March Training tips

March can be an interesting month for skiers, especially if their biggest races are behind them. Over the next 4 weeks the elite, master, and junior plans will follow very different schedules. The junior and elite plans still focus their attention on  important domestic racing such as Junior Nationals and SuperTour finals. If you are an athlete who has completed their racing objectives for the year the master plan will be a useful guide on how to continue to make the most of your winter. 

If you are no longer competing this year here are some March training tips 

Motivation can come in different forms. For a lot of us it revolves around finishing a particular race or achieving a desired result. If you no longer have any races to train for it's easy to fall into a mindless routine and just DO the training without much focus. Come up with three technique changes you would like to make this month. Write them down. Use your easy training time to do specific drills to help you achieve these technique changes and reinforce your good technique while you are skiing easy. Setting aside 30 mins to ski with a single technique focus in mind can go a long way. 

By now you know we build training plans using structured periodization. Meaning, some days/weeks we focus on intensity and others we focus on building volume. If you no longer have any races to train for it can be easy to go with the flow and log training without much structure. Inevitably, this leads to a lot of weeks looking exactly the same with medium/hard training and not much variation in intensity or volume. Use the NTS plans as a guide, but if you are presented with an epic training opportunity don't pass it up! This means if you wake up on a Saturday morning and the grooming is perfect and the sun is shining, it's ok to go a little longer than what the plan calls for. Have an epic over-distance session and enjoy it. Enjoying training so crucial for long term development. DO however, keep track of your training and try to build in periods of recovery so you can maintain good energy for interval and TT days. 

Up the intensity (at least for one day per week) 

We all know interval training can be tough when you do not have a specific event to train for. March intensity is an important building block in macro-periodization and it helps athletes build fitness from one season to the next. I like to use a fun saying to keep things in perspective - "March is for racing, April is for resting" . I know not everyone has racing opportunities in March which makes the occasional hard interval day much more important. At a minimum, designate one day per week to hard L4 interval training or a time trial. Get your heart rate up and make proper technique a priority during these sessions. In the master's plan we will incorporate L4 and L3 training over the next two weeks. The L4 sessions should take priority. Continuing to make gains in aerobic capacity during march before athletes have a structured resting period in April will help skiers make overall improvement next season. 

March is a perfect time to build ski specific strength. Try doing an all double pole workout kick or do some no-pole skating hill repeats.