Eliot Neal

Here is a brief update on what I’ve been up to lately… Training.

No, of course I haven’t only focused on ski training and racing lately, but just about. I’m currently taking one semester off from school with the simple desire to concentrate on skiing/biathlon and get as far as possible in this short time. The last two months were spent training with the US Biathlon team in Lake Placid and at the Soldier Hollow venue in Utah. Then, after a short stop at home in Minnesota, I now find myself in West Yellowstone.

The training Kevin and I have planned for this next week with our coach Vladimir Cervenka looks fun and intense. Essentially, it’s focused on getting us transitioned from dryland to snow. More to come soon…

Also, I had better mention that Eliot Neal and Addie Byrne are part of our crew here as well!

All right, too much time has passed since my last post and it’s all due to my pondering the future options for this blog. So, I’ve decided to transition from a focus on my experiences in Norway to looking closer at my current training experiences, both in collegiate racing and biathlon, and the perspectives that I gain. This is not to say that I will stop drawing on my experiences in Norway, but rather discuss them with a little less concentration. All of my post and photos from “En tid for skiskyting i norge” will remain accessible through various links, and I will also welcome any questions about my experiences.

Ronny Hafsås–one of Norway’s fastest biahletes and skiers

Anyway, so what makes the Norwegians so good at skiing and biathlon? I’ve attempted to answer pieces to this question over the past several months, but I’m sure there is much more to the puzzle. I first explored the dynamics of the ski community, which is obviously much larger and more concentrated than that of the US. Just like one might expect, clubs are the organizing base and affiliation of racers, while teams are more focused on training.

Gålå ski tour with fellow skiskytere (biathletes)

Next, I looked at some of the general training philosophies that I came in contact with. In addition to Stephen Sneider description of the basic ideas behind the Norwegian training methods(LINK), I noticed the importance of realizing that everyone has a different recipe for success. In addition, I found training less structured and more reliant on personal motivation than I had previously experienced. Personal motivation was easy to find due to the many dedicated racers, both old and young, found in my neighborhood. There is no substitute for hard work!

My third post explored intensity training: intervals, time-trials, etc. And by far, this was the aspect of training where I noticed the most difference from my experiences in high school and college. Simply put, my intensity time this past year nearly doubled and I gained a greater appreciation for the different intensity zones.

Ole Heinrik Somby and I pushing to the finish of

the pursuit (12.5km) in Beitostølen

The fourth post looked at strength training, which was another area that changed dramatically. What I experienced was a much higher emphasis on ski specific strength (double pole and no pole skiing) than on general strength. In addition, within general strength, about half of it was static exercises. The general idea was to strengthen those muscles used in skiing, while minimizing the bulk building exercises.

Finally, I explored a more biathlon specific subject: shooting. A lot more time spent shooting combined with several new drills provided an added confidence that was a great help to this mentally challenging portion of the sport.

The start of one of the classic sprint heats in the

Hovedlandsrennet (junior championships)

So, taken together, the Norwegians system is nicely conducive, in my opinion, for producing some quality skiers. I’ll end saying that I hope to continue using and sharing what I’ve learned this past year in Norway in regard to both skiing and biathlon, but as always, there are many ways to become a fast skier/biathlete.

Once again I’m writing from Lake Placid where training continues to progress. However, every now and then a week of recovery is needed and that’s exactly what this past week gave me. A 50% drop in hours feels like a world of difference! Now that the batteries are recharged for a new training period, I look forward to jumping back into a full training schedule tomorrow.

The big story of this past week was a trip to the Mt. Washington area to visit some long lost friends from Williams College. We accomplished everything from jolly trip to Storyland, hiking up Mt. Washington, clay tennis matches, to even a bit of chainsawing. I want to send out a big thank you to the Kantack family for their great hospitality! Check out some of the photos (courtesy of Keith!)—more are found on the Williams blog.

