Seriously

I guess I’m the bringer of all things Norwegian. The Norwegian Men’s Sprint Team has a new website. Good bye Top-Ski.
 http://www.sprintgutta.no/

Psyched

I’m really psyched about circuits. Man I like circuits. I think I hurt more during circuits than at any other time. 40 seconds on, 20 seconds off, push it hard. 17 stations, try to make it around three times without wussing out. Ok, start off with just two.

And man do I love engineering workouts. If you don’t love engineering workouts, then start getting into it! I built a bunch of workout toys from junk behind the house and have a totally killer workout routine with 15 stations and 7 optional ones to chose from.

My friend Rob Whitney oozes am old-school no BS workout ethic. I can’t put exaaaactly put it into words, but his style doesn’t put up with fancy machines and stupid numbers, instead it puts the stress where it belongs – on the body. He put together a public circuit workout using the APU weight room that drips pain like melted fat off a brisket.

Shape

Here’s your weekly workout hippy drool.

I’m currently not striving for any winter performance, but whatever. YOU’RE a damned winter performance, heh heh. Check this out:

Threw together a circuit and went hard for 90 minutes off the bench. Eat THAT, 2006-2007. The next day I ran 40 minutes up hill and topped it off with an all-out 3 minute acceleration up teton pass, gagging on anaerobic intensity.

Yesterday I skied pow on (quad-crushing) tele skis at 10,000 feet, which means 60 minutes at 75%, 30 minutes at 90%, and afterwards my legs felt like they were in a trash compactor. The snow was the lightest you’ll ever see and it was quad-deep.

Today I ran 3.5 miles to the high school, banged out a 2:45, 2:35, 2:37, and ran back.

It’s coming: July 17th, 2010

Click this if you are over 18

This one’s for you, Natalie (BTW, *You’re* a nordic nerd):

S0rree, WhAt?

Hard economic times

How did the Kazakh team manage a relay team when they lost their quota, too?

What happens when Northug wears the wrong sponsor hat.

No, I think lighting up won’t do anything now actually.

Nobody gives Falcor the Shaft.

Do you take YOUR training too seriously?

Nobody messes with the Jesus

Many active racers have one time or another in their career been burnt with what we call overtraining. For the sake of clarity I don’t believe that most of the cases we hear about over training are actually due over training. Rather, I think that they are due to not enough rest, and that can be considered a total load that consists of more than just over training.

The times that I myself have been in the borderland are due solely to carelessness with important details outside of my training. It quickly became too many meetings, arrangements, and other work between workouts, and I forgot that all of these things also take energy. Some athletes thrive with activity between workouts, but for me it became more of an extra load in addition to the training.
For me there were two things that were important when applied to rest: The first was that when a workout was over, it was over, and then it was time to move on to other things. When I trained I was 100 percent focused on the training. All energy and all focus lay in the work. As soon as I was out of the shower, the training was out of my head, and I disconnected mentally.
The second was sleep and relaxation. The more I was able to sleep and be completely calm, the harder I could train. On all the days with two workouts, I have tried to sleep two hours in the middle of the day, and on the days with three workouts there were two periods with sleep in the middle of the day. I slept 1-2 hours every time in the middle of the day and tried to get between 7 and 10 hours sleep during the night.
To me that puts forth a tight daily schema to get the most possible rest. Training, showering, eating, and rest make for a full day of work, and then some. That is exactly what is easy to forget. To go through the work of training requires more than the workouts themselves. Restitution, sleep, and food and drink in the right amounts were very important details and absolutely a part of my work.
For me it was also important to have a balanced relationship with the sport and with relaxation in order to know that when I was terribly tired and needed 3-4 days off, those free days didn’t make me worse, but on the contrary they made me better. It is under rest that the body gets time to absorb the training that has been done.

- Thomas Alsgaard, Best På Ski

“If you want to be the best, you have to dare to send your body into total depression. But if you are going to be the best, it’s just as important to dare to be tough enough to take time off. The tougher you train, the more you have to rest afterwards.”

Sweet, when we do our version, instead of a bunch of Norwegians beating up a Swede, maybe we can be a bunch of Americans beating up a Canadian? Or maybe it should be an englishman to be more accurate?

“No friends on a powder day?” Wha’ What?

See them all here:

http://www.langrenn.com/se-de-elleville-bildene-fra-beitostoelen.4652541-1743.html

Look at how these kids ski, what are they 13? That last little kid’s got to be 11.

Here is a video of Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset teaching skating technique to some juniors at Stordal Idrottslag (sports team).

The first technique tip he gives is to flex hard at the ankles so it doesn’t cause a brake effect. Your boot should be behind your knee.

The second tip is to swing your arms in front of you very deliberately on V2.

The third tip is a good visualization of double pole or V2 technique. He says to press the stomach, hang directly down on the poles, and not push back on your butt. He uses Ole Einar Bjørndalen as an example.

