Race Ready

Olympic silver medalist Gus Schumacher joins Race Ready to break down the training, racing, and lessons that have shaped his progression into one of the best cross-country skiers in the world. Gus takes us inside his preparation for the 2026 Olympics, including altitude training, managing the long taper into the Games, and the strategy behind his team sprint silver medal with Ben Ogden. He also explains why one of his biggest focuses is learning to ski fast with less effort and how efficiency under fatigue can be the difference when a race comes down to the final kilometer.We also dive into one of the biggest lessons of Gus’s career: more training isn’t always better. After years of chasing 1,000-hour training seasons, huge volume weeks, and the feeling that being tired meant he was getting faster, Gus began to realize he was chronically carrying too much fatigue. Cutting his training dramatically gave him more energy, higher-quality intensity, and room to actually absorb the work. We talk about the warning signs of overtraining, finding the right sustainable load, and why athletes can become “addicted to being tired.”Finally, Gus shares how his relationship with training has evolved as he’s gotten older and taken more ownership of his career. We discuss athlete-coach collaboration, understanding the “why” behind a training plan, using technique as a gauge of fatigue, building race-specific intensity, and developing confidence from years of successful training and racing. It’s a wide-ranging conversation about what high-performance training really looks like when the goal isn’t simply to do more but to arrive at the start line capable of doing more.

What does it actually take to develop the next generation of American cross-country skiers? U.S. Ski Team Development Coach Lizzie Larkins joins Andy to break down the current development system, from junior clubs and REG camps to the National Development Group and eventually the U.S. Ski Team. Lizzie shares what she has learned traveling around the country working with developing athletes and why the pathway to the highest levels of the sport is rarely as linear as it appears.The conversation dives into the training itself, including where American juniors are improving and where there is still work to be done. Lizzie discusses the importance of technique, why young athletes need to make smart and gradual increases in training load, and why simply doing more isn't always the answer. Drawing on her background in nutrition and food science, she also explains why developing athletes likely need to eat more than they think, the importance of building a strong nutritional foundation before worrying about supplements, and her simple philosophy: “rocket ships need rocket fuel.”Finally, Lizzie challenges the idea of an athlete development “pipeline” and offers a different way to think about long-term development. From missing team selections and navigating college skiing to finding different routes through the sport, she explains why camps and teams should be viewed as opportunities rather than endpoints. It’s a conversation about training, coaching, community, and creating an environment where athletes can stay in the sport long enough to discover just how good they can become.

Dani Aravich’s path to becoming a three-time Paralympian is anything but conventional. After walking away from Division I running, Dani built a career in professional sports before a conversation about the Paralympics completely changed her trajectory. She eventually found cross-country skiing and biathlon, learning an entirely new sport as an adult and working her way onto the international stage in both the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games.Dani joins us to talk about the realities of building an aerobic engine later in life, learning the technical demands of cross-country skiing, balancing biathlon and skiing, and figuring out how much training her body can actually absorb. We also dig into burnout, overtraining, the value of patience in endurance development, and an idea that might seem counterintuitive: being happier outside of sport may actually give you a greater capacity to suffer when racing gets hard.But this conversation goes well beyond Dani’s own athletic career. We discuss the future of para Nordic sport, why para athletes benefit from being fully integrated into clubs and national-team environments, and what Olympic and Paralympic athletes can learn from one another. Dani makes the case for seeing para sport not as a separate world, but as an integral part of the high-performance community: where athletes bring the same commitment, sacrifice, pride, and pursuit of excellence to their sport.Learn more about Culxtured at https://culxtured.com/

As race season gets closer, speed training needs to evolve. But going harder isn’t always the answer. In this episode, Brian and Andy break down the difference between true sprinting and training efficiency at speed. They discuss why 30–60 second efforts shouldn’t always be all-out, how staying relaxed can actually make you faster, and why maintaining good technique under speed is one of the most important skills to develop heading into winter.They also dive into the physiology behind short efforts, including how the aerobic and anaerobic systems contribute at 10, 30, 60, and 90 seconds. The conversation explores why even elite sprint skiers need massive aerobic engines, how speed should fit alongside endurance and strength throughout an athlete’s development, and why you shouldn’t wait until an athlete is “fit enough” before teaching them to move fast. Brian and Andy also share practical examples for incorporating short sprints, 30-second speed work, threshold intervals, and pace-project sessions into fall training.Finally, they answer a listener question about scheduling intensity for junior ski clubs, including whether Tuesday/Thursday intensity sessions are too close together, how recovery needs change with age, and how coaches can make the most of limited team training days. Whether you’re a skier trying to sharpen up for winter or a coach building your fall training plan, this episode offers a practical framework for developing speed without simply adding more intensity.Energy System Usage: 10 seconds: 91% anaerobic, 9% aerobic (phosphagen system dominates)20 seconds: 82% anaerobic, 18% aerobic30 seconds: 75% anaerobic, 25% aerobic60 seconds: 58% anaerobic, 42% aerobic (glycolysis peaks then dips)78.6 seconds: 50% anaerobic, 50% aerobic (the equal-split tipping point)Over 90 seconds: Aerobic oxidation takes over as the primary energy sourceAnaerobic and Aerobic Energy System Contribution During Maximal Exercise: A Systematic Review

As summer training gives way to fall, the focus begins to shift from building volume to adding more race-specific intensity. Getting that transition right can be tricky. In this episode, Brian and Andy break down how to introduce more L4 work without sacrificing the aerobic fitness built all summer. They discuss why adding intensity doesn’t necessarily mean dramatically cutting volume, which parts of the training week may need to change, and why the fall can be one of the easiest times of year for athletes to overreach.They also dig into the bigger picture of managing training stress. Hard intervals aren’t the only thing your body has to recover from: school, work, travel, poor sleep, and everyday life all contribute to the total load. Brian and Andy discuss fueling harder training blocks, keeping easy sessions truly easy, monitoring fatigue, and why experienced athletes are often the ones most willing to modify a workout when their body is telling them something different than the training plan.Finally, they tackle listener questions covering rucking for endurance athletes, structuring training for high school cross-country ski teams, balancing technique, intensity, distance, and strength, and how strength training should count toward total annual training hours. It’s a wide-ranging conversation about making smarter training decisions as race season gets closer. The goal isn’t simply to complete the plan, but to absorb the training and get faster.