Archive | Junior Blog

If you read enough articles or books related to Nordic skiing, you’ll start to realize how much the term “ski culture” is brought up. This is often in reference to Norway, with images of ski wax sold in vending machines and loaves of bread with Petter Northug or Therese Johaug on the packaging.

But what does skiing culture look like here where we live? I commonly refer to New England as the “Scandinavia of America” and Vermont as the “Norway of that Scandinavia.” And while we may not have quite the same level of lifestyle and Nordic skiing crossover as Nordic nations, a few days last week gave me some goosebumps that we might be moving in that direction.

On Thursday morning the MNC University group was joined by Julia Kern, an Olympian and US Ski Team member who was spending some time in Richmond. Julia didn’t do anything special or unique to announce her presence…she just showed up when training started, listened as drills were explained, went through the same steps as the rest of the crew, and chatted among everyone while they were all skiing easily around.

When we did running speeds up a steep hill, it wasn’t until partway through a number of reps that I remembered Julia’s credentials as a sprinter…as Geo got ready to start a speed, I nudged that “you might want to follow Julia on one of these: she’s probably one of the top six skiers in the entire WORLD at this sort of thing.”

What was revealing of a ski culture was not how novel this session was, but how normal it felt for what seemed like everyone involved. Really cool stuff.

On the following day, Friday, we had no official practice scheduled for the Juniors. An on-your-own workout of your choice was suggested.

It was a big day, training notwithstanding, because of the official signatures on various dotted lines completing the acquisition of the Mansfield Nordic Community Center (MNCC). Read more on that here!

While Liz and I were down at the MNCC checking out the space and making grand plans, we heard a knock on the door. It was Taylor, who saw our cars on a return from a bike ride nearby. The buzz was already growing!

A different day for bikes…Taylor and Nico in Waitsfield on Sunday

Gillian (front) being the skate role model for Mia (back)

When we left the space it was time for me to pick up some groceries…it was a beautiful summery scene, with a hazy late-afternoon glow and the scent of grilled meat in the air and the sound of lawnmowers in the distance. I cruised slowly through a busy Richmond, whose downtown is currently celebrating a “share the road” advocacy/art event. Signs and displays were visible at a couple of creative houses.

Then I turned left at the light in the center of town. The Farmer’s Market was buzzing and there were pedestrians everywhere. Yet I quickly spotted (as their design intends) a pair of familiar yellow Mansfield Nordic Club t-shirts…it was Astrid and Mia, walking up the sidewalk by the railroad tracks, rollerskis in hand! They were on their way to a pickup at the middle school.

A town filled with everyday people going about their business, and rollerskiers just another part of the scene. Ski community at its finest.

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!

We enjoyed a pretty beautiful spring week for our first team training sessions of the 24/25 season. Ironically, on Tuesday we had indoor space rented at the Jericho Community Center during what was maybe the nicest weather day of the year so far.

Everyone still got plenty of sunshine as we got in a nice dirt road cruise down Plains Road, and then we went through a brief slideshow before discussing some team goals. Skiers tossed out ideas and goals which we talked through as a group. There is a nice old school blackboard in the community center, which laid the groundwork for some goals…I’ll share the photo below, along with some more details of each as they were discussed:

Stay Motivated: Not every session, race, interval, or training mode is necessarily going to be the greatest ever (or your favorite activity)…but most of the goals below this one on the chart, and especially the goal balancing fun/work along with supportive teammates, can help you stay motivated. Hopefully you can also be a motivator.

Know when to have fun vs when to be serious: This can apply to a lot of situations, and is something we often lose the balance of when the pressure climbs higher and higher. Having fun can apply to races and being serious can apply to training days and not just the other way around.

Kind, constructive feedback: I am often expected to provide feedback as a coach, but I don’t need to (and shouldn’t) be your only resource when you are in a club environment. Kindness is also key, and I think it’s easy in today’s world to mistake kindness for weakness…which is not realistic!

Focus on structure/good listening: If you’ve been with this club for a while, you know that sometimes we struggle to pay attention in the moment/listening to directions/focusing on the task at hand…this is very related to the next goal too.

Organization: Do you have what you need for training? Have you set yourself up physically and mentally to perform? Are you going into the day ready to embrace all of the goals above?

After diligently setting goals, we got back to some more literal work with the creation of several batches of granola bars with a mostly-sticky collection of ingredients. Over the rest of the week we munched on these snacks during our sessions.

On Thursday, we embarked on our first rollerski of the season. Sticking to double poling, we explored our “usual” routes around the unofficial rollerski track of Southridge and the greater suburban Williston area.

With many of us able to ski on snow pretty late into the spring (even just casually) this felt like a nice smooth transition in terms of technique and body position on rollerskis.

Throughout most of May we will be sticking to rollerskiing once, maybe twice per week. Our focus will be on running both easy distance, and hitting some light intensity with a focus on pacing and consistency. We want to be able to complete a lot of big adventures in the summer, and to do so will require good running health and injury prevention! A lot of that actually starts very small: with short and easy runs, hip strengthening band work at each opportunity, and careful picking-and-choosing of when to push a little harder. We’ll also vary our locations, from flatter dirt roads and running tracks, to the steep climbs and technical descents of trails like Cochrans and beyond.

Warming up for some track repeats at CVU, with mini loop bands for hip activation

Off they go!