Over the Christmas break, I took advantage of a week away from work and plentiful, excellent snow to hold my own little ski-training camp. Not only was the “camp” a great way to burn off the Christmas calories, but it turned to be a decent way to get into something like ski shape as I look forward to the City of Lakes Loppet race on February 6 (and maybe a couple of short local races between now and then).
All told, I skied on ten straight days, and only stopped because I had to go back to work on Tuesday and because my almost-forty-year-old back needed a day off. I totaled only seven and a half hours of skiing in those ten days, but the hours were high quality, starting (almost by accident) with a good classic-technique coaching session and including equal amounts of technique drills and interval sessions. Though there’s always a lot of room to improve my technique, I was happy to discover that I still had some decent strength and stamina, even after losing the month of November to traveling, busy-ness, and sickness. Now I need to log some longer ski sessions, to get the body somewhat readier for 25 kilometers of racing at the Loppet.
Aside from the good “training effects” of this skiing, my time on the trails was invigorating in a couple other ways. I met a bunch of other skiers, and got to chat with a couple of them quite a few times. I also relished the renewed challenge of trying to ski fast – and the very occasional success at actually doing so. And most of all I enjoyed seeing the Arb turn from the brown of late fall to the white and gray of high winter. I’ll never get enough of sights like these:
