Norwegian sprint coach Ulf Morten Aune is training his team to do well in the Olympic course profiles. The goal is to have skiers that can win regardless of the race’s development.
Source: Langrenn.com — Translated by Torbjorn Karlsen
Training For The Olympic Course Profiles
FasterSkier · July 25, 2005
 easier. Photo: Fischer Skis</font></center><BR></p><p>— The Olympics are the most important events this winter. A lot of our training is for that reason geared toward the course profile in Torino, says Norwegian sprint coach Ulf Morten Aune.</p><p>– We have ambitions about having people that are good enough to win regardless of race development, says Aune.</p><p>The Olympic sprint course is not as hard as the course at the 2005 Worlds in Oberstdorf. It’s going to be tougher to ski away in the uphills and the speed will be higher. The tendency in World Cup sprint racing is that the courses are getting faster with more turns and corners. That type of courses has so far not made Norwegian skiers the favorites. </p></div><div class=)
The sprint team wants to do something about that.
— We need to be able to handle higher speed in skating and do better in courses with high speed and turns. That has previously been our team’s weakness. We need to improve the quality, concludes Aune.
They are doing that by training tougher strength and more explosive speed. They are also doing more over-speed. We are training skating at over-speed behind bikes or mopeds. We are also doing some running with elastic cords. That has caused several pull injuries, but we need to be able to handle that, says the sprint coach.
He also believes that these changes are important for future sprint competitions.
— There are signals indicating longer courses and longer prologs. It’s over if you don’t advance, but all our skiers will advance, says Aune.
The team is adjusting the training methods, but they are not training more.
— We trained up against the limit last year as far as volume goes and now want to increase the quality. That’s a very fine line, says Aune.
– We are aiming for high quality in every session. At the camps and between the camps. We have a high number of camps, but it’s important to be matched at home as well, he says.
There are few differences in their summer and fall training, but altitude training is prioritized more toward the season-start.
— It will be more altitude training this year with a long camp in Canada before the December World Cup races. This is necessary with the Olympics taking place at altitude, says Aune.