In-season Pyramid
You have a race coming up this week and you’re faced with a big question. What kind of intervals should I do to prepare?
This is a question that skiers ask themselves VERY often and it’s important that through practice, trial and error we identify a few interval workouts that work best for us. In-season interval sessions can differ from a workout we might do in October because during the winter it is more common to mix threshold (L3) and race pace (L4).
From a physiological standpoint it doesn’t always make sense to combine L3 and L4 into one session because the argument would be that we do not stress and improve either system enough by doing so. We are still getting a fitness gain from a combo session but probably not spending enough on-time in either L3 of L4 to properly train them. This is why it’s pretty uncommon to do combination workouts in the summer and fall but in the winter it becomes much more appealing.
During the winter race season, it is common that we want to fire up our aerobic (L2-3) and anaerobic (L4-5) systems before the week’s races but not be so wiped that we can’t recover within a day or two. This is where a combo session can come in handy; get familiar with the speed and effort of a race without taxing the body too much.
Session:
Remember our pacing: L3 = controlled long-distance race pace. L4 = short distance race pace. Anything in the 2-30 second range = faster than race pace but not all-out sprint (fast and relaxed)
8 minutes L3 – 2 minutes recovery
5 minutes L3 with a fast finish (20 seconds hard) – 3 minutes recovery
4 minutes L4 – 4 minutes recovery
2 minutes L4 – 4 minutes recovery
6-8 x 30 seconds – 1-minute recovery between intervals
Warm Up:
15 minutes easy skiing
5 minutes L2
15 minutes easy skiing with 5x 20 seconds building in intensity
Dynamic stretching
Interval:
For the first 8- and 5-minute intervals find rolling terrain that will allow you to ski quickly but not anaerobic on the climbs. You can choose harder more challenging climbs to use during the 4 and 2 minute intervals.
For the 30 second segment use rolling terrain including flats and transitions
Goals:
This is an example of a session you should feel pretty good when you are finished not over exerted. Our goal is to log some time in both threshold and L4 but without draining the muscles. The shorter 30 second interval at the end are prefect for practicing fast paces skiing while staying relaxed and working on race technique. You will notice that during this session we touch on several of the different types of intervals we have covered on Nordic Team Solutions including L3 with a fast finish, and some sprint intensity. Feel free to play around with the amount of L3 and L4 and see what works for you. Athletes can always add on a few more minutes of either.
I would recommend a workout like this leading up to either a distance or a sprint race. Our goal is to get our aerobic and anaerobic systems revved up and fired up to race.
Lactate goal: Just go by feel:)
