Events: Midwest Mountaineering's Winter Expo is this weekend. It's an interesting show with all kinds of vendors and resorts and organizations there to display their products and answer questions. Snowshoeing, XC Skiing, Skijoring, Winter camping and sale prices on everything in the store. I'm heading over there Friday evening.

Coming up on Thanksgiving weekend is a clinic at Trollhaugen. No need for you to pay for instruction that you are already getting but there will be equipment demo's on Saturday and Sunday. Free to the public. Top of the line racing boots and skis. A good chance to try before you buy which is a good idea when looking at high end gear. Check the link on skinnyski.com

Wax party: The wax party is this Saturday 10am at my place in Withrow. (7 miles NE of White Bear Lake) Hands on demonstration of how to wax skis and help doing your own. I will also Base Prep people's new skis for those who are opting for the pastewax option for glide waxing. This is a good approach for classic skiers and casual skaters. Racers will want to stay with the traditional approach. Also potluck lunch afterwards. Bring a dish to pass. Drinks, Beer Cheese soup and other goodies provided. RSVP. Bring your wax and tools. I could use some experienced waxers if you'd like to help. I will have Rex Base Oil, Rex Grip Tape and some Fastwax glide wax for sale if you need some.

Clothing: I hopefully will have size samples next Tuesday. Check them out before class. I'll be up there a bit early to give us time. We need to get minimum counts to make an order. A lot of people expressed interest on their registration. Not many contacts so far. I have plenty of hats already so they are available. I will have size samples at the Wax party this weekend.

Trips: The Thanksgiving trip is full. Next comes the January trip when we go back to ABR via Blue Hills and The Birke Trail. That will be Jan 8-11. You can do 2,3, or all 4 days. We usually have people doing all 3 lengths. We again stay on the trails at ABR. That's new this year. If you opt for the full 4 days we stay at my cabin near Blue Hills (Rice Lake) Some people also grab a motel room in Birchwood for Thursday night. Let me know if you're interested. Because we are staying at ABR we don't have as much room as in the past. If I get a lot a lot of interest I can get another house in town.

Also considering a New Years trip (4 day weekend) over to Wisconsin ski areas. Using my cabin as a base and skiing at the areas nearby. (Blue Hills, Cumberland, Nordic Woods, Birke, etc) Just a head up. Will most likely be a weekend ski somewhere in the metro area as well.

Misc. Remember you can get club member's e-mail address and phone numbers by selecting Member_list on the club info page www.rideandglide.org/cgi-bin/form_input.pl. You will need a password to get anything other than just a list of names. The password was sent out in the recent e-mail. Save it. Also if you'd prefer your info not be available let me know and I will keep it hidden.

If you have questions about skiing or training or the club you can e-mail me or the coaches at coaches@rideandglide.org We have a wealth of knowledge and are happy to help. You can reach all club members at ski@rideandglide.org Remember if you do a Reply-All to a message you receive from this address it will go to everyone so unless that is what you want be careful.

Don't forget to check out www.skinnyski.com. This site is updated at least once a day with everything that is going on in the Midwest relative to XC skiing. First hand trail reports so you know where the good snow is and who has just groomed. Race results, trip reports, human interest stories. Everything skiing and, in general, everything "Human Powered" sports can be found here. Put it on your tool bar, along with our address, and visit often.

We broke the group up into those who thought they had the skate motions down pretty well and those who needed more work or hadn't been there last week. We took the group that needed a full review. Once you learn the motions we can then use them in a workout/exercise mode to reinforce them and build strength at the same time. But it's a waste of time to do hill bounding, for instance, with bad form. So we went over what we had done last week. Check out last week's newsletter. Then we moved into bounding but at a very slow level. This was to ensure that the students were doing the movements with proper form. After practicing this for a while we let them go "Full Force" at hill bounding. Just a few passes. You won't get stronger during class. That requires you to do these drills on your own. Review the positions. Move slowly at first and then pick it up to stress your muscles. It can be quite a workout. Be careful however it can also be hard on the joints. Dryland is a good way for you to be in "Ski Shape" before you hit snow for the first time. That will make skiing a lot less painful that first day.

