The 50-km Olympic Champion from the 1976 Seefeld Olympic Games, Ivar Formo,
lets our readers get a unique insight into his training
Facts
Let us first present Ivar Formo for all of you that are not old enough to
remember his golden days:
Born: June 24, 1951 in Oslo, Norway
Results:
- Olympic Gold, 50 km, Seefeld 1976
- Olympic Bronze, 15 km, 1972
- Olympic Silver, Relay 1972 and 1976
- World Championship Bronze 1974 and 1978
- European Junior Championship Gold
- Overall winner of first ever World Cup title, 1974
- World Championship Bronze in Orienteering
- Several National Sportsman Awards in Norway
 Cross-Country<br />
skiers can improve. And he shares Vegard Ulvang’s view of the importance<br />
of an accurate training log. Ivar was also very systematic in logging his training<br />
sessions, just like Vegard. "Without knowing what you’ve done, it<br />
is difficult adjusting the training later", says Ivar. That simple! His<br />
written training logs span 10-years — from the end of the 60’s through<br />
the end of the 70’s. He competed with historic skiers, such as Harald Gronningen,<br />
Paal Tyldum, Odd Martinsen, Lark Erik Eriksen and Ove Aunli — some took<br />
over winning after Ivar retired. Ivar however remembers one competitor better<br />
than any other — Oddvar Braa. They were the same age, and neither of them<br />
had ever lost a ski race when they met for the first time in the Norwegian Youth<br />
Championship. They both later became the national heroes of Norway and on first<br />
name bases with the whole nation.</P><br />
<P><B>Heroic</B></P><br />
<P>The live coverage of the Seefeld Olympic 50 km ski race on February 14, 1976<br />
became famous in Norway due to the exiting race, level of the live TV commentating,<br />
and because the young skier with the beautiful technique surprised everyone.<br />
He outclassed the competition, even though noone thought he would be able to<br />
stay in front for 50 km.</P><br />
<P>After having studied Ivar’s preparation and training, we now can understand<br />
how he was able to "stay" the whole distance. More thorough preparation<br />
is hardly ever seen. </P><br />
<P><B>Volume, altitude training and all-around skills</B></P><br />
<P>Today many experienced coaches ask the question: "do today’s Cross-Country<br />
skiers train correct and enough"? Most skiers when asked may believe that<br />
training volume has increased and methods improved. Not just in Cross-Country.<br />
This may not always be true. Let us go back 30 years, and look closer at Ivar<br />
Formo’s training. You can check out his training on the Norwegian electronic<br />
logging system <A HREF=)
www.sportsys.nu Ivar’s yearly training volume was 890 hours. In November 1975 he trained
123 hours. Some weeks he skied 600 km.
It is also interesting to note Ivar’s first experience with altitude training.
A hard session on a clacier in Northern-Italy at 3000m (above 9500 feet) resulted
in a headache, and both an exclamation mark and a question sign in his training
log for that day.
Regarding training during the summer, Ivar did not believe in vacation or time
off from training. As a national class Orienteering athlete he competed often.
The training consisted otherwise of rollerskiing, cycling, some kayaking, volleyball
and soccer as a supplement to running which was his main method of training.
Ivar was known for almost always staying healthy and injury free. This is probably
not due to luck. Ivar must have had a very "good head" for training
smart. This means he must have been able to cut back training when needed, and
take a more careful route. Ivar remembers that some of his teammates on the
National Team were not as "lucky", and trained themselves "into
the basement" (Editor: Overtrained).
Original training zones
It is interesting to study the way Ivar used training intensities and zones.
Today we’re used to heart rate zones from 1 — 5; Ivar’s zones
were:
"all right tempo", "easy tempo", "ok tempo",
"very good tempo", "consistent tempo", "hard tempo",
"very easy tempo", "good tempo", "hard running",
etc.
This may seem as the tempos of a piece of classical music. And perhaps this
was how Ivar looked at his training zones and intensities? He was very thorough
in pointing out if parts of a training session were done in a different speed
or intensity than the rest. Perhaps many can learn from this way of logging
training sessions.
