Halfway through Testing Week

The first two tests (3k run and Canadian Strength Test) went down in the past few days, with two more (Specific Strength at Browns Bridge and St. Regis) coming up Friday and Sunday.

On the men's side, the 3k had been long been slated as a battle between two perennial track speedsters, Austin Meng and Will Frielinghaus. Meng had been struggling with some sickness, but after a week off from training showed up ready to go for it. 200 meters into the race Meng and Will had a 50-meter lead on the field. The win was settled when Will made a move with about 2 laps to go. Meng was impressive in keeping pace after struggling to get out of bed for the last 7 days, but had to settle for second. Will and Meng went 9:46 and 9:50, respectively, both times in the top ten of the Testing Archives. The battle for third was literally waged between the entire rest of the men's field, who hung together as a tight pack the entire race before first-year Matt Dier laid down a finishing kick of Northug-like proportions in the last 150 meters.

The women's race broke up right away, with first-year Erin Perryman and senior Kelsey Nichols setting the early pace. A chase pack, led by sophomore Kate Mulcahy, slowly reeled the two leaders in, however. Kate made a devastating move to turn up the pace with a few laps to go, cruising to the win. Her time put Kate in the top-5 all-time for this test. Kate and Will made it a double-victory for Glens Falls skiers on the day.

Will leads Meng down the back-stretch of the track during sunrise

Yesterday the team did the Canadian Strength Test, a brutal ten minutes apiece of pull-ups, situps, pushups, box jumps and dips. This was a really impressive showing. Eric Lustgarten demolished the USST Senior Male standard of 299 with an incredible 358 points, and first-year Cassidy Cichowicz hit 14 pull-ups in a row. Last year we had maybe 2 or 3 girls who could do a single pull-up, and this year all but one we able to get their chin over the bar at least once. Compared to last year (when we first did this test) the men's average went up by 14 points, and the women bumped their average up by an incredible 31 points! Just as impressive, the women's results were almost all within a 10-15 point range. These girls are not only fit, but able to push each other well since they're so competitive among themselves.

Cassidy hammered out 14 pull-ups en route to winning the Strength Test

The 3k and Canadian Strength tests aren't direct measures of skiing performance, but they're very basic indicators of fitness, and fitness helps win ski races. Things should get really exciting when we hit Browns Bridge on Friday, and St. Regis on Sunday. Regis is perennially wet and rainy, but after this summer of drought and heat, the stage could be set for some records to fall...

Strength and Conditioning Notes

Yesterday Ethan and I attended a discussion (more of a presentation, really) by the strength-and-conditioning coach for the SLU Hockey team. I scribbled down some notes on prominent topics, and I thought I'd re-post them here in raw form (with a few links added). It's cool (yet unsurprising, really) to see how many similarities exist between all sports when it comes to strength training, progression, and philosophy. Here's some of what I took down:

Notes: Strength and Conditioning discussion 9/19/2012

-What energy systems are you using in your sport? Ex: Hockey players are on 40sec shifts, going all out and then resting. 3:1 rest to exertion ratio. Understand where the energy comes for this, and train that system.

-If you want to increase explosiveness/quickness, MANIPULATE THE NERVOUS SYSTEM to achieve this. Don’t confuse this with maximum effort. This is the difference between doing a few pullups with lots of weight and a few pullups with so much explosive effort that you shoot up off the bar. The two are each important, but you need to train the nervous system first to get that quickness. Same goes for technique and skiing (see “Speed versus Intensity of Training”, Galanes 2004)…produce power correctly and efficiently before adding load.

-There is a progression of Speed-->Strength-->Conditioning (Again, see Galanes 2004)

-There is a lack of maximal strength on SLU teams.

-Understand the physiological vs psychological impact of strength training. If doing some short benchpress reps helps an athlete feel good before a game, for example, let it become routine for them even if it has no benefit.

-In soccer, a midfield player runs an average of 12 miles in a game, including changes of pace and bursts of speed. Additionally, he cannot be fatigued during this time because he has to execute his skill (ball-handling, traps, etc) for the duration of the event.
-In the same way: A skier skis 12 miles (A 20k), including changes of pace and bursts of speed. Additionally, he cannot be fatigued during this time because he has to execute his skill (correct technique) for the duration of the event.

-Recovery has to be incorporated and INGRAINED. Foam rolling, massage, ice bath, recovery drinks/foods. This needs to be something the athlete does as instinctively as showing up to practice.