Focused Sessions

As the racing season approaches it is imperative to have focused training sessions. This means interval days should resemble race days as much as possible. Incorporating race efforts, race attitudes, and race approaches into training will prepare our bodies and minds for the upcoming season. 

There are many ways to accomplish this race focus. Some athletes like to begin eating thesame things they will consume on winter race days. Others like to visualize their interval efforts as they would a race, set race-like goals for their hard sessions, or dial in other aspects of their pre-race routines. Many skiers begin to wear race suits on interval days or they even put on a bib (this can be good for getting used to shooting with a bib on as well). 

Here are a couple other things to think about to make your sessions more focused and to help you get ready to race!

Technique Goals:

Skiing: Decide on one or two aspects of technique that you want to focus on while you ski. This could be ankle bend, core compression at pole plant, weight transfer, etc… Instead of simply focusing on skiing fast, focus on these technique goals that make you go fast. This is something we all should do during races so let’s start doing it in practice.

Shooting: Along the same lines, what will you think about during your range approach? Trigger squeeze? Follow through? Breathing cadence? Often I think about this on the warm-up and pick one goal for prone and one goal for standing.

To follow through on these goals, write them down or share them with a teammate or coach before the workout. Check in after your intervals/combos to reflect on your technique successes and where you have room to improve. 

Limiting Yourself:

Skiing: Limit your time skied for hard sessions. Now is not the time to worry about hours during intervals. Do what you need to do to make the interval part of your workout quality. Don’t dilly dally on your warm up or cool down! Pretend you are preparing for a race - when will you start your warm-up? What will it include? After your intervals, ski an effective but short cool down then change clothes, get a snack, go home and recover!

Shooting: Often, as the season approaches, we should limit our rounds during hard combo sessions. In races, we often just use four magazines to zero and then two to four mags during a race. Each shot matters a lot! Put that race-like pressure on yourself by only shooting four or eight mags after zero… you can even make yourself ski penalty loops if you want more race pressure simulation. Don’t allow yourself extra shooting stages after your combos to make up for misses or to make yourself feel better! Live with how you shot during the hard combos - it’s what you’ve got to do during races so start getting used to a limited number of rounds now!

As training plans revolve more and more around races and interval sessions, make intervals and combos as quality, focused, and race like as possible. You’ll empower yourself to dial in the best aspects of your race procedure and performance before you’re on the start line.