I've started training for next season....

[bauerb]

thought I'd dredge up this old thread for a minute. so in the couple of months leading up to a Feb ski trip to Montana, I was logging 35-50 miles per week running, both on trails and roads. early in the fall, I decided I really liked trail racing, especially longer distances, eg marathon to ultra 50k. because of that, I decided to maintain a training schedule oriented around longer distance trail running, rather than Tele skiing. sooo, that meant I made a choice of what to do in training, and what not to do, and I knew that this would affect my tele skiing fitness....going downhills.

what I did: hours and hours of low intensity road an trail miles. low intensity as in: keeping my HR around 75% of max at most, for many hours. this is good for distance running fitness

what I did not do: plyometric/dynamic type exercises that would mimic the form and motion of tele turns going down hill. I also did not include any strength workouts for legs, although I did start using rubber bands for my back strength.

so, after 10 days of skiing, including my first skimo race ascent, what have I discovered?

1. my uphill fitness is very good. I placed well in my first ever skimo race after only 2 days of skinning uphill experience. I find that I can chug along uphill using my Diesel engine for hours at a time.

2. well going downhill doing tele turns....my fitness is better than it has been in years, but I find that I am good for about 20 short radius, snappy turns before I want a quick break. in the last couple of years, my quads would start burning after a few turns, and I would need to stop, and the last run was always the "danger run" because my legs were jello. this year, there really isn't any jello effect, or quad burning, but I still take alot of breaks.

my advice, if Tele skiing is your main goal, do a whole lot of plyo, dymamic exercise work that mimics a full ski run...basically train for the exercise you want to be good at.

I ended up biased towards distance running, but discovered uphill skinning, which I really like

[nafeeuakilu]

I stumbled upon this three-year-old thread and noticed your goals for off-season training. It's great that you had some epic Tele skiing days and learned valuable lessons. To summarize:
1. Understand your limits for lift-served skiing and focus on maintaining stamina and technique.
2. Find a balance between parallel turns and Tele skiing for sustained performance.
3. Pace yourself during the last runs to maintain good form and enjoyment.
4. Embrace your preferred skiing style and rhythm, even when skiing with faster alpine skiers.
5. Set off-season training goals, like building endurance, strengthening quads and back, and incorporating plyometric exercises.
5. Explore https://www.muscleandmotion.com/product ... ining-app/ for strength training insights.
Hope your skiing adventures have been fantastic since then!

[bauerb]

so I guess its the 3 year anniversary of my original post. everything has changed:

1. I hired a coach 14 months ago
2. I now race XC skiing, Skimo, Trail running and road running
3. Year round training and racing
4. I moved to Montana and live and train at altitude
5. I don't get in much tele skiing as skimo and XC are my priorities

where I was 3 years ago vs today is pretty crazy. Now, Racing 20 miles on foot over 7,000ft of vert up to 11,000ft altitude, hitting the major Sky Running races, racing crazy Skimo at places like Whitefish, Brighton, Solitude, Big sky, racing XC skiing at West Yellowstone and chasing the Montana Nordic Cup overall points....3yrs ago tele skiing seemed like it required "hardcore fitness"...I've just changed my perspective a little bit . tele skiing still requires fitness, but its all relative

[Manney]

Congrats on going the coach route. Huge gains when a pro is driving the bus.

Doing more trail running this year. Not huge verts… hills, not mountains. Loose surfaces.

Yep on XC skiing, skimo. Huge fitness required relative to tele… and DH is way below that. More XC = zero free on anything where the slope points down.

[spopepro]

Hey bauerb, do you mind sharing how old you are? I'm in the middle of prep for my first 50k (the wy'east) and am maybe a little frustrated at coming to serious aerobic endeavors to late in life. I'm 42 now, and just seem to be having a hard time keeping my body good with the workload.

Or maybe this was all just a mistake for me... as I went in for metabolic testing and they were like "so you're a sprinter, right?" even though I've not done any speed work in like 12 years...

[bauerb]

I'm 53. 2 years ago after a couple of decades of work and life that did not involve exercise( maybe 6 days of lift served skiing per year, at most), I got off the couch and started running. I ran a 1 mile loop around my neighborhood on the sidewalks. it was hell. my knees hurt so much I could barely climb stairs, and my breathing!! I sounded like a dying, asthmatic grizzly bear...my knees were so bad I had to stop running an ride my bike for a month before slowly easing back into running....and Im talking 200 yards jog, then walk, then jog. etc. 1 year later I ran my first trail 50k (Boulder Field in PA). the hardest bit of training you will ever do is the first bit....so if you can get through that... running only gets easier...but of course we set harder goals for ourselves. regarding the "sprinter comment" 2 things: 1) I am genetically pre-disposed to build and carry a lot of muscle mass...way too much for endurance sports....but I do them anyway...I work hard to be super-lean/low body fat, but I still look like I ate the little guy next to me.... 2) regarding testing: Sprinters are Anaerobic...you want to be Aerobic. if your testing is highlighting an over-dependence on Anaerobic function...you need slow down and build you aerobic base...this scenario is called "Aerobic Deficiency Syndrome"(ADS) and I had it bad. I did so much high intensity training I could race 3hrs at 90% of my max HR, but I could not jog in Z1 without stopping to walk...I spent a year doing almost only Z1 volume, but by going slow I went from running 10-11min/miles to racing at 8 min/miles and am now training at 5:30/6:00 min pace for shorter things... FYI, I'm currently training. for Sky races like Broken Arrow, Sky Peaks, The Rut. Mammoth Mountain....etc, but I was at the track today doing 400m repeats at 5:30 pace....at 42 you are in your endurance prime...no mistake.