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Planning Your Training for Your Next Skimo Season

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Are you ready to ski yet? We bet a lot of you are. After all, the snow has been flying already.

We are proponents of planning your next season as early as May or June, however, unless you are shooting for the stars, you will most likely delay this until some version of the season’s racing calendar is out.

This is not a complete flop by any means as long as you are staying active throughout the summer. If you happened to mix in some racing then even better.

You might have heard Kilian Jornet say that he doesn't follow a structured training plan and trains more by feel. However, he still plans around his goals and does this after many years of high level experience.
You might have heard Kilian Jornet say that he doesn’t follow a structured training plan and trains more by feel. However, he does this after many years of experience and still plans around his goals meticulously.

Establishing Facts: Things to Consider

To come up with a reasonable plan for your next race season, it is wise to evaluate a couple of important things:

  • What are my goals? (races and adventures)
  • How long do I have to get ready for them?
  • Where is my fitness right now?
  • What do I need to do to be at my best at the right time?
  • Do I have all the gear in place?

While the above should be figured out as soon as possible, the below still have some time:

  • Where are my goal races located?
  • Are they at altitude?
  • Will they require significant travel to attend?
  • How will this impact my training and life?
  • Can I share race trips with friends?
  • How much will these trips cost?

Planning Your Training Around Your Goals

Now that you have realized some truths and set some goals, you can start planning how to incorporate the necessary training. Having a full time job doesn’t make it easy but most of us have that responsibility so you are in no disadvantage.

With a well thought out plan you can make big performance gains without having to commit to 3-4h of training every day.
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Drafting your training plan should start from the end and working backwards from your goal race (or race month) to the present. Analyze what demands (physical, technical…) your goal race will require of you. Is it a sprint, two hour individual, or a long teams race?

Beyond that, you also need to keep in mind that effective training should have continuity, progress, and variety to gradually make you improve to the desired level.

With all that in mind, here’s a simple example of how you can come up with a reasonable plan:

  • Goal event: January 27, 2018
  • Taper 1-2 weeks out
  • Focus on intensity 2-8 weeks out
  • Focus on strength and endurance 9-16 weeks out

From there, you can start planning your individual weeks and even workouts.

First, identify 1-3 goals for each period or week and then choose two primary workouts per week that help move you towards the goals. These are your “bread and butter” workouts and should be the priority. Once these are identified, fill in the rest of the week with the secondary goals and overall endurance work.

Secondary Considerations: Recovery and Nutrition

If you have been training for few seasons or following SkinTrack, you know that actual training is only one part of the whole puzzle. Recovery is equally important, especially if you have a demanding job or family commitments to consider.

The only way to improve is to adapt to higher (more demanding) training loads. To adapt you will need to strategically schedule recovery days and weeks into your plan. While this can be highly individual, there are some conservative general principles such as building your training load for three weeks followed by recovery period of one week, as well as having at least one full day-off each week.

Another factor affecting your rate of adaptation and improvement will be your nutrition. You do not need to obsess but eating mostly unprocessed foods and avoiding most junk food will be highly beneficial. You can also boost your caloric and protein intake during the most demanding weeks. Basically, if your body asks for more then eat more. We don’t mean ice cream though 🙂

Help with Planning

If you would like to follow a specialized skimo training plan and can commit 6-9h of training per week then we have designed such a plan last year – 12-Week Skimo Training Plan.

Besides that, you can get a deal on a package by combining the training plan with our Manual For Ski Mountaineering Racing e-book from which you can learn about all aspects of our sport, plus improve your transitions skills by learning from our videos.

Important Differences Between Training Volume and Training Load in Skimo Training

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How can two training plans be the same overall volume but be designed for two completely different athletes? How can we quantify training in a sport where the track is always changing?
skimo-training-volume-and-load
You may recognize a few (or all) of the below terms from various training resources. They all refer to the same concept, that of training load or how much work was done during a training session:

  • Intensity Factor
  • TRainingIMPulse (TRIMP)
  • Recovery Time
  • Suffer Score
  • Training Effect

In skimo, we can measure training time, distance of an activity, or vertical ascent. We can also measure training intensity by looking at pace, heart rate, and other measures. Individually, these measures are not particularly useful in telling us the value of our training but combined as training load, we get great insights about what benefits we will see.
Knowing only the distance completed per week is interesting but it doesn’t tell the whole story. If all you know about two athletes is that they each run approximately 40 miles per week, you might assume that they were similar fitness or had similar goals. In reality, a sprinter might run 40 miles per week but primarily on a track at a high intensity while a novice training for their first marathon might run the same amount over a much longer period of time at a very low intensity.
By combining volume (in this case distance) and intensity (in this case pace) we get an idea of training load – how much work is being completed as well as the physiological demands being placed on the athletes and the anticipated effects.

