Back during the pitiful winter weather of the 2011/2012 season I spent every day of my winter break driving to Craftsbury to ski on snow. It was a simple life: wake up, drive 1.5 hours to the loop, ski a bunch, take a nap in the touring center (back when it was just the small building by the pond), eat some lunch and ski again.
I referred to the place as “Lapsbury” and I was dizzy from a 1.5k loop that wound through the woods.
This year, we’ve so far been on a .5 out-and-back that has expanded to a 1k loop pretty much all in a field. And nobody is complaining! When the rest of the ground is mud and grass and we can still pop on our race skis and bang out a solid 2hr session we have many smart minds, a lot of research and long nights by the snowfarming crew to thank.
Chlolo Jones enjoying some sunshine in her new boss shades. In her words, “I like my body position in this shot”. Coach agrees.
Although we are hungry for more kilometers to explore, this small loop format does offer some benefits for athletes and coaches.
-Nobody gets lost
-It is easy to watch skiers and see what they’re up to (filming video is easy…just stand in one place and wait 1-2 minutes and an athlete is sure to go by!)
-Waxing is simple, and even if it gets complicated the wax room is never more than a few strides away
-You get to see anyone and everyone! This one can be a blessing or a curse depending on just how many people are crammed into the same small loop and you’re trying to do skate speeds…
We’ve mixed dryland training with skiing this week, and we’ll continue to do so. It can be great to jump back and forth to measure just how accurate your bounding is compared to the real thing, and just how short and agile those rollerskis are…on Friday we did short skate speeds on the paved loop at WCS with rollerskis, and Saturday we did the exact same workout on the Lapsbury loop with real skis and soft mushy snow…that was quite a difference!
The first High School race is next Saturday, and the Eastern Cup Opener a week after that. Let’s hope for some flakes before then!
Speeding through the slush, chasing down a crowd
Greg and Adam may or may not be sponsored…no big deal
Until we get on the real stuff….THANKS CRAFTSBURY!
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