The Finnish cross-country skier Remi Lindholm is known as an athlete who is fearless in training. The 25-year-old skier trains an enormous number of hours to build an endurance base that will keep him from being down as the years go by. This article looks closely at Remi’s training this summer and in general.

Over a year, Remi wears out the wheels on his roller skis and running shoes for around 1200 hours. During the dryland training season, the weekly totals hover around 30 hours, with about half roller skiing and the other half running. 

“The summer training was pretty similar to last year,” Lindholm says to Maastohiihto.com.

The national team athlete said he trained from May to July in Vuokatti, where the renovated cross-country track has served as a great training ground. The hilly terrain has ensured sufficiently efficient training, and there has been enough uphill. The Porttivaara run in Vuokatti has also served as a sound running track alongside roller skiing.

In addition to Vuokatti, Remi sought volume and variety in his training in Ylläs, where he went in mid-July with Miro Karppanen. There, the pair had their most brutal training week of the summer.  

“We started with the Taivalkoski roller ski race, a 40 km race on the way to Ylläs. Miro won, and I was seventh. From there, we went to Ylläs and stayed there for ten days. There was quite a lot of running and roller skiing. All days were hard, on average, seven hours per day. We trained twice daily, and there was also a 150km session on the last day.”

The skier uses running as both a basic endurance workout and a strength workout. In the summer, he runs without poles, and in the autumn, his runs become more pole-based.

“Basic running as a power workout can be 5x2km on an anaerobic threshold or 3x5km uphill at endurance pace,” Remi says.

The athlete reflects, saying he has no real training philosophy or format. His weeks are pretty much the same, with long sessions and strength training in the same week. 

“I’ve found that the more and harder you train, the better you do in races. I’ve been training more for three years now, and it’s been a steady increase. At some point, you must come up with something more because you can’t really increase the amount of training anymore. I have yet to think about what I should do in the future. It’s likely to increase some strength, and it’s also possible to reduce the quantities a bit. That could be the next bust. At 25, there’s no need to lower the volumes and increase the power, but at some point, yes.

The athlete, who puts in a lot of hard work weeks, admits that he is often at his physical and mental limits during the summer season. However, all training is aimed at ensuring that the skis run smoothly enough in winter.

“The competition season is easier for me than the training season when I’m tired all the time. In winter, when you lighten up a bit and do harder intervals, you get fitter. Then you just need to focus on the next weekend. It’s nice to be in the winter after training in the summer and just trying to get results.” 

Talking about hard training, the interview moves naturally to long-distance skiing and Ski Classics, a sport that requires long-term effort.

“I’ve been following Ski Classics, and I’d probably do the same training as the skiers in that sport if the distances were 100km. In traditional cross-country skiing, you ski 10km, so it’s not the best way to train like the Ski Classics guys. I probably train as much as them in terms of volume. If I were doing that sport, I’d have to do even longer double poling training and longer intervals alongside it. I would have to ski for four hours and then do the intervals.” 

In our previous article, Remi admitted that Ski Classics is the final stage of his career. He wants to ski another ten years of long-distance skiing after his World Cup career. It’s not time yet, but the amount of training and the solid endurance base will allow him to reach the top in this sport, too. For now, the young athlete is firmly set on next winter’s World Cup and climbing to the top of the world rankings. 

Read More: Remi Lindholm combines the charisma of ski legends of the past with the edge of a new era