German triathlete Laura Philipp ditched some winter sun for her training camp and instead headed to the snow for three weeks of solid training, on cross country skis. But what is it about cross country skiing that is so good for training? How hard is it to have a go? What what's it like at the very top level? Norway triathlon coach and keen cross country skier Arild Tveiten gives us the lowdown, Laura talks about growing to fall in love with the sport and 3 x Team GB Olympian Andrew Young gives us the perspective from the very top.

You'll hear:

05:35 Start of the interview with Arild Tveiten who explains the popularity of cross country skiing in Norway, why it's so good for endurance athletes and the two different types you can do.

16:00 Laura Philipp talks about the sport 'I'm not very good at.' She recalls her first time on cross country skis. "It was the worst experience of my life. My heart rate was at max, I didn't feel any kind of enjoyment."

But she has grown to love it. "It took quite a while and you need to know the technique and then you can enjoy it."

"For the last 3 or 4 years I have been including it in my training plan in winter time. I have been able to do a lot of my base miles on skis. It is a full body workout, so it is a complete body workout and doing a completely new movement pattern is good for my body. I feel for all three disciplines, I benefit from it."

30:40 Laura even ventured into the world of roller skiing, when you can cross country ski on tarmac in the summer. I skated three times a week in the summer during Covid.

39:10 GB Cross country skier Andrew Young talks about growing up in Huntly and how he got started and has gone on to compete at 4 Olympics. He explains that being on a tiny national team has a lot of benefits when it comes to camaraderie and Olympic selection.

50:00 Andrew talks about the ability to push hard in endurance sports, what a roller-ski treadmill test involves and roller-skiing up mountain passes during training (think Alpe d'Huez but on roller skis.)

1:01:05 Dr Greg Potter from Resilient Nutrition talks about new product Switched On.

Find out more about this week's guests

Laura Philipp Instagram

Arild Tveiten Twitter

Andrew Young Instagram

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