The High Performance Ski racing and Training (HiPer) team provides high intensity focused training for developing and competitive cross-country skiers. HiPer was loosely formed 16 years ago with the local competitive athletes within the Saskatoon Nordic Ski Club getting together to train. Over time the training team advanced to become quite structured and very quickly adopted the name HiPer.

The program runs throughout the year and follows general YTP (yearly training plan) macro cycles of base building and energy systems development specific to cross country ski racing. In general, the program begins after a short recovery period post-competition season and moves into a progressive aerobic and core muscle base building phase throughout the summer, coupled with increasing intensity activities. Late summer and fall sees the program ramp-up in intensity and ski specific activities leading into late dryland roller ski racing and early on-snow “tune-up” races. The culmination of the training year focuses around on-snow training activities leading up to major competitions that each individual team member will be participating in. Individual training activities are recommended for each athlete taking into consideration competition goals.

Many athletes participate in other sports and activities over the summer months therefore the HiPer program remains flexible with its training expectations and works with the individuals to tailor activities to suit.

Coaching support is available for all team members to help in the development of focussed training plans specific to cross country skiing, or even as supplementary plans for cross-training with other sports. The program provides coaching support up to but not necessarily at major competitions. This is due to the nature of the program whereby many athletes attend different major races depending on their goals and objectives.

Program highlights:

April – period of active rest where the athlete is encouraged to rest and recovery after the competition season.

May – Tuesdays. Once a week sessions with workouts focusing on core strength and general fitness on. The off-season training begins with a fitness test (fittest #1) to establish benchmarks and focal points for the remainder of the training year. The fitness tests occur every fourth Tuesday throughout the summer.

June –Tuesday core fitness workouts and start-up of trail runs on Thursdays.

July – Tuesday core fitness, Thursday trail runs.

August – Tuesday core fitness. Thursday trail run. Start of rollerskiing on Sunday mornings. Rollerskiing always starts with instruction in a technique focus for the session.

September – Final fitness test (fittest #5), then hill running with poles begins out at Cranberry flats on the Tuesday. Thursday trail runs now move to Saturday and we start incorporating high intensity activities such as time trialling into our Sunday roller skiing.

October, November – Tuesday hill running, Saturday trail running, and rollerski time trialling on Sundays.

Late November, December – On snow. Tuesday/Thursday skiing with early season technique work. Sundays start into “Hiper Challenge” time trialling on snow.

On-snow/competition period. – Tuesdays are reserved for the Grapefruit Cup (GC) where athletes are encouraged to participate. GC registration costs are covered within the HiPer program registration fee. Thursdays are focussed technique sessions and/or waxing session when there is a weekend race. All the athletes meet and wax their own skis with recommendations and instruction by the coaches. HiPer benches and waxing equipment are available to be used, as well as the “wax of the day”.

We also encourage team members to share planned activities outside of the regular scheduled sessions through posting on our Facebook page. Sending this information to Kathy or Robin Butler will get it posted for the team to see.

Registration for the program is though Zone 4 when signing up with the Saskatoon Nordic Ski club, and program fee is $150.

For more information contact Robin or Kathy Butler at skirobin@sasktel.net or skikathy@sasktel.net. Checkout our website at http://saskatoonhiper.weebly.com and like us on Facebook at HiPer Training as well as HiPer Grapefruit Cup. All HiPer information is posted to Facebook and the website. A schedule is made, but is subject to change frequently, so we recommend that Facebook is used for daily updates. Due to frequent changes we adopted a policy of posting every workout the day before.