Advanced Group training

On January 7th, we will start formal interval training for the advanced group (your choice of classic or skate!)

But you should start on your own over the holidays with 6 x 40 second efforts at a bit faster than race pace with sold technique

The program is split into those looking to peak in February OR March

1)Tuesday interval training – see details below for February peak or March peak

30 minute easy ski warm-up (+ a few 20 second pick ups near the end of your warm-up)

The hard part of the interval is a bit faster than race pace – the shorter the interval, a bit more faster effort (but always solid technique)

2)On Weekends -> 1 or 2 longer skis with hills

Work on hill efficiency – climbing with good technique and a relatively low heart rate – this is a skill you want to develop for long events (rather than thrashing as hard as possible going uphill!)

Gradually lengthen your longer skis towards event duration – e.g. if you expect your peak event to take you 4 hours, then shoot to build to a 3 to 4 hour ski about 7 to 10 days before your event.

3)Keep up injury-prevention strength

February peak – Tuesday intervals (remember 30 minute warm-up before)

Jan 7      5 x 1 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Jan 14   4 x 2 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Jan 21    4 x 3 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute between efforts

Jan 28    3 x 5 minutes / *keep up a reasonable pace between intervals* - goal is to train body to be able to recover from a harder effort while still going at slightly less than race speed

Feb 4     2 x 10 minutes / keep up a reasonable pace between intervals  

Feb 11   3 x 10 minutes / keep up a reasonable pace between intervals

 

Longer program for those looking to peak in mid March.

Jan 7      5 x 1 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Jan 14   4 x 2 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Jan 21    5 x 2 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Jan 28   6 x 2 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Feb 4 5 x 3 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Feb 11 6 x 3 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Feb 18 4 x 5 minutes / keep up a reasonable pace between intervals

Feb 25   2 x 10 minutes / keep up a reasonable pace between intervals

March 2 3 x 10 minutes / keep up a reasonable pace between intervals

March 9 4 x 10 minutes / keep up a reasonable pace between intervals

Start on Tuesday!

We will start instructional sessions on Tuesday December 10th at Windsor Park at 6:30 with SKATE sessions for Athletic Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced groups.

The first session will include 15 minutes or so inside and then head outside for 30 minutes or so.    (the following Tuesday will be classic and we will generally flip back and forth between the techniques each following week.)

Start of adult instructional programs - Tuesday Dec. 10th

We plan to start instructional programs for adults on Tuesday, Dec. 10th.

More information early next week.

Registration will close on Dec. 7th.

Check out the snow-making at Windsor Park!

Re-post! Injury-prevention strength for XC skiing!

A few years back, we had Twila from Pure Fitness show us some really good strength exercises to make our bodies very resilient.   

It's best to add these exercises into your regime gradually -- they don't seem like much when you first do them, but then the next day, you realize they strengthen all of your muscles that are very weak!!

Do a few light reps of these your first time and see how your body feels the next day before building up to more reps.

After 4 or 5 weeks (of doing these twice a week), you could build up to 6 to 10 reps of each exercise.

Again, be really gradual as you add these in.   

I have been doing these exercise once or twice every week for 9 years and it's really allowed me to be quite injury-free over that time.  But I always do a good warm-up and never push myself very hard with them -- just a modest workout that helps balance my body with everything else I do.

Your Beautiful Coaches for 2024/25!

  Coaches for 2024/25 Season:

Athletic Beginner:

Katrina

Intermediate

 Coach

John K

John M

Advanced

Steve

DN Adult Program - 2024/25

  ... and we are back!

DN Adult programs for the next season:

Main Change = Tuesdays only

Adult instructional programs each Tuesday in December and January (as soon as we get skiable snow)

Will alternate each week generally with skate or classic instruction (a little bit conditions-dependent)

Will have Athletic Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced. 

AB + Intermediate will be instructional; Advanced will be mostly drills and interval training

AB will be led by Coach Katrina

Intermediate will be led by Coach John K with support for Coach John M

Advanced will be led by me

Coach Jim B is taking a year sabbatical and will be back next year.

