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Swedish men’s Cross-Country sprint results have improved a great deal the last few years. Last season they won a number of the World Cup sprint events in addition to the Sprint Gold at the World Championships in Italy. Norwegian sprinters, such as 2002 Olympic Champion Hetland, that normally uses his tactical finesse to capture the victory in the finals, are now struggling to even make it passed the qualification round. Last weekends’ sprint World Cup...

Norwegian Cross-Country Sprint aces Trond Einer Elden and Tor Arne Hetland get help from experts in the weight room. – Yes, we have done more strength training than last year, says Elden The warm-up is done with medicine balls weighing between 10 – 18 pounds. – We do a variety of exercises with the medicine balls for 20 – 30 minutes. The weight of these balls seems light, so we go at max effort until...

Big Stress and Big Rest has been the trend of our training since New Zealand this past August. The volume of intensity in New Zealand demanded a good long recovery period afterward, and so the athletes went home to recover and show up ready for the final period of dryland training this past September. Showing up ready in September meant showing up rested. "Plan rest into the training. Take unplanned rest when needed". We have...

I have in some recent training articles discussed what I consider to be smart (interval) training and following is an example of what could be used as a smart approach for many interval workouts. In short this is: A good but easy warm-up, a conservative effort on the first couple of intervals and then gradually faster and harder. Some interval sessions should avoid the hard race-type finish and be kept around -30 to -18 beats...

Vegard Ulvang is provoked by Norwegian researcher’s training statements, – and calls him arrogant and “cocksure”. Fasterskier.com yesterday posted an article describing recent research statements claiming that distance training is worthless, and that interval training is the only answer to cardiovascular (aerobic) capacity. Vegard Ulvang has been measured with one of the highest max VO2 values of any athlete (in any sport). He became this strong by performing “old fashioned” endurance training: Hours of easy...

For Oddvar BrÃ¥, Vegard Ulvang, and Bjœrn Dæhlie, distance training was the main ingredient. Researcher Ulrik Wislœff believes that much of this training was worthless. The researcher from Trondheim, Norway is strongly questioning the training philosophy used in all Norwegian endurance sports. He claims that the Norwegian Olympic Committee is leading athletes down the wrong path, that the Norwegian Ski Federation is “sleeping through class” by teaching the wrong things, and that Cross-Country skiers are...

Last year’s World Championship “comet” Tore Ruud Hofstad is happy with his summer and fall training. His goal is to win a World Cup race this winter. “My goal is to win a World Cup race, as well as a Norwegian National Championship. Those are realistic goals, which I think I can make”, says Ruud Hofstad. During Last year’s World Championship in Val Di Fiemme, Ruud Hofstad skied himself up into the lead through the...

Last year US skiers saw big progress under the leadership of Norwegian Trond Nystad. He says there may be several reasons for this progress. “It is likely both a bit incidental and a bit that we have altered the training philosophy and the way the team functions together”, Nystad explains. Last year, American skiers were in the lead groups during the World Ski Championship. This has not been common in the past years’ Championships (Editor:...

PERIODIZATION Much of this information is taken from the Canadian NCCP level II technical manual. Each period is a standard 4 week period. With any of the above recommendations remember there is no right of wrong number of sets and reps. Remember the basic principles: exercises should be performed to local muscle fatigue, exercises must be performed with snap, and you must get adequate rest between sets. Try to be as ski specific as possible....

POWER STRENGTH PROGRAM – Plyometrics The Canadian NCCP coaching manual recommends Power Strength workouts which are basically plyometric type exercises. Here is a brief review of plyometrics. Our body constantly uses the elastic and energy storing properties of tendons and muscle. As a skier each time we stride forward and our ski hits the snow energy is stored in the quadriceps and Achilles tendons as they are loaded, this energy is then returned to provide...

The World’s best Cross-Country skier Bente Skari has retired after winning Olympic and World Championship titles, 42 World Cup competitions and the overall World Cup four times. A group of young women has the difficult task of filling the empty gap left by the ski-queen Bente Skari. VG- Norwegian Newspaper reports: The team now (mostly) consists of young, hungry and ambitious skiers. They miss Bente but also admit that it is not only negative that...

This article is the first of three articles examining strengthening exercises for skiers. Strengthening exercises are advocated for most sports including cross country skiing. The logic is that cross country skiers need to improve power to help increase ski velocity. Power is important as roughly 50% of race time is spent on uphills. The best way to improve power is through both endurance and resistive exercises. Strength training is a great way to provide resistance...

Norwegian Jens Arne Svartedal is getting ready for the World Cup sprint opening in Düsseldorf, Germany, by joining the (Norwegian) sprint team in their upcoming on-snow training camp in Val Senales. Svartedal is normally a member of the regular national team, but is planning on participating in the record early World Cup Sprint start with races on October 25 and 26th.

This is the fourth article in a mini-series that puts focus on the transition from junior to senior racer – often a difficult time in a young racers life. Norwegian National Development Team coach Morten Aa Djupvik is asking first year seniors to keep on going even if the results are not stellar in the beginning. He is of the opinion that many skiers can succeed in the long run if they are patient. “The...

The purpose of this article is to make skiers think about the pace and length you should chose in distance sessions. I hope to point out some important factors to consider, make suggestions to help you add some variety, and change your routines and attitude. I think in the end you will ski a lot faster. Some of the quotes and examples I use are at times contradicting, but it all comes down to one...

Fasterskier.com translates some news excerpts by Allan Aabech from the October issue of Norwegian SKI Sport (

This is the third article in a mini-series that puts focus on the transition from junior to senior racer – often a difficult time in a young racers life. Junior World Sprint Champion and first years-senior Johan Kjolstad is of the opinion that that it’s possible to race fast well before you turn 30. He has increased his training volume and hopes to be able to show his best in this year's World Cup. Kjolstad...