Robby Cuthbert, me, and Keith Kantack

I only have a couple more posts left in my series attempting to answer the question: What makes the Norwegians so fast at skiing? So, to continue that series this post looks briefly at specificity (trenings fordeling), or the percentage of ski specific training that takes place in Norway. This is another one of those subjects that seems a hot topic for debate. Again, there is no definitive answer to how much specificity is correct.

Robby and I skiing into Crawford Notch State Park

My first training camp in Folldal with Team Statkraft Lillehammer provided me the first taste of how much ski specific training I would be doing during my time abroad. As a percentage, I did over just over half of my total training on skis/rollerskis. Again, this was a big difference from what I was used to. In summer months from years before, I was spending about a quarter of my training on skis/rollerskis. Of course, during the winter months the percentages were quite similar.

One other difference worth mentioning was the increase in specificity with intensity training. Almost all of my intensity training last year was done on skis/rollerskis. I had a few running, bounding, and biking intervals, but about 90% of my intervals were done on skis.

This extra time on rollerskis during the summer months made a dramatic difference in how I felt once we started skiing on snow. I seemed more confident on real skis almost immediately. Of course, there is a big difference from rollerskis to snow, but my body felt more ready for the transition.

Getting in some sawin’ strength…

The general idea that I picked up from my trainer, Tobias, was that skiers should strive to ski as much as possible, while keeping a balanced training plan. Some food for thought can come from looking at sports like swimming or biking, where athletes spend almost all of their training in the pool or on the bike—very sport specific.

This is not to say that skiers need or should to do the same. A good example of why we need to think carefully about specificity in regard to skiing are the possible troubles that athletes can run into. In the past two years, a good friend of mine ran into issues where his legs simply would not recover from large amounts of skate skiing. The past season for this athlete was less than satisfactory, and in order to recover from this overtraining/overreaching several months of rest and rehab were needed.

All in all, specificity is an important aspect to skiing. Striving to do as many ski specific motions as possible may be a correct approach. So, in my opinion the key lies in finding the right balance physically and mentally.

Visiting hardworking Caleb at Storyland

This post is for all those biathletes out there and anyone else interested in what we mysterious biathletes do in order to build our shooting skills. While shooting might not be something that the Norwegians are well known for, it is yet another part of my training that also took a drastic turn during my time abroad.

Shooting in Torsby

The background behind Norwegians and shooting is one of hit and miss… literally. They’re either brilliant on the shooting range—more often than not—or they’re somewhat embarrassing to watch. I remember one example where Lars Berger (aka “the moose”) simply missed several shots in rapid succession in a relay competition because he wasn’t worried about the amount of time it took to ski an extra penalty lap—this just goes against the rules I was taught. Somehow, I remember Norway still winning that relay. All in all, some Norwegians have been known as fast shooting maniacs with a fairly inconsistent outcome, nevertheless they have come across the line first more often than their shooting statistics might estimate.

The Norwegian biathlon association has realized that shooting is an area to improve upon and launched a fairly large campaign in the last few years to increase performance. Basically, this entailed a collaboration resulting in more information available to athletes of all abilities about technique, training drills, and tests (in Norwegian at http://www.skiskyting.no/t2.aspx?p=39419). The US currently doesn’t have anything like this set up, but I believe this is something they are working towards.

Ane shooting in Torsby

The overall approach to shooting includes four categories that I’m sure every biathlete is familiar with: dryfiring (shooting drills without live bullets), slowfire shots (no physical load), easy combination shots (low physical load), and hard combination shots (high physical load). As far as my numbers go, the amount of shots and time spent on shooting training drastically picked up from my experiences at home. I blame this primarily on the convenient availability of a shooting range and the increased availability of free time. As an example, I went from shooting a total of about 400 rounds a month to over 1000. Roughly 600 of these shots were combination shots. Anyway, my shooting experiences in Norway were a lot fun and often surrounded by competition. Some of my earlier posts describe in detail some of the games and tests we did… Samling i Folldal (2nd and 3rd paragraph), Skyting og RvL (2nd paragraph), Samling i Vik (2nd to last paragraph), and Samling Torsby (6th paragraph).

