The clearest correlation to running related injury appears to be training error, which is estimated to account for 60-70% of injuries. But less clear, as this paper digs into, is which variable is most at play: volume, duration, frequency, or intensity? In an attempt to quantify “training error” and provide some guidelines, we have what’s come to be known as the 10% rule. The basic premise here is that you shouldn’t increase your weekly running volume by more than 10% over the previous week. But the 1st rule about rules is that there are no rules. So, this is more guidance than gospel. 

What might be closer to a rule is that injuries happen when the load that’s placed on the body exceeds the body’s ability to tolerate that load. In this equation, we can modify load via training parameters like the variables that the article above attempted to dissect: weekly volume, duration of runs, frequency of runs, and intensity (speed and/or elevation gain and loss). We might further modify running load via surface (pavement vs dirt), footwear quality, and running form (more on that in a minute). On the other side of the equation, we can modify the body’s ability to tolerate load via exercise and preparation for the demands of running (much more on that in a few minutes).

Just like there is no perfect skiing technique, there is no perfect running form. However, in both sports we do have an optimal range, and when movement patterns fall outside of that range they become inefficient. Decreased efficiency equals both decreased performance and increased load, neither of which are desirable. Inconveniently (again), it’s very hard to define what proper running form looks like. It’s maybe easier to define what it doesn’t or shouldn’t look like. Even then, there are only a handful of moderate correlations between aberrant running form and injury. 

At the top of the list is overstriding, aka landing with your foot well out in front of your body’s center of mass. (This is not to be confused with heel striking—landing with initial foot contact through your heel as opposed to mid foot or forefoot. Heel striking isn’t necessarily overstriding though most overstriding does tend to be characterized by heel striking.) The primary issues with overstriding are an increase in peak/impact forces and a decrease in control of the knee, both of which are going to increase load on the body. Without diving too deep into the rabbit hole, the best way to correct an overstride is to increase the cadence or steps per minute—more steps at the same speed equals a shorter stride length. To train this, you need to be on a treadmill at a fixed speed (if you try to increase your cadence outside, you’ll likely just run faster) with your steps timed to the rhythm of a metronome. The target is to increase your steps per minute by 10%, which has been shown to effectively decrease loading rates.

Next up is a lack of pelvic control or what’s often called hip drop or femoral adduction. This occurs when the muscles of the stance leg are overwhelmed and unable to control the hip, and therefore the pelvis. As a result the pelvis drops on the opposite side, altering knee kinematics in the process, and frequently causing knee pain. We look to correct this through exercises targeting hip strength, coordination, and control as well and balance and stability in single leg stance. Conveniently (finally), this would be all of our ski-specific dryland exercises and drills. If you are a FasterSkier regular, then you’ve already seen numerous exercise suggestions here, here, here, here, and here, all of which are quite appropriate for running injury prevention.

That’s a great segue into the other side of the equation: the body’s ability to tolerate load. To paraphrase Geoff Burns, PhD from a recent Science of Sport podcast on running biomechanics, It’s not any one component—joint or muscle—that correlates with injury or performance, but how the system behaves as a whole. We must behave like pogo sticks. More force in equals more force out. But the body must be able to withstand these forces and be able to direct them appropriately. 

Essentially, Dr Burns is saying that running is an inherently high load activity and the body must be adequately prepared (strength, stability, mobility, etc) to handle these loads. Despite Instagram posts proclaiming Five Exercises Every Runner MUST Do! there is no magic exercise. I literally asked three different colleagues, all running injury specialists, What are your top three exercises for preventing running injuries? Inconveniently (here we go again), I got three different answers. 

Not to use that as a cop out, or get away without including pictures of my bald head and yellow-walled basement, here are MY top three exercises for runners (and skiers). These, plus all of your other strength training and pay-to-play maintenance exercises, should be in the mix two or three times a week. As with any exercise, the goal is to challenge or nudge the body in order to get the desired adaptations. This, as with all training, is a bit of a Goldilocks thing: too hot and the body is unhappy and let’s you know about it; too cold and nothing happens. Please be aware that these exercises (and the ones in my previous articles linked above) may not be your Goldilocks. If you are currently dealing with a running related injury (or any musculoskeletal pain), please visit your friendly, neighborhood physical therapist instead of searching for an internet cure.

Triple Extension

This is a classic running form drill to promote pushing through the hip, knee, and ankle. The shape–the ability to fully extend the hip and knee while going high on your toes–is arguably more applicable to sprinters than distance runners; however, it makes my list due to the work done by the calf muscles which are major players in running.

• Stand on one foot about 3 feet away from a wall. Hands are on the wall at about shoulder height. Imagine the wall is falling on you and you need to push it back upright. At the foot, your weight is biased toward the front of the foot so the heel is just high enough off the ground that you could slide a credit card under it.
• Still holding up the wall, drop down into a low squat with your opposite leg trailing behind. 
• With a quick push, stand as tall as you can. You should have equal weight from the inside to outside of the foot, and the knee and hip should be straight, but thinking about getting tall often accomplishes the task.
• If doing this exercise on one leg is too challenging, you can do it both legs together.
• Aim for 2-3 sets of 10x on each side. This is also a good running warm up.

Bulgarian Split Squats aka Trail Leg Lunges

These work the glutes and quads more than squats due to the staggered stance and place more load (and balance demand) on the front leg than traditional lunges. More bang for your buck! The version I’m showing uses a hip strategy/hip hinge/trunk lean to increase the work done by the glutes.

• Feet are staggered with the back foot on a step, box, chair, or bench. 
• To determine the placement of the front foot, sit on the front edge of the step, box, etc. Straighten the working leg out in front of you. Keeping the heel on the floor, stand up onto that leg. Then place the back leg on the step with the sole of the foot vs top of the foot.
• As you drop into the lunge, your hips should go straight down.
• Aim your fingers for the sides of your ankle. This will promote the forward trunk lean.
• The knee will move forward a bit but shouldn’t be going past your toes.
• Shoot for 2-3 sets of 10x. You can make it harder by adding weights or increasing the height of the furniture. It can be regressed by keeping your back foot on the ground.

Side Planks

Typically thought of as a core strength exercise, which it very much is, these also do a lot to  work gluteus medius, a major stabilizer at the hip (see the bit on pelvic drop above).

• Lying on your side, prop yourself up between the outside of your bottom foot and your elbow/forearm.
• Ankle, knee, hip, and shoulder are in a straight line, and your body should be vertical like a wall, not sagging or twisting to one side or the other.
• This is a timed hold. 30 seconds is a win. A minute is a gold medal but is getting boring and ready for some progressions (try it from your hand instead of elbow, add moving the top leg up and down, or twist like you’re reaching the top hand under your armpit). An easier version is to go from the knees instead of the feet (still keep your knee, hip and shoulder in line but bend at the knees so your feet are behind you).

Wall Scrubs

• Lie on your side with your butt 4-6 inches from a wall
• Bottom knee is bent and the top leg is straight
• Push the heel of your top leg into the wall and move that leg up and down
• You should be putting a lot of pressure into the wall—think about scrubbing the wall vs just painting it
• Keep your toes pointed forward not up towards the ceiling
• Pelvis stays vertical and quiet. The motion should be isolated at the hip, not from the pelvis tipping. You can put your hand on the side of your pelvis for feedback to monitor potential movement
• You’ll need to be wearing just a sock or use a washcloth on your heel to reduce friction on the wall
• 3 sets of 10-15 reps (if you’re not getting much fatigue with 15x, add a resistance band around your knees)

Banded Side Steps

• Put a resistance band around your ankles
• Bend and the ankles, knees, and hips like the ski stance
• Keeping tension on the band throughout, step sideways leading with the knee rather than reaching with the foot and shifting your weight
• Band position variations: band around the knees is a regression offering less resistance and possibly more cuing to lead with the knee vs the foot; band around the feet is harder with more work at the ankles but requires a durable band not the cheap ones we give to patients in PT
• 2×15-20 steps or whatever length of hallway you have 

Curtsy Step Downs

• Stand sideways on the bottom stair or a plyo box
• The foot at the edge of the stair will be the working leg
• With the other leg, reach behind the stance leg and tap the floor then finish with knee high
• The working leg will be doing a single leg squat so look to keep your spine neutral, hinge through the hips, lean forward with the the trunk and your butt goes back
• Ideally, this is also a balance exercise with the non-stance leg never taking any weight. However, if this is a struggle, use a railing or wall for assistance
• You can add weight for additional resistance 
• 3 sets of 10x

Lateral Bounding

• Think of these as hopping side steps
• Start in the ski stance position
• Push/hop sideways off the stance leg and land on the other leg in a balanced position
• Switch back to the working leg and go again
• As described, you’ll be moving sideways like down a hallway. If you’re tight on space, you can go back and forth from right leg to left leg but strive to be honest about the balance before the next hop
• Look to do 30 contacts/reps on each side split into sets however your space allows (2×15, 3×10, 5×6, etc)

Lateral Countermovement Jumps

• Stand sideways on the bottom stair or a 8+ inch plyo box
• Step off, landing in the ski stance position on the opposite leg
• Rather than pausing in a balanced position, immediately hop back up to the standing leg on the stair/box
• Think of the landing leg as being a spring or pogo stick that will bounce back after being compressed—the compression will create the ankle, knee, and hip flexion inherent to ski stance, then we want to rebound off quickly and pop back up to the box
• Make sure the work is being done by the landing leg vs just stepping back on the box
• 2 sets of 5-10x. You can add weight or increase the box height for more difficulty (with a med ball or dumbbell held in both hands, move it from chest height while standing on the box to the hip of the landing leg on the floor)

Ask most endurance athletes what quality they’d like to develop in their sport, and many would say “I want to be stronger.” Ironic, then, because “stronger” means different things to different athletes. To one, it means durable: able to withstand continued stresses and discomforts. To another, it means powerful: able to generate greater force in less time. To still another, it means actually stronger: able to move a heavier weight (regardless of the speed of the movement). When skiers say they want to be stronger, it seems what they mean is they want to be faster, and have that speed be sustainable throughout the distance of their events (those being the qualities that “strong skiers” display). The difficulty in training for that sort of improvement is that the quality they seek—speed—is actually produced by two different things: the push, and the glide. Greater speed comes from pushing harder. Maintaining speed is also facilitated by gliding more efficiently (effectively staying out of the way and letting the ski run). Skiers performing at top levels are adept at both, and both should be addressed in off-season training.

What is Strength?

Strength is the quality that allows an athlete to produce greater forces, or withstand greater pressures. In the ski world, it means simply that the stronger skier pushes harder (a measure that will also include a factor of power). When Magnus Boee (University of Colorado) double-poled away from the entire field in the NCAA Mass Start Classic finale, his advantage over everyone else was primarily a factor of strength: he simply put more force into each double pole than did his competitors. True, he also possessed the endurance to maintain that physiologically expensive effort longer than his competitors (and farther up each uphill than anyone else), but Boee’s incredible strength is what made his speed possible in the first place.

Pushing

Push harder: go faster. It’s a simple equation that appears true regardless of any athlete’s technique or efficiency. Improving strength and power allows a skier to ski faster. Physiologically, strength takes longer to develop than does endurance; therefore, if one of my goals is to be stronger next season, my regimen of strength training should begin very early. Many coaches would advise that strength, for skiers, is a whole-body thing, with some special emphases being placed on certain muscles that are crucial to ski technique and ski propulsion.

