Alfred Buskqvist takes the step toward the world’s elite with data-driven training

Following athletes all the way to their full potential is what drives us at Skisens. This season, we have had the privilege of working extra closely with Alfred Buskqvist.
After previously being a solid skier with high speed and a focus on the green sprint jersey, Alfred has taken the step this year to become a contender for top positions in major races. This weekend, he achieved a personal best with a sixth-place finish in the Grand Classics race Jizerská Padesátka, where he was also the best Swedish skier.

The Road to the World’s Elite

What is the secret behind the small but decisive difference in capacity required for this step? Behind the breakthrough lies a clear change in how Alfred trains.
– Before the season, I wanted to take the final step toward the world’s elite. With my background in sports science and my experience as a test leader at the National Winter Sports Centre in Östersund, I wanted to work more systematically and measurably with my training, says Alfred.

In the spring, he therefore contacted Mattias Reck, who has previously worked with athletes such as Max Novak, Lina Korsgren, and Ida Dahl, but who is best known in the training world for his work with cyclists at the absolute world-class level.

Power Measurement as a Foundation

Together with Skisens, they have carried out development work throughout the summer and autumn to measure external power across different types of training sessions. Skisens is the first on the market with power measurement (watts) for skiing, which in cycling is the gold standard and a given in all types of training. This makes it easy to control training load in individual sessions, as well as to monitor development over time and ensure optimal training intensity.

– Power measurement makes it much easier to control training correctly, both during hard intervals and easy endurance sessions. And perhaps most importantly: maintaining an optimal dose over time. It’s not about training more, but smarter, explains Alfred.

Mattias highlights Alfred’s training commitment as a decisive factor.
– Alfred has a rare combination of high training capacity, strong mental endurance, and deep knowledge of his own body. When working with this type of athlete, it becomes especially important to optimize training over time to find the right balance. With power measurement, we can work more precisely with intensity, recovery, and progression.

With Skisens, it becomes possible to use the same “language” across all training – whether sessions are done on SkiErg, treadmill, or outdoors. The Skisens training platform also simplifies communication between athlete and coach, where planning, monitoring, and analysis are integrated into one coherent workflow.

Heat Training as a New Element

One of the new elements in Alfred’s development is heat training, an area that has grown rapidly within endurance sports in recent years. Here, the team has chosen a long-term and balanced strategy.

– It’s important not to do too much too early. Heat training places high demands on the body and can quickly become more harmful than beneficial if not carefully monitored. Here, power measurement has been invaluable for us – by measuring watts in every session, we can ensure the load stays at the right level, even under heat stress. We work in periods of higher dosage followed by weeks of maintenance. The goal is sustainable development, not shortcuts, says Mattias.

A Shared Development Journey

Skisens CEO Johan Höstrand describes the collaboration with Alfred as a joint development effort.
– Working with elite athletes like Alfred helps develop our company. Our role is to provide tools that make it easier to understand training and monitor how the body responds over time, regardless of training environment. This creates a shared foundation for dialogue between athlete and coach, where planning, follow-up, and analysis are integrated into one system.

– No one becomes better simply by using a new tool. It is the deeper insight gained from training with watts that is key. With our smart ski grips, athletes now carry this capability into every session, easily monitored via a Garmin training watch. Combined with our analysis tools and training diary, it becomes easy to track progress through reference sessions, tests, and long-term training data, says Johan.

He also emphasizes that the collaboration is mutual.
– Much of our development is based on feedback from athletes and coaches who use the system daily. Alfred’s and Mattias’s experiences help us see what truly works in practice and what can be improved. In this way, their journey also becomes part of ours.

For Skisens, Alfred’s journey is an example of how data-driven and research-based training can help more athletes take the next step – whether the goal is the world’s elite or a personal best in a long-distance race.

Train Smarter – at Every Level

– Training like a professional isn’t about training more and harder, but about understanding your training better. When you know how hard you’re actually working, it becomes much easier to improve, says Alfred.

Mattias, with his experience of coaching both elite athletes and recreational skiers, adds:
– In the end, we all have limited resources for training. For elite athletes, the limit is often how much and how hard the body can tolerate. Recreational athletes, for example those aiming to complete Vasaloppet or Vätternrundan, are more often limited by time. For both, watts become a tool to ensure that available training time is used as efficiently as possible.

He also points out a particularly challenging group:
– The most ambitious recreational athletes. They are often willing to invest a lot of time, but due to work and family rarely get sufficient recovery. Here, it is especially important to be careful so that training does not become destructive. In these cases, watts and systematic monitoring are crucial for finding the right balance between load and recovery.