Since my arrival back in the US, I’ve continued a lot of the shooting drills and ideas that I picked up in Norway. My year abroad definitely improved my shooting speed and confidence, but there is still quite a bit of room for improvement!

Also, I received several comments on this blog while I was in Jericho. Thank you! Again, it’s a privilege to write here and if there is something I’m missing or should explain better let me know!

Based on a comment from the last post, intensitets trening, I’ve decided rearrange a bit and talk about “strength training” and what differences I noticed between college/high school skiing and my time in Norway. To do this I’m going to split up strength training into four categories:  general strength, ski specific strength, spensts or plyometrics, and max strength. Again, there are many different opinions out there—even in Norway—so I’m strictly going to stick with what I experienced this past year.

Strength training in Torsby, Sweden

When talking about general strength, I like to think about it as both stabilizing strength (i.e. planks or other static holds) and general strength (i.e. sit-ups, pull-ups, dips, etc.), which is done with no or very little added weight for many repetitions or a given amount of time. During my stay in Norway, I did much more stabilizing strength, but much less general strength, than in high school and college. From what I understand some Norwegians believe that stabilizing strength is almost all an athlete needs in addition to ski-specific strength. That is, stabilizing strength improves overall control while on skis, with ski-specific strength providing the complimentary power. In my opinion, there is much to gain from other types of strength exercises, but yes, stabilizing strength can improve the feeling of control on skis and make holding technique positions easier. An example of a stabilizing strength workout is a 30-45min warm-up run followed by 10-15min of general strength, then 4×5min stabilizing exercises.

Eirik during a strength session in Vik

Ski-specific strength is just about as Scandinavian as one can get and is very specific to skiing! This basically includes double-pole skiing and no-pole skiing usually on some sort of uphill. Ski-specific strength includes both long distance workouts (over an hour) and short bouts of explosive effort (10-15sec to 1 minute). In high school and college I did very little of this type of strength—especially double poling (I first mentioned this in an earlier post). During my time in Norway, ski-specific strength seemed much more important. At times, I did about two hours of ski-specific strength a week. A couple examples of a ski-specific workout I did in Norway are a 6×5min Level 3 uphill interval session double-poling and an hour long no-pole session (Level 1-2).

Spenst or plyometric strength training is focused on short explosive (8 reps or less) exercises, which I’m sure most of you know. This type of strength training was not really part of our team training and comprised a very small amount of my actual training in Norway (maybe once a month). However, in college and high school, spensts seem much more common, about once a week. The only idea I  picked up was the general understanding that a lot of recovery time is necessary after spenst training due to the intensity of the exercise and its high stress on muscles.

Contrary to what some may say max strength is another type of strength training that I didn’t do all that often, maybe once a month in Norway. To be honest, I didn’t see many other Norwegian skiers doing all that much max strength either. In college, however, max strength comprises a much greater amount of time, almost once a week. Again, the ideas that I picked up in Norway were that max strength is something focused on more during the spring and done as maintenance throughout the rest of the year.

Finally, I want to end with a couple other general ideas that I picked up about strength training. First off is the idea that making a gain in strength ability requires a period of 5-6 weeks of focused strength training, after which maintaining the strength requires just a few sessions a week. Secondly, improvements in strength training are usually done in the springtime when the volume of training isn’t all that high and allows for adequate recovery.

So as a recap, strength training this past year included a lot of stabilizing strength, general strength, and ski-specific strength. Max strength and spensts/plyometrics were included more along the line of maintaining my ability rather than on improvement, except during the springtime.

So, on to what I experienced this past year in regard to intensity training:  intervals, time-trials, etc. And by far, this was the aspect of training where I noticed the most difference from my experiences in high school and college.

