Preseason - Hammer Nutrition

A season on the snow
BY Chad Castren
I
am the coach of North Shore Nordic in
Bigfork, Montana, a junior ski team with
racers 15-18 years of age. In our racing and
training we face many challenges in staying
hydrated, fueled, and healthy. Regardless of the
distance, weather, or course, Hammer Nutrition
products are a crucial part of our practice and
race protocol. HEED is our mainstay drink during
practices and just before and during races, and we
often use Perpetuem as a meal substitute between
races. We also use Recoverite after all practices
and races. This is especially important because the
athletes often don’t get a chance to have a healthy
meal for an hour or more.
The most challenging for these juniors are the
sprint days; they go all out for a 3- to 4-minute
time trial and then wait several hours for the heats
to start. The heats are head-to-head battles with
usually 5-6 skiers per heat. Heats are usually
about 20 minutes apart. We have found that
eating a simple breakfast very early, then sipping
Perpetuem while warming up in the morning and
again between the time trial and heats works well.
In between heats we use either HEED or Hammer
Gel.
Nordic Junior Nationals is a week of competition,
with races every other day. Last year our team
had four athletes who qualified to race at Junior
Nationals for the Pacific Northwest team. It was
an exciting and intense time, but since they were
already comfortable with their fueling protocols,
there was one less variable on race day.
A few members of the North Shore
Nordic team train early season with a
roller ski workout along Flathead Lake.
Photo : Chad Castren