Strength training by Swedish Winter Sports Research Centre

As I mentioned in last post, training plan for every XC- skier should contain some important activities. Today I'm going to suggest some strength exercises, which has been shown by Swedish Winter Sports Research Centre in a video below. But first, few words about SWSRC. It's an institute of Swedish Mittuniversitetet (Mid Sweden University). Students who attend there have a unique chance to work with skiers on the highest world level. They can also conduct practical work in laboratories and meet every single detail of the equipment. Interesting study, isn't it? Swedish Winter Sports Research Centre has got a channel on YouTube, where we can find some results of their researches. I strongly recommend you to watch this video and do these exercises on your own. Obviously some of them you can do at home and in my opinion this is huge advantage.

How to create your own training plan?

Summer is the most difficult and challenging part of the year for every amateur XC- skier. Snow had melted completely on most tracks and you don't know what to do with your free time. Let me help you. This is the best moment to think about next winter and get well prepared for the upcoming season. I recommend you to create your own training plan. It isn't as hard, as it seems. Ideally you won't be only prepare yourself for the season, but also improve your performance and work on disadvantages. That's why it's so important to know exactly what you need in your plan.

As a XC- skier you are able to select one from many activities matching your training. Still remember, that your plan should be focused on skiing. To become better skier, meet some important principles. These practical fundamentals established by XCzone.com can help you:

• Consistency- is the most important factor in training which determines physical fitness, skill and ultimately performance. In real terms, this means leading an active lifestyle and doing the cardio-muscular workouts, ideally every day.
• Specificity- that means choosing activities or exercises which most closely match your sport. If your main goal is a ski race then you have to ski lots (or rollski if it's impossible). Unfortunately you won't become as good of a skier by biking, swimming or lifting weights. Of course you have many options, but you have to be focused on skiing. That's why pro- racers went on glaciers in the summer. 
• Periodicity- in training you should provide yourself the variance in volume, intensity and recovery which will improve your fitness. Most people incorrectly train medium-well all the time. What you need to do is mix it up by one day going further or faster (intervals). Alternate between hard and easy days, whilst ensuring plenty of active recovery.
• Progressive loading- gradually increases the difficulty of workouts over time. Challenge your body to improve and adapt to the load in hours or intensity.

Photo credit: Skistar Trysil / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Beyond that you should define, how much time you can spend for workouts. An optimal periodicity for an amateur is three days of exercises per week in summer and skiing two days weekly during winter. According to XCzone, you'll be prepared for 10 km race, if you practise in this way. Intermediate skiers should train weekly 5 days while preparing for a season and ski 4 days per week in winter. Pro- skiers usually practise 6 days a week in summer and in winter they ski 5 times per week besides racing. In addition there isn't only one type of activity in one day. For example Noah Hoffman was on the training camp with the rest of national XC and biathlon team in Bend, where he was doing multiple drills on snow every day and also working out at the gym etc.

As I mentioned before, there are some activities matched to XC- skiing. Training plan should include general activities, such as mountain and road biking, running, swimming, strength training and specific activities, such as rollskiing and imitation. Maybe I'll manage to write some more words about every activity.

Of course this post is only a base for creating a training plan. We've learned fundamentals, which are very helpful, if you want to prepare yourself for upcoming season. Still there left some questions, which I'll write about in next posts.

Something new- One Way bikes

One Way decided to become even more competitive in the sport's branch. At ISPO in Munich were presented mountain and road bikes. Recently their models appear on offer. Let's take a look at these products and judge, whether it was a good decision.

One Way is known as very innovative brand. Their products are always well designed. Is it true, when it comes to bikes? Let's start with MTB models. At this time, two models are available to buy, named similar to skis and poles- Premio 9 HD and 10 HD. OW admires carbon, so both of them have carbon frames. The lower one- Premio 9, has got proper equipment- it's full group Shimano XT. What's more, it has Rock Shox fork with manual lockout of course. Rims are made by Mavic and the saddle by Selle Italia. The handlebar and the saddle seatpost are great work by FSA. Knowing these brands and their reputation on bikes field you can trust them immediately, that this product is well- constructed. And for this kind of product, price has to be relevant. One Way Premio 9 HD costs 1790 EUR. All the details of this bike you can find here: E- Nordicworld.com.

Time to describe the higher model Premio 10 HD. It's available in two versions: with Shimano XT and with XTR. Price is respectively 2490 EUR or 3490 EUR for the first and the second one. The more expensive specimen has got Selle Italia SLR XP saddle and other rims- made by BOR. On the other hand the first one offers X1 saddle and Mavic rims. Frame is the same in both of them. More about One Way Premio 10 HD bike you can find at these links: XT version, XTR version. 

And now we move to a pure poetry, which means road bikes. One Way presents here one model Premio 10 HD with carbon frame, but in two versions. The cheaper one has got Shimano 105 equipment, Selle Italia X1 saddle, FFWD rims, Cont Tech handlebar and seatpost. It costs 2290 EUR. More about this version you'll find here. The expensive one offer Shimano Ultegra equipment, Mavic Cosmic rims, Selle Italia SLS XC saddle, FSA handlebar and seatpost. Full specification of One Way Premio 10 HD road is available here.

Who can be a buyer for these bikes? It's difficult to answer this question. I've got a feeling, that One Way bikes would rather choose XC- skiers and this brand's fans. For example, if I had much money, I'd decided for buying the Premio 9 HD of multiple reasons. First of all, I haven't got a mountain bike now and secondly this model is objectively well- constructed. Moreover, quite subjectively, it's an outcome of cooperation terrific OW brand with reputable manufacturers, so as a result we must get an interesting bike. When it comes to the road model, I'm not sure. At the same price we can find similar bikes made by more famous brands. Road biking has his own tradition co- created by marks, such as Bianchi or Colnago. So, if you had to spend the same amount for a bike made by newbie in this branch, as for a trustworthy product constructed by experienced people, I'd recommend you to persist in traditional solutions. However if you aren't interested in all this "road bike's stuff" and treat your bike like an ordinary element by preparing for the season, you'll be satisfied with this model. 

Through developing bikes, One Way became very versatile and showed, that there's nothing impossible for them. Still there left only one question: how big will be the interest in their new training equipment. I guess time and customers will verify it.

Let's get it started...

I decided to open the new part of SadurSky. You may know me from sadursky.blogspot.com, which has been my blog in Polish since April 2013. Here I will write some of the original posts in English. Why? Because I think, that I can share my passion with other people around the world. We've got many opportunities to do it in today's world. So, why not try? I hope you'll enjoy my posts as you do this on the Polish site. Of course I don't even think about translating all the previous posts. That's why I'll start with a review of bikes made by One Way. Stay tuned!