Happy Christmas Eve!

When Petter gets on the buss the trainer looks at his stop watch and says “that wasn’t five minutes”. Then Petter sits next to Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset and gives him a teddy bear. They’re on their way.

But back here, my training for Crow Pass as just begun

WARNING: This post contains boring workout stuff. Continue reading only if you are a workout nerd like me!

My first week is over. The goal was to go for an easy 10 hour week to get a handle what would and wouldn’t work here in the land of drunk and stoned ski bums. These are the important things that I will juggle week to week:

*** Work – Pays the rent.

*** Workout Types: – Rule #1 They have to be fun. Running on a bike path or flat country road is athletic suicide. Running point-to-point along ridges that I can step back and look at like conquered big game is key. But being in a new place means that logistical details like race simulations, transportation, precise terrain-specific characteristics can make this difficult. These are the disciplines that I juggle in a workout week:

• – Randonnée racing takes precedence Dec – April 1 with running 1-2 times a week.
• – Backcountry skiing is perfect training for that, and in-bounds skiing mixes hard downhill with hiking out the gates for 45-60 minutes per session…and it’s fun, free hours.
• – Running point-to-point on trails is what my race is, and is super fun!
• – Nordic skiing is low-priority and not in the plan, but if the conditions suck for everything else it’s on.

*** Alpine at Resort – Dec through March is base building and alpine skiing at The Village keeps it that way. You don’t have to sacrifice hours, you just have to get there after you’re done and work it into the plan. Alpine skiing at an awesome resort makes everything fun and keeps your “head above water”!

*** Socializing, etc – This is a big one. Working at home means flexibility but also no social life and death for an individual athlete. Living 2 blocks from downtown means I can walk to bars and music every night. And when I hang with other people, the workouts are over and the brain switches off. This is absolutely essential, but also something to watch out for with respect to drinking and staying up late. You can go have just as much fun without drinking alcohol too, remember? Just remember not to be a social pussy when they are all getting hammered and you are wondering what your AM workout will be.

And I want to add something to that…I have finally come to terms that I **NEED** to shake my ass with a sea of people at a techno disco every so often to stay alive. Plus, I believe this is totally OK. Sleep in the next day, and call it a rest day. Nothing can beat a dose of high amperage now and again. Add that to a week of top-notch training and you’ve got yourself a happy paddy.

*** Down Time – Required at night to relax and fall asleep.

Here’s approximately how they pan out, including overhead:

Work: 3-8 hours, 7 days/w
Workouts: 120 minutes w/ shower, 6 days/w
Alpine at Resort: 3+ hours w/ bus, 6 days/w
Socializing: 3+ hours, 5 days/w
Down Time: 2 hours, 7 days/w

(Geeze, I’m starting to look like Justin Freeman here)

Making A Plan

From now till April, It’s simple. Just follow this basic skeleton, but look for opportunities to improve every day:

1 x 60m intro run
2 x 90m run/skin
2 x Intensity workouts a week, mostly threshold hiking/skinning and little VO2.
1 x 90-120 Alternative (backcountry, nordic, etc) work toward 180 minutes
1 day rest

April 1:

1 x 90m intro run
2 x 120m run/ski
2 x threshold intensity (2 or 3 L4 efforts total)
1 x 120-360 mountain/ridge running + road biking.
1 day rest

Staying Flexible and Creative

It’s amazing how you will magically come up with great workout ideas if you really want to get out there and push it above all else. Especially when you need to accommodate for bad weather or schedule mixups.

On Monday I had to work late so I did some 15 min fast-foot tempo runs to make it hurt a little. The next day I still felt capable so I did “natural threshold” intervals up 1000 feet of gradually climbing snowy single track for a total of 45 minutes of intensity. The goal was total exhaustion.

The last 300′ was steep vertical hiking through bushes and knee-deep snow, so I pushed it 15 minutes to the top with HR > 90%. That reminded me of a picture I once saw of a norwegian guy moose-hoofing through waste deep mud with the open-mouth closed-eyes hate face of death. Push the natural resistance! Then I ran back down the fast cat track as hard as I could. It helps a lot to be able to step back and see the whole series of ridge lines that you just did for an excellent sense of accomplishment.

Here’s the creative part: That was 2 days of intense effort. I was 100% thrashed, but then I went to Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and skied as many HARD 4000′ tram laps laps I could in the last two hours of the day to finish myself off. This means leg-scortching tucks all the way to the bottom with the heart rate pegged. SO FUN!! This works because it is so fun that it doesn’t seem like work! You put me on alpine skis and I find it extremely difficult to ski slow.

Now for one day of rest, then back to thinking outside the box and put together more point-to-point Crow Pass simulations here. The next step is to put together a 3-4 week goal to continue the base work. Then I am thinking another goal for a month after that to keep it simple. 

I ordered Randonnee racing gear today. Game On

NOTE: The following information has been modified from it’s original form to decrease vulgarity and increase clarity. Hopefully

Read this first: http://www.johnnyklister.com/post/286940…

Holy **** ***kin harsh!

Harsh, but no argument from this native Anchoraguan.

#10 Locals don’t need studs. You need studs.
#9 I grew up eating there too, but only because my Dad was a pipeliner.
#8 I’m telling them for the LAST EFFING TIME, they need to have ANOTHER hunt in the park. In a 120 minute tempo last year I ran into 9 moose. NINE. How do you spell no natural predators in English??
#7 And you should have seen that **** in the 70’s. I wish I could have.
#6 Granted, the NSAA lost $250,000 to that ****ty registration service, but seriously, dirt on Nationals the sprint course? The Muni does get the rest of the city though.
#5 Ouch. I just sent the Arian Nation and the Crue a Christmas card. It’ll get there around Jan 5th, guys. NOTE: AMH is very kind to local racers.
#4 Ask for the Velvet Box.
#3 Remember when Arians said “don’t be a prick?” This is where they send Anchorage’s pricks when they are being bad. I used to wake up there when I fell asleep on the bus after school.
#2 I think I had a peice o’ that when I was five. He tasted like whiskey, shotgun pellets, and two-stroke oil.
#1 Word to the race jury (I know where you live), USE YOUR OWN THERMOMETERS!

Good luck every body. I’ll be shredding sick pow down here while the rest of you are enjoying the races.

Now GO SHOOT A FREAKIN MOOSE!

“So you think I’m courageous?” she asked.
“Yes, I do.”
“Perhaps I am. But that’s because I’ve had some inspiring teachers. I’ll tell you about one of them. Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at Stanford Hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liza who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her five-year-old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, ‘Yes, I’ll do it if it will save Liza.’
“As the transfusion progressed, he lay in a bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. he looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, ‘Will I start to die right away?’
“Being young, the boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give her all his blood.
“Yes, I’ve learned courage,” she added, “because I’ve had inspiring teachers.”

Dan Millman, Chicken Soup For The Soul

Bill Bowerman And Steve Prefontaine

At the start of every season coaches sit down with their athletes and go over the previous year, their goals for the next year, and put together a plan on how to accomplish them. Having had some success in the past, but also burnt out, I’ve got a lot of these lessons to plot out for this coming season. Since it’s hard to keep it all in my head, I decided to lay down some ground rules for myself if I’m actually going to commit myself to my goal this summer.

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