Prevously I've always found it difficult to stick to a training schedule so this time I'm focusing on three things to change that pattern. 

Regular group activities

Firstly I've committed to some regular group activities every week to make a change from training on my own.  I do a 1.5 hour classic roller ski training session every Wednesday evening in Hyde Park organised by the Roller Ski Co  and I lead my own 1.5 hour nordic walking session on Saturdays.  Most people going to the roller ski session are also planning to do ski races and two are doing the Vasaloppet encouraged by their Swedish partners.

Recording my training

It's all too easy to think that you've done a good week's training but logging acitivity against your schedule reveals the truth.  For the first three weeks I've just about hit the total of 10 hours per week - seeing my weekly progress in black and white did push me out on the streets to clock up more minutes.

Quality sessions

Living in London where you have to seek out hills it's all too easy to run or roller ski at the same easy pace.  And I was certainly guilty of that.  This time I'm including at least two interval and hill sessions a week - the target is 4 x 4 minute intervals and I'm some way off that so far, but hey you've got to start somewhere ...  I'm also using a heart rate monitor to check the effort I'm putting in.  There's a good article,  Key Interval Workouts To Do Now on Fasterskier.com  which explains the principles.

None of this is rocket science but all these things are helping.  Next week will be difficult as I'll be away for three days with little opportunity for training.  I've decided not to get stressed out about this, if I can get three quality sessions in that will keep me going.