Measuring and Calculating Training Load in Ski Mountaineering

In ski mountaineering racing, pace can be a difficult factor to work with. The variable nature of the snow surface means that pace and intensity are not very well correlated (compared to a sport like road running where pace is highly correlated with intensity):
Deep, fresh snow means an athlete may be working at a high intensity but traveling very slowly and covering little distance. A well groomed low angle piste allows for very quick but fairly easy travel. Also, distance is relative, especially if descents are included in the calculation! For this reason, heart rate becomes the best measure of training intensity that can be easily quantified for skimo.
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To measure training volume in skimo, distance is not useful for the reason described above. Vertical ascent is much more appropriate but still significantly influenced by changing snow conditions. Time is the best volume variable to work with.
The rise of modern GPS and heart rate enabled training watches have enabled us to collect a big amount of data on every session as most watches and their accompanying analysis software allow athletes to define their heart rate training zones. Then workouts can be broken down by intensity level: 30 minutes spent in Zone 1, 25 minutes in Zone 2, 18 minutes in Zone 3, or similar.
Each of the training load terms at the beginning of the article take the time spent in a Zone and assign it an intensity value, and then add up the time in each Zone to get a total training load number. The simplest way is to give Zone 1 a value of 1, Zone 2 a value of 2, and so on. From our example before the calculation would be as follows:

  • 30 min of Zone 1 = 30
  • 25 min of Zone 2 = 50
  • 18 min of Zone 3 = 54

The total training load value for the workout is then = 134. For a simple comparison, a two hour workout entirely in Zone 1 would have a training load value of 120, thus, considered physiologically less taxing.
Most estimates of training load use more complicated intensity values that give each successive zone a smaller value so the low intensity zones are not undervalued, but that’s a topic for another post.

Training Plan Progression: Training Volume vs Training Load

Just like the training load of a workout can be calculated, the training load of a week, month, or entire training year can be determined. When developing a training program, it is important to look beyond just the total volume.
Is there a very little intensity (Zone 3-4) training or do you see a lot?
Who is this program designed for?
A novice training program may include a small amount of high intensity training. As the program increases in difficulty and a base volume is reached, volume might remain constant while total high intensity training time increases. In this case, overall volume (measured in time) stays the same but the training load increases, and new fitness levels are achieved!

Mental Skills for Racing: Visualization

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Mental training is a commonly overlooked aspect of preparation for athletic competition. At best, most of us use only a few mental skills to cope with the difficulty of training and racing. In this article, we will take you through a few skills that will come in handy during a skimo season.

What is Visualization

Visualization is a method for practicing skills without actually physically performing them. It’s possible to use to practice technique (including transitions), overcome distractions, and prepare for more general race situations. Visualization training requires nothing more than a quiet space and some free time. Many strategies exist for visualization and the following are some that work best for us.

Lenzi leaving for a boot-pack in front of Jornet. ISMF photo.
Perfecting transitions through visualization is very effective. ISMF photo.

Preparation

Start by identifying visualization scenarios in three categories: Techniques, Distractions, and Racing Situations. I like to write things down so I start by dividing things I want to practice into three columns with the above categories as the title.
Technique visualization is used to develop a specific skill. In skimo, transitions are a good example of a technique that many of us need to improve and in which visualization can be employed.
Distractions are any type of adverse event in a race from which you must recover. A crash, a failed skin, or a frozen water bottle are all possible examples of distractions.
Racing Situations are more general, such as a start of a race, passing a competitor, skiing a difficult descent and so on.
In each column, on your piece of paper, write down as many scenarios of possible visualizations that you can think of. They can be specific to a single race or general to the racing environment. Once you’ve identified a handful of each, choose one at a time to visualize. I try to only do one or two scenarios per visualization session so they can remain clear in my mind rather than confused with many. You can do your visualization entirely in your head or write down some prompts (action steps). Notecards can be useful, writing the scenario on one side and then written prompts taking you through the visualization on the other – this way you are building yourself a library of scenarios and actions for future reference.

