Out skiing today and I can’t believe how much I’ve regressed. I mean, I did some tris last summer including a HIM and continued to work out with some good workouts in November. But today, skiing, my thighs were worn out in short order, I was sucking for air and managed to eject from my skis 3 or 4 times. OK, I was skiing blacks at Louise and it is early season so ejections are generally because of rocks grabbing skis but still, felt like a neophyte out there. I had thought this training would have done more good.
While some of it4 is different muscles, a lot is using fast twitch vs slow twitch muscle fiber.
Haven’t skied or boarded in years since I live in HI but booked trip to Whistler for Mar when we were there biking in Sept. Plan to alpine three days and Nordic another two. I’m ex-ski patrol alpine, ex-Nordic racer(biathlon so both skate and classic) so basic skills exist. What would you suggest for dry land conditioning beyond running and biking?
Haven’t skied or boarded in years since I live in HI but booked trip to Whistler for Mar when we were there biking in Sept. Plan to alpine three days and Nordic another two. I’m ex-ski patrol alpine, ex-Nordic racer(biathlon so both skate and classic) so basic skills exist. What would you suggest for dry land conditioning beyond running and biking?
Roller-skiing or inline skating with poles. Plyometrics (though I don’t do these myself). Wall-sitting. Balance exercises, including on movable or yielding surfaces. Strength training in general.
Here’s some video motivation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENJ7BFnxVJg
Interestingly, horseback riding and skiing uses many of the same muscles and instincts - there’s a lot of crossover. As a life long rider, I found that I took to skiing very easily. I had the muscles and the balance.
Of course, horseback riding is just about as hard to access as skiing, so not really a good option for cross-training 
Moved my inline skates to HI 6 years ago and haven’t used them. That size wheel needs relatively smooth pavement and that is in short supply. There are some paths I can check out see if they are okay though knowing that there are sections broken up be tree roots. New path out by Laie might work. Saw some roller skis in a DisneyWorld parade with what looked like about 6 in wheels that looked interesting. They had alpine boots and bindings on them. Should go check out Reliable Racing’s website I guess:-)
Since you have a background in both alpine and cross country skiing I would not be to worried about the technique. You will find the snow feeling quite fast. Here you have my advice based on my experience as a cross country coach and alpine instructor (my first job in the US 
Cross country skiing:
Make sure you have some endurance strength in your upper body. If you have been swimming, SUP or surfing you should be good. But some ski specific strength training can be good.
Make sure you have good balance, do some core work if you have not been active in a long time. If you have been surfing you are good
Best interval training for cross country skiing is elghufs/moose walk. Just check youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85kG3r8gYWI
Alpine skiing
Balance is important just like cross country skiing.
Do some strength training on your legs.
Aksel Svindal can give you some good tips http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIdYjw3u7M
moose walk= bounding with poles.
Forgot about SUP, have a board so can do- that was helpful.
So basically general strength training and good core work. Black Friday gift to myself included a TRX so that should help with strength and balance work. Maybe it’s time to pick up a bosu too.
BTW- thanks for posting video links for Trollvegen, that looks awesome and butt kicking challenging.
Squats are your friend. With weights if you have them. Also one legged ones to help with balance and strength. Burped come to mind as well.
I find with steep uphill treadmill running and doing one leg weight with dumbells in each hand (balancing on one leg at a time) and the transition to snow is pretty good. I don’t find cycling does anything useful because there is zero weight bearing involved and zero balance. As Halvard said if you are swimming you should be OK. I find swimming much more upper body intensive than XC skiing (I don’t think I’d last 4-6 hours in the water using my upper body all that time, but I can on skis).
Dev