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Yaaayyyyyyy!!!!!:D
Okay, so my skis aren't waxed yet, the trails are soft and slow, but I've been out the last 2 days. In a couple of days we should have enough snow for the real grooming to begin, and I plan to wax up the ol' rock skis tomorrow (should make it possible to move them :rolleyes: ). Should be great this weekend. It's been snowing HARD this week!
Anybody else?
Where do you have snow? I am in Bay City, Michigan and its just freaking windy here. Can't wait for the snow - I have to bring our skis out of the shed and get the snowshoes ready.
I'm in Calumet, in the UP. I do believe winter is here, at last.:) My house is about 2 miles from Lake Superior, so we get tons of lake effect snow (well, except for last year). We're in the middle of a storm right now - this morning as I was leaving for work I mentally ran through my winter stuff, and had to go back to the garage and grab my snowshoes (I got caught without them a couple of years ago in a big storm, and vowed never to do that again, after we had to abandon both vehicles 1/4 mile from home).
It's freaking windy here, too, if that helps at all. Tuesday morning our snow was coming down with 60-65mph gusts (okay, not so much "coming down" as "blowing past").
Good luck on your snow - didn't the LP get a bunch over Thanksgiving? I know Gaylord got several inches, and I thought a storm passed to the south?
Here in Bay City we didn't get anything on Thanksgiving. Heard they had snow farther north. This week we were suppose to have snow showers all week long, just got a few flurries. Enjoy the snow. Never been any farther north than the bridge, I know you get alot more snow than we do in the LP.
Our trails were groomed last week, so we did some training after work, then the föhn came from Italy and melted everything :(
My skis are waxed and ready.
Anyone doing any races this season?
Well, I haven't even taken my waxing bench out of storage. :p Maybe I should send my skis to one of you ladies to wax for me!! I think I waxed them at the end of the season, though, so they are probably ready to go. Winter's taking its sweet time getting here, so in order to avoid getting too amped about skiing, I'm leaving it all in the basement until we get enough snow to maybe ski on. That could be this weekend, though I'll be out of town.
No races for me...I'm far too pathethic. I enjoy going out and skating just for the heck of it. :D
Shhh. Don't tell anyone, but we didn't actually put the wax bench away at the end of last season. In fact it took DH several months to get round to removing the klister/pine needle mixture that was sticking to his classic skis.
Citizens' races are quite popular here and there are short ones too (wouldn't like anyone to get the idea that I am a hard-core racer). I'm trying to pick one big one though as our challenge for the winter, maybe the Engadine ski marathon as we did mainly classic last year, so this year skating would be good.
Do any of you train at night? I love skiing through the Bavarian countryside in the evenings - it's always so quiet.
Maybe this week-end in the Blue Mts. of Eastern Oregon!!:)
I am willing to give anyone who can bring a snowy December to Minnesota a $100. Or if they are willing to bring a month of blizzards to DC and tell me so I can bring back my skis, I will give them $150 ( I think that is harder to do). I'm used to snowshoeing and cross country skiing in January/ February in Minnesota. I don't know how I am going to live without it!
Still waiting for the first real snow in southern New England- maybe tonight if it doesn't change to sleet and freezing rain.
I am so excited, as I went to a used x-c ski sale at a ski touring place near us this morning, and came home with a nice pair of barely used Rossignols, some great Salamon boots, and a "beater" pair of Trax skiis, all for $120.00!! Whoo hooo!!!!!!!
The last time I bought skiis was in 1978, I think, and those 3-point toe bindings were fairly new then. Definitely time for something newer!
I did some xc skiing when I was a teenager, and my bike club does it in the winter, so I got myself some skis this week and am ready to go.:D :D
Unfortunately, all the advisories on our xc places recommend rock skis.
I guess my new skis will be rock skis in a coupla years :D :o
Or sooner, if you play your cards right!:p It's so hard to see that first gouge. I got a nice one in my "not quite rock skis, but not my good skis" my first day on them this year. Oh well, those were never going to be fast anyway. I'm totally sick of my actual rock skis, so these will probably take their place anyway.Quote:
I guess my new skis will be rock skis in a coupla years
We now have about 1-1/2 feet of snow on the ground, and all of our xc areas are open. And using the big groomers! I need to get out tomorrow morning, before we leave town for several days (boo hoo!). Won't be doing any skiing downstate. We're supposed to get another 8 inches or so here tomorrow & tomorrow night. It has slowed down quite a bit now, from what it was doing for a couple of weeks.
