Cross Country Skiing

[roadie gal]

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 ... 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!

[bambu101]

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!!!!!

[short cut sally]

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.

[madscot13]

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.

[Skierchickie]

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! So scared. I've been racing for about 30 years now, and I still get all stressed out. 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.

[madscot13]

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.

[Bron]

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.

[teawoman]

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.

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.

[Skierchickie]

OK Bron, race #1 went badly! I felt, well..... old, fat & slow (oops! I said it! But there it is)! 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.

[yellow]

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.

[Skierchickie]

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) 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.

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

[roadie gal]

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]

Wow Bron - 50K! You rock! I haven't ever been ready for a 50 in January! Well, or ever in the past several years. Have a great time!

Wahine: 7k on your first day out in two years is really great! I work up to that over a couple of weeks at the beginning of every season. I only did about 6 tonight, actually. You will feel it, but in that really good way.

Lee Borowski has some books and videos on skate skiing (actually, there are lots of people who do). Check out someplace like New Moon ski shop online (or Skiguys.com, or any of the bigger shops that are online). Getting really tired and sucking on inclines is all a part of the deal - the more you ski, the better you'll get. Weight transfer is about the most important thing you can learn. Try skiing without poles on flats and slight grades, swinging your arms (and whole upper body) back and forth as you skate, so your weight is always going in the direction of the gliding ski (pretend you're reaching for the tip). And make sure you are bringing your ski in all the way under your body before putting it down (if you have a problem with this, concentrate on actually crossing your tails - they can click together and that is okay while you're practicing). Have fun! Mainly, the more you ski, the easier it will get.

[Wahine]

Thank you for the tips. I'll try the technique tips you suggested. I can skate without poles on the flat but not for long but I'm definitely not bringing my ski back under me enough. Hadn't thought of that. I'll definitely check out the resources you suggested too.

[Bron]

Wow Bron - 50K! You rock! I haven't ever been ready for a 50 in January! Well, or ever in the past several years. Have a great time!

Thanks, my feet certainly feel like rocks now. Ummm, I don´t really think I was ready for a 50k. Did a 25k classic yesterday, probably one of my better performances and my technique seems to be getting better all the time (plenty of room for improvement though). Woke up this morning feeling really yucky but decided that I would give the race a go and dnf if I actually threw up. The other option would have been hanging around for DH in the cold. I got dropped by the main pack off the start, including by a woman wearing more make-up that I would put on for an evening out (the shame). Anyway, I managed to slog my way through. Getting some skate coaching has definately paid off - there is no way I would have got round by muscle power alone.

Wahine,
If you can´t get to a clinic, how about getting someone to video you? We just used the film function on my little digital camera and then looked at them at home or played them back immediately.