News from Steve…

Pizza Party : Just because you haven't come to class doesn't mean you can't come to the party. We'll have lots of Door Prizes donated by Now Bikes, Finn Sisu and Joes. Plus stuff from PowerBar Ride and Glide. The pizza will come from Davannis and will show up at 6:45. We'll have softdrinks and water. Feel free to bring you favorite desert, snack, salad to share. If you do something fancy let me know and I'll reimburse you for it. Ski talk and Bike talk of course. Information about what the club does in the Summer. Spouses, well behaved kids and friends/prospective new members welcome. Please RSVP so I know how much pizza to order. We'll have plenty of healthy veggie and chicken pizzas (They always go fast) and the usual as well. Don't forget awards too for most improved and Club Champions.

Birke: The Birke is next weekend. Hope to see a lot of friendly faces up there. If you race you know it's quite a spectacle. If you never seen it you should consider coming up and watching. Check with Super Domestique Jyneen on logistics of watching this event. She's my race support crew. Get your friends to come up and support you or stand near me at the start and Jyneen will handle your stuff too..

March Road Trip: Still a bit up in the air as snow conditions are questionable and it's not clear where we should go. Stay tuned.

Clothing: Be sure to pick up your items at the party. It will be harder to get them later in the year. Information will be available about the Summer purchase of cycling jersey's and the new sponsor HED Cycling, along with Finn Sisu and Now Bikes. HED will be donating several pairs of wheels and a frame for us to dispose of. I'm thinking a give away drawing and some raffle and/or silent auctions. Proceeds to go to our favorite causes. Lights, Trails, and Snowmaking. Looking for interest in Summer Jerseys, Long Sleeves too. The give aways will be for those who buy jersey's.

Powerbars: I'll have some more PowerBar stuff available. We are also going to try to get PowerBar cycling Jerseys and Shorts this Summer. If they ever get their act together and produce the stuff. So think about joining us for cycling this Summer.

Lost and Found: I still have two pair of Dryland Poles that people left at Como. I know spme people have claimed they were theirs but we never seem to remember to get them. Who's are they?

First off, it has been a pleasure and honor coaching this fine group of people. The beginner skate group developed from a bunch of people stumbling around on the skinny ski to moving across the snow at a pretty good clip --- Congratulations every one!!

Another excellent night for learning to skate. Steve S, Gene and Ed(me) had about 20 skiers in the “not so” beginner skate group. We have graduated from going backing forth on that little patch of snow to rounding the course.

Ok Lets review.

V1: 1) Three point landing –We fall to our poles with ski and poles---- landing the same time. Feel the abds work as you do a wee bit of a crunch. 2) Then Push (leg work)

V2 Alternate (Open Field) Swing out over your ski ---glide--Now fall to your poles, poling in the direction the skis is pointing (pole in the direction you are swinging to). The poling adds to the acceleration we gained in the swing. When the poling motion reaches about half way (arms are near your waste) we push (leg work) to the other side. ---the push (legs) and poling motion finish (climax J) together. Don’t be in a hurry to switch sides. If you do, your greatest potential for forward motion (i.e. your poling stroke) will be lost in rotational energy.

V2 We pole every step. No Swing! No 3 point landing!

We step off to one ski and glide 123. While we are gliding (counting) the arms recover getting ready to fall to our poles. We pole in the direction the ski is pointing…still moving in the direction we stepped off. Just as in the V2 alternate (open field) --- We fall to the poles, pole in the direction the gliding ski is pointing, when our arms reach the half way point, we push (leg work) to the other side. The push (legs) and poling motion finish (climax J) together. Balance 123 Balance 123 Balance 123.

Diagonal Skate, Single Stick, Birkie Waltz, Flying Herringbone, Crab walk……. Most people are getting this. We use a single pole plant with each step similar to diagonal stride. Pole in the direction the ski is pointing. Pole and push (leg push) at the same time. Start slow and work on increasing your cadence. The advantage of this technique during hill climbing is that we can have high cadence. Think quick and light. Don’t force it, don’t power it. Practice light, quick motions.

Speed skate (skiing without your poles) Swing your arms over the opposing ski to facilitate getting your weight (and hips) out over your skis.