Visualization

There are several important things to include in the visualization process but most important is that it is as polysensory and positive as possible:
Polysensory refers to including as many senses as possible. While visualizing, you should not only see the scenario but also feel it. In a racing situation, this might include a cold, biting wind, fatigued legs, and the taste of blood from exertion! Include as many physical sensations and environmental conditions as possible.
Positive means that all visualizations should be resulting in a positive outcome. If you visualize yourself failing, you are setting yourself up for failure. Instead, always visualize yourself at your best! In the case of visualizing distractions, while you are initially experiencing something negative, through the course of the visualization, you should be realigning with it in the best possible manner and reversing it into something positive. A good way to think about it is to consider the problem or distraction and then think, if my coach was standing next to me right now, what would they say? You will picture the best version of yourself in that scenario.
Visualization can include a combination of 1st and 3rd person perspective. Some athletes like to see things through their own eyes while others like looking from above and seeing their body move through the action. I believe a bit of both is best – 1st person allows you to best feel the physical and emotional sensations while 3rd person allows you to see your body acting perfectly.
Finally, visualization should include all the emotions associated with that particular scenario. If you are visualizing a distraction, try to internally feel the frustration and panic initially but then regain composure and experience the confidence as you quickly act to correct the problem and finish stronger than before.

Putting it all together

Here is a particular situation (starting a race) and my visualization process:
I’ve got all my gear prepared perfectly – skis are waxed, skins are glued, and everything else is dialled and fits like a glove. I’m just finishing my warmup and even though the weather is a bit cold, I’m quite warm. I ski up to the start corral and feel my heart-rate settling as the race official checks my beacon. After I drop my jacket and pull up to the start line, I feel a bit of a chill but also the excitement of the race about to start. Standing still, my heart rate increases as I tense up. With a few deep breaths, my heart rate stabilizes. I relax my grip on my poles and get positioned for the start. The gun fires and I take off running, keep breathing, smooth stride, poling fast…
Do you use visualization to improve your skiing? What other mental skills do you use to prepare for training or events?

How to Taper and Peak for Your Goal Skimo Race: Volume, Intensity, Recovery…

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After months of training, it can be daunting when the time finally comes for your big race. While it’s not possible to ‘make’ your race by training in the last week or two leading up to it, it’s definitely possible to ‘break’ it if you over do it!
By focusing on your taper, you give yourself the best chance for a successful performance.
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Adjusting Your Training – Volume and Intensity

Tapering, to most athletes, means a reduction in volume so we’ll start there. It’s important to adjust your training properly, not just hang up the skis and hit the couch.
Your overall volume (time or vertical – depending on what you measure) should decrease approximately 50% during your taper week. Remember, the training is done, you aren’t going to make any amazing breakthroughs by putting in time the week before the big event.
As important is maintaining the frequency of training and intensity of your sessions. This means if you usually train five days per week, then continue to do so, just make each session shorter. Don’t drop interval workouts from your schedule but adjust them to be less taxing by reducing the number of reps and overall intensity while increasing rest between reps. One of my favourite intensity workouts the week before a race is shown in green below.
Use your reduced training volume wisely, such as to inspect the race course. Depending on the venue, a half-day lift ticket can give you a big advantage for scoping the course. Focus on descents and technical sections. You don’t want to be surprised by a sharp corner when you are racing at your maximum speed!
taper-week-example

Maximize Your Recovery

While adjusting volume is the most obvious part of a taper, there is much more to making it effective. Maximizing your recovery routine is a critical component.
Have a look at your schedule and figure out what time you are going to need to wake up the morning of the event, and what time you will need to go to bed the night before for a great night’s sleep. Use the week leading up to the race to adjust your bedtime routine so you get in the habit of getting to sleep on time!
The reduction in training time should also free up extra time to focus on recovery routines like rolling and release, massage, improved nutrition (take the time to prepare healthy meals), and preparing for the race.

Plan Your Race

Previewing a race course, as already mentioned, is critical. It might not always be possible to ski the entire course before race day but do your best to get a copy of the race map and check it out on Google Earth. Are you skiing on piste, open slopes, or in tight trees? Do you have dramatic turns or groomed runs to be aware of?

Some organizer provide a pretty good map from which you can figure out the locations of the climbs/descents and their vertical.
Some organizer provide a pretty good map from which you can figure out the locations of the climbs/descents and their vertical.
Best case scenario: Over the course of the preceding week, you’ve previewed every section of the course and taken notes about important sections on a copy of the race map. An advanced athlete can then use this information to visualize each section of the course and how they might react to situations at each point.
This becomes part of the overall race strategy. Being aware of the demands of individual climbs will help determine the equipment you use (mostly talking about skins here), how hard you will push in each section, and your nutritional demands.

