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There is really only one way to become a faster skier. Train. We will keep you inspired with training reports from the best around, as well as articles on specific workouts and suggestions on how to improve your own training. Use the links below to view articles in a specific sub-category, or srcoll down to view all Training articles.
The College Conflict: Part 2

The following was written by Alayna Sonnesyn, a new member of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) T2 Team who graduated from the University of Vermont (UVM) this past spring. Originally from Plymouth, Minnesota, Sonnesyn, 22, raced on the UVM Ski Team for four years and qualified for four NCAA Skiing Championships teams. She placed second and third in two races at 2017 NCAA Championships, and in her senior season, won the first five Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association...

Wednesday Workout: Bog Running Intervals with Swedish Juniors

Today’s workout comes from Alasdair Tutt, head coach and program director at the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks/Fairbanks Cross Country (NSCF-FXC) in Fairbanks, Alaska, who recently attended a training camp with Swedish skiers (ages 15-19) at the Åre Ski Gymnasium in Järpen, Sweden. Have a workout of your own (or your club’s) that you’d like to share? Send submissions to info@fasterskier.com with the subject line “Wednesday Workout”. *** On a recent trip to Sweden for study, I was fortunate...

The College Conflict: Part 1

The following was written by Alayna Sonnesyn, a new member of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) T2 Team who graduated from the University of Vermont (UVM) this past spring. Originally from Plymouth, Minnesota, Sonnesyn, 22, raced on the UVM Ski Team for four years and qualified for four NCAA Skiing Championships teams. She placed second and third in two races at 2017 NCAA Championships, and in her senior season, won the first five Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association...

Americans Dominate the Field, Podiums at Winter Games NZ (Updated)

Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Simi Hamilton of the U.S. Ski Team (USST) and Stratton Mountain School (SMS) T2 Team, and Kevin Bolger of the USST and Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation. *** It’s that time of year again where several members of the U.S. Ski Team, along with top-level skiers from the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) and Stratton Mountain School (SMS) T2 Team are training at the Snow...

Wednesday Workout: Live High, Train Low in (Smoky) Sunny California

This Wednesday Workout came to us just over a week ago from Gus Johnson, nordic program director and head coach at the Auburn Ski Club Training Center (ASC-TC) on Donner Summit in California. Have a workout of your own (or one of your club’s) that you’d like to share? Send submissions to info@fasterskier.com with the subject line “Wednesday Workout”. *** August proved to be smoke season in California for the Auburn Ski Club Training Center athletes, but...

Keeping Up the Positivity, Randall Nears Day 60 of Chemo

Day by day. That’s how Kikkan Randall is approaching her battle with breast cancer after being diagnosed about three months ago. Now more than 50 days into her treatment — with six rounds of chemotherapy over an 18-week span — Randall, 35, is becoming more familiar with the ugly side effects and adjusting to her new normal. While beating what is believed to be announcing her diagnosis on social media, Randall has been promoting AKTIV...

U.S. Part of Collaboration at Largest International Junior Camp (with Video)

Earlier this month from Aug. 2-8, nine top American junior athletes had the opportunity to participate in the largest International Junior Camp to date. In total, 146 athletes and 37 coaches from nearly 20 nations gathered in Sjusjøen, Norway, for a week of training and collaboration. The camp offered athletes the opportunity to gain confidence by training with the best junior skiers in the world against whom they will soon be competing, and to learn...

Wednesday Workout: Optimal Recovery with Dr. Zuzana Rogers

The following Wednesday Workout comes from Dr. Zuzana Rogers, PT, ScD, SCS, COMT, of Anchorage, Alaska. Rogers has been the go-to physical therapist for the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team since 2013 and Alaska Pacific University (APU) Nordic team since 2011.  *** You are probably training hard…but is your recovery optimal? As you transition from summer to fall training and the intensity increases, you may start noticing certain tweaks that are happening to your body...

Why Skiing and How I Survived the Summer: Part IV

In March of 2016, we published an article penned by Scott “Bjorn” Cummings, a Postbaccalaureate student working towards his Academic Behavorial Strategist K-12 (ABS) Special Education License at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), titled “Part III” update in February. Here’s the latest on his summer. *** There is an old saying in teaching that “the three reasons why I teach” are: June, July and August. As a teacher, I have the benefit of getting my summers...

