junior recap | Mansfield Nordic Club

Junior Update

Fall training and Pre-Season training have drawn to a close, but the world keeps on turning! Most of the juniors are headed to MNC Thanksgiving Ski Camp at Craftsbury from Wed-Sunday directed by 2010 Olympian Garrott Kuzzy. Be sure to rest up and arrive at camp feeling heatlhy and ready to train (and eat) a lot! Other athletes should simply stay active with hiking, running, rollerskiing and, if possible, skiing on SNOW! Craftsbury has a 600m streatch of man-made snow already, and with bitter cold temps ahead of us, they will expand that quickly. There may be skiing available at Sleepy Hollow, Breadloaf (Middlebury), Sugarbush, the Smuggler’s Notch Road, and Craftsbury.

Craftsbury Snow Report

WESTFORD TURKEY TROT 10 KM:

This morning was the Westford Turkey Trot which drew a great crowd of Nordic skiers and families from all over the County: The Enmans from Sleepy Hollow, Paul Allison and many of his Essex HS skiers and runners, the Rodgers family of Westford, the Bolducs of SBurlington and NWVE, the Magnans of Fairfax, Tim Reynolds formerly of Craftsbury Green Racing Project and Middlebury Alum, Perry Bland formerly UVM coach, the entire Shea-Cobb family who were instrumental in organizing the race (along with the Rodgers), Ethan John, Amy and Ken Bruce of Underhill Ctr, MNC Coach Rick Costanza, Kyle Darling and Sarah Pribram, Liz Hollenbach-Tremble of Jericho, Joy Grossman and her son, and probably many others I’m forgetting.

Amy Bruce and Ethan John both ran their first-ever 10kms and had great times of ~42.20 for Ethan and ~49.30 for Amy. Full results and pictures will become available at the Westford TT Website.

JUNIOR TRAINING:

No organized training scheduled at the moment but we may have a bonus session on Monday or Tuesday dependent on the weather.

LAST WEEK RECAP:

This past week we held a Classic Sprint Time Trial at the Range on the 1km sprint loop. Approx 8-10 of the athletes did this same workout last year and we have some fun times to compare (everybody was faster this year!). The athletes do a time-trial against the clock, then do 3 rounds of head-to-head racing. Its exciting and really difficult. We also did a bunch of technique and agility drills including some fun figure-8 races in a really confined space.

A BIG group of athletes warming up before the sprint time trial

Figure-8 races — working agility

Boys Sprint heat

Amy Bruce with her cool medal for first place in the girls 15-19 division in the 10km

Skate body position drills

Quick feet balance and agility drills

Junior Photos and recap

By Adam Terko on 16 November, 2013 in BKL Race Blog, Junior Blog, Masters Blog

First we’ll start with a video made by Bill Harmeyer:

BEGIN from Bill Harmeyer on Vimeo.

What an awesome week, once again! Training at the Range has been really positive for the entire group.Tuesday after the cold snowy weather we were forced to improvise a bounding / running and strength workout at the Range and we had a visit from Ethan Townsend the Head Nordic Coach at St Lawrence University.

On Thursday we took everybody around the “S turns” which is the farthest out loop. Everybody skied the hills 2-3 times and became more comfortable with the challenging terrain. Our fall and pre-season athletes are now familiar with all 5 loops (total of 5km) of pavement at the Range which will really make training fun next summer! On Thursday the everybody in the group skied at least 15km with some breaking the 20km mark — not too shabby for a school night!

Friday was a small group for our heart-rate zone analysis test that we do every few weeks: running specific paces on the track (low- to medium-intensity) and we monitor heart rates and hope to see them decrease over time. A chilly night but fun running with a near full moon.

Today we had a great crew of about 12 MNC athletes wake up early (and lots of parents, too — THANKS PARENTS!) to drive down to the Mad River Valley for the final fall event of the Central Vermont Coop Series — 5km and 10km rollerski time trials. It was GORGEOUS! The boys field was wicked competitive with 2 former junior national champs participating. Lots of fun, lots of parents and siblings spectating, and the Rand family made some incredible awards for all participants: delicious cinnamon buns.

Enjoy the pics!