May you all get a good dumping on soon!:D
I've been out skating twice. The first month is always humbling... no matter how much I've swam/biked/run it never carries over to ski skating. *sigh*
I'm a lazy waxer. I like the stuff I can just roll on and go. No irons and benches for me.
I missssss snow. I wanna go cross country skiing. WHINE, whimper, whimper :(
I just got back from going out with the 3 dogs for a semi-backcountry ski. I say "semi" because the snowmobiles had gotten there first and the trail was packed down.
The dogs loved it! They've been wading through chest deep snow for a week, so this hard packed stuff was a blast. Even my big lazy guy... um, I mean my energy conservationist :p... was running and playing.
We were out for an hour. Now the dogs are lying around exhausted.
But the best part is that it didn't bother my plantar fasciitis! Yay, yay, yay!
In the last few days we have gotten about 20 inches of snow- beautiful fluffly powder, and then a little granular snow/sleet on top. I went out Friday and Saturday and got to use the new skis. It was great, and I worked my butt off breaking a trail through all that snow.
For the first time in years, it looks like we will have lots of snow over the Christmas to New Year's week, which I have off. Yippee!!!!! :D
Yesterday was my first outing with my skis. I had no trails so I had to make my own. It wasn't fun. the snow has a icy coating so I either had to use them like snowshoes or when I got under any momentum, I would come to an abrupt stop as I would sink into a hard spot in the snow. I wish the snowmobilers would go my the house so I could have a trail to go on! Last year a friend let me use his snowmobile to make some trails and that was really nice. I should put a bug in his ear and see what he's doing. I hope the snow sticks around. Calling for warmer weather today and possibly tomorrow.
i've been out skking everyday since I got home. It has been fantastic. My goal is to get all of the skiing out of my system before I have to return to DC.
This is so exciting. We're hosting them locally (and did last year, too). I'm too old, fat & slow to compete, but signed up to work all 4 race days. I touched some Olympians yesterday! I worked in the chipping station yesterday, and I think that is where I'll be tomorrow, too. Last year I was removing chips and sweaty, snotty lycra bibs, which was less pleasant.:rolleyes:
Plus, yesterday I learned just how many layers I need to wear to stay warm when it is 18F with 25-30mph winds. I was sure I'd freeze, so I was really happy (I don't stand around in the cold well). The secret number is 7. Microweight Smartwool tank, 2 microweight Smartwool long sleeve shirts, thin zip-neck, very thick & soft Mtn Hardwear Monkey Woman jacket, wind shell, and knee-length down coat. On the bottom it was microweight Smartwool bottoms, very thick fleece pants (including an extra coating of dog & cat fur), and snow pants. 3 pairs of wool socks, big clompy boots, and my new Mad Bomber hat. Polypro gloves under thick mittens, with handwarmers in mittens and boots. I was actually sweating a little if I moved around much. Guess I'll dress the same tomorrow, since it's supposed to get down to 1F tonight, and be windy all day.
On the down side, ever try dealing with tampons in a porta-potty with that many layers on? NOT FUN.:mad:
Skierchickie, lucky you living in the land of endless snow!
I love the U.P. and and hope to ski my third Bear Chase this year. Hooray for snow! The season is off to a great start!
I'm already over 100 km over my total from this time last year.
It's great to have a fun sport to look forward to in summer and winter :D
Yes, bicycling is nice if there is no snow available for xc skiing . . .
Just finished six days of being able to xc ski every day in the Sierra Nevadas here in California. Pure heaven.
My DH, who'd rather go to a nice warm beach, thinks I'm a "fanatic" because I will ski with a light snow falling:rolleyes: He'd never make it where some of you gals live, would he??
PS: Roadie Gal:
The only thing I've ever found that got me in shape over the summer so I wasn't dying the first couple days of skate-skiing was the one summer I did a whole lot of mountain biking on steep uphills. But that's too painful!
Pyxichick - I am lucky to live here! Sounds like a lot of the midwest has been getting snow this year. Glad you've been racking up the k's! It's too cool that you're a Bear Chase skier. I live 5 miles from Swedetown. Do you ski the long or the short one? I typically do the short one - I always bonk in 50k races (and puke anywhere from 1 hour to 5 hours after), and I haven't done one in a long time. 20-30k seems to be my race distance, but it's hard to train for anything longer than that. 26k is my longest ski so far this year.
I'm really looking forward to working at Nationals tomorrow. It's the individual sprints. It's also supposed to be in the 30s tomorrow and Sunday (with a little rain predicted starting Sunday :mad:), so it shouldn't be too cold.
