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This plan is designed for the avid cross-country skier that already has a solid general fitness background and who is ready to accelerate their x-c ski-specific fitness. The volume and intensity training of the plan is geared towards competing in a longer marathon style race—20-50 kilometers.

Because this is a 12-week plan, we recommend you have a decent foundation of aerobic fitness built up over the summer and fall months. If you’re not familiar with training zones, we include an aerobic and anaerobic threshold test to help you define your individual zones.

Athletes that choose this plan should feel confident in their technical skiing abilities so they can get the most out of the physical and mental demands of the plan; however, we do include some skiing-related technical pointers and guidelines. An athlete can get even more out of this plan by working on their technical skills throughout the summer on roller skis.

This plan includes four phases: an anatomical adaptation period of strength training, a max strength phase, a plyometric strength program geared towards ski-specific movements, and a final taper week to apply that power into high-intensity speed training while reducing the overall volume of training.

This plan can easily be extended by repeating weeks the first four weeks before progressing to week five if the objective is farther in the future.

This plan was built by Ben Morley, head coach of the Jackson Hole Nordic Ski Racing Youth Team since 2007, and Laura McCabe, two-time winter Olympian.

This training plan requires you use a chest-strap heart rate monitor and GPS watch to log all your training.