The Boulder Mountain Tour (ID), Tug Hill Tourathon (NY), City of Lakes (MN) Frisco Gold Rush (CO), Alley Loop (CO) are all long races coming up this weekend, February 5 and 6, while the American Birkie is February 26. Here are some advice and suggestions regarding what to do and what to avoid in order to having your fastest ever long race.
http://www.torbjornsport.com/tbksports/personalcoaching.html
The Training:
These suggestions are meant to be a guideline. Make smart decisions and adjustments based upon how you feel and previous training background and experience:
You are out of time as far as being able to improving your endurance if your main race is coming up in 4-6 days, so you need to work on getting rested and feeling good. You can however still improve a great deal if your main race is for example the Birkie on February 26.
 an important competition. At this point it’s better to rest up in order to feel good and rested. That’s how you peak.</p>
<p>The last hard session should be 3-5 days before the race and should follow an easy/off day. Many prefer a short 5-10 kilometer pace workout or time-trial as their last hard session while other like to do intervals in rolling terrain like 2-3-4-2-3 minutes with equal recovery. The remaining days before the race should be easy or rest. You can also do a few short “wake-up†intervals like 3-4 x 45-90 seconds the day before or two days before the race. Choose easy terrain and don’t go “all-outâ€</p>
<p>Training example for the last week before the race:</p>
<p>Friday: off</p>
<p>Saturday: race</p>
<p>Sunday: off or easy distance 45 minutes to 1.20</p>
<p>Monday: off or easy distance 45 minutes to 1.20</p>
<p>Tuesday: off</p>
<p>Wednesday: 5 -10-kilometer pace or time-trial or 5 x 2-3 minutes intervals. Hold back in the beginning and gradually ski harder. Don’t push too hard if you are tired.</p>
<p>Thursday: off or easy</p>
<p>Friday: easy distance, ski testing and 4 x 1 minutes medium hard intervals</p>
<p>Saturday: RACE! Think positive, don’t start too hard at the start, pick it up as you go along and enjoy the experience.</p>
<p> <BR><center><img decoding=)
http://www.fasterskier.com/racing910.html
You might find some useful information here as well. We’ll post more updated Birkie stuff as we get closer to race time.
http://www.fasterskier.com/training810.html
Weather Forecast and Clothing:
Pay attention to the weather forecast. Protect all body part if it’s cold. Read last year’s article called:
Advice For Cold Weather Racing http://www.fasterskier.com/racing837.html
Don’t ski without good warm, protective clothing and protective sport underwear, good gloves and warm hat if it’s warm but raining or snowing. Not being dressed well when everything gets soaking wet can easily lead to hypothermia and A DNF (did not finish)
Waxing
Make it simple. Every wax company has several good simple glide waxes that cover just about every temperature and snow type possible. Focus on those if you don’t have lots of waxing experience.
From our brand SOLDA Glide wax available from TorbjornSport http://www.torbjornsport.com/index.php those are:
Warm and/or warm or moist snow at any temperature: SOLDA PowerJet 1 or 2
Medium cold snow at medium to low humidity or moisture content: SOLDA UF7 Universal or F-15 Violet and PowerJet 4 http://www.torbjornsport.com/store/powerjet.html
Cold dry snow:
SOLDA F-15 Blue or S-30
http://www.torbjornsport.com/store/f15.html and http://www.torbjornsport.com/store/s20s30.html
Most expensive powder waxes from SOLDA: Warm Fluor and HPO5 Fluor
The Wax Maestro
Also check SOLDA and TorbjornSport's unique Wax Maestro for recommendations:
http://www.torbjornsport.com/waxmaestro.html
You can get the perfect wax suggestion in a few seconds for free.
www.weather.com or similar for the latest weather forecast and updates. Bring a few Cray-on waxes like PowerJets or spray-on glide waxes to the start area for quick and easy adjustment if necessary. Err toward waxing a little too cold rather than too warm. Don’t be afraid of adding structure/rills especially if it’s going to be warmer than 32 Fahrenheit.
Consider adding 2 mm linear rills if its old snow and 32-40 Fahrenheit and 3mm if it’s even warmer.
Consider adding 2 and 3mm rills if it very wet new snow and warmer than 32 Fahrenheit.
Staggered/cross rills can be added as well in combination with linear rills.
Call TorbjornSport at 435-645-8181 to order wax or log on to http://www.torbjornsport.com/index.php and order on-line. Next-day and 2-day air available.
Check www.torbjornsport.com for wax suggestions as well.
Some of last season’s marathon reports:
Boulder Mountain Tour: Highlights, The Day After and Wax Report http://www.fasterskier.com/racing889.html
Boulder Mountain Tour – pack skiing at its best http://www.fasterskier.com/racing888.html
