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Testing

Reports on the scientific approach to better understanding the human body as it responds to training.
DIY Fitness Testing: The How and Why with Pepa Miloucheva

It’s May. Yes, really.  For most skiers, the new page on the calendar also marks the beginning of a new training year. Dust off your rollerskis, locate your heart rate strap and drink belt, and make sure your running shoes have plenty of life in them. With the country still predominantly on public health orders to stay close to home, avoid groups, and keep at least six feet of distance from those outside your home,...

Closing the Gap: Lessons in Risk Taking and VO2 ‘Maks’ Testing

Editor’s Note: The following is the fourth post in a series proposed by Maks Zechel, a 20-year-old Canadian cross-country skier embarking on his first season training abroad. He recently made the big move to Norway, where he’ll be training and racing with Team Asker for the next nine months. Through these updates, Maks hopes to share his personal “observations, stories, and lessons learned” to help close the gap between North American and Scandinavian nordic skiing. Previous...

Closing the Gap: Testsamling (Testing Camp)

Editor’s Note: The following is the fourth post in a series proposed by Maks Zechel, a 19-year-old Canadian cross-country skier embarking on his first season training abroad. He recently made the big move to Norway, where he’ll be training and racing with Team Asker for the next nine months. Through these updates, Maks hopes to share his personal “observations, stories, and lessons learned” to help close the gap between North American and Scandinavian nordic skiing. Previous...

Wednesday Workout: Developing an Annual Rollerski Time Trial with USA NoCo

From late June into early July, U.S. Nordic Combined hosted a major training camp in Steamboat Springs, Colo. Among the sessions was the Fish Creek Time Trial, a skate rollerski race first held in 2007. That year, Johnny Spillane set down the first in a series of course records that would be improved by different athletes in the next decade. The time trial is 8 kilometers and gains 885 feet of elevation, starting just south of...

What Predicts Nordic Combined Success? Study Finds Out

What are the physiological capacities of nordic-combined athletes and can laboratory tests predict performance capabilities on the World Cup? Those are the questions that a team of Norwegian researchers set out to answer by testing 12 competitors from eight different countries before a 2015 World Cup competition in Trondheim, Norway. The study, led by Vegard Rasdal of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the Norwegian Olympic Sports Center, was recently published in the...

Nordic Nation: Training and Intensity with Dr. Stephen Seiler

80/20 Rule — the easy to hard intensity ratio when it comes to training sessions, has been well publicized. Seiler believes easy days should be truly easy, meaning walking the hills may be mandatory. If the easy days are easy, then the hard days are hard. He espouses a fidelity to training models with little, if any, in-between efforts; that means no middle-of-the-road intensity. And his observations come straight from Norway. “… They know what gets you...

CXC’s Center of Excellence Seeks to ‘Study Latest Innovations in the Sport’

With plans to begin research this fall, CXC's Madison-based Center of Excellence is on the brink of bringing new scientific studies to nordic skiing. “Our goal is to have top sports science facility to study latest innovations in the sport, potential application in cross country skiing to improve training, recovery and performance," CXC Executive and Athletic Director Yuriy Gusev explained.

Extirpé de L’ombre: Yves Bilodeau, Technicien en Chef de L’équipe Canadienne

Nous avons joint Bilodeau à sa demeure savoyarde, battue derechef par une forte pluie contraignant le passionné de pêche à délaisser temporairement le Rhône. L’homme revient avec humour sur ses débuts en 1995, nous présente ses compagnons d’armes oeuvrant au sein de l’équipe canadienne et se prononce sans détour sur les déconvenues de Sochi.

Altitude Camp Readies APU Skiers for Season of Thin-Air Races

There's a reason APU ventures to Park City each summer, and it's all about transitioning and revving up for the season ahead. “Whether it's the altitude or not, I think everyone here has gotten two weeks of incredible training,” U.S. Ski Team and APU skier Holly Brooks said. “It's hard to say from a physiological standpoint, but I think it's been a really productive camp either way.”

This Month in Journals: Controversy at the Intersection of Doping and Research

This month, the Journal of Applied physiology confronted allegations of scientific misconduct in two cases: one when a study used an athlete who turned out to have been doping, and another when researchers asked participants to use banned methods. The journal invited discussion from many of the scientists involved as well as WADA, with interesting, and antagonistic, results.