Skiing has begun

Hello all! Hope you are enjoying the Winnipeg weather and that you are all praying for snow, doing your snow dance, or whatever will get the white stuff falling from the big blue dome. I had the privilege this last weekend to be skiing at frozen thunder!!! It was an awesome time to be on snow in plus 10 weather surrounded by the US national ski team and many members of the Canadian ski team. I was down there for a training camp with the Alberta Ski Team and working with coaches from the Alberta World Cup Academy (ex Olympians). Here are a few shots for that time there. Cheers Coach Tim

Thinking about skiing ...

The'ye already skiing at the glacier in  Austria:

And at Rabbit Ears Pass near Steamboat Springs, Colorado:

And in Canmore:

Basic Training

Several club members have been asking about basic training plans to get ready for ski season.  Before jumping into more detail, there are a couple of important principles that training should follow if you want good results:

1) Consistency
   Most people jump into a training plan, but then "fall off the wagon" after a short while.  You need to find a program that works for you so that you can keep it up regularly each week.  And by regularly, I mean at least twice a week.  For example, if you want to be a better skier, you should be skiing at least twice per week.  Any less than this, skiing is just too much of a shock to your body and you end up hurting rather than helping yourself.

   One way to keep up consistent training is to have a fun group of people to train with (for example, Downtown Nordic!).  In fact, this idea was part of the genesis of DN -- a few of us wanted a group of people that could push each other to get out training regularly. 

2) Progression
   For people that don't have problems with consistent training, they often have problems with progressive training.  Progressive training means gradually (and I repeat, gradually) increasing duration, intensity, terrain difficulty, of some mix of the three.  If you do the same set of workouts for longer than about 6 weeks, you will start to plateau and make no new improvement.  However, with a gradually progressive training plan, you can improve dramatically. 

   One example of progressive training was when I wanted to improve the length of time I could hold a plank.  I was stuggling at 40 seconds and had heard people talking about doing planks for 2 minutes.  I set a goal to continually add 10 seconds to my plank effort each week.  Eventually, no word of a lie and I have video proof if you want it, I got up to doing a 19 minute plank.  Thank you.

The other side of progression is doing too much too soon.  I have seen many an
"athlete" go on a long ski during first snow of the season and then not being able to ski the rest of the year because of some injury.  On my first ski on snow, I usually go for about 20 minutes max and then see how my body reacts. 

With those two principles in mind, here's a basic training plan to get you ready for skiing:


Week 1
Mon - run 20 minutes, Tues - strength (no weights), Thursday, DN ski-walking, Friday - strength (no weights), Saturday - run 20 minutes and ski-walk any hills

Week 2
Mon - run 25 minutes, Tues - strength (no weights), Thursday, DN ski-walking, Friday - strength (no weights), Saturday - run 30 minutes and ski-walk any hills

Week 3
Mon - run 30 minutes, Tues - strength (light weights), Thursday, DN ski-walking, Friday - strength (light weights), Saturday - run 40 minutes and ski-walk any hills

Week 4
Mon - run 35 minutes, Tues - strength (light weights), Thursday, DN ski-walking, Friday - strength (light weights), Saturday run 50 minutes and ski-walk any hills

Week 5
Mon - run 40 minutes, Tues - strength (medium-light weights), Thursday, DN ski-walking, Friday - strength (medium-light weights), Saturday run 60 minutes and ski-walk any hills

Here is a list of good strength and balance exercises.  Do not do these if you have any injuries or back problems (get those resolved before doing any strength work).

One very important thing to note is that skiing sets itself apart form other endurance sports in the importance of very good balance.  You need to be able to relaxfully (is that a word?) balance on one leg to be able to ski efficiently and powerfully.

For the first week, do only a handful of reps without any weight and then see how your body reacts to them the next day.  Remember -- gradual progression!! 

Strength & Balance exercises:

-  one-legged squat
 - push-ups
 - lat pull downs (instead of bench pull)
 - plank (instead of the rollout)
 - Russian twist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRXB5vEOmC8

  - one-legged deadlift
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG-Stc3c7N0

Balance:
 - touch touchs on: mat, bosu ball, or balance pillow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwgZLSFb5Jw&list=PL06269BED1642C7EA

Until next time, keep fit and have fun!

Your Board of Directors

For the upcoming season, here are the board of directors of Downtown Nordic:

Our Secretary: Esther

 

 

President-in-Exile: Tim (pictured with unidentified woman)

 

Our Director of Performance: Steve (file photo)

Our new Treasurer Kristen (no photo available, but we do have this photo of a fish she caught ... held up by her fishing assistant Mike):

Online registration

 

 

 

 

Online registration is now up (thanks Jacek!!): https://zone4.ca/register.asp?id=4916  It closes at midnight on December 1st.

Any problems -- blame Jacek.

Upcoming Season

OK folks, here's the plan:

We start dryland training on Thursday, October 10th at 6:30PM at Westview Park (the big hill north of the Polo Park area).  These sessions will focus on classic technique with ski-striding and some balance drills.  Bring running shoes and, if you have some, short(ish) ski poles.  We'll do this every Thursday until the snow comes.

Once the snow comes, we'll start skiing somewhere every Thursday.

And once the Windsor Park Nordic Centre opens, we'll be training every Tuesday and Thursday at 6:30 at Windsor.

We'll start off doing lots of work on technique -- generally alternating sessions between skate and classic.  In December, the Tuesday workouts will become interval-training sessions.  And in January, the Thursday sessions will become distance-training.

This year, we're trying to get everyone signed up by early December so as many people as possible can get the benefits of all the early-season work we do on technique. 

For those thinking about joining the club for the first time, this is a training/fitness club.  We have a very wide range of ages and abilities.  About half the club does not ski race -- they just like being good on their skis.  The common thread is that everyone loves cross-country skiing and gets out skiing on a regular basis.

Also ... we are looking at setting up an informal group of families that want to go on occasional ski excursions with their children as part of a larger group.  We're calling it the DN Explorers.  Let me (Steve) know if you are interested in this.

Double-pole training at the lake ...

Running the Distance

Classifieds - classic boots for sale - SOLD!

Salomon S-LAB Classic boots size 9 1/2 U.S. or 43 1/3 EU.  Boots are brand new.  Only 149 firm.  Can email me at: Jimball at mts.net.

BOOM!!!!  These have been SOLD.

Summer, Fall, and soon to be New Zealand

Hey all Downtown Nordicans!!!  Hope summer training went well for everyone!! I was at a few roller ski sessions and everyone looked like they were having a blast.  I am currently writing this from Alberta and already the ski team here is keeping me in shape trying to keep up to them.  Looks like a great crew and we will have a fun time this season.  I am still prepping and training for New Zealand which is just around the corner.  I figured I would keep you guys up to date with what is happening with that.  I spent about 6 weeks this summer in the Ottawa Valley with the team which was a blast.  Here is a video of us doing some slalom training in Quebec on the St. Lawrence River.

Remember if it is not fun why do it?
Cheers
Tim

Please, please be careful ....

Please, please be careful getting in the way of a Downtown Nordic roller-ski workout ....