Practice Your Transitions

While any time is good time to work on your transitions, the taper period is especially great. Going through the correct sequences of various skimo racing transitions will keep your mind sharp towards the race day and sometimes you can discover a bad habit that started to creep in during weeks of pure training.
Once you know the race details, you can specifically focus only on those transitions but pretty much at all times you need to be very efficient in these:

  • skins-on
  • skins-off
  • skinning to boot-packing
  • boot-packing to skinning/skiing

If you are unsure about the movement sequences in your transitions watch our playlist of videos below:

Equipment Preparation

Finally, and something easily overlooked, is equipment preparation.
Make sure, several days before, that everything is in proper working order. If your boot cables are frayed or your pole straps disintegrating, don’t wait until the day before the race to repair them. Give yourself a few days just in case the local shop is out of stock or whatever else could go wrong.
We always do a quick check of our boots (cracks/holes)bindings (cracks in the plate or loose screws), skis (waxed/scraped), skins (any glue touchups), and poles (mostly the straps).
Finally, check the weather and wax your skis for the expected conditions. Give yourself plenty of time and do a good job scraping and brushing. Do it when you have access to a bench and vice rather than behind your car at the venue!

12 Week Skimo Training Plan

In addition to our Manual For Ski Mountaineering Racing e-book, we released a very detailed skimo training plan that will help you to reach your best at your goal race – 12 Weeks to Your Best Skimo Race.
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Guide to Overtraining for Mountain Athletes: What it is, Symptoms, Causes, Effects, Treatment, and Prevention

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We originally published this post in November 2013 but it with the new season at our door it is highly relevant.
As highly enthusiastic mountain athletes there are many times we overextend our bodies to either achieve our goals or to simply have more fun. This can become a problem if we do it too often without balancing it with adequate recovery.
Overtraining can have serious long-term consequences on high level athletes. So if you are highly competitive, über-driven, or just training to push your limits then this article is for you!

Overtraining vs Overreaching

Increases in training load decrease performance capacity acutely, and it’s only with a sufficient rest and recovery that performance improvements occur.
Training load is a combination of the following:

  • Exercise intensity (easy effort, hard effort… could be measured in heart-rate)
  • Each workout’s length (in time)
  • Workouts frequency (per day, week, month…)

What is overreaching?

The application of the training load is called overreaching. Functional overreaching (FO) is a temporary performance decrement in response to increased training load which will result in better performance after a period of recovery. This calculated process is also called super-compensation.
Functional overreaching is the cornerstone of modern periodization that follows an increasing load and recovery pattern.

Training periodization model resulting in super-compensation.

What is overtraining?

Excessive training without sufficient rest can lead to the physical and psychological impairment of ability called overtraining.
Non-functional overreaching (NFO) is manifested in a significantly longer or more severe decrement in performance. Physiological reductions in performance may be accompanied by psychological and neuroendocrine symptoms.

Model of overtraining

Because of the extended period of decreased performance, training time is lost and super-compensation does not occur.
Furthermore, chronic NFO can lead in rare cases to overtraining syndrome (OTS), with more extreme symptoms, and performance decrements lasting much longer. The specific differences between NFO and OTS are the subject of debate but sports professionals can agree that both have (possibly severe) negative effects on the athlete.

Symptoms of Overtraining

Overreaching and overtraining can present with a range of signs and symptoms that may be difficult to differentiate from infections or even functional overreaching preceding super-compensation (recovery).

Symtomps of overtraining

Causes of Overtraining

The cause of these symptoms is the result of three interacting factors:

  • Heavy training load
  • Insufficient rest
  • Non-training physical or psychological stressors

Overtraining is caused by 3 interacting causes.

The third factor – physical or psychological stressors – are common, especially in severe cases of OTS. These may be training related stressors or other life stressors, and may be recurring or more severe triggers. These include:

  • Lack of training variation
  • Insomnia
  • Altitude training
  • Work/family/relationship stress
  • High stress competitions (playoffs)/excessive competition
  • Illness

These causes are commonly associated with overtraining and can frequently be identified in hindsight by reviewing training logs. However, the specific pathophysiology that leads from poor recovery from training to overtraining is unclear.
The specifics of each hypothesis for overtraining is outside the scope of this article but it is likely a multi-factorial syndrome that includes inadequate fuel for muscle metabolism, high levels of oxidative stress, neural and hormonal depression, nervous system imbalance and chronic inflammation. These combine for a systematic effect on a range of organ systems.

Effects of Overtraining

The long-term effects of overtraining are varied and can potentially permanently change physical ability.
Like any overuse injury, extreme overtraining can lead to changes in tissue as a result of severe breakdown without recovery. Damage is unable to repair itself and muscle fibers are replace by fibrosis. Neurohormonal and metabolic effects can result in compromised nerve action on muscle tissues, decreases in the important hormones that regulate tissue repair, and severe fatigue.

