Training, Tricks & Tips

Uphill tips:

1. Relax your shoulders, neck and face… or as much muscles as you can. Save your energy.
2. Experiment with variety of strides on variety of angles.
3. Good kick-turns technique allows for short moments of recovery. They add up.
4. Have spare skins always handy, not in your backpack, at least one.
5. If you estimate a race will take you more than 2h do not skip on fueling. Unless you feel like God that day.

Downhill tips:

1. It doesn’t have to look pretty, just fast.
2. Longer traverses between turns allow for more rest.
3. Don’t just blindly follow racers in front of you. They might be skiing off course… and you with them.
4. If you think you skied off the course immediately start traversing the slope in both directions and look for flags below as well as above.
5. There is no shame in using a snow plow to get things done occasionally. After all, it is ski mountaineer’s best friend.

Bonus tip:

Some lessons need to be gained through personal experience; otherwise, they are highly underestimated 😉

When we sling on our pack for a ski traverse or strap down our boots for a ski mountaineering race we rarely think about the effect altitude will have on our body and our performance.
Altitude is a concern for Himalayan expeditions not for running around our home peaks, right?
Wrong! The International Olympic Committee (IOC) designates “Moderate Altitude” as between 1700 and 2900 metres above sea level.
Whether you are doing a multi-day traverse expedition or a two-hour skimo race, the altitude will affect you. The effect varies and can be minimized with proper education and preparation.

Usual skimo race elevations

Skimo races in the US and Canadian Rockies are routinely held between 1700 and 3000 metres (5500-10,000 feet) with some reaching as high as 3500m (11,500ft).
Specifically, the course of the American Skimo Championships in Jackson Hole, WY is between 2000 and 3200 metres (6500-10,500 feet). And Colorado races have their start lines already above 2700m (8900ft)!
For the Canadian Skimo Champs in Golden, BC the course travels between 1800 and 2600 metres (5900-8500 feet).

How does altitude affect our bodies?

With exposure to moderate altitude, our breathing rate increases, partially making up for lower oxygen availability.
Short-term exposure (hours to days) also causes loss of body water and sodium through increased urination. Decreases in body water lead to decreases in plasma volume (the fluid component of blood), which can potentially impair performance.
The altitude also affects your heart and lungs; impaired oxygen delivery to the muscles results in a 7% decrease in aerobic capacity (VO2max) for every 1000 metres above sea level (a relationship that is nearly linear; even at low altitude, we see a decrease).
Aerobic capacity is closely related to endurance performance. This decrement improves with a long-term stay at altitude but never completely recovers to sea-level values. One study at 2300 metres showed an initial 13% decrease in VO2max improving to only a 6% decrease after 14 days.
At altitude, our muscles also communicate fatigue differently. An athlete will self-select a slower speed than they would at sea level. It is possible that this is related to an increase in lactic acid production.
Lactic acid is produced as a byproduct in our working muscles and its accumulation during exercise is generally accepted as a factor leading to fatigue. Higher levels of lactic acid could mean earlier onset of fatigue compared to sea level.
During the night, waking up more than usual might easily be attributed to (or overshadowed by) pre-competition jitters, but research shows that sleep can be affected even by moderate altitude.
The first few nights at altitude might be marked by poor sleep. At higher altitude, this becomes more pronounced where breathing slows gradually until it stops altogether (called Cheyne-Stokes breathing). After a moment, you wake with a start, gasping as if you just crested the top of a steep bootpack.

How to minimize the “altitude effect”?

We can mitigate the effects of altitude prior to competition or a trip by using a few simple strategies:
It is advisable to allow for a 4-6 day acclimatization gap between travelling and competition. This allows your body to recover from some of the acute changes at altitude while hopefully not interrupting necessary pre-competition training too much.
Travel to altitude well rested, therefore, giving your body a chance to adapt as much as possible.
Training in the first few days at altitude should be restricted to low-intensity and minimal volume. This allows your body to recover from the combined stress of training and altitude.
A proper hydration strategy is important to combat water loss while maintaining a proper fluid and electrolyte balance.
The final component of competition at altitude for an athlete to be aware of is illness. Three main altitude illnesses are:

• acute mountain sickness (AMS),
• high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE),
• high altitude cerebral edema (HACE).

At moderate altitude, it is unlikely anyone will experience HAPE or HACE – life-threatening accumulation of fluid in the lungs or brain.
It is possible that AMS could develop, especially after a quick ascent to the venue. Symptoms to watch out for include: headache, nausea, fatigue or weakness, lightheadedness or dizziness, and poor sleep.
While some of these symptoms may be difficult to differentiate from travel/jetlag or from hard training, grouped together, they may signal the onset of AMS and descent to a lower altitude should be considered.
Touring, training, and competition at moderate altitude are unavoidable for even a novice ski mountaineer. All those who participate in these activities should be aware of the acute affects of altitude and should take the necessary precautions to avoid altitude illness.

Summary – key points:

• Many competitions take place at moderate altitude (1700-3000m or 5500-10,000ft)
• Moderate altitude impairs performance through a variety of mechanisms
• Mitigate the effect of altitude by:
  • travelling to competition venues 4-6 days early
  • ensuring adequate fluid and electrolyte levels
  • being well rested
• Watch for signs of altitude illness

In the previous article on rando skimo racing summer training I talked about “bread and butter” – the benefits and importance of endurance base building during the summer months for ski mountaineers that absolutely want to improve their performance once the country turns white.
Here, I am going to discuss a workout that tremendously helps with building your endurance base while making you practice almost the same movement as on skis by working the same muscles as used during skinning.
I have been using this type of a training session long time ago but only years later I started to fully appreciate how many benefits are packed into it, and it’s not all only about your lungs.

