Skiers – Need a coach?
I have decided to increase the number of skiers I am coaching by offering my services to (a few) additional skiers. There will be a monthly fee for this service and the coaching/communication and follow-up will be similar to the way I work with National team caliber skiers. The training programs will be personalized to fit individual needs, ambitions and work schedules. Personal coaching might be appropriate for you if you have experienced a plateau in your racing, need inspiration or simply want someone to push and guide you in choosing appropriate workouts. One or two exclusive dryland camps (starting this summer), one snow camp, and video analysis will be incorporated into the program. E-mail and/or access to a fax machine is required. If you are interested in more information, e-mail me at tbk@xmission.com. Please only use this address for coaching inquiries.


Torbjørn’s October training
I did 49 hours of training in October. This included 16 hours of running, 11 hours of biking, 14 hours of rollerskiing and 5 hours of weight training.

The Hard Sessions.
I felt pretty good in most of the hard sessions which is my goal. If I’m really tired during warm up or when I start the intervals I find it better to only do half of what I had intended to do, skip them all together or greatly reduce the intensity. But I didn’t need to do any of the above this month. I guess I’m simply not training enough to get really tired. One or two easy days after an interval session is usually enough to feel great for the next hard effort.

Most of my interval sessions this month were build up intervals (ei. went harder the second part of each interval or ran/roller skied a lot harder on the last two intervals compared to the first two).

Example from a running workout in flats and up hills: 4 minutes (heart rate 155-158), 5 minutes (h.r 160 - 163), 4 minutes (h.r 166- 168), 5 minutes (h.r 168-172), 4 minutes (h.r 170-179). My maximum heart rate is about 185.
Example from a running and bounding w/poles session: 3 x 4 minutes running in rolling terrain, heart rate 160-168, then 4 x 3 minutes bounding with poles heart rate 166-179.
Some of the other hard sessions this month (I did 12 of them):

- 1 x 15 minutes intensity 3, 8 x 1-2 minutes intensity 3-4 roll skate in rolling terrain
- 7 x 2 minute roll classic, hard double pole in flat terrain, intensity 4-5
- 3 x 7 minutes skate uphill, intensity 3
- 6 x 4 minutes running intervals uphill, intensity 3-5
- 30 minutes pace roll, skate, intensity 3-4

The Best Workout.
On Sunday October 28th I had the best workout of the month while visiting Grand Junction, Colorado. The plan was to ride the Colorado National Monument Loop on my road bike. This ride is my all time favorite because of the incredible scenery, challenging climbs and low traffic level. It’s not the longest ride – just plain fun. Actually you do work hard on the climb up to the rim. The Rim Rock Drive, which is the part that’s in the Park, is 23 miles of breathtaking views. The road climbs from the Grand Valley of the Colorado River to the park’s high country, and then winds along the plateau rim where you can enjoy panoramas of the great rock formations, canyons, distant valleys and mountains.

I do this loop several times per year and have done so for the last decade. This ride used to be one of the stages of the Coors Classic road race series back in the eighties. Several scenes from the movie The American Flyer was filmed there (I like the movie – you should check it out!).

I started the ride at 9am – equipped with rain gear since it was pretty cloudy. Sure enough it started to rain shortly thereafter. I decided to do the loop counter clockwise so I headed to the west entrance by way of easy rolling roads (South Camp to South Broadway and then Broadway). It took about 40 minutes at an easy pace to reach the West gate, which is at an elevation of 4690 feet. From there you climb steadily for about 4 miles. My heart rate was 133-139 and I felt good. When I reached the Visitor Center/Book Cliff View I was at 5787 feet. I went through two dark tunnels – glad both times that no cars or trucks approached. From the visitor center it is 11 miles of gradual uphill to the highest point of 6640 feet. I was feeling great so I tightened the waist belt on the backpack, emptied the first bottle of diluted Enervit and shifted to a harder gear. As I passed the Monument Canyon view, my heart rate was 147,148,152. Shifting to the next harder gear and coasting by Highland view, my heart rate was 156,160,166 (altitude 6479 feet).

The views were unbelievable! It started raining again (oh well) and I started singing the old Doors song (I always do on this ride for some reason) – Riders of the storm…
Now with four miles to go, I alternated sitting and standing which allowed me to push harder. My heart rate increased to 167,169,170, 171. With one mile to go, I started to max out but managed to keep going at the same heart rate over the top. What a great feeling! I couldn’t stop now… so I rode my highest gear down the hills, passing two cars going the same way. I got a nasty look but also a friendly hand signal from a Park Ranger. Suddenly it was over – 2 hours and 20 minutes of joy! These are the workouts that keep you going and that you dream about – unbeatable!

By the way the day before I actually did the same loop, just in the opposite direction, plus biked from my in-laws house, which made the whole thing 3.5 hours. (Makes you want to visit your in-laws when you know what the possibilities are!).


Gordon’s Month
I still see Gordon for workouts about two times per week. Not as often as last year since we seem to have more conflicting schedules this year. Anyway he looks strong in the interval sessions, about the same level as me on the flats and gradual uphills and a little tougher in the steep up hills. I do hope that the fact that I seem to be doing more strength training than him will make up for that "steep uphill" difference come race time. He gets in one long rollerski workout of about 2-2.5 hours per week and that is longer than any of my rollerski workouts. On October 27th he ran the Agony Hill Time trial in 16.40, not as fast as he had planned to but clearly better than that miserable day in August. He also mentioned something about struggling with a cold for the week leading up to the time trial.

Plans for November
Next month should be very similar to October. Two to three quality sessions per week and one weekly interval session where I hold back. I’m choosing 3-7 minute intervals for the session. The total interval time including recovery is around 30-45 minutes. The intensity is usually 3 with some intensity 4 at the end.

The second interval session is more speed oriented and I prefer short intervals (30 seconds to 3 minutes) in flat terrain or easy rolling terrain for this session. Total interval time including recovery is usually 10-25 minutes.

The last interval session is usually hard in uphills with a couple intervals in intensity 3-4 before moving into 4-5. Example: 3-4-3-4-3.

Weight training will be focusing on few reps and heavy weights with an occasional session or some exercises with focus on 30-60 reps. I do many reps on stomach, triceps and on one back exercise.

One exempt to the regular week with 2-3 interval sessions will be when I go up to West Yellowstone for the annual fall camp. I don’t do intervals during this week since it’s usually my first week on snow. My days are usually teaching technique to a class of 5-10 skiers in the morning. After the class I might ski 5-10 kilometer.

In the evening I go for a 1-2 hour distance workout and the intensity is usually 1-3 depending upon who’s on my tail. (Warning: Just watch it, I might put a little thin layer of red klister on the tail end of my skis to prevent the really obnoxious tail suckers from gliding up on me following drafting behind me in the downs). That’s a good Old Secret Norwegian relay trick - so don’t tell anyone.

Happy training

Torbjørn