Training

The October issue of Fasterskier.com’s Club subscription service was sent to subscribers on October 15. The Club provides detailed, in-depth coverage of modern and interesting issues in the sport of Cross-Country.  Most of the Club’s articles will cover issues related to training and racing, and will also include material for all ages and abilities, from World Cup skiers’ training to important elements of youth and age group training and skiing. This month we included two...

Getting ready to race this season: This is a critical time of year to do a high percentage of your workouts as specific training and to include weekly interval workouts in your training routine. Specific training for cross country skiers means to train in ski terrain using ski motions involving both arm and leg muscles. Training speed and heart rates also need to meet the demands of what you find in ski racing. It’s a...

Many skiers on the Norwegian women’s national cross country team have set personal MaxV02 records lately according to the newspaper VG. It’s women’s National team coach Svein Tore Samdal that has revealed this in an interview during the team’s on-snow altitude camp in Val Senales, Italy – Almost everyone has performed “all-time high” on the oxygen uptake tests. It’s nice to see that the skiers are in shape. This is also a natural progression. We...

The Norwegian men’s cross country national team started their on-snow camp in Val Senales, Italy with their smallest team ever when only three skiers showed up due to sickness, according to newspaper VG. Only Frode Estil, Tore Rud Hofstad and Jens Arne Svartedal started skiing at 3000 meters altitude last Saturday. – Another three skiers should hopefully arrive on Tuesday, says national team coach Sorgard. Anders Aukland, Kristen Skjeldal and Odd Bjorn Hjelmeset are all...

Swedish World Cup star Anders Sodergren won a national level cross country running race on October 3, and has not lost an individual race of any type since the Swedish cross country ski championship in March. Sodergren tells Swedish Skidsport.com that his summer training went very well. He has felt good since March and won every individual race he has participated in this summer and won the last running DM running race in dominating fashion....

John Aalberg, David Zink and I did an early morning running and running with poles interval session outside Park City, Utah in the beginning of this week. Here are some comments and photos.  David was visiting from Colorado and was driving back after the workout while John had “work to do”. It was for that reason going to be an early morning workout and I was told to be at the parking lot at the...

Looking forward to the Chicago Marathon on October 10. Huge test. One chance to either prove or disprove the training that I have done this summer. One race day. All the eggs in one basket. Though I have done some time trials this summer, I have not raced May. It is all I can do to log the mileage & training volume during the summer season. There are other things I enjoy doing in the...

It’s fall and it’s interval time. Cross country skiers should ideally start their interval training in May and gradually increase the number of weekly sessions, the specificity and difficulty of these workouts toward the season. Regardless of race length — everyone from sprinters to marathon skiers will benefit from a high max VO2 and they are all doing (or should do) interval training. 1-4 sessions per week are common.  Doing blocks of many weekly interval...

No more secrets: One of the Worlds best cross country skiers, Swedish national team member Anders Sodergren posted his recent two training weeks on his own web site (

Swedish Skidsport.com reports that Chinese elite skiers in both cross country skiing and biathlon are training hard in the ski tunnel in Vuokatti, Finland. The reason for this is an exchange program between the Finnish educational department and the two nations Olympic committees. The Chinese skiers will have totalled 1500 training days in Voukatti this year. (10 skiers on a 10 day camp = 100 training days). Observers have reported seeing the Chinese skiers do...

Norwegian Adresseavisen (Adressa.no ) reports that Marit Bjorgen and the rest of the Norwegian women’s team are continuing to increase the training volume. Some are now training more than skiers on the men’s team. Bente Skari is the most successful Norwegian female skier ever. She was training up to 830 hours per year. Some of the skiers on the women’s team will top that volume this season. Marit Bjorgen