Week 6
Here in Bozeman week 6 marks the start of our Nordic Team Collegiate training group. We will be starting regular blog updates this week on Faster Skier from the 13 members of the NTC group.
From a training standpoint It's my goal to be very transparent with our group training here on Nordic Team Solutions. I want to show everyone that here at NTS we practice what we preach. The weekly training recommendation will be a direct copy of what we are doing as a group here in Bozeman. Our strength routine is also exactly the same.
When I think about a year of ski training, May 1st is the 'start' of the training year but June 1st is when things really get going. This is when real training begins. More intense strength training, higher volume of hours, regular intervals and speed, and more rollerskiing. Some elite skiers will jump up a whole 20 hours between May and June.
June and July are the bread and butter of xc ski base training which is why I chose these 8 weeks to host the NTC training group in Bozeman. For the next 2 months we will be focusing on building high volume, increasing L3 on-time, working on technique through speed training and increased hours of rollerskiing.
Week 6
GOALS
Week 6 is a Medium week.
- You can see we start things off with a speed training day with mechanics on Tuesday while our legs are fresh. Even in June we are not trying to rush our speeds by thrashing and using bad technique. Focus on 85% of max speed and good technique (more on this next week).
- I have included an uphill running TT for the group on Wednesday. This is a gradual uphill running test that takes round 12-14 minutes. All I'm curios about getting is a baseline time, max heart rate, and a lactate reading at the finish. For more info on why we use this test check out Running Tests 101.
- One double pole focused specific strength workout 2 hours or more
- Bounding and ski walking L3. I chose this workout since a lot of athletes in the NTC group are arriving from sea level. Ski walking and bounding intervals are very easy to control for athletes. Most skiers should be able to lock in on a heart rate and have it not jack up or bounce around too much. Bounding and ski walking intervals should be a staple of any skiers routine.
- Our first 3 hour OD of the training year. We use Combi OD's this time of year to prevent injury. 3 hours of just running might be too much for some athletes right now so we combine running and rollerskiing 1:30 of each.