The Walt Plan

Most people reading this already know that Walt is taking the year off to focus on qualifying for the Olympics in biathlon. Naturally, such an ambitious goal requires an ambitious training plan. Last spring, we had a few conversations with USOC physiologist Jay T. Kearney in which we discussed Walt's strengths and weaknesses and how they might shape his training plan. We determined that Walt needed to make a significant increase in his VO2max in order to have a shot at the Olympics. To address this need, Jay T outlined an aggressive VO2max building plan based on his research with nordic combined skiers and kayakers. The plan was simple and brutal: 3 workouts each week of 5x5min treadmill intervals at VO2max (speed and grade determined by testing), alternating with 3 weekly threshold rollerski sessions of 30 min each. Walt did this routine in 3 blocks of 3 weeks each, with a couple weeks of lower intensity, higher volume training between blocks. He completed the protocol about 3 weeks ago, and I'm pleased to report that we did indeed see some major VO2max gains - an increase of about 12%, which is quite high for an already well-trained athlete. As importantly, Walt gained some serious mental toughness training and confidence from completing one of the toughest training protocols I've ever heard of (lots of skiers are doing blocks that are more densely packed with intensity sessions, but the blocks are usually shorter and spaced out by several weeks).

As you've probably guessed, there are plenty of risks associated with such an intense training plan. Lots of skiers have experimented with intensity blocks, and many have crashed and burned. Obviously, we felt that the risk was justified - Walt has amazing shooting ability, good technique, and a solid fitness base, but his engine just wasn't big enough to compete at the highest level. So far, so good. It's still very possible that Walt could break down as the season goes on, or just peak early and be fried for the races that count. However, we're feeling pretty good about where things stand at this point. Walt's feeling great in training, and he's held his own in recent workouts with other Olympic hopefuls. The hard part is over, and from here on it's just a matter of maintaining the VO2max gains and translating them into an increase in actual skiing speed (by choosing treadmill running over rollerski hill repeats, we sacrificed some specificity in favor of more precise control over workloads - this means that more fast rollerskiing is needed now). Volume is a little higher, and intensity is a lot lower - Walt says that his 2 weekly intensity workouts feel like a walk in the park now. We'll find out soon enough how well the plan worked. Walt is headed out to Soldier Hollow for a few weeks of training with the national team, culminating in a pair of rollerski time trials that will partially determine who goes to the early season World Cup races - an important first step toward qualifying. Keep an eye on the US Biathlon site for updates.

So, if Walt goes to the Olympics will I put the rest of the team on this plan next year? Absolutely not! First, this kind of training requires a big base - Walt is 26 and has been doing solid (if not huge) volume for several years. An 18-22 year old college student would have a hard time absorbing this kind of training. Second, 3 months of treadmill intervals is soul-crushing - you'd better have a pretty urgent need for this kind of training before sacrificing the joys of outdoor training for stale air and CNN. I want my athletes to love skiing when they graduate. We'll do our share of VO2max training - a bit more than we've done in the past - but building a fitness base through volume and threshold work will remain our priority, regardless of how things go for Walt.