It is well known that XC ski racers have to be incredibly “fit” to be competitive. But how do we measure “fitness”? For decades, we’ve known that a high VO2max is necessary to be a competitive ski racer. Training to improve VO2max involves a large volume of training at a low intensity and a comparatively smaller volume of training at a very high intensity. Over the past 20 years, changes in equipment technology, course preparation,...
Here’s a call for questions and comments about a May 2019 article titled “Energy system contribution during competitive cross-country skiing” published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. Longtime cross-country coach and athlete mentor Adam St. Pierre will be writing a story about these academic findings. FasterSkier will publish Adam’s story at the end of the month. We’d love your questions and feedback about “Energy system contribution during competitive cross-country skiing” to help Adam shape his...
This Wednesday Workout includes guidance from Boulder Nordic Junior Race Team (BNJRT) Head Coach Adam St. Pierre. After earning a BS in Physics and Biochemistry while skiing for Colby College in Maine, St Pierre earned a masters in Kinesiology and Exercise Science at the University of New Hampshire. While in graduate school, he was the assistant ski coach to Marty Hall at Bowdoin College and has since coached all age groups. His primary role at...
This week, Boulder Nordic Junior Racing (BNJR) Team Head Coach Adam St.Pierre shares a progressive track workout. “If you look at how many juniors in particular just go out at the start of a 5 k race and are just cooked within the first k, by putting them on a track and teaching them how small the changes in effort are to achieve different paces is a pretty powerful tool,” St.Pierre says.
Ben Loomis jumped to second and held his own in the 5 k ski race on the first day of nordic combined at the 2016 Youth Olympic Games. In the classic sprint, Hannah Halvorsen placed sixth and Hunter Wonders was 15th.
A second-place finish in the 3 x 3 k relay in Trondheim, Norway, by Julia Kern, Katharine Ogden and Heidi Halvorsen topped the American performances over the weekend at the J1 Scando Cup.
In late May, weeks after Nina Silitch finished her last race of the season, loads of her ski-mountaineering equipment still occupied more than half the space in her bedroom. Her husband, Michael, couldn’t understand why, after six months on the World Cup and international circuit, she wasn’t ready put it away. At 39, Silitch was coming off a career-best season in most respects – she became the first American to earn World Cup gold in...
A creature of team sports – first baseball, then soccer – Duncan Callahan remembered his reaction when his older brother started nordic skiing at Glens Falls High School in northeastern New York. “I thought he was the biggest nerd in the world,” he said. A year later, Callahan’s brother, Bill, convinced him to try it. In darkness, the two set out on the city’s illuminated trail system. Afterward, Bill suggested his little brother come out...
Adam St. Pierre is an exercise physiologist at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine in Boulder, Colorado. He is also the head coach of the Boulder Nordic Junior Racing Team. In this article, St. Pierre outlines a strategy for athletes to gradually implement technique changes. Technique is an important component of cross-country skiing, but it is often difficult for athletes to make technique modifications once their motions have become habitual. As coaches, we often find...