The exercises that I typically include in ski-strength training programs are those that involve large muscle groups and full body movements (not the practice of isolating muscles like a body builder would). Skiers ski with their whole body; therefore, I like to recommend power-exercises that utilize free weights (and/or body weight) rather than machines. Standing push presses, cleans, upright rows, bent-over rows, squats, one-leg squats, step ups, et. al., allow the athlete to move the weight quickly, encouraging techniques that elicit some “pop.”

One recommendation: strength training should be conducted when the athlete is fresh, NOT when the athlete is already tired. Simply put, go to the gym first and go for a training run later (not the other way ’round).

Another recommendation: train one thing at a time (don’t try to make strength training into more endurance training). There’s no need to keep your heart rate high during strength training. While circuit training can be valuable, the fact that your pulse is elevated is actually hindering your physiological ability to train for strength.

Gliding

Holding yourself in the correct body posture to maximize glide during either Classic skiing or Freestyle skiing (hips forward, chest up, ankles flexed) can be an exhausting challenge, one that most ski-athletes find supremely difficult to sustain. Drills and exercises that develop stabilizer muscles (core exercises, balance drills, planks, etc.) can improve an athlete’s gliding characteristics and stability. Those are an important part of any dryland training program, and can produce a bit more speed in next year’s performance (allowing the athlete to maintain proper glide-posture, AND potentially to do so for a longer period of time). Even so, balance/stability training is not a replacement for strength training. Greatest gains in ski-speed come from pushing harder . . . and that means strength training.

All this is just a long-winded way of professing that training for next season should be far more complex and comprehensive than simply hopping back on my roller skis. Ski racers are athletes who will benefit from a variety of training exercises and workouts in order to develop the numerous components of ski-success. The dryland training season is actually pretty short; there’s simply not much time to develop these new qualities. Getting started in the spring—on strength, on power, on glide—will make for a better, speedier winter.

Returning to training after a spring hiatus means laying out a plan for the upcoming training season. In making such a plan, there are a couple of questions that will help to define how the season should go:

– Early season dryland training: what should early season training prioritize? And how much of a “break” do you advise taking after the ski season concluded?

– Early season roller skiing: how early is too early? What really are the benefits of roller skiing, and why is the advice typically to utilize this training tool more toward the end of the dryland than at the beginning?

Often coaches are asked what the weeks and months post racing season should look like. The answer varies from coach to coach but there are some trends that are commonly prescribed. A lot of this variety stems from the wide range of climates and geography that support cross-country skiing in North America. For those climates with snow that hangs on after the races conclude for the year it’s best to keep skiing. At the elite level year-round access to snow has been shown to be a huge advantage. The use of glaciers and ski tunnels show this investment is important to many nations that excel in cross-country skiing. After racing wraps up transition to base training on snow, with fun, technique work and ski play.

Those of us who are not fortunate to often have late season skiing should plan to take four to six weeks of off/unstructured training. This unloading period helps athletes process the ski season, catch up on other aspects of their life put on hold during the racing season and have the mental break needed after a stressful competitive season. This unloading period also allows the body to adapt and recover from the stress of racing. Especially when a season includes a spring championship.

During this unstructured period, I recommend athletes take the first half off. This would create a two-to-three-week period without any training. This time allows the body to catch up on rest and process all the stressors both physical and mental that were present during the racing season. The second half of this block is unstructured. During this time the athletes train as they feel without a structured plan. Often the focus of this period is strength combined with low intensity aerobic training.

As the training season begins to ramp up a common question is when should one start roller skiing and how often should this be used in their training. Elite athletes will begin roller skiing in May when the training season often kicks off. This is dependent on a variety of factors but to maintain the specificity needed for elite performances most skiers will begin roller skiing right away. The volume of roller skiing will increase over the course of the summer and become a primary training modality by the fall. Master and developing skiers can delay roller skiing until the late summer or fall in order to prioritize other sports or activities creating a more varied training year. This will minimize burnout and help bring variety to the training over the summer.

Prior to the arrival of summer, it’s important to set goals for summer training. These should build off of the progress made in the previous season, limiters that have been identified, and the goals for the following season. Deciding what your priorities are will guide the training and help keep you focused. During summer, it is easy to get sidetracked by fun fitness adventures. Rarely do these derail one’s training, but it’s important to keep your actions moving towards your goals. Summer training should be purposeful and productive combined with a little fun.

Spring is nice, spring is fun, spring is a relief after a long, cold winter. But, for diehard skiers, spring is also the new season in which we begin imagining ourselves as next year’s skiers. The snow is barely gone, but already we’re imagining futures in which we glide through snowy meadows, double pole across the flats, charge confidently up homologated uphills, and V2 boldly across finish lines. Our heads are already in next season. But, in order to realize the technical, athletic, and endurance visions we’ve conjured for ourselves, the work needs to start now. Ironically, the most efficient forms of that work are found not on skis (nor on roller skis), but in a variety of training practices that allows us to leave skis and poles in the closet for a while. Spring training begins now . . .

The physiological qualities that produce faster skiers are straightforward and simple (even more so for age-group competitors than for World Cup stars): we need endurance, and we need strength. This article will deal with the philosophies of training for endurance, with strength being addressed in a separate installment.

What is Endurance?

In the context of nordic skiing, endurance is the ability to perform ski-related movements over time in a manner that is efficient, that maintains high levels of athletic output, and that withstands athletic discomfort. Cross-country skiing is a difficult and challenging sport; those skiers who are the best possess the ability to create high levels of speed, and to maintain those levels of speed over great distances. Much of that performance results from having increased an athlete’s ability to take in, transport, and transfer oxygen. Training does that—endurance training—and the figures we use to measure such abilities are called “VO2 max.”

By now, everyone even slightly interested in athletics has heard the term VO2 max: a measure of an athlete’s ability to utilize oxygen. We typically imagine that transfer of oxygen to be occurring in the muscle cells. It does, but there’s far more to the oxygen transfer systems than just the ability of cells to suck up oxygen. Nearly as important is the delivery system; that means capillaries, tiny networks of blood vessels where oxygen exchange with the muscles place. Deliver more oxygen to the muscle cells (while simultaneously allowing those muscle cells to shed waste product), and the lactate wall that most of us run into on steep uphills becomes far easier to navigate. Fortunately, certain types of training are the best at inspiring the actual construction of new and more extensive beds of capillaries. More places where the oxygen transfer can take place, better endurance. Skiers want more capillary beds: that’s why they ski slow and easy.

For the development of endurance (and the building of new capillary beds), the exercises that are recommended are those with low resistance and fairly high RPMs (what cyclists would refer to as “spinning”). In comparing the likely forms of exercise in which skiers might engage in the spring, running is better than skiing at encouraging the growth of capillary beds, and cycling is better than either one. What about my arms, you ask? Isn’t cycling ignoring my whole upper body? Well, cycling has been shown to encourage the development of capillary beds not just in the legs, but in the muscles of all long bones (arms/shoulders included). While cycling isn’t training the particular strength aspects of your upper body, it is training those muscle systems to perform more efficiently when it comes to delivery of oxygen. And there’s always late summer and autumn to deal with training the upper body (that’s what roller skiing is for).

American World Cup competitor, Sophia Laukli, received headline coverage last year for her ability to compete at world class levels in both summer and winter seasons. Her pursuit of numerous mountain-running marathon races throughout the summer raised eyebrows in the Nordic world: would she still be able to perform in World Cup events in the winter, or would a summer of racing and run-training have burned her out? As it turns out, there was no need to worry about Laukli, as she proved by not only winning  the season-long Golden Trail Series, but also won a FIS World Cup distance event (the climb up Alpe Cermis, final stage of the 2024 Tour de Ski). Laukli has already begun her running training for the trail marathon season. Needless to say, it’s unlikely she’s spending much time on roller skis these days.

One way or another, if one of my training goals is to develop greater endurance over the summer (and to create a broad endurance base that will improve my body’s ability to absorb all the training I intend to do), then my spring should begin with a considerable amount of long, slow, low resistance, high rpm activity. And there are more efficient ways to accomplish that than simply hopping back onto my roller skis.

Why Not Just Ski?

Many of us roller ski in the spring simply because we’re lonely for skiing. Well, if we ski simply for the pleasure of skiing, then roller skiing is just fine (though most would admit it’s nowhere near as pleasant as skiing on snow). On the other hand, if our commitment to skiing is such that we truly want to improve our performance, then we should investigate how best to pursue that in the off-season . . . and training on roller skis at the beginning of spring is not the only way.

Why not? Here are a few reasons for us leave our roller skis in the closet until later in the season:

1. If my goal is to improve my ski performance next season, then there are better ways to achieve that than to simply continue skiing. What most skiers need is to establish an accurate understanding of their own athletic strengths and physiological weaknesses. Those are the issues to address, especially in the first half of the dryland season. We need more power; we need greater endurance; we need to generate (and hold) higher levels of speed; we need to strengthen core muscles so that our full force is applied in poling; we need to strengthen stabilizer muscles so that we can stand straight on top of the ski instead of caving in. The fastest way to accomplish those things is to put the skis away for a while, and concentrate on workouts, exercises, and disciplines that address each issue independently.
2. If low resistance and higher rpm’s are two of the qualities that encourage production of new capillary beds, then skiing (and roller skiing) may not be the best exercise choice at this time of year. Even at low ski-speeds, the rpm’s of skiing are far lower than hiking, running, cycling. It may seem strange, but one of the important things to consider in your training is the plan to mix things up, to include in your training alternative activities that better suit the fitness goal. Get on the bike, go for a hike, lace up the running shoes. Plenty of time for roller skiing later in the season.
3. While the athletic and physiological stresses of roller skiing are similar to skiing on snow, it’s also known that roller skiing is a quite imperfect means of practicing ski-technique. Unlike skiing on the snow, the glide on roller skis is nearly constant no matter which part of the ski is weighted, and no matter how much the wheels are tipped or tilted. Whether on skate or classic roller skis, a knock-kneed skier will roll as fast as a skier who stands directly on top of their wheels. That’s not the case on snow. On classic roller skis, the “kick” can be initiated no matter how imprecise the skier is in applying force. That’s not the case on snow. There are many such technique examples that render roller skiing quite an imperfect imitation of on-snow skiing, and too great a reliance reliance on roller skiing in the off-season is how bad technique habits can be reinforced.

Simple advice in designing the training you do in the spring: leave the roller skis in the closet a while longer, and work on fitness improvements that will make you faster next season.

Is it possible that the best movie ever made about cross-country skiing doesn’t have a single scene which was filmed on snow? The answer is a decided yes. Because that movie is “A to B Roller Ski,” and it shatters the ceiling for what a movie about cross-country skiing can be.

Moving, inspiring, authentic, pure, poetic, and beautiful, ‘A to B Roller Ski’ tells the story of Latvian born biathlete Raimonds Dombrovskis who in 1988 decided that after his Olympic biathlon dreams had ended due to a life threatening illness, it would be a good adventure to roller ski from Inuvik, Canada— near the Arctic Circle— to Baja, Mexico— a journey of 4,200 miles which took 90 days. Why? Well, “because everyone goes across the continent” he says in the movie. This incredible and crazy true story is a cinematic marvel which like a well-aged fine wine could only have been accomplished with decades of commitment. The movie has been out for years for viewing at film festivals. But now, it’s available for streaming on Amazon.

