Hello Hello!
Hannah here, checking in from the BSF van as we drive back to Bozeman after a great training camp in Bend, Oregon. After a few months apart during our off season in the spring, our team reconvened in Bend last Wednesday to kick off the new training year. We were joined by our newest team members: Graham Houtsma, Reid Goble, and Mariah Bredal, now making us a team of nine!
Before this year, I had never done a May training camp before. As I sit here in the van with sore muscles, over 100k of skiing under my feet, and lots of motivation for the coming season, I can confidently say that a May training camp is very much worth it. This camp was not only a great kickstart to our training year, but it was also a perfect opportunity to get to know our new teammates, bond as a group, and get excited for the year to come.
During our time in Bend, we mainly focused on getting in quality volume training and working on technique. This looked like a lot of 2-3 hour skis, long mountain bike rides, no-pole skiing, banded drills, and video review. We also did sprinkle in a few L3 interval sessions too.
After reflecting on my summer training from last year and on my 2020-2021 season as a whole, I’ve set some goals and am going to make some adjustments to my training this coming summer. One of the biggest changes I want to make is with my L3 (threshold) training. This past year, I did a lot of my level-three training slightly above my threshold. During interval workouts, I would often ski too fast and climb into my L4 zones. At the time, I didn’t think it was a big deal, but as the winter went on, I started to feel the consequences. True level-three training is a crucial step in creating muscular aerobic efficiency. If you don’t do enough training in your real threshold zone, you eventually lose your base fitness and can plateau in your performances. So, one of my goals for this summer is to make sure that I do all of my L3 workouts in my actual L3 zone. This can sometimes be challenging when you’re training with a big group of skiers, however, I have come to realize that it is very much worth it to stick to your own pace.
To go off this same idea, one of my other goals for the summer is to ensure I am doing all of my easy distance L1 training at a true L1 pace. The same reasonings apply, and it can be quite costly if you do all of your “easy” training out of zone.
With the first camp of the season under my belt, some new training goals, and a bunch of newfound motivation, I am very excited for the rest of the summer!
Thanks for reading,
Hannah
