Notes from the Coach (November Edition)

November 10, 2013

Northfield had its first snowfall a few nights ago. In a way, it was strange to see the first few inches of fresh wet snow sticking to all the leaves still clinging stubbornly to their trees, even a week into November. The snow wasn't much; you could maybe have double poled around a soccer field for an hour in the morning before it started melting. But seeing those first few inches of snow puts everything in a whole new light- it makes you realize that race season is just around the corner, and it lends an entirely new sense of urgency to your training.

And training is what we've been doing. This team has been doing some seriously hard work, including bounding intervals up Buck Hill, a long double pole from Cannon Falls to Red Wing, some long L4 intervals near Nerstrand, and some speed endurance intervals that Joel imported from his summer in Bend.

The same afternoon as this week's snow, we had a running/bounding time trial on the steep, long hills of Lebanon Hills horse trail. We did the same workout a month ago, at the start of October, and now everyone had a chance to see if their hard work is taking them in the right direction. It is. The results were astounding- on a trail full of wet leaves and mud and patches of leftover snow in the shade, nearly everyone improved upon their times from last month, many by over a minute, and two people- Mikki and Liza- improved by more than four minutes over a 6.5km course!

The visible improvement in fitness, combined with the early snow, has everyone itching to get on snow and test themselves in a ski race. In less than two weeks, we leave for West Yellowstone, where we will spend a week on snow at altitude, culminating in a SuperTour sprint. The first races in the Midwest are less than a month away. We'll be ready.

- Coach Jorgenson