A quick glance at my heart-rate monitor during bounding intervals…

The main difference I experienced is most easily seen in the numbers. In high school and college I was doing an average of about 1 interval session a week that had about 16 to 35 minuets of on-time (i.e. 4 x 4min or 5 x 6min). So for each month I had roughly 5 to 6 hours of intensity time. In Norway this past year, there were big increases in the number of intensity trainings as well as in length. I had about three interval sessions a week and did all kinds of different intervals ranging from 60 x 20sec to 3 x 25min. In total, each month had between 7 and 9 hours of strictly on-time (not counting the rest between intervals). All in all this was a ~45% increase over the year before.

The general idea employed by my coach this past year, Tobias, was the importance of stressing the body in each workout for at least 30min (for the men), which is roughly the length of a 10km biathlon race. This 30min is strictly on-time. For example, in a level 3 workout we typically did something like 8 x 8min. In a level 5 workout, we usually did 6 x 5 minutes, where the first interval was a level 3 warm-up and the following intervals were level 5. Also, another general idea was to keep the intensities varied. That is, not do too many interval sessions in a row of a single intensity (i.e. Level 3).

Time-trial in Natrudstilen

Time-trials also increased in number and length. We often had three to four time-trials each month that were between 20 and 45min. Seeing as we were biathletes most of the time trials were combined with shooting and were run in either a mass start format (more head-to-head competition equals fun) or short interval starts.

Again, I want to stress that there are many different ideas for intensity training and all of them can be good. In my opinion, I liked the way this was structured during the past year. It gave me the feeling of more control at greater speeds and a better understanding of my heart rate zones. Not to mention a feeling of improvement.  One interesting tidbit I heard this past year was a comment by Frode Andresen saying that biathletes are better at hitting their zones than Nordic skiers, or at least in his experience.

Again, I feel that discussing Norwegian training is best done in reference to the experiences I had before traveling to Norway, which included a detailed and structured training plan created by the coach for the training group I was participating with—both in college and in Minnesota. In each situation, training plans had morning and afternoon sessions that I followed dutifully with not too much thought as to how they were formulated.

This “show up and train” mentality, if I can call it that, was challenged as soon as I got to Norway. I still remember my first workout with Team Statkraft Lillehammer, a roller-ski and shooting workout, where I asked the coach, Tobias, “What do you want me to do today?” I received a blank star and he said something like, “um… don’t you have something to work on? We are having easy skiing and shooting today…” There was nothing specific about how long the workout should be or how much I should shoot—simple things I’m usually told. After a somewhat confusing and frustrating workout, I launched myself into the encyclopedia that is Norwegian training.

From that point on I realized that planning on my behalf needed to play a larger role. At least in regard to the structure of easy trainings—intensity trainings were planed along with other time-trials or tests. This caused a greater thought process in choosing workouts, as well as asks the question, “What works for me?”

With my team this past year, there were between three and four important team workouts planned per week, and athletes were responsible to fill in exercises they felt focused on important aspects for the time of year (volume, strength, specificity, intensity, shooting, etc.). The coach always gave some input as to how your training should be modified or how to approach weaknesses that need addressing. I also should mention that training camps took place each month for one week—common for Norway. In these situations training was planned in detail.

Team training in Beitostølen

You might be asking, what are the ideas that make up the Norwegian training model? Isn’t that what I should be talking about? Valid point. However, just like here in the US, there are many different ideas/mentalities for training and I feel that considering the “Norwegian model” as a single frame of mind is close-minded and one-dimensional. There are many ways to turn a skier into a champion.

Stephen Sneider does a good job describing the basic ideas behind the Norwegian training methods in his article XC Endurance Training Theory – Norwegian Style. I agree with Stephen in that each week (on average) is structured around two interval sessions. That is, training outside of these interval sessions should enable a skier to execute the interval sessions with a high amount of focus (i.e. not tired from a strenuous workout the day before). Subsequent posts will discuss this more and other training topics.

