THE 3rd TRIAD LEG:

 

RACE FITNESS!

 

"Racing is not about winning. It's about ourselves."

  - coach ilg, THE WINTER ATHLETE book

In my previous two columns, I introduced you to the first two "Legs" of my proven, world-class approach to Pre-Season SnowShoe Racing Performance; BioMechanical Fitness and Chi Fitness.  

 

Now, with most of the nation experiencing a FANTASTIC winter and with a number of us with at least one race under shoes,  it's time to introduce the Final Leg of the Triad;  Race Fitness.  I'm going to do this by taking you along with me as I contested my first race as a "new Father Warrior" of a 4-month old before prescribing a sample Race Season Training Week.   C'mon... 

 

Race Day, January 20th, 2008.

"Snow or No"

USSSA Western Regional National Qualifier 10k.

Flagstaff, AZ

 

Let me tell you, those of you who don't know, my words to newly competitive athletes; "Just MAKING it to the Start Line is what earns the spiritual merit,"  rings never more true than in the case of being a rookie parent!  After 45 years of creating and living an outdoor athlete's dream life, i took on the role of being a rookie dad.  I kinda knew what i was signing up for, however, the reality is deep.  Now i am living the truth of my own counsel to all those beginning athletes for truly, just making it to the Start Line as a new daddy is what tests and, if accomplished, secures spiritual growth. 

 

Since I help out, in a small way, with this particular Race,  I only had the chance to spend a few minutes of warming up before the Start Gun went off.  Since SnowShoe Racing, like Mountain Bike Racing, really depends upon an athlete "red lining it" right from the Start,  i usually make sure i have at least a 30 minute warm up including 3-5 Cruise Intervals (see below) to ensure adequate pulmonary tissue elasticity and oxygenation and neural gateway opening.  In the case of this particular race however, i could only jog a few hundred meters alongside Sly...the eventual race winer.  You take what you can get.  Also; it is often more important to do a hard, relative brief effort the day before a Snowshoe Race.  We do the same thing before Time Trials in road bike racing.  To use old school Euro coaching lingo, doing a hard effort the day before a Time Trial (which, really, is what Sport Snowshoe racing boils down to in most cases) accomplishes what is poetically termed, "Opening up the lungs."   In Eastern breath science, such a notion equates to the ignition of agni or 'inner fire' which balances the vayus or  "internal currents." 

 

As the gun went off, an anaerobic fight for the 'hole shot' began and ended within the 100 meters of open field running before the singletrack.  i tucked myself into third place and simply watched the feather-light physique of returning Champion, Sly Coons (great name for a great champion) dance away from all of us.   I could hear, by way of breath and stampeding s'shoes behind me that i was leading our first chase group.  Sly?  He soon disappeared like a Kachina Spirit into the Ponderosa forest.  

As our Chase Group snaked along the serpentine singletrack, i knew i had about 8 minutes of rolling terrain before i could try to attack on the first climb.  It's nearly always best to attack on hills.  That's why we do Hill Repeats (see below).   This first hill was about 1k in length and unleashed a pretty stiff 300' of climbing. So, here in the above photo, before the first climb all i tried to do was maintain a hard enough pace to discourage passing while i myself didn't go into oxygen debt; that cursed hellhole whereupon your body's capacities to expedite fatigue toxins becomes overwhelmed by too 'hot' a physiology.  In snowshoe racing, unlike some other endurance arts, it is almost all-Ways an advantage to run from the front.  It is really hard to pass in snowshoeing, even on wide, groomed courses, because you have to accelerate off an an already high heart rate and you do NOT want to go into oxygen debt. Sport Snowshoe racing is, in my opinion, the most difficult of all endurance sports because your bodyweight works against your forward momentum due to downward/outward distribution of mass and, well, there is no glide, no recovery anywhere on any Snowshoe Race.  Your heart rate will often increase on downhills due to necessary and intensified and hip/torso involvement. Running from the front forces a passing racer to accelerate through often slower snow conditions.  At the end of my 1:01:36 race, my average heart rate was 184.  i have no idea why more endurance athletes from other sports do not embrace snowshoe racing in the winter.  Nothing increases Threshold Capacities like a USSSA Sanctioned SnowShoe Race!

