Performing at an elite level in Nordic combined (NC) requires both the explosiveness required for ski jumping performance and the endurance capacity required for cross-country skiing.
To describe the characteristics of world-class NC athletes' training and determine how endurance and non-endurance (ie, strength, power, and ski jumping) training is periodized.
Annual training characteristics and the periodization of endurance and non-endurance training were determined by analyzing the training diaries of 6 world-class NC athletes.
Of 846 ± 72 annual training hours, 540 ± 37 h were endurance training, with 88.6% being low-, 5.9% moderate-, and 5.5% high-intensity training. While training frequency remained relatively constant, the total training volume was reduced from the general preparatory to the competition phase, primarily due to less low- and moderate-intensity training (P