Mid Season Nutrition Tip

You trained well yesterday, fastest runs of the seasons so far, you listened to your coach and worked on everything they had to offer you that day, your skis are tuned and ready for another great session tomorrow. What else can I do to make tomorrow-another great training session?

Prepare your body for the intense session of skiing that next morning through proper nutrition and watch your training sessions step up to the next level. Even at a young age understanding what your body needs to ski for a full day of training is important. As young athletes it is not as important to count every calorie, as it is important to make sure your body has the fuel it needs to last all morning!

Breakfast is a very important meal for ski racers. They are usually up early in the morning, and many times lunch comes at 11:30, which is a long time from breakfast in most cases. This being said it important that the fuel you have lasts until your next meal. Eating a well-balanced meal in the morning will keep energy levels up, sustain your ability to focus, and help prevent injury. Here are some examples of “fuel filled” morning meals.

Breakfast

• Cold or hot cereal with fruit or fruit juice and low-fat or nonfat milk
• French toast or pancakes with maple or fruit syrup
• Breakfast burrito (scrambled eggs, salsa, low-fat cheese in a flour tortilla) and fruit juice
• Toast with jam or honey and low-fat yogurt
• Bagel or English muffin with jelly and/or peanut butter, a banana, and fruit juice

There are sometimes when you do not have time for a sit down breakfast in the morning. There are healthy alternatives to donuts and pastries in the morning. Think about you meal before training as “quality in, quality out” the better quality your meal is pre-workout/training session the better fueled your body will be. Try a few of these quick on the go meals for the car ride to the mountain.

Quick Snacks

· Trail mix with dried fruit

· Fresh fruit

· Bagel

· Pretzels

· Wheat or rice crackers

· Small sandwich

· PowerBar® Performance Energy bar

· PowerBar® Fruit Smoothie Energy bar

· PowerBar® Energy Bites

· PowerBar® Energy Blasts gel filled chews

· PowerBar® Energy Gel

· PowerBar® Nut Naturals Energy bar

· PowerBar Harvest® Energy bar

· PowerBar® Triple Threat® Energy bar

Even when you consume these suggested meals pre-workout there are times when during a session you still need more, maybe you have to take 2 more runs, or the session has run longer then normal. Coming prepared to the hill each day will help those situations and make sure that training session is not wasted. You should carry a water bottle, hydration is very important, and a quick snack.

I hope these tips can help you with your training sessions! Good luck, ski fast, and most of all make sure you are having FUN!

CAMP FINALE

Hi Everyone,

A few days have passed since we all left Stowe, and I want to thank you all for a wonderful conclusion to our week. The awards celebration were wonderful, emotional, and powerful, and really put a nice recap on the great time we had during the week.


Please keep me up to date with how our young skiers do this winter. I will do my best to get our staff members to return next year, and we will hopefully be seeing your smiling faces in a year's time. We do have room to grow, so if you had a great time and want to share it with a friend, you can either show them your highlight film, direct them to the blog, or simply have them get in touch.

Thanks again,
Danny

Last Morning

Hi Everyone,

We're all up having some pancakes and eggs, ready for the wrap up of the week.

The award ceremony and slide show will begin at 11:15. Please stay outside the Round Hearth until that time, at which point you are ALL welcome to come and join us for the conclusion of a great week. It is difficult for us to maintain count and control when parents have the kids distracted all over the building or are trying to load up gear. I'm sure you all understand.

See you all soon,
Danny

Thursday Night

Great day today. Gus was back in the field in the afternoon with counselors Justin and Ben and coaches Erin and Matt, while the three younger groups bussed over the notch to the Secret Swimming Hole with Eric, Jim, Adele, Kelsey, and myself. I know I've said it before, but it is so good for these children to be outside and active, experiencing things they normally wouldnt at home.

The night activity brought us over to the rec path on our bikes for a quick trip to a local swimming spot, along with a few games of speed ball. This game was introduced to the camp this year and just might be a new favorite (move over Capture the Fox?).

S'Mores tonight. Tasty.

