Spice Up Your Winter SkiErg Training

One of the best features of Concept2 ergs (ski or rowing) is that they accurately measure the work you’re doing. In addition, the flywheel calibrates itself on every rundown to take ambient conditions into account, so someone at altitude can compare their erg time with someone at sea level, regardless of the weather and environmental conditions.

What’s so great about this? It means you can race! You can compare your times and distances with friends and competitors in another state, country or continent. It also makes the SkiErg a great tool for tracking your training progress by comparing your performance for a certain workout from one time to the next.

Do you have a competitive streak? Or do you just want to make your workouts more interesting? We invite you to try the following challenges—there are some for individuals and some for teams:

• 100 Meter Dash: Pre-set the Performance Monitor for a 100 meter distance. The meters will count down to zero, and your total time will be displayed at the end.
   
• 1 Minute Max Meters: Pre-set the Performance Monitor for a 1 minute time. The time will count down to zero, and your total meters will be displayed at the end.
   
• Mixed Team 2k Relay: Pre-set the Performance Monitor for a 2000m distance. Gather some friends—two men and two women per team. Rotate through in order, with each team member skiing as long as they can maintain their goal pace, then switch on the fly. The meters will count down to zero, and your elapsed time will be displayed at the end.
   
• 1000 Meter Individual Sprint: Pre-set the Performance Monitor for a 1000m distance. This is an indoor version of the standard Nordic sprint.

Check out the online rankings and the SkiErg Sprints results.

Sprinkle some of these challenges into your winter training schedule to spice things up and keep it fun.