Caribou & Roadie Gal: I always die the first few days of skate-skiing too (and the first few days of striding, which I managed to get through this week - now I can walk again!). I tend to let my training fall apart in the fall, when it gets cold & rainy and starts getting dark early, so ski season always begins painfully.
Well, next Saturday I'll start helping out with the local kids' ski program, and a couple of weeks later is my first race of the year.
Have a great season, everybody!
Well, my skating boots have never fit quite right despite trying various insert/sock combos. Got fed up after getting bad blisters on top of sucky control, so went into my favorite xc center for new boots. The new second-to-the-top of the line Salomons fit PERFECT. I refused to take them off. But then I needed to switch from NNN bindings to SNS, and of course only the Pilots would do! And you get 15% off each item when you get 3 items instead of just two, and the carbon fiber poles felt SOOOO nice and light . . .
At least this is incentive to get up skiing a lot, to justify this stuff!
PS: The new gear works like a dream. Can't wait to head back up this weekend.
Anybody else indulge themselves lately?
Oooh, that sounds good.
I love my carbon poles, nice and light and they have the nice hand-loops that you just velcro round. Do be aware that they break more easily than aluminium - DH was very glad that he'd insured his with his skis.
Has anyone here tried Start grip-tape on their classic skis? I'd be interested to hear how you got on with it as I'm not terribly happy but I've heard other people raving about it.
Yay for the new equipment! The carbon poles should make a huge difference - not just lighter, but stiffer, too. Years ago my first skating poles were probably the first generation of Swix Alulight. They were sooooo sproingy (in a bad way). Sometimes I still run with them, and they just flex and vibrate. I'm sure the more current aluminum poles are much better, but carbon rocks! While it's true, they do break easier, I'm on my second pair of carbon poles since 1990 - I've never broken one. I do worry when I'm headed into a big, icy crash, but so far, so good. My DH fell on one once and broke it. Well, twice, actually. Plus the replacements for the more recent pair, he broke by slamming the hatch to the Jeep on them, as they were sliding out. Practically new.:(
Bron: I haven't used the grip tape, but I've heard good things. However, one person recently told me she's been having trouble with it peeling off, but that maybe she isn't applying it quite right. I should also say I don't know if it was Start or some other brand (I don't know if anybody else makes it?). I don't stride that much anymore, and it's usually 20F or below here, so usually it is really easy to wax. I don't even remember when to use klister. So I haven't tried the tape yet.
Doing my first race of the season tomorrow!:eek: So scared. I've been racing for about 30 years now, and I still get all stressed out.:rolleyes: I don't know why - I'm too old, fat & slow to expect much. Anyway, 23k freestyle tomorrow, either a 10k or a 5k (+ 5k skijoring if I do the 5) next week, and a kinda big 25k the next week.
I'm back in DC and horribly missing skiing already. When I was home in minnesota I bought a season pass for 3 weeks of skiing at the local trail. It was the best winter I've ever had! I went skiing everyday and topped it off with the Gunflint trail with some friends.
So Skierchickie, how were the races?
And don´t let me hear you saying that you are old, fat or slow again :)
DH and I did a biathlon course; it´s something I have wanted to try for years and it was great.
We've just got enough snow for me to try out my new skis, so I have been out a couple of times a week plus lessons since the beginning of Jan. :D:D:D
It's been pretty warm...what I'm finding though, is even with layers my wet base layer makes me freeze to death after we stop, so if we are having coffee or whatever I have to bring a dry sweater. I sweat like a horse. Any tips on that? I have a wool long sleeved base layer, a microfleece top, and a windbreaker (sometimes vest with that if it's colder). Doesn't seem to make a diff whether it's -5C or -20C.
OK Bron, race #1 went badly! I felt, well..... old, fat & slow (oops! I said it! But there it is:rolleyes:)! It had these huge hills. I hurt most of the way - more than I should have. I wasn't expecting walls out there. :( Anyway, I always say there is no better way to train for racing than by racing. I'm skipping the one this weekend (wimping out - it's supposed to be 3F and windy). I do have a conflict between the race and the kids' ski program I'm helping out with. It looks likely that the kids' program will be canceled (-10 wind chill cutoff), so I still could possibly do the skijoring race.
Biathlon sounds so cool! I'm pretty sure I couldn't settle down for the shooting. I bet it was all kinds of fun.
