Kris Freeman

It’s not clear whether the physiological testing camp last week marked the end of this past season or the beginning of next season. And, in fact, it really doesn’t matter - they pretty much run together. This testing camp was interesting because it was the last time they used the established treadmill protocol at the Olympic speed skating oval in Salt Lake, and the first time that they used a new protocol on a new treadmill up in Park City. The old protocol used a very low grade incline on a pretty fast treadmill belt during submaximal stages, resulting in extremely high speeds. Kris finished his sub-max stage at 20 mph on this protocol, and everybody looked impressively fit. The new protocol is clearly much more difficult, and exposes weaknesses more starkly. The good news is that Kris’s base fitness still looks very impressive on both protocols. His Salt Lake test was very similar to the one he had in October. And while we can’t compare the Park City test yet, it showed a very well developed lactate baseline and excellent aerobic efficiency for this time of year. It is clear that Kris is starting the training season on much better footing than he last year.

I’m not sure who took this shot - either Pete or Grover - but it came toward the end of Kris’s maximal effort in Park City. The max numbers were not impressive - they looked low throughout the day. Kris was at about 5.5 liters - a half liter more than Torin Koos. But the workloads looked good, and we know where these guys stack-up on the World Cup - they just had a whole season to prove that. So the important thing is to look at these tests as a starting point - a new baseline for future testing.

The best part of this camp - better and more important than the testing - was the time spent with the team and the coaching staff. I had good conversations with all of the coaches, and Kris and I had several really good planning sessions with Pete. It was really good to compare notes and to confirm that all three of us have identified the same areas for improvement next year. There are no regrets about the way things went this past season, but there’s clearly room for improvement and we’ve got a really clear idea about how that needs to happen.

Kris is now taking a short break. The last month has been insane for him. On March 4th he was in Japan, having just finished the hardest 50K effort he’s ever had. He had a nagging virus at the time, and had to leave at 4:30 the next morning to fly to Lahti. He raced three successive weekends in Scandinavia, including another tough 50K at Holmenkollen. Then he flew home in time to travel up to Presque Isle to win two more National Championships, including yet another 50K (this one wasn’t as tough). On April 3rd he flew to Utah, and on April 4th, one month after his last race at World Championships, he was on roller skis at the Olympic oval in Salt Lake for velocity testing. So, yeah, he’s taking a bit of a break. He’ll hang out with his girlfriend for a while, and start cranking up training in the second half of this month. By the beginning of May he’ll be training better than 20 hours a week. Last May was an 80 hour month. This May will most likely be more than that.

At the end of the testing camp Kris said that he thought the camp sucked. Testing camps always suck. But he also said that he’s never started a training year as happy with his coaching staff and teammates as he is now. That counts for a lot.