Training
How am I Doing? Goals vs. Reality
Dec 12, 2001

I'll thought I'd be taking today (Wednesday) through Friday off from work this week, and have five days (with the weekend) to search for snow. Sunday, December 16, is the first race of the lower peninsula season, the Boyne Nordican Freestyle Opener. Unfortunately, the snow reports are not great - and not much snow in the forecast. Looks like I'll be rollerskiing.

With snow (hopefully) imminent, it seems appropriate to reflect my training up to this point. I set five main training goals last spring. Am I on track? Let's review the goals:

• Train quality, not quantity. I only have 6-8 hours a week - I'm not a full time ski racer. Every workout has to count.

For the most part, I've done pretty well. I've kept in heart rate Zone 1 or Zone 3 and avoided Zone 2. I focused on slow, distance training during the first part of the season to build up my aerobic base. I added increasingly more difficult interval sessions in the second half to increase my anaerobic threshold. I don't think I've had a "junk" workout.

• Train as specific as possible. If I'm going to race XC, I need to train XC. Maybe an occasional inline skate or bike ride for variety, but I need the upper body work that only comes with using ski poles. So its rollerskiing and running/ski walking with poles that will take up the vast majority of the year. It's the only way I can even attempt to catch up to all the competitors who have been skiing while I've been skating.

Nailed this one. The majority of my training since April has been on rollerskis. I was inline skating every week, but after a half marathon time trial at the end of July (part of the Detroit 300 Festival), I stopped inline skating and focused exclusively on rollerskiing, ski walking/bounding, and strength training.

• Improve my skating technique. My classic technique is pretty good, but I can't climb hills on my skating skis worth a damn. I need help. I need coaching. Goals: read up on technique and attend a race camp as soon as possible. Fortunately, XC Oregon scheduled an on-snow race camp for June! I sign up. 

The jury is still out on this one. I did go to the XC Oregon June Race Camp and did receive pointers for my V1. And I even practiced what I learned. John Stoy also helped me with my poling - I had my hands too close together in front and tended to pole in a V pattern instead of push straight back. (Thanks John. John teaches XC skiing at Forbush Corners). 

• Don't ignore the wife and cat. Jill was pretty unhappy when we first got married and I left her every weekend for racing. This year, I'll do races every other weekend. And I'll consciously make sure I don't ignore work around the house during pre-season training.

Success, at least as far as training goes. She's a bit unhappy with the combination of training and NordicSkiRacer.com web site development. I'm still planning on only racing every other weekend.

• Stay motivated during "the dark season". I hate late fall. Daylight savings time ends and its dark when I go into work and when I get out of work. It's cold and wet and miserable. What do other people do to stay motivated? I think I may need a training partner and/or search for safe places to rollerski or run at night.

Huge success! I've had Frank Nizio and John Stoy as training partners on Saturday mornings all fall. In fact, we've had a number of people from the Washtenaw Ski Touring Club out for these long slow distance rollerski outings. John and I have also met every Thursday evening to ski walk/run on horse trails at Kensington Metropark, then bound up the  toboggan and sledding hills for a specific strength workout. Having training partners has kept me motivated enough that I've gone out several nights on my own for an after-dark rollerski.

 I have never done specific foot work in the past, but I made sure to take it up this year. I figured there would be days where there was not enough snow to ski, but too much snow or ice to rollerski. A foot workout would allow me to keep training. So far, we haven't had any bad rollerski days. But I have found that ski walking seems to strengthen my legs, especially when I  run the downhills.

Overall, I haven't strayed too far from my goals.

The Training Plan
On the training plan side (see The High Level Plan: Training Phases for 2001-2002), there were some gaps. I was to increase my intervals sessions during the Fall Phase to an average of 1.5 per week - I think my average is less. Part of the problem was weight training - I was too sore from weights to do intervals.

During the Power Phase, not enough time was spent on strength/power training. There were some specific strength training programs that were introduced at the XC Oregon June Race Camp. Well, reality set in big-time: I simply didn't have the time (see 1st goal above). I thought it more important to get intervals in.

Did I make the right decision?

I also was set to follow a four-week cycle: three weeks of increasing training stress, with a fourth, recovery week at a much lower training volume. Even my training log is arranged by four-week cycles. And I was going to attempt to increase my total weekly volume as it got closer to race season.

Following the four-week cycle/increased volume went right out the window. I had so much time to spend training, I was going to use it all, and I didn't have any more time. So instead of varying the numbers of hours per week, I tended to vary the intensity of the hours. During easy weeks, I didn't do an interval workout or I kept by distance workouts in the lower half of Zone 1. During harder weeks, I swapped a distance workout for an interval session. For really hard weeks, I did long interval sessions. 

Secondary Goal: Weight Loss
An undocumented goal was to lose some weight. Two reasons: Why carry extra weight up the hills? Second, lowering weight increases VO² max because V0² max is a function of weight. At the XC Oregon June Race Camp, I weighed 159. Today, I weigh in at 147. Most of the weight loss came from not snacking before bed or when I'm bored.

Overall
Notice that none of my goals were race performance related. I don't have any recent race history that I can use for comparison purposes. Setting a goal such as "Finish in the top 10 in the Master Division in the Michigan Cup" or "Do the Vasa in 2.5 hours" are simply not reasonable goals if I don't know who my competitors are or how I compare performance-wise. Next year I may be able to set more race-specific goals.

For a season of rebuilding my base and getting back into ski-shape, I've followed my plan and goals fairly well. I give myself a B+ (maybe an A-).

Related articles:
Getting Started: Goal Setting

Evaluation: How fit am I anyways?

The High Level Plan: Training Phases