Teawoman: Welcome to the club! I sweat a lot too, and I have never found anything that breathes enough. If I dress warm enough to not freeze, then I sweat so much that I never get warm (if it is really cold out). By the time I take my jacket off to vent, I'm already wet. Then I freeze after. I do get cold afterward if I don't get out of my wet clothes. You may be overdressing, though (you don't say how warm the weather is, just that it is warm). When I was younger, I always dressed a lot lighter, never wore a hat, and usually ended up pushing my sleeves up unless it was 10 degrees or so. Now I'm 42, and I go from cold once I step out of the car straight to cold from being sweaty.
skierchickie, is your children's program super structured or up to the instructor? I ask because I've been volunteer teaching for a kids' program and found it a real challenge to mesh all the different abilities and attitudes. It was (I say "was" because this afternoon was our last session) school based, so all kids participated as PE. I'd be interested to hear about some of the things you do in your program so I can plan a little for next session. (Note that we had paid instructors as well, and for my group I ended up doing more teaching than the paid instructor...but I digress...)
At our lesson today, it was 9F (about -12.8 C) and these kids never complained once about being cold. Even the kindergarteners kicked it up. I was really impressed. Of course it was a beautiful bluebird day most of the day. It didn't start to snow until we were done!
Since today was our last day, we had about an hour of free/play time at the end and I had a 9-year-old girl come and ask me if I could teach her to skate (we'd just classic skied during the class). So I got her some kid-sized skate skis and off we went. She is a natural! I was blown away at how easy it was for her. When we finished I told her to tell her parents that she needed a pair of her own skate skis! It made the day for both of us, I think. :D
Wow a skijoring race sounds like fun.
Teawoman- I get warm very easily when I'm moving and cold very easily when I stop (and it can be even worse if I try to eat outdoors). You probably need fewer layers while you're skiing (if you'll be moving constantly leave the layer behind, if you're likely to stop and get cold tie it around your waist or carry it somehow). When going somewhere after skiing, it's always best to bring a dry shirt (I like to change the baselayer- it's the wettest and I know I'll never warm up as long as I'm wearing a wet baselayer). Glad you're enjoying skiing!
I'm not much of an endurance sport person but nothing gets me going like CC skiing. But then again nothing gets me sweating like CC skiing. I think the cold winter really exacerbates the problem too. If I can I do a warm up lap before a big one and strip off my heavy layers. Otherwise I wear things with zips so that I can vent easily. I always keep my ears covered but not with anything too warm. Sorry that is the best advice I can give.
I have a question though, does anyone have a recommendation about balaclavas. I just bought one and it is nice until I warm up, then I pull it down so that it is only keeping my head warm. But because I was breathing through it, it is all wet and gross. Any ideas as how to avoid this grossness?
Yellow - the Ski Tigers program is pretty structured. It was started maybe 15-20 years ago by a few skiers/parents, and it has evolved a lot. There are probably 100 or so kids in it this year, and it is divided up by age & ability. I think there are about 8 groups. There aren't any paid coaches - we're all volunteers. Mostly parents who ski and local racers. The higher level groups have the more serious skiers as coaches. Some years I do it, and some years I don't. This year I'm an assistant coach in the Yellow group (that way I can skip out easier for races). Anyway, there are little kids (I think the youngest I ever knew of was 4, but she was mostly supervised by her mom, since she couldn't really go very far). All the way up through high school. Each level has goals to work on (I think the one I'm in is things like being able to ski 5k, both striding and skating, hockey stops, tucking downhills, etc).
I guess the main thing we do is try to keep it fun. So we play some games with the younger ones sometimes. The group I'm with this year is about 12 kids (including identical triplets with identical long hair and identical clothes:rolleyes:) who are all probably about 10 or 11. Last week we skied without poles, and tried to work on poling with the V1. It is really hard to even tell if they are listening to you. A lot of it ends up just being about getting them out there, and trying to give them pointers. All the groups up to this point are primarily about striding, and then in Yellow they start skating. The organization firmly believes that striding is the basis for so many aspects of skiing that it is better to focus solely on that for a long time. Skating is one of those things that is hard to teach at that age (either they "get it" like the girl you mentioned, or they don't).
Here is a link to the program, which could help: http://www.keweenawtrails.com/skitigers/index.html
It doesn't go over specific drills, but it will give you an idea of how the program works. The newsletters have a lot of explanatory information, and some of the other links are helpful. The Groups/Classes link explains the groups.
