5th Week, Dryland Double poling, #Nordic, #Langrann

Talked about skis and poles for a few minutes. Be sure to use carbide tips and if steel take into a ski shop and see if they be exchanged.
Talked about waxing just a little. A few waxes and some wax remover. We will get into more detail as weather warrants.
You did some squats using your pole and the height of your knee.
We also talked about your heart rate in general loose guidelines as it depends on your age, specific muscle training genetics, sport you are testing your max HR, and many other factors. However as a very rough guideline a 4 hour ski race might be about 30 beats below max HR average. 
Talked about ski specific homework and the importance getting a 3 hr chunk of training even now, as there is only about 3 months left before the Birkie.
Reviewed ski walking and ski striding again.

Introduced double poling 5 step stutter step.
Bring your hips forward of the ankles with feet together, mostly, depending on your speed. Pole with elbows bent at roughly 90’ using your lats to push you forward, not your triceps.
You don’t run but the stutter steps should happen because of the power of the double poling push.
Reminder to pull down on your straps and do not tightly grasp the ski handle but lightly control it with your palm and fingers.
The ski baskets should not go past your feet and those using long poles doing dry land will have to  plant their ski baskets further behind their feet then those with shorter poles.
Keep your head up and do not look at your feet.

Just a heads up, if you have not been roller skiing, give yourself sometime to get your ski legs under you. As guideline it takes me about 15 hrs. before I do not feel like a fish out of water flopping around. Hopefully you are faster then I.

4th Week of Ski Class (Double poling)

Happy days
We were able to 'ski' this week on rock skis.
Only a couple of students did not bring their rocks skis or whatever they had. The snow was only a couple of inches deep and right around 0C.
Double poling was the main course for today. You started off with a review of falling forward into your partners hands from the ankles with the hips forward.
Homework was discussed and several students are now doing over 5 hours of ski specific training. Preparing yourself mentally and and physically to go long is important. The Birkie is less then 90 days away and so one of your workout sessions needs to be at least 3 hours and keep increasing every 10 days or so for the next several weeks.
We skied in a couple of tracks for double poling in but that did not last for long as the grass showed through.
Some of the key points that were added during the class were the following.
The old mantra of gravity, body weight, before muscle was hammered on again.
Bringing the hips forward can be a challenge. Memory clues such as stretching your stomach muscles, squeezing your cheeks (loony), were practiced.
Elbow height, (chicken wing) was discussed and how high it you should be. Remember once a again about the warning of having high elbows until you worked up to it. The older we are the more careful we all need to be as it can be very painful.
Chicken pecking was another exercise that was practiced, with the hands staying at your shoulders and you only moved by doing the stomach core crunch. There should be no more then 6 inches of movement.
The hands were then extended about a foot from the shoulders and you once again only moved forward by doing the stomach  core crunch.
Normal double poling was then tried with the elbows bent at around 90' both forward and back.
Loading the poles  by using body weight was introduced but not covered much. Until the hips come forward the quick drop at the knee will wait for another week.

3rd Week of Dryland Ski classes (leg work)

Class started off walking over to another hill.
Four more new students started this week, so there was a bit of review of ski walking after they introduced themselves. There was a bit of frost on the grass which made footing more of a challenge.
Of course there was enough time to find out who had done their ski specific homework, which is 5 hours per week for now. A lot more students managed to get at least 5 hours this week, well done.
Of course it was leg day after having done ski walking and core in the past 2 weeks.
Ski walking, and ski striding were used for warmups before being led by Mary Ann a series of 4 aerobic exercises.
Ski striding has one foot off the ground, while ski walking has 2 feet on the ground. Ski bounding will be introduced in the next 2 sessions. Of course you know next week will be arms and especially double poling.
Somewhere in the middle of class  a small snack and some water was consumed. We talked about the number of calories which will vary considerably if you are 100 pounds vs 260 pounds. The snack you choose must also not freeze at -20C either. This food must be easily digestible as you continued exercising at higher intensities.
Then those that have been in the class in previous years, knew that it was time to get some leg work. Everyone was divided into groups of 3 with people roughly the same weight and strength levels. Using non adjustable poles, one person walked backwards pulling the other 2 people down the hill while they were creating resistance. Each person took 3 turns pulling the other 2 down the hill. Some key points were that your back stayed upright over your feet, which were shoulder width apart, and the feet were moving very quickly.
From there it was follow the leader around the playground before playing in the sand.
Dividing back into the same group of 3, you took turns doing a standing broad jump into the sand. Having a good standing broad jump is important. One standard I use is that you should be able to do is jump 50% more then your height. So if you are 6 foot tall then you would hopefully be able to do a standing broad jump of 9 feet. Let me know how your standing broad jump is doing in the next week or so.

I was very happy to see that the vast majority of you had your hips forward. Well done!
 