The concept behind the movie’s narrative is pure folly. Who in any sane mental state would even consider such a journey? From the baseball-size stone filled roads of the Alaska Highway, to the Rocky Mountains, to the deserts of Arizona, Dombrovskis and his faithful canine companion, Bucis, soldiered on and completed a journey that not only seemed impossible, but also seemed likely to end up with a dead protagonist. Remember, this original journey occurred in the late 1980s, on roller skis which were nothing like the ones we have today. There were no heel brakes or speed reducers. Shafts were either aluminum or wood. I had the exact pair of the skis, boots, and bindings that Dombrovskis used for a large part of his trip, and I can tell you from first hand experience that, even on the paved trail at my local park, they were nerve racking. Going down mountain passes on these is unimaginable.

The photography is remarkable. There is old footage of the journey from 1988, which given the technology of the time, a handheld VHS camera; and the limited budget—almost none— is beautifully crafted and technically well executed. The photography is perfectly mated with an evocative sound track, and the combination works wonders. There are contemporary interviews seamlessly interwoven into the original footage, which is also nicely crafted. Both the old and new photography help move the story along, and in a 1:38 minute movie, there is never a dull spot.

The vintage videos of biathletes racing in the Classic technique are enough to make one hope that the IBU (International Biathlon Union) mandates a couple of Classic races a year; just for aesthetics alone.

The movie is told against the backdrop of Dombrovskis’ emigration from Latvia to America, the end of his Olympic dreams, and the folly of trying to do something so outrageous that you would think it was surely a joke.

One of the more striking things about the journey is Dombrovskis’ obvious interest in the people he met along the way. Many of them may have been skeptical of him at first, but he’s the kind of guy who makes friends easily, which unquestionably helped him complete this odyssey.

The original 1988 epic odyssey would be enough for a full feature film. But the story only gets better and deeper when Dombrovskis decides in 2014 to recreate a scaled down version of his journey 26 years later. Dombrovskis looks like he’s still fit enough to make the national Biathlon team when he retraces his steps from 1988, tracking down people he met along the way two and a half decades earlier, which leads to heartwarming reunion scenes.

‘A to B’ is a testament to one man’s belief that nothing is impossible and that the price of not following your dreams is far greater than the cost of pursuing them.

I’m not certain if non-skiers will gush about it as much as skiers will, but it’s more likely than not that even people with no interest in skiing will find the movie to be at the very least a compelling tale.

So, whatever you’re doing tonight, change your plans, and rent ‘A to B.’ (Depending upon your Amazon setup, if you search for it in Amazon’s catalog you may not find it listed under ‘A to B Roller Ski.’ If you can’t find it, enter “roller ski” in the search bar and the movie will pop up as an option.)

Fortunately, you won’t need one of these to watch the 1988 footage of Dombrovskis’ original journey. (Photo: Wiki Commons)If you don’t want to risk your $2.99 movie rental money on this review’s recommendation, then take a look at IMDB’s (Independent Movie Data Base) reviews. It gets rated 8.6/10. By comparison, ‘The Godfather,’ often judged to be the best movie ever made, is rated 9.2/10. That’s some pretty lofty company. Here’s a link to the IMDB site where you can watch the trailer.

It is rare when a movie conveys a naïve purity which is historically accurate and inspiring. The amazing thing about this film is that if someone had created the script from ideas they made up, viewers would have immediately dismissed it as nice, but ludicrous. What makes ‘A to B’ so special is that when outlandish truth mixes just right with awe and splendor, and it’s captured on film, amazing things happen.

If you’re a kid in Granby or Winter Park, Colo., snow days aren’t a thing—until last Thursday, March 13. According to Mary Ann Degginger, the program director at Snow Mountain Ranch, students in the East Grand School District had their first snow day in 20 years last week.

“[Winter Park] ski resort got 15 or 16 inches, and the roads are closed, so it’s a good day in the mountains,” she said that afternoon.

About 12 miles north of Winter Park Resort and 80 miles east of Denver, Snow Mountain Ranch/YMCA of the Rockies in Granby received about 8 inches of snow, which should help extend their cross-country ski season into April. After what Degginger called a slow start to a “spotty” winter, Grand County had a solid second half of the ski season and currently has above-average snowpack in most areas.

As of Wednesday, March 20, the Snow Mountain Ranch Nordic Center had all 82.5 kilometers of groomed trails open. The ranch recently held its 40th annual Stampede Races, with about 350 participants over two days for the 3-, 12.5-, 25-, and 50-kilometer skate and classic distances.

“It’s kind of a big deal,” Degginger said of the final event in the Grand County Nordic Race Series. “If you do both disciplines at 25 or 50 k, you earn the ranch-boss belt buckle. I gave out about 75 belt buckles to people who did both, and I have mad respect for those people. It’s a lot of skiing.”

She recalled the ideal weather that weekend of March 9-10: “The snow was cold, the weather was warm, it was sunny, and it was beautiful.”

Looking ahead, Degginger said the Snow Mountain Ranch Nordic Center plans to stay open until April 7.

“With this last snow we got, I wouldn’t be surprised if the snow was skiable beyond that,” she noted. “A lot of the north-facing slopes and shadier areas will hold their snow for a couple more weeks even after that. So, spring skiing conditions, but warm and pleasant and really good snow, really good tracks. Our groomers are doing a great job of maintaining our snow.”

At Snow Mountain Ranch, visitors can stay right on the 5,100-acre property, with ski-in, ski-out lodging options and a cafeteria for dining. Vacationers can choose from rustic cabins and hotel-style rooms and, in the summer and fall, yurts, RV sites, and tent campsites.

“At one of our lodges, all the rooms have balconies or porches on the back, and you can ski right out of the lodge,” Degginger explained. “A lot of our cabins are either ski-in, ski-out, or you might have to carry your skis across the street to get into the trail, [but] really close by.”

Those who stay there can expect everything they need and nothing they don’t. The rooms aren’t fancy, but they’re practical. Most don’t have TVs, but they do have WiFi. The idea is to connect with friends, family, and the outdoors while taking a break from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The YMCA of the Rockies makes a point to offer affordable and family-friendly accommodations along with various on-site activities to keep everyone entertained.

“We have a ton of amenities geared toward families and stuff to do when they’re not skiing,” Degginger said. “They can go rollerskating, play basketball, go to the swimming pool, or go to the craft shop—lots of different options and things to do when you’re not on the trails.”

Snow Mountain Ranch also has an indoor archery range and climbing wall. As a nonprofit, the YMCA can provide a wide range of activities and amenities at a relatively low cost to locals and visitors. When asked how their YMCA differs from other community centers, Degginger said people need to experience the YMCA of the Rockies to understand.

“We have members, just like a normal YMCA, who love to come and ski,” she said. “Some are hardcore skiers who ski every day and Paralympians who come and train here. We [serve] our locals as well as our guests and people who come from far away. If you’re not staying here, you can buy a day pass or trail pass to use the facility for the day, but we’d rather you stay with us.”

For those who stay overnight (Degginger recommends booking in advance, especially for holiday weeks, summers, and weekends), trail passes are included, along with access to many of the facilities, such as the roller rink, gymnasium, and pool.

While winter is still going strong at the ranch, she recommended also visiting in the summer, which is the ranch’s busiest season.

“[We] have a brand-new ropes course opening this year, an aerial challenge course, which will be awesome, and a summer tubing hill, which is like tubing on snow but on a synthetic surface,” she said. “We also have archery, a climbing wall, canoeing, and mini golf—so many activities.”

In addition, the ranch has more than 5,000 acres of mountain terrain to explore, giving guests plenty of space to roam, and an abundance of wildlife.

“We have a lot of moose, and we see more and more of them every year,” she said. “I can’t blame them. If I were a moose, this is where I’d want to hang out.”

“We [also] have some elk that you can hear bugling in the fall, especially up in Rocky Mountain National Park,” she added. “A fun thing to do is go in the evening and listen to the elk bugle during mating season. We have typical mountain predators—mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, and such—and a lot of cute little foxes running around everywhere, marmots, and all kinds of mountain critters.”

In the summer, the Nordic Center serves as the dining hall for the YMCA’s overnight camp. That camp initially drew Degginger to the ranch 20 years ago when she applied for a job there.

“I’m a Midwestern girl who had never cross-country skied before until I came out for an interview for summer camp,” she recalled. “They said, ‘We’re going to take a tour of camp. Put on these skis.’ ”

That was her first of many times on skis. She got the job and stayed, later becoming the head of programming and the Nordic Center at Snow Mountain Ranch.

“If you love being outdoors and recreating outdoors, you can’t find a better place to be,” she said. “We’re at the Continental Divide, and Rocky Mountain National Park is not very far away. You can do everything, and it’s absolutely gorgeous.”

The big toe is called the big toe because it’s bigger than the other toes. It has bigger bone and muscle structure because it takes more load. When we walk and run, we are programmed to get the big toe on the ground. But how and when we get the big toe to the ground can cause problems. Too much, too soon, too late, or too fast and efficiency suffers. When efficiency decreases, loads increase, which does not make for happy feet. All these factors are part if skiing, just as they are part of walking. And the big toe is the key . . .

From Supination to Pronation

In normal walking gait, when the heel makes the first point of contact with the ground, the foot is in a supinated position—the inside of the foot is angled up and outside of the foot is angled down like when you check to see if you stepped in dog poo. In supination, the foot is fairly rigid due to joint mechanics. As we move over top of the foot in mid stance, the joints unlock and the foot moves into a pronated position—the inside of the foot is down and outside is up (literally the opposite of supination). This movement into pronation creates flexibility in the foot, which helps to dissipate impact forces and adapt to uneven surfaces. By the time we get to the last bit of contact with the ground and roll off of the toes, the foot stiffens up again to create a rigid lever. Running gait follows the same general pattern but changes somewhat based on whether the initial contact happens at the heel, mid foot, or forefoot. 

Feet come in many different shapes and sizes, but when the quantity or timing of the transition from supination to pronation is outside of the normal range, the movement pattern becomes less efficient, likely compensated, and potentially pathological. Too much and too soon, both tend to cause an inward rotation of the leg, which is a common culprit in knee pain. Too little or too late can lead to lateral foot issues, greater risk of ankle sprains, and adverse effects from rapid internal rotation of the lower leg as the foot dives onto the big toe right before it leaves the ground. (I have just presented a gross oversimplification of foot and ankle kinematics. For a deeper dive, check this tutorial or get a PhD.)

The control and coordination of this transition from supination to pronation to push off is dependent on joints with their associated ligaments and on muscles. The foot and ankle are comprised of 28 bones, 33 joints, 112 ligaments, 21 muscles in the foot, and 13 muscles in the lower leg. There’s a lot going on here, folks. To oversimplify once again (and to eventually bring this back to skiing), I’m going to focus on two of the star players: tibialis posterior (TP) and flexor hallucis longus (FHL). 

Both TP and FHL are long, thin muscles located in the lower leg along the medial side of the tibia. By the time they get to the ankle, the muscles have turned into tendons that wrap around the inside of the ankle bone (medial malleolus) and head into the foot. 

