For all of you long distance skiers or loppet racers I would encourage you to carry your own drink bottle as I feel it gives you a lot of advantages that just make too much sense and will lead you to a faster race. I think we're all interested in that- faster times.
First of all, the bottle hardly weighs anything and after a few times of skiing with it you won't know its there. If you are worried about it freezing then you don't have an insulated carrier, and if it is that cold you should probably be wearing an extra top and you just leave it untucked and use it to cover the bottle. Viola!-bottle stays un-frozen. Some other advantages are that you can drink when and how often you need to, you're drinking what you want to drink and you will pass a lot of racers in those two or three feed stations.When I say you can drink when you want to, the race organizers don't always select the best location, and you may drink more often. But having your own bottle allows you to choose the best terrain, which of course will be downhill sections so you don't lose time while feeding.
Now if your bottle isn't going to take you the whole race, maybe you can arrange for someone to meet you at the half way point for a refill or you just start using the "factory feeds" when you run out of your own drink.
This makes too much sense not to do. That's It from the Coaches Corner!
Look here for more good ideas in the near future. Better yet, you can talk to Marty on the internet at Mr.XC@eworld.com
PEAKING-HOW TO BE YOUR BEST WHEN IT COUNTS
by Jack Sasseville,Director of programming Hardwood Hills
You have worked hard all year, you’ve eaten right, gotten to bed early, done all the training that you are supposed to do and now you are ready for the final push to a peak performance in Thunder Bay in March.
One of the greatest feelings in the world is PEAKING, espesially if you do it when it counts. Last year at the World Masters in Canmore, the group with which I worked had the oppertunity to feel what a peak is like. You can to by following the plan that I am going to outline in this article.
A major key to peaking at the right time is the proper timing of rest and training. Many of us believe that if we work hard all the time and then rest a day or two before a race that we will be rested for the rcae. But according to my experience this does not allow enough time to recover. Our bodies need even longer to recover and they seem to work in three day cycles. As well, you need to put a rest period into your training program three weeks from your peak races to make sure that you will be able to ski fastest during the big race.
What follows is a 26 day program for peaking. It can be used alone or as a part of a full year program. I have put it together to peak for the canadian masters championships in Thunder Bay on March 15-17 but it can be used to peak for any race in any aerobic sport. This is the program that the masters from Canmore used with great success last year.
The program begins with a five day resting period and is then followed by 21 days to peak. The period contains 15 days of training, three days of rest followed by two days training ending the day before your big race.
The initial five day resting period consists of two rest days followed by one active rest day then two more rest days. I know that many of you will have trouble with this part of the plan but it needs to be done if you are going to peak later. You can lengthen or shorten this period, but remember that you must have at least two days of rest and this must end 21 days before your desired peak.
During the next 15 day training period your training should consist of 4 - 6 short, fast interval sessions with about 10 - 20 mins. of work at zone 4 in a 1 - 1 1/2 hrs workout intersersed with slow easy distance training days of around one hour. You should also do one or two longer training sessions of 2 - 3hrs with a few 10 second sprints done in each of these workouts. If it is normal for you to take a day off per week then continue to do so.
During the last six days you will have another three day resting cycle of one day rest, one day active rest, and one more day of rest. This is followed by two day training then the peak performance day. This will give you the catapult effect that will leave you wondering as did the Canmore Masters atheletes last year: “where did it come from?” It came from proper training and proper rest at exactly the right time.
Here is a sample program so you can see how I put it together. Give it a try - Iknow it works and it will work for you.
