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.
Have you heard of Goodshop?
This internet-based service connects non-profits with shopping sites and stores everywhere to promote savings and give back! With a Goodshop account, and with Mansfield Nordic Club selected as your desired “cause”, companies will donate a percentage of your purchase cost to MNC! Just in time for the holidays, this is a great way to support our programs and a great way to find deals online.
Signing up just requires creating a quick password, followed by selecting Mansfield Nordic as one of your “causes”. You can support more than one cause, so look for other organizations and groups you would like to help!
More details on how Goodshop works HERE
Visit Goodshop, learn more, and create an account by clicking 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:
Hat’s off to may of our MNC athletes who posted some impressive results at this weekend’s XC State Meets!
This season, we are excited to announce that the former Mt. Mansfield BKL group will merge into MNC, broadening the BKL offerings of the club and simplifying the Nordic options in our area.
As a result, a “Friday Foxes” program, which will primarily take place at Underhill Central School, will be added to our program menu in addition to the current Penguin, Jackrabbit and BK Race groups offered on by MNC on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Range.
The Friday Fox program is an introductory program for elementary- and middle school-aged skiers looking to learn the sport, have fun in an amazing setting and engage in the fundamentals of skiing. Many of the same leaders and volunteers that have been a part of the long-standing Friday tradition in Underhill will continue to be a part of the Friday Foxes group.
As a part of MNC, the Friday Foxes program registration will run through Mansfield Nordic’s online, PayPal-enabled sign-up system. All Friday Foxes participants will pay the same price as previous years for this program and will benefit from being part of the larger MNC club infrastructure.
We are going to be skiing at Underhill Central School Fridays from 3:30-4:45 (later as the days grow longer). As you know, our long time hosts, Donna and Bob Hamill, are moving toward retirement and as such need to reduce their commitments. Our Friday ski program required a great deal of Donna’s time. We wish Bob and Donna lots of fun with their kids and grand children!!
Below are a few important points to be aware of:
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”…
Our spring 2025 registration is open for Junior athletes! Click through to visit the info page, learn more about programming and schedules, and register now! Read More about “Spring”…
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”…