Today I have decided to follow up on my claim last week that I would be writing about the school schedule here and also add one of my first ski related tidbits. The norwegian (or at least Voss Gymnas) school schedule is based on two key factor: consistency in training and inability to predict what normal school period you have. The school year is divided into alternating A and B weeks with each week following the pattern: Monday full day of school, Tuesday + Thursday training in the morning school in the afternoon, Wednesday school in the morning, and fagdag on Friday. Further each school day is broken into 8 active periods (which they erroneously call "hours" here but are actually 45 min) and 4 ominous looking periods further down on the schedule that go as late as 6:30 (I don't know if there are actually any classes at time so my theory is they put it on the bottom of everyone schedule as a reminder to be good or they can "go there"). My days start at 8:40 and end at 3:20. Now I will give you a rundown of my classes. On the schedule they are all jumbled up like someone played pin the tail on the donkey to create the schedule. Note: All period numbers are per 2 weeks and these are not actual class names but rather an english interpretation trying to capture the spirit of the class more than the exact name.
Training- easily most important class on the schedule and clearly scheduled before the blindfolds came out. 16 periods
Learning about training- basically a class where we read through a book about training and discuss training methods, ideas etc. 5 periods
Be a trainer- class where you team up and spend an hour being a trainer for your class. I was the first one to do this and attempted to teach the class basketball. They were hopeless to the point that it seemed like I am a competent basketball player (my victory over Chibuikem Uche in 1v1 aside). 4 periods
Geography- pretty self explanatory. 3 periods
Norwegian- Like English but in Norwegian. 7 periods
Sport and Community- How sport and community have coexisted over the years (It has Marit Bjørgen on the cover of the textbook). 2 periods
Community- talk about social issues and structure. 5 periods
Language- again self explanatory. 7 periods too many.
Math- 5 periods
Middle Period- Basically an extend lunch period (lunch is otherwise 20 min). 7 periods
Now for my ski related tidbit. This morning was an interval day. The intervals for the day were 5x5min lvl 4 moose hoofs with your rest being how long it took you to get down ("luckily" we were running up switchbacks and someone was kind enough to create a way down the middle) which was between 3 and 3.5 minutes each time. Kristen Skjeldal (you may know him from fasterskier, he's my coach) told us to go a controlled lvl 4. If he meant controlled as maintaining a small spread in finishing place I succeeded, if he meant heart rate well my finishing heart rate for each interval was: 200, 205, 199, 202, 206. As far as intervals are concerned it was definitely in my Hours de Categorie along with the annual lvl 4 skate sufferfest up Brazzers and Tree Tops. What made these intervals truly unique though was the constant presence of Kristen offering pointers to my moose hoofing technique. No, he wasn't doing intervals, I believe he was maximum in level 2 just jogging along following up on everyone's intervals then heading down to the bottom to do it again (he did all 5 and didn't even pretend to look the least bit tired). When we were done he said something along the lines of you guys head back while I get in a real workout. To make a hash of "the quote" by Yoggi Berra, Kristen is 90% lungs and his other half is lungs too. (Luckily) My next period was be a trainer for you classmates class and we did strength.
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