Training Log Archive: Bash

Skate ski clinic with Coach Sandy. 'Bent and I rarely skate ski so we had been anticipating today's morning and afternoon skate ski sessions with less than total enthusiasm. We could have opted for classic lessons only this weekend but we knew some skate skiing would be good for us. Most of the skate skiers did the same thing in reverse and were similarly dubious as they approached yesterday's classic skiing sessions!

Later we plan to write down some key ideas from our sessions but one big take-away is that most of the concepts are transferable between skate and classic. Although we are longtime classic skiers, these were our first formal classic lessons (not counting a terrific informal session with VO2Max), so I hadn't ever thought about it. More surprising was the transfer of skills between skiing and the Chi running style I've been trying to adopt. Very cool.

Sandy walked us through various fundamentals - committing to balance over one ski, proper body position at different points, poling, 1-skate, 2-skate, offset - and we practised transitions between our "gears" as we skied some rolling trails. Lots of drills - no poles, long glide on one ski, Barbie doll arms (locked elbows - forces you to use abs), etc. Good stuff and not as stressful as I'd feared. The hills were short and we had lots of instructional time so the effort wasn't crazy. (Skate skiing almost always makes me go anaerobic.)

Sandy's suggestion is that we work to get to the point where we know how to skate ski 20 km (say) with proper technique without getting out of breath. Then if we want to, we can always add muscle to go faster and harder - but with correct technique.

One of my big problems, it turns out, is that I am so self-conscious about my technique that I constantly look down at my skis and poles to check what I'm doing. I'm supposed to work at lifting my chin from my chest and looking ahead on the trail while putting my shoulders back, avoiding hunching my spine, and opening up my chest and lungs.

(Elapsed 2 hrs 38 min - time deducted for coaching stops, distance added for section where Garmin was off.)

After lunch at the Bulldog Cafe, we had to say farewell to most of the group we've been hanging out with - Revy, C-Bass, Rich C, Sara, Sean & Juliann, Myra & Danny. The Carbons stayed for the afternoon classic clinic. The 5 skate groups from the morning were collapsed into one since most attendees were leaving. I'd slotted myself into the middle level but in the afternoon, I was with Coach Dave and the fast boyz. (Two of us were given the option of an intermediate session just for us but decided to tough it out).

On the plus side, we did an absolutely beautiful ski up to Alder Point and back. It was sunny and cool with heavy snow coating the trees. Perfect ski conditions, spectacular views, great company.

On the negative side, there was a lot of climb. According to AP (which rarely lies), I'd done 67 minutes of skate skiing in 2012 before today. So... it was a shock to some muscles and my cardiovascular system to ski for 3.5 hours today, especially after the season's first two days of classic skiing. Although I tried to cling to some remnants of good technique, I'm afraid some of this morning's improvements were set aside in favour of just getting my sorry arse up the mountain. I was one of the two slowpokes in our group but it didn't really bug me, and it didn't seem to bother the others either. Now that I've survived, I'm really glad I did it. It was a huge confidence booster.

Here are George, Eric, 'Bent and Coach Dave Harbocian.





Here are the views from Alder Point. Important: You should stop skiing when you arrive at this spot.





We shared a condo with the Carbons but our schedule was so busy that we didn't get a lot of time to relax and catch up. Next time! Their skiing skills have become quite good - and they both bought new skis here to add to their quiver. We all warned them this would happen. :)



Night view from the condo.

We went to Sovereign Lake today - one of my favourite XC ski centres in fantastic snowy conditions. This pic is from Silverstar before we left in the morning.



We worked with Coaches Sandy and Denis this morning. First up, a drill! Weight transfer and arm movement while classic skiing with no poles - for quite awhile, including a trail loop with small hills to negotiate. Then add poles - close to chest in front and flung way out behind during glide. Then some skiing along the trails and practising these concepts. Then double poling and finally kick double pole. This final skill was today's big lesson for me. I'm a self-taught classic skier who started in my mid-teens, but for some reason, I never taught myself the kick double pole. As a result, there were some awkward, fish-out-of-water moments today! But I can see how it will be helpful so I kept plugging away at it.

Rich, C-Bass, Carbon's Offset, Carbon.



Elapsed time 2 hrs 11 min. Some time deducted for instruction stops.

They've set up two Norco spin bikes at Silverstar for ski clinic attendees. Naturally, the Carbons had to give it a whirl.

We skied around the beautiful Sovereign Lake trails with Denis and stopped occasionally to reinforce particular concepts. He is the 3rd coach I've worked with since yesterday, and it's great to get the same ideas explained or visualized in several different ways, some of which resonate with me more than others. We were all starting to get tired but wanted to keep practising until the last possible moment when the bus was getting ready to leave. It's just so fun to be on snow again.