Training buddies
It could not have been easy for the other skiers in the club to train with
Ivar in his prime. His training log is proof of this. In reading the names of
his training companions you notice that each one of them were only able to go
along one day at a time, then again after a few days of recovery.
Once in a while you also notice famous skiers: run with Paal (Tyldum —
another Olympic Champion), easy run with Odd (Martinsen), nice session with
Oddvar (Braa).
Below we have included some typical days from June, July and August of 1975.
Remember that in 1976 Ivar was one of the very best skiers in the World. Don’t
try to copy his training. It probably will not make you any better.
June training:
| 11/06/1975 | Oslo | Running | Distance | 2:15 | All right tempo, then easier. Dag and Olav |
| 12/06/1975 | Oslo | Running | Distance | 3:00 | All right tempo with Dag |
| 13/06/1975 | Oslo | Running | Distance | 1:15 | Setting out markers for Orienteering race. Long breaks, effective 1:15 |
| 14/06/1975 | Sarpsborg | Orienteering | Competition | 1:15 | Very good tempo |
| 15/06/1975 | Fredrikstad | Orienteering | Competition | 0:45 | Easy — in terrain |
| 16/06/1975 | Oslo | Running | Distance | 1:00 | Ok tempo with Truls, Svein and Dag |
| Running | Interval | 1:00 | Hard up hills | ||
| 17/06/1975 | Oslo | Running | Distance | 1:30 | Easy — felt tired |
| 18/06/1975 | Oslo | Running | Distance | 1:40 | All right tempo with Kjell |
| cycling | Distance | 0:30 | Ok tempo with Liv | ||
| 19/06/1975 | Oslo | Running | Distance | 3:00 | Ok tempo with Svein, Dag and Mons |
| 20/06/1975 | Oslo | Rest | |||
| 21/06/1975 | Oslo | Rest |
July training:
| 15/07/1975 | Hoelonda | Rollerski | Distance | 0:45 | All right tempo with Oddvar |
| 16/07/1975 | Sweden | Orienteering | Competition | 3:00 | Mountain Orienteering. Tired last 15 min. |
| 17/07/1975 | Sweden | Orienteering | Competition | 2:45 | Mountain Orienteering. High speed. |
| 18/07/1975 | Sweden | Orienteering | Competition | 3:20 | Mountain Orienteering. Tired in the end. |
| 19/07/1975 | Holonda | Rollerski | Distance | 1:50 | With Oddvar. Easy. |
| Rollerski | Distance | 1:50 | With Oddvar. Easy. Very tired after Orientering. Need to take it easy a few days. | ||
| 20/07/1975 | Tangen | Running | Distance | 1:50 | Easy. Felt tired. Knee hurts a bit. |
| Tangen | Kayak | Distance | 0:30 | Paddling and cutting logs. | |
| 21/07/1975 | Tangen | Running | Distance | 0:30 | Easy, knee hurts |
August training:
| 22/08/1975 | Oslo | Running | Distance | 2:00 | All right tempo. Dag, Knut , Einar |
| 23/08/1975 | Oslo | Rollerski | Distance | 1:10 | Double pole in easy tempo. |
| Oslo | Running | Distance | 1:10 | Achilles hurting. Diarrhea, travel, wedding | |
| 24/08/1975 | Halden | Running | Warmup | 0:30 | Before Orienteering |
| Halden | Orienteering | Competition | 1:30 | Orienteering, very good temp. Very tired. | |
| 25/08/1975 | Oslo | Running | Distance | 2:25 | Ok tempo with Louis and Dag |
| Oslo | Rollerski | Distance | 1:50 | All right tempo | |
| 26/08/1975 | Oslo | Running | Distance | 2:00 | All right tempo with Weltzien and Loius |
| Oslo | Running | Distance | 1:00 | ||
| Oslo | Orienteering | Competition | 0:30 | Super hard. | |
| 27/08/1975 | Oslo | Running | Distance | 3:50 | All right temp with Dag. Legs a bit heavy. |
| Oslo | Rollerski | Distance | 0:45 | Easy. Legs tired after long distance | |
| 28/08/1975 | Oslo | Running | Distance | 1:35 | Easy. Legs heavy after y-day |
