Archive | Junior Blog

This past weekend we did a group hike up Camel’s Hump mountain. It was one of the hottest days of the year, but we had cool temps and a light breeze on the summit. The boys hiked for about an hour to warmup, then ran the last 0.9 miles to the summit in a hard effort. On the summit we met up with Garrott Kuzzy and Catherine Collins (former MWSC skier and Middlebury), who came up from the Huntington side.

Monday we were back at the Range for classic rollerskiing with a lot of technique work. After skiing without poles, we worked on balance and coordination on the grass, and a few bounding drills up a grassy hill. The main part of the workout were 45″ striders — short intervals at an intensity like a 10 or 15km race pace (not too hard, just good skiing).

On Tuesday, 5 MNC athletes went back to the Range to train with the J2 National Camp (45 of the best 15-16 year olds in the country!). Coaches and athletes are here from AK, MN, ID, MT, CO, etc. Molly, Amy, Casey, Ethan and Craig were able to do a workout that was supervised by US Ski Team coach Bryan Fish and lots of other amazing coaches. Ben Hegman was participating in the camp, so it was nice to see him, too.

Yesterday we did our first double-pole test of the year on Greystone Road in Richmond. I’ll have another post about that with pictures.

Alissa Stone working on the “scooter” drill

Atop Camel’s Hump (8/4)

Charlie Maitland no-poles. (8/6)

Destyni (8/6)

Amy, Emma, Molly & Alice – l to r  (8/6)

Lucy and Claire (8/6)

Awesome views towards Mansfield. Garrott heading down. (8/6)

Henry Harmeyer rocking the tele-turns (8/6)

Amy Bruce and BMA Coach Kate Barton at the J2 camp (8/7)

Ben Hegman at the J2 camp (8/7)

Casey Silke got a great workout along with the best J2’s! (8/7)

Craig Calhoun (r) and Gavin McEwan. J2 camp (8/7)

Ethan John liftoff (8/7)

US Ski Team coach Bryan Fish explains the workout (8/7)

Molly, Amy and other J2 gals listen

Molly (r) running up a steep climb (8/7)

Lukas working the balance (8/6)

Will Solow and Jordan leading a train (8/6)

Ethan, Bill, Henry and Coach Eli Enman (8/6)

Coach Erin Mallory, Amy, Emma and Leslie (8/6)

Claire knew where the camera was! (8/6)

BOunding on skis. Biathlon camp in background. (8/6)

More bounding, with other MNC groups in background (8/6)

Upcoming events for the whole family!

• Saturday (8/4) = Camel’s Hump hike. Bring a friend / bring the family. We will begin at 9am from the Duxbury side (Monroe Trail).  Younger kids and parents can start ahead of the group and we’ll get a huge photo at the summit!
• Saturday (8/11) = Barbecue / potluck and swimming in Lake Champlain at Ethan/Liam John’s camp in Milton. The athletes will do a rollerski and parents can run or ride bikes. After the workout, the Johns have graciously offered to host a BBQ at their place (Everest Road, Milton VT).  Please RSVP to Monica John (vtjohns [at] comcast [dot] net). Training is from 9-11am, so the BBQ will start around 11:30am.

Pictures from the past several days:

Swimming after the bonus training in Jeffersonville

Amy, Coach Erin Mallory and Mollie Larson finishing at 1:50 rollerski

Mollie with the mountains in the background

Long trail run at Sleepy Hollow on Wednesday. Nathanael and Henry.

Cookies and blondies from my Mom!!!  Mmmmmm

Sienna and Callie discussing college

Halfway through a long run – still a few smiles

Sam Longenbach got a nice 30km rollerski on Tuesday! View towards Smugg’s.

Our current week of training (7/30 – 8/5) is focused on high-volume training to build endurance.  After a big week of training, we will follow-up with a recovery week. The recovery week allows the body to ‘absorb’ or super-compensate for the prior training load. If we keep training and training and training, eventually the body just gets tired and breaks down. But if we pair a training stimulus with a period of recovery, the body will get stronger.

Training 8/6 – 8/12:

• Monday 8:30 – 10:30am at the Range. Classic roll with striders.
• Wednesday 8:30 – 10:30am at the Round Church (Richmond). Classic roll with double-pole test. The double-pole test is approximately 3-7 minutes of max effort going up a big hill. It is mostly a test of specific-strength.
• Thursday 5:00 – 7:00pm at the Range. Skate rollerski with technique work.
• Saturday 9:00 – 11:00am at Bear Trap Road in Milton. Long classic rollerski. We’ll have a BBQ and swim afterwards!

This past Friday, Coach Erin Mallory lead a bonus workout called “Save the Baby King Adventure Race”. This workout comes from the coaches out at Sun Valley SEF. Fifteen athletes showed up to Colchester high school for an event that is part brains and part brawn! The event included building shelter, searching for food, and a tractor-tire rolling component. From the reviews I heard, everyone had a great time.

