Mansfield Nordic Club
Ski coaching, training and playing in the shadow of Mt Mansfield for all ages and abilities
Thanks to all of our volunteers who helped organize our first MNC Annual meeting. Events lead off with a Hash run, followed by a potluck dinner and presentations. A big thanks also goes out to Coach Adam for his motivational speech on Our Nordic Heroes and Pavel Celik for his fantastic talk on his Icelandic Climate Run!
To view our Board and Winter Program Presentation click here.
To view more photos of the day click on the photo below.
Sun. 11/8 Georgia Roller Ski (map) This week the Masters group plans to do a long easy roller ski in Georgia. The plan is to meet at Georgia Town Park at 9:30.
Tues. 11/10 Dee PT Strength (map) – Join Coach Dennis this Tuesday at 6-7PM for strength training session at Dee PT in South Burlington. If you haven’t signed up yet or want to find out more click here.
Thurs. 11/12 Dry Land Training (map) – Join Coach Rick for the first week of dry land training. This week we will meet from 5:30 – 7:00PM and will shift the training location to the Ethan Allen Range in Jericho where we will have access to lights and additional equipment. If you haven’t signed up yet or want to find out more click here.
In a week with less overall training, I like to take some practice time with the Juniors and devote it to some other activities. We’ve written down and shared goals, discussed past timetrials and races, and re-arranged gear and supplies at the Range.
This week, we fit in more unique events during our typical practice times!
On Tuesday coach Sara and I came up with some questions to help drive a “Junior Team Mission” for the season. We asked questions like:
-Why do you ski with MNC?
-What kind of relationships do you want to see within this group?
-What can MNC do for you? OR, what does MNC do well that you like?
Athletes used some notecards to write down their responses, and one of the first things I did was create a word cloud. Now, this is not a statistically-significant method of analysis, but for a group setting with so many different faces I think it is a great visual tool. There are a few odd words included, of course (the word “England” shows up as a result of “New England”, and the word “High” is awkwardly large due to the phrase “High School”), but here is the cloud that the responses produced!
MNC word cloud. The bigger the word, the more prevalent it was in the responses
I won’t get philosophical (yet) on an interpretation, and will instead let the reader take time to look and review what some of these words are. As a team we will also do the same…what do the sizes of respective words show about our group? Good or bad? How can we reach new levels and what should we retain as it is?
On Thursday, we did a fun activity that was a little less intellectually-stimulating…it was inaugural Toko day, when our new Toko waterbelts were distributed! Of course, that meant a group photo shoot to show off the new gear:
The Toko “Blue Steel” look (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09nTwccQTUA)
The Toko Pyramid
Thanks Toko!
We were also up to more of our usual business…rollerskiing, lifting weights and running around in the mountains. Here are some more assorted pictures and videos from our week!
Aidan testing out the triple-medball pushups at Dee PT (with Eliza providing support)…yes, that last medball is really a basketball…we’re so strong we’ve broken all the other ones!
Greg and Will battling it out…one on rollerskis and one on real skis!
Some nice smooth skiing footage…going for butter-smooth style!
Frigid and windy atop Mt Mansfield for #NENSAPeakWeekend
More hiking action at Butler Lodge! The MNC flag has covered a lot of ground this week!
Jim Fredericks gave us some stretchy bands that we use for rollerski towing, but today Greg, Aidan and I killed some time in the parking lot after the hike by hitching one up to some trees and making a slingshot…with frequently painful results! The MNC Youtube Channel has lots of interesting content from this crew!
Congrats to all the runners (both middle school and high school) who raced so well in the State Championships this past weekend! Results can be found here:
It is ski swap season…in fact, a few have already passed us by! Finding some real gems at a local ski swap is one of the joys of the sport…
prized hot pink and neon boards from the Colchester ski swap of 2006
If you were not aware, MNC has it’s own “Gear Swap” page…check it out HERE! You can find this page at the very top of the MNC homeage.
The club is happy to work with individuals who have gear they are looking to sell, and equally happy to help set up skiers with the right used equipment. If you are interested in donating or selling gear, please contact Karen at kalence@comcast.net.
As the weather turns cold, also be sure to check out local ski swaps, many of which are fundraisers for schools or local ski clubs and programs just like MNC! A listing can be found on the Ski Maven website by clicking HERE.
Calling MNC skiers of all ages! Join in for a hike up Mt Mansfield next Sunday, November 1st, to celebrate NENSA’s Peak Weekend event! See our event link for more details.
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”…