This week's Wednesday Workout comes from Erika Flowers, a member of the SMS T2 elite team. She brings us an early training season workout that develops a strong base and solid technique.
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This week's workout comes from U.S. Ski Team Women's Coach Matt Whitcomb shortly after the team's on-snow camp in Bend, Ore., where they practiced improving technique after watching video clips, then created some footage of their own.
Sarah Max has experience on her side when it comes to multi-sport races. "After a winter of planned workouts, I generally don’t follow a training plan for the Pole Pedal Paddle," the race's four-time winner explains. This year was no different. But she did incorporate running workouts to minimize the "brick" feeling one gets from transitioning from the bike to run.
Matt Briggs, who podiumed in his first Pole Pedal Paddle two weekends ago, talks about race prep for a six-stage event. "This race was basically a full-time job for the three weeks leading up to the race," he says. To remind himself why he was doing it, he did a workout each week called "Sanity Day."
Wednesday Workout: Mountain Boarding Anaerobic Workout with Colette Bourgonje
Alex KochonMay 21, 2014
This week's workout comes from Colette Bourgonje, a 10-time Paralympian who recently retired from the Canadian Para-Nordic Team with 10 Paralympic medals to her name. "I like this workout because of the change in pace, which makes you focus on technique with speed and adds variety with the distance you end up putting in," she says.
Taylor Fletcher is not a master blaster, but the 24-year-old U.S. Nordic Combined skier does like to get out for a hard, group road ride a few times a month. Here's an example of a 2 to 2.5-hour workout, or race, depending on your viewpoint, called Wednesday Night Worlds.
This week's workout comes from Ezekiel Williams, FasterSkier's newest intern and an athlete at the Alberta World Cup Academy. This time last season, Williams said he really enjoyed doing what his team called, the Agility Sprint Track Workout. "Combine the agility work and lactate threshold building into the short 1:30 hour workout time and it makes for a solid early training-season session," he says.
Wednesday Workout: Volume Training (Long Days, Piggybacks and Alaska’s Version of Sharks and Minnows) with NANANordic
FasterSkierApril 30, 2014
Having the opportunity to teach 8 days of cross country skiing to the remote villages of Alaska is both rewarding and demanding. It’s hard to pin down an exact ‘workout’ we do up there, because by the end of just one day, your feet burn, and your mental focus just got tested by 100+ eager Inupiaq kids, thirsty for time on skis. There can, however, be progress made toward personal growth depending on how you want to slice it.
Two days after nearly 36,000 people ran that Boston Marathon on Monday, we’re willing to bet there are more than a couple still feeling the pain of the 26.2-mile run from Hopkinton, Mass., to Boston. Here are some tips for minimizing post-race stiffness and soreness.
Unless you’re the audacious Liz Stephen or Overall World Cup Champion Therese Johaug, you’re probably not a huge fan of hill climbs. However, when the mid-April temps turn our favorite trails into puddles, nordic ski enthusiasts have to get creative to get their on-snow skiing fix before spring training begins.
One author shares his uneasiness with training plans and investigates CXC Academy, an online subscription service that provides nordic tips and regimens for skiers of all ages. "You will go faster when you want to go faster and it will be a lot more enjoyable," founder Yuriy Gusev says.
What could be more fun than going for a trail run or backcountry ski with a primal purpose, like bringing home dinner? Lex Treinen shares his love of what he calls "old school biathlon," a hunting-and-gathering workout off the beaten path.
Wednesday Workout: Rollerskiing Intervals + All-Out Sprints with Aku Nikander
FasterSkierApril 2, 2014
The Wednesday Workout is back with featured contributor Aku Nikander sharing some of his secrets to success while skiing for the University of New Mexico.
This week's, Colin Foley of the Callaghan Valley Training Centre details one of his favorite intensity workouts, which felt like a sprint qualifier: max aerobic speed at 15-second intervals. "It’s something that we’ve done a few times and I really hope we do more in the future," he writes.
In her first year of dental school, Audrey Weber, 27, has less time for ski-specific training and instead shifted her focus to the gym, where she's found success with CrossFit. "Currently, I am 13 months into my own personal case study called, 'How Fit Can an Ex-Cross Country Ski Racer Stay on Four Hours of Training Per Week?' " she says. "Some preliminary results are in, and the findings are quite interesting." she says.
Santi Ocariz is living proof that you don't need a ton of free time to keep skiing and training when possible. "I would describe my exercising as opportunistic," he says. "If everything else is done, then I treat myself to some exercise.” While not the most foolproof training plan, it was enough to help him nearly win the SISU Marathon last Saturday. A former elite skier, he might be an exception.
Not quite all of the the skiing regions of North America have been hit by the so-called "arctic blast" of air that resulted in temperatures as low as -35F with the wind chill, but cold is the theme, and training in frigid weather can be challenging. So this week we bring two different Wednesday Workout options, both ideal for extreme cold.
Head coach of Rouge et Or nordic team at Laval University, Luc Germain shares part of his athletes' training plan during the holidays. "On January 1st, some of my athletes will be tired after a good celebration of the New Year, so I suggest them to come back to the basics ... and do only the first part of this super session, but if they can handle more, then the whole workout will leave them tired and happy!" he writes.
Wednesday Workout: Lickety-Split Christmas Zone 4 Intervals
FasterSkierDecember 25, 2013
Merry Christmas! On the rare chance that you can sneak out for a workout during the busy holiday season, try the following 45-60 minute workout from Sam Tarling of the Maine Winter Sports Center.
During the holidays, opportunities for races can be few and far between, and it’s often easy to get into the lull of long distance skis with old friends. While these can be fun and beneficial, it's important to get some high intensity and completive training in before the season starts to intensify in January. BSF has the right idea with a hill-climb time trial on Dec. 28.