Finnish long-distance skier, Noora Kivikko from Team Edux, looks forward to the Ski Classics Season XIV with grand ambitions. With several top 20 placings from Season XII and a career-best 12th place from Jizerská Padesátka in 2019, Kivikko looks to improve that placement in the upcoming season.

Kivikko tells about her summer training, training camps with Team Edux, and how she combines work and competitive skiing.

Summer training has gone well with lots of double poling and a few rollerski competitions in the program, while training camps with Team Edux have offered a great opportunity to ski with a group and do harder workouts:

“We have had two training camps so far, one in Åland and another one in Vuokatti, with a focus on training together as a group. Also, intensity training and that has been great. I have used a little easier wheel resistance on my rollerskis than the guys, and like that, it has been really good training.”

Kivikko says that training camps offer an important opportunity for group skiing and intensity workouts as she trains a lot alone at home in Lahti.

“It has been a good summer, we have good conditions for training here in Lahti but there are not so many other (female) skiers in my area or Finland overall who will come and ski 50km double poling training just like that, so training camps have been a good opportunity to do group skiing.”

Besides being a Pro Tour skier, Kivikko works as a science education specialist and Ph.D. researcher at the University of Helsinki. She has recently returned to work after a six-week holiday and says that when the work affects the volume she can put in, it brings her a needed balance, and combining work and competitive skiing is mainly an organizational and scheduling matter.

“I try to do my workouts in the mornings and work in the evenings. Of course, I cannot train as much, and my work gives “frames” when and how much I can train, but I enjoy working, and working remotely has made combining training and work more flexible. If I was only skiing, I think it would be too much. I am used to scheduling and organizing, and our team director Eric Storvall calls me ‘the ninja of organization,’” Kivikko laughs.

For the Fall, Noora has some training camps planned both with Team Edux and with her club Lahden Hiihtoseura, and when the snow comes, she plans to do her own camp somewhere in Finland based on the snow conditions.

When talking about winter, Kivikko says that she will compete both in Ski Classics but also in Finland.

“I think I will compete in about 7-10 races in Ski Classics, probably not all. I want to do better than the top 12 in some competitions, but everything needs to go well. Then, I also want to do some races in Finland; we have a good relay team at my club. Maybe, however, I will not compete for as much as last winter when I skied all National Championships races, many national races and quite many Ski Classics starts as well.”