A New Approach to Winter Training

As a biathlete for the past 5 years, my life has revolved around spending as much time on skate skis at a shooting range as humanly possible. That meant endless mind-numbing laps of the .8k roller-loop at Crosscut, skiing in the rain, wind, and/or sleet, and travelling all over the country in search of better conditions. While this approach was important and effective for being the best I could be at biathlon, I knew I needed a different plan of attack for this year as I broadened my scope of events to include Nordic marathons, biking, running, and maybe even skimo racing. 

This year, I took a bit different approach to training, and thank goodness I did! Rather than assigning a mode of exercise and forcing myself to train that specific movement, I worked with my coach to plan the workouts around the physiological response we wanted to create, then each day I picked the mode I felt would be most effective based on the workout and the conditions. Given the winter we’ve had in the West, this was definitely a moving target, and I had to learn patience and resiliency. 

Early winter riding - high elevation snow made for pretty views and dry roads. 

Bozeman had an early-season winter tease, so I took advantage of the pre-season uphill policy at Bridger Bowl to try out ski-touring intervals for the first time. I’ve backcountry skied for years, but always at a chill pace with friends. Given the thin and ultra soft snowpack at the Nordic trails, it was a great opportunity to get in high quality intensity without having to wallow through thick powder on skinny cross country skis. 

Getting in intensity is even easier with a weighted pack and endless climbing! 

After the first snowy fake-out, I spent more time than I ever have running uphill. With Nordic conditions at the local trails so variable, the easiest way to safely get a hard workout in was to hit the uphill on repeat. Bozeman has “The M” trail, which is a south facing network of single track ranging from gradual to super steep uphill, and, given its aspect, it was consistently dry all winter. As a Nordie, I’ve usually only hiked, ski-walked, and bounded uphill, so the motion of actually running uphill was foreign at first. Though humbling at the beginning, it was exciting to see progress in just a few weeks as my muscles quickly adapted to the new stimulus of uphill running. 

Views from “The M” mid-January. 

Through January I continued to run, assuming Mother Nature’s snow guns would turn on in February. Luckily in February, I was able to travel to Crested Butte for the Alley Loop, Sun Valley for the Boulder Mountain Tour, and Brillion to coach Biathlon Master’s Nationals, and was able to finally get some time on race skis. This too was a learning experience. Though I felt like my fitness was where I wanted it to be, I found out that the technical downhill skills I took for granted as inherent capabilities were actually quite rusty. Though I had gotten out on rock skis as often as I could, I wasn’t ready to handle the speed of professionally waxed race skis, and could tell I was less stable at speed than in the past. 

Finding snow at The Alley Loop (left), Boulder Mountain Tour (middle), and Masters Biathlon Nationals (right). 

Looking back at winter so far, I’m really happy with the way I’ve trained. While I would have liked to feel at the top of my game for the super fast conditions of the Boulder Mountain Tour, I’ve been happier, and training has been mentally so much easier despite the challenging conditions. I’ve been pushed to search out new trails and modes of training, and in the process have found some cool new areas to explore, making workouts that I’ve done many times feel new and exciting. By opening up the modes, I’ve been able to workout and race with different friends (like those who run or bike but don’t ski) so have been pushed to be better in ways I haven’t before. And I didn’t have to break out the rollerskis in January, so that’s always a huge win! Best of all, my body feels more balanced than it has in over a decade. Mixing up the mode of training has balanced me out, and my lingering overuse injuries from years and years of skiing have faded to the background. 

Trying new race formats including skimo!