A Weissensee training schedule: take these sessions as an example
This Weissensee training schedule gives you an overview of sessions as an example for your own preparation. That is how you get yourself ready for the Alternative Dutch 11-City Tour in January. It takes dedication.
Schedules sometimes distinguish between sessions on the basis of recreational skaters' goals. But that distinction lies more in things like strength and jump exercises and endurance training off the ice.
Because the fittest and strongest tour skaters mainly add to those extra sessions. If you look purely at sessions on the ice, many different levels follow comparable schedules. This is the basis:
An average Weissensee training schedule
- Skate twice a week. Twice 60 to 100 minutes, for instance, or around 100 laps.
- One endurance session outdoors per week at low intensity; you can build up to 2, 3 or 4 hours on the bike.
- Peak three times on the bike in the 10 weeks before the tour: in week 10, week 7 and week 4 beforehand.
- Peak three times on skates in the 9 weeks before the tour: in week 9, week 6 and week 3 beforehand.
In those three peak weeks you can skate up to 225, 250 or 275 laps, with resurfacing breaks in between. On the bike you touch 4 to 6 hours three times. In the weeks between you train ‘normally’.
By keeping ‘normal’ weeks in between you avoid wearing yourself out. Make sure there are rest days between skating sessions too. Skate on Tuesday and Friday, say, or Wednesday and Saturday.
In the first case you cycle on Sunday and in the second on Monday. That way your body always has a day or two to recover. And you get going again in time to maintain muscle strength.
Practise skating in trains regularly once you have a reasonable grip on skating. On the Weissensee you depend heavily on trains to keep going for 200 km.
Sessions for beginners
For the essential technique you need skating lessons with other recreational skaters in a class. On top of that, skate one evening a week purely to put in the distance. Because that is needed too.
Build gradually to 100 laps a week. The advantage of sticking to a set number of laps is that you start to notice the effect of the lessons. If all goes well, you do those 100 laps a little faster each time.
And those 100 laps are a kind of yardstick. Anyone who skates 100 laps in 100 minutes is, in theory, fast enough for the Weissensee. Our editorial team has tested this seven times.
Managing that 100 in 100 is no guarantee that it will work out in Austria, of course. Outdoors everything is different, the wind above all. Which is why it matters so much to cycle really long distances in the open air.
A Weissensee schedule: for fit, keen skaters
- Skate twice a week. Twice 60 to 90 minutes, for instance, or around 125 laps.
- One or two endurance sessions a week, on the bike, outdoors, partly intensive. The second one at full effort for 90 minutes, for instance.
- Press-ups and skipping once a week, 100 of each to start with, building slowly to 300.
- Peak three times on the bike in the 10 weeks before the tour: in week 10, week 7 and week 4 beforehand.
- Peak three times on skates in the 9 weeks before the tour: in week 9, week 6 and week 3 beforehand.
Adding press-ups and skipping makes you stronger and fitter still. Which means you can take even more. You gain in confidence and motivation. Bring it on.
On the rink you always look for trains, or buses, whatever you want to call them. The challenge is to keep stimulating your muscles. Try different trains. See whether you can go a little faster.
Worth knowing
This is purely an example of a Weissensee training schedule and so not a ‘sacred’ document. What works very well for one person may work less well for another.
So treat this schedule purely as inspiration, and perhaps as an indication for your own efforts. No rights or obligations can be derived from it.
Following a schedule is at your own risk and offers no guarantees. As a beginner, consider finishing the Weissensee Prestatietocht first, at 100 km. Going straight for 200 km is remarkably demanding.
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Magical ice between the mountains. Oases that are a feast for the eyes under the sun. Team dionvacation is made up of recreational skaters and sun lovers, people who savour life. We share that zest for life from the Weissensee all the way to the Catalan coast. The holiday home ‘Vida Daurada’ (the golden life) suits that lifestyle, between mountains and sea. All articles are written by our own travel editors. Vida Daurada sponsors the Sun destination section.