Two for Tuesday

This morning we did our pre breakfast classic drills and pick-ups. It is a little dark at 6:30, so we drove up to the parking lot, but we had a great wake up workout. Nice picture here of Bridger getting after it!

In the afternoon we traveled to Brattleboro for a Marble Valley League running race. Most of the older boys were a little flat, but Mac, Walker and Tyler all showed good improvement.Here is Mac (above) and Tyler doing their thing.


Cobby was our top boy in 7th place.

The girls steamrolled the competition by placing 7 in the top 9. We roller ski too much to run really fast, but they are pretty fit. It will be interesting to see if they get faster with the 3 races that we have in the next 8 days.
Pheobe and Cam teamed up to come home in 8th and 9th.

Heather and Gage ran together for the whole race and finished 3rd and 4th.

Rachel cruising to victory.

Female runner of the day, Lena Kuchera, who knocked 3 minutes off her time from 2 weeks ago.

Rest Weekend?

After a very busy start to school, we scheduled a couple of easy days for the group last weekend. The goal was to have fun, get healthy (we had a cold run through the team last week) and catch up on anything that needed attention.
So... what happens on a "rest weekend"? Matt went to Utah for the X-Terra National Championships. Sverre went to Minneapolis to attend and present at the National XC Coaches Conference. 3 seniors visited colleges. The Cobbs hosted their anuual "cobb bowl" football game and cookout. Lots of the team went to the Peru Fair and a bunch helped out there. Everyone trained a little on their own AND got plenty of sleep so they would be ready to plunge into our next two weeks of hard training. A good time was had by all.
Tomorrow we have a 6:30 classic ski and a running race in Brattleboro. We'll get back at it and be ready to go!

Rolling and running at SMS

We had a nice sunrise welcoming us to morning sport. We did one hour of technique, specific strength and pick-ups. It is a great way to start off the day (if you don't mind getting up in the dark). Breakfast is at 7:30 and classes run from 8:15 until 2:45, so if you want to train twice, you better get to bed early.

Sky-dog striding out before breakfast.

Austin getting up and forward.

Bridger leading the pack out of the start in our race at Grafton this afternoon. Our boys team was thin due to the cold that hits every year 3 weeks into school, but they did quite well with Skyler, Bridger, Tyler and Mac finishing 3,8,13 and 19.

Tyler was much faster today!

Coaching is fun.


Girls start. The SMS girls won the team event again with Rachel, Heather, Gage, Pheobe, Hallie and Lena placing 2,3,5,7,8 and 23, but racer of the day goes to Mary Kate Cirelli from Rutland. She won by over 1 minute!

Rachel running well.

Heather and Gage bringing it home.

Is Hallie smiling?

Done for the day. Classic OD tomorrow.
Thanks to Herve Pelletier for the running pictures.

Newell Shows The Team How To Do Intervals

Check the video of SMS Alum Andy showing us what was up with hard intervals. We are still learning how make these movies, some of the captions are hard to read and someday we will have some music!

Sunday am OD pics

We had a light freeze last night which led to a brilliant sunny day today. The leaves are starting to change and on days like this, there is no place better than Vermont. We did a good 3 hr OD this morning...you can figure it out... just follow the pictures.
As always, click on any picture to enlarge it.








Nice day, eh?

Chasing Andy

This morning, Andy Newell joined us for some classic intervals. It was great for our group to be able to ski with him and then watch themselves on video. I am quite happy with the way our group looks, but it is pretty clear that we need a bit more strength and fitness before we start beating Andy.
After a warm up at the Sun Bowl, we drove down to the bottom of the hill below school and got down to business.



Here is Rachel passing the school entrance. She has just crested the steepest section, about 1.6 kms. up the hill.


We timed the intervals so Andy would ski through the SMS kids. This allowed everyone to tag along for a little. Pictured above, Andy is catching a group. Pictured below are the lead groups (they'll be caught soon).


Cam powering towards the top of the hill.


After the intervals, we all did a little no-pole technique work, specific strength and core. It is Gage's birthday so we all got cupcakes as we reviewed the video. Happy Birthday Gage!