Diagnosing Overtraining

Diagnosis of overtraining is difficult because no specific tests definitively identify overtraining; overtraining is a diagnosis of exclusion. Athletes with specific risk factors in whom all other possible diagnoses are ruled out may be overtrained. The diagnosis includes:magnifying-glass

  1. A performance decrement lasting longer than usual (weeks to months) despite sufficient recovery
  2. Disturbances in mood
  3. No alternative diagnosis for decreased performance

Common differential diagnoses include asthma, iron deficiency, and malnutrition or disordered eating.
Overtraining cannot be diagnosed without a sufficient period of rest and recovery as this is a critical component of the definition. If the athlete returns to previous level of performance with 14-21 days of rest, a diagnosis of NFO can be made. If the required period of rest is greater than 21 days, OTS may be diagnosed.
A critical first step in diagnosing overtraining is a careful analysis of an athletes history. A nutrition history may reveal disordered eating. A complete blood count (CBC) will rule out iron deficiency. Analyzing recent training patterns may reveal increases in training load that could act as a trigger. Frequently, faced with recent poor performances, athletes will increase training load, triggering or exacerbating overtraining.
Consultation with a sports medicine physician can lead to further testing for other diseases or infections that may underly symptoms of fatigue. A referral to a sports psychologist is useful for assessing changes in mood. The profile of mood states (POMS) questionnaire is commonly used to diagnose and assess overtraining.

Treatment

Treatment of overtraining is highly dependent on the athlete. Rest is critical with some athletes requiring total abstinence from training while others recovering best with very small increases in volume from 5min/day to 1hr as long as fatigue is not limiting.
Intensity should be avoided completely until the athlete has recovered to their previous performance and motivation level. A sports physician and sports psychologist can provide significant support by monitoring progress

Prevention is Critical

Prevention is the most important message related to overtraining. Many mountain athletes compete for the joy of being outdoors and competing in the mountain environment. This can be both beneficial and increase the risk for overtraining.
Most mountain endeavours are dictated by the weather and rain is an excellent motivator for taking a rest day. Mountain athletes are also less likely to follow a strict training schedule and frequently train by feel, taking rest days when tired.
However, with the increasing competitiveness of mountain sports, athletes are training harder and more specifically for their sport to improve their performance.
The most important aspect of preventing overtraining is being aware of the causes and symptoms outlined above.
Training and recovery balance avoid overtraining.
In order to increase training load and avoid overtraining, several simple principles of training can be employed:

  • Training schedules should use some form of periodization to ensure adequate training load and recovery. This is augmented by proper preparation and tapering before competitions to ensure they do not act as a trigger for overtraining.
  • Training loads should be adjusted based on fatigue during training, performance in competition and mood.
  • If a training session was inordinately difficult, had severe weather stress or was impossible to complete due to fatigue, additional rest is advised.
  • Even outside the context of overtraining, sufficient caloric intake and high quality nutrition with adequate hydration and sleep are a critical component for any athlete.

A coach is an extremely valuable asset for any athlete. Coaches can take an outside view of the training plan being followed without feeling the same pressures as an athlete to train and perform.
Physical testing, usually in the form of a standard time-trial is a highly effective form of monitoring for performance improvements or overtraining. A local loop or climb with defined start and finish can be used along with time, average HR, and perceived effort. By tracking these stats for your time-trial on a semi-regular basis, you can identify early signs of overtraining. That is, if you are under performing on your loop (going slow), working harder, or your average HR is high, it’s time to rest and start examining the rest of your training plan for overtraining risk factors.

Key points

To minimize the risk of overtraining keep in mind some simple yet key points:

  • Overtraining can have serious long-term consequences on high level athletes.
  • Reduced performance does not always mean that you are not training hard enough, frequently it means the opposite.
  • Monitoring training, stress, and recovery are the best forms of prevention.

References:

  • Kreher and Schwartz. Overtraining Syndrome: A Practical Guide (2012)
  • Richard Budgett. Fatigue and underperformance in athletes: the overtraining syndrome (1998)
  • Peter Janssen. Lactate Threshold Training (2001)

Copying Kilian Jornet is Likely Not Ideal for Our Performance and Health

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This article is not only for mature and young athletes but for their parents as well.
Without a doubt, Kilian Jornet has been the most influential figure in endurance mountain sports over the past decade. I don’t know anyone that hasn’t been inspired by him at least a bit.
There are videos, and stories, showing Kilian winning a stacked World Cup ski mountaineering race and smashing a field of well-known ultra-runners only few weeks later, despite a five-month long break from running. In between, he is skiing up and down Mont Blanc for breakfast. I mean, how can you not be inspired?
I am a fan but I want to bring attention to couple of points that I think the general athletic public is perhaps not aware. In recent years, I observe many mountain/endurance athletes mimic Kilian’s training and I think, such copying, can likely do more harm than good to us in terms of long-term performance and more importantly health.