Elapsed 1.5 hrs. Time deducted for stops - like this one.







Carbon's Offset snapped this pic from the bus window. We had spectacular mountain vistas in our 10-minute bus ride.

First time on snow in the 2012/13 season - 'Bent's birthday ski trip. :)) 'Bent and I went out for a short tour on the trails around Silverstar to test our skis and shake out a few cobwebs before our XC ski clinic. Awesome. I've missed XC skiing so much! What an amazing treat to be teleported from unseasonably warm weather into the heart of winter. It feels like magic.

First coaching session (time deducted for instruction). We took the intermediate classic clinic today with Coach Dave, who used to ski at Highlands and knows Goose, Coach LD and VO2Max. There was also a woman in our small group who moved from Yellowknife a few years ago. Marie-Claude looked familiar, and it turned out that she'd lived on the same block as 'Bent's brother so she knew the names of our little niece and nephew. But that wasn't why she looked familiar; she had also volunteered at one of our camps at the Rock and Ice Ultra, along with her big black dog. Such a small world!



Dave made us all work on full weight shift, pole planting close to our bodies with elbows quite bent, and avoiding ski slap by landing on the ball of each foot with hip up, never weighting the heel. We were explicitly prohibited from skiing hard since that makes people revert to their old technique. The idea was to try to do one thing right. I think I eventually got the poles right. Weight shift is sometimes good, sometimes not so good!

It was so nice to hang out with Carbon, Carbon's Offset, Revy and C-Bass, and to meet their great friends. 'Bent and Revy kept dashing ahead of our group, then returning to find us. I think they both signed up for the advanced group tomorrow. Good riddance. :)

Revy and 'Bent.



Carbon and Carbon's Offset.



'Bent and me.



'Bent and I finished off the day with a relaxing hot tub soak with the Carbons as light snow sprinkled down. Perfect.

Snow! Lots of it!

Just a reminder to myself to look for Blues Boy Dan Owen on iTunes in future; he's not there yet. How does that voice come out of that kid?!



Bio: http://bluesboydan.co.uk/bio/

Enough agonizing over the decision; nothing will ever be perfect. I have a long drive next week (U.S. Night and UltraLong O Champs in Cincinnati) and may need a car that will start in the rain. All done. Pouring a glass of wine now.

Crew My Run - ultrarun shuttle/crew service by trail runners for trail runners. They can support runs with a group of friends or you can hire them to support you at an event. This could be useful!

I'm a lousy skate skier but I've been a lousy skate skier for almost a decade so I signed up for the intermediate group for this weekend's skate ski clinic rather than the beginner one. I'll find out soon enough whether I regret that decision.

In the meantime, feeling a little nervous about it, I took my rollerskis to the Palgrave rail trail for a short sunset "ski". I've got off-road rollerskis but they still require a fairly hard, flat surface. This part of the rail trail is usually OK but today it was soft - like rollerskiing through a few centimetres of sand. It was hard work but it was kinda funny. It took *forever* to catch up with the friendly senior walking his dog. It was probably all he could do not to laugh at me.

I considered turning into a subdivision with paved roads but that's when I remembered that I should have worn a helmet - oops. Fortunately, my progress on the rail trail was so painfully slow that I couldn't have given myself a head injury if I tried. So I stuck to the "beach" and hit a few sections that were better and a few sections where tufts of grass forced me to double pole slowly along the outside track. It started to get dark so it was a fight to get back to the car while I could still see the surprise ruts in the trail. Good workout - maybe a little *too* good!

Power Yoga for Flexibility with Rodney Yee. Yahoo, I'm feeling stronger and my gimpy foot is steadily improving as I keep forcing it to do stuff that requires strength and stretching.

If you're planning your calendar for next year, check out the Ontario Ultra Series; they've just posted their 2013 trail race schedule.

Coach LD led the Monday Night Bounding Babes around downtown Bolton once again. It's hard to categorize these evenings of fun and general mayhem so I'm using three categories. There's some running including hill intervals, some functional strength (e.g. dips from a park bench), some ski bounding, some core strength and lots more.

I'm not counting the time we spent working on coordination with rubber balls, although that was the activity that led to my latest injury. The idea was to throw the ball into the air, touch the ground, then stand up and catch the ball again. I threw the ball way up in the air straight above me to make things easier. When I leapt to my feet and turned my face toward the sky, the ball clocked me right on the nose. OUCH!! No blood (although I expected some) but it hurt like crazy and I'm still not breathing quite right. This incident reminded me of how un-devastated the phys-ed tachers were when I dropped their class after age 12. I am *so* not a natural athlete! :)