Today we were back at the Range for a skate rollerski and more shooting with Algis Shalna, John Madigon, and Lanny and Tracy Barnes. It was a hot day so everybody was happy to take a few minutes respite to shoot. Feedback from our all-star biathlon coaches was that the girls once again out-shot the boys in terms of accuracy! We must have some Annie Oakleys. Thanks to the biathlon coaches for the opportunity. Tracy and Lanny Barnes have been two of the top biathletes in the country for the past 6-8 years. They’ve both raced in World Cups, finishing as high as 15th place! So we are lucky to have that kind of exposure to high-level athletes.

Tomorrow we have another bonus training up in Jeffersonville along Route 109 and Hogback Road. One of the most important factors in ski training (as in life) is consistency. We’ve had a group of 15-20 athletes that are training 3-4 days/week this summer. Now we’re adding some bonus training and the athletes are able to get together as much as 5 days/wk. It is plain to see the forward progress of many of these athletes. While we still have road rash to clean nearly every day, the crew keeps pushing their comfort zone and improving.

On the horizon, we’ve got a big Camel’s Hump hike planned for this coming Saturday, and we are going to have a rollerski and BBQ up in Milton the following Saturday! Stay tuned for more info about the BBQ.

And now, the pictures:

Preparing to save the King

Foraging for food

Louis, Jordan and Leslie on the trails

Griffin and Ethan making shelter

Nordic ski training = the original crossFit !!

That thing looks heavy!

Ethan John assisting Charlie Cobb as he swings across the moat

Emma narrowly escapes the fire-breathing dragons

Charlie, Ethan and Tatum all smiles. Long live the baby King Arthur Flour!

The eventual winners: Sam, Liam and Sienna. Liam is heading to St. Olaf and Sienna is heading to St Lawrence this fall.

And pictures from today:

Abby Grab from the BKL showing good form!

Looking south towards Smugg’s

John and Algis give the safety instructions

Claire working on skate technique

Destyni practicing V2

Alice leads Leslie and Molly

Sienna, Emma, Amy, Autumn and Lucy

Gals get the safety briefing

No-pole skate warmup

Kayla demonstrates great progress in just 6 weeks of rollerskiing

Nathanael and Patrick goofing around, while climbing a big hill

BKL member Olivia Cuneo getting great ankle flex

Coach Paul Allison demonstrates a drill

Lanny Barnes oversees Bill Harmeyer shooting

Nice swimming hole

Will Kay working on his cornering

Next week, we will focus our training on higher volume. We will do long and sustained workouts at low-intensity.

Monday: 8:30am – 10:30 at the Range. Skate roll + specific strength.
Tuesday: (possible bonus for more advanced rollerskiers) Classic rollerski in the Jeffersonville-area. Approx 8:30-10:45am.
Wednesday: 8:30am – 10:30 at Sleepy Hollow. Adventure run/hike and bounding.
Thursday: 4:30pm-6:30pm at Charlotte Beach. Skate rollerski + speed work.
Saturday: 9:00am – early afternoon. Camel’s Hump hike. Bring a friend / bring the family. We will do some high-intensity hiking/running during this workout. And we will try to get a huge group photo at the summit!

Photos from this past Monday and Wednesday:
On Monday we worked on skate rollerskiing at the Range. We did some drills followed by technique work and strength.

On Wednesday we trained at CVUHS. After our dryland drills warmup, the crew did a bunch of agility and plyometric drills, followed by short intervals on the track, uphill sprints, strength, and a game of speedball.

Griffin and Will “a la Michael Jordan” working on classic drills

CVU Boys Louis, Will and Thomas

Charlie Cobb looks like he got a good workout!

Parker and Sam in the foreground

Big group of skiers getting ready for some skate drills

more drills

Louis (foreground) is really strong!

Rachel doing some core strength

Relays

Craig Calhoun trying to emulate Dwight Howard

Plank and pushup sequence

Sprint, jump up and do a 360, then continue sprinting!

…more 360’s

…and still more 360’s. Working on coordination, balance, quickness, agility = basic athletic skills

Liam, Will, Nik and Sam looking strong on the track

5 pushups, then sprint up a short hill

Sprinting up the hill

Charlie Cobb gaining fitness

The Colchester boys stick together

Ethan J, Thomas, Griffin, and Nathanael on the track

Sprint up the hill and jump up/over the bleachers

Sienna leads a group of gals on the track

…Catching some air off the bleachers

Group warm-up with double pole drills

everybody sprinting!

Backwards somerault, then sprint up the hill

backwards somersaults

Finishing with a full-field game of speedball

speedball

Abdominal “doom sequence” as Justin Beckwith likes to call it

more doom sequence

Coach Weston explains why it is important to do basic skills work in addition to rollerskiing