If we can think of Performance (personal goals) and Health as consequences of the four factors in blue then we can see that health is more important than performance in the long run because it directly affects many aspects of the whole training process. (But pretty much everything is linked together whether directly or indirectly.)
If we can think of Performance (personal goals) and Health as consequences of the four factors in blue then we can see that health is more important than performance in the long run, because it directly affects many aspects of the whole training process. (But pretty much everything is linked together whether directly or indirectly.)

Kilian versus Us: Physiology, Training, Recovery, Resources

I am not trying to pick on Kilian here, I am simply using him as an example because he is arguably the most decorated endurance athlete right now and he is a man of extremes. If you are getting inspired by him then that’s all great, and know I am as well, but perhaps keep the following points in mind when increasing your training loads.

Physiology

There is no doubt in my mind that Kilian Jornet is a freak of nature. He regularly dominates elite fields in two different mountain sports – ski mountaineering and running – in events ranging from 20 minutes to 40 hours! He seems to recover crazy fast and is never injured.
This could be due to the fact that the two sports still have long ways to go in terms of competition evolution, or that his physiology is that much better that he might not need to be racing at 100% to achieve many of his wins. Most likely, it is a combination of both.
Whatever the case, I am fairly certain that if Kilian was a road marathon runner, or a professional cyclist, he would be top 10 in New York Marathon, or Tour de France, perhaps even win.

Training

As athletes, we respond differently to different types of training programs but there are some general principles that work quite well universally. We should shape our programs based on the demands of our goal competitions as the best performance gains are made when a training program promotes the desired adaptation effects in a long-term sustainable manner.
The above means that if you want to run ultras then you will need to spend lots of time running long miles, but if your goal are 1-3 hour races then your training needs be quite different – less overall volume, frequent high(er) intensity sessions, etc – to provide you with the most benefits for the time spend.
Kilian Jornet seems to be somewhat spared of these training specificity rules. No matter how many hours of training, combined with unprecedented vertical climbing he does, he is still arguably the fastest when the race is longer than 20 minutes. According to his website, Kilian trains 20-35 hours over 7 days a week, pretty much year round. He averages around 1000 hours and 550,000 vertical metres annually.
For you and me, raising our training volume anywhere close to his levels, even for few weeks, it is very likely to set us on a path of over-training and health issues such as joint problems, muscle imbalances, hormonal and immunity imbalances, and others.

Recovery

Ability to recover well and fast is crucial to successfully improve your performance. Quality and speed of your recovery allows you to do more in training and to have an edge in competition.
Given all of the above, it’s clear that Kilian Jornet’s body must have an exceptional recovery ability. This allows him to train and race more than almost anyone in the world, and all without getting injured! I am not aware of any other athletes that push(ed) their bodies so much, for so many years, and haven’t been sidelined with an overuse injury even for couple of weeks. Will he pay the price later or he is physiologically just so superior?

Resources

With physiology, training, and recovery building on each other, we need to also consider resources when comparing ourselves to Kilian.
If you ever seriously focused on improving your performance, even for a short period of time, then you likely discovered that not enough recovery time and quality easily erodes your efforts. I believe, for most mountain athletes, this ultimately comes down to resources expressed as money and time. Between work, training, and other commitments there simply is not enough time for proper recovery on regular basis, and no money for some quality methods such as massages, physio, etc.
I don’t think Kilian is rich but he certainly has more time – to listen to his body, to take care of it, to relax his mind. He has worked hard to arrange things this way but for most of us this is not possible so it should be taken into consideration when setting up our training plan.
Killian is a full time professional athlete and at any time he isn’t training he is recovering. He also has a great support network – this also fits under the resources umbrella.

Kilian versus Us: Long-term health

Professional athletes get paid with an understanding that they are trading their bodies for money but even they still hope the trade-off won’t have serious consequences.
As amateur athletes, junior racers, or parents, we should consider future consequences a little bit more, especially, given the fact that we don’t have the same recovery resources available to us.

