XC Q&A with Lee Borowski
Fall ski training:
Improve recovery from a variety of workouts Over the years, one question has popped up over and over: "Every time I increase the intensity of my workouts, I have difficulty recovering for the next one. Do you have any suggestions?" Now that fall is just around the corner, gradually increasing the intensity of ski-specific workouts is the key to an enjoyable winter.
This is true whether you plan to race or just enjoy
leisurely days on the snow. I've fluctuated back and forth myself. Some years I enjoy skiing so much, especially if we have great snow in the area, that I find myself touring with friends rather than racing on the weekends. But the concept is the same. You have to be in decent condition to enjoy either one.
For racing, it's obvious. If you aren't in shape, you suffer. While you might be able to get away with a fun run or a bike race on a flat course when you aren't in good shape, any
hilly ski trail will make you pay.
The best ski trails have plenty of hills. So if you want to ski up them rather than walk, you must have a threshold level of conditioning. It's no fun to go skiing with friends and watch them disappear in the distance. Or worse, make them stop and wait for you, especially when they are skiing easily. I know. I've been there.
So how do we gradually increase the intensity and train our skiing specific muscles so we can more fully enjoy the
winter? Again we'll apply the lessons learned long ago in the world of weight lifting: Gradual increases followed by easier days for recovery. With skiing it's a little more complicated.
I find it handy to look at harder workouts from two standpoints. First, get a feel for how much altitude is gained in your hilly workouts. Having an altimeter helps. Gradually increase the number and, if you can, the size of the hills as winter approaches. This is best done on roller skis, but as we'll
see later, it certainly isn't the only way to go.
For example, a hilly workout would have at least 500 feet of altitude gain. We can get 2,000 feet in a three-hour session on some of our hilliest courses. If you don't have hilly roads, you'll have to improvise. Biking (with an emphasis on standing on the pedals), mountain biking, skating with no poles, bounding, trail running and CAT Skiing are some options.
Some Chicago area mountain bikers I know do "Chicago Hills"
on flat terrain: They just head southwest into the gale force winds while occasionally standing on the pedals.
The second way to measure intensity is with a heart rate monitor. If you know your average racing pulse for a half hour to hour time trial (called the lactate threshold or LT), setting the training zones is easy. Three days a week, increase your time in the zone just under the LT. Work up slowly until you can spend an hour in the zone just under the LT. Two of these days can
be up to 20 beats lower and the harder one five to 10 beats under.
As I've said many times before in this column, you can do this one of two ways.
1) You can let the hills get you into the desired heart rate zone and just add more hills and go a little harder as the fall progresses. Continue until you have an hour in the sub-LT zone.
2) Or you can just go and try to hold that pulse for an hour. The use of speed reducers on your roller skis can make this an easier task.
Stick to a rolling course and increase the resistance on the downhills so you have to keep pushing. (CAT Skiing and trail running with poles also make it easy to keep a consistent elevated pulse in the sub-LT zone).
What about the recovery factor? Your other days should be easy or days of rest. This is especially important if you have a job with a lot of stress or one that's physically demanding. If you still don't feel fresh, cut the two sub LT days to two a week. Then add a longer
easier one for the third harder workouts, if you desire.
There is one other "secret" to recovery. Up to now we've just looked at heart rate without considering which muscles are doing the work. In skiing there are so many workouts that are ski specific, that we can easily vary the activities to give the muscles a rest. For instance, you can rotate skate roller skiing, running with poles, double poling, canoeing, biking, CAT Skiing, hill bounding any way you desire. And each of us has a
different training environment so very few people will train in exactly the same way.
You can juggle these ski-specific workouts almost infinitely. Most die-hard racers will do the three sub-LT workouts on roller skis or by trail running. But there's no need to give up your favorite summer workout. It won't hurt to bike (or mountain bike) twice a week. You can even use the roller skis for recovery if you'd like, especially if you have flat to rolling roads in your area. And the closest
thing to a complete rest day is double poling; that really rests the legs which are the part of the body most susceptible to fatigue. Similarly, the diagonal stride workout on roller skis is also easy on the legs as much time is spent double poling.
Perhaps the best way to take an "easy day" is on a bicycle. Because you have your choice of gears, this workout can be as easy as you like. And if you stay seated, little weight is put on your legs. Biking actually promotes
recovery and helps retain gains made in harder workouts.
So gradually increasing the intensity of your workouts in the fall will guarantee you'll have more fun on snow. There are very few things as enjoyable as being able to float over the snow, even on the uphills, whether it's in a race or just touring with friends.
Before winter, we'll look at gradually adding workouts above the LT and look closely at some recent articles that claim actic acid is not the enemy but rather
another source of renewable energy.
Lee Borowski is a past USSA Nordic Coach of the Year, Badger State Winter Athlete of the Year, and the coach of several Junior, Senior and Collegiate Skiers-of-the Year. He has also coached many Masters skiers who have won both National and World Championships. In addition, Borowski is the author of several books and the producer of four videos on cross-country skiing. He runs the website http://thesimplesecrets.com/. To order Borowski's NEW Simple
Secrets of Skating or The Simple Secrets of Striding (demonstrated through footage of Olympic and World Champions and available on VHS and DVD), send $25 plus $1.75 shipping (Wisconsin residents add $1.27 tax) to Lee Borowski, 4500 Cherokee Drive, Brookfield, WI 53045.
| 