So, the general Norwegian philosophies in my opinion are that athletes should remain fairly independent and free thinking—free to formulate his or her training into something they feel will provide success (a great reason to keep a detailed training log as well as dig up old training logs and look into what worked!). But with direction provided by a coach. The idea behind this is that each individual has a different recipe for improvement, and the best way to find that recipe is to allow athletes to think somewhat independently.

Secondly, I also want to mention that coaching in Norway is structured in a way where it really feels like the coach is working along with athletes. They seem to remain open to different ideas, but will make sure workouts are done in a professional way. Anything that looks out of place or needs improvement, they will not hesitate to discuss with you.

In my opinion, this independence is something to be strived for here in the U.S., but is unattainable for younger athletes simply because the knowledge base of ski training isn’t so readily available and it is difficult to observe top-level racers in training. Plus it’s hard to be independent especially if there are only a few competitive racers in the local community.

Finally, I’ll add that there is no excuse for hard work. To make it to the international level in Norway, a person needs to be among the best in the world. Therefore, Norwegians train like the want to make it to the top—a level that is readily observed. As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, Petter Northug trained 920 hours last year!

Anyway, on to what I’ve planned to begin discussing (posts should be coming more frequent now!)—What makes the Norwegians so good at skiing/biathlon? I’m no training expert or coach, but I’d like to point out some the things I’ve noticed over this past year while in Norway. To start it out, I’d like to look at some of the major differences in the race community between the US and Norway in this post—“How the ski community is built up.”

Holmenkollen under construction June 2009. 1,9 billion Kroner upgrade! (~$700 million)

At the beginning of my time in Norway it was quite apparent that sports and school had a different relationship than I was used to. Basically, the two are entirely separate. Before I traveled to Norway, I was part of what I consider a typical college and high school ski program—everything based on school affiliations. In Norway, clubs and to some extent teams rule the scene.

Similar to the US, ski clubs are primarily responsible for the organization of races, including championships. As one might expect, the shear number of races during the season is much higher than home in the US. One can find a race every weekend, if desired, in each region of Norway during the season. During the season in Norway I raced in 39 competitions—twelve more than the year before.

As I alluded to, another big difference from the US has to do with a person’s/athlete’s affiliation, which is based more on the club where he/she grew up as opposed to the school. Even as skiers move between different teams, they are always listed on the result list as part of their club. For example, Lars Berger is listed on the result list as from the club Dombås IL, as opposed to a national team member (That is, if he’s racing a non-international race in Norway).

Teams in Norway function as a training group, just like in the US. Clubs have training programs also, but teams generally are made up of more dedicated athletes. As many of you already know, I chose to join a team called Team Statkraft Lillehammer this past year. This team provided me with coaching, training camps, and race help throughout the season. Each week there were roughly four training sessions as a team. The athlete according to his or her own training plan and schedule would then plan the rest of the week—with guidance from the coach of course (more on this in a subsequent post).

Team Statkraft Lillehammer

Probably the most obvious factor contributing to Norway’s skiing success is simply popularity (duh!). Besides seeing it televised at primetime during the season (and sometimes in the off season), one will often find the trails buzzing with people as long as snow is available. And if there’s no snow, lots of skiers are out rollerskiing, even in April and May! At championship events such as the hovedlandsrennet, the national championships for 15 and 16 year olds, there is just under 300 registered participants for each category—a bit higher than JO’s. (The numbers for the same championships in biathlon were a bit lower, but still well over one hundred.) At the senior biathlon championships (NM skiskying), the number of participants was over 80. In the US we are lucky to have 30! In other words, skiing is Norway’s favorite pastime—you can even buy bread with little skiers on it. Norwegians, after all, are said to be born with skis on their feet!

Before looking closer at what topics to write about, I recently returned from a trip in western Norway that “helt fantastisk” (completely fantastic). The trip was kind of a spur of the moment seeing as my friend Arild and I simply loaded up the car with skis, food, and a camera and set out to explore the high mountains and deep fjords of western Norway. Check out the photos at the end of the post!

