2020 Marathon Training Tips #1 - 12/16/19

from Caitlin & Adam of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project

This winter, Craftsbury Green Racing Project athletes Caitlin Patterson and Adam Martin are offering weekly guidance via an email newsletter, to help you prepare for the Craftsbury Marathon or any other ski marathon. We (Caitlin & Adam) hope that this will be useful for those training for their first ski race as well as veterans of many previous marathons. Click here to subscribe to the newsletter.

Each week, we will explain a suggested workout and a technique tip that we feel is important to think about. While this newsletter will not constitute a full training plan, we hope that you can incorporate these suggestions into your preparation in order to arrive at the start line with more confidence in your efficiency and fitness!

The Workout: Easy Distance

The humble easy distance workout is easy to overlook, but it lays the foundation for a strong training plan. This is an aerobic exercise performed at a very easy intensity for ideally one to two hours. There are great physiological benefits no matter what aerobic activity you choose (roller ski, bike, run, row, hike, etc.), but if you have an opportunity to ski on snow, it will be the most effective. 

How To: Pick your activity and enjoy an hour or two of easy activity. As a guide, it's best to go slow enough that you can partake in a full conversation. If you measure your heart rate during training, shoot for 60-72% of your max heart rate. These workouts should be minimally fatiguing, so you can do these frequently and without a long rest period in between. (At least 4 hours break is good to allow time for some fuel replenishment.)

When: Since easy workouts have a low energy cost, they can be done whenever you have time in your schedule. Several months out from a target event, more frequent easy distance workouts will allow you to accumulate training without building too much fatigue. Later on, less frequent easy distance workouts are a great way to recover after races or harder sessions. 

Why: The purpose of these sessions is to amass time when the body's aerobic energy systems are utilized and the body is practicing sport movement patterns. This will help improve the body's ability transport blood to active muscles (via higher capillary density), the muscle cells' aerobic metabolism (via more and larger mitochondria), and the efficiency of the muscular movements (via optimized neural circuits). The effects of easy distance workouts take more time to blossom, but they will make harder workouts with more immediate benefits even more effective down the line.

Technique Tip: Transitions

Cross-country skiing is a multi-dimensional sport; to race or ski well demands mastery of transitions. By transitions, I’m referring to the way a skier navigates every corner, every roll-over from hill to flat, every notable grade change on a trail. We must learn to build momentum through transitions, or at least not to lose momentum, in order to become the most efficient skiers possible.

In working on your transitions, I’ll challenge you to do two things.
First, think about them. Have you ever noticed how many transitions skiing requires? If you’re an experienced skier, they might come so naturally that you don’t consciously notice yourself switching techniques or cornering. If that’s the case, bring your awareness to those switches from V2 to V1, from double poling to striding, from straight to turning left. If you’re a beginner, you might be already thinking through every switch, reminding yourself what comes next for arm and leg articulation based on the terrain ahead. Are you better at certain kinds of transitions than others, or at high or low speeds are you more comfortable? Are there hitches in your stride, or does it flow from one movement to the next?

Secondly, find a short loop with varied terrain, which takes maybe 3 to 5 minutes for you to ski at an easy pace. Ski your loop easy and select a few transitions to work on, then repeat the loop several times working on your target transitions. Try them slow, keeping the skis and poles moving along without pauses, and then repeat the loop or a small section of it, and ski the feature faster. For cornering, focus on strong skate pushes with the leg on the outside of the corner. For grade changes, try to minimize any pause in poling motions, instead keeping the rhythm going even as you transition. Never be afraid to slow things way down, stop, think, and experiment with your timing or approach to the transition.
As a different option to making solo loops, if you have skier friends, alternate leading and following them around. Does your friend pull away from you on certain terrain features, or do you pull away from her? Following people, with a critical eye towards yourself and a curious mindset about what the lead skier is doing, can be extremely beneficial. Do you have any elite or former elite skiers who frequent your local trail system? Hop in and ski behind one of them, watching carefully where they transition and how the timing and efficiency works. 

Your Authors

Caitlin Patterson is a member of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project elite team and the US Ski Team. She is an 8-time US National Champion, a 2018 Olympian and a 2019 World Championship team member. Caitlin considers herself a distance specialist, racing primarily 5k to 30k events, but loves the high-paced action of sprint heats too.

Adam Martin is in his third year training and racing with the Craftsbury Green Racing Project. He has started 8 World Cups and raced in the 2019 World Championships. Last year Adam won the freestyle Craftsbury Marathon. He is supported by Fischer skis and boots and Swix poles.

The Green Racing Project is an elite team of post-collegiate athletes who train and live in Craftsbury, Vermont. Their athletic dreams are supported by the Craftsbury Outdoor Center and Concept 2. In return for this support, the athletes engage in professional development by working on a variety of projects at the Outdoor Center.

Questions or Feedback?

Send feedback about this newsletter, or requests for future content, to caitlinpattersonskier@gmail.com. While we can't promise to respond to every request, we'd love to hear what topics are most interesting and write content that will help you become more comfortable on skis!