Although every piece of equipment and article of clothing I own is covered in klister right now, I can easily say that this past week was the most productive and meaningful Thanksgiving training camp I’ve been a part of with the MNC Junior Team.
With a varied and fun 1k loop to work with, there was room for a lot of individual feedback and also group work. Moreso than ever before, people took initiative to show up to each session prepared and to make the most of the on-snow time.
The nature of the loop gave us several interesting workout ideas, including a “kickwax reduction project” where everyone started with plenty of kick and then skied 2 kilometers before making a pit stop at a trailside bench Sara and I manned with a torch, putty knives, and rags. Sara and I removed a bit of wax from every athlete’s skis each 2k/2 laps in order to find a balance of speed and kick. It was initially a session designed to get everyone comfortable on imperfect kick, but it also ended up having the benefit of both coaches and athletes knowing the individual pairs of skis more (everyone was on their race skis) and also work on communicating good feedback…for example, reporting that the kickwax was dragging under the front of the zone, or felt think under the heel, rather than “I don’t have kick” or “I have too much kick”.
Rose getting some striding on past the Center
We mixed in both skating and classic along with time in the gym where we continued our strength training from Dee PT. Thanks to the groomers and snowmakers everything held up great and we were on good skis the whole time!
Working on some speeds and the one-and-only Activation Drill!
On Saturday, everyone who had been on snow at least a few days got to race in the Craftsbury Opener. It was a tough event since the temp was about 55 and the snow was wet and slushy. Add to that the fact that nobody was racing on HF or fluoros and you can imagine that the skis were not running super fast for anyone. It was a great chance to get a taste of racing action in, and whether someone had a great race or one they’d rather forget everyone definitely learned a few things. Racers did either 5 (U16 and Open Women) or 7 (Open Men) laps, and Sara and Rick were able to track lap splits for every MNC athlete…very cool to see how everyone paced it and the fact that there weren’t really any drop-offs in time shows that the fitness is there.
Aidan won the 5k race, while Magda and Timmy both turned some heads in the Women’s/Men’s races by skiing with (and besting) a number of college racers from UNH, Williams, and Harvard. Everyone looked like they were ready for more and it’s going to be great to hit the Eastern Cup in only a short few weeks.
Magda heading out of the start. A nice day for some spring skiing in November
Dakota enjoying the slush on Chip Hill
Ava and Lily in sync on the gradual hill. Great forward body position with knees driving, hips forward, and back/spine neutral!
All told it was a phenomenal week of training and racing. Before everyone left, I discussed how I felt about a few aspects of camp…usually, our training camps tend to end up inadvertently bringing something new into the fold. The first time we had Mountain Camp, it was a serious study in team bonding and bringing a group together. By the next year, it was about challenging ourselves with workouts that were tougher than ever. This camp, I felt, really took us to the next level in terms of professionalism and focus. Instead of the snow loop being packed with Williams, Harvard, UNH, and then us (“those guys”), we were just another team getting their work done. I’ve coached at plenty of college training camps and this was the first time an MNC training camp has really felt like a college camp…it boils down to accountability and focus on the part of both the group and the individual, and I’m really glad that both were highly evident this past week. It’s going to be an AWESOME race season!
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