THOUGHTS FOR SUMMER AND FALL TRAINING BY MARTY HALL

The longer I am in this cross country business, the more I realize the importance of specificity of training, especially as we progress through the summer towards the fall and then of course moving on to snow. Now for us master skiers this can become a moot point, if focus in our prepereation is to have fun in our training, and we are willing to accept the outcome when we step on snow. We may even feel that we will have time to bring ourselves up to our winter peak, as we are only racing 15-20 times a winter, and we have many days for training before we get serious racing from mid-January onto the end of the season. Many of our summer activities bring focus to the lower body if we choose the fun route, especially now with the popularity of mountain biking. Also, road biking, hiking and just plain old running can be added to this lower body focus that is the mainstay of a great percentage of master skiers training regimen. So, we know the legs are taken care of and the physiology that goes with this level and type of training.

Now what about the arms or more importantly, the upper body. Can we wait for fall or until we get snow and start this conditioning and strengthening program? Of course we can, BUT if you are trying to move up in your age class or have a couple of fellow competitors you are trying to beat or close the gapon, you can't wait until the fall or when you move on to snow. The upper body endurance and strength factors you have to develop need more time and your body's complete physiology needs to develop as a whole, not in parts.

With a lower bodied focused training regimen in the summer and fall, this will leave your physiology actually under trained for your on snow training. This then has the potential to lead you to easily over-training once you step on snow and bring your upper body physiology on line 100% of the time. It definitely will affect the quality of your training. With the poles being involved in our over the snow velocity fron 10% to 100% of the time depending on which technique we are using it makes too much sense not to be more specific during the summer and fall. Take the poles running, hiking, and get those weights, exer-genie, arm pulleys, roller board, and if you neeed to maximize the time you have available, it's to the roler skis. One workout a week where you do arms only and then legs only will be a move in the right direction. Strat with 15 min of each after a warm-up and gradually build the time.

A story- one year on the Dachstien Glacier I observed Harri Kirvesniemi, the great Finnish classic skier, during a double pole workout, arms only - no legs, two times around a 10Km loop. NON STOP 20Kms!! What do you think his afternoon workout was - that's right, two loops legs only. There are some things to be learned from the big boys!!

Have a great summer.           Marty

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