This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more articles like this one, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. I’ve been using Heart Rate Variability (HRV) to guide endurance training for nearly 20 years. As with every innovation, we do research and test it extensively before we introduce the use with athletes. I was introduced to HRV by Tiina Hoffman the former skier and...
Over the past couple of decades coaching endurance athletes, I’ve noticed a consistent relationship between three key performance metrics. Whether this relationship is push-pull or more synergistic is still up for debate—but one thing is clear: when these three improve, so does overall performance. These metrics are: Power or velocity at aerobic threshold (AT) Average power during a 6-minute max effort Peak power during a 10-second sprint When we pair this external data with internal...
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you want more coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. For much of the last 30 years, the late Dr Jim Stray-Gundersen and I have been studying how we quantify training load. In the mid-90s, we met Dr. Erik Bannister at the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Conference in Orlando, Florida. Dr Bannister developed the Training Impulse...
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you want more coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. In many endurance sports in the U.S.—including cross-country skiing—there seems to be a desire to identify standout U16 athletes as future stars. USSS, team programs, and coaches often respond by elevating their competition opportunities and increasing their training beyond what their physiological development can realistically support. In my early...
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers. If you would like to see more collegiate coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription. I’m losing my edge The kids are coming up from behind I’m losing my edge LCD Soundsystem I knew it was coming. I have the conversation all the time with patients in the physical therapy clinic: “The older we get, the less our bodies...
Skiing with kids can feel like, well, a daunting junk show. The gear explosion, the logistics puzzle, and the constant battle to keep everyone warm and happy can make you wonder if it’s worth stepping foot out of the door. As a mom of two, I live this reality, staring down the barrel of a long winter filled with wrestling squirmy little bodies into layers upon layers of wool, fleece, and down. Can kid-pulling ever...
Our bodies are very good at adapting to change, as long as it comes slowly enough. That first frosty day in autumn always feels brutally cold. Take the same temperature in March and we’re in shorts and short sleeves. Our response to exercise load is no different. Taken as a slow and progressive build up, our bodies will respond with increased strength and capacity to stay on the right side of the load vs tolerance...
From a young age, my track coach insisted that we did a thorough dynamic warm-up before starting any training session to activate the right muscles and avoid injury. I have my track coach to thank for teaching me this at a young age. Especially as I get older, my daily activation exercises are crucial in keeping injuries at bay and getting my body warmed up before the “warm up”. For me, the challenge is...
In Part one of The Old Man and the Lake, our reporter shared his story about dealing with the sudden onset of chronic illness; how time, persistence, and swimming helped him regain his athletic life, and the odyssey of swimming across the Mackinac Straits. In part two, the story continues with his ongoing swimming saga post bridge swim, and the lessons learned about goal setting and the reality of dealing with disappointing outcomes. Next up...
I think Jessie Diggins has taught the world many things. Maybe it’s how to find your grit and accept the pain while you push your body to new limits. Maybe it’s a better understanding of eating disorders, where to find help, and knowing you’re not alone. Or maybe it’s the art of applying face glitter on race day. I’ve learned a bit about all of those things (when Jessie says you’re getting glittered, you’re getting...
For better or worse the old cliche, ski racers are made in the summer still applies. Cross country runners are made in the summer too. Conveniently, running is excellent training for skiers and obviously runners. Inconveniently, there tend to be a lot of injuries associated with running. And even more inconveniently, we don’t have a ton of research to tell us why or what to do about it. The clearest correlation to running related injury...
One of the beauties of skate skiing for the recreational athlete is that it gets us out of the straight line, sagittal plane motion that is so common with walking, running, and cycling. But this also poses a challenge for those of us who don’t rollerski in the summer: How do we stay conditioned for skate skiing’s lateral motion when there’s no snow on the ground? Fortunately, there’s a long list of exercises that will...
Ask most endurance athletes what quality they’d like to develop in their sport, and many would say “I want to be stronger.” Ironic, then, because “stronger” means different things to different athletes. To one, it means durable: able to withstand continued stresses and discomforts. To another, it means powerful: able to generate greater force in less time. To still another, it means actually stronger: able to move a heavier weight (regardless of the speed of the movement)....
Returning to training after a spring hiatus means laying out a plan for the upcoming training season. In making such a plan, there are a couple of questions that will help to define how the season should go: – Early season dryland training: what should early season training prioritize? And how much of a “break” do you advise taking after the ski season concluded? – Early season roller skiing: how early is too early? What...
Spring is nice, spring is fun, spring is a relief after a long, cold winter. But, for diehard skiers, spring is also the new season in which we begin imagining ourselves as next year’s skiers. The snow is barely gone, but already we’re imagining futures in which we glide through snowy meadows, double pole across the flats, charge confidently up homologated uphills, and V2 boldly across finish lines. Our heads are already in next season....
Warning: This review contains lengthy passages of unrestrained gushing. Is it possible that the best movie ever made about cross-country skiing doesn’t have a single scene which was filmed on snow? The answer is a decided yes. Because that movie is “A to B Roller Ski,” and it shatters the ceiling for what a movie about cross-country skiing can be. Moving, inspiring, authentic, pure, poetic, and beautiful, ‘A to B Roller Ski’ tells the story...
FasterSkier has been fortunate to have the support of Snow Mountain Ranch for many years now. If you are looking to extend your ski season we hope you will consider visiting our friends at Snow Mountain Ranch. If you’re a kid in Granby or Winter Park, Colo., snow days aren’t a thing—until last Thursday, March 13. According to Mary Ann Degginger, the program director at Snow Mountain Ranch, students in the East Grand School District...
You’ve plateaued? What’s the deal? Is it insufficient rest; is it that you peaked too early; is it that you need to train harder? There is an article, Facebook post, podcast, YouTube video, and probably a thousand other forms of media dedicated to figuring out just about every component of training. So, with all this information available, why do so many athletes face such an uphill battle to reach their goals? From amateur to elite,...
The big toe is called the big toe because it’s bigger than the other toes. It has bigger bone and muscle structure because it takes more load. When we walk and run, we are programmed to get the big toe on the ground. But how and when we get the big toe to the ground can cause problems. Too much, too soon, too late, or too fast and efficiency suffers. When efficiency decreases, loads...
Sophia Laukli’s dominant win in the final stage of the Tour de Ski catapulted her into the spotlight. She has been racing fast for a while, but this result was on another level from her past performances. As the world gets to know her better, it’s interesting to look at the training philosophy of her club, Aker Daehlie. Training is sometimes secretive, but Aker Daehlie puts their training philosophy online for all to see. This...