Pre Season Conditioning

[Montana St Alum]

Tracking this sort of personal data is really beneficial. I use it mostly to find mountain bike gear and settings to optimize my performance - just so I can ride with my 32 YO son without him getting bored. Once you're "playing the back 9 - or 3(!)" - that's your only hope.

[GrimSurfer]

It keeps me honest.

I can complete a ski knowing whether I gave it a good effort. If I have a great ski, a reduction in heart rate can confirm to what degree conditions or ski prep made a difference.

Two days ago, I skied a shorter distance in longer time and at a greater average heart rate. The snow was much colder and I was at the edge of my glide wax. So I didn’t necessarily ski better today. The snow temperature (-4C) today wax pretty much ideal for low friction and I was well within the wax “zone”.

So even though there were some irregularities on the trail that rendered them less than ideal, my heart rate average dropped 2 beats per minute because the effort needed to maintain a glide wasn’t too bad. So I’m not skiing “better” than two days ago.

In a month or six weeks, my speed will rise and my heart rate will likely drop regardless of the weather. This will be the result of a few hundred km of seasonal ski “practice”.

[snow-mark]

While I am somewhat of a fitness nut, I don’t do too much to “prepare” for ski season. I usually count on a decent amount of cardio fitness and endurance from biking, which I have done quite intensely for many years. However, this past year I biked quite a bit less than normal (just ended up busying myself with other things). So I have less fitness now that skiing is ramping up. But I find (and studies back this up) that my endurance is quite, um, enduring, while it takes a lot build up cardio capacity again. Fortunately for me, my ski outings tend to be more endurance endeavors (e.g., lots of slow climbing and trail breaking). So despite less fitness, I can ski at high altitude for many hours, and my capacity is increasing since I’ve been out at altitude (9-11k feet) almost every weekend since mid November. I do hope to build up enough fitness to take on a major skiing challenge or two by February, but I have yet to identify exactly what those will be. I usually ski with my wife and, while she is slower than me, she can also ski (or swim or bike) for many hours.

The one thing I do more or less religiously now that I’m well into middle age (48 in a couple weeks) is strength, flexibility and mobility training. I don’t push major weights. Most of my workouts focus on core, hips, shoulders, knee stability, and other things that lifelong cyclists and desk-workers tend to have. I have noticed a HUGE difference with this regimen (fewer “overuse” injuries). Most of what I do I have pieced together from workouts with trainers, YouTube channels, and (last year) a subscription to EverAthlete. If your are older than, say, 45, I highly recommend a strength/mobility program. It’ll keep you going.

And, being somewhat of a health nut (despite just taking the last sip of my second beer of the night) and being married to a vegetarian, I eat quite well most of the time. So my blood pressure is good, my resting heart rate is pretty low (54 usually), and generally I feel pretty good.

But, bottom line, skiing is a relaxed fun thing that keeps me fit for the winter, provides some adventure, and gives me a good base of fitness for ripping my legs on the bike in the spring/summer/fall (if I choose to do so).

[GrimSurfer]

Mountain biking and skiing at altitude… both pretty awesome for cardio.

Ever had your VO2 Max measured on a treadmill? Cooper’s test?

[snow-mark]

Mountain biking and skiing at altitude… both pretty awesome for cardio.

Ever had your VO2 Max measured on a treadmill? Cooper’s test?

No. I used to focus more on that kind of stuff but very little these days. I just try to listen to my body and accept the shortcomings of that approach.

[Montana St Alum]

Regarding utilization of O2 as outside atmospheric pressure decreases:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12670822/

I started incorporating pressure breathing techniques at higher elevations a few years ago and it works, to an extent. Where I really notice it is in recovery. I'll push toward the limit of my aerobic capacity and pressure breathing helps there, but as I reduce effort - either as incline momentarily decreases or when I slow to recover - this technique seems to reduce the time it takes to "catch my breath".

In the Navy, we breathed 100% O2 "on demand" as in, you had to inhale to get O2. Once you get above a pressure altitude around 35,000' the regulator forced air into your lungs, and you had to forcefully exhale. This increased the pressure in your lungs increasing the amount of O2 crossing the alveoli. Otherwise, even 100% O2 wasn't enough to prevent hypoxia.

People who mountaineer also use this technique. A few years ago, due to my age and probable reduced cardiovascular function, I started trying it at high elevations mountain biking and now, skiing. I'm not sure a younger person would notice the effects below 10k, but at my age, it helps, for sure. It takes some time to train yourself to do it without thinking about it, though.

