Workout Ideas for the Week of Dec. 14

Here are some ideas for this week to help you with your skiing.  Continue to focus on technique, mainly slowing it down and try to do as much of it as possible correctly, but also continue to get some long distance skis in and some speeds as well.  We will offer a Core training on Tuesday at 5:00 (go to the Google Classroom pages for the chat link) and then discuss how many days a week we would like to continue those get togethers.   

Check out the videos on Jump Skate, which is a more dynamic way to get up hills
Any questions, let me know,
Have Fun
Denny

Natural intervals are common in running and skiing. Natural intervals mean skiing continuously down a trail or loop and letting the terrain in front of you dictate your intensity. Typically, this means recovering on the downhills and flatter terrain and using the uphill sections to increase your intensity creating various lengths of intervals in varying terrain.  All-natural.

This interval session however reverses traditional natural intervals and instead we use the flatter terrain, downhills, and transitional sections as the intervals and recover on the steep uphills. Sound easy? Think again. You’ll find that your heart rate will elevate extremely easily during this session and above all it forces us to practice smooth transitional skiing at a controlled and realistic race pace which will be a huge benefit in competitions. 

Session:

Reverse Natural Intervals L3, Threshold 

2 x 20 minutes 

Warm Up:

20 minutes easy skiing 

2 x 5 mins L2

5 x 10 second speeds 

Dynamic stretching 

Intervals:

Choose terrain that is rolling and preferably on a big loop. 5k race loops at your local ski area usually work great. 

Start the 20-minute interval at a controlled longer distance race pace (L3, Threshold pace). Ski all the flats, bumps, transitions, etc. at this L3 pace as well as ski hard INTO each uphill. It’s fine to push the L3 pace on gradual uphill terrain but as soon as the hill gets steep enough to V1 or stride knock back the pace so your heart rate recovers to L2. Catch your breath a little bit on the steep sections of the hill then remember to push hard over the top and continue on at a controlled race pace.