Craftsbury Outdoor Center

View Original

Training week of 1/22

Anna Schulz

EVERYONE:

Coach Audrey and her pupils at the Lake Placid Eastern Cup.

  1. Attendance form: do this each week.

  2. Training plan: still here - you gotta scroll down on that there page

  3. Craftsbury Marathon + SuperTour weekend! You can race Sat and/or Sun (options for lots of ages); volunteer (read below); or just come cheer. Friday features a SuperTour Sprint with the best domestic skiers in the country; Saturday is the classic marathon; Sunday is the skate marathon. Registration and info is here.

  4. Volunteers! Holy moly, we need y’all for this marathon weekend, for real. We have a bunch of feed stations and we need people to feed the racers! And do other stuff. You can sign up here or email volunteers@craftsbury.com.

  5. Weird practice schedule Sunday: due to the marathon taking up almost every inch of available skiing, some practices have been bumped to later in the day on Sunday. Please read the schedule on the training plan closely.

  6. Slack: is how we send out updates now. Not email. If you aren’t on Slack, you won’t get those updates. Holler at us (jrskiing@craftsbury.com) if you need Slack directions.

JUNIORS:

  1. Mega shout-out to all who raced in the frozen tundra of Lake Placid!

  2. We’re in the guts of racing season now. It can feel like a grind if you aren’t diligent about taking days off, putting your dang phone down and going to bed early, eating/drinking enough and often enough, communicating with your school + club coaches about race volume, planning ahead to get your homework done on time, etc. Do the little non-training things right so that your several hundred hours of training this year actually make you faster.

  3. Ever gotten a Craftsbury Ski Club scholarship? Think you might someday? Volunteering is how you give back. We really need help from volunteers this weekend for the marathon. See the info in the “Everyone” section, but please help if you can, even if for just a couple hours.

  4. Hours on the training plan: we’re getting rid of this for a bit because it’s not super productive right now, nor is it logical with people doing so many different things on any given day. From now through mid-March, nobody needs to be training more than 6-8 hours any given week, and that includes those on the 500-550 hour training plan. Quality > quantity always but especially now.

  5. Looking ahead a little bit: after the marathon weekend, we have EC #3 @ Craftsbury, followed by the VT U16/EHSC Qualifier @ Craftsbury.

U14s:

  1. Marathon BKL option: yes, you’re U14s, but you’re also BKLers until you wrap up 8th grade! All BKLers can do a 15k option (skate) for the marathon on Sunday. It’s super fun. You need a chaperone of some sort. If your parents want to hop in and chaperone you from somewhere behind; great. If that’s not gonna happen and you’d like to be rolled into a contingent chaperoned by a CSC coach, that’s cool too—just send us an email or message us on Slack. There will not be a separate U14 practice on Sunday this weekend.

  2. Looking ahead: Craftsbury is hosting an Eastern Cup the weekend of Feb 3rd/4th. These are the races that the juniors are always traveling all around to. If you think you might want to do that when you’re a junior, this is a great opportunity to test the waters. Info here. You’ll need a short-term US Ski & Snowboard license and if you have a NENSA license it makes it a little cheaper (and you need a NENSA license to do the BKL Festival anyway). Talk to coaches with questions.

BKL:

  1. Practice time change this Sunday! Practice has been moved to later in the day to accommodate the Marathon.

  2. Marathon BKL option: BKLers can do a 15k option (skate) for the marathon on Sunday. It’s fun IF you’re ready for it. If you can ski for hours without stopping, you’ll enjoy this kind of thing! Otherwise, wait until you’re ready. You need a chaperone of some sort. If your parents want to hop in and chaperone you from somewhere behind; great. If that’s not gonna happen and you’d like to be rolled into a contingent chaperoned by a CSC coach, that’s cool too—just send us an email or message us on Slack.

COMPETITIVE MASTERS:

  1. No Sunday practice: due to marathon shenanigans. Do the marathon! Or volunteer! Ollie will see y’all Thursday morning for a skate pre-race workout.

INTERMEDIATE MASTERS:

  1. Classic this week for both groups.

  2. Waxing: if you have waxable skis, it should be nice violet hardwax both days.

BEGINNER MASTERS:

  1. Classic this week!

  2. Coaches’ notes: Kara and Amy say, “Great job last week everyone!  This week, we’d love to get one final smooth CLASSIC ski in for folks, and really solidify our confidence in moving on these slippery boards before next week (which will be skate!!!).  We'll ski a loop this week, and we'll group up with as many coaches as I can wrangle to help you all ski steady and smooth through the whole loop.  Those needing a little extra practice with specific things will be able to do so as well as or instead of the loop.  And then gosh darn it, we'll play the game I've been threatening to play. Yay for great snow and sunshine today!

BIATHLON:

  1. Weekday practices- We will be changing up the routine this week for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday practices.  You will be meeting us INSIDE in the event barn which is the building on the west side of the upper stadium.  We will spend the time doing some more in-depth rifle fitting for the experienced groups, some rifle cleaning lessons, and some dryfire drills (i.e. no drills with no bullets).  

  2. Sunday- It's marathon craziness week:

    • Juniors- Sunday practice moved to 2pm.

    • BKL beginners- normal biathlon practice at 1 pm. 

    • BKL experienced- we are moving your practice slot this Sunday to 3pm.

  3. Upcoming races- lots of details here so read carefully.

    • Bayley-Hazen Biathlon Races- there are beginner-friendly home races on Feb 17 and March 17.  There are novice and expert categories. Go ahead and sign up if you are interested and do it early as we expect these to fill up. The novice race is appropriate for BKL Beginners and for anyone ages 9+ who has never tried biathlon before and would like to.  (Parents, that includes you!) The expert race category is appropriate for BKL experienced and our U14/Junior group.  If you are a junior racing in the expert category and not sure whether to try the kids division or the adult division, come talk to us. To sign up, check out the events listings on the Craftsbury website.  

    • Jericho Thursday Night Races- we are sending CSC coach support to Jericho on the week of Feb 8th.  We have a van reserved in case that is helpful for facilitating rides.  If you plan on coming, please email biathlon@craftsbury.com and let us know where you will be coming from and let us know if a ride would be helpful. We will start an email list for those planning on joining.  To sign up, please follow the skireg link from Ethan Allen Biathlon Club's website.

    • Nationals in Fort Kent in late March-  We are working on finding out more details about this event, including what age categories will be offered.  Stay tuned.

CATAMOUNTS:

  1. Sunday is Day #2 of the Craftsbury marathon. Details above, but if you want to see some really fast skiers, come on over in the morning and check it out! Also beware that the Center will be pretty darn busy and parking could entail a bit of a hike, so please leave some extra time to get your Catamount to practice. Note that our Sunday plan includes an option for either technique, but we’re also planning on going for a long ski, so it should be a technique your Catamount can comfortably do for some legitimate distance.

  2. Thanks in advance for all the effort that is going into getting the attendance form filled out, knowing the plan for each session, and sending your kiddo prepared! It helps us make each practice that much more productive.

See you all this week!

-coaches