We broke the group in two. One went to work on V1 on the hill at the south end of the Practice Area and the other worked on V2 and Field Skate on the flats. The snow had been groomed, just for us, so conditions were probably the best of the year albeit a bit cold. In fact the entire Bowl arera by the Zoo had a groomed loop on it. John and Steve took the V2 people. As is common this time of year we have people ski and then take them aside one at a time and give them personal attention. Ski with them, correct minor things and make sure they are set to continue the rest of the season on a good platform. This approach has worked well the last few weeks as we've wound down the season. V2 takes good balance to do properly. Once learned it's probably the easiest technique to execute because it's symmetric. The other two techniques are one-sided. V2 is really just a double pole on one foot and then the other with a skate to the side in between. It's really that simple. We broke V2 down into it's basic parts and applied them one at a time and then gradually added the parts to make the whole. The parts are: Double Pole (starting on two feet and progressing to one foot) The sideways step or skate and the arm swing. We first remove the balance problem from the equation by having the student do the double pole with both skis on the ground. Practice getting the arm swing and recovery and the sideways step/skate timing down. I generally stand in front of the student and mirror them and count cadence. Then we add the poles so we're actually moving down the trail and then we add the skate motion and "Voila" We're doing the V2..

Well, it took all season to get here, but in the very last on snow class we skied more than we had skied in any other class. The course conditions did not facilitate skiing a big loop at como, too many rocks, etc. if you tried to cross from one side to the other, so we stayed on the glacier side of the golf course.

We started off with a few easy warm up laps and then progressed to hill climbing and downhill tuck turns. After five to six intervals of this we had had enough, plus it was really crowded on the hill. We headed out to the glacier where there was more open space for skiing. We did 2 sets of 6 tabata intervals. A coworker told me about these so it seemed like fun to try. For more info go to http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/tabataintervals.html. Supposedly this is a great way to increase VO2 max. Blake and Rich were feeling a bit masochistic so they did a third set.

After we recovered we did some pace line work and then a nice cool down ski. All in all the conditions were good and we were able to get in a lot of skiing (at least 15K) in a very small amount of course.

See you all next week for pizza.

Arvid and I had 4 intermediate classical students this week. These are the die-hards who stuck out the low snow winter, and kept coming. We found just enough tracked snow at Como to do some small loops, stay warm and refine what they've picked up. I was impressed that all of them had made improvements in their technique over the last few weeks. The mantra Arvid and I have stuck with for diagonal stride has been: Weight transfer from ski to ski, forward body position and relax.

If you want to get the most from each stride, you need to get your weight on top of the glide ski, and point it down the track. As you kick, you drive your weight onto the new glide ski, keeping your center of gravity forward, rather than between your feet. There's a tendency in many skiers to sit too far back on the skis, which prevents an efficient forward drive, and forces you to put your foot down too soon, before it passes the foot you're kicking from. An upright posture with bend at the ankles, rather than the waist will give you the desired forward lean.

There is also a tendency to get too tense, so that the knees are not relaxed like shock absorbers. Skiing should be a relaxed, fluid activity, and you'll be far more efficient and faster if your body is not locked up. This comes with time and practice.

Classic technique critique

Weight too far back, too upright posture Good forward arm reach, reach backwards is not too bad Needs to get more agile and aggressive, with stronger kick. This is “bird-watching”, not skiing.

Better body position, but could keep knee bent more Needs to reach farther with forward arm, and keep pole baskets back What’s with that front pole stab?

Arm/leg combination is off. Should be diagonal reach.

Posture too upright, weight too far back. Also arm/leg timing is off, and needs to lead with his knee. Really needs to upgrade his equipment to modern bindings and pole grips.

Body position pretty good, but arms need work. Forward pole too vertical- basket should be back by foot. Needs to extend back arm. And he’ll be much more stable if he gets a second ski.

The red guy is forcing his arm forward; should be a relaxed swing. Needs to extend the back arm further. Knee bend isn’t too bad, but body could be further forward. Gray guy has weight way back, needs to get over the forward knee. But his poling is better than Red’s.

Pretty nice. Decent forward lean, but needs to drive the front knee forward.