By Teemu Virtanen
Every cross-country skier’s training program is divided into different phases; the race season phase in the winter, recovery or transition phase in the spring, the base phase in the summer, and the pre-competition phase in the fall. Right now, we are already finishing up the transition phase and getting ready for the base one. However, many Pro Team athletes have used this spring for building up their base by skiing as much as possible since there have been no races since mid-March.
Let’s take a quick look at these two phases that we are experiencing as we speak. When skiers finish their race season, they start to recover from the physical, mental, and emotional stresses of training and racing. This is the so-called recovery or transition phase, and some skiers like to take a couple of weeks off from training and rest completely. Others prefer active rest, which is to do exercises of their free will without following a strict training program.
Some use this period to improve certain qualities, such as strength, and put more focus on specific workouts accordingly. Many skiers say that this is their fun season as they can do whatever they want and truly enjoy training outdoors by doing exercises that they don’t necessarily do when their serious training kicks in.
The summertime is when skiers are made as we have stated in previous articles about summer training. The base training in the summer is so-called because it is the base upon which later phases of training are built.
Naturally, aerobic endurance is the number one component of long distance ski racing, and it takes the most time to develop. It is the primary aim of the base training period. Usually, about 80%, or even more, is endurance training during this phase, and Pro Team athletes can do workouts that last well over five hours, often inserted with sprints and intervals to break the monotonous pace of long workouts.
In strength training, the focus is on general strength that develops overall tendon and muscle strength necessary to support latter forms of training. For example, after building up to weight training for 5-6 weeks, you can include some ski specific high weight and low rep work. Then later in the summer and into the fall, specific strength becomes more a focus once a solid base of general strength has been established. Double poling over gradual terrain or on steep hills is a good example of that.
Then, intensity training should mostly be below the lactate threshold early in the summer. Anaerobic training such as speed is good, but hard aerobic and anaerobic intervals should be kept to a minimum early on. 10-minute intervals with a 2-minute rest in-between should work well as the summer intensity training, and a couple of sessions per week should suffice. Of course, this depends on an athlete’s experience, capacity, and overall workload in his or her career. Some experienced skiers tend to do hard sessions even in the summer as their bodies are well equipped for intensity in the midst of aerobic training.
As the long days of summer get shorter and the weather cools down a bit, skiers are facing the fall season and the most serious training time as they are getting ready for the winter. Then, training becomes quite specific to the motions and intensity of ski racing. Aerobic endurance is still the primary focus, but the means to develop it have become more specific and more intense.
Finally, the transition onto snow demands a decrease in training intensity because of the increased load of snow skiing. Training volume usually peaks during this phase of training, which takes place from October to December. But these are the phases we put focus on in our articles once this summer is over. In our upcoming written pieces, we will pay a visit to some of our Pro Team athletes and see how they train in the heat of the summer.
