Ski Marathon Training

Date first posted on eCommunity - 3 October 2011

With large parts of the country enjoying an Indian summer it might seem perverse to be thinking of winter. But for those of us intending to take part in ski marathons this season, winter preparation should already be well under way.

Spurred on by a big birthday I'm planning to do one or maybe two Worldloppet marathons this winter. (See footnote about Worldloppet.) It's a long time since I did one and to help my training I've been looking for articles on the web -  and finding a lot of useful stuff.

PHYSICAL PREPARATION
One good source for physical training is the website of the USA's Worldloppet race, the American Birkebeiner. It is at www.birkie.com. If you click on the "Birkie Life" tab you can access a useful training plan put together by CXC Academy. It orders into six categories the types of conditioning that can be included in a weekly workout plan, and ranks them in order of importance:
1. Endurance -  Most Important
2. Specific Strength -  Very Important
3. Speed Endurance - Very Important
4. Threshold Endurance - Important
5. General Strength - Important
6. Speed - Important
It also gives month-by-month training plans for the period from November through February.

For another useful article, see the piece on "Specific Fall Training", written for the website of The Master Skier. (www.masterskier.com/article.asp?aid=168). It discusses some general principles then presents a weekly training programme, for the period from October to Christmas, based on 9 hours training per week. The article was originally written in Russian and the translation does not make for the easiest of reading, but it is full of good stuff.

OTHER ASPECTS OF TRAINING
On the website of Manchester Cross Country Ski Club there is a useful pair of articles by Patrick Winterton. (Go to www.mccsc.org.uk and click on "Newsletter".) Patrick does discuss physical training but treats it as just one component of race preparation. He also lists psychological, nutritional and material components. And he emphasises the need for technical improvement ("Identify your weaknesses and improve on them first").

USEFUL BOOKS
I like "Serious Training for Endurance Athletes" by Rob Sleamaker and Ray Browning. Published in 1996, as the second edition of a volume written in 1988, it's getting a bit whiskery, but it's still a good source on the different levels of training. You can get it in paperback from Amazon.

OTHER SOURCES
For a summary of the types of ski races available to citizen-racers and elite skiers, look at the website of London Region Nordic Ski Club. (www.londonnordic.org.uk/cross-country-ski-racing) It gives links to the Worldloppet and Euroloppet websites as well as to the website of the British Masters Cross-Country Ski Association.

MORE ABOUT WORLDLOPPET
Worldloppet is an international association of ski marathons, with events in 15 different countries. Its website is at www.worldloppet.com. Below is a list of all this season's races. Two are already fully-subscribed: Marcialonga and Vasaloppet. The Norwegian Birkebeiner will also book up very quickly  - online registration for people living outside Norway opens on 19 October and if you want to enter you really should try to do so on that date.

27 August 2011 Kangaroo Hoppet -  Australia

8 January 2012 Jizerska Padesatka  - Czech Republic

21 and 22 January 2012 Dolomitenlauf  - Austria

29 January 2012 Marcialonga -  Italy

4 and 5 February 2012 Koenig Ludwiglauf -  Germany

5 February 2012 Sapporo -  Japan

11 and 12 February 2012 Transjurassienne  - France

18 and 19 February Gatineau Loppet -  Canada

19 February 2012 Tartu Maraton -  Estonia

25 February 2012 American Birkebeiner -  USA

25 February 2012 Finlandia -  Finland

3 and 4 March 2012 Bieg Piastow -  Poland

4 March 2012 Vasaloppet -  Sweden

11 March 2012 Engadin Skimarathon -  Switzerland

17 March 2012 Birkebeiner Rennet -  Norway

 

S. Montgomery, for XCuk

Terms & Conditions / Contact Us
XCuk Limited © 2005