Going It Alone

Focusing on Upper Body Strength

October 9, 2005 - By Mike Muha

September's intensity block kicked my butt. In fact, I ended it early because I couldn't get my heart rate up into the 90-95% range anymore, even after having some rest days. Things went great, but I was still tired on the seventh day, so postponed my time trial until the following day.

The time trial went fairly well - I was only 25 seconds off my pace from August, and that's after 5 hard days out of the previous 8! Still, I couldn't get out of Zone 3 - my heart rate was below what's typical in a race.

I figured I'd stressed my body enough and needed to call it quits. I called off the remaining two or three days of intervals I had planned.

September Intensity Block
Wed	4 x 4:00 uphill running intervals
Thu	4 x 4:37 rollerski skate intervals
Fri	Off
Sat	4 x 4:25 uphill doublepole intervals
Sun	5 x 3:00 uphill ski walking intervals
Mon	Core & abs
Tue	4 x 4:00 rollerski skate intervals
Wed	Off
Thu	Lunchtime: core & abs Evening: 5 mile classic rollerski time trial
Fri	I cry "Uncle!"

Power napping. I try to use my skier quilt as frequently as possible to enhance my training... (Thanks for the quilt, Jill!)

So what did I learn during this intensity block? First, I have a tendency to follow my day's plan even when I should probably adapt it more to how I feel. For example, if my plan says I'm doing 4 x 4:00 intervals, by golly I'm going to do all four even if I'm totally trashed after the third interval.

Not too smart - as Team NordicSkiRacer.com teammate Steve Kuhl keeps reminding me.

I think Steve's right.

In the future, I'm going to train hard during the intensity block, but if I'm too tired for the last, or even next to last interval, I'll back off so I have enough strength for the next day.

October Plan

October: another intensity block and an upper body strength block. For the intensity block, the goal is to finish 6 sessions in 8 days. For the upper body strength block, it's 3 uphill doublepole intervals over 5 days. I'm also going to hammer on weights and my Armit when I can to increase my upper body strength.

I'm also adding some speed sessions: all out sprints for 10-30 seconds. A typical session might be a set 6 x :15 plus a set of 6 x :30, one session on skate rollerskis, another session on classic rollerskis. I've usually done these on flat terrain. This year I'll try to throw some session in on gentle to steeper terrain.

It's getting colder out - there's already some snow out west. The weather reports for Michigan are for lots of early snow. Are you getting ready for snow?