Cross Country Skiing

[Skierchickie]

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.

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.

[pyxichick]

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

[caribou]

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 He'd never make it where some of you gals live, would he??

[caribou]

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!

[Skierchickie]

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 ), 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!

[caribou]

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?

[Bron]

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.