Birkie Class Dec. 28, 2010 Bursting Forth

For the 38 skiers who made tonight’s class there were several big discoveries [in addition to the birthdays of the Thrillsome Threesome]. One was what a difference focus can make on effort. A simple thing like were you place your eyes can help direct you down the track.
Another was breath control. When you dictate breathing effort and timing you can actually facilitate forward motion. Lastly was the visualization of a goal or target. I always raced with a TBF or Time Before Finish outlook. If the finish was at, say twenty minutes away I doled out my effort so that I too was finished…at the finish.
We saw all of that tonight and most completed the efforts strong and with a better focus than in earlier weeks, a very good sign.

Homework: With the weather likely to tank Thursday/Friday this would be a great time to do some of those balance drills. Use a mirror or darkened window and spend some time and effort there. This would be a great time to also catch up with your waxing and cleaning. With any temperature swing of thirty degrees or more waxing is more than needed but critical. The difference between our skis and a world cup skier’s is not the ski but the sheer number of times it is waxed (and used). Their [World Cup Athletes] skis may easily have 100 wax jobs on them, fast is not an accident, it is a lot of work.

Watch the weather and check with www.skinnyski.com for trail updates. If the weather really goes south remember to preserve the trails. An hour slog is not worth the potential damage to the base. On a related note the county has extended the open season on Trail Walkers, bag one today.

More news and such. The Door County Triathlon registration opens midnight on the 1st. Check out the new race video at http://www.doorcountytriathlon.com/index.php We have a skate ski class, a wax clinic and the Women’s Tea and Ski continuing in January along with the second session of Bay Nordic for kids. See www.incompetition.com for news on that.

Lastly I had a nice visit with Bryan Fish the other day. We both had a very very busy December but we managed to get a nice chat in. Bryan is a former UWGB skier and then Coach who moved on to coach the CXC Team http://www.cxcskiing.org/ He recently advanced to become an Assistant Coach with the US Ski Team. He just returned from the early World Cup races in Scandinavia. Having done the same a decade or so earlier I found it refreshing to hear that the success of the USST was not a fluke or luck but rather the culmination of hard work and preparation. In reality success in skiing is about doing the difficult work so that the effort becomes the reward, regardless of your level.

Nice night tonight. I saw much progress although you not have felt that way it is coming. We will keep pushing the bubble a little but for now get out and enjoy skiing. Next week at 5:56pm as we ring in the new year. Oh, and for you young and not so hip amongst us.

Blasting, billowing, bursting forth with the
Power of ten billion butterfly sneezes,
Man with his flaming pyre has conquered the wayward breezes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChCbewCAk-o Be more hip than you possibly can be.

Birkie Class 12-21-10 Goodnight Irene

It was quite a crowd for a snowy Tuesday night. Some folks were wiped out and just wanted to take a nap http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGd4jkaoHRg Pity the first timers as they surely felt it the next day [I feel no pity]. I am loath to assign homework but we need a jumpstart to this balance thing so here it is. Five minutes per leg 3 times per week (37 minutes) standing on a 2X2 or similar support. STRETCHED out in the technique of your choice. Do this in a darkened window (so your neighbors can’t see you) are a full mirror. Wear shorts so you can see the extensors and small ancillary muscles in your legs fire. No one has inherent balance, it must be practiced, that is why babies can’t walk, they need to learn and so it is for skiing.

Lots of news report. The Birkie registration has closed for the 2nd straight year. 8400 skiers have filled the waves and now the battle is for wave advancement. The first race that qualifies is the SISU marathon in January. http://www.sisuskifest.com/ See www.birkie.com for the complete list unless you are adept at snowplowing and falling on downhills.

Bay Nordic had 132 kids for the first session of the year last weekend. Whew! Who would have thunk that many kids would be skiing at one time in Green Bay, we might have a future Olympian out there. http://baynordic.blogspot.com/ for the web and http://shoffmanphoto.smugmug.com/CrossCountrySkiing-2010/Bay-Nordic/Bay-Nordic-12-18-2010/15131652_zKfH5#1131360507_7k23S for Steve Hoffmans photo gallery including some serious Photo Shopping.

I have a list of selected video links to look at various techniques. Good to review now that we are on snow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3Vue10ItXg&feature=related
Basic Classic Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brGZlZkCwyk&feature=related
Basic Free Skating

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yRGLRAR7QI&feature=related
Basic Step Turn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HksXxzH55pw&feature=related
V2 video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyuYflyZta4&feature=related
V1 Technique

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slpvbWO4J5o&feature=related
Step Double Pole (double pole kick)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXk0vo2HsbA&feature=relate
Classical Technique Good Overview

Lastly WE DO HAVE CLASS NEXT TUESDAY, 5:58 pm. Do you have to ask?
The snow is great and the temps moderate, this is what we wait for so get out and enjoy it. Watch www.skinnyski.com for reports and www.incompetition.com for upcoming events and be sure and sign up for our newsletter
http://www.incompetition.com/html/register.psp , it is more up to date with lots of neat stuff. Have a great Christmas holiday and then go ski. Well done this week, it was a solid effort as we build towards the Birkie.

