The beginning of the Season…

So maybe you’ve been going to dryland training regularly and feel pretty good about your beginning of the season fitness.   Or maybe you do your own dryland training and have good overall fitness.   You could be a runner or lift weights or any number of things that can help prepare for “on snow” training…

But now it’s the beginning of the season.   So, you head out and rattle off a decent ski.  Next day you feel a little stiff and can tell that you did something new.   By later that day you start to wonder if you perhaps went a bit too hard… and shortly after that you begin to realize that “OH MY WORD I CANNOT MOVE MY LEGS!!!”  because it hurts.   Like a thousand drills are boring through your muscles.   It hurts as if your blood is boiling inside your veins.   It hurts so much that you do that stiff legged “don’t bend your knees because you can’t” strut but you can’t bend at the hip or waist either so you thrust each leg forward as if it’s made from a 2x4 and there is no possible way you could climb stairs; you’re not even sure you can sit down.  

Yeah, that hurts.  But it doesn’t have to…

Everyone has their own plan to get going each season.  I’ll tell you what I do and if it works for you then fantastic, feel free to copy it.   I know it works because I do it every year and have none of the “my muscles are lava” pain…

My first ski is for about 15-20 minutes.   About 3 km…Short, easy pace.  Often without poles to get my technique back.  Within 3 days I will ski for about half an hour.   Maybe a 5-k loop with a little bit of double poling.   Within 3 days of that I will be out for an 8 to 10 k excursion and I’ll start to push the cardio for a few minutes at a time.   About 3 to 5 days after that I’m expecting I’ll be able to do 15 kms at a decent pace and from that point on I feel I am ready for the season.  Scale this up or down to your normal amount of skiing…It is as simple as this.

And if you do go too hard the first time out and end up in accidental unplanned semi traction because your muscles are punishing your silliness believe it or not the best thing to do is go skiing again.   Getting some blood pumping through those anger muscles will flush out the waste products that are causing the pain.   Ski for about 1/3 the time you did the first time and by the next day you will feel noticeably less sore.

Do note that I have no formal training as a physical trainer.  These suggestions are what I have found to work for me over my 40 years as a skier and should be taken as suggestions only.