Seven Dryland Challenges to Keep It Fresh

After 37 Birkebeiner races under my belt, one fact is crystal clear: a skier better love dryland training. The basics for dryland fitness ski training really don’t change.  But every year our options for seasonal training can feel completely fresh. It’s all about attitude and understanding that being a cross country skier means 70% of our training is dryland, so let’s love it!

This could be the season you lean more heavily into rollerskiing, or decide this is the summer of strength, or let the gravel bike dominate your weekends. You cross train. You experiment. You rediscover old favorites. This is the joy that skiing delivers — the motivation to have fun training all summer and fall, so that when the snow finally arrives, you're ready.

Therefore, every avid skier learns to embrace the full spectrum of training that supports their on-snow habit. The goal is to enthusiastically embrace all the activities available to those who love the outdoors, endurance sports, and snow.

You will not find anything new in this list of seven summer and fall activities. They develop fitness, they're fun, and they deliver a variety of technical skills that transfer directly to the ski trail. The best part? Year-round cross-training as a skier significantly reduces our risk of overuse injuries.

1. Triathlon

Swim, bike, and run training have the potential to absorb all of a skier's off-season time. For me, triathlon training played a big part in developing my overall body fitness that skiing demands. Lake swimming delivers the great outdoor feeling directly while building serious upper-body strength through the lats, shoulders, and core. Road bike riding develops powerful quad strength and sustains aerobic capacity, while running does what running always does: it's weight-bearing, aerobically taxing, and it builds deep leg strength transferable to skiing. Triathlon is a complete package.

2. Mountain Biking

Mountain biking is arguably the most joyful of all outdoor in-the-woods activities — it demands total presence, rewards technical skill, and takes you deep into the trails you might otherwise never explore. Benefits go well beyond fitness. Navigating roots, rocks, drops, and switchbacks trains balance, reactive coordination, and split-second decision-making that mirrors skiing through variable terrain. The leg power you build — particularly in the glutes, hamstrings, and quads — translates directly to powerful kick and explosive skating strides. And the core stability required to handle technical terrain? That type of ski fitness development is way more fun than sit-ups  

3. Gravel Biking

Gravel biking for skiers sits beautifully between road cycling and mountain biking.  This type of cycling may be the most practical and versatile. Gravel bikes are built to roam: fire roads, forest paths, quiet country lanes, crushed limestone trails. You can cover enormous distance and rack up significant elevation gain while staying almost entirely off pavement and traffic.  You can build exceptional aerobic volume and the long, sustained efforts mirror the demands of a classic ski marathon well. Gravel riding also pairs well with the social side of skiing.  The community of gravel cyclists tends to be warm, adventurous, and inclusive, much like the Nordic ski world. Group rides, gravel events, and bikepacking overnights add a dimension of adventure that keeps training fun all summer.

4. Running — Trail or Road

Running never goes out of style for skiers. It is the most accessible, time-efficient, and transferable endurance activity available to us. Put on your shoes and go. No gear, no trails required (though trails make it far more fun). Road running builds raw aerobic capacity and leg durability. Trail running adds a layer of lateral stability, proprioception, and focused footwork that maps directly onto skiing technique. Intensity uphill running mirrors the aerobic demands of climbing a long ski course. Running easy on flat terrain builds the base aerobic foundation that underlies all of skiing. Specifically, running with poles transforms the ‘run’ into a remarkably ski-specific exercise. The weight-bearing nature of running also supports bone density in a way that cycling cannot, making it a critical complement to the rest of your dryland mix.

5. Pole Hiking (Ski Rucking)

Pole hiking — or ski rucking, as I call it — may be the most underrated activity on this entire list. It may also be the most directly ski-specific thing you can do when there's no snow on the ground. Using your classic (or shorter) ski poles on trail hikes recruits the same push-and-plant mechanics you use in classic poling and double-poling. Your triceps, lats, core, and shoulders all engage. Add a weighted pack for a challenging total-body workout that can be done with friends while… trading stories! (Most of the time.) For us older skiers or anyone managing joint issues that make running difficult, pole hiking is a revelation. You can train for hours and cover beautiful terrain, Many elite Nordic skiers incorporate extensive pole hiking — particularly uphill — as their primary late-summer training mode.

6. Rollerskiing

Rollerskiing is the closest thing to skiing without snow, period. It is the gold standard of dryland ski-specific training, and if you aren't doing it, you are leaving technical development on the table. Classic rollerskis replicate the kick-and-glide mechanics of classic skiing and develop specific arm strength. Skate rollerskis, the most popular style of rollerskis build the lateral push, edge control, and timing that define the skate technique. Both develop (sometimes with the help of coaching) the same balance, rhythm, and coordination that you spend all winter refining on snow. The carryover is direct and immediate. Those who skip it often spend the first few weeks of the ski season just getting their ski legs back. Rollerskiing requires investment in equipment and a safe paved surface, and the learning curve on skates can be humbling. But once you're comfortable, rollerskiing can become one of the most important activities in your dryland toolkit.

7. Strength Training

Every other activity on this list builds cardiovascular fitness, coordination, and sport-specific endurance. Strength training builds the foundation that makes all of it more powerful and durable. For skiers, the key areas are the core, glutes, hip flexors, upper back, and triceps — the muscle groups that generate force in every skiing movement. A well-designed strength program doesn't have to be complicated or time-consuming. Two to three sessions per week through the off-season, focused on functional movements — squats, deadlifts, lunges, rows, pull-ups, planks — will make a measurable difference in your skiing by December. Strength training also plays a critical role in injury prevention. Stronger hips protect your knees. A strong core protects your lower back. Greater overall resilience means you can handle more training volume across all seven of these activities without breaking down. Don't treat strength training as the boring obligation at the end of a long dryland to-do list. Treat it as the infrastructure that holds everything else up.

Enjoy your off-season and put it to use, staying fit in the most fun ways possible. For me it’s never about waiting for winter. It is about learning to love the whole year of training.