"Pressure breathing is a technique nearly all mountaineers use on high altitude mountains around the world, and is really just a derivative of the belly breath. Inhaling as fully as possible, the climber exhales with force, generally pursing their lips slightly so as to create a smaller aperture, as if they were trying to blow out a series of birthday candles. Essentially belly breathing with a forceful exhale, the pressure breath helps to improve gas exchange across the alveoli by increasing the pressure in the lungs."

https://www.rmiguides.com/blog/2014/07/ ... erformance

[GrimSurfer]

I was a diver in the Navy, where the tendency was to do skip breathing to extend dividing time. Pure O2 could only be used down to 33’ (when using rebreathers). Higher than that (PP of 2 atm) would lead to blackouts due to toxicity. Opposite to what one would do at altitude to maintain sea level partial pressures… Naval aviation and diving being at opposite ends of the spectrum.

I do a lot of HIIT, which places the body in O2 deficit. Tolerance certainly improves but you can see the effects in heart rate recovery. Recovery is initially slow… like 5 bpm in 30 seconds, which is really slow. Ha ha

Then it drops like a stone (25 bpm after a minute) before levelling off (40 bpm in two minutes, 50 bpm in three minutes). All of this happening during a cooldown walk.

I’ve observed some of the things mentioned by @snow-mark. After a longer pause in regular exercise, endurance remains. Max heart rate is slightly harder to achieve. The thing that changes most, however, is exercise response to load… it’s higher. So where I could run 10 kmh at 140 bpm, I’d be in the 145-147 range after a long break in training. Max speed at max heart rate is more or less unchanged though.

Now 5-7 bpm doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is in that range. My aerobic threshold is 147. So I go from being comfortably in a zone I can sustain for hours to a level that can be maintained for an hour or so before performance suffers.

I suspect that folks living/exercising at altitude would observe some pretty profound effects at sea level. I guess this is why professional XC skiers do 1-2 months altitude training off season. I guess this is why a male professional XC skier in their 20s has a VO2 Max in the 70s or 80s and I must make due at my age with a paltry VO2 Max of 47.

[Montana St Alum]

Navy Diver - VERY cool!

I returned to San Diego to surf (9' Donald Takayama noserider and an 8' trifin) years ago, again after a long time at altitude. The first few waves I felt like superman, but you tend to expand into your aerobic capacity.

In fact, once I scratched out past the impact zone I was still pretty tired from the effort.

I think I read that these guys would live high up and exercise lower, to push harder, but that may not be the case.

[bauerb]

this past summer I moved to Montana and live at about 6,000ft and train at 7,000-10,000ft. its not a perfect setup since "live low, train high" is not the preferred protocol. most altitude adaptation occurs when living above 2500meters. that said, I am always amazed now how easy running is at sea level...so some adaptation has happened...even if its less about red blood cell density and more about breathing muscle fitness .

I train all year for some kind of racing or other. when its not winter, I train for trail running races( sky running mainly). in winter I race Skimo. But this winter I decided to also train and race nordic skiing. it had been 34 years since my high school nordic racing days....hadn't set foot on nordic skis since then. I'll tell you what: my fitness for marching up mountains on skimo gear is very good, my fitness for skating and classic skiing is not good. its a massive economy problem right now with nordic skiing. the amount of oxygen I require to move with any sort of velocity sends my HR up very quickly. I cannot skate in Z1, only in Z2/AeT. my technique is a B+ due to muscle memory from learning correctly when young, but the coordination of major muscle groups to skate is very taxing for me right now, but is improving weekly.

as a side benefit, my tele skiing fitness is very good right now. I spent xmas day chasing my 20yo son all around Big Sky resort. he was on alpine skis...I ski slower because I am not willing to take any risks, but I did not require any "fitness breaks" to catch my breath....

[GrimSurfer]

Navy Diver - VERY cool!

I returned to San Diego to surf (9' Donald Takayama noserider and an 8' trifin) years ago, again after a long time at altitude. The first few waves I felt like superman, but you tend to expand into your aerobic capacity.

In fact, once I scratched out past the impact zone I was still pretty tired from the effort.

I think I read that these guys would live high up and exercise lower, to push harder, but that may not be the case.

Love San Diego. My favourite US city. Used to do business with 3rd Fleet and a few facilities at Pt Loma… when I wasn’t trying to eat my way through old town.

Takayama boards are beautiful. Robert August makes fine longer boards too.

I surf a Walden Magic 8’ and 7S Superfish 7’. The Walden is my favourite… easy to paddle out and will surf ripples to overhead. The 7S tests my g-limit coming down a wave though. Fun.

Yeah, I suspect guys at altitude may not have to push as hard to see similar benefits to flat landers. I’ve read a lot about the benefits of very looong low heart rate exercise (60-70% of max heart rate). Builds endurance apparently. Professional athletes spend oodles of time each day in this zone. OTOH, I suspect that their sport-specific physiology allows them to get away with this and still perform like gods when the need arises.

The stuff I do is a bit too far in the other direction. Hard for me to find any more than 2 hrs a day for regular exercise… plus I like the “burn”.

What I enjoy most about XC is that heat induced “cardiac drift” is lower, so it’s easier for me to get a good muscular workout in the 80% range. Unless I’m having fun… then I abandon all discipline and good sense, pushing the pedal past 100%.