Fast feet for all sports

Good day team,

We sometimes get caught up in strength, core and cardio training and forget about being responsive and agile. This week lets work in a few drills to keep us sharp on our feet. The downhill sections and turns require a bit of fast foot work to hop around the snow banking and should you find yourself in a traditional track, may need to bounce out quickly.

The old "fire feet" basketball exercise, front, back, left right, is a quick workout that will leave you panting so do it after a warmup but not after your anchor workout. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-8aoQsmKjk remember nose, knees toes and an athletic posture.

Alternatives include ladder drills like these http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=KYJX0Wt6OdM

For a full workout, try this batch of agility and polymetric drills http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=2rkExDQq8P0

For more examples, try searching youtube for ladder drills, agility training, fast feet, etc.

Train well,

Jeff

Unique way to look at results

I thought this up last night as a way to view the results and to plan my next race and see how I was doing compared to our competition. I hope its useful to you.Aim for the center ring :)

Our race:

Oh and here is what a Word Cup event looks like just to compare. It makes sense now why a few seconds makes a huge difference in waxing advanatage. All these competitors are fighting for the top spot within 2 minutes.

Remember, on those days when you think about skipping out on training, your competitors arent.
Lastly, its raining today where I am and I did an inside workout called Cheeta Fast from Runnervals  Troy Jacobson (Spinervals). It specifically works on lactate threshold and strength and covers about 5 miles of high energy treadmill with elevations. Speed on the hills is critical as is the ability to breathe.

Jeff

More Competitions

I will keep adding to this post for New England Venues. Let me know if you find one to share. Yes I know NY isn't New England, but it has snow and its just as close as our home snow in VT and they seem to have quite a few clubs.

NH
http://pemi.org/biathlon.html

VT
Ethan Allen Biathlon of course

ME
http://www.somainebiathlon.com/
http://www.mainewsc.org/teams-and-programs/biathlon-program.html   Nothing here for 2012 yet

NY
http://polarbearbiathlon.com/
http://nybiathlon.org/blog/
http://lakeplacid.nybiathlon.org/
http://www.saratogabiathlon.com/blog/   Jan 28, Feb 18,19
Capital Region Nordic


Oh, and those wind stopper pants for $50 at the ski shoppe in WestYellow, well they are here for much less gents.

Article from last year's Snow Camp http://www.ng.mil/news/archives/2010/12/121710-competition.aspx

Ontario Club and tips: http://www.biathlonontario.ca/Targets/W_Targets+_main.html

Notes from West Yellowstone

Hey Team! Oh my what a weekend. I hope you all had as much fun as I had. It's been a really long time since I had a weekend where work was so much fun and educational. A special thanks to Ernst, Doug, Rob and all the other great coaches and athletes for the many training tips and personable good nature. A special thank you to our own coach for actually getting us there. You are the man!

I think we all came away with more training ideas and technique than we know what to do with. Some things confused me and some things fell into place for me and clicked.  Everyone should be really proud of their accomplishments this week. Thank you all for preparing properly and staying on your training plans. I was very proud to be in such good company.

As you probably realized, the running/biking sports don't apply to strength or technique we just learned but do apply to cardio and endurance that we will use during the  8k & 10k events we are facing next month. Keep up the hard work, it pays off and makes you stronger for all your sports. You should all realize the leg and abdominal strength are key and we only have about three weeks left to make any changes that could make a difference by race day so focus on leg and abdominal strength then rest up the week of the race.

Onward and upward -

 I reviewed the attendance list and you might be surprised at who was on the ALL GUARD team and who are the up and coming hopefuls. Here is a hint, they are all in the top 12 finish positions. We may even see an olympian from this batch. We can say we knew them when, or they trained us and wouldn't that be cool.
So I took some notes along the way and wanted to share with you the most important ones first and the rest later in the week.

First a shout out for anyone who finds great equipment deal, please let me know to spread the word about pro team or Military discounts because we could use all the help we can get.

OK, lets go.

Next Biathlon competitions:
SKIREG.COM - schedule for nordic and biathlon events.

Regional Biathlon team sites or venues or schedules:
www.saratogabiathlon.com/nybiathlon.org
NYbiathlon.org  -  look at the right pane for regional schedule
www.syracusebiathlon.com
Western NY Biathlon

I'm looking for the Maine team sites, but can't find it yet. I'll keep you posted.

Ok, that should get you started, look for training sections and schedules. Anyone want to go halves with me on a rife so we don't have to share a state one?

Other useful information:
Hammer Nutrition, makers of gel and recovery products has a military discount and a deeper discount for deployed folk. Know anyone deployed?

Other great links I found and have been hoarding, sorry about that, just didn't have the time:
fasterskier dot com
skipost.com
skinnyskis.com They also have a race schedule on the right pane.
http://www.cross-country-ski.com/
http://www.bouldernordicsport.com/
http://www.cxcskiing.org/ - I'm going to purchase the coaching conditioning DVD kit for the next year, it has weekly workouts for us to periodize our efforts in the coming season for better performance.

Ok, so much more but for another day.
Remember to get out every day.

Jeff

Making the most of the workout

I'm sorry for the gap here in content, I've had some fun during the holiday and like most things in life, had to readjust to get back on track.

I hope everyone had a good thanksgiving and are staying on track with their training plan. Today I wanted to talk about having a reason for every workout, specifically the run, but it applies to any type of exercise. If you have become comfortable in your routine, then this is a good time for this conversation. Having a regular exercise pattern is key to constant progression but can become dull. The idea is to have a reason for each and every workout. Sometimes we need just a relaxing recovery workout during our normal slot, and sometimes we need a really hard push to break up some monotony on those days when we are feeling good and have the extra energy to push it. The trick comes in planning for those days.

The article here from Runners World has a great introduction to what many runners term a tempo run and how to add it to the cycle or weekly exercise. While this is geared toward running, it can be applied to snow sport training or other training as a means of maximizing your efforts. Pay particular attention to why it works in maximizing your workout time.

I am looking forward to working with everyone again and the snow in MT is looking sweet.

Jeff