TP attaches to the navicular and cuneiform bones in the mid foot. Its primary role is to control the movement of the mid foot and support the medial longitudinal arch (i.e. it controls pronation). But it also stores energy and helps the foot rebound from flexible pronation into the rigid lever for toe off. Think about the suspension on your mountain bike: ideally we get a plush ride with the right amount of rebound to set us up smoothly for the next bump. Not enough air in the shock and ooff, we bottom out (too much pronation). Not enough rebound, the shock is too slow, and we feel every one of those roots (the foot stays too flexible for efficient toe off). 

The tendon of FHL runs all the way out to the big toe. Not only does it pull the big toe down, or more functionally, keeps the big toe from collapsing under the load of toe off, but it also helps maintain the structure of the medial arch and mid foot. It works together with its neighbor TP on that transition from supination to pronation to rigid lever.

Reading Break & Audience Participation: 

Take off your shoes and stand up. Use a wall or counter top for balance and do a few single leg heel raises on each side. Have a look down at your foot. Does the movement or line of force go through the middle of the foot or do you end up more on the pinky toe side? Ideally, it should feel like the line of force goes between the first and second toes like it’s following the arrow made by the straps on a flip flop. If you’re way more on the pinky toe side, it’s likely that TP and/or FHL are asleep at the wheel.

As Applied to Cross Country Skiing

In cross country skiing, the biomechanics change, but the demands on TP and FHL remain very high. Biomechanically, we can describe the phases of cross country skiing in similar terms as with walking and running gait: initial contact, mid stance, and toe off. The position of the foot and ankle (and arguably the rest of the body) are very similar during initial contact (assuming V2, not steep V1) and mid stance for both skate and classic but different from walking/running. Rather than a transition from supination at initial contact to pronation at mid stance, we are striving for equal pressure across the width of the foot through both of these phases. “Finding the outside of your foot” is optimal for balance, stability, and glide. Through these two phases, TP and FHL are working primarily as stabilizers of the ankle and mid foot to facilitate balance on the gliding ski. At toe off, aka push, aka kick, skate and classic become quite different from each other. 

Classic Skiing

Toe off in classic is not that dissimilar from walking and running. As I described above, we’re looking for the line of force to run between the first and second toes. Perhaps the biggest divergence is the flexion angle of the ankle as we transition from mid stance to toe off: there is far more ankle dorsiflexion during skiing. While this article is meant to focus on the big toe, it should be noted that a lack of ankle dorsiflexion mobility, both in quantity and quality, will adversely affect not only the mechanics at the foot but also the skier’s ability to get their center of mass over the kick zone. Speaking of range of motion, the first metatarsal phalangeal joint (MTP)—where the toe meets the foot, aka ball of the foot—must also have good dorsiflexion mobility (sources cite 60° for walking and likely more for running; I’ve not seen a study that examined the requisite for skiing). The demands on TP and FHL continue to be focused on foot and ankle stability through the toe off phase; however, if the skier is losing balance and falling towards the other ski (or pronating uncontrollably or internally rotating at the hip or dropping the pelvis or rotating the pelvis or twisting too much through the trunk), the loads on the inside of the foot and big toe will be much greater.

Toe off with skate gets very interesting (assuming you’re finding any of this interesting). Skate boots, unlike classic boots, have minimal flex through the sole, thus the MTPs joints do not have much of a mobility requirement. Skate boots also have a stiff ankle cuff to minimize medial and lateral motion at the ankle. And theoretically they have a supportive insole. But the boots can only do so much.

Skate Skiing

In skate skiing, we have to put the ski on edge. This is a very different movement than with walking, running, classic skiing, or most any activity outside of actually skating. Theoretically, we can get the ski on edge by pronating the foot, internally rotating the tibia, and collapsing the knee–unfortunately, this is how many people ski. But this has the effect of decoupling the foot and lower leg from the power producing muscles (quads and glutes). Instead of sending the force into the ski for a strong push, the energy is lost to aberrant movement (and generally a controlled fall onto the glide ski rather than a coordinated transition). Best case scenario, you’re bleeding power. Worst case scenario, you’re setting yourself up for injury at the knee (most likely), foot/ankle, and/or hip. 

Skate toe off should happen with the ankle, knee, and hip in line. During the transition from flat ski to edge, the line of force through the foot will move medially onto the first MTP. Pushing power is coming primarily from the quads extending the knee and the glutes extending and abducting the hip. But all of this big muscle power must be transferred to the ski. FHL and especially TP are working very hard to maintain joint stability to essentially lock the medial ankle and foot into a rigid conductor of force. While there is active ankle plantarflexion that occurs during this phase, the majority of work by FHL and TP is through isometric contraction rather than creating joint movement. A lack of adequate strength or coordination of TP and FHL will likely lead to a breakdown of this connection. Biomechanics suffer, power is bled, and pathology may surface.

Admittedly, this movement pattern of primarily isometric ankle eversion and plantar flexion while pushing off an angled surface is very difficult to simulate with dryland exercises. However, there are multiple ways that we can still address the concept and strive to make TP and FHL more resilient and tolerant of load. 

There are a number of Physical Therapy exercises that can assist skiers in creating proper foot/leg alignment over the big toe:

Banded Big Toe

This has to be the coolest Physical Therapy exercise ever! Hook a resistance band under your big toe and pull tension. Lift the toe off of the floor and push it back down. Keep the toe long (don’t let it curl up). Also, try not to let it push into the second toe (if you can’t control this, have bunions, or are not getting your toe very far off of the floor, it might be worth a visit to your friendly neighborhood PT).

Heel Raises with Tennis Ball 

Squeeze a tennis ball between your heels and do calf raises. Use a wall or counter top for balance. The ball will keep you symmetrical and help direct the line of force between the first and second toes. 

Single Heel Raises with Incentive Band

Place your first MTP and big toe on the edge of a resistance band. Use one hand against a wall for balance and use the other to pull tension on the band. Do single leg heel raises. Don’t let the band come loose from under your toe and pop you in the face.

SLS with IR Paloff

Balancing on one leg in Ski Stance, hold a resistance band coming from the same side as your stance leg. Push your hands straight out and back. Keep the first MTP and big toe grounded. Don’t let the band twist you.

There are always more exercise options out there, and anything that involves single leg stability is going to be beneficial, but these are a few of my favorites that are a good bang for the buck without fancy equipment. If you like fancy equipment, I would highly recommend the MOBO Board, which does a better job of training FHL, TP, and the rest of the foot/ankle team than any other gizmo I’ve come across.

Sophia Laukli’s dominant win in the final stage of the Tour de Ski catapulted her into the spotlight. She has been racing fast for a while, but this result was on another level from her past performances. As the world gets to know her better, it’s interesting to look at the training philosophy of her club, Aker Daehlie. Training is sometimes secretive, but Aker Daehlie puts their training philosophy online for all to see. This transparency is great to see; there’s little complete information about what teams are doing for training. They often talk about a workout they love or a great coach but rarely an overall philosophy for their program.

In a world being shaped by Tick Tock, it’s easy to get small pieces of information. We see a video of someone doing something that is most likely part of their training, but we perceive it to be an integral part and that becomes something we base our training around. The more of these little pieces we put together, the further away from real sport science we get. Aker Daehlie’s success is probably based on many things, but one of them is that in their training philosophy they sight many well-respected sport science publications and books. By using this science as their foundation, they can bring in some pieces of pop culture training if they wish to try to improve on their results, but they don’t stray from their core principals because they are rooted in the science. I would guess that this science is really the foundation of their success.

One thing that resonated with me in their philosophy was that training a certain number of hours doesn’t deliver the best performances. Skiers rely on training based on hours because we can’t reliably compare performances. Some runners and cyclists do this with miles, but it is not as universal as it is in skiing. There are great examples of this in history, for example Roger Bannister. Nobody cares that he only trained 30 minutes over his lunch break, he ran a sub four minute mile. There is some conjecture that he would have been better if he had more time to train. But maybe 30 minutes a day was the perfect amount of training for him. It allowed him to achieve his goal, so it was extremely successful.

Training hours and the culture of more is better is hard to break. To be clear, the philosophy stated by Aker Deahlie is not that more is bad. The team’s philosophy does hold that more for the sake of more is not necessary: more for the sake of speed is the desired outcome. As a coach I have grouped my athletes by the number of hours they plan to train this year. It seems like a logical place to start as a ski coach; however, the culture and training for coaches is based on more is better. Runners often talk about junk miles, but the idea of junk hours does not seem to be used by cross country skiers or coaches. The Aker Daehlie training philosophy simply reminds us that more for the sake of more is not useful.

It’s easy to lose sight of the goal: ski as fast as possible. Strides have been made with tools like the SkiErg to simulate skiing and create metrics. The CCC Strength test is also a useful proxy metric, but these tests are not skiing. We often use roller skis as a substitute for skiing, and roller ski time trials can have times associated with them but those are also impacted by temperature, rain and traffic. Running can be a good measure of an individual’s motor, but again it’s not skiing; it doesn’t correlate perfectly for all athletes.

Keeping the eye on the prize is hard without good metrics, but it’s important to make sure all the work being done is for the purpose of skiing faster.

“Big motor, lousy suspension.” That’s how I often describe the endurance athletes I see in physical therapy. They have the physiology to go fast but are lacking the stability and/or coordination for efficient movement. Decreased efficiency equals increased load. And excessive load has led to injury and a visit to their friendly, neighborhood PT. 

I used the same description while Greta Anderson, the US Cross Country Development Coach, and I stood trackside last August watching rollerskiers during the 15k Classic race in Trollhatten, Sweden. At that high level of racing, everyone was fast, but not everyone looked to have good stability, movement coordination, and efficiency. Our peanut gallery coaches’ box banter turned into a lengthy conversation on the fundamentals of Nordic skiing. Next thing I knew, Greta had me leading a training session for the National Training Group (NTG) and National Elite Group (NEG) combined camp in Park City, UT. We called it Stability From the Ground Up with the goal of reinforcing the Ski Stance while balancing on one leg and doing tricks. The following is an excerpt of that training session. 

.        

What is Ski Stance?

