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Sari Anderson

"Bread and butter" summer training for rando racing and speedier ski mountaineering: Endurance and Activity variety

July 30, 2012 By Stano Faban 1 Comment

I would never believe that my first thought would be about training when waking up today, then closely followed by thoughts exclusively only about bread and butter. Perhaps because I was waking up after a successful Iron Maiden show. Then somehow the brain quickly connected the two and here we go 😉
Ski mountaineer's summer.An old cycling wisdom says: “Tour de France is won in the winter!” It’s an interesting statement since the Tour is ridden in the heat of July.
It means that if you are not building your endurance engine sufficiently  long time before your goal event then you will have trouble reaching your potential that year, and consistently improving over long periods of time.
So what does this mean in rando racing and ski mountaineering terms?
Feel free to let me know in comments below if you want me to expand on any concepts introduced here. I am keeping this article simple for everyone to understand as too much detail can be overwhelming and difficult to act upon.

Endurance capacity should be your “bread and butter” in the summer

Basic principle:

All endurance performances (sports lasting longer than 2-3 minutes) are the most effectively improved (long term) via consistently improving ones endurance capacity (low heart-rate intensity).
The biggest reason for this is that improvements to your more intensive (higher heart-rate) capacities rely heavily on your low intensity endurance base. Simply, if you stop improving your body’s efficiency at low intensities you will have very hard time improving its efficiency (thus speed) at high intensities, also known as around and above lactate threshold.

What to do:

If you are planning to do (or improve upon from last year) couple of rando races in February and March  then July, August, September should serve you as your base endurance building months.
Personally, during this time I don’t follow any structured training plan. All I think about is “bread and butter” – I don’t worry about speed or sports specific workouts during this period because the single most important thing is building a big endurance base.
This “bread and butter” theory also allows for easier prioritization. Let’s say you want to improve in the winter and have time for 14 endurance sessions and 6 bouldering or fishing trips during August. If you miss 2 MTB rides because of bad weather by mid-August then without deep analysis you will know that you should replace 2 bouldering sessions in favour of 2 endurance building activities in the next 2-3 weeks.
Note: I am not saying climbing is not more fun and that you should sacrifice your pleasures. I am simply stating what is “bread and butter” during this time of the year if you really like to improve 6 months down the road.

Intensity:

The intensity could be easily measured with a heart rate monitor or jugged by your breathing comfort level – you should be able to talk fairly easily at any moment.

Activities: variety, agility and injury prevention

I strongly believe endurance base should be built through a variety of activities during this period of the year, and that summer is the best time to improve your agility.

Variety:

Variety is important as it allows your body to relax certain muscle groups while engaging new ones, and it is way more fun to alternate sports from day to day than just running all the time.
Also, 6-8 months from your goal you can afford not to focus on repeating sport specific movements at all times. You won’t be any worse because of that as long as you remember to eat your “bread and butter” regularly.
The most successfully used and easily accessible endurance building summer activities for ski mountaineering are:

  • Running
  • MTB biking
  • Road riding
  • Hiking
  • Running or hiking with poles
  • Swimming

These are great because they let you control your exercise intensity easily.
MTB biking could be an exception here but it depends on the terrain you ride and your skill level. For me, MTB is a bit too demanding until later in the summer when I get the hang of it, which I never fully do though 😉
Great skimo athletes such as Kilian Jornet, Melanie Bernier, Sari Anderson, Luke Nelson (too many to name) are also very successful endurance athletes in MTB, road cycling, trail running, or adventure racing. Variety serves them well.

Agility:

Agility comes from variety but is more effectively developed through different summer activities than the above endurance sports:

  • Climbing / mountaineering / bouldering
  • Soccer
  • Tennis
  • Football
  • Balance challenging strength training

Basically, anything requiring good hand-eye (foot-eye) coordination and balance develops your agility. This will help you with technical skiing, mountaineering, transitions, and injury prevention.
Personally, I spend lots of time playing tennis and soccer between June and August. Then I usually keep only playing soccer until I start regularly skiing (late November).
I don’t do them because I want better agility, I do them because I love the skill, strategy and have lots of friends that are very good at those. But I do notice that if I miss a summer doing them I kind of feel “off balance” once the sliding season starts.

What do you do in the summer?

Absolutely feel obligated to ask or comment below since you got all the way here.
Are there any activities you would recommend to try to accomplish the above goals of summer months?
And a tweet won’t be out of place either if you learned something new. Thank you.

Filed Under: Skimo Racing, Training, Tricks & Tips Tagged With: Kilian Jornet, Luke Nelson, Melanie Bernier, Sari Anderson, summer rando skimo racing training

2012 North American Rando Ski Mountaineering Championships in Crested Butte

February 4, 2012 By Stano Faban Leave a Comment

This is article was submitted by Melanie Bernier – an elite skimo racer and a member of the Canadian National Ski Mountaineering Team. Read her previous article here – Grand Teton: adventures are essential for skimo training…
Last weekend (Jan 28-29, 2012) saw the biggest event of this winter on the North American skimo racing calendar. Six of us, part of the Canadian National Team, traveled to Crested Butte to compete in the first ever official North American Championships.
We arrived few days earlier to have a chance to get somewhat used to CB’s high elevation (CB is at 2,715 m) and explore the race routes. The “No Climbing Uphill Policy” at the ski hill got in the way of our course scoping but we were blessed with beautiful sunny days so we were able to at least have a great visual of the individual’s race course.

