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Grass Skiing, Plyos and Strength @ CVU

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!

Part of the relay included doing some 360˚s. Will Solow on the right catches air.

The crew at the end of the workout.

Nigel, Ethan T and Jordan working on plyos

Emma Hamilton striding up the hill

First crash of the 2013 season!

Ethan T working on the lateral hops

Ethan John striding uphill

Sienna, Cally and Emma doing the 1-legged hops

See, it looks like skiing!! Cally and Molly

Getting the feel of having skis on.

Nigel, Sienna, Cally and Ethan T showing good form

Liam John – lateral skate hops

Liam John trying some tele turns

Liam and Will Solow striding uphill

Lucy Leith with a bunch of skiers and field-hockey players in the background

Lukas Adamowicz ascends the hill

Nigel and Jordan working on plyos and V2 timing

The start of the relay

…and they’re off

Sienna is getting ready for skiing at St Lawrence!

Will Solow finds some glide

Is “laziness” a medical condition? Pictures…

By Adam Terko on 21 August, 2012 in BKL Jackrabbits, BKL Race Blog, Junior Blog, Masters Blog

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.

Bounding on skis: notice the different body positions of Eric/Ben (left) and the younger guys

Sprint starts

Craig Calhoun working on the specific strength

Destyni catchin air! That takes confidence, power, agility, balance

Ethan Thibault – specific strength

Molly, Sienna, Leslie sprint starts

Most people do slalom downhill… we do it uphill (diagonal stride)

Bounding

Jordan Lamay catching air

Liam John working on the power

Junior National champs (and BHS grads) Ben and Eric Lustgarten are going to ski fast this winter!

Sienna looks excited – like Michael Jordan

Will Kay has got some power for a young guy – not to mention wicked determination.

Mt Mansfield Hike

By Adam Terko on 20 August, 2012 in Junior Blog, Masters Blog

Saturday 8/19 we had about 22 people gather for a hike up Mt Mansfield. The days started cool and cloudy and breezy. Once we reached the ridge we encountered nice views towards Stowe – it was entirely clear to the East. We skirted around the summit on the Profanity Trail and eventually looped back up and over on our way home. On the summit ridge (now coming from the Smuggs side), it was ominous and gray on one side of the ridge while remaining clear on the other. After a chilly few minutes on the summit, the clouds lifted and made for a beautiful descent. While we were on top of Vermont, one of our other MNC families was over in the Adirondacks summiting the highest point in NY – Mt Marcy. Hopefully we can get a few pics of their hike too!

Approaching the summit. Gray to the W, clear to the E

Garrott and Murray

Nigel and Chris Rodgers

Molly, Karin, and guest Margo

Stopping for a snack on the way up

At the bad-weather bypass

Is that the Alps? Nope, it is Stowe.

Ben and Will on the summit

Summit, looking West

Ascent – we were still beneath the clouds

Henry and Liam in an elevator shaft

Louis, Will, Casey, Henry, Liam and Bill.

View of Mansfield before the hike!!

Heyo!

On the way down…skies clear…looking towards Burlington

Awwww yeaaahh!!

Ballet pose with Pleasant Valley in the background!!

Training 8/20 – 8/26; Pictures from last week

By Adam Terko on 19 August, 2012 in Junior Blog

Training 8/20 – 8/26: (last week of Summer Training)

Monday: 8:30 – 10:30am. Classic rollerski at the Range.
Wednesday: 8:30 – 10:30am. Running & skiing at CVU. Bring rock skis (classic) and poles/boots. Fun relays!
Thursday: 5:00 – 7:00pm. Skate rollerski at the Range.
Saturday: 9:00 – 11:00am. TBD.

Here are some pictures from last Wednesday. We did the make-up DP test on Wednesday, as well as a lot of classical technique work. At the end of training we had an informal awards ceremony to honor Henry Harmeyer and Ben Hegman. Both of these boys earned All American status at Junior Nationals last year for their podium performances. Congrats guys!

Yesterday we started hiking Mt Mansfield on a chilly morning that turned into a beautiful sunny day. Going up the west side of the mountain (from Underhill), we were stuck in the clouds the entire time. We flanked the summit via the Profanity Trail and as we moved towards the Stowe side of the mountain we encountered beautiful views. Back on the summit, it was sunny in one direction (East) and cloudy/windy to the West. Everything cleared off just after we began our descent down the Sunset Ridge Trail. We finished with a bunch of mini-donuts and donut holes.

Coach Alice Nelson leads the girls – working on high hands while double-poling.

Alissa Stone doing the DP test

Ben Hegman and Sienna Searles

The boys are happy that they don’t have to do another DP test for 2 months

Cally Braun makes her way up

Ethan, Jordan and Nigel

Forrest and Ethan

After the All-American presentation. Looks like about 35 athletes/coaches!!!

Henry Harmeyer leads a group through kick-double-pole drills.

Julia Snyder joined us from BFA-Fairfax

Liam John set a big PR

Nathanael Kuzio set a really big PR

Parker Francis and another PR.

Sam Longenbach, PR.

Sam leads Lauren and Cally doing “shadow” drills

Will Solow and Adele Julianelle mimic one another

Will “suns out guns out” Solow is psyched for the BKL Festival!!

Double-Pole Test take 2; Pics from Monday

By Adam Terko on 16 August, 2012 in Junior Blog

We only had about 18 athletes do the double-pole test last week, so today we went back to Richmond and had another opportunity to ski the course before fall sports begin. I was worried that we might have a small group today — boy was I wrong. I counted 32 or 33 athletes! The boys’ course record (which was set last week) was broke today…twice. We also got in a lot of technique work including 1-pole skiing and no-pole skiing.

At the end of training we had an informal All American certificate presentation. Henry Harmeyer and Ben Hegman were both on the podium at Junior Nationals last March, and they earned All-American status from the United States Ski Association for those performances. I think there will be even more of those in 2013 and beyond.

This past Monday we had about 32 athletes at the Range for a skate rollerski. We’ve really been trying to get a lot of time on rollerskis now that everyone is getting comfortable on them. Thanks again to John Madigon and Algis Shalna for yet another opportunity for these athletes to practice their biathlon skills.

Here are times from the double-pole test today (PR from last year, if applicable):