Kris Freeman: training hard

http://www.krisfreeman.net/2007/09/0...rs-in-20-days/
What a terrifying training load. Kris must be in great shape to do
this, but reading about it makes me wonder a couple of things:
1. I was always told that a rest day every week or so is absolutely
vital. Is this one of those rules that only applies, like taxes, to
little people? Kris's three-week stint described here seems very like
what Justin Freeman says was (for him) a mistake in this article:
http://www.masterskier.com/article.asp?aid=326 . I wonder whether he
then has a day or 2 or 3 off after a big 3-week phase.
2. Why do top skiers spend so little of their time skiing or roller-
skiing? You don't hear of top runners, cyclists or swimmers doing half
of their training in another sport. For citizen racers it is a
lifestyle concession, in that most of us want to enjoy the other
sports that life offers, but it seems that even those whose lives are
dedicated unconditionally to skiing do it. I wonder whether it is a
custom remaining from the days when there was no roller-skiing, and
the only thing to do in the summer was cross-training: it is always
tempting to regard a necessity as a virtue, even when the necessity is
no longer a necessity but merely a habit.

Justin Freeman is a runner, as well as skier. What's not clear
from the schedule in the article is how he manages intensity. OTOH,
we can get a fairly clear picutre with Kris, because he has a coach and
witness, Zach Caldwell.

The only ski-specific activities available are on snow and pavement.
During the off season snow requires considerable travel and expense
(money, altitude, time zones), while rollerskiing for any duration is
hard on the body. If the primary goal from May thru August is to build
an endurance base, then other activities allow for physical,
physiological and mental variety and fun, as well as recovery. Notice
that rollerskiing now dominates Kris' schedule, with snow to follow.
Granted Kris is a bit of a physical specimen - no one else on the team
comes close - if you go back through the reports on his site you'll see
that he does take a light week or more after taking on such huge loads.

rm


Hugh P wrote:

http://www.krisfreeman.net/2007/09/0...rs-in-20-days/
What a terrifying training load. Kris must be in great shape to do
this, but reading about it makes me wonder a couple of things:
1. I was always told that a rest day every week or so is absolutely
vital. Is this one of those rules that only applies, like taxes, to
little people? Kris's three-week stint described here seems very like
what Justin Freeman says was (for him) a mistake in this article:
http://www.masterskier.com/article.asp?aid=326 . I wonder whether he
then has a day or 2 or 3 off after a big 3-week phase.
2. Why do top skiers spend so little of their time skiing or roller-
skiing? You don't hear of top runners, cyclists or swimmers doing half
of their training in another sport. For citizen racers it is a
lifestyle concession, in that most of us want to enjoy the other
sports that life offers, but it seems that even those whose lives are
dedicated unconditionally to skiing do it. I wonder whether it is a
custom remaining from the days when there was no roller-skiing, and
the only thing to do in the summer was cross-training: it is always
tempting to regard a necessity as a virtue, even when the necessity is
no longer a necessity but merely a habit.

Hi Hugh -
Yeah, Kris's numbers are very big. With respect to rest days I have
found that different people respond well to different types of
recovery. Kris does best when he's given an extremely light week, with
three or four consecutive days fully off. His schedule for the last
couple of years has been basically three weeks on, one week off. An
off week can be just a couple of hours of training with no specific
training goals. As far as Justin's training is concerned, Kris may
have big hours, but you'll also notice that he has relatively few
"trash" hours. Most of the training comes in primary sessions with
major emphasis on a few workouts (in this case, OD sessions).
As for specificity, it's generally accepted that a fairly high level
of specificity is necessary. It's also generally accepted that doing
30 hours a week of roller skiing would be a hard sell, both physically
and mentally. With specific regard to Kris, he does almost no striding
on rollerskis until about this time of year, and foot-running provides
an important element of "pseudo-specificity". While I'm generally not
an advocate of cross-training for any meaningful performance benefit,
I do think that there are advantages to doing some non-specific
training. Paddling or swimming, for example, offer good upper-body
fitness and injury prevention strength gains for the shoulders. And in
part, we want to keep the systemic load fairly high, while allowing
specific musculature some time to recover for the important sessions.

Well, that's about that. I'd better not make it a habit to get into
training discussions on this forum. That could be time consuming!

Z



On Sep 12, 9:43 pm, Hugh P wrote:
http://www.krisfreeman.net/2007/09/0...rs-in-20-days/
What a terrifying training load. Kris must be in great shape to do
this, but reading about it makes me wonder a couple of things:
1. I was always told that a rest day every week or so is absolutely
vital. Is this one of those rules that only applies, like taxes, to
little people? Kris's three-week stint described here seems very like
what Justin Freeman says was (for him) a mistake in this article:http://www.masterskier.com/article.asp?aid=326. I wonder whether he
then has a day or 2 or 3 off after a big 3-week phase.
2. Why do top skiers spend so little of their time skiing or roller-
skiing? You don't hear of top runners, cyclists or swimmers doing half
of their training in another sport. For citizen racers it is a
lifestyle concession, in that most of us want to enjoy the other
sports that life offers, but it seems that even those whose lives are
dedicated unconditionally to skiing do it. I wonder whether it is a
custom remaining from the days when there was no roller-skiing, and
the only thing to do in the summer was cross-training: it is always
tempting to regard a necessity as a virtue, even when the necessity is
no longer a necessity but merely a habit.