Bottom line

With everything said throughout the article, I don’t want to discourage you from challenging yourself, but I hope I was able to illustrate why you should be thinking of the size and the kind of the impact your training and activities will have on your performances and health. Kilian is using his talent to its full potential, and that is very inspiring, just don’t forget he is a bit special 😉

Book announcement: Manual for Ski Mountaineering Racing is coming soon

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It has been over a year since Eric and I started working on an idea I have been thinking about for a while. Today, we would like to present you with a cool project we are just finishing and you will be able to get your hands on very soon.

Fast-track your skimo learning

The Manual, as we refer to it, is going to be an e-book that you will be able to read on your phone, or iPad, or laptop, or just simply print out.
We believe the main benefit of this Manual is that it will allow you to speed up your skimo learning curve by at least a few years. You will still need to train, but inside the book we reveal and answer as much as possible yet in a length and format that will take you no more than a day to study.
We didn’t strive for a skimo encyclopedia but rather for a practical tool that you can easily and rapidly learn from.

Skimo technique videos

On top of the manual itself, we have been developing a series of informative technique videos. We are going to start by releasing skimo transitions videos during the next couple of days so you can start practicing speedy transitions for your first races. The cool thing is that we are linking to all of those videos from inside the e-book to make your learning experience as smooth as possible.
Here is one of the videos (click on the “gear” settings button to see it in HD):

I want it, when is the release date?

If you can’t wait to read it then send us your email through the form below and we will let you know a couple of days before it will be released.
The price will be $17 per copy but the first 20 people to email us here will get a 20% discount towards the purchase.
[contact-form-7 404 "Not Found"] In case you missed it, here is a sample, most of a complete chapter from the e-book on skimo racing strategy that we released for free a few days ago.
Thank you and we wish you many happy early season turns!
Stano and Eric

Review of Hydrapak SoftFlask: Practical little helper

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soft-flask-250Hydrapak SoftFlask quick overview:

  • Usual full price: $13.99 USD
  • Weight: 24 g (250ml Energy Flask)
  • Pros: Light, Versatile, No Waste, Ease of Use
  • Cons: Durability, Hydration
  • Suitability: Rando racing, ski touring, ultra running, scrambling, alpine climbing, trail running.

Bottom line:

Relatively cheap and an improvement over individual gel packages.

Product description and How we tested it:

Hydrapak is a relative newcomer to the hydration market and primarily a producer of standard plastic water bottles as well as Camelbak-style reservoirs. They also produce a slightly more niche product however, the soft flask. This is a collapsible soft plastic flask in various sizes with a small bite valve at the top. They come in two designs, one in more of a bottle shape ‘for hydration’ and one in a flask shape ‘for energy’. Both types have several size options.
I’ll admit to getting inspiration for this idea by seeing an athlete in one of the ISMF World Cup videos racing with a soft flask taped to their backpack but after a season of running and skiing with versions of these flasks, here are a few of my thoughts:
The 250ml ‘energy’  soft flasks are very useful for skimo races. Around the 2 hr time duration, these races require calorie intake but dealing with the hassle of several gel packets or chewing solid bars is not ideal with gloves and cold fingers. Additionally, cold temps make gels much harder to swallow. My solution has been mixing four gel packs (or using bulk gel from Hammer Nutrition) into a soft flask with water. You avoid any packaging issues and the now slurry like mixture is much easier to swallow. I tape it onto my shoulder strap for no-hand access when it is warm and keep it in my skin suit pocket when it’s cold.
soft-flask-500These flasks are also useful for similar length running races and fit well in a vest pocket or just as a handheld. Once you finish the flask, crumple it up and stick it in your shorts pocket.
150ml soft flasks are less useful, but in a short race, where only one shot of gel slurry is needed, it is sufficient and ultra-light.
The 500ml ‘Hydration’ flask is more of a bottle type design. It has a different shape than the ‘nutrition’ flasks and fits well anywhere you would put a standard bottle (vest pockets). I use these to replace the bottles in my vest primarily because they are lighter. Slightly smaller than a standard bottle, they don’t hold as much fluid but are easier to carry as a handheld, even without a strap.

Pros:

  • Eliminates individual gel packaging. No fumbling with package tops. All ready to go at your finger tips.
  • Allows you to create a gel ‘slurry’ by adding water. Much more friendly for consumption during a race.
  • Ease of access – tape it to the strap of your pack for hands-free, or stick it in a running vest pocket or even the pocket of your shorts!
  • Easy to take apart the nozzle for cleaning out scuzzy old gel.

