Cross Country Skiing

[Wahine]

Good luck. On both the drive and the race!!

[anakiwa]

Well at least they've delayed the start 2 hours- so the driving should be easier and there will be more time to figure out what to do.

This afternoon there's been a lot of frozen stuff (?sleet- hard little ice pellets) coming down. Any ideas about that- klister? blue klister? violet klister?

Hope everyone else is getting snow!

[Bron]

I hope it went well!

We´ve just got back from the skating race of the König-Ludwig-Lauf. It was supposed to be 50km, but was shortened to 42. Icy in some places, slushy in others and it´s snowing. We´re entered for the classic tomorrow and I also have no idea yet what wax to use.

I think it went ok today, certainly the best time I have ever got over that distance and I was fast enough that DH wasn´t expecting me - he was collecting his warm clothes and didn´t have time to get back to the finishing line to cheer me in.

[anakiwa]

It went as well as could be given the conditions- icy crust tilled up with a small amount of new snow blown over the tracks. We wound up using green klister under violet klister under violet hardwax. It worked reasonably well for 10K, but the downhills were so icy that nothing was staying on the skis well.

So it wasn't my best ski (I'm usually really strong on the uphills- and there's a fair amount on that course, but it was so hard to get reliable kick) but it was a lot of fun (it's a really beautiful point-to point course in and out of woods and fields with a lot of up and down).

Good luck tomorrow! (May you have better kick than I did.)

[Bron]

Well done, glad to hear that you enjoyed it.

Yesterday was definately a klister day - the course had been groomed and then temperatures sank to -11°C at the start so the tracks were quite icy. My kick was fine but I had the worst start ever (mass start with loads of people falling over) and spent the next 10km just trying to overtake people. Towards the end I started feeling Saturday's race in my arms and legs. I managed to be a minute faster than last year (was hoping for more) on a slower and longer course, so I'm not too unhappy.

[yellow]

I was thoroughly and completely humbled yesterday.

I got some new classic skis...end of the season, great deal. I'd been talking about it as my body seems to like a little break from skating sometimes.

I was using a cheapie pair of "fitness" skis and some pretty floppy boots. I did pretty well on them, but have been thinking about an upgrade and really learning how to classic ski on good classic gear.

Yesterday was my first day on them. My butt was kicked. They are super fast (which means I need to move faster to keep up with them!), and it was pretty warm so I was overheating (which makes me turn into a big ball of waaaah) and dealing a little bit with super-slipperiness. I think I was waxed correctly...I think it was just me. My biggest mistake was using my old floppy boots. I ordered some new ones last night, and while I'm hoping that will help, it's probably more about operator error than equipment issues.

Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to getting out there again soon. I like having new things to learn!

[Bron]

I hated my classic racing skis when I got my first pair - it just felt as though I had no kick at all. One good exercise was scooting myself along with one foot - stand on your gliding leg and just do the kicks with one leg and no poles - this helped me to identify just where the kick started as I was always kicking off too late.

I still prefer skating, but it's quite satisfying to be able to classic ski fast too.

[mudmucker]

When I had bought some new waxable fiberglass skiis mine were also very slippery no matter how much I waxed them in all different conditions. I actually would get tired of it and just started skating on my classic skiis. I actually like to skate that way if I'm not on a totally groomed trail - with the classic skiis - then if the trail narrows or I don't have enough oomph to get up a hill I resort to the diagonal stride. It took about a season and a half to get through that to the point where they were not slippery. I actually took a little steel wool to the kicker portion and that helped alot.

[Skierchickie]

Well, I did my last race of the season yesterday. But the best skiing is yet to come! Sometimes the snow starts going fast right about now, but at the moment it doesn't show any signs. I was talking to one of the groomers today, and he practically guaranteed they'd still be grooming through the middle of April. There is just such a deep, solid base right now. The surface hasn't really even transformed yet. So even though I have to spend most of next week in southern Indiana, I should come home to great spring condition!

[teawoman]

I'm envious that you still get to ski. We've had a bout of warm weather over the last week and a half or so that made our classic trails a mess. The skating ones are still ok, but I've never skate skied. It's still too snowy to bike, however.

[Bron]

I'm envious that you still get to ski.

Me too. Our last race is next weekend and the season has been completely stop-start with no snow in our usual training area since January. I had a terrible race on Sunday, so I am hoping that this one will go well; it's the end of the German series and so far I have a good place.

[Skierchickie]

The trails are still going strong! Of course, now it's too warm after work, so I can only get out on the weekends. It's been 50-ish the past 3 days, but our last significant snow was Monday night (8 inches of wet, heavy stuff). The banks have shrunk quite a bit, but no bare patches yet except right next to the house and anyplace that has been plowed. The trails are well-covered! The crust skiing isn't quite ready yet - I was breaking through a little this morning.

It was fun and fast this morning - I took a spectacular crash - stepping around a sharp curve, I thought I was doing great (too sure of myself = hitting a tree once, etc), then caught an edge. My right ski spun around, with the rest of me following, skidding several feet spread-eagled. Swollen, sore area just below my knee (where it hit the ski edge), sore shoulder, sore meaty part of one palm, sore legs in general. Achy neck, either from the crash or from the disease that is running rampant at work, starting with that and cruising on into a high fever. I'm still hoping not to get it.

Gotta get one really painful crash in every season. I'm just glad I didn't break a pole! I suppose some day it could be a bone, but we won't worry about that!

[anakiwa]

I'm glad to see this thread alive again.

But I'm finding I'm ready to move on to biking (which is unfortunate since we have so much snow and the roads are still a mess). I'm not sure if it's the slushy conditions or the long days or what (I was so looking forward to spring skiing, but now I just want to get on a bike- oh well). The crazy thing is that the base is still 18+ inches in most places (it's too bad they can't just ice pack the ski trails so they'd be all ready in December).

[Bron]

Funny you should say that - at one of the German elite training centres they do store snow over the summer - pack it up in a big mound and cover it with polystyrene! I think that they had enough for a 2km track at the beginning of this season.

My thoughts started turning to the bike after our last race. It has snowed a bit more this weekend, but most places have stopped grooming anyway.

On the plus side, I won a prize for our ski series - very happy about that, and motivated to do even better next year.

Skierchicke, that sounds bad, I hope you are feeling ok now. DH has broken poles while racing before, so far I´ve been lucky and only picked up bruises.

[madscot13]

the skiing season ended a few weeks ago. I have to say that I swear it snowed just for me. I got my first pair of skis this year and there was snow for the entire 3 weeks I was back in Minnesota for Christmas and the 1 week for springbreak. usually we don't get so much snow and I was fortunate for the good stuff to fall when it did.

unfortunately, the biking season will be delayed by school, trips, and a requisite upgrade. I guess it is nice that I live in DC and I'm not limited to summer and fall this year. I'm pretty certain I can bike year round.