Last summer, Swedish cross-country skiing star William Poromaa incorporated a high-altitude focus into his training. He’s decided to adjust his plan for the upcoming winter season. 

William Poromaa attended a national team training camp last week in Trondheim, Norway, and he showed that he feels good on the tracks where World Championship medals will be awarded from the end of February to early March next year.

Poromaa finished fifth in both the mass start and pursuit races, and in total, he was just 2.2 seconds away from victory in those races. 

“The courses are tough, and building a good training foundation is important during the summer. Additionally, the courses are quite technical with curves. There’s an advantage in having been here at camp. It’s been good to be on-site, both to see the tracks but also to become more ‘familiar’ with the area and the accommodation,” says Poromaa, who last summer chose to spend a large part of his dryland training at high altitude.

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For this year’s dryland season, he has decided to make some adjustments: 

“Last summer, I went to a camp in Livigno quite early in the summer. I felt then that there wasn’t any point in being there so early. I know I get in shape from being at altitude, but that meant I came home in the middle of a tough training period after being at altitude. Then, it’s easy to become ‘too much and too hard’ both at the camp and after returning home. This year, I’ve chosen to postpone everything instead and take the altitude training closer to the season to push my form towards that,” says Poromaa to Langd.se.

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The only high-altitude camp of the dryland season will now instead be the national team camp in Livigno from September 8 to 23: 

“Then there will also be a camp in Seiser Alm before the season starts. I really believe in this plan,” says Poromaa, who did not participate when the national team had a training camp in Åre in June.

The reason was some knee problems: 

“It’s been a bit tough but at the same time under control. I’ve been able to run the whole time, and now I’m running 2.5 hours. But when the camp in Åre took place, it didn’t feel worth the risk to push and do long runs with a lot of downhill. But looking at the training summer as a whole, I’m very satisfied. I’ve been able to train well and consistently for a long time, and I’m really motivated to do the work,” concludes Poromaa.

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