Courses

The Big Autumn Ski Racing Challenge

Picture: Pustertaler Ski Marathon

Cross-country ski racing is great fun, and a great challenge. As one of the best aerobic sports, cross-country skiing is an excellent sport in itself and great cross-training for other sports. For the second year we will be bringing together our rollerski instruction, training and on-snow racing to prepare skiers for marathon competition.

This year's programme is aimed at everyone with a reasonable level of fitness: an experience of competitive endurance sport (running, cycling, swimming, rowing, triathlon, canoeing) is useful but not essential. The programme begins in September with an intense 4 weeks of technique work on roller skis. This brings skiers up to the standard to join our club group in October. The club will focus on training on rollerskis, with various challenges along the way, to get you ready for skiing on snow.

Cross-country skiing is great fun, and the fitness you will gain from this ultimate strength-endurance sport can be brought back to your own sport and life. This programme will require a bit of commitment than any we have run before, but the more you put in the more you will get out.

THE PROGRAMME

• Most of the training will take place on rollerskis in London. These replicate the feeling of skiing on snow. In September, there will be an initial 4 weeks of rollerski technique in Hyde Park on Saturday mornings and Tuesday evenings, and Richmond Park on Wednesday evenings. Athletes can attend any of these sessions, but at least one session a week is recommended;
• In October, skiers with then join in with regular club training sessions in Hyde Park or Richmond Park. In addition, there will be regular land training called 'Ski Ganging' - running with poles.

PHASE 1 - September - technique focus:

Tuesday evenings: Hyde Park, Classic Technique
Wednesday evenings: Richmond Park, Classic / Skate Technique
Saturday mornings: Hyde Park, Skating Technique

PHASE 2 - October to March - club programme:

Wednesday evenings: Richmond Park training (both techniques)
Saturday mornings: Hyde Park (both techniques)

PHASE 3 - On snow skiing & racing

SIGNUP FOR INITIAL PHASE -

LEARN TO ROLLERSKI

This phase will be technique focused, and will assume zero prior knowledge. Key elements will be building up balance, technique and skiing concepts to relate rollerskiing to skiing on snow. After the initial phase, skiers will join our rollerski club for regular training.

 

• Three sessions to choose from -
  • Tues evenings, Hyde Park, 18.05, starts 7th Sept;
  • Wed evenings, Richmond Park, 18.05, starts 8th Sept;
  • Sat mornings, Hyde Park, 11.30, starts 11th Sept.
• You can come to all of these sessions, but we recommend you make it to at least one and preferably two a week to start with;
• 2 hours, technique on rollerskis, some dryland training;
• Map to Hyde Park & Richmond Park meeting points here;
• Cost = £120 for 4 weeks course, initial phase, all equipment provided.

PHASE 2 -

ROLLERSKI CLUB TRAINING, SKI RUNNING

This phase will consolidate technique on rollerskis, and getting in the miles on rollerskis will build up strength and endurance.

Interval sessions will be done initially running and running with poles; as rollerski technique improves we will do intervals on rollerski, to replicate race condiditons.

Club sessions take place on Saturday mornings in Hyde Park and Wednesday evenings in Richmond Park.

More details about the club are here.

Stopping

Racing events - running, rollerskiing, snow

All racers are encouraged to take part in rollerski racing, running and skiing on snow. The racing plan is designed to fit in with our two ski marathon trips in Austria, in January and February -

Frieth Hilly 10k Race: 24 October 2011
Wessex Races: 24 October 2011
Obertilliach Week: 9-17 January 2011
British Cross-Country Ski Championships: 22-25 January 2011
Hochfilzen Week: 5-14 February 2011
Vasaloppet: 28 February / 6 March 2011
Engadin Skimarathon: 13 March 2011
Skarverennet: 30 April 2011

If you do other sports, racing in these will build up good endurance, but for specific ski strength the rollerski races are invaluable.

At the end of October we will do the Wessex Rollerski Races at Castle Combe Racetrack in Wiltshire. Here we will compete against the country's best club skiers and army racers. Last year one of our super-novices, Sergey Kleshnev, picked up rollerskiing so well he made it onto our senior relay team, which won the overall event (see results).

IMPROVE YOUR SPORTING PERFORMANCE: WHY XC SKIING?

• Cross-country skiing is a physically intense strength-endurance activity that requires huge amounts of cardiovascular fitness;
• Power is required from all four limbs and from the core muscles, and elite skiers have recorded the highest VO2max scores in tests;
• Elsewhere in the world, cross-country skiing is widely used as cross training for elite athletes from other endurance sports such as triathlon, cycling and rowing. The GB rowing and canoeing teams have regular on-snow training camps.

PHASE 3 -

TRANSITION TO SNOW, INTRODUCTION TO RACING

• we are running two trips on snow in January and February -
  • Obertilliach & Pustertaler Ski Marathon;
  • Hochfilzen & Koasalauf Ski Marathon.
• there will be training on snow, using some of the best tracks in Europe for World Cup cross-country skiers and biathletes;
• focus will be on making the transition from good technique on rollerskis to good technique on snow;
• there are plenty of other races you can do independently or with friends.

In January there will also be a chance to take part in the British Cross-Country Ski Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany Saturday 22nd to Tuesday 25th January. Last year our team was 2nd in the 4x10k cross-country relay and one of our skiers was the best club level biathlete.

For Juniors (under 21) we encourage skiers to join the British Nordic Development Squad. Our programme will help prepare juniors for the BNDS training camp at the end of October, and skiing with the squad on snow.

Picture: Olaf Tufte, Olympic Champion sculler and top 100 finisher in the Swedish Vasaloppet

COACHES

Levi Hensel, the newest member of our coaching team, will be athlete mentor for the programme, and will be assisted by our team of instructors for the rollerskiing.

Alan Eason who will be leading the programme on snow.

Our coaches: all have a love of cross-country skiing and are experienced rollerski coaches and cross-country ski racers.

Ekaterina Rachel - our strict (!) Russian coach
Felicity Bertram - runs our kids' programme & Richmond sessions
Alan Eason - on-snow supremo
Adam Guzda - former Polish team biathlete
Levi Hensel - Dartmouth Uni skier and recently arrived from USA
Iain Ballentine - general organiser and website administrator
Rob Dorward - former novice now on GB biathlon dev squad

Picture: Rob, left, with London XC Ski Club teammates, Guerman Mikhailov & Yevgeniy Gorbenko at the Wessex Sprint Races, 2008

If you have any questions, please contact Levi, levi.hensel@gmail.com or Iain, iain@rollerski.co.uk.

We will have a meeting at the Victoria Pub, W2 2NH nr Lancaster Gate on Saturday 4th September at 2pm to present more information and to answer questions.

You can also call Iain on 020 8348 2540 or 07968 286129.