Bjerke surprised many after getting second place in the Norwegian National Team’s time-trial during their last training camp. The Lillehammer skier won silver in the National Championship two year’s ago, qualifying him for a spot on the National Team. However, poor results last year resulted in being taken off the team. However, he was allowed to participate with the National Team on their recent camp.
– I became too focused on controlling my intensity during training, and I believe I got too cautious and went too easy, says Bjerke.
After last season, Espen Harald took a mental break, forgot about the poor season, and agreed to only look forward. The recent test result may indicate that he has speedily moved back up into the National elite again.
– Many got impressed, but I have long forgotten about last year, and started with a blank sheet. In addition, I had a great training month in May, with over 75 hours of good training. Now I’ll just clamp my jaw and continue.
Since Espen Harald became ”too nice” last year, the plan is now to become much tougher.
– I have to become tougher with myself, for example, I need to dare go harder on some of the long distance sessions. I also plan to train harder with more quality.
The increased emphasis on hard sessions will result in about three hard sessions per week, either tough distance sessions, threshold intervals or VO2max intervals.
