by Hans and
Franz;
Section 1: Pre-Season 1
The purpose of this webpage is to help you get in, and
stay in, shape for skiing. Although some may regard skiing
as only a winter sport, for those who really enjoy it
skiing becomes a year-around endeavor that is characterized
by an emphasis on different activities during various
times of the year. In this section of the page we introduce
these different "seasons of skiing." In following
sections we discuss specific training and conditioning
activities you can try that are appropriate for these
different "seasons." If you follow the guidelines
presented in these sections you are likely to find that
you will be able to ski longer, better, safer, and have
more fun (not to mention look better to the opposite sex,
be able to tie your shoes without a mirror, and eat chocolate
without guilt).
Skiing has four seasons, just as there are four calendar
seasons. The seasons of skiing are: 1) pre-season; 2)
early season, 3) peak season; and 4) off-season. The pre-season
begins in September and lasts until December. Pre-season
is the time in which to raise your anaerobic threshold.
Early season consists of December and January, during
which training is translated into ski technique, and fine-tuned.
Peak season is from February through April (hey, there's
plenty of snow in the U.P. in April). During peak season
you reap the benefits of your training, achieve your annual
goals and stay healthy. Off season, from May to August,
is the time to recover and concentrate on building up
increased aerobic capacity and strength for the next year.
Your anaerobic threshold is that physiological point
at which aerobic metabolism is no longer capable of supplying
all your muscles' needs for energy. Roughly speaking,
it is the point at which you can no longer carry on a
conversation without gasping when you are exercising.
The goal of pre-season training is to raise this threshold;
i.e., to enable you to ski at a more athletic level before
you start to breathe hard. Among the benefits you will
be likely to derive from this increased capacity are that
you will be able to ski faster, longer and more proficiently.
A practical situation in which these benefits could pay
off might occur during a ski lesson. For example, if you
hadn't worked on raising your anaerobic threshold you
might not be able to ski for a half-hour without stopping.
If this were the case it would be hard for you to fully
benefit from a ski lesson, since you would be too tired
to be able to pay attention to the instructor and to properly
practice what the instructor is demonstrating.
How do you raise your anaerobic threshold? Simply keep
doing what ever form of exercise you have been doing,
but now periodically begin to push yourself a little bit
harder so that you begin to move out of your comfort zone.
In other words, exercise hard enough to reach the point
where you start to breathe too hard to talk, and then
continue to exercise at this level for a few minutes longer
before backing off and cooling down. If possible, try
this a couple of times a week. Swimming, jogging, rowing,
even fast walking are all activities that are suitable
for this type of training. Don't forget to use your arms,
either. Try reaching your threshold by hitting a punching
bag (or an old pillow case full of towels), or swinging
your arms in circles as you walk or jog. If you can't
get outside or don't like to exercise but do like to dance,
put some fast music on the radio and rock and roll in
your living room.
