Dear SkiPost
,
I'm planning on entering a 55 Km Classic race this coming February 14th.
My goal is to finish comfortably ahead of the 9 minute/Km cut-off pace
with 7 hours being good. (I'm a back of the pack M7).
I found in riding century bike events, if I trained riding 65 to 70 miles
comfortably, I could tough out a 100 miles and finish.
My question: If I ramp up my training to skiing 5+ hours at Level 1-2
(where Level 3 is LT) with occasional L3+ bursts by mid-January, will I be
at a fitness point that I can finish (survive) a 7 hour relatively flat
(total climb 225 meters) 55 Km race? Or should I plan my program to ramp
to 7 hours, my target finish time for my distance workouts? I would be
including shorter (60 minute) intensity workouts during the work week.
Other general thoughts regarding training for marathon distance ski events
will be appreciated.

Hello,

For the limited information you provided I would suggest that the most important
part would be appropriate balance of the Level 1, Level 3 and Level 4 training.

You should target different energy systems all the time and the only difference
would be amount of time spent in certain intensity levels at different time of the
year. Intensity levels is very personal data as well as Anaerobic Threshold. Athletes and coaches interpret those differently. That is why it's very difficult to provide an exact answer.

Our organization launched CXC Academy this summer specifically with the purpose of helping cross country skiers to design their training programs and to provide sample training plans. You can learn more about it at www.cxcacademy.com. There is also free 5 day trial if you would like to learn more about it in detail.

Thank you,
Yuriy Gusev
Executive and Athletic Director
Central Cross Country Ski Association
www.cxcskiing.org

By Justin Freeman
Saab/Salomon Factory Team

Something strange happened to me this August. In the spring I had set the ambitious goal of running 14:50 or better for five kilometers. On August 14th I ran this exact time, a two second PR and the fastest ever 5 km by a 31-year-old New Hampshire resident on New Hampshire soil (yes, someone really keeps track of such statistics).

This was actually the first time since college that I had achieved my season’s big goal in such a clear-cut way. Even when I went to the Olympics (which is admittedly a slightly bigger deal than setting a single-age state record) my bigger goals – top 20 in an individual race, a good leg in the relay – turned out to be far beyond my grasp. And so when I woke up on August 15th, I found myself in an unfamiliar situation. I was not in the by now seemingly normal position of trying to figure out what went wrong or how I could fix it, or of ignoring this conundrum and just going out hard and long till I either got better or got hurt. I could simply go out, train a bit, and enjoy the feeling of success.

This good feeling, though, lasted about three days. Then for a few days I was actually adrift, unsure of my motivation, having to convince myself to get out the door and train. And then I discovered that I wanted more. I started wondering if I had set an ambitious enough goal this year, how I could improve next year, what training would be necessary to top this past summer, what other races I should jump into. I also wondered what kind of ski season I should expect after such a well-executed running season; what kind of placement should I aim for in the Eastern SuperTour races?

And then the good feeling returned; I felt motivated to rush out the door each morning. It turns out that reveling in success is no better than wallowing in defeat: in either case, the obsession with the past saps the joy of training in the present. But as I imagined solid races this winter in Stowe, in Anchorage, in Craftsbury, as I visualized bigger successes in next summer’s running races, I felt the familiar pleasure of the central struggle in athletics: to be better, not than anyone else, but than myself.

This, then, is why we set goals, and not just any goals, but goals that might seem unachievable. It is partly for the brief euphoria of getting to the date circled on the calendar and achieving the time or the placement we have written down in the training log, the locker, the diary. But mostly it is because being fit and fast, and becoming fitter and faster, is a great reward unto itself, and the goals we set for ourselves are what make our training sessions into optimistic, joyful times.

What’s your goal this season?

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