How early are you exposing your kids to roller skis in your neck of the woods? We had 25 middle schoolers on rollers skis her last week, and they loved it.

Here’s more

Intervals and Intensity

There has always been, and still is, hot discussion about the type of interval training and how many times in a week one should do them. Some use blocks, for example every day for 10 ten days in a row. It’s often called “trøndeversjonen” (The Trøndelag version) after a researcher in Trøndelag that found out that training intervals 10 days in a row can have a big effect.

For others it’s the more traditional variations that work, especially those with 2-3 intervals in a week, and usually a little scattered across seven days. I share the last philosophy, which is, after all, the one I have the most experience with.

In addition to these conflicting versions there is a lot of discussion about the intensity scale, where research shows that threshold intervals [level 3] is most effective for oxygen uptake. I suppose it is natural that many throw themselves on that theory. It is definitely the most comfortable and convenient…

And maybe it is such that the theory of building a little better oxygen uptake by doing threshold intervals actually has something going for it. My philosophy, however, has always been that intervals are max speed, which is all about only one thing for me; to get absolutely as stiff as possible.

When I say that the research is right about oxygen uptake with threshold intervals while not following the principles myself, it stems from the fact that I believe intervals have to do with more than that, especially for cross country skiers.

The research is important and from time to time provides progress, but also quickly becomes narrow. Thus, it is important that you are able to maintain focus on the bigger picture. What is important out there on the trails? And for me the interval workouts had to do with three important things:

For the first: Capacity. I train intervals to build the capacity of the heart and lungs, and have experience that it happens with maximum speed.

For the second: Technique. Speed records are being set all the time, and you don’t win races without feeling lactic acid. Some times I had lactic acid in almost every single uphill. And so the challenge was to maintain good technique even if my body was stiff as a board, so that I didn’t loose time. And so I had to train that way. Work on technique with lactic acid up to your ears. The entire summer and fall.

Remember this moment? I do.

For the third: Pain. An old myth says that when you believe you are finished, you still have 30% left. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but in any case I believe that the pain threshold can be stretched to a very large degree. It might be a little individual, and also dependent on the day’s fitness, but still something that can be trained.

Thus, I wish not to refute the research and those that believe that threshold intervals give higher oxygen uptake, that is not my point. But I believe that with what I gain in a little extra oxygen uptake, I lose in the other two important elements that I consider to be just as decisive in a competitive environment. Therefore I stand firm with my theory that intervals are about full tilt from the first meter so as to train yourself to withstand lactic acid and maintain good technique with lactic acid, in addition to strength and capacity.

So we come back to the fact that there are an uncountable number of theories about how long intervals should be. My experience is that it’s not so important. If I was going to train short, long, few or many intervals and short or long rests, didn’t matter at all. It was the energy I put into the workout that actually became the most important.

My intervals have been characterized by tempo. That is, if I’ve had 10 X 2 minute intervals, I’ve had maybe three minutes rest in between. Always as long or longer rest than the interval, to ensure that I could hold the pop and speed during the intervals.

I have also stuck with relatively short intervals. The idea behind this is that if I were to break up a typical race, it ends up just being made up of many short intervals followed by rests. Also, the longest continuous rise is seldom over two minutes. In longer races it’s of course otherwise, and so you have to look at it appropriately.

Nevertheless, my experience is that it is wasted energy to ponder very long about how interval workouts should look. Find a form that works for you, so that you put all your energy and your all your soul into the work.

- Thomas Alsgaard, “Best På Ski”

S-I-C-K

— “It was the energy I put into the workout that actually became the most important.”

Word.

The above lengthy passage had a deep effect on the way that I train. Next to the passage I posted a few days ago about not being afraid to train as hard as you can, I think this chapter is the most significant one in Thomas Alsgaard’s book.

I took two things away from this:

1) You should train what you race.

Mountain races require long, sustained threshold work. So does running. Cross country ski races require hard intervals with simulated rest.

2) It’s not so much what you do but how you do it.

I stopped thinking about the numbers so much, and simply started focusing on making sure I was putting everything I had into my workouts. Purity. Focus. Genuine Intention. Throw out that heart monitor, put down that L test. Put on your smart goggles and throw yourself on your work. Then step back, throw it all out, and start over. Never back down. All the way.

Perhaps the reason that this worked for me was that I was struggling with learning how to train without a coach or background. Perhaps.

“It’s not what you do but how you do it.”

What a relief.

Now go get it.

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look’em over with care. About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.” With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down a not-so-good street.

And you may not find any you’ll want to go down. In that case, of course, you’ll head straight out of town. It’s opener there in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just go right along. You’ll start happening too.

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.
Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And if you go in, should you turn left or right…or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite? Or go around back and sneak in from behind? Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting.

No! That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing. With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high! Ready for anything under the sky. Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all. Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don’t. Because, sometimes, they won’t.

I’m afraid that some times you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. On and on you will hike. And I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

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Oh! The Places You’ll Go!
by the incomparable Dr. Seuss