It is the foundation of Nordic skiing, both Skate and Classic. It is the stable, balanced position on the glide ski that facilitates both optimal glide and a stable platform as the glide ski becomes the kick ski. Stable glide begets more power, and more power begets more stable glide

Ski Stance Checklist:

• Balance on one leg.
• Equal pressure between the inside and outside of the foot, especially across the metatarsal heads between the ball of the foot on the big toe side and the pinky toe equivalent. 
• Weight is biased towards the front of the foot but the heel stays down. Distribution is in the neighborhood of 70:30, forefoot to rearfoot. 
• Toes are relaxed. This doesn’t mean the toes are hovering off the ground, but it very much means the toes are not clawing at the floor. (Have a look at the insoles of your ski boots: if there is a lot of wear under the toes, you are likely using them too much. This is either a bad habit or a compensatory strategy, or both. Speaking of insoles…)
• The ankle is flexed enough to put the kneecap in line vertically over the toes. 
• Slight bend at the knee and hip.
• Forward lean at the trunk. This is accomplished with a hinge at the hips, not a flex through the spine. Nose-Knee-Toes is the old cue. If you’re dripping snot out of your nose, it should land on your foot not down the front of your shirt. 
• High Hips. If I had a dollar for every time Devon Kershaw has endorsed a skier with “high hips” I could buy a ski quiver worthy of the World Cup. But what does this even mean? Our Checklist just listed flexion at the ankle, knee, and hip, so how can we keep the hips high but flexed at the same time? Forward Hips might be a little more intuitive. The pelvis is pushed forward without losing the bend at the hips. It will initially feel like you are falling forward, but that’s a good thing. We want the center of gravity shifted forward to push us down the trail. A different cue is Front seat, not Back Seat. The back seat is like starting to sit on the toilet: ankle, knee, and hip are flexed and the trunk is leaning forward; however, the butt is reaching backwards. Aim to shift the hips forward like someone is pulling at the front of your belt.
• Stability from the hip, not leaning to the side. When we stand on two feet, the center of gravity is between the two feet. If we are to stand on one foot, we can’t just pick up the opposite foot—our center of gravity has to shift to the stance side. That can be accomplished by leaning the trunk to the side, but this is not an active position and doesn’t facilitate generation of power. The weight shift ideally comes via a lateral movement of the pelvis over top of the stance leg. Note: this shift is very applicable to diagonal stride as we move from the kick ski to the glide ski. The direct application to skate varies a bit with the sub-discipline—V1 has a more distinct weight shift from ski to ski while the transition during V2 is more of a “swapping” of skis underneath the body than a lateral movement from one to the other.

Exercises 

The intent of these exercises is to reinforce the Ski Stance. Each one has a movement component to challenge both balance and maintenance of the Ski Stance position. (Here is a primer on single limb balance and stability.) The quality of movement and balance are paramount. In order to be beneficial, the exercise should be challenging but doable. If you are falling all over the place or cannot control the movement, the exercise is likely too difficult for your current level. The exercises are listed in ascending order of difficulty.

Band Poling Exercise

• Ski Stance.
• Use a two-tailed band or two separate bands anchored at head height or higher.
• Pull down on bands keeping some bend in the elbows. (This is not meant to be a double poling simulation as we are trying to stay tall in the Ski Stance not dropping down as we would with DP or V2.)

Romanian Deadlift (RDL) Exercise

• Ski Stance.
• Bend forward aiming your fingers for the sides of your knee. The movement is a hinging motion at the hip. The joint angles at the ankle and knee should not change. The spine stays in neutral position without bending.
• Pelvis stays level as you bend forward (no twisting).
• Finish with a push forward of the hips/pelvis—front seat not back seat.
• You can add weight (single dumbbell or kettlebell in the opposite hand or one in each hand) for glute and hamstring strengthening, it doesn’t necessarily make the balance/stability any more difficult. 

Hip Twist Exercise

• Ski Stance.
• Twist your upper body in the opposite direction of the stance leg (standing on right leg = rotation to the left).
• Shoulders, belly button, pelvis move together. 
• Knee cap stays pointing straight ahead. 

Paloff Press with Resistance Band Exercise

• Ski Stance.
• Band is anchored at chest height coming from the opposite side of the stance leg.
• Holding the band in both hands, push your arms straight out and back.
• Keep knuckles pointed straight ahead—don’t let the band twist you.

Shoulder External Rotation + Uppercut with Resistance Band Exercise

• Ski Stance.
• Band is anchored at chest height coming from the opposite side of the stance leg.
• Hold the band in the same hand as the stance leg with your elbow bent at 90 degrees and knuckles pointed straight ahead.
• Keeping the elbow bent at 90 degrees, raise your arm up as if you were a waiter carrying a tray.
• This is very good bonus work for your rotator cuff muscles.

Classic Stride/Bound with Pause for Balance Exercise

• Traditional diagonal stride bound except with a pause on the “glide” foot.
• Be honest about balancing in Ski Stance before kicking onto the other leg.
• Continue to focus on arm swing mechanics and a strong kick.

Skate Stride/Bound with Pause for Balance Exercise

• Traditional lateral bounding except with pause on the “glide” foot.
• Be honest about balancing in Ski Stance before kicking onto the other leg.
• Continue to focus on both the pre-load and strong push through the leg.

Cross country ski trails—and the grooming strategies that prepare those trails for race events—have changed dramatically in recent seasons, especially since artificial snow became commonplace at Nordic venues. Commensurately, skiing speeds have increased, and so has the reliance on upper body power for propulsion. This has been most visible in classic skiing where technique zones are put in place down to the junior level to ensure that striding remains part of the sport. These changes in course preparation have led to skiers relying on power in the double pole over efficiency in striding.  The resulting increase in speed is what many skiers are seeking; often, they incorporate strength training in search of that extra bit of speed.

“Strength training” is a term that I don’t love as a coach and physiologist. I use the term, myself, but it is vague and hard to define. According to Oxford Languages (via Google), “strength” is the quality or state of being physically strong (the ability to move/lift a weight, or resist a force). When skiers think of what is often termed “strength training,” we usually imagine some form of resistance training designed to augment and improve our aerobic and anaerobic performances. The question that should be of interest to skiers, then, is what sort of strength/resistance training is most likely to benefit our skiing?

Resistance training—the term that better describes these workouts—is often thought of (by skiers) as time in the weight room or circuits in the park. These workouts can affect a variety of changes in one’s physiology. They can increase muscle mass through hypertrophy, increase load on bones, and strengthen connective tissue. Neuromuscular developments can also happen that allow the skier to recruit more motor units and—in doing so—recruit more muscle to that movement.

These changes can have a variety of impacts on a cross country skier. More strength often translates into more power that can be put into the pole or ski, generating more speed. These changes also help protect the body from injury by increasing muscle mass resulting in better protection of the joints. Most often the focus of any training is on increasing ski speed. Recruiting more motor units is one of the main emphases of such training. By using motions similar to skiing, an athlete can transfer these newly strengthened pathways into their skiing motions. An example of this is the squat, the loading of the leg is very similar to the kick in either skating or classic skiing.

“Strength is fundamental to maximizing ski performance,” remarked Team Birkie Head Coach, Chad Salmela. “In a similarly-perceived sport like distance running, one might be able to progress quite a lot simply by running more.  Performance in skiing, by comparison, requires a trained core and general strength accumulation to practice the fundamentals of the ski techniques, and then needs specific development beyond that. So, from the very basics, training to ski faster fundamentally requires fairly advanced muscular strength, whether organized into a weight lifting or gym routine, or simply growing up that way…I think periodizing strength development in the off-season, and strength maintenance during the racing season, especially for higher level athletes, is a pretty big part of performance coaching for skiers. There are a lot of effective ways to build and maintain muscular strength.  How that fits into developing other critical training priorities is one of the primary foundations of good coaching.”

When incorporating strength training into one’s workout schedules, there are a variety of options. One is to create dedicated spaces and times for strength training. This is the routine typically employed by those who have access to these spaces. Another option is using body weight and/or creative solutions (like backpacks filled with rocks) to create resistance training in a park or back yard. With minimal equipment, skiers can achieve many of the same effects as those found in a weight room. Combining strength work with an endurance/interval factor (as in a timed circuit) is a nice way to develop general fitness, but the key to developing greater strength is to isolate those strength movements, and perform them when not under aerobic stress. In other words, there is no exercise or workout that is the solution for everything. With either of these strength training strategies, I like to design workouts focusing on three upper body exercises, three lower body exercise and three core exercises per training session. When choosing exercises, focus on those that incorporate multiple joints. This engages more muscles and lessens the number of movements needed to get a full body workout. One major difference that most endurance athletes employ in their strength training is training the whole body every time they do a resistance training session. Many weightlifters and body builders will alternate leg days and arm days to make daily resistance training more effective. Since resistance training for cross country skiers is often done 2-3x a week (with a day or more of rest in between sessions) it is effective to train the whole body each session.

When discussed by endurance athletes, resistance training is often thought of with the single goal of “getting stronger.” When executed well, it can achieve a variety of outcomes depending on how it’s implemented. This training can be used to achieve four outcomes:

• Increased power
• Strength
• Hypertrophy
• Muscular endurance.

To affect these outcomes, it’s helpful to know ones one rep max (the maximum amount of resistance you can lift in a single repetition for that exercise).

In order to clearly understand our two workout examples (see below), it’s important to consider what a few of those terms mean:

SETS: the number of times you go through that exercise’s repetitions.

REPETITIONS: the number of times you move your body or the weight, while MAX indicates that you can’t accomplish even one more repetition. If the plan prescribes 12RM this means that you should select a weight heavy enough that you can’t accomplish the 13th repetition. If you can do more than the proscribed number of repetitions, then add weight for the next set.

STRENGTH: Load greater than 85 %1RM, repetitions, less than or equal to six.

POWER: loads of 80% 1RM, repetitions of two to five with multiple sets.

HYPERTROPHY: Loads of 67-85% 1RM/ 6-12 repetitions.

MUSCULAR ENDURANCE: loads less than or equal to 67 %1RM and greater than 12 repetitions.

Source: Haff, G., and Triplett, N. (2016). Essentials of Strength and Conditioning (4^th ed.). National Strength and Conditioning Association

The different set schemes for strength, power, hypertrophy and muscular endurance lead to some outcomes that are desirable for endurance athlete and some that are not desirable. Notably the hypertrophy set schemes are often avoided to limit the increases in mass that one has to carry on the ski trail. Exceptions to this are moving through it to condition someone to be able to use the power loads. Often training will periodize muscular endurance blocks and power blocks to compliment the other training goals throughout the year. Other priorities for cross country skiers include stability while gliding on one ski. Professional skiers often post on social media impressive pictures or videos that illustrate this prowess. As a developing skier becomes more proficient at many of the strength exercises, adding a balance component can be beneficial to their skiing. One example of this would be to stand on a Bosu ball while doing medicine ball throw downs or adding the Bosu ball to the body weight squats.

There are good examples of these exercises on YouTube as well as in this guide.

Sample Weight Room Workout

3 sets, 14 RM, 2 minute between sets, 3 minutes between sets.

Lat Pull Down

Squats or Leg Press

Dips

Lunges

Seated Row

Single Leg Romanian Deadlift

Front Plank

Dead Bug

Bird Dogs

Sample Circuit Strength Workout

3 rounds, 30-40 seconds on, 30-20 seconds off, 5 minute rest between rounds.

Push Ups

Lunges

Crunches

Chair Dips

Body Weight squats

High Plank with Shoulder Tap

Medicine Ball Throw Downs

Step ups or Box Jumps (picnic table bench or stair)

Bird Dogs

Injuries are inevitable . . .

As a physical therapist, I am often preaching prevention through maintenance exercises and training strategies; however, despite very well intended plans, injuries can still happen. Some of these will be short term, quite manageable, and maybe just a product of bad luck. Other injuries are longer lasting, will likely require some medical management, and are certain to impact training, whether from an acute trauma or from symptoms that have become progressively worse due to overuse/training error. The cool thing is, given the right conditions, the body will heal.

But what are the right conditions for healing? How do I heal faster? When do I know when to resume training? These are questions I get every day in the clinic. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I’ve compiled a list of what I generally advise patients.

What is pain?

