Alaskan skier Anders Haugen (24) is spending two months training in Norway this summer. His schedule includes workouts with national team skiers, a glacier camp with Olympic hopefuls and Max VO2 testing by World renowned endurance and strength researcher.
Anders Haugen (24) of Anchorage, Alaska looked for a new and inspirational environment for his summer training this year. Last fall he moved to Park City, Utah and joined Team TorbjornSport. He had been bothered by an injury that spring and summer and lost a great deal of fitness, but trained well from October, made progress and had some encouraging results both in sprints and short races like 10 and 15-kilometers
Sea level training was most desirable for Anders after eight month at altitude and his choice was to go to Norway for the summer. He has Norwegian mother, a good housing opportunity in his family’s cabin right outside Trondheim and speaks fluent Norwegian.
TorbjornSport contacted some good friends earlier this summer, one thing lead to another and Anders suddenly ended up with a training opportunity that most skiers can only dream about.
The Trondheim area is home of a number of good racers including national team skiers and many top skiers are being tested at the School of Medicine at the University. I was in Trondheim last weekend and did one interval workout and a MaxVO2 test with Anders. I also asked him some questions:
Anders when did you get to Norway and how was your trip over here?
– I left Anchorage on July 4, but didn’t get here before on the 6th. I had used frequent flier miles and paid only $80 for a roundtrip ticket! The problem was that my ticket included long layovers in a number of cities. I traveled first to Seattle, then Dallas, London and Oslo, before I drove the 6-7 hours up to Trondheim. It was tiring, but I got adjusted to the 10-hour time change after 3-4 days.
What have you done for training so far, what are your plans and how are you doing?
– I took it easy for a few days before I picked up the volume and intensity. My training is what you would call interval oriented. I’m planning on staying until August 29. At that point I’m going back to Anchorage for a few weeks before I head down to Park City for a three-week long altitude camp. It’s a great opportunity being here. Lots of good skiers in one area. I can do weight training at the weight room used by Norway’s best soccer club, Rosenborg. I’m also welcome to do workouts with the local club and I have met some of the national team skiers and it seems like I might be able to join them for some upcoming sessions. I did a 1.45 hour classic rollerski workout with University of Denver skier Jon Stene (he was second in the classic race at US Nationals) a few days ago. This morning I did Intervals with you and I’m being MaxV02 tested by Professor Jan Helgerud and you at the School of Medicine at the University of Trondheim tomorrow.
We are using an $80,000 piece of equipment and doing the test on rollerskis in one of the nearby hills. Can’t wait for the pain!
Next up is an on-snow camp at Sognefjellet run by national team assistant coach Fredrik Aukland. He is coaching a small group skiers right below the national team. I’m really looking forward to that. I hope to get together with some of the good sprinters after that. The snow camp starts this Wednesday. I’ll try to send FasterSkier.com some reports from this.
The photos are from Anders’ interval session.
FasterSkier.com will post a short report from Anders Haugen’s MaxVO2 test shortly.
