Rollerskiing on a Friday Night

Marching - or rather, rolling - orders for tonight: 45 minutes.

I set out into some major wind and threat of rain. There had been at least 20 mph winds all day, so again the hubby (and his bike) and I set out for the Gateway Trail, which has a good deal of shelter, thanks to the surrounding woods and trees. We arrived at the trailhead around dinnertime by design, hoping that the foul weather and folks being home around the table would keep things quiet and low volume. We guessed right!

I definitely felt better right off the bat than my last attempt. The thanks goes in equal parts to (1) my new poles and proper Velcro wrist wraps, (2) being ready to ward off the attempt of my feet to stabilize me, and (3) muscle memory, of course.

I did quite a bit of good old double-poling, trying to maintain good form. I had watched the video at Thorax Trainer numerous times in the prior days, and tried to burn that perfect motion into my brain. Double-poling is a bit like swimming - well, I keep realizing that cross country skiing in general is - in that it is highly, highly technique-driven. You may THINK you’re going through the exact same motions as someone fast and fluid, but the subtle differences are there and make a huge difference in efficiency, power and speed.

Had my first tumble. Very mild, thank goodness, more of a tip-over onto the grass than an actual crash. Getting up again was surprisingly complicated! Of course, not being to quit laughing didn’t help me get up any more quickly, but even though the "sticks" of rollerskis are much shorter than full skis, getting them untangled took a bit of doing.

Tried a bit of diagonal stride, but that isn’t coming very fast. I’m getting better at keeping my skis under me so I can "kick," but . . . I only can do bits at a time, when I come to inclines. I was a good deal better at keeping the skis from winging off to the sides at the front or back, however. So that’s good. One of the coaches at my wintertime ski club and I were corresponding today, and he put the fear of the skiing gods into me as regards rollerskiing and diagonal stride. He talked about how terribly difficult classic rollerskiing is, especially maintaining balance. Thus most people end up sticking to strictly double-poling. Most importantly, he warned me against "the dreaded late kick." It’s easy to let that happen with rollerskis, apparently. Hopefully I’m on guard now and will stay OVER my skis. The last thing I want to do is get into bad habits on rollerskis which carry over into my actual skiing. Nightmare!

It was definitely time to call it a day by 45 minutes. Instead of my feet being tired this time, my shins were. So bizarre. It’s as if my body is gradually working its way up to the proper stabilizing muscles - my glutes. I’ll get there.

Despite the cooler temps and high winds I overdressed, as it turns out. With every new sport, it takes some trial and error to learn what to wear. I’ve learned that with skiing, I need to choose my clothes as if I’m running. Not that I yet trust that 100% (to my detriment). With the wind and decreased effort (ha, not so much), I thought I’d be MUCH cooler than if I were running. Wrong! I was a little too warm (note to self).

The capper to the session was a rollerblader passing me headed the other direction as I was double-poling back to the car, the gusting wind occasionally blowing my right pole right into my leg. "The Birkie’s only a few months away!" he called. That gave me a great laugh.

Session 3 coming up tomorrow night! Whee!