First off, I think it’s helpful to be reminded of what, exactly, is pain? Simply put, pain is a defense mechanism to keep us from harming ourselves. If you put your hand on a hot burner, the body’s response is pain so you take your hand away before it burns. Remember that like all animals, our body’s primary objective is survival (arguably procreation as well, but I’m not going there). Our bodies have a multitude of regulatory systems meant to aid us in homeostasis and survival. When there is an injury, and especially the subsequent inflammatory response, the nerve receptors in the area send a warning signal to the brain which we interpret as pain and thus respond in a way that protects the injured area. But the severity of pain is not always commensurate with the degree of injury. A paper cut hurts like hell, but it’s not going to kill you. Also, the paper cut will stop hurting before the skin has fully healed. The hypothesis is that the body is familiar with the paper cut, no longer sees it as a threat or concern, and stops interpreting the nerve signal as pain (unless it meets lemon juice and the body feels threatened all over again). All of this would seem to indicate that some pain, especially when chronic in nature, does not actually represent a fragility or active threat. This doesn’t mean that we disregard it, but it doesn’t mean that we bow down to it, either.

Pain can be a guide to training and activity; it doesn’t need to be a  contraindication. Typical guidelines will say that pain less than 4/10 (0 is no pain, 10 is going to the emergency room screaming for mercy) that goes away or returns to baseline within two hours of exercise or activity is totally reasonable. It’s a green light, keep on going. Pain in the 4-5/10 range, or lower grade pain that is taking longer to calm down, is a yellow light: you really shouldn’t go through that intersection, so back it off a bit. Pain 6/10 or worse is a red light.

Inflammation gets a bad rap 

We often blame inflammation and the associated swelling and pain as the cause of our problems; however, the inflammatory process is the way our body deals with injuries (and pathogens). The long-held treatment strategy for acute injuries is RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. This is often paired with anti-inflammatory medications like ibuprofen. This treatment may provide some short-term pain relief—rest means you’re not using it so it’s less likely to be painful, icing numbs the injured area, compression and elevation may decrease swelling and some associated pain, and NSAIDs suppress the pain signal in the nervous system; however, there is mounting evidence that it can hamper appropriate healing in the long term. While we still want to manage pain, the treatment approach is shifting towards early movement with progression back to activity as symptoms dictate. There are certainly caveats to this: I am not endorsing walking on a broken leg or running on a newly sprained ankle—follow your medical provider’s advice.

For long-duration chronic issues, the thought process is a little different: at the anatomical level, we often think of chronic injuries, especially tendinopathies, as a failure of the inflammatory process to fully address the issue. My local streets are full of potholes. In the summer, the street crews patch them with asphalt. In the winter, the snowplows blow out these repairs. Every spring, the potholes are back. This is my analogy for chronic tendon issues: when we sleep the body does a quick, half-assed repair job (patching the pothole) then when we load the tendon the next day, we blow out the repair (the snowplow). What we really need is for the street to be repaved and for the body to appropriately heal the tendon. The street gets repaved when the mayor’s office is tired of the nosey neighbor complaining to City Hall every day. The tendon gets healed when we get the body’s attention through specific exercises. While there may be a role in the use of anti-inflammatories and injectables, the research in favor of exercise treatment is pretty compelling. Again, talk to your medical provider, especially one of my friendly colleagues in physical therapy. 

Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t 

It may be that your symptoms with activity/training are duration- or intensity-dependent; by modifying these variables, you are able to continue at least at some level. Depending on the severity and acuity of the injury, your body may not be in a place to absorb the stimulus of high intensity training. If it is too concerned with survival and homeostasis, it will behave much the same as if you are sick or overtrained: do all the intervals you want, but you’re unlikely to see progress and more likely to see your fitness decline. It may be that an activity (running is likely the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind) is simply not doable and you need to look for alternatives. Cycling, swimming (love it or hate it, but there’s very good carry over to XC skiing), SkiErg, paddle boarding, hike up/chairlift down are all potential alternatives that can still get your heart rate up, get you outside, and keep pain levels in the green light range. Specificity of training is certainly a good thing, but it’s not the only thing. There are lots of ways to get stronger and more cardiovascularly fit. Look at your injury as a way to try new things, master a different skill, and have fun.

Be nice to yourself 

It may feel like your body has betrayed you, but it really is trying to do its best. Treat it with kindness. You don’t have a good knee and bad knee, you have a right and a left. Working through an injury is like powering up that last hill or getting the bell lap when you really just want to puke: they all take self-motivation, self-encouragement, and self-respect (notice the self- theme here). Sleep is a powerful drug. Don’t overdose, but maybe take more than normal (at least 8 hours/night). Eat well and eat wisely. A muscle injury will appreciate more protein. A healing bone will enjoy more calcium. There is a strong tendency to cut back on calories when an injury is preventing normal training volume; however, your body still needs fuel to heal. I am a big fan of acupuncture (disclosure: my wife is an acupuncturist). While the supporting research is inconsistent, the practice does have 6000 years of history behind it. Without delving into Eastern medical philosophy, I will simply say that it has the potential to help the body heal. Having just made a medical recommendation while maybe sidestepping evidence-based practice, I would encourage you to thoroughly research any nontraditional treatments or recovery hacks. You can buy a lot of things with great promise, but the only given is how much lighter your wallet will be. Some may work, some may not: just try to be an informed consumer.

Surround yourself with good people and good energy 

You might need a hiatus from social media, most especially Strava. Interact with people who lift you up and try to avoid the ones who leave you feeling bad about yourself (whether they mean to or not). FOMO (“Fear Of Missing Out”) is a loaded gun—lock it up and throw away the key. Your sport may define you, but it’s not your only definition, and your injury does not need to be one either.

Find medical providers who understand your body’s demands 

I became a physical therapist to help people do what they want, not to tell them what they can’t. But not all medical providers share this sentiment. Telling a patient to stop running or lifting weights because it’s causing pain will likely improve symptoms, but that’s not going to be an acceptable treatment. It may be that the painful activity needs to be modified (and very likely moderated); however, your provider should share your goal of getting back to it. The way I see it, medical providers should be part of the patients’ team—we are working in collaboration to establish a plan of care that is based on both the patient’s goals and the provider’s hypotheses of diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Your provider will need to have a very good understanding of your sport—maybe not all the nuances of technique, but at least the physiological and biomechanical demands on the body. The path forward is often centered around progressive loading, and we as providers need to know what that looks like in order to prescribe the appropriate dosage of volume and intensity, hard days and easy days, stability and strength.

Don’t make the same mistake twice 

The typical medical model is to diagnose and treat. Let’s name it and fix it. This may get you back to training, but if we don’t identify the underlying cause of the injury, we are unlikely to have provided any protection against repeat offenses. I simplify all musculoskeletal injuries as an imbalance between load that is placed on the body and the body’s ability to tolerate load. Excessive load may be in the form of training error (too much, too soon) or through inefficiency of movement. Inability to tolerate the load is due to a deficiency in strength, mobility, stability, and/or coordination. In order to address the issue long term, we will need to balance the equation. That means both identifying and addressing all of the components of the equation. With training error, that means gaining a better understanding of training principles and especially greater awareness of your body’s response to both exercise stimulus and recovery. On the resilience side, it’s likely going to be boring exercises with stretchy bands. Addressing this side of the equation is not glamorous, but neither is pouring the concrete foundation of a house. But both are essential if you want to build something worth living in.  

Most conversations regarding training for endurance sports center on competition: the training schedule is built around the races. But what if you don’t compete? What if you’re out there on the ski trails, bike trails, and hiking trails without a race number? What if your objective is not to podium but to simply enjoy the opportunity to push your body? Is there still a reason to “train” when there isn’t a competition to train for?

Goals

Why do you do what you do? Cross country skiing is not easy. The technique is impossible to master, the fitness requirement is harder than doing all three triathlon disciplines at the same time, and the equipment, despite all of its carbon fiber, provides all the stability of a wet noodle. Yet we’re out there flogging ourselves around the ski track all winter long. The why is very individual but everybody has one. To get your heart rate up, to feel the burn in your muscles (and lungs), to ski for 90 minutes without keeling over, to V1 up that nasty hill (and not crash going down the other side), to V2 gracefully like your World Cup hero, to soak up that euphoric sensation of gliding across the snow. Every time we step into our bindings we have goals, whether big or small. Given the nature of our sport, they will likely be facilitated by strength, balance, and aerobic fitness—all things that can be improved with intentional training. They will also be facilitated by how we frame our goals; are we more focused on the journey or the destination?

Intentional Training

Pay to play. As athletes, we get what we pay for (training-wise). As a physical therapist, I am a huge advocate for putting in some work off of the skis/bike/running shoes. I see a lot of patients whose injuries have come about due to having a big engine with lousy suspension. They’ve built a fancy house on a shoddy foundation. Our sport is great at building the big muscles—the primary movers of the body—but if we’re not training the smaller stability muscles, they often get left behind. Worse yet, we humans are built with anatomical redundancy, meaning that if one muscle, artery, or nerve is injured or not up to the task, we have others that can take over. The problem is that the compensatory Plan B is not as efficient, which leads to increased load on the body, predisposition to injury, and decreased performance. As we get older, our bodies are less concerned with maintaining muscle mass (sarcopenia, in the fancy vernacular). It would also be wise to pick up heavy things. Stability, balance, and coordination with a side of lifting and mobility for dessert. These are the staples of pay to play. I’ve covered some guidance in previous articles on FasterSkier including spine stability and mobility, balance and single leg stability, and the shoulder girdle.

Intent. Every workout or exercise session should have a purpose. That can range widely from the post-work jog to get some fresh air and clear the head so you’re more patient and present at home to the Z4 rollerski intervals where you’re trying to focus more on technique than top speed. These two examples differ in mode and intensity, but they both have a purpose. If the post-work jog is run at high intensity (or has the unexpected stress of a dog chase or near miss from a distracted driver), you won’t have achieved the goal of a calmed state of mind. If the rollerski intervals become too competitive or if the intensity is pushed too hard to keep the focus on technique, you may still get some physiological benefits from the hard efforts but they failed to achieve the purpose of maintaining technique while deep in the pain cave. Even if you head out the door on a run, ride, or ski with no intent other than the pure joy of moving, you may still want to consider how you’re doing what you’re doing to avoid overtraining or pushing too hard without an adequate foundation. 

Scheduling. This may well be the greatest challenge for the noncompetitive athlete. If every workout is hard, then you risk flying too close to the sun. I’ve just preached the gospel of pay to play. In a previous article, I tried to espouse the benefits of lower intensity work. How does all of this fit into the training week, especially when we still want to go out, have fun, and not overthink it? Most coaches and structured training programs will include strength sessions and lower intensity workouts, much as I have just championed, but the hard sessions will likely be rigidly defined intervals or tempo work. If you are a competitive skier with the goal of optimizing speed, these programs are exactly what the science would tell you to do. If you are not regularly pinning on a number, or not willing to be constrained by a formal training plan, you may be wondering where the group ride, social run, family hike, or KOM hunting fits in the mix. The general framework is no differen—a couple of gym sessions, a couple of hard sessions, and the rest at lower intensity. To repeat, The Big Day Out and The Epic Adventure only get to happen a couple of times a week (and ideally not on consecutive days) or you risk overcooking.

