May 12, 2012 (Riksgransen, Sweden) – May 8th put an end to the holidays for the Sweden’s cross-country skiers. The squad kicked off the pre-season training in Riksgransen.  We have started with some combined with easy running and strength workouts,  Sweden’s coaches Rikard Grip and Arild Monsen.

Even though summer weather has arrived in central Sweden, there is still winter up in the north. When the team checked in at the Riksgransen Hotel earlier this week there was still one meter of snow.  ”The snow conditions are very good. The grooming machine has prepared 20km of tracks that go through a breath-taking mountain terrain,” said Grip.

The camp in Riksgransen is the so-called  voluntary camp  and it is not featuring high intensity workouts. Four ladies including Charlotte Kalla and Hanna Falk and six men with Teodor Peterson, Anders Soeedergren or Marcus Hellner are taking part and  We are taking a relatively smooth kick off in the training season. “We have time to review technique, test skis and have a chat with the athletes before we proceed with harder training sessions later on,” Grip explained.

The first compulsory training camp of the season is taking place on Mallorca from May 20th-27th.

Training camps in 2012
– May 07-13 – Riksgransen
– May 20-27 – Mallorca
– July 24-June 1 – Orsa
– Aug. 6.-15 – Torsby/Salen
– Sept. 3.-12 – Swedish mountains
– Oct. 3.-24 – Middle Europe