Two Month Of Dryland and Ski Training And Carl Swenson Is Ready For World Cup Racing

Carl Swenson
Carl is on a “performance roll” after two top 15s in the 2002 World Cup, 11th in the double pursuit and 5th in the 50 km freestyle at the 2003 World Ski Championship.

The mountain bike race season is (finally) over and Carl is focusing 100% on the upcoming World Cup ski season. He might be the only athlete on the circuit that is not training traditional ski training like rollerskiing, running and weights from May until September.

Carl adapts fast from one sport to the other and after only five weeks of specific dryland training following a summer full of mountain bike racing he feels (about) ready to take on the World in the opening World Cup races at Beitostolen Norway in end of November. An upcoming snow camp in Fairbanks, Alaska and Carl believes he can do well.

“I’m excited about getting to do early World Cup races. I did well in Central Europe in December two years ago after doing the same as I did this summer as far as biking and racing goes. I usually start to feel good at the end of the upcoming Fairbanks camp. The Super Tour races at the end of that camp (early November) should be good preparation for the World Cup opener (for the regular World Cup — Sprint started October 25, in Düsseldorf, Germany) at Beitostolen, Norway and in Finland the last two weekends in November”.

You improved by more than 4:30 minutes in the 10 km running time-trial this week from the one you did about 4 weeks ago. Have you made a complete transition yet?
“Not quite, but it felt a lot better than the first one!”

FasterSkier