As the camp nears the final activities, I want to express my pleasure and satisfaction with the effort put in by our staff. The featured coaches have lived up to expectations. Matt and Erin put out such quality in everything they do while juggling a lot of responsibilities. A counselors job is endless, and the group we have (Kelsey, Eric, Justin, Ben, Jim, Adele) has impressed me to no end. If I could write a whole blog on them, I would, and maybe I should. Huge thanks to all of them.

A fun day is planned tomorrow, last full day.

Thanks, Danny

Thursday Morning - Explosion

Welcome to Thursday's activities!

Kelsey put the kids through a fun warm-up session this morning, gearing them up for another packed day of fun. Once again today our groups are split to allow our featured coach smaller numbers to work with.

The older kids headed over the notch to the "Secret Swimming Hole" for some swimming on jumping off the rocks! The water was super cold, but jumping in always makes it a lot of fun. It is refreshing to swim in the spring feed rivers of Vermont in the summer. Also swimming in cold water is a great recovery for the athletes after the hard workouts. Check out some pictures.

The younger kids headed over to Top Notch Fields to do an explosion session with Gus MacLeod. Gus was recently named Head Alpine Coach at St. Michael's College. Prior to working with St. Mike's Gus has coach at the Academy level with Mount Mansfield Winter Academy, but more recently was a US Ski Team World Cup Technician. He was in charge of the preparation of the equipment of the likes of World Cup racers Jeremy Transue, and Olympic Bronze medalist Andrew Weibrecht. His experience at all level of ski racing including the highest, World Cup, has allowed him to learn from some of the best coaches in the world, from that he has been able to develop some cutting edge techniques for preparing athletes of all ages.

Looking to this afternoon the groups switch places and run another session! Please check back later for more updates, and enjoy your day!

Matt

Wednesday Evening

As Matt posted earlier, the morning session had to be altered due to the condition of the skating surface. It was a bummer, as the camp was looking forward to strapping on skates, grabbing our poles, and linking up some turns in SL courses. We'll do our best to fit even a shortened session in over the next few days. The coaches and counselors were very helpful putting together a speed session in the field. My philosophy with speed and running connects to ski racing well. Even though we dont go through the running motion in our sport on the hill, we certainly do when we are preparing for our sport in the summer and fall, and even off-snow activities in the winter. If our running form is good, we will get so much more out of the exercises. Running also pushes our explosive boundaries, and nothing takes us to the limit of our physical capacities like sprinting.


Jerry Murphy of Swix/Uvex returned to camp for his 9th straight year for a tuning/base prep session after lunch. Even though most parents still prep their child's skis at this age, this year might be a good one to get your kids a little more involved. They might even be able to give you a few hints now!

The afternoon bike trip down the rec path to Lackey's might just be the highlight of the week for some campers. The older kids visited the bike park (for the 2nd time this week), and everybody got some candy at the end of the path. The rec path is a great tool for recreational use, and during this week it turns into a great training site (much to the chagrin of several locals who experience groups of 10 charging at them). With Lackey's as our destination, the path turns into a "yellow brick road" or a "rainbow" of sorts.

The water was extremely high, but we scouted out a few swimming spots until we found one safe for us to submerge ourselves in. The water was refreshing, and EVERYBODY enjoyed it on the return ride!

After a mellow night last night as far as physical exertion, I thought the camp would be restless tonight, but this wasnt so. The 10+ mile bike ride added to the speed session this morning left some tired campers ready for a quiet night of movies and popcorn. S'Mores are on the schedule for tomorrow night!

Another great day.
Thanks, Danny

Wednesday Morning - Speed!

Many of us were woke up early this morning, 4 AM to the rumbles of a passing thunderstorm. Little did we know how much rain came with the thunder! The rain cleared and the sun started to come out so we headed up to the Stowe Parking lot for a session on skates featuring Danny!

Danny, Josh, and Matt pulled into the parking lot first to get setup and were greeted with this:

Due to the conditions of the parking lot as you can see above we had to make a quick decision and headed over to the fields to do a speed session there! There are a lot of things we can control in life, but unfortunately weather is not one of them.

Danny put together a great workout. Our focus was speed and learning how to run with proper form was emphasized. With the use of hurdles, parachutes, and rubber cords all the campers worked hard to improve their form and speed. It was a job well done by Danny with such short notice.

Looking forward to this afternoon, a bike adventure and a trip to Lackeys. Check out some more photos below.