JD Downing's Training Tips

 

"Movement is medicine, movement increases mobility, and a rolling stone does not get mossy. That's how the saying goes, and it is. Exercise is as important as eating and sleeping."  ~Hilkka Riihivuori, former Finnish Olympic skier, current masters skier (and podium stander), 72 years old (so you know she knows what she's talking about!)

Some years ago I spent a week at JD Downing's training camp in Bend. It was super fun and I learned a lot, as you can imagine. I dug out some of the notes I took that week in case you, like me, need a little boost in these dog days of summer. Winter is coming!

"The tried-and-true method is lots of easy distance in the summer, with a small amount of intensity and tiny bits of easy explosive/plyometrics, then increasingly more intensity and more plyometrics in the fall. Transition period starts when you get on snow, and you can back off a little on the intensity and do lots of easy distance again, for about three weeks. Then winter is racing season, and you should keep doing intensity workouts throughout the winter. Those of us who live at sea level and have to travel to snow (so we don't ski every day) should do our intensity workouts through the winter on dry land, just like we did all summer and fall, and just do long distance, with little speed bursts (like Ozzie recommended) when we're on snow. Then in the spring you recover, but don't back off too much! It is so easy to get out of shape and so hard to get back in. Basically masters skiers should train at about the same number of hours all year (and the average seems to be about seven hours per week), just vary the proportion of easy to intensity."