Sunday, January 4, 2026

DN Adult programs - skate this week

Hey skiers,

With the nice weather this week, we will do skate on Tuesday at 7PM.    


It's rare to get nice days like this in January for skate, so we will do that this week and then do Classic for next week.


(For the advanced group, either technique will work as we will do some general drills and start the interval training.)


Steve



Sunday, December 14, 2025

Adult instruction starts this Tuesday!

First session is skate on Tuesday at 7PM - meet in the clubhouse and then we will out to the training grid!

(We will then break for the holiday and start up again after the new year)

Here are your awesome coaches for this season!


Athletic Beginner:

Katrina

Soo




Intermediate
John M

Jim






Coach John K



Advanced
Steve


Tuesday, December 9, 2025

DN Adult program update

We hope to start on Tuesday, December 16th at 7PM for adult programs.  

But it depends on conditions and availability at Windsor Park Nordic Centre ...

If you are registered, be sure to check for email updates (I sent one the 7th but it went to spam for some people!)

Steve




Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Back for another great season!


Hey skiers,

The DN adult program is back again this year!

It will be Tuesdays evenings (likely 6:30PM ... but confirmed later)

We hope to go for about 7 or so weeks starting in December alternating generally between classic and skate and going till about early February.

Athletic Beginners led by Coach Katrina and Coach Soo Yang Kang.

Intermediate led by Coach John K with help from legends Coach John M and Coach Jim

Advanced led by me.

However, no dryland training this fall.

Registration is open here: https://zone4.ca/register.asp?id=39771

I will send a reminder email and more details around mid to late November.

 Steve


Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Advanced Group training

On January 7th, we will start formal interval training for the advanced group (your choice of classic or skate!)

But you should start on your own over the holidays with 6 x 40 second efforts at a bit faster than race pace with sold technique

The program is split into those looking to peak in February OR March


1)Tuesday interval training – see details below for February peak or March peak

30 minute easy ski warm-up (+ a few 20 second pick ups near the end of your warm-up)

The hard part of the interval is a bit faster than race pace – the shorter the interval, a bit more faster effort (but always solid technique)

2)On Weekends -> 1 or 2 longer skis with hills

Work on hill efficiency – climbing with good technique and a relatively low heart rate – this is a skill you want to develop for long events (rather than thrashing as hard as possible going uphill!)

Gradually lengthen your longer skis towards event duration – e.g. if you expect your peak event to take you 4 hours, then shoot to build to a 3 to 4 hour ski about 7 to 10 days before your event.

3)Keep up injury-prevention strength



February peak – Tuesday intervals (remember 30 minute warm-up before)

Jan 7      5 x 1 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Jan 14   4 x 2 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Jan 21    4 x 3 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute between efforts

Jan 28    3 x 5 minutes / *keep up a reasonable pace between intervals* - goal is to train body to be able to recover from a harder effort while still going at slightly less than race speed

Feb 4     2 x 10 minutes / keep up a reasonable pace between intervals  

Feb 11   3 x 10 minutes / keep up a reasonable pace between intervals

 

Longer program for those looking to peak in mid March.

Jan 7      5 x 1 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Jan 14   4 x 2 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Jan 21    5 x 2 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Jan 28   6 x 2 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Feb 4 5 x 3 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Feb 11 6 x 3 minutes / easy skiing 1 minute in between efforts

Feb 18 4 x 5 minutes / keep up a reasonable pace between intervals

Feb 25   2 x 10 minutes / keep up a reasonable pace between intervals

March 2 3 x 10 minutes / keep up a reasonable pace between intervals

March 9 4 x 10 minutes / keep up a reasonable pace between intervals




Monday, December 9, 2024

Start on Tuesday!

We will start instructional sessions on Tuesday December 10th at Windsor Park at 6:30 with SKATE sessions for Athletic Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced groups.

The first session will include 15 minutes or so inside and then head outside for 30 minutes or so.    (the following Tuesday will be classic and we will generally flip back and forth between the techniques each following week.)

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Start of adult instructional programs - Tuesday Dec. 10th

We plan to start instructional programs for adults on Tuesday, Dec. 10th.

More information early next week.

Registration will close on Dec. 7th.

Check out the snow-making at Windsor Park!



Monday, November 18, 2024

Re-post! Injury-prevention strength for XC skiing!

A few years back, we had Twila from Pure Fitness show us some really good strength exercises to make our bodies very resilient.   

It's best to add these exercises into your regime gradually -- they don't seem like much when you first do them, but then the next day, you realize they strengthen all of your muscles that are very weak!!

Do a few light reps of these your first time and see how your body feels the next day before building up to more reps.

After 4 or 5 weeks (of doing these twice a week), you could build up to 6 to 10 reps of each exercise.

Again, be really gradual as you add these in.   

I have been doing these exercise once or twice every week for 9 years and it's really allowed me to be quite injury-free over that time.  But I always do a good warm-up and never push myself very hard with them -- just a modest workout that helps balance my body with everything else I do.










Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Your Beautiful Coaches for 2024/25!

  Coaches for 2024/25 Season:


Athletic Beginner:

Katrina




Intermediate

 Coach
John K



John M



Advanced
Steve

DN Adult Program - 2024/25

  ... and we are back!


DN Adult programs for the next season:

Main Change = Tuesdays only

Adult instructional programs each Tuesday in December and January (as soon as we get skiable snow)

Will alternate each week generally with skate or classic instruction (a little bit conditions-dependent)

Will have Athletic Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced. 

AB + Intermediate will be instructional; Advanced will be mostly drills and interval training

AB will be led by Coach Katrina

Intermediate will be led by Coach John K with support for Coach John M

Advanced will be led by me

Coach Jim B is taking a year sabbatical and will be back next year.

Dryland training for those interested will be at Westview Park on the north side Tuesdays at 6:45PM starting October 22nd

Registration here:   https://zone4.ca/register.asp?id=36525

Options on Downhill corners - reposting as it's useful to learn how to deal with high-skied icy corners!

Here is an interesting picture on downhill cornering.  For the advanced group on Thursday, we will play around with downhill cornering options!


Downhill at France world cup last year -- watch how Klaebo looks to the turn and picks the outside line in the deep snow - this allows him to control the turn better.

Klaebo is third in line with the yellow bib:


Klaebo - looking at conditions on the outside:



Klaebo sliding into the loose snow





The only skier to use the loose snow to turn, rather than go through the icy corner apex


At times, a corner gets so icy and scraped, that it's easier to step into the loose snow to do an easier and safer turn.   This is often the case at big events with lots of laps or lots of skiers (like the Birkie)