We did play a game last week where we split the group in half, and the head coach and I each skied off a few yards with a bell. The kids took turns being blindfolded and skiing out to find us (& ski around us) by the ringing of the bells (without poles). This was at the end, after skiing without poles to work on weight transfer, V1ing up a long gradual hill, then turning around and trying to glide as long as possible on each ski, coming back down (several times), and then skiing a short hill with a moderate uphill. Maybe 4 or 5k. With a brief chocolate candy break. Oh, and the head coach had told them to keep track of their distance during the week, and if they skied more total ks than we did, they could bomb us with snowballs for 20 seconds. If we had skied more, we could throw the snowballs at them for 10 seconds. 11 kids, and they had only skied 44k total in a whole week! So we coaches won.
Tonight I saw one of the coaches working with a big group of younger kids. She had put little flags in the tracks on a big downhill, and was having them go down in the tracks, lifting their skis over the obstacles as they went. The little kids seem to frequently do little drills using plastic snakes and bugs in the snow.:D
I hope I've been a least somewhat helpful. There is so much information that the organizers could address better than I can. We have a large group now, so things are split up pretty effectively. Parent involvement is key. We have enough structure so the coaches know what skills to work on, but not so much that they feel compelled to work on specific techniques in a certain way on certain days.
Feel free to pm me if you want. Wow - this is long! Sorry.
Jan
I LOVE to see the little ones out there enjoying exercise! Our local schools have some very strong downhill, snowboard and cross country ski programs. The kindergardners go at least once a week to one of our local XC areas to ski.
I had a frustrating morning with the dogs yesterday. So I decided to take a few hours just for me. I took my big, old striding skis and went to the XC ski area and went out for a 2 hour ski. It was a beautiful day and the area was surprisingly uncrowded for a holiday weekend. It was just perfect for clearing my mind!
Skierchickie, thanks so much for the info. Our program is a little different in that ALL kids participate, not just those that want to, so we have a few....um...challenging ones. But I learned a lot the first go 'round. I'd love to hang out with the Ski Tigers for a couple of days to learn a lot more!
I have a couple of other friends that are involved in youth ski programs and while downhill is a little different, I'm sure I could learn a lot more from them as well. I'm kind of kid impaired anyway (that is, I haven't been around kids a lot, so I'm lacking in knowledge and experience in just how to interact with them), though they seem to think I'm really cool. I think it's my cool hat, but whatever! (And yes, it's a kids' hat...my head is kid-sized!)
Roadie, in my Cali days, I loved to go to Tahoe XC there in Tahoe City because it was FLAT! Well, flatter than Kirkwood!
Hubby and I classic skied today up in Park City, which is currently overrun by Hollywood-types (the Sundance Film Fest is in full swing). It's always interesting to see fur on the track, and I'm not talking about fur that's attached to a bunny rabbit hopping across the meadow. I wonder if there's a difference between "everyday" makeup and "skiing" makeup?? :p
Ski-ing makeup? Ha, that is a funny idea.
First race of the season this weekend - it was more like water-ski-ing as everything was thawing like mad. I had been quite excited about the idea of skiing from Germany into the Czech Republic and back, but in the end they had to shorten the course, so we did 4 rounds of a smaller circuit (4 times up that ****** hill at the end!).
I am not fit enough. :(
Bron: Sorry your race wasn't that much fun - the next one will be better! Like I said - there is no better way to train for racing than by racing! I'm trying to get mentally ready for my next one (this weekend - 25k). I skipped last weekend because of the cold. I did get out and ski though - unlike where you are, it was 0 F when I was out.
Yellow: Fur? Makeup? These people are working up a real snotty sweat, huh? Come on, you can tell me, did you intentionally trip any of them? Or just ski circles around them? Or hit anybody with a snot rocket?? Ooh - ooh! It would be fun to stop just ahead of one, blow a snot rocket in the snow, and then turn around toward them and wipe your nose on your sleeve!:D
By the way, I'm sort of kid impaired, myself. I like them, I'm just not around them much, and don't know how to interact. So I think I try to work with them like they are adults. Maybe they like that?
Well, we've had at least 3 feet since Friday morning (probably more)- maybe 18" since I got home last night.
3 ft of snow! You are so lucky, we only have a sprinkling here. Enjoy it.
50 k race coming up on Sunday :eek:
I skate skied today for the first time in 2 years. Went 7 km. :eek:
I think I'm gonna feel that tomorrow.
Anyone have suggestions for resources to describe skate skiing technique? I manage but I get really tired and I suck at any kind of an incline.