 

Coaching Notes:

 

1)  steady gaze is on the terrain ahead, looking for possible mini-attacks and/or mini-recoveries. 

 

2) toes are pushing off to help inspire effective hip flexion as fatigue mounts.

 

3) arms are driving my legs

 

4) Higher Mind is already latched with my Mantra.

 

***

Mid-Race

As some of you already know,  i live and race upon chronic pain from a winter mountaineering incident way back in 1981.   My spine/pelvis injury, which produces searing neural compression pain throughout my right leg and completely negates my hip power and leg coordination during all running  type of sports.  So during most of my races, my mental energy fluctuates between my Mantra, biomechanical adjustments to adapt to the changing terrain, and internal manipulation of gross and subtle energy to relieve compression pain.  This race was actually pretty decent in that latter category;  my hip/back pain did not appear until about 30 minutes into my race...which meant that i felt nearly 'normal' for the first lap of two which i ran in 28 minutes.  My lifelong chronic pain is being erased - without drugs or surgery - but only at the speed of a glacier. A pre-global warming glacier, that is!   Tiny, tiny increments of freedom with each passing year.  Daily yoga, pranayama, and meditation is not a luxury for ilg.   It is, in fact, a necessity. 

 

Snowshoe races get strung out quickly if there is a good percentage of technical single track, which on our Course here at Flag at over 8,000' in altitude, compromises  75%.  By the end of the first lap, three guys passed me and Laurie dropped me like a bad habit on a stretch of off-camber traverse. Inwardly however, i was pretty stoked at the gap behind me and kept racing.  Slipping from a 'race mentality' into a 'survival mentality' is an easy and ongoing Dragon in our sport.  Each race must be used as a forger of spiritual and mental tenacity.  Remember, racing is not about winning.  It's about ourselves.  Don't ever give up.   

The 2008 "Snow or No" USSSA Western Regional National Qualifier group picture.

Women's Champion, Laurie Lambert (Kahtoola) of Red River, NM bottom row 6th from left.

Men's Champion, Sly Coons (Atlas) of Reno, NV second row, 4th from left.

Your faithful coach (Kahtoola), standing on a picnic table in order to be seen, top.  

photo courtesy of Kahtoola, the primary sponsor of this great event.

Location; Flagstaff Nordic Center, Flagstaff, AZ.

Sample Race Fitness Training Week

 

Monday;  

off day from CV.  Yoga class or DVD.  get a massage or some bodywork.  spend time with family instead of training.
 

Tuesday;  

S'shoe Long Intervals.  3 sets of 8-10 minute High Zone 3 Intervals with 3-5 minute Recovery Intervals.

Wednesday; 

Yoga.  'Iron out' the compression from yesterday and prep for the rest of the week/weekend. 

 

Thursday;

S'shoe Short Intervals. Alternate Weekly between

week a) Hill Repeats -  standing start, 30"-45" hill sprints with 2' Recovery  Intervals. focus on upper/lower body drive. 

week b) Cruise Intervals - Groomed track if possible:  20'@ Zone 2 into 40' with 3-6 sets of 1-2' Zone 4 'surges' along the route into 20'@Zones 1/2 as cool down.
 

Friday; 

S'shoe;  easy effort for 1-1.5 hours.  Prepare logistic for Race Weekend if needed.  Yoga if possible.   
 

Saturday and Sunday; 

depending on your level of fitness

if your Race is on Saturday

use Friday like this:

a Pre-Race Cruise Interval workout but ONLY doing 2-3 sets of only 1' work intervals.

then, use Sunday/Monday as your Recovery Days. 

more fit athletes could crank an easy, steady effort of 2+ hours (does NOT need to be S'shoeing) on Sunday if feeling the chi.  

if your Race Day is on Sunday,

 keep Friday your easy effort and do the Pre-Race Cruise Interval workout i described in the paragraph above

on Saturday.

head bowed in winter sweat,

coach ilg

www.WholisticFitness.com 

(online and phone consultations available)  
 

photos by www.myracepics.com 

To order your own copy of  Coach Ilg's FLIGHT WITHOUT WINGS;  Sport Snowshoeing Basics, his HIGH PERFORMANCE YOGA DVDS, or his other products visit the Pro Shop at Coach's website:

 

www.WholisticFitness.com

 

"The Mt. Everest of Personal Training since 1982"