This week, 17-year-old Hailey Swirbul, a member of the Aspen Ski and Snowboard Club and one of nine American skiers invited to the International Junior Camp in Norway, shares a workout from that very camp, taking place Aug. 6-14 in Norway. It’s called the Triple ‘S’, which stands for Skate Sprint Simulation, and involves a prologue, sprint heats and an epilogue on a 1.5-kilometer loop. Athletes completed this workout on Monday
in Sjusjøen, and Swirbul captured the sprint simulation in the above video.
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1. Warmup: Since the simulation represents a race effort, warm up like you would a sprint race. This is an ideal opportunity to experiment with different warmups to find out what works best for you.
International Junior Camp participant and sprinter Hannah Halvorsen (Sugar Bowl Academy) suggests:
– Play your favorite song to get you pumped for the workout!
– 20 minutes of L1 [Level 1] easy skiing on the course to learn the turns and downhills of the track.
– One lap of the course in Level 2 – Fast enough to get a feel for which techniques to use in different terrain, but still easy enough to keep your heart rate fairly low.
*Bathroom break!*
– One lap of the course in Level 3 with specific focus on transitioning terrain.
– One lap of the course with 30-40 second speeds in the most important and valuable sections (over the tops of hills, carrying speed into hills, etc.)
– 3 or 4 sprints on the finishing stretch.
– Jump around, plyos, run with poles, and when it’s time, smile and dance your way to the start line!
2. Prologue: After warming up well, it is time for the prologue, or qualifier. Each skier starts at 15-second intervals and skis one lap of the sprint course to determine the start positions in the heats. It is important to give 100-percent effort to give yourself the best advantage for the heats.
- Then take a 15-minute active recovery break
3. Heats: The six fastest skiers from the prologue will be in heat 1, the next six in heat 2, and so on. The first two skiers from each heat (with the exception of heat 1) will move up to the higher ranked heat in the next round of sprints, while the last two skiers from each heat move to a lower ranked heat. Ski aggressively and push yourself to win your heat. Separate each of the sprints with a 15-minute active break period.
International Junior Camp participant Katharine Ogden (Stratton Mountain School) says: “Don’t worry about offending people. When you are skiing aggressively, it not only helps your own skiing tactics, but it helps your competitors improve their skiing, so everybody wins in this situation!”
4. Epilogue: In the same start order and format as the prologue, complete one final sprint loop, trying to ski smoothly and improve your time from your prologue.
5. Cool Down: Finish the workout with 15-minutes of easy skating.
