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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. |
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#2
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Kris Freeman: training hard
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. |
#3
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Kris Freeman: training hard
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. |
#4
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Kris Freeman: training hard
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 |
#5
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Kris Freeman: training hard
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 |
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