A Week of Intensity
By:  Zoe Braul   (2008/10/23)

As ski season is approaching, our training programs consist of more intensity volume to prepare for racing.  A few weeks ago, we had a particularly long and intense week.  I did a total of 16 hours of training and I believe Karl did something in the range of 21 hours.  I’m no professional, but below I have outlined what one of my hard weeks would look like during this time of the year.  Feel free to take some ideas out of it and give some of the workouts a try! 

Monday - 

Afternoon: easy zone 1 run then strength and core at the gym (total time training was 1:20, or one hour and twenty minutes). 

Tuesday - 

Morning: XC Ottawa Practice. Penguin zone 4 intervals intervals (of death?).  Each interval was 4 minutes with 6 minutes break (enough time to jog to the bottom of the hill again.  I only did 3 intervals because it was my first Penguin session of the year.  With warm-up and warm-down the session was 1:20.

Afternoon: 1:15 of  zone 1 running and 20 minutes of plyometrics in the arboretum   

Wednesday - 

Morning: sleep in!

Afternoon: 1:15 of zone 1 rollerskiing along the canal and 15 minutes of specific strength up a gradual hill (double pole sprints). 

Thursday - 

Morning: Carleton Varsity Practice at Mooney's Bay.  30 minutes of zone 1 jogging for warm-up, 10 minutes of ski striding sprints (6 X 15 seconds) then 20 minutes of “redlining.”  This was basically a continuous low zone 4 ski striding with poles interval up and down the Mooney’s hill.

Afternoon: 40 minutes of zone 1 running, 30 minutes of strength and 20 minutes of core.   

Friday - 

Afternoon: Easy 2 hour zone 1 run around the Experimental Farm and Arboretum.   

Saturday - 

Morning: XC Ottawa practice. 1 hour zone 1 skate rollerskiing, 20 minutes of zone 2, zone 3 intervals (1:1 X 15).  After practice we did an easy one hour run.

Afternoon: 50 minutes of zone 1 road biking for recovery.  

Sunday - 

Morning: XC Ottawa practice. 55 minutes of zone 1 skate rollerskiing, 25 minutes of zone 2, 30 minutes of sprints.  I definitely felt sluggish, I guess a hard week will do that to you! 

Happy Training and cross your fingers for snow!