Process Goals. For competitive skiers, training is the journey and racing is the destination. For noncompetitive skiers, it’s almost all about the journey. In (very simplified) sports psychology terms, the destination is an outcome and the journey is a process. Framed as goals, or what you’re hoping to achieve, an outcome goal would be a specific result: finishing position, PR, Strava KOM, etc. In contrast, process goals are the pieces of the outcomes puzzle or what it takes to achieve the desired results: quality training (and recovery), appropriate nutrition, adequate sleep. In this study, the authors sought to determine which type of goal was more beneficial. Their conclusions: “Process goals generally enhanced self-efficacy, intrinsic interest, and satisfaction.” More specifically, “Process goals were more beneficial for increasing performance and self-efficacy than other goal types. The latter is a noteworthy finding, given self-efficacy has been shown to enhance decision-making, increase motivational intentions, and is positively correlated with sport performance.”

While the concept of process goals is nothing new in the sport psychology circles, it was cemented for me while I was in Norway with the US Cross Country Team. During a physical therapy session a day or two before the historic women’s 50k at Holmenkollen, I asked Jessie Diggins about her goals for the race. “Well, to win would be really cool.” To which, I replied, “Duh! But what about your process goals?” (Yes, I was baiting her a little.) She proceeded to list three things she really wanted to nail: eat her favorite pre-race breakfast, be thorough and concise in conversations about ski selection, and be extra patient in the feed zones to make sure she was taking in enough calories. 

As a physical therapist, I tend to judge the success of a treatment on whether the patient gets better. However, that is not something that I have full control over. There are many variables that make up a patient’s injury or pain–maybe even more that determine their response to PT–and I can only affect what I can control. Similarly, Jessie knew that once the gun went off, there were going to be a lot of things during the race that were out of her control, so she chose to focus on the things that she could control. That is the basis of why process goals are considered more effective than results goals. 

For the noncompetitive skier, I’m emphasizing the role of process goals because the components of intentional training I pitched–pay to play, intent of the activity, and scheduling–are all process goals. Judging yourself on how you do what you do more so than the end result is likely to bring more joy in the experience. The journey may very well be more important than the destination.

The air we breathe is precious. Whether simply sustaining life functions or powering the aerobic metabolism that gives our muscles energy, we can’t get by without it. Fortunately it is always there (though maybe a bit less so at high elevation), but the quality of the air can vary from sublime to very unhealthy. The main antagonists are particulate matter and ground level ozone.

Airborne particulate matter is generally categorized by size. PM10 is 10 microns or smaller in diameter. This is stuff like dust and mold. PM2.5 is much smaller and tends to pose greater health risks due to the ability of the tiny particles to infiltrate the lungs and bloodstream. Most PM2.5 comes from chemical reactions and combustion like automobile exhaust and wildfire smoke.

Ground level ozone is different from the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. While the latter helps protect the earth from solar radiation (i.e. good for us), the former can be very irritating to the tissue of our lungs and airways (i.e. bad for us). Ground level ozone is not so much a  thing like PM2.5 particles–it is technically the byproduct of chemical reactions between nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds in the presence of sunlight. Basically, pollution + hot sun = ground level ozone.

Geographic considerations. Areas that are prone to temperature inversions where the lower elevation air is colder than at higher elevation–typical of mountain valleys–can see pooling of PM2.5 in the valleys. This is a very common phenomenon during Salt Lake City winters. Thankfully, while the air quality might be very unhealthy in the valley, it can be quite good at higher elevations above the “gunk layer.” Ground level ozone, due to the source of its reactants, tends to be proportional to population density so typically much greater in urban areas. Get out of the city, and you can get out of the ozone. Unfortunately, there is no hiding from the PM2.5 of wildfire smoke, except maybe staying indoors.

Air Quality Index

The Air Quality Index (AQI) is a scale used to report air quality rather than the actual measurement of PM2.5 or ozone. While many state governments and universities have sensors and report measurements, the AQI attempts to rate the current air quality regardless of the pollutant. In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency has categories for the health risks associated with elevated AQI. Last summer, after much research and collaboration, US Ski & Snowboard released its own guidelines for winter sports athletes.

Resources

AirNow.gov is likely the best source for real-time AQI in the US. Additionally it contains a large library of information on all things air quality. 

Purple Air not only sells low cost air sensors for home use, but also makes the data from those sensors available to all. This allows for much more geographically specific information; however, as AirNow points out Purple Air sensors “consistently overpredict fine particle concentrations” so take it with a grain of salt.

The iphone weather app has AQI for cities around the world.

NOAA has a (free) smoke forecast map; however, it is not the most user friendly. 

Open Summit has a very user friendly smoke forecast map but does require a subscription to access. Worth noting, you’ll see that neither the Open Summit nor NOAA maps will forecast more than about 48hrs. It’s my understanding that the computer models that predict wildfire smoke location and density are not nearly as good as those that forecast the weather.

The staff from the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Cross Country Team will host a 2022 Cross Country National Coaches’ Symposium this next week on October 28th and 29th. Please click on the previous link to register. The Symposium will take place via Zoom to keep costs low and facilitate greater participation by our community. Here is a link to the Presentation Schedule and Presenter Bios. The Symposium will count towards 8 Continuing Education Credits for U.S. Ski and Snowboard coaches and is open to any interested individuals, not only cross-country coaches. Presenters will include U.S. Ski Team coaches and experts from our U.S. Ski & Snowboard Sports Science and Medicine departments, as well as international experts, including Olympic and World Champion Johan Olsson. Topics will range from athlete health and wellness to athlete development paradigms and training plan optimization. This should be a highly inspiring and edifying Symposium; please join us!

Sincerely,

Chris Grover

Cross Country Program Director

chris.grover@usskiandsnowboard.org

The camp’s attendees earned a spot on this trip after selection by the U.S. Ski & Snowboard (USSS) based on their performances at last year’s Senior Nationals in Soldier Hollow, UT and/or other USSS sanctioned races. Hailing from all over the country, 13 athletes made their way to Canada for a week of training and exploration. 

Six years after Junior World Championships were last held on North American soil (Soldier Hollow, UT 2017) – an event which resulted in a historic bronze medal from Katharine Ogden in the 5/5 k skiathlon and bronze in the women’s 4 x 3.3 k relay – the upcoming races in Canada offer an exciting opportunity. Additionally, the 2023 World University Games will be taking place in the U.S. this year, in Lake Placid, NY in January.

U.S. Ski & Snowboard Cross-Country Sport Development Manager Bryan Fish, explained in an email what this might mean for the American juniors. “Our teams have become very good at traveling well and executing overseas, however our first Junior World Ski Championship medals became a reality in 2017 when Park City, UT hosted Jr Worlds. Those home-field championships helped spark the successful trajectory of USA cross-country skiing. We are trying to build a similar positive environment for these 2023 Championships.” 

In addition to Fish, the camp’s coaching staff was comprised of U.S. Development Team Coach Greta Anderson, Alex Jospe from Stratton Mountain School, and Naomi Kiekintveld from Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center.

After the recent conclusion of the NTG camp, Fish felt that the camp’s objectives had been achieved. He wrote, “the camp successfully achieved the goals of familiarizing ourselves with all aspects of the venue, the race courses, and the living arrangements. It was a great group of athletes which made for positive and motivating training sessions. The Whistler rollerski track is on a portion of the Jr World race courses, so we spent a great deal of time getting comfortable on the track at speed to understand how the course flows.” 

Through collaboration with Nordiq Canada, the joint U.S./Canadian Spring National cross-country Championships were also held in Whistler in March, which Fish explained, “provide[d] our athletes with true on-snow race experience on these courses.”

As for the athletes’ perspective, in a blog post written for NNF, Midwest junior Cooper Camp reflected that for him, “one of the most valuable parts about this camp was being able to ski with the best juniors in the nation. Not only being able to get quality training in with each other, but also skiing behind others and learning from what they do, is one of the biggest benefits from camps like these.” 

Although the athletes have returned home to their respective clubs, there may be more opportunities for them to train together before the summer is over with both Regional and National Elite Group camps still to come. As to who will be returning to Whistler to represent the U.S. at the Jr/U23 World Ski Championships starting January 27th, 2023, both athletes and fans will have to wait until the conclusion of Senior Nationals (Houghton, MI) at the beginning of January before the team will be announced. 

For an on-the-ground look at the recent camp, a recap video made by coach Alex Jospe, can be found here. 

I grew up playing soccer. Every practice was hard. “No pain, no gain,” and all of that. By tenth grade, I was burned out and quit. 

I started rock climbing. Every day at the crag was about pushing your limits. This was before indoor gyms or any concept of training other than doing as many pull ups as possible. I plateaued, got frustrated, and quit. 

Then I had a go at running. I read some books, but skipped the training methodology parts and cherry picked the workouts. Every run was hard. Every interval was done to exhaustion. I plateaued, got frustrated, and quit. 

Then I got into cycling. I began to hear of “easy” rides. I knew pros who rode around for four or five hours at such a pedestrian pace that they were talking the whole time. ‘How insanely boring!’ I thought. ‘Where’s the fun in that?’ So I went hard every time because it’s more fun. And guess what? I plateaued, got frustrated, and quit.

Fortunately, I didn’t learn my lessons the really hard way – through injury – but I still learned them the really stupid way –  by throwing away any potential I might have had. 

You can’t go hard all of the time. It’s as simple as that (at least on paper).

The Basics of Polarized Training

Make your easy days easy and your hard days hard. 

That is the backbone of a Polarized Training model. I had no problem making my hard days hard–they were all hard days after all. Full gas. Gun to tape. But in hindsight, I realize how depleted and chronically fatigued I was. I thought that was the desired effect, but it meant my training became less and less productive. 

It’s the easy days that are actually the hard part.

First: I hear your inner dialogue. “Who wants to go easy? It’s unproductive. It’s a waste of precious time. It looks lame on Strava.” But the science says everyone should want to go easy. Metabolic efficiency is the name of the game.

If hard workouts train the engine to create more horsepower, then the easy sessions improve the gas mileage. 

Secondly: let’s define easy. Training intensity is commonly split into five zones. (Some systems use three and others use seven, but I’ll be referring to a five zone system.) Zones 1, and especially 2, define the ranges of easy. Heart rate is the typical metric, especially for cross country skiers and runners, while cyclists typically use power. 

Identifying Your Easy Zones

The theoretically simple method for establishing heart rate zones is to work backwards from your maximum heart rate where each zone represents a percentage of the max. The challenge is that there’s very little agreement on how to best calculate one’s max heart rate without actually experiencing it. 

A more accurate method is to undergo a lactate threshold test, where heart rate zones are calculated based on the amount of lactate measured in the bloodstream. More accurate, but more difficult to conduct, and not universally accessible.

So how can we determine what is easy and what is too hard? 

In an effort to keep easy easy, I’m going to define it as conversational pace. You should be able to talk in complete sentences without having to… pause… to take in… more air… to finish your sentence. This is mediocre science and not especially objective, but with some practice, it’s not difficult to find that upper limit of talkability. 

If you’re a numbers person, you can likely conduct your own ramp test where – after a warm up period – you progressively increase speed/effort while reciting poetry or singing along to what’s in your AirPods. Mark the heart rate where you lose the rhythm, and that’s a decent estimate of your upper limit for Zone 2.

