Building the aerobic base. Distance and lactate threshold training. On-snow skiing. Time at altitude. Skiing powerful, but relaxed. Staying healthy. These are the phrases U.S. Ski Team athletes and coaches have bandied about in New Zealand. Now with the three-week camp coming to a close, the team is encouraged by the progress.
“Back in May, pretty much across the board, our skiers were still in need of consolidating their aerobic base,†said USST national team sprint coach Chris Grover. “In the last couple weeks, as we’ve done lab and field testing, we’ve seen a great improvement in regards to this. Our athletes have done a great job in keeping their distance lactates below 1mmol, and threshold intensity work between the optimal 4-6mmol range. Visually you can see the national team athletes have built up the structural strength to train at quicker paces, and will move into Level 4 training over the coming weeks.â€
On September 12th the U.S. Ski Team will meet again for a two-week dryland camp at the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center. Aided by Lake Placid’s low altitude, the camp will emphasize intensity work near distance race paces (6-8mmol lactate levels).
The training plan for the middle week of the three-week New Zealand camp for the national team sprinters follows below. The camp’s emphasis was on volume and efficiency. Even in periods where volume is king, the national teamers still don’t neglect to train all kinds of racing paces, even hopping into a race, and doing a couple pure speed sessions. For the sprinters, the race meant a sprint. For Andrew Johnson, a 10 and 15 kilometer effort.
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