Holger bringing in 4th for Norway at the EOC Relay

I had the pleasure of speaking with Holger Hott Johansen at the EOC banquet. I was curious about his training. He told me he trains 650 hours a year, with a goal of 700 this year. He said he trained 20 hours a week during the pre-seasons months (Dec-Mar), most of it low intensity running, with some speed, strength, and bike work. I realised the top guys trained this much, but it always seemed so abstract for some reason. It doesn't seem abstract anymore. He doesn't have rest days.

He asked me how much I trained, and I felt pretty lame admitting to only training 6 hours a week and having 2 rest days a week. It would be an interesting experiment for me to work up to 20 hours a week, and see what happened to my results. Unfortunately, that kind of time simply doesn't exist for me; 6 hours is pushing it now. But so much could be learned.

I wonder what sort of volumes the top guys in the US are putting in. I guess I could look on AttackPoint, but its not something I've ever taken an interest in before. I can't imagine too many folks in the US have the time for this sort of volume.

He also said: You can get fairly far with a modest amount of training, but you really have to step it up to get to the top. This sounded non-linear, or like an 80/20 rule. It seems to make sense tho, at least to me.

He mentioned he was going to try to get to Japan a couple of times before the '05 WOC. His goal is to win gold at WOC. I wish him the best of luck in Sweden, Japan, and beyond.