I hope things are going well out there in the ski world! On my end the season has just started, but for most of you there is still a waiting period. As soon as we get snow the first races will be here before you know it.
Personally I am glad to be through with September and October — the two heaviest months of the year. A lot of hard training was laid down in the last two months. A lot of it probably in bad weather as well. And it doesn’t get better when you start running out of daylight. Training in the dark. Training in the dark and the rain. But it has its benefits too, because you feel a little tougher when you do good hard workouts in the dark and rain.
I intend to remind you of a little thing then. It’s especially important to take care of the ski community during this period. How crappy would it be if you had to not only work out in the dark and the rain, but also do it alone?
I remember how good my earlier coach, Ole Petter Hansteensen, was at keeping the training group in good spirits. Especially near the start of the race season when things tend to get a bit more serious. I can remember how good it was for the training group to go out for pizza, or to go to the movies together. This ended up making us forget the rain and the darkness, and allowed us to enjoy ourselves and focus on the important things.
November is the ideal time to hang out with the training group. Go out there and do something creative. Even if you are planning to train a lot and train hard, you can’t forget to relax. Have some fun and get to know each other outside of skiing.
For my training group this ended up having a positive effect and more people showed up to practice. The effort was better in the hard workouts, and there was even more to talk about on the over distance workouts. We became a tightly knit group and a competitive team as a result. Kristin S. Steira was in my training group. Just ask her!
Maybe the same thing could happen in your training group as well?
To get good at Nordic skiing, you must train a lot and hard. But it’s also important to have it fun together! It’s difficult to improve by yourself, so take care of the ski community.
This month’s workout is posted on the sprint national team’s own homepage, www.sprintgutta.no.
At the moment I’m headed out to get pizza. It’s going to be top notch.
-The Sausage.