On Sep 13, 2:00 pm, Zach Caldwell wrote:
Hi Hugh -
Yeah, Kris's numbers are very big. With respect to rest days I have
found that different people respond well to different types of
recovery. Kris does best when he's given an extremely light week, with
three or four consecutive days fully off. His schedule for the last
couple of years has been basically three weeks on, one week off. An
off week can be just a couple of hours of training with no specific
training goals. As far as Justin's training is concerned, Kris may
have big hours, but you'll also notice that he has relatively few
"trash" hours. Most of the training comes in primary sessions with
major emphasis on a few workouts (in this case, OD sessions).
As for specificity, it's generally accepted that a fairly high level
of specificity is necessary. It's also generally accepted that doing
30 hours a week of roller skiing would be a hard sell, both physically
and mentally. With specific regard to Kris, he does almost no striding
on rollerskis until about this time of year, and foot-running provides
an important element of "pseudo-specificity". While I'm generally not
an advocate of cross-training for any meaningful performance benefit,
I do think that there are advantages to doing some non-specific
training. Paddling or swimming, for example, offer good upper-body
fitness and injury prevention strength gains for the shoulders. And in
part, we want to keep the systemic load fairly high, while allowing
specific musculature some time to recover for the important sessions.

Well, that's about that. I'd better not make it a habit to get into
training discussions on this forum. That could be time consuming!

Z

On Sep 12, 9:43 pm, Hugh P wrote:

http://www.krisfreeman.net/2007/09/0...rs-in-20-days/
What a terrifying training load. Kris must be in great shape to do
this, but reading about it makes me wonder a couple of things:
1. I was always told that a rest day every week or so is absolutely
vital. Is this one of those rules that only applies, like taxes, to
little people? Kris's three-week stint described here seems very like
what Justin Freeman says was (for him) a mistake in this article:http://www.masterskier.com/article.asp?aid=326. I wonder whether he
then has a day or 2 or 3 off after a big 3-week phase.
2. Why do top skiers spend so little of their time skiing or roller-
skiing? You don't hear of top runners, cyclists or swimmers doing half
of their training in another sport. For citizen racers it is a
lifestyle concession, in that most of us want to enjoy the other
sports that life offers, but it seems that even those whose lives are
dedicated unconditionally to skiing do it. I wonder whether it is a
custom remaining from the days when there was no roller-skiing, and
the only thing to do in the summer was cross-training: it is always
tempting to regard a necessity as a virtue, even when the necessity is
no longer a necessity but merely a habit.

I have two questions about this huge trainging load:

How come there are no weight/max strength/resistance workouts? With
the large time chunks dedicated to most if not all of the sessions, I
don't see how this is accomplished. Have we been mislead about the
importance of strength work, or is this just an individual thing that
some skiers benefit from while others don't?

Secondly, concern about overtraining has to be high when the load is
this big. How does one avoid going "over the edge"? Is there some
marker? I once heard Marty Hall call Luke Bodensteiner's book
"Endless Winter" the bible of overtraining, yet I don't recall the
training loads described in that book approaching Kris's. Again,
individual capacity to absorb the volume without breaking down?

As far as roller skiing being tough on the body, I certainly don't
find it as tough as running, especially on pavement. My fifty-plus
year old knees can roller ski 'till the cows come home, but road
running can make 'em complain a lot if I overdo it.

Randy

From a sample of one you ask whether you've been misled?? If you see a
photo of Kris it's obvious that he has very strong legs and upper body
and maybe he felt that further weight work would add too much bulk.
Plus, rollerski double poling - and for 6 hrs! - is usually considered a
specific strength workout, and rowing wouldn't be too far away.
Rollerski poling is hard on shoulders and elbows. I don't know about
Kris, but for me it's hard on the feet, too.


" wrote:

I have two questions about this huge trainging load:

How come there are no weight/max strength/resistance workouts? With
the large time chunks dedicated to most if not all of the sessions, I
don't see how this is accomplished. Have we been mislead about the
importance of strength work, or is this just an individual thing that
some skiers benefit from while others don't?

Secondly, concern about overtraining has to be high when the load is
this big. How does one avoid going "over the edge"? Is there some
marker? I once heard Marty Hall call Luke Bodensteiner's book
"Endless Winter" the bible of overtraining, yet I don't recall the
training loads described in that book approaching Kris's. Again,
individual capacity to absorb the volume without breaking down?

As far as roller skiing being tough on the body, I certainly don't
find it as tough as running, especially on pavement. My fifty-plus
year old knees can roller ski 'till the cows come home, but road
running can make 'em complain a lot if I overdo it.

Randy