What We Get from Our Training Groups:

What We Get from Our Training Groups: 

In an individual sport like Nordic skiing, it can be hard to comprehend exactly in what ways the team aspect takes shape. Our results, times, hours, are our own and not the work of anyone else, but we train and race together in groups, teams, and clubs all centered around the process of getting better at skiing. Technically in the summer, skiers are not limited to snow location for summer training. Anywhere with single track, a gym, and semi-decent roads does the trick when it comes to necessities for summer training. As the old coaching line goes , “Good skiers are made in the summer.”

This “making” is not solely indicative of putting in lots of hours. Anyone with a training plan can go out mornings and afternoons to bank some distance, some Level 3 intervals, a speed session, an over distance session, and you’ve got yourself a pretty decent summer of training. I began to write this article after I was reflecting on my own choices of where to be during my summer months in-between semesters of college at the University of Vermont. One summer, I mostly traveled around between Washington, Oregon, and Alaska, splitting my time between home and training camps. Another summer, I wanted to remain in one place for the entirety of the summer, so I lived in Craftsbury Vermont through the support of the GRP’s U23 program. Last summer, I wanted to be in Vermont again but chose to operate out of Burlington with Mansfield Nordic Club’s University Team. This summer, I came back to Alaska to train with the training group at Alaska Pacific University for two months before I will return to Vermont for my last year of college.

When reflecting on my decision-making every summer of where I wanted to be, across the board, I was following groups of female athletes that I wanted to surround myself with and learn from. All three of these spots had national team athletes, top domestic professional racers, and top NCAA finishers. What every group has to offer is unique regarding their location, support, training styles and tactics, yet every group seemed to have a large base of athletes dedicated to improvement, excellence, and challenge. Some athletes prefer to stick to one summer training spot as they are able to visit a coach repeatedly summer after summer, building a valuable relationship longer than two or three months can provide. While I agree that building up long-term coaching/athlete relationships are invaluable for athlete development, I also believe that trying new things especially when young can be extremely important for personal and athletic development. And by “trying new things” I don’t mean completely altering training philosophies year to year. In regard to my own training the past three summers, the hour progressions have remained largely the same with slight increases year to year as my tolerance for volume increases. By trying new things, I more mean different workout progressions, different strength exercises, nutrition habits or technique variations. Most importantly, what I believe to be most valuable is that not all of this information is transferred through a coach athlete relationship, but rather through knowledge exchanged between teammates and competitors.

For instance, I am currently spending my summer up in Anchorage Alaska with a pretty strong group of athletes both on the male and female side. And by pretty strong, I mean very strong, including national team members Rosie Brennen, Novie McCabe, and Kendall Kramer. So far, my experience in the women’s training group has been extremely positive, with open dialogue at training about our own training styles, recovery tactics, technique ques, not only am I gaining the growth of fitness at training, but the open discussion has me thinking about the training I am doing and having more confidence in the decisions I make. Not only is it incredibly valuable to talk among your teammates about what is working, it is also incredibly important to have candid honest conversations about what hasn’t worked in the past. For instance, on a training session the other day, we had a conversation about the signs of fatigue we have all experienced during moments of high volume. There is an instant relief when chatting with your competitors and teammates and realizing “oh my gosh, they go through the same thing as I do!”.  

But like I said, discussion and training go hand and hand when it comes to improvement, with the training being key. We don’t get better if we don’t do it. One technique exercise I love that I believe to be important both for amateurs to the sport as well as the best of the best, is to jump in behind a teammate or friend, and replicate their technique to the best of your ability. The point of the drill is not to cast your own skiing style to the wind, but it is to push your body out of its own mechanic habits (some good and some bad) and into new forms of movement. On Friday last week, in an L3 session in Anchorage Alaska I got to ski behind some impressive yet pretty different skiers. Attempting to match the tempo of national team member and Olympian Novie McCabe is a challenge I have been attempting to do since our years as junior skiers in the Pacific Northwest that still haven’t quite mastered yet (but I’m getting close), but it was also a great exercise in allowing my body to adjust to rhythms outside of its own. In mass starts, sometimes it doesn’t really matter what pace and timing is most comfortable for you, the race just goes, and you have to match it. Practicing feelings of discomfort and newness when it comes to tempo, rhythm and technique is super important for making those moments in racing much less daunting and energy consuming. However, this technique drill can also help you work out kinks in your own technique. Taking advantage of skiers who are more developed in areas of your skiing that you want to improve is the best way to push yourself to new levels. This creates an environment of a training group that fosters dynamics of positive growth and cohesion rather than comparison. It can be easy to let a strong training group become a minefield of comparison and self-doubt when it comes to fitness and training. It is certainly not easy to be in situations where you might find yourself feeling a little out of place or unprepared especially when the level is high. Having an empowering mindset instead of comparison is certainly much easier said than it is done, especially when in the trenches of volume of summer training (having been there myself I know the feeling). But yet again this is a weight that is much more easily carried when you have the support of the training group around you.

I’ve been lucky enough to travel around to many spots the past few summers, trying and learning new things in each, with the mentality of “take what you want and leave the rest” when it comes to approaches to training. Not everything worked for me and that’s a good thing. How else do we learn what is best for us? Across the board the biggest thing I have taken from each space is a greater appreciation for my competitors both as skiers and as people. Knowing the work they have done in the summer, the work you have put in with them, can be an extra boost of confidence on the start line in the winter to know you can hang with them. In sport and in the nature of competition, results and comparison are a part of the game just as success and failure is. However, I have found that the mental and physical work to be empowered by your competitors and teammates done in the summer, has a powerful effect in the transfer to winter. So even if you are in a training group solely for a summer, surrounded by people who as soon as winter rolls around become your competitors, fostering good team cohesion even for a few months pays off big time in the winter.