Reviewing and Planning a TRaining year
By Andy Newell and Andrea Henkel Burke
April is the time of year when xc skiers should look back at their entire training year in order to refocus, build new goals, and create a new training approach moving forward. This becomes a lot easier if you have kept an accurate training log throughout the year; we will post our new NTS training log next week.
There are several varieties of training log out there. In my opinion the most useful cross country skiing training logs can easily provide you with these 4 basic benchmarks:
- Total hours trained in a week, month, year. Cumulative totals are helpful as we progress through the year.
- Total number of races and time trials
- Total hours trained in each zone, L1, L2, L3, L4+ for each week, month, year.
- Total number of strength sessions (or time spent doing strength workouts)
(*Note - Some online logs and/or direct upload calendars from Suunto or Polar have a hard time breaking up total hours trained in each zone in addition to total hours in each mode, which is why skiers often use excel doc training logs)
To take things a step further elite level skiers can review:
- Total hours trained classic vs. skate
- Total hours trained rollerskiing vs. other cross training modes
- Total hours spent in a specific strength mode (double-pole, single pole)
- Number of speed sessions per year
With this type of data available we can really dive in and compare year to year, month to month, and think back to what races (or times during the winter) we felt our best. I also like to break up the data to review the 'prep period' versus the 'competition period'. Prep period would be the first 30 weeks of the training year (approximately May - December) while the competition period consist of weeks 31 - 52.
Why is it helpful to separately look at the prep period? We all know that most of the big fitness and strength gains are made during the first 30 weeks of the training year, furthermore as skiers begin to race more consistently throughout the winter their competition period totals will have less variability.
For example, the increase in training volume between a well designed 600hr yearly plan and a well designed 700hr yearly plan will almost exclusively take place during the prep period (first 30-32 weeks of the training year. In other words, as athletes develop and train more each year, most of this increase comes in the form of easy distance training and subthreshold training.
This recent study does a nice job looking at the differences in junior vs. senior training plans as volume increases
Jacob Walther1,2*, Thomas Haugen3, Guro Strøm Solli1,4, Espen Tønnessen3, and
Øyvind Sandbakk1,5
Some thoughts from Andrea Henkel Burke:
To know where to improve and where you have the potential to improve, you want to analyze your training and races. What was good, what areas need some changes, where do you want to take the next step, what needs more attention?
The most precise way to do that is looking over your numbers. Numbers and notes during the training season are very helpful and highly recommended. If you don´t have a training log, you might want to think about this first before making plans for a new season.
By analyzing your log or your memories, you might see a section you can improve. Sometimes it is important to put more hours in specific sections, but it also can be that you did too much of something. Maybe a different ratio of slow distance and high intensity training is the key for more success? Maybe more strength training would bring you to a higher level? Technique training for example is something, which should never be cut out.
Here are some examples about what you can find in your log whiling thinking of implements you can make this year.
Did you have trouble keeping your form until the end of season, or having big waves during your season?
– You might look into your total hours of training, specifically in Spring and Summer.
Do you keep getting sick during training and racing season?
– You might want to focus more on your base training, and check if you are giving your body the chance to recover after big training blocks. You also might want to look into your nutrition and supplement protocol.
Are not able to move as fast as you should, with all the training you are doing?
– Think back, do you train in your zones?! Maybe you are going too hard in your easy training sessions, this would take the power you need for your fast training sessions. There is the very well known saying: Don´t train too hard on easy days and to easy on hard days. To know your exact zones, thinking of starting the new season with a metabolic or a VO2 max test. Looking Forward
After you have spent some time reviewing your yearly training data now is a good time to come up with some general training goals for 2020 - 21. For now these goals should be general training based goals, not performance based. You can use the categories below to get started:
- A yearly training total goal (maybe it's more than last year, maybe its less) For athletes looking to step up their training substantially we recommend about a 50 hour increase for developing athletes.
- Yearly strength goal: For example, being able to do 20 pull ups, or increase hip/glute strength
- Yearly technique goal: For example, improve my V2 technique
- Yearly health/ nutrition goal: For example, eat more whole foods, or be more restful on recovery days.
- Yearly racing goal (not performance based...yet) For example: Improve my 15k, sprint, marathon efficiency etc.
In the weeks to come you can take these 5 general training goals, combine them with performance goals, and outline some monthly, weekly, and daily benchmarks to keep your training on track throughout the entire year.