2018 FS Gear Review: Rundle Sport Velox Skate Long Rollerski

Let’s go niche for a second as this will be a recurring theme of this rollerski review. It’s not exactly the dark web, but this esoteric rollerski site lists over 50 manufacturers. Presuming each brand builds out several models of rollerskis, we’re talking well over 100 styles and permutations of dryland training gear. That’s only considering skate rollerskis. The basic engineering premise is the same for all of those: two wheels, four ball-bearing sets per ski,...

Wednesday Workout: L3 Ski Walking Up Stratton Mountain

For this week’s workout, we feature the Stratton Mountain School T2 Team, also known as the Elite Team, out of Stratton, Vermont. The team’s full-time athletes live near the base of the alpine resort and take advantage of the following Level 3 (L3) ski-walking workout right out their front door. In an email, coach Patrick O’Brien explained why they often repeat this workout during the summer: “We can safely have a large number of people training...

Wednesday Workout: Craftsbury Running Intervals

For a mid-summer Wednesday Workout, we reached out to Craftsbury Green Racing Project head coach Pepa Miloucheva. In addition to sharing a running workout, Miloucheva told us what and who is new to the team based out of Craftsbury, Vermont. “All is good here in Craftsbury,  everyone is healthy and training is going well,” she wrote in an email in early July. The nordic team joined last month’s U.S. Ski Team (USST) training camp in...

Wednesday Workout: Building Sprint Capacity with Dr. Øyvind Sandbakk

The following Wednesday Workout was written by Dr. Øyvind B. Sandbakk, the managing director at the Centre for Elite Sports Research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. (He’ll also be featured in an upcoming Nordic Nation podcast.) Beyond his work at NTNU, Sandbakk is the head of research and development at the Norwegian Olympic Sports Center (Olympiatoppen). At 37, he has established himself as one of the premier researchers studying...

Wednesday Workout: Team Sprinting with the U.S. Ski Team

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — This past Sunday, July 15, FasterSkier visited the U.S. women’s cross-country team in Lake Placid, where the team has been holding a dryland camp since July 11. Most all of the team’s top athletes are there — sans those that train with Alaska Pacific University (they’ll largely stick to Anchorage and nearby Eagle Glacier for summer training) — for a “semi-intensity focused” camp that will last through Friday, July 20. Their...

Wednesday Workout: Russian Intervals with a Canmore Master

(Note: The following workout was submitted to FasterSkier by ELA climbing guide) or in the Canadian Alpine Journal (CAJ v. 65 (1982), p. 24; 66 (1983), p. 98).) After a sabbatical year in 1979 in distant mountains (the Pyrenees, the Alps, Morocco, and Chile), the remainder of my Winnipeg years were focused on climbing trips: Mexico, Yosemite, the Red Rocks, the Dolomites, Ecuador, Nepal, and, most frequently, the Canadian Rockies. When I retired in 1997,...

Wednesday Workout: Hill Repeats with Utah Junior Logan Diekmann

This week, FasterSkier caught up with Bozeman, Montana, native Logan Diekmann, who’s entering his junior year at the University of Utah. Diekmann, 21, is spending this summer training in Salt Lake City, taking summer classes toward a degree in mechanical engineering. Diekmann grew up in Bozeman, skiing with the Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) through elementary, middle and high school. After graduating as Bozeman High School’s valedictorian in 2015, he took a gap year with BSF....

ESPN ‘Body Issue’ Prompts Diggins to Open Up About Past Eating Disorder

Jessie Diggins is having a big month. Nominated for an ESPY Award (along with Kikkan Randall for “Best Male and Female Athlete With A Disability”), Diggins recently posed ESPN The Magazine’s annual “The Body Issue”, which features various famous athletes sans clothes. In a “The Body Issue 2018” came out, Diggins, 26, explained her reasons for agreeing to the “tastefully nude shoot that shows off athlete’s muscles”. The post, titled “Body Issue(s)” (which she called...

Wednesday Workout: ‘Exceptional Off-the-Couch Fitness’ with Zoë Roy

BEND, Oregon — Zoe Roy. OK, OK. First things first. Don’t forget the umlaut. So it’s Zoë Roy. (Zoeeeee. Not Zo.) If you don’t know Roy and you’ve been to Bend, Oregon, well then, maybe you haven’t exactly been to Bend. Roy is at once keen, kind, clever, artistic, athletic, and nine parts out of ten fun. She is an icon of fun here. But let’s cut to the chase. We cover nordic sport and...