This is anotehr of those rumors of the "Joe Falcon once benched 300 pounds" variety that needs substatiation. Did Cross Country skier Bjorn Daehlie really once enter a small European track meet during the summer and run 29:50 for 10k? I have heard this several times but have never seen it verified.
Brian wrote:
This is anotehr of those rumors of the "Joe Falcon once benched 300 pounds" variety that needs substatiation. Did Cross Country skier Bjorn Daehlie really once enter a small European track meet during the summer and run 29:50 for 10k? I have heard this several times but have never seen it verified.
I'd be surprised if he did. Not that he couldn't, he's one of the greatest aerobic talents of all time, just that I'd be surprised if he put in the training to do it. Then again, I wonder how much it would take for him to get there. Probably not a lot. He was awesome to watch.
I checked the Norwegian Athletic Federation homepage and Daelie´s 10 000 PB was 30,31.
His wikipedia page claims he has the highest VO2 max ever recorded at 96ml/kg/min.
He was too heavy to become a world class runner. Once he competed against Thonas Alsgaard at the bislett games over 800m. He ran around 2min flat.
Nordic skiing = power/endurance. Surely, if he wanted to train to break 30 he could have, but as said before, too heavy and too much muscle mass, but perfect for climbing hills. A true freak of nature.
Given that his specialty was the 50K you'd think he'd be a better marathoner than 10K runner. The guy must have had one hell of a lactate threshold. But again, even on the most aggressive diet he would have been unlikely to get under 150 lbs so world elite would have been a very long shot.
He was pretty typical size for an elite nordic guy. Most of them just have a nice build of functional muscle, although the sport does see some fairly heavily muscled dudes getting good results. At the same time it sees plenty of "runner-type builds" doing well, too. If he had trained running he would have thinned to a runners build. No doubt he would have gone sub-30 and been a terrific marathoner. These days Bjorn is a middle-aged guy with a pretty soft looking mid-section! He'd probably run around 35 flat tomorrow...
Wørd wrote:
Given that his specialty was the 50K you'd think he'd be a better marathoner than 10K runner. The guy must have had one hell of a lactate threshold. But again, even on the most aggressive diet he would have been unlikely to get under 150 lbs so world elite would have been a very long shot.
Skiing puts a higher emphasis on VO2 over longer time/distance than running would over a comparable time/distance. So though his specialty was the 50K that distance likely has a physiological profile more similar to running a 20K than running a 50K.
Also, back then rollerskis didn't exist so what do you do when there's no snow? Besides lots of dryland form drills, you run and maybe row some crew. So they got in considerably more running than modern cross-country skiers would.
I have no proof of this story, but it seems very plausible.
Bjorn is one of the great nordic talents of all time. I don't know if he broke 30 minutes, but I bet at his peak, as others mentioned, he'd be close. I saw him at a ski marathon last winter and I got goosebumps when he walked in the room. He's got "it" and he'll always be one of my favorites.
TK1451 wrote:
Wørd wrote:Given that his specialty was the 50K you'd think he'd be a better marathoner than 10K runner. The guy must have had one hell of a lactate threshold. But again, even on the most aggressive diet he would have been unlikely to get under 150 lbs so world elite would have been a very long shot.
Skiing puts a higher emphasis on VO2 over longer time/distance than running would over a comparable time/distance. So though his specialty was the 50K that distance likely has a physiological profile more similar to running a 20K than running a 50K.
.
You obviously have no idea what the measurement for VO2 is used for....frigin idiot you are.
If by "back then roller skis did not exist" you mean during Daehlie's career, roller skis certainly did exist. Daehlie spent hundredsof hours training on roller skis.
Dahlie was not a 50K specialist. The 50K might have been his best event but he skied all distances well.
I've heard that nordic skiers test higher because they take the VO2 test on skis, which use much more of the body and so increase VO2 use.
devon kershaw wrote:
Bjorn is one of the great nordic talents of all time. I don't know if he broke 30 minutes, but I bet at his peak, as others mentioned, he'd be close. I saw him at a ski marathon last winter and I got goosebumps when he walked in the room. He's got "it" and he'll always be one of my favorites.
Is this the real Devon Kershaw? Good luck with the Tour de Ski!
Daehlie´s pb´s on track running:
8.17 (3000m)
9.01 (steeples)
14.25 (5k)
30.30 (10k)
He has said that he could run 30.30 on his own and in windy weather, but he claimed that his running technique wasn´t good enough to run under 30.
Wørd wrote:
Given that his specialty was the 50K you'd think he'd be a better marathoner than 10K runner. The guy must have had one hell of a lactate threshold. But again, even on the most aggressive diet he would have been unlikely to get under 150 lbs so world elite would have been a very long shot.
I would rather say that the 50k was his worst event. He took 7 individual golds, 2 of which was in the 50k (in Nagano he tired completely in the end of the race and only won by 8 seconds).
He took 19 individual medals, 5 of which was in the 50k.
You also have to remember that the physiology of skiing and running is completely different. A high Vo2max is the most important physiological factor, together with pure endurance in XC skiing. I was watching when Charlotte Kalla and Anders Södergren was doing a Vo2max test last September, and they both told me that the primary goal of the summer training was to elevate Vo2max as much as possible. In XC you don´t hold a fairly even intensity, like you do in running. A XC ski race, even a 50k, is more like a fartlek.
What was Ulvaang's best? He was a bit more slender, 5'10" 160 or so. Probably a fast runner.
Another norwegian top skier, Anders Aukland has a personal best of 29.45.82. He is norwegian champ on 10k also and has run 5k under 14min and steeples about 8.50.
U.N.O, tell me what you know about that guy.
rainrunner wrote:
If by "back then roller skis did not exist" you mean during Daehlie's career, roller skis certainly did exist. Daehlie spent hundredsof hours training on roller skis.
Good call, apparently they were invented ~1982, I had thought it was late 80s, closer to 1990.