REGENERATION PERIOD;
DAY 1 - REST DAY
DAY 2 - ACTIVE REST 30-60 MINS EASY TRAINING
DAY 3 - REST DAY
DAY 4 - REST DAY
DAY 5 - REST DAY
SHARPENING PERIOD;
DAY 6 - ZONE 1 - AROUND 1 HR EASY TRAINING
DAY 7-
DAY 8 - HIGH INTENSITY (4-6 INTERVALS - 3 MIN EACH)
DAY 9
DAY 10
DAY 11 HIGH INTENSITY (RACE 5 - 15KM)
DAY12 - LONG ZONE 1, 2-3 HRS (ALACTIC SPRINTS)
DAY 13 - ZONE 1 OR REST
DAY 14 - HIGH INTENSITY (4-6 INTERVALS - 3 MIN EACH)
DAY 15 - ZONE 1
DAY 16 - ZONE 1
DAY 17 - HIGH INTENSITY (TIME TRIAL 20-30MIN)
DAY 18 - ZONE 1
DAY 19 - LONG ZONE 1, 2-3 HRS (ALACTIC SPRINTS)
DAY 20 - HIGH INTENSITY (3-4 INTERVALS - 3 MIN EACH)
TAPER PERIOD;
DAY 21 - ACTIVE REST (30-60 MIN EASY)
DAY 22 - REST
DAY 23 - REST
DAY 24 - ZONE 1 , 1-11/2 HRS
DAY 25 - HIGH INTENSITY (3-4 INTERVALS - 3 MIN EACH)
DAY 26- RACE DAY - PEAK PERFORFANCE
"The bad news is, were lost," says the pilot in an old airline joke. "The good news is, were making good time." It is this kind of two-faced report masters athletes know well. Science giveth to us - uncovering more and more ways the body can "train around" what were once thought of as the inevatible declines of aging. And science taketh away finding that though the training ceiling is indeed pretty high for masters, it takes more and more work to get up there. You can absolutely be a threat on the race circuit, but be ready for the commitment. Quit your job, hire a coach, drop your friends, and train. You can get whatever you're willing to pay for. But the cost keeps going up. Who would be blamed for wondering if it's even worth trying to get to the next level?
Before you answer that question, there's something else you should know. Though it's not much discussed, science also realizes that once you get into whatever shape you want as a masters athlete, your fitness stays with you longer if you get hurt, cancel a string of workouts, or have to back off for some other reason. At 25, the slide would start much sooner than it will at 50.
Take that gold standard of conditioning, VO2max, the rate at which your system can move oxygen from your lungs to your muscles. Though we do not know the precise chemical reasons for it, we do know that a young athlete who stops training is going to start slipping in anywhere from two to three weeks, where as someone over 50 might not see a dramatic difference for as many as 12 weeks.
While nobody is saying that lungs of a 50 year old work the same as lungs of a 25 year old, we are saying that fitness seems to grow less fragile as one gets older.
All three of the above articles are from Canada's X/C Source. Check in for more cross country skiing links.
There's another disaster that I almost have to laugh at, and here is the story. It was quite a few years ago. We were at a race called Varmgrännarloppet, which goes from Porjus to Jokkmokk.
Everyone was staying at the same hotel and eating the same food. The night before the race we were evidently fed something bad, because during the night almost everybody was sick in their stomachs. There was a tremendous coming and going to the toilets, and it kept up all through the night. Unfortunately, there were no toilets out in the woods where the start was, so there were people hunched over in the woods everywhere you looked in the woods. Personally, I hadn't felt anything at all during the night, but when it was about time to start, my stomach began to protest, too. The whole race was an ordeal.
It was a mass start, and I got away well, in with the top five. But just before the big climb with thirty kilometers left out of the sixty, that happened which should not happen. One ski slipped on an uphill, and this lead immediately to-to say it the way it was- to my "shitting myself" all over! I didn't even have time to stop and pull down my pants.
Ôrjan Blomqvist, who was right behind me, dropped back immediately. He could not stand the stink.
I kept thinking: what should I do? Shall I drop out of the race? But that was out of the question. The first prize was something fine, I think it was a motorcycle, and I wasn't going to drop out just because I had a ridiculous accident! Many thoughts were racing around in my head, There were still thirty kilometers to go. In the beginning it was still good and warm in my trousers, but then it got cold and I simply began to freeze. But I kept going, and when it came down to the sprint, I had for certain reasons dropped number two, Ôrjan Blomqvist.
People must have wondered if I was all there, when I came into the finish. Because of my painful situation, I skied down the track like a wild man, in spite of being a clear first, The girl who was supposed to hag a wreath around my neck never even got a chance to get near me, for reasons that you'll understand! I blasted right through the finish, out into the parking lot, and down the road which, thankfully had snow on it, and kept my raging sprint going all the way to the hotel. When I got to the hotel I sat down in the snow and rubbed the worst of it off myself before I went in. Then I ran the stairs and into the shower, before anyone could see me. Even today I wonder how many actually noticed my rather painful situation. Yes a skier can meet a lot of trouble.
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