Training week of 12/1

[Back to the Club Updates page]

EVERYONE:

  • The training plan is here and below. Please fill out the attendance form weekly!

  • New uniforms are here. Starting Tuesday we’ll have them out and labeled by name downstairs.

  • Waxing skis: check out this compilation of helpful videos the GRP skiers made awhile back. They all still hold up! All U14s, juniors, and comp masters should be or get familiar with how to wax both skate and classic skis.

  • Reminder that the public wax room is open and available for use. It’s where the bike shop is in the summer. This includes for juniors/U14s: if the clubhouse is too packed at the start of practice and there aren’t any benches, don’t be afraid to go to the wax room.

  • Season-long rental equipment: we’re shutting these down on 12/14—that’s the last possible day to pickup gear. After this we’re done and you will need to locate gear elsewhere.

  • If you still have rollerski equipment you’re in trouble. Or rather, you’re about to be. Bring it back.

JUNIORS:

  • Eastern Cups: all juniors who are considering traveling to Eastern Cups should fill out this form ASAP, at least as well as you can at this point. Only 12/43 of you have done this. It’s really hard to plan lodging and transportation when we don’t know if we’re going to have 12 people or 25 or even more. Team travel is hard to coordinate even when we DO have a rough grasp of numbers. PLEASE fill it out if you’d like us to be able to offer team travel this season and beyond.

  • Headlamps: bring them. It gets dark early and it’s silly to drive all the way to Craftsbury and then only ski for 30 mins because it’s dark.

  • Wax your skis. You may have been given real nice rental skis. Perhaps even BRAND new ones. They won’t be fast unless you wax them. For brandsy new skis/to give any skis some love, we’d recommend starting with warm, soft wax to hydrate your skis a bit. Iron in and let cool. Watch the videos linked above so you don’t scorch your skis and make them slow forever. Iron/cool a few times then scrape/brush and follow with a layer of colder, harder wax to harden them up a bit.

  • In two weeks (Dec 13-14) we’ve got the Season Openers at Rikert. These are not Eastern Cups, but sort of like practice races for Eastern Cups. These have historically been at the Center, but in light of a pile of early season biathlon races, we asked Rikert to take them on and they kindly agreed. More info here. Coaches will go down and wax skis for this, but we will not be doing team travel/overnight/food/etc. We may be able to offer a van—TBD. Please note on the attendance form if you’re planning to go—this is NOT registration, but a way for us to plan. You can register for Saturday here and for Sunday here.

  • Strength: note that we don’t have any gym sessions on the plan this week. That’s because y’all are all over the place and we want to maximize time on snow. It’s up to you to look at all the things you’ve got going on and see if/when you can fit in some strength.

  • You need wax boxes. With wax in them. Here’s a doc about that.

  • High School x Club skiing: see diatribe in last week’s blog if you haven’t yet.

  • Looking ahead at some dates:

    • Dec 13-14: the Season Openers at Rikert.

    • Then we have the first Eastern Cup at Holderness on 12/20 - 12/21! Wahoo!

    • Reminder: toggle to the “25-26 year” tab at the bottom of the training plan to get a better sense of what’s ahead this winter.

U14s:

  • You need wax boxes. With wax in them. Here’s a doc about that.

  • Y’all have been crushing it recently. It can be funny as we get rolling to figure out how much to overlap juniors and U14s vs how much to separate you, and U14s can feel like the little sibling to the juniors. We fine-tune things as we progress!

BKL:

  • Thanks to those who joined our kickoff meeting/info session! Notes here; video recording here.

  • BKL practices start on Tuesday, December 9th.

BIATHLETES:

  • Bring every practice: gloves, poles and a dry change of clothes & warm layers to put on after skiing.

  • Jrs/U14s:

    • this week we have a BONUS PRACTICE on Thursday. at 5:15pm. Shooting drills and relay games with Canadian clubs Highlands Trailblazers and Chelsea Nordiq.

    • Eastern Regional Races at home next Saturday and Sunday. Registration deadline is Friday at noon. Relay teams (mixed aged groups) will be assigned on Saturday. Not sure if you should race? Reach out to coaches.

    • No Sunday practice because of the races.

    • 1-on-1 sessions are back. Each U14/Jr may sign-up once between December and Februrary.

  • Winter race opportunities- read over for what we know so far.

    • There’s a novice-friendly race on Jan 10!

    • NEW! Lake Placid Jr Nationals will feature a one day U15 category on Dec 29. We are not offering club housing for U15s but encourage you to race if you are interested.

ADULTS/MASTERS:

  • Here we GO! Practices for Comp Masters starts on Thursday, December 4th.

Here’s the TRAINING PLAN for the week, or check below:

Mt Craftsbury’s humble beginnings

Anna Schulz