Dryland training for those interested will be at Westview Park on the north side Tuesdays at 6:45PM starting October 22nd

Registration here:   https://zone4.ca/register.asp?id=36525

Options on Downhill corners - reposting as it's useful to learn how to deal with high-skied icy corners!

Here is an interesting picture on downhill cornering.  For the advanced group on Thursday, we will play around with downhill cornering options!

Downhill at France world cup last year -- watch how Klaebo looks to the turn and picks the outside line in the deep snow - this allows him to control the turn better.

Klaebo is third in line with the yellow bib:

Klaebo - looking at conditions on the outside:

Klaebo sliding into the loose snow

The only skier to use the loose snow to turn, rather than go through the icy corner apex

At times, a corner gets so icy and scraped, that it's easier to step into the loose snow to do an easier and safer turn.   This is often the case at big events with lots of laps or lots of skiers (like the Birkie)

                          

DN CCSAM-required Polcies

 We have added several new policies as required by CCSAM.   They can be found here:  

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dd9HgopWwOI2F0z_EBOWdCImC_uVU9IQ?usp=sharing

DN Interval training overview and comments

 

DN training for advanced skiers (and those intermediate skiers preparing for an event or adventure!) over the next few months – we will have interval sessions each Tuesday night

General goal: build efficient & relaxed speed on skis in a long-term healthy way

For some, the goal might be a big ski trip to the mountains in March, for others it might be a specific event like the Finlandia or the Birkie.   A few principles to keep in mind throughout all your training:

1)     Maintain injury-prevention strength work year-round. We tend to assume that we DESERVE to be able to do all the physical things we want to do, but that’s not the case!   Our bodies were not built to be skiers, cyclists, rowers, etc., so a small amount of injury-prevention strength work once or twice a week needs to be maintained year-round – see our videos on the things that have helped members build injury prevention strength for skiing and other sports.

2)     Regular easy aerobic activity.   Hard endurance training day-after-day leads to a lot of negative stress that can turn into really unhealthy chronic stress.    To help build your body’s ability to handle a bit of harder training on other days, you should be aiming for 2 to 3 sessions every week of only light aerobic intensity – e.g. brisk walking or light skiing for an hour+.

3)     Enjoy the outdoors.  We are lucky to be able to be outside in the winter and enjoying the beauty of beautiful winter days!

Plan – this plan can be modified for specific goals and each person’s strengths and weaknesses – feel free to reach out to discuss in more detail.

Interval sessions should not be overly hard.    Goal is to maintain relaxed & efficient speed to the very last interval effort.   We want to ingrain good technique, rather than push too hard!!

Week 1 – interval session – 4 to 5 x 30 seconds pick-ups with 1 to 2 minutes easy skiing in between – good technique but at a faster speed; can add in a bit of terrain

Week 2 – 4 x 1 minute pick-ups with 2 minutes easy skiing in between; should not be breathing too hard at the end of each interval

Start adding in a longer and hillier ski each week – these skis can get longer or a bit more intense as you progress over the next several weeks.  E.g. 1 hour hilly ski … then 1 hour 30 minutes hillier ski … building to 2 hours plus of hillier faster skis on terrain closer to your goal

Week 3 – 4 x 2 minutes with 2 minutes easy skiing in between; should have great relaxed technique throughout; should be a bit faster than goal pace, but not too fast!

Week 4 – 4 x 3 minutes with 2 minutes easy skiing in between; if goal is to race really fast, then you can be breathing fairly hard at the end of these, but otherwise keeping technique relaxed and efficient

Week 5 – 4 x 5 minutes with 2 minutes easy skiing in between

Week 6 – 3 x 8 minutes with 3 minutes easy skiing in between

Week 7 – 3 x 8 minutes with 2 minutes easy skiing in between

Week 8 – 2 longer hillier skis

Week 9 – easier week of skiing before bigger goal skis / event

See below for one injury-prevention exercise Jessie Diggins does year-round - go to 5:50 into the video for the exercise