by: Erich Wilbrecht
Fall Training for Masters and Recreational Nordic Skiers
Are you looking for training ideas on your roller skis while you wait for the snow to fall? Check out our professional suggestions on tecnique and training tips below.
Roller Ski Training Tips;
- “Back to Basics Skating”- Warm up for 10 minutes. Once ready, use only your poles and double-pole for 10-30 minutes (depending on terrain and your personal fitness level). Focus on setting the poles and completing a very crisp push, without bending over fully in the old style double-pole. Keep a high tempo of poling and feel your lats and upper abs engage. Remember to sharpen your pole tips before every workout, or you might as well be watching TV because your poles will be useless on pavement. After this, grab your poles in hand, and skate only, with no poles at all. Skate every piece of terrain, no matter how steep. Focus on keeping the knees bent and the upper body upright, just as if you’re running. Do this for 10-30 minutes. Then bring it all together with 20-30 minutes of regular skating.
This is one of my favorite workouts on and off snow. It reminds me how important each element (upper and lower body) are for proper skating technique, and it reminds the body to engage all of the muscles used in skating, and to not get lazy and let just the arms or the legs have all the fun.
2. Roller-ski fartlek intervals. Fartlek is a Swedish word meaning “speed-play”, and for some reason the overtraining American type-A. Nordic freaks have applied it to mean “death intervals”. So in the true spirit of international understanding, and Scandinavian appreciation, I’m highly recommending that we all honor the true spirit of “fartlek”, and slow down a bit while going “fast”, and have fun along the way. For roller-skiing, this means pick a rolling section of pavement, and while tooling along enjoying the fall foliange you should feel frisky and throw in a little sprint. Just when your thoughts turn dark and your breathing ragged, slow down and go back to trundling along. A few minutes later, when you feel absolutely recovered, repeat this process and throw in another fun sprint. These aren’t supposed to be long, maybe 15 seconds max, and probably shorter. The purpose is to use your muscles at high speeds, teaching the neuromuscular system to fire and move quickly, all the while doing so in an aerobic environment, so you’re not making much lactic acid. I know, Vince Lombardi would not have approved of this mamby-pamby fun training, but remember that Ray Nitschke never skied the Birkie either!
Pole- Bounding;
If roller skiing isn’t for you, or it is but you want to add another dimension of dry-land training to your menu, then pole bounding is your ticket. This is the most simple and elegant (and frugal!) way to train for skiing just before the snow falls. It involves using short classic length ski poles (take the baskets off), that are about as high as your armpit. With them, you can hike, jog, sprint, lope or bound your way up hills, feeling like a real Nordic classic skier. The technique should closely resemble skiing, with the arms working in opposite rhythm of the legs; in other words, simply start by walking up a hill with your poles in your hands, and you’ll notice that your arms swing naturally in counterbalance to your legs; right leg and left arm forward etc.
From here try to delay each stride, load the leg while bent, and then explode forward to the next leg, hold that landing, then repeat. There are several levels in between simply hiking with poles and the explosive bounding I’ve just described, and they serve different purposes. For most casual skiers it’s enough to hike your way up a steep ridge or mountain using poles. This simple act engages the upper body muscles we use in Nordic skiing, the lats, triceps and upper abdominals. If you possess more serious racing goals, you’ll need to bring more intensity to this workout.
I have seen grown men puke after serious pole-bounding interval sessions. I’m not joking. This may be the single hardest thing you can do for dry land training, and the reason is that you are fully engaging your whole body in explosive bounds up steep terrain for up to several minutes. If you’re one of those kids who grew up worshiping the screaming crew-cut football coach with psychotic whistle-blowing tendencies, then I think you’ll enjoy these workouts.
For most skiers, however, keep it under control and build up slowly with intensity and the number of workouts per week. If done correctly, you should feel a little sore after the first few pole bounding sessions. Keep your breathing under control, and walk back downhill between each interval to ensure full recovery. Here’s a workout week hint for two pole-bounding workouts.
- Run at an easy pace and carry your poles. Keep your hearrate lower and find hilly terrain. On each uphill use your poles and bound up until you reach the top (10 seconds, or several minutes). The key here is to bound easily and engage your arms with each bound. If your reach the top and your body and lungs are burning, you’re going too hard, SLOW DOWN! This is an aerobic workout, barely touching the threshold level.
- After a warm up run of 20-30 minutes, find a very steep hill. Bound up with explosive bounds about 1-2 minutes. Walk down and recover to a lower heartrate; repeat 10 times or so. This is harder than workout one, and focuses on plyometric, or explosive bounds that mimic classic skiing up steep hills. Warm down run for 20 minutes and stretch.
I hope these two specific tools – roller-skiing, and pole-bounding – will add to your enjoyment of skiing this winter, and will help you feel better prepared when the snow flies and it’s time to ski. Good luck this winter, I’ll be back on the Skinny Skis website in a couple of months for another article for early snow skiing, so in the meantime may your wax job be just a little bit better than those in your pack!
For recommendations on what is the best roller skiing equipment for you, View Roller Skiing Equipment >
About the author;
Erich Wilbrecht began Nordic skiing in Jackson Hole at the age of 16 when he moved to Wyoming from the Midwest. With a background in cross-county running he took quickly to the sport and in his 30 year racing career he skied for Dartmouth College, the U.S. Biathlon Team, and the Fischer Factory Team. Along the way he has skied in the NCAA Championships, 5 World Cup Biathlon Teams, the Albertville Olympics, and every major ski Marathon in the US, and several in Europe. He is North American Biathlon Champion and multiple Biathlon (summer and winter) Champion. Erich lives in Jackson Hole with his family, and has worked for Sotheby's International Realty as a broker for 15 years. He still enjoys racing -especially when some young punk implies that he’s too old to go fast! – helps with clinics with Skinny Skis and Toko Racing Service. If you have questions about training, please contact him at erich.wilbrecht@sothebysrealty.com.