Cons / What can be improved about this product:

  • These are not particularly durable – be careful with duct tape and scissors. Also will not cushion a fall very well if you land on it 🙂
  • Some older/smaller models do not have a function to lock the flask shut. This means it could potentially leak in your bag if squeezed at the nozzle properly. I haven’t really had this happen and the nozzle is pretty well sealed. Not a big deal as long as you are careful

Product Specs (250ml Energy SoftFlask):

  • Weight: 24 grams
  • Materials: Silicone/TPU
  • Size: 150ml and 250ml ‘For Energy’, and 350ml, 500ml, 750ml ‘For Hydration’

Online stores that carry Hydrapak SoftFlasks:

Using Heat Training to Improve Performance

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camelsWhat is Hyperthermic Training?

We are all well aware of the negative effects that heat can have on race performance. Body temperature is one of many important factors affecting our performance but it is a big one. Even in a moderate climate like the Coast, racing temperatures can reach extremes. The best athletes are those whose bodies 1) are the most efficient at dissipating heat and 2) can maintain a higher core temperatures than others and therefore a higher energy output. Luckily for us, we can train our bodies to acclimatize to heat.
It is important as a summer or winter athlete to train not only to run, but also train to run in the heat. Just as we use running and other forms of exercise as a training stress, hyperthermic training uses heat as a training stress. The goals of hyperthermic training are twofold: the first is to increase exercise capacity in the heat (heat acclimatization). The second is to actually increase overall exercise capacity. As you will see below, hyperthermic training can be useful to all athletes, not just those competing in the heat.

Benefits of Heat Training

I put a little symbol next to each of the potential benefits of hyperthermic training to tell if it is beneficial for heat acclimatization (#) or overall endurance performance ($).

  1. Plasma volume is increased. With more fluid in circulation, the heart can pump less hard to maintain the same cardiac output. This results in a reduced heart rate at any given workload, in other words, a reduced relative intensity. An added benefit of an increase in plasma volume is that the body senses a decrease in red blood cell concentration, this results in an EPO response (much like training at altitude) that increases your total red blood cell volume (and therefore oxygen carrying capacity). Increased plasma volume also allows faster dissipation of core heat. #$
  2. Muscle/tissue blood flow is increased. Blood not only brings oxygen and fuel to muscle cells, it also clears away metabolic substrates. Increasing flow allows better fuel (so much so that one study showed a 40-50% decreased dependence on muscle glycogen during exercise) and oxygen delivery as well as increasing substrate clearance. #$
  3. Thermoregulatory control is improved. By increasing our heat dissipation capacity, primarily by lowering the threshold core temperature for the onset of sweating, hyperthermic training allows our body to run at a cooler temperature at any given intensity (or increased intensity at the same temperature). #$
  4. Muscle hypertrophy. Hyperthermic training has been shown to dramatically increase the release of Heat Shock Protein and Growth Hormones. These releases are big (a two-fold to sixteen-fold increase!) and both are very important in muscle recovery and regeneration. #
  5. Oxidative stress is reduced. Aerobic exercise increases production of reactive oxygen species and a sauna bath changes the antioxidant response to exercise. #
The author poorly managing body temperature while running to Sigurd Peak. (G Robbins Photo)
The author poorly managing body temperature while running to Sigurd Peak. (G Robbins Photo)

Recommendations for Heat Training

Researchers have identified a variety of successful methods for hyperthermic training. The majority utilize a dry sauna capable of 80-100 degree celsius temperatures. Because heat reduces exercise capacity, the current belief is that hyperthermic training for improvement in performance should be completed post-exercsie. Several studies have used a 30 minute sauna, 2x per week for three weeks before an important competition as their protocol. Other studies use longer or more frequent exposures. Exposures above 1 hour/day and more frequent than 3 days/week become very time consuming (likely better spent actually running) and may increase risk of complications.
Like any other training modality, hyperthermic training should be factored in while determining the overall training load. Complications may occur and as with any training program, your doctor should be consulted if you have any risk factors that contra-indicate sauna use.

References:

  • Scoon et al., (2007) Effect of post-exercise sauna bathing on the endurance performance of competitive male runners. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.
  • Costa et al., (2014) Heat acclimation responses of an ultra-endurance running group preparing for hot desert-based competition. European Journal of Sport Science.
  • Garrett et al., (2012) Effectiveness of short-term heat acclimation for highly trained athletes. European Journal of Applied Physiology.
  • Sawka et al., Thermoregulatory responses to acute exercise-heat stress and heat acclimation. Handbook of Physiology.
  • Sutkowy et al., (2014) The effect of a single Finnish sauna bath after aerobic exercise on the oxidative status in healthy men. Scandinavian Journal of Clinical & Laboratory Investigation.