The thread on cold water open water swimming has gotten me thinking about winter training…on skis. For those of you who do a lot of skiing over the winter to stay in shape for tri stuff, what kind of training do you do? And, do you do any ski racing?
Thanks,
-Danielle
I do a fair bit of cross country skiing in the winter, both skate and traditional. I just get out on the trails for several hours at a time at a good aerobic pace usually once a week. Sort of like a long bike ride. I don’t bother competing though. Triathlons are expensive enough as it is!
Essentially, I look at it as just another form of base building. Good as it’s very low impact, like cycling.
Chris
My racing is balanced between winter and summer. Typically 4-5 XC ski races, and 4-6 tris. Winter volume is a bit lower (usually in the 12-17 hours a week range) while summer is 15-25 due to biking Long and bike commutes. In the winter, I have to spend way too much time in a car getting around, whereas in the summer, the delta is all on the bike instead of in a car :-).
In short, generally in winter I become an XC skier first and a triathlete second while in the summer I am a triathlete first and skier second.
In the winter, I typically stop swimming and do the odd roller ride, while maintaining 3 runs a week and 3-6 XC skis per week with a long one typically in the 3.5 to 5 hour range (just like the summer long bike).
Dev
Yea it’s time to think about the snow. I train, race, and even teach X-C (full cert PSIA Nordic Instructor) in the Winter. It’s a fantastic cross training tool. There are several on the Forum that are really fast on the snow as well as in the Summer.
Funny you should start this thread. I have been pondering the idea of hosting a Cross Training clinic on snow, to teach some X-C techniques both Classic and Skate Technique. It would be held somewhere in the Winter Park or Summit County areas of Colorado, probably in January. Seems like a good time to test the interest. Anyone interested? (Not really intended to steel your thread !)
yea Dev and I lead the XC charge here. I race full time for the Alpina/Madshus team. I start to XC “train” mid Sept with rollerski’s and more long runs with poles to mimic the ski motion uphill. I also tend to do more strength stuff in the fall. I then head to West Yellowstone in Nov for fall camp on snow. I race 10-15 times on snow with 2-3 marathons. This year might be a bit off with a newborn and possibly asst coach job at a local university.
I have done some multisport xc ski clinics in the past (usually skate as this is what people want) and people tend to get hooked afterwards.
Got to head out on the skis this afternoon for specific strength…
Kurt
I’m late due to some excellent fall openwater swimming during our extra warm early Oct, but the rollerskis are coming out this weekend. Some of the guys and gals are heading out west later this year for the two World Cups in Silverstar and Canmore :-).
I’m not in the same category as Kurt for performance, but I just plug away (pretty well the same as in triathlons). I won’t win anything, but I like participating and it is a nice variation in the winter and generally keeps me outdoors.
Come April I am dying to get on the bike for some long hammerfests.
Here is some fun reading from winter racing: http://www.fasterskier.com/racing2090.html http://www.xtri.com/article.asp?id=856 http://www.xtri.com/article.asp?id=1125 http://www.xtri.com/article.asp?id=1393
dev,
if i am feeling good, i might come up for that 100K…i need to mapquest it from Maine and check the drive. are you on for the keski?
Kurt
Kurt,
The winter program is as follows:
Jan 21 Lake Placid Loppet 50K skate (www.orda.org)
Feb 4 Winterlude Tri (www.zone3sports.com)
Feb 19 Keski 50K skate (www.keskinada.com)
Mar 18 Tour Mont Valin 50K skate (www.tourmontvalin.com. I hope if I can bribe my family with a few days of visiting Quebec City…)
Mar 25 Defi Boreal 100K skate Forestville QC (www.defiboreal.com).
Mont Valin is 6.5 hours each way from Ottawa and Forestville, 4 hours North East of Quebec City is 9 hours, so I might burn 15000 pts this year and fly to Baie Comeau and then drive down.
I might be interested in something like that… Let me know if you decide to do it. (PS: I flail on skates, so beginners would need to be welcome.)
Skate skiing. Love it. All my bike buddies do it, so group rides just convert to group skis. No racing for me. Just happy to be out in the cold air.
Well if you live in an area that gets a real winter and there is xc skiing near-by, in my view of things there is no better off season activity for the triathlete!
It has the most impact if you can get out skiing 2 - 3 times a week and really get into it. If you are only going to go a couple of times over the winter, then it’s not going to have much impact. I would also go away for a ski holiday and get in 2 - 4 hours of skiing a day for about a week somewhere in the winter months. That was really huge.
If I got in a great winter of skiing I found that I could hump back on the bike in mid March and go right to 100K rides at moderate pace. No need to slowly build things up - I was already almost there. The extra bonus was that I was fresh and keen to ride having not ridden that much for a few months - not burnt out from indoor biking all winter.
Fleck
Fleck, a 1000K to 2000K winter of Skate skiing, plus 2 weeks in the saddle and pool and you are back to mid season tri speed as far as biking and swimming are concerned…
Running, is another story…thus my 3 runs per week in maintenance mode during the winter. Running is also very convenient in the winter. You can do it anywhere in any temperature. Running is like the “Mil Spec sport”. You can do it from minus 30 to plus 45 in rain, snow or heat (and before you ask, I’ve done it at all ranges). I believe Mr. Fleck has run in all these conditions too.
Dev
Dev,
Are you asking me or telling me about the acceleration of early season fitness when you get in a solid winger of skiing. I think that you are teliing me , but I was not sure.
I am proud to say that I have an almost 80C range of temperatures that I have run in. From a -30C jaunt along the Rideau canal in your fair city of Ottawa to a brain boiling jog in Jaipur, India in the high +40’sC. I have seen it all.
Winter is actually a great time to really lay down a great base for running. If running is a limiter, many triathletes would do well to have a focussed block of just running in the winter. Try running 5 - 6 days a week for 3 - 4 weeks, but if the weather does not allow you to get out, don’t sweat it - do something else. Thats the thing that I always liked about the sport of triathlon - you never need to force the training. If you can’t do one sport for one reason or another or you don’t want to you have two other options. Another reason, I don’t like the locked-in-speadsheet-training programs. They don’t work with the ebb and flow of the weather and other factors. If it’s a great day for xc-skiing, then go skiing, don’t sweat it if you have to miss a scheduled pool work out. JFT!
I just get on the skis and try to keep moving for at least several hours. If you have hills, great. I just try to make it a base session, after all it’s winter. My X-country skiing is pretty limited here, requires well timed weekend snowstorms.
You know Doug Driessen or Steve Cook?
Here in SoCal, of course it’s warm enough to train outside all the time, and I can drive 5.5 hours to Mammoth where there’s some great XC trails and give that a shot. I’ve only tried XC once, but reading this I might have to get myself some XC gear. Oh God, more expenses!
I know Doug from my old Biathlon days…not sure what he is doing now. Steve sounds familar, i think he might be with the Maine winter sports center team?
Kurt
I’m partners with Doug in a bike shop in Salt Lake City. www.cyclesmithslc.com
Small world.
Steve’s in SLC, too. He’s only got one leg (silver medal in the last Paralympics, I believe).
got it…that steve i was thinking of a junior racer out here. I know Doug was in NH and I heard like police officer rumors?? But I know he was racing his bike real serious too. yea, small world. he was/is a great skier/biathlete.
Kurt
Yeah, Doug was a cop for a while in NH. He moved out here to train and I think SLC (and his new wife, Mindy) got its hooks into him.