| Basic Principles | |
|---|---|
| Rest & recovery Variety Intensity !+ volume Technique True endurance |
Periodicity Warmup first Stretch after Drink often Replenish |
| Keep a notebook | |
| Rest and Recovery |
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| In the life of an athlete, nothing is more important than rest. Nothing. Time
devoted to rest allows the body to recover from workouts, and it's during recovery that the
body gets stronger. The athlete who doesn't rest enough may think he's doing everything
it takes to get stronger, faster. But he's wrong: slowly he undoes his own hard work, reaches a
plateau and stays there, never becomes as good as he could be, loses enjoyment because he's
always tired, and constantly risks injury and over-training. But the best rest isn't complete rest. It's active recovery: any light activity, at very low intensity, serving to gently stimulate blood flow and the metabolism. Easy cycling, easy skating, walking, spinning with no resistance... One of the best recovery activities is a technical workout, given over to low-intensity drills to develop balance and agility. |
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| Variety, please! |
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| Many skaters go over the same route day after day, always at the same speed.
It's boring, it doesn't do much for their fitness, and it prevents them from discovering so many
great things they're capable of doing. By limiting themselves to a routine, they limit their pleasure. Vary everything: the places you skate, the speed, the amount of time... Avoid the grey zone by making a sharp distinction between intense efforts (which you'll keep short) and easy efforts (which you'll do for much longer). Explore the possibilities offered in the suggested exercises, trying out fartlek, intervals, accels, 30/30s... Not all in the same day, though! Once a week at least, give yourself a workout in which, after a 10-minute warmup, you choose a drill involving real speed, a good hard effort. Design your own workout, lasting an hour or so, and end with a 10-minute cooldown of easy skating. |
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| Never increase intensity and volume together |
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| Make a distinction between the intensity of your effort (speed, difficulty), and
the volume of a workout (distance, amount of time). Never increase both in the same workout.
The first time you do sprints, intervals or hills for example, make sure you keep the workout
relatively short. And the first time you do a good long skate (40~60 km), take it easy to make sure
your level of effort stays low. Additionally, each time you increase either volume or intensity,
give your body time to adjust to the new challenge before increasing again or combining both. |
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| Don't neglect technique |
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| Skating is such a simple sport... yet incredibly technical.
There is always a potential for you to go much faster with the same amount of effort
or less. If you're reading this page, you're someone who likes to work out; and if you're like most skaters, that means you have a natural instinct to push yourself a little bit harder than most people. But what do you really want -- to just keep pushing harder, or to skate faster, better and more easily? Once you're in shape, the amount of work it takes to get stronger starts to rise steeply; yet getting stronger does not translate into an equivalent increase in speed. On the other hand, even a subtle improvement in technique can produce a remarkable increase in speed, without extra hours of hard training! You just have to pay attention, want to skate better, look for good skaters who could help you, and if possible take a course or workshop. Do you always skate on the inside edge of your wheels? Are your front wheels significantly more worn than the others? Does your upper body jerk from side to side or bounce up and down with each push? Are you uncomfortable skating with your hands behind your back? If you're skating along a straight line, does your left skate touch down left of the line, your right skate out to the right? ...These are signs of poor technique. Correct these errors and every minute you spend in your skates will give you more enjoyment -- you'll roll faster with less effort. |
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| Skate for true endurance |
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| The problem with the word endurance is that people associate it with something hard.
They see endurance runners racing, but not when they're doing endurance training, which is
completely different. To develop true endurance you don't have to do anything hard; on the
contrary, by skating at too high a level of intensity you limit the amount of time
you can keep going, thus cutting short the development of endurance. Once a week, go for a distance significantly longer than usual (two to three times as long), at a much lower level of effort. If you wear a heartrate monitor, stay near the bottom end of your aerobic zone. If other skaters pass you, let them go; tell yourself they're only out for an hour, while you'll be good for two or three. The endurance you build up by doing a weekly long slow skate -- from 40 to 70 km -- will give you everything you need when you take on the 128 km Défi de Montréal. |
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| Be cyclic... periodically. |
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| Whenever we notice an improvement, we always want more: we want to keep getting
stronger and faster. Then we hit a plateau or develop an injury...
To avoid the plateau effect (and the frustration that comes with it), stand back and take a
a long-term view. Divide the season into cycles of 3 to 6 weeks, with one whole week between each
cycle for in-depth rest and recovery. (Listen to your body to learn how long your cycles should
be; short cycles aren't a sign of weakness.) During your recovery weeks, enjoy some light exercise for active recovery, with 2 or 3 easy workouts of short duration and reduced intensity. In the next cycle you'll come back stronger than ever! |
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| Warmup first |
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| During the first 10 minutes of a workout, start off
easy to let your muscles warm up. Doing this will help you avoid injury, and from start
to finish you'll enjoy yourself more. If you skate with friends, watch out for the tendency some skaters have to start off fast because they're so full of energy. If they've done nothing for the last two days while you on the other hand have been training, let them go. Why should you risk injury just to tag along? |
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| Do your stretches |
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| The best time to stretch is after a workout, when the muscles are warm. By doing your
stretches after every workout (even after light activity like walking or cycling), you protect yourself
from injury and improve your flexibility. Not only will daily activities become easier, you'll find
yourself skating better, with movements that are more fluid, more complete and more natural. When the back, hips and leg-muscles are tight, your pushes are cut short. This is a major cause of pushing backwards. To be able to push to the side and with the heel, you need to be flexible. Make sure you stretch the right way! Don't bounce when you're stretching (it's dangerous); take a position and hold it for 20 to 30 seconds, gently extending it in the last few seconds. To learn the best stretches and how to do them correctly, consult the best book on the market, Stretching by Bob Anderson -- available in English and French under the same title. |
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| Drink often |
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| Drink before, during and after each workout, not just in summer but in winter too.
Normally all you need is cool water. Sports drinks like Gatorade are only recommended
when it's very hot (for the salt) or when you want the carbohydrates in them. If you
weigh a smart athlete before and after a workout, you'll find that his weight is pretty much the
same (or even a little more) despite all the calories he's burned. The extra water helps
flush out waste products. |
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| Feed those muscles after training |
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| During the first 15 minutes after any workout, you should take in carbohydrates, ideally
with a little protein. This allows the body to quickly restore muscle glycogen, enabling the
recovery process to proceed more effectively. Good sources include cereal bars, bananas, apples...
(not junk food). The ideal combination is a lot of carbohydrate with a small amount of protein,
making low-fat chocolate milk an excellent and inexpensive choice. Normally you don't eat at all during a workout, however when it comes to a long distance skate you should definitely eat now and then. The ideal is to munch on something every 20-30 minutes, but it's quite sufficient to stop every hour for a snack. Some skaters insist on energy bars, but dried dates and apricots work as well and are cheaper. |
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| Keep a notebook |
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Day by day, keep a record of your weight, your athletic activities, your state of health and
anything else worthy of note. Over time you'll notice that it helps in several ways:
|
| Rod Willmot |