So the question remains; what have I learned here in Norway? Well, for one I’ve learned that the Norwegians like to wear their hats fairly far back on their heads exposing their foreheads. Has anyone else also noticed this? Well, I finally figured out the answer to this puzzle. It’s because they don’t want a tan line just above their eyebrows (Norwegians wear hats enough to make this a problem). I proudly displayed a tan-line for several weeks this spring, just to let everyone know I am still the foreign-kid.

But seriously, how do the Norwegians train and what makes them so good at this sport? Yes, this is a good question, but hard one to answer. In my attempt, I will explore several basic aspects of skiing in subsequent posts. Here’s the list I’ve put together so far. The hope is these topics will cause a fair amount of discussion.  If there’s anything I should add, let me know!

1)    Structure of the race community—Who and how many are participating? Who organizes the races? Registration? What’s the difference between the club and the team?

2)    General training philosophies—What general philosophies make up the Norwegian model?

3)    Intensity training—Intervals, time-trials, how often and what type?

4)    Shooting training—Dryfiring, shooting tests, and games.

5)    Specificity—How much do the Norwegians ski? rollerski?

6)    Eating Norwegian—What’s are main focuses of the Norwegian diet? Is being as thin as a Norwegian healthy, smart, and good for skiing?

7)    Strength Training—When and what type?

8)    Wrapping up—So, what makes the Norwegians so good at skiing?

Mt. Breitinden (left) and one of the trolltindene mountains seen from Romsdal–Arild and I were at the very upper right portion of this picutre

Arild relaxing with his head on 1500 meters of air

Looking out over Geirangerfjord

Perfect skiing conditions on the 2nd of June…

The day began with a breakfast feast of fresh baked rolls, fresh fruit, poached eggs, and of course brunost (the famous Norwegian brown cheese). Besides the cheese, this sounds like a typical American breakfast, but here in Norway this menu is a bit more special.

Next on the list was to get decked out in the proper holiday clothing. Of course, everyone who has the traditional Norwegian bunad (see picture below) will wear it, but for everyone else a formal dress or suit will do just fine. It is quite common for women to have their own bunad, while I would estimate about a third of the men also have their own. One of the most fascinating characteristics of the bunad is how the differing designs and patters are unique to different geographical locations. One can tell where a person comes from by simply looking at these distinguishing designs. For example, take a look at the picture below of two of my good friends, Arild and Anne, in their traditional bunads. Arild, sporting one of the coolest male bunads I’ve seen, comes from southern Norway in the region near Oslo, while Anne comes from the high mountains of western Norway. I know that it’s hard to see some of the differences, so check out the photo album for more pictures of bunads and syttende mai!

Anne and Arild

For the rest of the morning, I enjoyed walking around downtown Lillehammer watching the children’s parade and eating ice cream. This is the time when the children’s parade took place and was probably the biggest event of the day. School children of the equivalent age of elementary school march through main street representing their own school with pride. Many of the schools have their own small marching band, clothing, and banner.

Children’s parade

For most of the afternoon, everyone simply socialized and soaked in some sunshine. As part of my socializing, I got to meet a couple of Norway’s great talents in biathlon. Emil Svendsen and Julie Bonnevie-Svendsen, both of whom live in Lillehammer. It was fun to meet them and talk a bit about their lives outside of biathlon.

Later in the afternoon I watched a second, less formal to say the least, parade. May 17th is also the last day of Russ, which I shortly explained in my last post as the graduation celebration from upper-secondary school. The parade included ridiculously hilarious demonstrations by drunken teenagers in large red American vintage vans. I really don’t think this would fly in the US, but the Norwegians lining the street (in their formal clothing) simply looked upon this with no concern and small children in hand. I guess this is what is expected of teenagers in Norway during Russefeiring.

Norwegianized American Van

NTG Lillehammer Russefeiring

The day ended with a barbeque at my apartment and traditional games. All in all, a great day to be in Norway—totally would recommend it!