Sprint race – day 1

On Saturday morning, we woke up to a very brisk -30 C for the sprint race. The venue was mid-mountain near a beautiful restaurant where racers gathered to keep warm until the start.
The course started on a flat groomed sections changing quickly to switch-backs in the trees then flatter terrain before gaining the first transition to the first descent. Through gates, over moguls, racers had to zigzag back down for a second transition. Then to a short boot-pack and skin again to reach the final descent.
The women were the first out of the gate going at 30 seconds intervals. Sari Anderson was the first one to go, I was second, Janelle Smiley just after

My race went very well as I closed the gap on Sari at the top of the second climb and completed the course in 5:39 which was enough to win the race.
Top 3, top North American and all Canadian women:
1. Mel Bernier (CAN)
2. Janelle Smile (USA)
3. Sari Anderson (USA)
6. Julie Matteau (CAN)
Our Canadian men did very well too! With a strong Italian presence, the Canuck boys rose to the challenge. Manfred Reichegger (Italy’s top racer) topped the podium as expected. Behind him, our unique “Reinerian” earned second ahead of Lorenzo Holzknecht (Italy) who was followed closely by our Andrew McNab. It was very impressive to see them all run and give all they had.
Top 3, top North Americans and all Canadian men:
1. Manfred Reichegger (ITA)
2. Reiner Thoni (CAN)
3. Lorenzo Holzknecht (ITA)
4. Andrew McNab (CAN)
5. Jan Koles (USA)
6. Travis Scheefer (USA)
12. Ian Gale (CAN)
27. Steve Sellers (CAN)
» Sprint race full results

Individual race – day 2

The following day, in friendlier temperatures, we gathered at the base of the mountain for the individual race. The course was not so impressive for its vertical but for its challenging route.
We climbed a groomed run for a thousand feet before getting into what seemed like 100 switch-backs with a single skin track. From there, it was skis and poles on the pack, jacket on, and via-ferrata and ascender on the rope – we climbed the “Guides Ridge” to the summit of Crested Butte at just over 12 000 feet.
From there, we ran down the other side of the peak, then skis on, we descended to the bottom of Paradise Bowl, from there we climbed 1000 through the trees and on the rocky ridge back to the top transition. We had to complete this same lower loop twice before going down a single track in trees, steep icy moguls to crazy fast groomer to moguls again and high speed rollers to finish with an excruciating skate ski.
My race – I guess my strategy was not quite right for this race. I was holding back at the start a bit too much and got stuck behind at the switch-backs. Then by the time I got to the ridge there was a big bottle neck.
Here the race got stopped twice because of rock falling and miss communication between the race marshals which resulted in an hour spent on the ridge getting cold and waiting to move forward at a turtle pace.
Fortunately, the view was pretty nice and people around me were friendly so it was quite pleasant and relaxing… but not much of a race at that point.
When finally at the summit, I literary sprinted down the bootpack and skied like mad to try to catch up. At the first lap up paradise bowl I left the transition way too fast and forgot that this was not a great idea while racing at such altitude – I burned myself solid for the second lap and I was barely hanging facing the “Bunk Wall”.
Finally at the top of the last climb, I knew I could gain some time and positions with a fast descent. Reaching the final section I completed the skate with below zero juice in the tank. It was a great learning experience as I have never (or not in a long time) reached such low energy levels while racing.
For few other Canadians the race went rather smoothly. Reiner Thoni and Andrew McNab escaped the bottle neck and had a fantastic race while the rest of us were still on the ridge those two were batteling for 3rd and 8th place respectively.
A big congratulation to our Continental Champs Reiner Thoni and Janelle Smiley.
Top 3, top North Americans and all Canadian women:
1. Janelle Smiley (USA)
2. Sari Andreson (USA)
3. Stevie Kremer (USA)
5. Melanie Bernier (CAN)
7. Julie Matteau (CAN)
Top 3, top North Americans and all Canadian men:
1. Manfred Reichegger (ITA)
2. Lorenzo Holzknecht (ITA)
3. Reiner Thoni (CAN)
4. Luke Nelson (USA)
5. Jason Dorais (USA)
8. Andrew McNab (CAN)
18. Ian Gale (CAN)
28. Steve Sellers (CAN)
» Individual race full results

Filed Under: Reports & Results Tagged With: Andrew McNab, Ian Gale, Janelle Smiley, Jason Dorais, Julie Matteau, Luke Nelson, Melanie Bernier, North American Skimo Championships, Reiner Thoni, Sari Anderson, Steve Sellers, Stevie Kremer, Travis Scheefer

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SkinTrack.com, created by Stano Faban, was born out of passion for ski mountaineering and ski touring. Over the years, it has become one of the most popular ski mountaineering blogs in North America.

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