First time on snow can be had right now. Trollhaugen over in Dresser Wi has early morning skiing. I believe Hyland does as well. And they are skiing at ABR. I know some people are heading up there this weekend. Hopefully we'll be on snow at Como after Thanksgiving.

Had an enthusiastic group this week – we headed to the picnic area and did some strength first to get the legs a bit tired before we did technique. Box Jumps, Bridge Walks, Pole-ups, Step-up and more….oh what fun. We hiked back to a hill on the golf course and began some V2 technique. We focused on landing on a driving knee, but different from V1, we now can come up on the leg, “extend the spring”- our abbs – and then explode back to the other leg. We continued to focus on beginning the poling stroke with our chin/abb crunch and finish by dropping our weight and accelerating our hands past our hips. Some V1 intensity imitation finished off the night working on skiing with the ankles/knees, and poling in a strong position.

The classical skiers broke into two groups last night. The group that Avid, Bill and I worked with did similar drills to the ones we did last week. We did a short pole hike, followed by what I'll call some "loosening up" exercises. The current guidance is that static stretching of muscles before a workout may actually reduce workout performance, so our warm-ups did not include stretches. This is not to say that stretching is not a good thing. Stretching in the morning, or after workouts can help loosen tight muscles and improve flexibility and muscle tone.

We followed this with the ski hopping drill, with emphasis on forward lean from the knee and ankles, weight centered over the glide foot and explosive weight tranfer from side to side. We followed this with intervals with poles. This week we placed more emphasis on poling - not over-reaching, and using the big muscles in the shoulder and back to push through with the poles. There is a tendency with many skiers to try to pull themselves forward with the poles, instead of getting the maximum leverage from pushing the poles through.

After more plyo drills, we did a cool-down pole hike back to the parking lot. Hopefully, we'll be doing the real thing on snow, rather than drills soon. But when the snow comes, we'll be better prepared from having done some ski-specific training in advance.

Q- Is it normal that my arms really hurt?

A- Cross-country skiing is a full-body workout, and if you don't exercise your arms during your daily life or previous exercise sessions, they will feel the stress that comes with poling. In addition to the dryland workouts, you might spend extra time in the weight room, using many sets of light weights. Or even moving 3-pound weights while watching television.

Q- How should I dress for the Tuesday night session?

A- It depends on the weather, whether you sweat a lot, and whether you are inherently a "freeze-baby." The Tuesday night sessions include a mix of action and passive learning. By now you may have a feel for what your instructors do, and whether you are working up a sweat. Use the dryland sessions as a chance to practice the wonder of layering. If you get too warm, take off the outer layer. (Just don't forget it when you move on.) If you are chilly, swing your arms or do more repeats of the drill. And remind yourself you are conditioning for the really cold temps next month. But general rules include wicking baselayers, free-motion mid-layers and some sort of outerlayer. Gloves are necessary to protect your hands from the pole straps.

Q- How can I contact the instructors if I have questions outside of class?

A- Steve has the member list (both participants and the coaches) posted on the web-site, on the registration page. He previously sent out the member password, allowing you access to the database. Remember- if you don't want your contact information posted, please contact Steve and let him know. Steve may also add a forum to the web-site, where the quuestions can be shared with the rest of the group. With a group this size, if one person asks a question it usually means that 4 others were too shy to ask.

Words from the editor - Shad Holland

My work borders Hyland park. When snow flies, I go pick up mara during lunch once or twice a week (her work is fairly close) and we ski Hyland. The best part about this is that we get to have some daytime skiing, which is generally warmer and....uhm....it's well lit.

I recommend this for people who have a flexible work schedule. It's really cool to be able to take a couple of hours off in the middle of the day, then come back to work and work a little later into the evening......heck it's dark and cold by that time anyway.

Now on to nagging......which I never really thought I was good at until now. If you have pictures, videos, or anything else you would like to share, please send them to me for the Newsletter. This goes for coaches too. If you have any instructional videos you know are on YouTube, MySpace, or somewhere else on the Internet, or your own, please share this info when you feel it is time. My contact info is always at the bottom of the Newsletters.