Its been a bad season so far. Finally with enough snow to ski around me. I feel way behind on training for the Birkie!

I have a total of two long skis in. My Birkie is going to a be long slog. I might bring beer in my pack.

You da man Fleck. I am lucky on a good day to get 8k.

I have got 12 days on skinny skis so far this year. We had late snow here in New England. This weekend I did 13 mile skiis on both Saturday and Sunday. It's great to be out! We have more snow coming tomorrow night and hopefully this weekend.

Nordic is the superfood of exercise flavors.

Good for you, I want to do CSM one of these days. We skied at arrowhead before the pandemic (we are from Buffalo) at really enjoyed it, then hit hardwood on last day, always a treat.

 
"Nordic is the superfood of exercise flavors"


This so eloquently sums it up. Nordic skiing is the absolute king of aerobic sports - nothing else puts so much demand on so many parts of the body!

Plus as I have become older and no longer really competitive any more, something else about it has become important for me and it's always been this way - it makes me look forward to Winter!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Racing came late to Southern Ontario as well: we just had our first Nordic Ski race on Saturday in Orangeville. It was limited to U23 and younger categories but roughly 120 kids got out there for "the best race of the last 22 months".

There's races in Parry Sound and Owen Sound in just under 2 weeks. Sometimes it's fun to toe the line for something different, with no expectations other than to get a good workout in.

I had been thinking about it that way because I see higher way HR values relative to perceived exertion while skiing. It just seems like its doing you more good than the mental effort it requires. I also see higher HR values than swimming, biking and even running.

Also after last season of 32 times on snow I came back into tri season with higher threshold levels even though I had not ridden much in the off season. This year I am going to try to maintain running and swimming at a more consistent level, but other than a once a week spin on the trainer Nordic will be getting 40-50% of my volume and probably 90% of my intensity.

The problem for most people with Nordic is that its like adult onset swimming (adult onset skiing (AOS)) in that its a technique sport thats hard to learn. Further, only 10% of the US population lives within daily driving distance of nordic ski accessible areas. Canada is better. In hte US it will never really be anything other than a fringe activity. I am super lucky to live 10 minutes from trails, with 2 other major systems also within 35 minutes. My closest trail system is putting in a 2.5k nordic snowmaking system so we will have more consistent early season snow starting next year.

we were slow to start around here - but now its solid.

I have about 12-13 days on snow so far.

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I love nordic skiing. It's probably my favorite form of exercise. But it seems increasingly unpredictable climate and weather-wise.

I always underestimate how much upper body is involved. I think I've improved in my appreciation of that but it always takes me by surprise when I start again for the season.

I do skate skiing almost exclusively because at some point I realized I "got it" more but have been thinking of trying classical again because the trails are usually different -- the classical trails are more intimate, "wilder" because they can be narrower -- and I miss them.

We've been lucky here in Minnesota with a pretty good winter. I've been getting out pretty consistently since the beginning of December. Unfortunately that also comes with a month straight of sub zero temps

I had been thinking about it that way because I see higher way HR values relative to perceived exertion while skiing. It just seems like its doing you more good than the mental effort it requires. I also see higher HR values than swimming, biking and even running.


At some point I just give up looking at the HR while skiing - particularly Skating in hilly terrain. Skied 35km on Sunday (Skating) and I spent close to an hour in Zone 4 (by HR)!! Generally this is not advisable, but you go with the flow and you are having such a good time doing it, you hardly notice you are going that hard!

I find with the Classic Skiing I can keep the HR more in control - so for longer skis where I want to keep HR down, I'll tend to chose to go Classic.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I love nordic skiing. It's probably my favorite form of exercise. But it seems increasingly unpredictable climate and weather-wise.


Indeed. We are at the southern fringe of where it's "predictable" in Ontario and even that is all over the place. Good snow this year came about a month late. In the best years we are skiing by Mid December or at least by Christmas. Our first day On-Snow day this winter was Jan 8. There was skiing before that, but it was rock-skis only on limited trails with mud grass and rocks. I'm into it, but not THAT into it. I will wait for the good conditions.

We usually then have very good snow conditions through until mid to late March. My last ski last year was the 3rd week in March!

We are now in the middle of a January cold snap with temperatures between -15C and -20C, so digging through the wax box for the cold glide and grip waxes!! :-)

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog