Not in shape

Published: Tue Feb 27, 2007 2:00 AM MST
Updated: Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:38 AM MST

Marit Bjørgen admits now what everyone can see. – I’m not in shape, and I don’t know why, said the skiqueen.

Marit Bjørgen is not her usual self on the Sapporo Worlds courses. She skied in to a very disappointing 22nd place in Tuesday’s 10-kilometer freestyle race – and was almost 2 minutes behind the winner Katarina Neumannova.

- I’m simply not in shape. Today’s race gave me the answer that I didn’t want, said Bjørgen to Norwegian television after the disappointing 10 kilometer event.

She sees it herself, saying she feels that she’s not functioning at all, even early in the race. She also crashed in a downhill early in the race, but wouldn’t blame the (small) crash for the depressing result. But she is not finding any answers as to why either.

- I can’t find any good answers, so I can’t give you any. Sorry.

She will now sit down after the season and evaluate what went wrong.

- I have been struggling for a while now, and I feel an incredible difference between this World's and the last Worlds in Oberstdorf (2005). It’s harder to go to the starting line now, says Bjorgen.

She admits that it affects her confidence and technique.

- You get less and less confident when you don’t race better than this. I’m not skiing technically well at the moment.

Source: Langrenn.com

 

 

Reader Comments - Add Your Own Comment

Marty Hall - Brunswick, ME, posted on Feb 27, 2007 Marit may be paying for the Norwegians intensity program they were doing about 2-3 yrs ago----I know the US program was copying it at that time----lots of intervals--4,6,and 10 minutes long--every other day in some write-ups I remember seeing back then. I know there was a difference of opinion between the Norwegian mens and womens programs in theory---the men being more traditional and the women going in this new intensity direction.Short term gains---long term pains---also, I can remember seeing some pictures of her back(no shirt on) in an arms up flexed pose---she was doing some heavy lifting to look like that. Marit also has a set of quads that most women aren't born with---she probably built those through heavey lifting also. She may have burned her fast twitch muscles with all the intensity and heavy lifting. Had a skier in the late 80s and early 90s in the Canadian Team who did the same thing and lasted one year--and is just getting back to normal skiing and exercise. Is this the last of Marit---I hope not, but, I'm watching with interest. Marty Hall - Brunswick, ME, posted on Feb 27, 2007 Marit may be paying for the Norwegians intensity program they were doing about 2-3 yrs ago----I know the US program was copying it at that time----lots of intervals--4,6,and 10 minutes long--every other day in some write-ups I remember seeing back then. I know there was a difference of opinion between the Norwegian mens and womens programs in theory---the men being more traditional and the women going in this new intensity direction.Short term gains---long term pains---also, I can remember seeing some pictures of her back(no shirt on) in an arms up flexed pose---she was doing some heavy lifting to look like that. Marit also has a set of quads that most women aren't born with---she probably built those through heavey lifting also. She may have burned her fast twitch muscles with all the intensity and heavy lifting. Had a skier in the late 80s and early 90s in the Canadian Team who did the same thing and lasted one year--and is just getting back to normal skiing and exercise. Is this the last of Marit---I hope not, but, I'm watching with interest. Chad Salmela - Duluth, MN, posted on Mar 02, 2007 Interesting take Marty. I think you can see this phenomenon you're speaking of all over the place, and most glaringly in high school running. Alan Webb is an interesting case. I don't know what he did in high school and what he's done since, but it hasn't worked with any consistency yet. Not to mention the hordes of fast high schoolers who never go anywhere. Our track record in international distance running is on a 25 year luck cycle. I know that what the Norwegians are doing with Bjoergen is inifinetly more complex and much more closely monitored than high school running. It's not an entirely equitable comparison, but I think it is akin to what you're suggesting might be Bjoergen's issue. This might be a blip on the radar screen for her, but it might be a greater trend, as you suggest. I think all world class skiers in general are doing more intensity than in the 80s or even 90s, but the experiences have led to monitoring it in incredibly more sophisticated ways. But the monitoring is still done by humans, and humans make mistakes. I think if you look at how advance the Norwegian ski program is, and you see how much Bjoergen missed it by, you have to admit that the human body is still, for the most part, a mystery! Ultimately, I think the mature athlete has to know themselves well. If you look at Bjoerndalen, the guy does a ton of Anaerobic Threshold zone training, but he has built to it. He's rarely sick. He rarely sucks! But when he senses that something could bury him, he just goes home and trains, even if it means he'll give up the world cup overall lead. This is a guy who understands performance, and his OWN performance. He knows that saving 20 World Cup points this weekend isn't as big a boost as regrouping and scoring 150 in three weekends. Bjoergen is relatively young and will hopefully develop a similar self-awareness.

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