I know this is a strange request but I’m hoping I can get some solid advice here. Other posts I’ve seen seem to ask how to incorporate regular skiing / boarding into a winter training regimen. I’m asking a very different question. I want to know what type of intervals I should emphasize to improve my snowboard fitness before a special trip that will be all boarding for 7-8 days.
I’ll try to explain. I live in KY, and besides the occasional day trip to a local hill when conditions are great, my snowboarding is focused on 1 or 2, week long Western trips a season. That trip is expensive, and it bums me out to start getting sore legs on day 3 or 4 and have to take a day off or back way off on my terrain choices. I want to keep up my cycling off season (base / build) training, but in the month or so before my trip I want to substitute some workouts to try to improve my stamina on the hill.
One thing I thought about doing is what I used to do before I got a smart trainer, lots of leg resistance training. Seems like that would really cut into my cycling fitness so hoping that’s not the best answer. Also thought about just doing more sprint / VO2 work. That seems appropriate as it should increase my power and stamina. My limitation on the hill as the week goes on is just muscle fatigue. Every day is worse than the day before and they start hurting earlier and earlier each day. I’ll have the thumper and Normatecs this year for the first time so hoping they help some in recovery at least. Maybe a cold tub soak every night may help as well instead of the usual hot tub! That would totally freak my family out! They already think I’m crazy.
I would say strength and core training would have more of an impact on helping than any certain interval session.
Good endurance ( upping cycling volume) with cycling ( running might even be better) and strong legs/core would be what I would attack for snowboard fitness.
I don’t know about snowboarders/snowboarding specifically, but downhill skiers are quite aerobically fit.
I agree which is why I mentioned having good endurance. The leg fatigue can also come from using different muscles groups compared to cycling.
Being well fit in the gym with good endurance is a start. IMO
I’m just getting back into snowboarding after a long time off. Last time I regularly snowboarded, I was not yet a cyclist. I’m in far better shape now, but I am absolutely shocked how sore I am after a day on the slopes. It reminds me of my ill-fated experiments with running!
That happy combination of novel stimulus and suboptimal execution. 