NSR (new sport report)

Heya!

I've been out 3 times already on my cross country skis.  It's going so so as I need to learn to ski properly, and it's tough to learn when you're having to make/groom new trails all three times that I've been out.  I've also taken my garmin out a few times and although it's a great tool to see where you're at as far as distance/speed/heart rate, but then again sometimes those numbers can be down right discouraging.  But I do want to see my progress, so I did want to know where I started at.  Soooo I have to suck it up and ski, recording the numbers, but also letting them not bother me so much.

So the first two times I went out saturday and sunday near my house in the park with the ponds.  It's hard to find good space to make trails.  I attempted to make some and the first set that winds through Riverbend to get me to the park is fine.  I cut them far enough away from the path to keep the walkers/dogs/animals away for the most part.  Rabbits don't bother a good cut trail, but dogs and people really suck, and neither really cares that they're destroying my attempts at cutting a good trail.  So the the first part is fine, but then as I get out of the neighborhood it's tougher.  Especially since me and who ever else skis started cutting the moment the snow had nearly finished falling, so when people started walking their dogs they saw a ski trail so they figured why not just walk on that since it's already packed down a bit.  Grrrrrr  So I had to recut them the second time I went out.  So combined with the trail cutting, cornering, and with always having the new path it's hard to learn proper technique because you can't really glide well, and classic sking I've learnt is all about kicking and gliding. 

Today I decided to drive to a near by driving range.  I prepared myself mentally for more of the trail cutting, but I kinda hoped some other skier had already started with a trail.  I got there and saw there were none so I started cutting the new trail.  Verrrrry slow work, it's like a super slow walk, especially when at times your skis get covered with hard packed snow.  The second loop was ok, then the third I could actually start thinking about what my legs are doing.  I watched this youtube video just before I left, this guy I think teaches it really well.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRjFcZRNR1Q check it out Cam or others that are interested in trying.  Or maybe you're an expert already Cam?  Feel free to correct me at any time if I'm wrong with this, but this is how I see it.  I've seen a few videos and at first I right away noticed that everyone kicks up at the back.  This may seem obvious to you, but it didn't for me at first.  It looked fine for them, but when I tried doing it the motion just didn't seem natural.  I'd always just kept my skis on the ground and shuffled along, we're affectionately called "Shufflers".  The people that strap skis on and walk along not sliding at all.  K, I wasn't that bad, I glide, but not nearly as much as I should and definately not with that damn'd kick.  So then I remembered buddy doing his warming up exercises.  That's when it clued in, it wasn't so much kicking back as it was pushing off one foot and lunging forward onto the other one.  As the weight transfers it forces the other foot back and with the follow through it'll kick back.  So this is what I started to concentrate on, pushing off each foot.  You see, with classic skis you got your regular wax, and then you have a grippy kicker type wax that goes in the middle.  So that when you step on one foot, the gripper wax actually touches down and it grips in the snow so you can propell the rest of you forward!!!!  Make sense?

So today I was practicing my lunging forward.  My back foot isn't kicking up much yet, but I'm gliding forward on each step as I should.  Especially as each lap around my golf driving range would cut the trail and pack it down better for me to slide on.  So for example today I skied 3.5 miles in 52 minutes.  I think that's an average of 15.XX minutes per mile.  hee hee super slowwwww.  If I look at my first mile when I was cutting most of the path it was somthing like 21 or 22 minutes.  One lap I saw was about 0.65 miles.  So each lap/mile got quicker and by the end I cracked the 12 minute mile.  Getting better, I'm seeing improvment.  I just have to think of pushing off one foot and LUNGGGGGGGGGGGINg onto the other foot as I slide.  hee hee.  I have yet to go to an actual groomed trail this year.  I think there's a golf course near by that cuts trails, maybe I'll go tomorrow.  That should be interesting.  Guess I'll have to put on the different wax as it's warming up(they got dif. kicker wax for dif. temperatures as the snow is stickier as it warms up).  Wish me luck,

DP