Wendy Wagner at Devil's Thumb near Winter Park, CO.
Training While Racing by Wendy Wagner
The December 2005 Canadian World Cups are over. I felt like I raced well (a 21st and a 29th). Not fantastic and still a ways to go, but I am on track. I have approached this early racing season with a different priority than in the past. Keep the training up.
Fitting quality training in while racing is a challenge. I have too often eased up on training during the early racing season in order to perform well. That has in turn allowed my fitness to drop by February and therefore my performance had dropped as well. This is not the recipe for Olympic success. This year training while racing is a priority and whatever happens at the Olympics in February it will happen while I am in the best shape of my life.
From the SuperTour in late October in Alaska to late November in West Yellowstone through the Canadian World Cups in mid December I continued with a detailed training plan. I scheduled my workouts to work around the races at these events. Of course I wanted to race strong but more than that I wanted to keep improving my fitness. I have done strength two times a week. If my strength workout fell close to a race I would tone it down a little. I continued to do a long workout once a week, 2.5-3 hours. Intervals were mostly at threshold level and mid week between races. Distance with speed filled in the cracks between. Nothing special, just plain simple consistency.
Of course there are going to be bumps in the road to work around. It is always good to remember the big picture you are going for, being flexible with moving workouts around to accommodate bumps in the road is key. I have had a great early season so far. I was more than happy to race well even though I had kept up the training. Now it is a matter of keeping this ball rolling for two more months!
Beckie Scott leading...
Get into it!
Kris Freeman middle of the lead pack.
Andy Newell.
Lindsay Williams and Sten Fjeldheim.
Torin and Tobias.
Kate Whitcomb.
(Ed. All Vordenberg Images - except "WW image" from Devil's Thumb.)