What is a hiko-run?

The term “hiko-run” is made up. I never heard it before I and a couple of friends came up with it. But it’s possible other people use it as well.
The need for such a term came from not being able to describe “a run that also featured walking parts” – our training diary was asking for something simpler.

Why you should hiko-run

Our small training group (back then I was a triathlete) never intended a running session to have walking segments but when, for training variety reasons, we wanted to run trails with long climbs while still remaining at low intensity (base building) we had to switch to a walk, or a hike mode.
In order to stay aerobic [Wikipedia link] on the lower spectrum of exercising heart-rate intensity for long periods of time our coach wouldn’t let us run over the hills. And so the “hiko-run” became a new term and a training tool.
You might be asking why one wouldn’t want to keep running even over small hills, no longer than 2-3min?
Well, even such a small hill can take you from low aerobic endurance intensity up to somewhere below your anaerobic threshold [Wikipedia link]. See also anaerobic exercise on Wikipedia for more details.
Now you maybe ask “why is this not desirable?”
Let’s say there were 10 such hills during your run and you sort of powered over them. With that you almost completely changed the goals/effects of that training session. I am not saying you should never run over the hills, I am saying that you should be quite mindful during every session to achieve desired training effects in the long term.
You can keep running over these hills right from June or July if you simply want to, however, you will be doing something that would have greater benefit on your performance if you introduced it few months after you built up a solid low intensity endurance base.
For the sake of simplicity I am going to stop discussing the physiology whys and whens right here as it might confuse less experienced ones. If I answer another why then I would have to answer many more whys and whens to fully explain this 😉 but feel free to ask in the comments below or email me.

Hiko-run with ski poles

Apart from a great exercise this session usually means beautiful trails and views as it is basically hiking with poles with a slightly longer stride.

How to do it properly:

Pick an objective (a mountain) with enough vertical gain that will have you climbing for at least 30min, doesn’t have to be very steep. I do anywhere from 40min to 2-3h. All depends on terrain available, your fitness, and goals.
Throughout the whole session try to stay in the endurance base building intensity – more or less being able to carry a conversation:

• On steep parts ease off the pace to compensate for the more challenging terrain thus keeping the intensity low.
• On flats, if it’s getting too easy, switch to jogging without using your poles – grab them in the middle for more comfort.
• All you are trying is just to maintain a low but constant intensity.

Experiment with frequency and length of your stride and because you will have poles you should use them to push off like when skinning thus getting a slightly longer stride. And remember to use hand straps.
To allow for a full arm extension your poles will need to be about 5-10cm shorter than what you use for touring or skimo racing.
>> See this article to figure out the best length for your skimo racing poles.

Benefits:

The main benefit to me is the relaxing energy of nature, and that you can do it with slower friends as the goal of the workout doesn’t require you to hammer away, or to unconditionally focus only on yourself.
Physiological benefits are:

• Endurance base building – increased aerobic capacity
• Increased leg strength because of the vertical gain
• Refreshing your muscle memory with skimo specific workout yet not requiring snow
• Downhills train your quads for non-stop skimo descents…or pool parties 😉

Hiko-run without poles

Hiko-run without poles is pretty self-explanatory but there are some differences compared to the pole version. Mainly, there is more running than hiking. I guess it could be coined then as a “runo-hike” 😉
This version can be used as a starting point if you don’t feel strong enough to sustain long climbing yet, or simply as a variation in your training whenever throughout the year – that’s how I use it.

How to do it properly:

Choose a trail/course that has some small hills. Adjust the vertical gain and length as desired. I do anywhere from 40min, when pressed for time, all the way up to 3h of total climbing time.
Again, during the whole session try to stay in the endurance base building intensity – on the hills ease off the pace to keep the intensity low. Since the vertical gain isn’t very much you should be able to run the flats while staying at low intensity. Downhills are up to you, I usually jog them but sometimes switch to walking if my legs feel too sore.
Stride length and frequency is very individual and I would advise to consult some experienced runners on this. My general advice would be, rather keep the frequency higher and stride shorter than the other way around. But mainly, just run and don’t worry much.

Benefits:

The main benefit is that you can quite comfortably cover lots of ground fast yet not be as sore the next day as if you run it. And the base building benefit is still there.
Physiological benefits are:

• Endurance base building – increased aerobic capacity
• Leg strength improvements are smaller but that is not the goal of this session anyways
• Your stride frequency is faster than when on skis (hiko-running with poles) which sets you up for a faster turnover once going into the winter

Hiko-run as a year round training tool

I believe it is beneficial to keep hiko-running or simply running even in the winter:

• Firstly, to break the training stereotype but
• more importantly, to exercise at a fast stride frequency (cadence/turnover) that could be maintained on skis only with very taxing high  intensity intervals.

Sometimes I don’t run for couple of weeks during the winter because simply there is too much snow everywhere except paved roads, which I don’t like. However, when I get a chance to squeeze in a run even once in 10 days I can feel that my legs sort of “correct their timing” a bit.

Any questions?

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And feel free to ask anything in the comments below.