Racing: The core of the race season is upon us. There have been a few early races but the big ones are on the horizon. If you'd like to try a local, small, unindimidating race check out the Marine Race at William O'Brien this Sunday. One or two lap events on the best trails in the Metro. Click here for more information.

Next up is the City of Lakes (COL), The Mora Vasaloppet and then The Birke. The COL can still use volunteers. Check out the opportunities on their website at www.cityoflakesloppet.com Be sure to go to the website and see what's going on COL weekend. Lots of events of interest even to non-skiers.

The Luminary Loppet has really become popular. It's an event you should really check out....go here!

If you participated the Mora bulk signup you should have received a confirmation in the mail. If not let me know. I have checked with the race people and you all seem to be registered.

We'll have Race Practice groups the next few weeks on Tuesday nights. High Test and Low Test groups. So don't worry about being out of your element. A good chance to ask questions of our race savvy coaches and get some tips on race strategy and course management.

For you non-racers there's always watching and cheering and race support. If you'd like to come along to Mora and drive cars to and from the start and watch and cheer at a great small town event or anything at the COL or Birke let Jyneen know (A crew of one). Our idea of a R&G Race Support Crew fell on deaf ears. Interesting idea, no response. Just as well ;-(

Only 4 class sessions left in the season. The last official teaching class is Feb 10. Then the Pizza Party will be Feb 17th.

Clothing: Hopefully the clothing will be here by COL weekend. You can pay when you take delivery of your items

Powerbars: If you need Gels for races be sure to pick them up on Tuesday nights. I'll have a supply with me each night. I've got Vanilla, Raspberry, Carmel, Chocolate (a few), and Latte. Let me know what to bring. If you need bars pick them out of the box on Tuesdays. I've got some drink mixes too if you need them for races or workouts.

Steve's Report

We had 3 instructors, we loaned Jon Kosbab to the Beginner Group. We split up into 3 groups so each coach had his own people. Here's Steve's report. Before the group split up we decided to do what everyone should do more of and that's "Ski Without Poles" Se we skied the course all the way over to the top of the Back Bowl Entrance Hill without poles. Really good for your legs and your skate motions. I admit I don't do enough of it myself. That got us good and warm, my legs were tired the next day. After the split up I took my group down into the bowl were we practiced using the legs while climbing hills and negotiating the downhill corner at the bottom of the hill. The snow was so good that we could really work on the legs without stalling out. It was that fast and perfect a night. We worked on doing a big as possible (as hard as you can) leg push while skiing slowly up the back bowl hill. This helps you get the feel for what it's like to push with your legs while climbing. And because it was so fast and compliant we could do big skates on both sides as we climbed. Skating with both legs is the ultimate goal of a good skier when climbing. The conditions really helped with that concept. We then tried other methods of climbing like "Crab Skate" and "Jump Skate". Again just to get the feel of how the legs can be better used in climbing. Too many people climb with too much arm and not enough leg when they V1.

Now that we were good and tired we went over to the flats in front of the downhill slope and did the standard V2 workout. The more proficient of the group tried Aggressive V2. With big, hard pushes and long glides and full body weight commitment. Basically pushing their comfort zone during V2. Again the conditions made this doable as they were so good. The rest did my standard V2 Progression for the Recovery V2 Technique. We finished up the night with some cornering and sidehill work using the Marathon Skate and called it a night.

Shad accused me of bad wax and being slow on the downhill trip over to the flats, I accused him of being Fat (er, weighing more than me) All in good fun. It was a great night. Good session guys!

Tom's Report

I had a fairly small group (3 skiers). We did a lot of things during the night--V1 review, marathon skate and V2. One thing that seems to help was skating w/o poles. We clicked boots after each skate to emphasize getting all the weight on the gliding ski. We then did a few pole-less skates, followed by the few V1's with pole pushes followed by more skates, etc. to help get the "skate" back into the V1.

We finished with a review of double poling and the V2. See previous news letters for a description.

John's Report

After the warm up ski we broke up into smaller groups. Our group wanted to do some speed work. We started by talking about body position and balance necessary to get into correct position for v1 and v2. Good powerful compressions utilizing larger muscle groups.

We skied over to the lights by the ski hill. We started with some double pole work focusing on a bent arm (answering the phone) and powerful compressions. We worked into v-2 with some double pole plants on each ski, hops after compression, and v 2 up the ski hill. Balance is a common issue and greatly limited dynamic compressions when we double poled with weight on one ski or twice on a side. Everyone was able to do the correct movements in isolation but putting them together on moving skies is our challenge.

At the end of the night we mixed it up with the advanced group. We did 4 max effort mass start double pole races over on the flats by the parking lot. This was a great work out with experience for the folks that will do some racing this year.