2nd Week of Dryland ski classes (Core)

Started off class with asking how many people did their homework which was confession time for some, as 3 hours was about max for most, some doing far less. The goal was 5 hours of ski specific training.
Please try to be at class on time, and send an email if you think you might be late.
Introduced another class member.
Please remember to bring a quick 75-100 calorie snack with water for the next class. There will be a 2-3 minute break around the 45 minute mark. Over the next several weeks, snack choice will be discussed.
I stressed once again that skiing is GRAVITY FIRST, then body weight, and then muscle.
Class had a 'choice' of working on core or legs, but of course CORE it was. The body needs a strong core first and foremost!
Started off with having a seat on the picnic benches, and doing 4 sets of 30 second holds, with a 1 minute break, after stretching the forearm and wrist.
Core and calves always seem to need more work then the rest of the ski muscles.
Went outside and did several exercises of review ski walking, which was covered in last class.
Paired up in twos, and they did leg throwing, where they lay on their backs and grab the person's ankles, that do the throwing. After showing that pushing the legs is not done timidly, most did get a workout. This exercise, very quickly shows who has a weak core.
Introduced Ski striding. The difficulty is to still find your hips still falling forward, before the knee dip push, (ahhh) Most of you know when you are getting it.  :)
Curb running for balance while HR was up a bit, and then more practice ski bounding
Introduced just a little bit of double poling (DP) to have the students realize, POLES are for PUSH.
As we stressed, you have to be mentally strong, not just physically strong, to apply technique while hurting, and bit by bit your technique will stay together, as your HR goes up, up, up.
Have an awesome week and please try to get your homework done, especially those who are planning on doing the 31km or the 55km.

After class, wifey and I went fatbiking on the local ski trails, as weather was very nice, warm and dry, which will not be likely much longer.

First Class. A New #Nordic Ski season 2018-2019 (ski walking)

A new season with some new faces. It is a good mix of new and old students.
                              Winter is coming at least according to the work of the beaver. :)

There are few points that I try to follow, that you should know about.
1. If it hurts, too bad. If it is pain, stop, or work around it.
2. Always listen to your body.
3. Suck air and suffer, always paying attention to points one and two.
4. Never let your brain go on automatic pilot! Always be thinking of what you are telling your various body parts to do!!
5. I believe in specific ski strength. Trim yourself down if need be or you might need some muscle. I am old school and believe in 3 sets, 10 reps to failure, with warmup and cool down sets.
For myself if I start sucking air, I stop and take a picture of the beauty around me. Contradictory, of course, lol.
6. When it rains, I train, is an old motto of mine, because we were sent home from work construction. Translation means, yes there is class regardless of weather, and we will do a work around if necessary.

Now back to the first class.
We went around in a circle and you mentioned a few things about yourself, and what sport activities you have been doing.
We practiced falling forward from the ankles, with a partner.
Nordic walking pole length; I normally recommend hands at around 2-4cm above the height of a right angle of your elbow.
Then we practiced ski walking uphill, leading with the belly button, falling forward, letting gravity do its thing.
We then emphasized elbows bent forward at around a 90' and back 90', with normally, next to no tricep extension. This is assuming you are crunching!
Use your elbow to drive forward, on each falling step.
We learned that you should be able to put a ski pole, back, through bent elbows.
Coming downhill you keep your legs bent, butt low, and pretend to go around a planted pole on each turn.
We practiced falling forward with just one leg, and taking a falling step with a partner.
Then you practiced ski walking again.
We mixed it up and you practiced balance, walking on the concrete curbs.
Then there was some ski walking up the pylons.
Then we added some spring (boing) to each step
2 legged hops up the hill, on either side of the pylons
Another round for balance on the curbs while HR was still a bit elevated.
Stretching is important and I like to stretch in hot water, with jets, not saunas.

I am on Instagram as ucanskixc.


HOMEWORK is 5 hours of ski specific training for the next few weeks. Of course another 10-15 hours of other training is ok for now. Do what you can, life for all of us, gets busy at times.  :)

A few animals I have seen in the past few months, while skiing.

Late last season, World Cup ski racing observations

Diggins tuck
Shoulders are lower then the butt, which is high. Legs are almost straight, weight are on the heels. Hands are in front but with bent elbows. This position allows you to stretch the back and the hamstrings.

Sunby Grip
Hands are bent in ever so little, as the wrist is straight and elbows wider then hands.

Sunby Stands straight and compact

Sunby butt drop. Ever since Sunby did his experiment with no kick wax and it backfired in the relay race. He used a very deep butt drop. Since that time I have taught an exercise, where I used the butt drop but only after the your center of gravity has come forward.

Hip drive/ski cross/tight butt. I feel hip drive stretches the hip flexors a bit. It is better to think of tighting the butt and crossing the rear ski to the midpoint of the track. This all helps with weight shift and glide.

Klaebo uphill run. On real steep uphill he runs with a very obvious lift of a running motion

Circular poling versus straight forward and back. This has been around for some time I believe however that straight forward and back is still the best, even at very high turnover DP rates.

This article has been sitting since spring and I had not published it. Oops. Have FUN.