A Very Mansfield Summer: Skiing with My Best Friends and Biggest Competitors

With the first two big blocks of training under my belt this summer, I thought it would be a perfect time to write a blog about how my Vermont summer has been going as a first year professional athlete. I’ve trained in Burlington for the summer before, two summers ago with the Mansfield Nordic University Team and really enjoyed it. Especially being located in Burlington for college at UVM, it was particularly nice rolling right out of summer and staying in the same place. This year, my first year out of UVM, it was a practical decision to stay and keep some of the consistency that I’ve created in Vermont both in skiing and in my professional life. I work as a GIS specialist for Craftsbury Outdoor Center making trail maps for them, as well as on the floor at Ski Rack helping folks best find outdoor gear for whatever their needs are. I am also lucky to have a great relationship with my professors from UVM in the English Master’s program and hope to continue to expand the research I pursued as an MA student to hopefully produce into a publishable book.

An epic VT ride that I told my teammates would be 2:30 hours give or take… ended up being 4… sorry guys.

Training in central Vermont in the summer is an absolute treat because of all of the different locations, and modes available right from your back door. I’ve gotten to go on some pretty epic gravel rides right from my apartment in downtown Burlington, while also being in walking distance of my go-to crème stand Little Gordo’s down the block. Lake Champlain close by has been an awesome way to hang out and cool down in the afternoons and evenings after training. We’ve even got a professional soccer team here in Vermont, (Go Vermont Green!) where we go watch some soccer and get some Ben and Jerrys!

Molly Moening and Amelia Tucker getting into sport fan mode.

These big blocks in the summertime start to go by pretty fast once you find your rhythm, and all the options Burlington has to offer has been great for me in finding my volume groove. Additionally, having the roller ski track in Jericho Vermont has been awesome for intensity work on ski specific terrain, something that really pays off in the wintertime. However, you got to be careful on wet days as I learned a couple weeks ago after taking a corner a little too hot during a threshold session and spending a little time in the ditch. When I called my mom to show her my wounds she said, “If you’re not crashing you’re probably not trying hard enough!” She’s usually right about these things.

Cooling down at the lake!!

Post-Crash… I didn’t know why my coach Perry Thomas was laughing till I saw my helmet marks. Always wear your helmet!

That training/life balance is something that I’ve found to be both rewarding and tricky this summer. I was talking with my pro team member Colin Freed about the post-college haze. It can be hard to know which opportunities to chase down and give your energy to, when you are also focused on trying to settle into the opportunities you currently have, while also working to support this big awesome skiing dream. Luckily for me, I’ve got a great support network of my team, my coaches, and my existing community right here in Burlington helping me every step of the way.

Photo from our first team fundraiser at Cochran’s Ski Area. Absolutely amazing to see what this team means to the community and excited to be a part of the new chapter of Vermont Skiing!

Our team! Mansfield Nordic Pro (Minus Mr. Colin Freed of course. He was somewhere on a mountain when this was taken).

One of the best things this summer has been having our Mansfield Nordic Pro practices in conjunction with the College and Junior squads. At these sessions down at the biathlon range in Jericho Vermont, we will have up to 30 kids all racing around and doing speeds together. It’s great to be a part of a new team that is working to build that community cohesion across the age groups. As cheesy as it sounds, a rising tide does in fact lift all boats, and I’m excited to see what the group can accomplish.

Epic speed session with the whole crew!!

One of the biggest assets I’ve had this summer has been the team cohesion of the college group. In the past I’ve written about the strength of our summer teams and the importance of building team culture even if it is just for the span of two months. This year, this crew has really taken that to heart, and it has been exciting to feel as though we have come together as a squad that will have cohesion not only now, but through the winter.

A little summer goal setting meeting/dinner we had a few weeks ago where we chatted both about our personal goals for the summer, as well as our team culture goals! Molly Moening is a great host.

I was particularly excited to be here this summer for the college crew, not only because it features some of my awesome old UVM college teammates such as Haley Brewster, Molly Moening, and Emma Page, but also some of my favorite competitors and friends from the EISA circuit including Ava Thurston, Shea Brams, Amelia Tucker, Hattie Barker, and Emma Crum. These girls, from a variety of EISA schools including Middlebury, Dartmouth, UNH and Bowdin, have been some of my cherished friends and competitors as an athlete. I probably have a story about each and every one of these girls laying down the pace on me at some point in our college careers and getting absolutely dropped by them. One that stands out particularly was this winter, standing on the line of the anchor leg of the 3x5k Classic relay at the St. Micheal’s Carnival. I knew that I was about to have an absolute dog fight of a race between Emma Crum and Ava Thurston for the relay win. On the line, it was all fun, smiles and smack talk between us about the race to come, and as soon as we were off it was all fight. Even though they bitterly got me in that race (still haunts me), I really do cherish every time I get to line up with people who I know aren’t going to give me an inch. At the same time, these are the people who will be the first ones to give a hug at the finish line.

Fist Bump with Ava Thurston at the SMC Carnival after getting absolutely WORKED and dropped on the last climb (Photo Credit, John McColgan).

Don’t be fooled by this warm fuzzy hug with Emma Crum after the Dartmouth 20k Skate… she was already plotting how she was going to drop me and the rest of the field in the EISA Regionals UNH 15k Skate (Photo Credit, Steve Fuller).

At NCAA Championships in March, it was Ava and Emma Crum who were the first two people who gave me a hug when I had a great race in the 7.5k Classic. It is a pretty special thing when the two people who were your biggest competitors all year, are your biggest supporters. That is the vibe that this summer crew has curated this summer. Not only is it filled of strong athletes, US Ski Team Members, World Junior Championship Members, NCAA All-Americans, among other accolades, but it is basically a crew of all my friends. How lucky am I!? Not only do I have a new pro team of athletes and friends like Sydney Palmer Ledger and Chloe Levins pushing me on this new professional journey, but I also have the strength and comradery of my winter competitors pushing me through the summer.

Ava taking her strength to the next level on a distance ski.

Raspberry picking with my good friend Shea Brams. We may seem like good friends, but every time we ski a skate mass start, she always seems to forget that and lay the hot pace down to hurt me every time! What the heck Shea?!

Ok enough of the mushy gushy sappy stuff, I don’t want these guys thinking I like them *that* much. All I can really say, is that it has been a great summer so far. Training is certainly a heck of a lot easier when you’ve got a crew like this one!