2003 September

Last years World Champion in the continuous Pursuit/Skiathlon (10K classic + 10K skate), Sweden’s Per Elofsson experienced many problems both during last season and in the previous one. He skied many “below expectation” races last year despite the World Championship victory and the 2002 Olympics were very disappointing. “The goal is to be in shape after New Year's so the early World Cup results might be mixed.” Look for an upcoming interview with Elofsson on...

Norwegian National Team Skier Jens Arne Svartedal feels strong after good summer and fall training. He is aiming for the podium in regular World Cup races — not only in World Cup classic sprint races. “I avoided injuries and sickness this summer and am feeling stronger than in the past after steady and solid training.” And just that is promising. Svartedal took another step forward last year and proved that he is capable of more...

The Canadian Cross Country National Team ended their three week training camp in Park City, Utah on Sunday September 28th with a high volume week. A 7 hour long bike ride and a 6 hour hike were on the agenda for those who did the longest option on both long days. Each individual decided how long they wanted to make these days and a few of the guys did the entire bike ride. They started...

The Norwegian Men’s Head Coach Krister Sorgaard is expressing that the National team skiers are now starting a very important and decisive training period: “Errors at this time of year can “burn” the whole season. Olympic and World Championship medals have been lost during the fall in previous years.” The Norwegian men’s team returned from an on-snow altitude camp in Stelvio/Livignio two weeks ago and is departing for altitude again on October 8th – this...

This time of year, frequent requests from our readers for information on interval training are as predictable as “amen” in church. The race season is close and everyone wants to get into top race shape. Here are some ideas. Key rules: 1. Good and easy warm-up. Do a minimum of 20-30 minutes of easy distance, some stretching and a few short pick-ups before you start the session. 2. Always start with one easy “warm-up” interval....

2000-2001 Overall Sprint World Cup winner, Norwegian Morten Brors did not manage to muster enough motivation for sprint training. He is now a new member of the Norwegian long distance (Worldloppet) team. The former super-sprinter has always enjoyed racing long races: “That’s what I enjoy — long races are always exciting. I started doing long mass-start races when I was 16-years old. I always checked if it would work out to race the Swedish Vasaloppet...

The Norwegian Women’s XC National team members started their Kvitfjell, Norway dryland training camp on September 21st. Five days with high intensity training in five days (!) is on the agenda. Media training is also on the menu. Coach Svein Tore Samdal: “Interval training is in focus the next 14 days. This is a part of the National team’s new way of using training periodization — the heart will in periods be stressed more than usual...

Trond Nystad, the US Ski Team Head XC ski coach and his co-coaches are busy men these days – coaching, helping and administrating six National A-Team members, five Development team members and six additional ambitious “want to be World Cup skiers”. We caught up with Trond on September 19th following a two-hour morning skating rollerski workout up Mirror Lake Highway outside Park City: “Easy skiing in easy gradual uphill terrain was on the agenda. The...

The Canadian Cross Country Team is currently conducting their third annual September dryland training camp in Park City, Utah, USA (September 8th – 28th). FasterSkier met with National Team head coach Dave Wood “The team started coming here for dryland camps and races as preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympics. We liked the terrain, the high altitude living situation and possibilities to train at various lower elevations than the (great) Deer Valley housing accommodations at...