The 36-year-old Petter Northug ended his professional skiing career in 2018. But the desire to compete returned, and now he is in full swing with preparations for the winter comeback, this time with a focus on the Ski Classics circuit.

On Sunday, he did his first 15-kilometer race in over four years:

“It was “absolutely awful,” the last fifteen kilometers I raced was in 2018,” Northug says after Sunday’s race in Trollhättan (where he finished 59th, three minutes behind the winner Max Novak).

What was the difficulty with the distance? Finding the starting speed?

“Well, the problem is that I don’t have any speed, so the starting speed itself wasn’t the problem,” smiles Northug, who has frequently been competing lately.

During the last week or so, Northug raced at Inge Bråten Memorial in Sunne; a sprint in Trysil; the long-distance race at Toppidrettsveka on Thursday last week, and then Alliansloppet’s long-distance race last Saturday (where he was 22nd, eleven seconds from victory) and Sunday’s 15-kilometer race.

“For me, competition is good training, so it’s perfect to be able to do this. Now I will try to step up the training during autumn to see what the body can withstand. As it is, I’m in okay training shape, but I need more speed and endurance. I need 200 more hours,” says Northug.

And when are you going to accumulate the hours?

 “I’ll get them done during September, October, and November, so we’ll see how the form is in late December. But it’s about building it up gradually. I noticed this summer that I can’t stand as much training as before. I must train smart, but the way I’ve been competing and training now mean I can handle 70-80 hours per month. If I manage to do that, I can have an okay level this winter and then raise a level for next winter,” says Petter Northug.

Will you race the entire Ski Classics already this winter?

“The plan is to get our team in place, and then if the form is okay, the plan is to go to most of the competitions in Ski Classics this winter,” concludes Petter Northug.