Olympics Recap and My Training Moving Forward

The Olympic classic sprint, the only race I had any chance of competing in, has come and gone. It was even easier than I thought it would be to just be a part of a great US Men’s team and not dwell on my lack of racing. Why? Because Ben Ogden won a silver medal! It’s hard to describe how much this result means for US Skiing as a whole. Anyone who has been paying attention to Ben, Gus, and JC over the past few years knows that something special has been building, and Ben finally broke through on the biggest stage in the world for cross country skiing. I am so incredibly happy for him and for the implications for this Men’s squad in the future. The result shows exactly what's possible for all of us, and it’s quite motivating for me knowing that in the next Olympics, the sprint will be freestyle. 

With the race I was preparing for out of the way, I am now in full on training mode for Period 4 of the world cup which kicks off on February 28th with a skate sprint in Falun, Sweden. It took a bit of thinking to come up with what the best way to spend the 18 days I have to prepare, but at this point, I have a plan that I am very confident will leave me in as good as possible shape for the entirety of Period 4. Having a 4th place to my name on the world cup, naturally, the next step is to get on the podium. This is my focus for the next few weeks. 

coffee and sun of course

So, what is required of me to achieve this goal? I must qualify in the top 30, move through a quarter final, move through a semi final, and then have enough energy to end up in the top half of the final. The closest I have gotten to checking off each part of this list was in Davos this year, but I have not come particularly close in any other race. I’m banking on the fact that my top end speed is as good as it ever has been and a small jump in fitness will get me to where I want to be. 

What this means for training is that I need to train a lot in the next few weeks and execute some longer, harder sessions than is my bread and butter. Sure, I’m a little worried that with the emphasis on heats, my qualifying and top end speed will suffer, but I think a little bit of risk is appropriate here. The focus I have had on feeling perfect for every intensity session and making sure as much of the intensity I do is at or faster than qualifier pace has improved my qualifying drastically over the past few years, but right now, I have an opportunity to try something new. 

Training Plan

This is far from revolutionary. In fact, there is still a 12x30” and some 20/40s in the plan: workouts that I have done many many times in the past. The difference lies in trying to execute some long hard sessions (such as 5x2.5’ and the sprint simulation) under a relatively large volume load. As I said, I hope that my top end speed is in excellent shape right now and doing some longer, slower intervals due to being a little bit tired from training is something I can benefit from. 

Another difference in this plan compared to other preparation phases I’ve had for world cup sprints is pushing the load much closer to racing. I am planning on training quite hard until 6 days before the Falun sprint. There is a chance that I will bounce back in time to have a good one there, but there is perhaps a larger chance that I am tired for that weekend. It would sting not to qualify on next year’s world champs course, but that’s a risk that seems necessary at this point with my main focus being the end of the season in Lake Placid. 

Another aspect of the next few weeks that I am excited about is the implications for how I will structure training leading up to the skate sprint at world champs next year. It’s no secret that it's the people who are able to put in effective training blocks mid winter (whether that is through racing or avoiding it) who generally perform best at championships. I have very little experience with training hard during the winter, and this experiment will hopefully give me some good ideas for the training block that precedes world champs next year.

Execution (so far)

On Tuesday, the day I was prepared to race, I went up to Passo Lavaze to do 3x8x20/40 with the 20” bits being at sprint pace and the 40” rest easy skiing. Lavaze is at 1800m, which is why I opted for 20/40. At sea level, I may have gone with the more standard 30/30 to make use of all of the oxygen. This was an excellent start to my week. The altitude didn’t feel terrible, and I could tell that my body was really cooperating with me for the first time in a few weeks. 

After two days of delightful easy distance, I ripped some skate finishes at the Olympic venue on Friday afternoon. These went so so well. I can’t tell if I’m just happier because the increased training is giving me something to do or if training more is actually making speed and intensity feel better, but Friday was a great session. Technique was clicking and I felt legitimately fast. With the speed session and a lot of easy distance under my belt, all signs were pointing to ripping a quality intensity session on Saturday. 

A beautiful day up at Lavaze

This morning (Saturday), I did one of the harder workouts on this plan: 5x2.5’. The idea behind this workout was to build up for 90” so that I was working pretty hard then have the last minute be very fast (hopefully the speed I would finish a heat with). This was the first real test of how I was handling the increased training load, and I felt a lot better than I thought I would. It’s of course possible that I was moving slowly and just had no point of reference, but I don’t think that was the case. I think in the past I haven’t given myself enough credit for the amount I’ve trained over my lifetime and my ability to handle high volume. When I’ve seen a number over 18 on the plan for weekly hours, alarm bells have always gone off, and I’ve been hesitant to try and execute long hard sessions alongside higher volume. It’s impossible to know if I was actually going fast today, but I looked good and felt good. I’ll take that combination any day of the week.

So- that’s my plan! Tomorrow I am off to Trondheim, Norway to train with fellow US World Cup sprinter Kevin Bolger. Being at the Olympics has been incredible, and I’m very happy with the training I was able to accomplish while I was here. This being said, I think a change of scenery will do me good with the last couple weeks of locking in for hotel life looming on the horizon.  

always sunny in Italy