Your new goal on easy days will be to keep your heart rate below this threshold, not necessarily at this level. For those accustomed to pushing the pace on every session, slowing down enough to keep your heart rate in the appropriate zones might feel like a big adjustment. There’s no real way around it – you’ll need to buy in, and trust the process/science. Maybe use it as an excuse to get out with a training buddy who is generally slower than you and give the whole “pedestrian pace, talking the whole time” thing a go.

Worst comes to worst, you give it an honest try and decide you prefer to just go hammer, then go back to your old ways. That’s the beauty of being a recreational athlete – at the end of the day, we’re just pursuing hobbies we find rewarding and enjoyable. 

* A note for Strava users: don’t rely too much on the Relative Effort number. As a metric of intensity over time, it seems optimized to capture long, hard efforts like an hour-long tempo run where your heart rate stays high for the entire hour. It doesn’t handle intervals very well since the rest periods sort of cancel out the high intensity efforts. 

For example, Strava gave 60 points to a 55 minute tempo run with an average heart rate of 158; however, an 57 minute interval session (9x600m on the track) with an average heart rate of 147 only got 35 points. To me, both sessions were equally hard, but the tempo run scored 25 points higher. 

Strava does allow you to use your perceived exertion in place of heart rate for calculating Relative Effort. When I enabled this override, the tempo run scored an 87 while the track workout got a 147. (My easy efforts aren’t affected much.) Personally, I’ve found the Relative Effort score, along with the weekly log and Fitness and Freshness, far more useful (and accurate?) with this tweak. Here’s a deeper dive into that black hole.

The Purpose of Polarized Training

Now we can talk about why the easy is important. 

Stress + rest = growth/adaptation/strength/speed. That is the basic formula. Our bodies are designed to adapt to load, but we have to give ourselves the opportunity to make those adaptations. Too much volume or intensity and the body will stop absorbing. Not enough recovery and the body will stop adapting. Best case, your performance plateaus. Worst case, you get injured. 

The Krebs Cycle. The stuff of High School nightmares. But the essence of the endurance athlete. The Krebs Cycle is the pathway by which our bodies put gas in the tank. It is the process by which our mitochondria – magical little intracellular thingies – convert carbohydrates, fats, and proteins into the specific energy required by muscles to contract. In oversimplified terms, the more efficient the mitochondria are, the faster and longer we can go. And it appears that the best way to train mitochondrial efficiency is with training in Zone 2. (If you want to seriously nerd out, this podcast with Dr Iñigo San Millán, perhaps the Father of Zone 2,  is a deep dive in a submarine to depths of the ocean.)

The easy/Zone 2 is considered so important that it typically makes up 70-80% of elite athletes’ training volume. The other 20-30% is hard (high Zone 3, Zone 4, and rarely into Zone 5). For the athlete who doesn’t have all day, every day to train, that means you only get a couple of hard sessions per week. Keep the rest easy.

Some that’s hard, lots that’s easy – that’s the essence of putting Polarized Training into practice.

Example Training Plan Template

My training template is based on my work schedule and typical life obligations. I’ve given myself a max of three hard sessions a week with one of them longer (2-3 hrs ride or mountain run–the fun stuff!) and the others around an hour of intervals. My strength/core maintenance sessions typically fall into the easy category and don’t require much recovery (no delayed onset muscle soreness). But my schedule is also very flexible. If I’m tired, I can move a hard session to another day or skip it that week. If I get too busy or stressed, then I can modify the program without too much frustration.

I’m fortunate that I can train/play seven days a week, as long as I’m recovering adequately. However if your schedule only allows for training three days a week, you can still apply the basic formula and have one hard day and two easy days.

For some of you, this may be common sense and describe how you’ve been training for years. For others, this is quite a departure from your norm and will take a concerted effort to implement. But whether your goal is optimal performance or staying healthy for years to come, investing in a polarized plan, and especially leaning into the Zone 2 work, will pay dividends.

Lastly, I think any discussion about training principles/plans needs to have the overriding theme of ‘push yourself, but be kind to yourself’.

Be flexible. Training plans aren’t written in stone. Don’t beat yourself up if work, family, weather, fatigue, or lack of motivation keeps you from your intended workout. Take a walk, play with the kids, lie down on the sofa—whatever it takes to reset and be ready for another day. One workout will not make or break, but constant self-criticism will sink the ship.

 Some of us choose to oppose these trendlines, wrestling with them like tentacles in a roiling sea of errands and bills and fraying cartilage and arthritis. During well more than one rollerski session each year, I think of the “strange resistance” Robert Frost describes in his poem “West Running Brook”:

“It has this throwing backward on itself / So that the fall of most of it is always/ Raising a little, sending up a little.”

This man, whose Vermont cabin touches the Rikert Nordic trail system, continues:

“It is this backwards motion toward the source/ Against the stream, that most we see ourselves in,/ The tribute of the current to the source./ It is from this in nature we are from./ It is most us.”

The tribute of the current to the source. It’s as though Frost (who, I’m guessing would be Birkie wave 8 – at best) was tasked to make an inspirational T-shirt that captures the mind of a masters skier. I am proud to be a member of this infinitesimal subset of American society, and if you still think skis with holes in the tips look new, I imagine you are too.  

 After too much running for my large frame and my knees, I began uphill skiing in earnest in my mid-30s, just as I knew these charts were generally tipping downwards. As I was effectively starting from scratch, though, I felt I had an advantage. I did not have to chase the ghost of my 22 year-old self, vaunted by a college program and a systematic knowledge of voluntary suffering. Skiing gave me a second athletic life, and as I opened its invitations to technique, training blocks, intensity sessions, and World Cup fandom, I delighted in every aspect of its complexity.  

 Nearly twenty years into it, the fires still burn, though sometimes it’s hard to tell whether I’ll coax any new flames or just ride along the glimmer of dying embers. Now into the swing of summer as we are, I find myself between an acronym – SAMITS (skiers are made in the summer) – and, a hammock. Can I throw another log onto this fire? Should I? It’s a question of little worldly consequence, and yet it’s the central question of this other world I’ve built for myself. 

 More than anything, the lure of skiing these days is that reliable doorway it opens into another place. I have sat through all-morning “self-care” sessions in hot rooms in masks, and then I have clicked into the Marwes and breathed. I have endured a full Guy Fieri cooking show in the doctor’s waiting room, then I’ve gently climbed through the woods with four points of contact. I just learned the world emitted more C02 than ever last year, and I needed to get out and roll among the innocent trees.   

This otherworldliness has especially come as I’ve lived in, and now just north of, Manhattan all these years. I have approximately one teammate (the great Sproule Love) and I get on snow maybe a dozen days a season. But new wheels roll well on fresh pavement even here, and it’s easy to let the mind return to the familiar grooves. On the rail trail that runs mercifully just out my door and now nearly connects through the entire state of New York, I can lather into a third hour under a canopy of early spring leaves and let the Wendell Berry in: “The health of nature is the primary ground of hope – if we can find the humility and wisdom to accept nature as our teacher.” Yes, skiing can soften the hard edges of the world and give way to the dance of balance and strength. And yet, sometimes I need more than this.  

 Sometimes, I can rouse the fires within to see a completely different world beyond, with its own muses and images. Here’s where I hear the siren song of Devon Kershaw and his allusions of carnage: the “rip their legs off” and “gun to tape annihilate” and the “going down to the basement.” Racing is just instinctual for me. I ran my first 10k back in 1979, when I was nine, and whether up stairs, across bogs and sand dunes, on bikes, on skis or snowshoes, I’ve raced every year since. To this career high school English teacher, it’s the opposite of grading essays.  

 When I’m trying to connect with my limited stores power and speed, I’ll sometimes watch World Cup clips on YouTube. I see Petter Northug gritting his way through the field to take the 50k classic at the 2015 Falun World Championships; I see those last few k’s in the Beijing Olympic 30k when Jessie Diggins finishes on fumes for silver. (Yes, a proud moment in our household when my daughters encouraged me to name our puppy Diggins.) The one I’m thinking of now is the 2019 World Champs 30k skiathlon in Seefeld. It’s Sundy-Bolshunov-Røthe trying to destroy each other up the last few climbs, finding a hop skate after seventy-five minutes of redline racing, then spilling across the line with perfectly emptied tanks. Perhaps you have your own favorite clips.  

As I try to summon a summer interval in the suburbs, after dropping my daughter a sleepover, I can get to thinking about my own highlight tape, which Chad Salmela is definitely not narrating. I think of the 2006 Pepsi Challenge, when at 48k, I gave a nod to my one teammate and we made a decisive surge, dusting the last young buck riding in our train. I think about Bitch Hill, a steep little climb 40k into the Birkie, when several years later, I found the spring to fracture our large, lollygagging pack. I find these memories within, gently flogging me with their flagella. In part because it’s so hard to explain them in my faculty lounge in the Bronx, in part because they are the payouts of so much stoic suffering, and mostly because I just love it, I want to make more.  

This winter was different though. Mysteriously, I started feeling a constriction in my chest. I was often unable to get a full breath, even when reading in bed at night. When I tried to get out of zone three, I just couldn’t find the air. I saw my pulmonologist, my cardiologist, a gastroenterologist. I drew blood, I got tests. I got sucked down the Internet vortex: was it long Covid? Had I even had Covid? It took time and was expensive, and I didn’t learn much.  

With each race I had penciled into the schedule and had to decline, I felt the nip of disappointment. I didn’t want to say good-bye yet. Could I salvage, at least, something?  

One day in February after a good night’s sleep, I decided to enter a low-stakes challenge – the benchmark 10k rollerski time trial in Central Park. It wasn’t awful. In fact, it was an improvement from a few months prior. So, I succumbed to the beast and tried a few late-season races.  

It’s not a great feeling to stand on the starting line with a doubting mindset – “What am I doing here?” “Don’t blow up.” But that’s how things went – I felt like I was wearing someone else’s clothes. It was hard, humbling, and really not that much fun. But my last race of the “season” (four races total) offered a glimmer of hope. It was just a 5k relay leg, in perfect conditions on a rather flat course. Still, I felt relatively strong. I was actually able to pass people up a hill. So that’s the memory I’m choosing to take away. 

But is it enough to justify all the rigamarole? That sixth hill interval when the pain just feels pointless? Those beautifully aimless workouts – where you go a little faster than you should – interrupted by the voice of prudence? The occasional margarita you eschew for some pious purpose? And then, when winter comes, all that fretting over Wunderground and waxes and websites, where you read about volunteers shoveling snow onto corners in dwindling hopes of staving off the coming thaw, toward which your travel no doubt contributes?  

 Ugh – yeah, it’s worth it! We skiers worship a rather demonic god, it seems. And its worth only grows because it’s so fleeting, like surfing through a barrel wave – exhilarating and bound to crash. Like trying to ski uphill forever. If you, reader, have not grappled with this same question, you probably will!  

Here’s the best revelation I’ve come to: I just want to be able to work hard enough so that going out on a long ski feels easy. For a recent New York Times piece about the pleasure of running slowly, one of the most popular comments was, “Running for joy beats running to win anytime.” I’m not quite there yet, but I see the light of this too. For now, I want my strength to be more than my pain. I know my imagination can supply the rest.  

Author Bio:

Tim Donahue teaches high school English at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in The Bronx. He lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY and rollerskis year round. You can find his writing on climate change and education in The New York Times, USA Today, and Newsweek.