The small group was nice and we got some great technique work.

Advanced skate had a fun, big group. We started out with a 3 step progression for V2a. Started with a good double pole, followed by a deep long push that begins with a good preload, finished with a good relaxed, quick, uninterrupted pendulum return to the original ski. We then headed to a the bigger hill where we worked on the different body positions you use depending on speed and if you are V2ing or doing a V1 etc. It was fast so I challenged everyone to really slow their tempo, use strong, forceful, purposeful pushes and V2 the entire big climb by the snowboard hill…they did it! Hills don’t require fast tempo, just “quality movements”. We finished the night with some “race start” double pole sprints in the teaching area that helped fuel our fire for the competition season that is upon us.

Todd and I divided up the beginning classical group into two groups. One group wanted to work on hills and the other group wanted to ski (imagine that!). The tracks were in good shape and with a temperature near 20 degrees, it was a great night to be out on the course. I led Theresa, Sarah, Ann, and Beth around the entire Como course--hills and all. We practiced stepping in and out of the track going downhill and turning at the bottom of hills. The group gained confidence going down hills and did great! No falls. It was a fun night of skiing.

- Jenny

Como Championship Revived- Mike Baker

Ben Popp, Ride N Glide Coach and owner of Endurance Athlete; Bob Sumada, Ride N Glide student and owner of Now Bikes and Fitness; Ahvo Taipale owner of Finn Sisu, Bruce Adelsman of Skinny Ski and a host of others helped to revive the Como Championship Ski Race on December 27 at our home Ride N Glide training course. The Como Championship was last run in 2001. Early morning grooming, marking and adjustments to the Como course allowed a 5 k High School race and a longer 10 K citizen race under challenging conditions. This was a mass start skate race with separate starts for Women, High School and Men separated by 1 minute intervals. John Schmitt, Voice of the Birkie for over 20 years, came out of retirement to call the race. Support from sponsors and the modest race fee make it possible to donate over $1500 to High School racers.

It was a relatively fast race with a few pile ups at the start, a small number of mishaps along the way and some great racing under conditions that varied from well groomed snow to frozen ice/snow to glare ice to slush to standing water. It was a thrill to see the enthusiasm at the start, excitement in the turns and fast sprints as almost 150 racers crossed the finish. I skied the course about an hour and a half after the last finisher and following a 10 degree drop in temps - I marveled at the control and skill of the finishers on the difficult terrain! Consider this race for your calendar next year. Results and more photos at www.skinnyski.com

Registration

The Start

Three St Thomas Academy skiers, happy to have finished

The overall winner Simon Reissmann finished 1:13 ahead of second place

Ahvo Taipale (left) and John Schmitt

Ben Popp at the timing vehicle

Boulder Lake (1/11/09) - mara larson

BLAH!!

Classic Poling Tips - Eric Snider

On double-poling for classical You might hear that double-poling is faster on flats, slight declines, and slight inclines (when in good tracks) than diagonal striding. But your might not believe it. Test it to see if it is true in your experience. Here is what I did.

On a flat groomed loop track (I did it on a 2.5 km groomed loop on a lake), double pole the loop. Time yourself and, if you have a heart rate monitor, check your average heart rate (no HRM; then think about how hard you are breathing). Then diagonally stride the loop, taking your time and average heart rate (or subjective gauge of your breathing effort). If your techniques for both double poling and diagonal striding are equal in terms of skill, you might find double poling faster with less energy output.

My test results: I double poled the loop in 10:57 with a average heart rate of 118 beats per minute. I diagonally strided the loop in 12:30 with an average heart rate of 133 beats per minute. The second was significantly slower with noticeably higher energy consumption. I did this two days in a row, and results were similar.

Try it, and if your results are similar, consider adding more double poling technique to your ski outings. It might save just enough energy, if you use it when appropriate, to enable you to go a bit longer, or cover the same distance a bit faster with less exhaustion.

Words from the editor - Shad Holland

Last weekend was some awesome skiing at William O'Brian and Theodore Wirth. Light fluffy (yes I just said fluffy......as in "fluffy bunny") snow flakes and warmer temps than we had the previous week. Last year was good, but this is the best year skiing since I started skiing 4 years ago! Take advantage of this winter and get out there as much as you can.

This weekend is the Governor's Cup. I currently plan to race in it.....but it's going to be cold and I really don't like the lack of good glide in colder temps, so might chicken out. mara will likely not chicken out......so will be there either way.....racing or doing support for mara and our friend Will.

If you plan to race this weekend, please be careful and take extra precaution in the cold. For you newer racers. Keep in mind the cold snow has much less glide. This means you will be out there in the cold a lot longer than you may think. Add an extra hour to what you think your time will be and prepare yourself for that. We want all Ride & Gliders to remain in good health.