Birkie Class 12-14-10 Gut Wrenching

I know, I know. Where is the sweat busting aerobics that we heard so much about? It’s coming and soon, but for now you will have to satisfied with that punched in the gut feeling you have now.
We have snow now and we have a lot to do so let’s get to it.
Review.
Balance: Our 2X2 drill last night looked more like the Drunk Monkey Chorus Line review. Balance needs work. Do this (Homework). Find a big mirror or large darkened window. Floor length is best. Do just what we did last night. Wear shorts (or less) and watch the muscles/tendons in your legs fire as you balance. This is a REAL TIME DRILL, which is you getting to see the response in actual time. Corrections come fast that way. Imagine skiing with a video monitor hooked up right in front of you, looking at you! Do it flat foot then with a 2X2 or even a 2X4. 5 minutes left and right, 3 nights.

I was happy with the core work we did. Even though the pace feels slow we are doing better QUALITY work than before. That will pay off. Remember that stride LENGTH is more effective than STRIDE RATE, especially as we get older.

I am working on more steps. We need some Aurora Doc’s to light a fire. Send Hartmann to management with your demands. Just kidding but the bulk of your aerobic base should come from skiing. Right now the tracks are pretty good and cold temps make classical waxing easy. Skating is slow on the desiccated snow we have and places a greater burden on your glide wax. Cold snow draws wax out of your base so keep up on it. It is doubtful that you can ski 3 days without re-waxing. Skis with a high wax count are fast skis. Put in perspective, 3% faster skis on a 3 hour Birkie skier equals 9 minutes faster. 9 minutes faster means your buddy buys the beer, what’s that worth!

Skiing: Right now most trails are open and groomed. Long is better than fast at this point. Low threshold with a strong technical focus is critical. No Christmas racers please. Check with http://www.skinnyski.com/ for reports. The Bay Nordic Youth Ski League has their first session Saturday at the Camp at 10:00am. You will note a groomed “stadium area” west of the trailhead. Give them some room and cheer them on. http://baynordic.blogspot.com/

Steve Peplinski (age 62 and the only one able to do repeated full planks) has an interesting perspective on KNOLL Training. Read that below. I am impressed with the overall fitness of the group; you collectively make me feel fat… now if we can focus that conditioning into skiing….Johnny bar the door. We start at 5:57 pm next Tue, 5:48pm if your name has an MD behind it.

Steve Peplinski writes:

Hey Dude! You got the wax!

Sometimes they scream it at me as I flash past them on the downhill. It’s always during a race. Sometimes it’s a long steep downhill, and I’m in a tuck shooting past some gently skating skiers. Other times, it’s a less dramatic pass, late in the race. A couple of years ago with only a few k to go in the Birkie, I was closing in on a skier. I watched him climb each hill, and then pulled closer on each downhill. Finally, I knew that I could pass him just over the next rise. As I glided past, he said “Boy, I wish I could change skis with you.” I smiled inwardly, knowing the secret of fast skis. I’m about to share it with you.

Is it stone grinding? Perfect base structure scientifically matched to the temperature and snow conditions? Maybe it’s using a heat box to saturate the bases. Or maybe it’s that final brushing with a brush crafted of Tibetan yak hair. It’s all of the above and none of the above. Yes, I have good wax, but in truth, my competitors probably know just as much about waxing as I do. So why do I have the fast skis? It’s simple. I ski faster. Not all the time, but I ski faster when it counts.

I watch my competition as I climb. They all look pretty strong. Some look more powerful than I. They may be pulling away from me on the uphill. But once I hit the downhill, I usually gain ground. I’m not too concerned about losing a couple of feet to them on the uphill. In fact, I prefer to. But when the crest of the hill approaches, I want to have a little bit extra to keep skiing when most everyone else is resting. I see it all the time, After a great climbing effort, skiers stand up and go into resting mode at the most critical part of the climb. Meanwhile, I’m trying out my best V2 sprint form as I crest the hill and accelerate down the back side. Once I get up to speed, I get into an aerodynamic tuck and enjoy the scenery as I close in on skiers in front of me. All because “I have better wax”. It’s interesting to see strong, experienced skiers stand up and get into a resting slouch as they get to the top of a hill. Interesting and rewarding because I know that even though they trained just as hard as me, even though they are in just as good shape (maybe better) as I; even though they may be 20 years younger than I, “I got the wax!” I’ve decided to come with an acronym for the phenomenon: WAX: Win At the Xenith” alright, zenith is the correct spelling, who knows what WAZ is. As they start their well deserver rest for a hard climbing effort, I win the downhill by the judicious application of power at the highest point of the climb.

So stop worrying that your skis didn’t spend enough time in the hot box. Forget about the shortcomings of your base prep. The way to have fast wax is to ski fast when it counts. And that is completely within your control.