Week 26
This week it's time to get back into some high quality intensity! Regardless of when your priority races are during the winter it is still a good idea to use the last few weeks of October to focus on some harder L4 sessions. Why? This is because as we make the transition to snow during November (or December for some folks) it makes more sense to cut back the intensity and focus on volume, easy skiing, and technique.
These harder intensity-style weeks of October will help improve our high end fitness which will be beneficial when it comes to maintaining a solid pace while on snow skiing. Once the snow falls it will be time to focus on technique and easy skiing before ramping things up again for the meat of the race season.
This week we recommend a skate speed session early in the week, plus a new sprint intensity pyramid workout designed to help us work on quick recovery and racing specific gear changes. For athletes that are feeling good we use the weekend as a chance to log some more sustained L4 time with a standard Vo2max building interval session.
Notes:
- We lighted up Tuesday's speed session to prioritize the new sprint int. workout the next day.
- Max strength should be feeling good these weeks. High weights, and hopefully less muscle soreness than previous weeks. Big gains!
- Use the non-intensity days to work on easy distance skiing, L1, and L1 double pole specific strength.
- Be patient and creative if you are in a 'shoulder season' situation. Poor weather, rain snow mix, it can all be a drag for training so we just need to change things up when necessary. Don't be afraid to rollerski in the rain but it's also OK to substitute for an indoor running or spinning workout when temperatures drop.