly order through Skirack is available until May 4th! You can check that page out here.
Our partners at Skirack have once again put together a great spring order form this year. Order some new rollerskis by May 4th to get great discount pricing and be set for the summer!
Click the link below to view the form from Skirack, which includes ordering information as well as model details and suggestions.
There are a lot of “final” events in the season (see last week’s blog post, even) but it seems we can finally put the 2024/2025 season to bed with this year’s edition of Cochrans Nordic Cross. The fact that there was just barely enough snow to complete a course, and we were scraping snow back over the grass of each slalom gate before the second round really meant we carried out the season to the bitter end!
On Saturday a few MNC skiers braved the cold and rain to scope things out and help lay out a potential race route. The conditions were very soft, and Jimmy Cochran was going to have to wait until the day of the race to actually move the majority of the snowpack where it was needed. Creative measures like sneaking under the rope tow line and utilizing all of the left- and right-side slopes were critical. But the all-important “usual” features like the drain-swirl start, the massive bumps, the pond jump, and the “dead-bug-roll” over hay bales were not left out!
For race day, it was a celebration of the best parts of the New England ski community. World Cup and Olympic athletes like Ben Ogden and Julia Kern were present, wearing outrageous outfits and crashing just like the rest of us. The kids race was full of young shredders on everything from waxless fishscales, to skate skis, to alpine skis! It felt like a full 1/4 of the EISA collegiate field was in attendance, as well as most of the familiar Masters names from across the region. MNC had BKL, Junior, and Masters racers all competing.
In heats of 5, athletes took off from the top of the mountain. Pennie Rand had fun with the start list, putting together lots of friends and skiers of similar age and ability. The top 8 men and top 8 women each got to race a second time in the “finals” which meant another trip UP the mountain as well as down!
While this race takes a lot of skill, and does require some serious capacity (this year featured even more uphill than usual), everyone is at very different points in their season. Some Juniors are taking advantage of their best fitness ever, while others have begun track or soccer practice. Some college skiers have gotten a good night’s sleep, and others have…spent the night prior celebrating the end of the season, you could say. Masters are coming from long tours in the mountains, or even the Craftsbury Mud n’ Ice Quadrathlon the day prior.
After the first round shook out, it was up to Astrid, Acadia and I to head back up for the finals. Those two girls did MNC proud finishing in 5th and 6th, and they rocked some sweet coordinated tracksuits along with Mia. For the U16 podium they were joined by Ford Sayre’s Ollie Hanna.
As you can see, snow was minimal but the excitement was high!
One final series of high-level, competitive ski racing…
The very end of March…after everything else has come to a close…
When the thought of more late nights waxing, early mornings testing, and stressful race days is weighing heavy…
Not in the warm spring sun but rather in rain, ice, sleet, and slush…
Doesn’t sound too motivating, does it? All of the above was the setting for Supertour Finals this past weekend in Lake Placid.
This race series rotates around the country, only happening in the East every couple of years. It’s not something we ever take a trip to if it involves a plane flight. But a ride across the lake on the ferry? That’s doable.
Even still, I put this out there not as an official trip but more of a “hey, who is interested and does anyone wanna go and split some of the effort and travel and logistics?”
Anders leading his sprint heat
I was in some ways a bit surprised, and in other ways not surprised at all, to primarily see a squad of U16 athletes take up theidea. We had some seasoned veterans like Anders taking part, and a few other athletes making the trip to watch the action and cheer siblings and teammates. But fresh off a big trip to Junior Nationals, I think the best-case-scenario happened for our U16s…this younger crew got even MORE excited about skiing than they already were. Going into a race series knowing you are tired, knowing the front of the field is literally comprised of some of the best skiers in the WORLD, and grinding out the hardest courses in the country is not usually a welcome adventure many would take up willingly.
Rather than this Supertour “Finals” being the closing of a book, I think this can be viewed as just the ending of one chapter as the page turns to the next. It wasn’t so much “this is the end, finally we’re done” but more like “this is a preview of what the future could look like in my skiing.”
Relay squad of James (CL), Astrid (CL), Jorgen (SK), Mia (SK). Plus #1 fan Bella! Photo by Laura McIntosh
One of the coolest races they include at Supertour Finals is the Club Relay. From the top pros to clubs like ours, everyone gets to toe the start line together. While the front of the field featured epic battles among World Cup stars, there was a whole separate pack [not that far behind] featuring New England teams like MNC, Ford Sayre, Craftsbury, SMS, and GMVS.
Throughout the trip we shared a wax cabin with Ford Sayre, and used radios to communicate across the parking lot to the GMVS trailer: all of our coaches were working together to test different waxes and help prepare skis. It was fun to continue a lot of the collaborations that have taken place over the past few years.
Mid-race carnage for James
We had three Juniors (Astrid, Mia, Anders) make the heats in Friday’s sprint race, as well as epic battles in the 15 kilometer mass start on Sunday.
That last race was something special. It was the longest race for everyone involved, especially the U16 squad who are all high school freshmen. After a year of me holding them back from workouts and races (no 5km project for this age group, shorter timetrials, different structure to intervals, etc) I let go of the reins for this last one of the season. It was epic!
Anders battled a crash that sent him off the course near the same spot where Virginia took a long tumble down through the fencing at JNs last year, while James skied in a pack throughout that featured many of his U16 teammates from Utah like Eli McEnany and Matthew Northcott. On the last 5km lap, he suddenly wasn’t appearing with them anymore…did he hit the wall, I wondered? Was this race too much? Nope, turns out he just had a ski break in half! Sometimes things happen that are just too crazy to be in your control…the good news is that we won’t be needing classic skis for about 8 months or so…
In the women’s race the announcer and Bullitt Timing were keeping track of not only the 40km open race but also the 15km Junior race featuring U20 collegiate athletes all the way through the U16s and even one U14 racer in the field. It was a runaway win for Ally Wheeler, one of the top Juniors in all of the US. Behind was 2024 JN champ and 2025 Eastern Cup overall champ Lea Perreard from Ford Sayre. Other names were rattled off as the splits came in every other kilometer or so…Beth McIntosh, Greta Kilburn, kids from out west, etc…
However as the race went on the loudspeakers started to crackle with the names “Mia Gorman” and “Astrid Longstreth” further and further up the list. These two were charging!
Pros, Olympians, NCAA skiers, you name them. I don’t think there were two skiers racing as aggressively, with as strong technique, or as much sharp energy, as these two skiers at the 15km mark. This clip is from the hill leading into the 10 kilometer mark…twice the distance these two usually raced this season. And they didn’t slow down for the next 5km, either!
With such strong skiing and great pacing, Mia and Astrid moved themselves into 3rd and 5th for the Juniors, a pretty astounding effort in a small but extremely competitive field. But it reminded me of a coffee mug shared in photos by former Norwegian Olympic champion Oystein Petterson. A white mug with small black wording:
I think the key takeaway here is not being super fast as a U16, but being able to race a bit amongst the next level up and know ok, I can do this, and this is what it will take. Not closing the book and accepting the success you already have written, but turning the page and getting a glimpse at how the next chapter might start, if you’re willing to keep reading and working. So that’s the cliffhanger ending to the ’24/’25 season I suppose…
