Per Johnsen is an outstanding Master Skier.
Age: 59
Height: 5' 11"
Weight: 165 lbs
Single or married: Married (Sandy) 2 daughters,
Kristianna (33) and Randi (27)
Hometown: Born in Bodø, Norway. Moved to Seattle at the age of 13 with
my parents
Current town of residence: South Colby, WA. Across Puget Sound from Seattle
Occupation: Human Resource Director, Kitsap Transit
Coach: Self coached (fool that I am)
Sponsors: TorbjornSport
Favorite movies: The Grand Illusion. French film from
1941 about the futility of war and to maintain humanity during awful times.
The same subject as the movie The Great Escape, but a much better film.
Favorite food: Raspberries with cream
If you had to eat lunch at a fast-food restaurant, where would you go and what
would you order? Any place with a great salad
Favorite musical artist: Glenn Gould, Canadian classical pianist
Favorite book or TV show: Book: War and Peace
TV Show: Northern Exposure
?</b><br />
Skiing: Cabin Creek at the Kongsberger Ski Club, in the Snoqualmie Pass area<br />
Dryland: The woods in the Banner Forest in Port Orchard, Washington. Lots of<br />
trails in gentle terrain. This as a great place for long easy runs with poles.<br />
I do most of my training there alone.</p>
<p> <b> Why do you enjoy being a ski racer? What part of being a ski racer don't<br />
you enjoy?</b><br />
I have a difficult time thinking of myself as a ski racer. I am just someone<br />
who loves to ski as much as I can. I love the chance to test my skills and to<br />
learn from other skiers. I am constantly working on technique and will often<br />
experiment in a race, just to see what works. In some races,<br />
I make a conscious decision to ski slowly for the first half of race and then<br />
push hard. Other times, I will experiment with changing effort from<br />
easy to hard to easy, during the race. I feel I can afford the experimentation,<br />
since the outcome is not what is most important. I know of several races where<br />
I placed well, but didn't ski well. Those memories are not as positive as those<br />
races where I felt I skied well, no matter what the<br />
outcome. I have an extensive collection of race videos from the World Cup circuit<br />
from the past 12 years and I often study the tapes for technique ideas. As a<br />
visual learner, I take the images with me and try things out. I am always conscious<br />
of technique, even when I am exhausted, at the end of a hard workout or race.<br />
The fact that I have had great success over the past few years as a Masters<br />
skier has been surprising, since I have been a decent racer my whole life, but<br />
never the best. For some reason I decided about seven years ago to gradually<br />
increase my training level about 10-15% per year and the good results came after<br />
that. Maybe I was just never well trained before. </p>
<p>I can't think of anything I dislike about ski racing. I will put up with poor<br />
race organization, marginal conditions, waxing nightmares, timing<br />
mix-ups, long drives, and competitors who are too intense for my liking. Those<br />
things don't affect me. They don't have to. As one of the senior<br />
members of the Kongsberger Ski Club, Asbjørn Nordheim, says: "When<br />
you are skiing, the conditions are always great."</p>
<p> <b> If you weren't a ski racer, what would you rather be doing?</b><br />
Because of a bad back and how it limits me, there is no other sport that I can<br />
enjoy as fully. I can never push all out in any other activity.<br />
<b><br />
What do you do to pass the time when you are on the road at races and training<br />
camps?</b><br />
I like to get out, see the area and enjoy myself.</p>
<p> <b>What were your best or most memorable races last season?</b><br />
Probably my best races of the season were the US Masters races in Anchorage.<br />
In spite of trying conditions, lack of snow, and strong winds in the mountains,<br />
I felt I was able to ski my best, and follow my race plans, no matter what the<br />
other competitors did.</p>
<p> <b> How do you deal with bad races?</b><br />
Bad races are those I didn't ski well. I will have a good idea why I didn't<br />
perform well and then have plenty to work on. Those races give me valuable lessons<br />
and teach me that there is still a lot to learn about skiing.</p>
<p> <b> What are your racing goals for the upcoming season?</b><br />
I hope to get in shape a little earlier than usual, since Sandy and I are planning<br />
to go to the Masters in Marquette in January. It will be fun to<br />
see our old ski friends from the Midwest again. I have adjusted my goals a bit<br />
since I will be the oldest in my age group this coming season. I just want to<br />
ski well this season. </p>
<p> <b>How do you feel about the changes in the international race formats over<br />
the past few years?</b><br />
I can understand the need for crowd appeal, but some of formats (skiathlom)<br />
seem awkward. I am not used to being timed in how fast I can change equipment.<br />
But that complaint was also heard twenty years ago when triathlons became popular.<br />
I don't mind the new formats, as long as there are skiers on the snow.</p>
<p> <b> What changes will you be making to your training plan for this year?</b><br />
I have roller-skied more this off-season than I have in the past. I have also<br />
added another long, slow run per week.</p>
<p> <b> Do you have a favorite interval or hard workout?</b><br />
In the off-season we train on Wednesday evenings on Tiger Mountain, outside<br />
Seattle. There we have a 2+ mile trail to the top, with a 2500 foot vertical.<br />
My favorite workout is a series of ladder intervals we call 2-2-2-2. Two minutes<br />
easy (HR <130), 2 minutes medium (HR <150), 2 minutes hard (HR 165+),<br />
2 minutes rest, then repeat to the top. We have time for about 4 or 5 sets of<br />
these before we get to the top.</p>
<p> <b>What was your most memorable workout(s) last year?</b><br />
Probably one of the Tiger Mountain interval sessions. We do a variety of workouts,<br />
with the rest intervals getting shorter as the snow season nears.</p>
<p> <b> Can you give us a single piece of advice for aspiring Junior skiers?</b><br />
Stay away from the long races. Until you are at least 20, race distances of<br />
no more that 15km. I see so many young skiers in their teen who are<br />
training and racing 30k races and even marathons. Since skiing is so dependent<br />
on efficient technique, they don't give your bodies a chance to<br />
zero in on good technique, especially when you are tired. If you race long races,<br />
you will spend most of your time in the race with poor technique. That poor<br />
technique is also what the body learns. In shorter races it is more likely that<br />
you will spend most of the time in the race using good technique. That is what<br />
you need to program into the permanent memory. </p>
</div></div><!-- /btArticleContentInnerInner --><section class=)
