Training with double threshold sessions several times a week is increasingly used by elite athletes. In athletics, Marius Bakken and the Ingebrigtsen brothers in Norway have made this a key to their success. In skiing until now it has been an unusual practice, but things are changing: this summer, for example, Linn Swahnrunner-up of this winter’s World Cup, will face this type of training.
Svahn’s coach, Ola Ravaldwho has worked as a cross-country skiing and biathlon coach for several decades, both in Sweden and abroad, and who currently also coaches the Swedish biathlon Team Autoexperten, spoke to Langd.se of this choice and the planned organization.
This method requires athletes to perform two speed sessions on the same day, at a threshold intensity. The goal is to increase the volume of quality training, but not “interval loading”. Milk meters are often used to ensure the load is at the right level.
“I have no idea how all skiers train, but in general you could probably say we’re a little old-fashioned and conservative when it comes to ski training. And I think what’s happening with athletics training It’s exciting. Then there are clear differences between running and skiing. But I think it’s possible to develop more than we have done.”
In winter sports, explains Ravald, some Norwegian biathletes who have competed in the IBU Cup already use this approach and, judging by their results, it has proven to be more than effective in preparing for a top winter on skis.
“If we take Johan Olav Botn, who has incredibly high speed on the track, we saw him running threshold sessions in the afternoon after racing in the morning” says Ravald, stating that he will use this method with his athletes “TOwe have a floor to add double threshold days and possibly even double threshold blocks for Linn now during the summer to try it out. Benefits could be obtained fromsession 2′ of the afternoon based on what you did in training in the morning. As the idea stands now, it’s about adding this aspect during the preparation period and then I think we should do two or in some cases three days of double training per week. Furthermore, it is very important that the load is not too high, so in these sessions I think it is important to do the lactate test to make sure the load is at the right level”
