what kind of skiing. If it is cross country, without a doubt. If it is downhill, i would consider that only slightly more beneficial than watching golf on t.v.

xc-ski skating counts as biking 100%. just ask ned overend, davis phinney, paulo pezzo, greg lemond, etc etc. "skate and destroy" :)

downhill. but moguls and steeps half the time and groomers the other half. I definately feel fatigued after a hard run, I fall asleep watching golf, so not the same. I guess I will have to bring my HRM the next time I ski.

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moguls will give you a workout, i know firsthand, but as far as heartrate, if it is elevated i would think that would be due to nerves, more than a cardio workout. Your legs may be sore, but i personally wouldn't consider it a workout to write in a log, but i probably wouldn't feel up to a workout after skiing, just because of soreness. I feel it is a different kind of sore, if you can understand that. Just my $.02.

Actually you can get one heck of a lower body work out downhill skiing. Spend a day at Lake Placic or Mt. Tremblant and you'll know what I mean. Your legs will feel it that night.

It's snowing out right now. Means I can go x-country skiing on the trails near my house tomorrow. X-country is probably the best exercise bar none. Almost as much fun as the bike.

I think it depends upon how good of a skier you are & how hard you push yourself. I can ski cruisers all day long. It does not require enough to consider it a strength workout, and taking 5-10 minutes down for a long trail & then a 10-15 minute ride back up resting hardly does anything for endurance. A much less experienced skier, however exerts much more force to make turns and could consider this a strength session. If I am playing around in the moguls but not really hammering them then I don't consider that much different. If I am really hammering bumps all day then I would consider it a strength session.

Of course, the primary reason I started training for & doing tris was to be in better shape for skiing, so if I have the opportunity to ski instead of train, I still have my priorities straight. I go skiing regardless of what was on the training plan.

I'm not sure about how to log it, but skiing is great cross training. I ski all winter and neglect biking or running, but can jump right in in May(when the snow is finally gone in Lake Placid). Downhill seems to really help biking and cross country my running. I do a lot of backcounty skiing combining both. I did a Marathon on I think 3 long runs and a hill climb on 4 weeks of biking. I am using skiing all winter as base training for ironman and will start the specific training in late April. It seemed to work last time.

[reply]If it is downhill, i would consider that only slightly more beneficial than watching golf on t.v.[/reply]

I don't think I'd be that hard on it.

Pulling out the old Cooper Aerobic book, it looks like 1 hour of downhill skiing is worth about 1/5 the value of 1 hr of running and worth about 1/2 the value of cycling.

Of course, if you spend one hour in lift lines and one hour riding the lift for each hour of skiing, then you are pretty well killing the aerobic value.

On the other hand, spend a week heli-skiing in the Bugaboos where you spend all day in deep powder on very long runs with little waiting between runs, and you've got one hell of a workout.

Or spend your time as a ski racer and you realize that skiing works both the aerobic and anaerobic systems quite nicely. If you've ever seen the size of the legs on racers, you know they are working those quads pretty hard. When I was a college-age ski racer, my quads were bigger than my waist.

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Sorta off topic:

I think speed skating(full-body suit, slap skates and everything) looks really fun but really punishing. =)

That must be a big log!

Of course, if you spend one hour in lift lines and one hour riding the lift for each hour of skiing, then you are pretty well killing the aerobic value.


I think this situation is more likely than heliskiing, at least where i ski. I dont think there is enough of a sustained stress to consider it a true workout. Just my opinion, im not saying it is fact.