Testing is just that — a means of measuring fitness, rate of force production and economy. Testing gives an indication to how training is going. Training, though, is where the work gets done that makes skiers faster. With this on their mind, four American women and five U.S. men currently are in a three week on-snow altitude camp, putting in the kilometers, testing equipment and refining technique at the SnowFarm on New Zealand’s South Island.
On Snow in New Zealand with the U.S. Ski Team
FasterSkier · August 9, 2007
“With skating skis, companies are messing around with side-cut profiles. They went wide, then narrow, and then they tried the skate cut and the parabolic stuff. I think they’re finding that narrower skis generally work best in harder packed snow and wider – not really wide, but medium wide – generally ski best in softer and new snow conditions where they track better, have a little more float and don’t dig in. I’ve been hearing there’s some new base technology that’s in the works. I imagine we’ll be seeing some big changes with this in the next two years — having skis that can hold structure and wax better, that kind of stuff.â€
Two Key Goals: Fitness and Team Harmony
 sets the tone with this. But every athlete on the World Cup team has a welcoming stance for the newcomers. We’re in a good place. For sure we’re going to have pitfalls here and there over the season, but so does every team.â€</p><p>The U.S. group has suffered from some of the team being anywhere but at the team’s three training camps this year. Whitcomb says this – while not ideal — is manageable. “Certainly it’s better when we have all the athletes together. To be a true professional team, though, we have to cater to the needs of the athletes we share.</p><p>“In regards to training and coming out of a two-week testing and training camp, we’re focused almost exclusively on volume, with a heavy emphasis on technique. Everyday we’re breaking out the video camera. Everyday we’re also monitoring the intensity of volume with our Lactate Pro’s (portable lactate analyzer). A couple athletes will be doing a smaller intensity block down here but due to the constraints of so much travel, we’ve decided for most of our athletes that emphasizing endurance packs the biggest gains with the least risk. It’s tough to travel to New Zealand and get right into really, really hammering. Some Continental athletes will continue with this volume approach for another eight to twelve weeks. Others will go into Helgerud style interval blocks. We have a whole eclectic mix of training programs.†</p><p>Along with Gibbs and USST coaches, the team employed the skills of physiologist Justin Carlstrom for the first week of camp to test morning lactates, hemoglobin, resting heart rates, oxygen saturation, glucose levels, along with more lactate testing in morning and afternoon workouts.</p></div><div class=)
United in Getting Faster
 with having one goal — getting better — along with perfect snow conditions makes this an ideal environment to get faster. Really, what more could you want?†</p><p><center><img decoding=)
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