Wet & Bored? Try the Training from Hell: THE SLIDEBOARD

So, the weather here in the great Minneapolis Metro has not been conducive to rollerskiing for the past few days. What to do? Two options: cross train, or rest.

I am not going to wax eloquent on the benefits of rest (which I did yesterday). Anyone who is an athlete knows one needs rest every now and again. I am not the best--I have to force myself to do it, because exercise is my stress relief and I am a "do-er;" sitting on my butt drives me bonkers. However, I had to cross train today, because we had wet, cold, and windy. Since some of the wet included a few snowflakes, I am not going to gripe too much. At the same time, all I could think was: OK. Now what?

I am a big-time biker--my main sport. But at this time of year, I don't always have the outside option; I am not a big "let's bike in the rain" person--not even for cyclocross, which I like to do occasionally. I like to stay healthy and wet + cold + windy + not being able to get warm & dry immediately after a workout = me potentially getting sick. Enter my frienemy, The Bike Trainer.

Ugh. 30-50 minutes is about all I am good for. If, like me, you hate to workout indoors, Make it count. Whatever you do, don't do "junk miles"--be they running, biking, or anything else. BUT, if you want more specific training, might I introduce you to....THE SLIDEBOARD?

Yes, friends, the slideboard. This is a cool little thing I learned about from my speed skating buddy, Mel. She took me to the indoor workout area at the John Rose Oval one day, and introduced me to this lovely little torture device. This picture shows the basic idea:

The board is a smooth surface with "bumpers" on each end. You can buy (or make) them in various lengths. You can train either in old socks, specially-made booties, or surgical scrub booties. As the picture shows, you slide back and forth against the bumpers, and it is a leg-and-core-only workout (vs. the Ski Erg--but that's a story for another day). 

All I have to say is it is NOT as easy as it looks. It is meant predominantly for inline & speed skaters, as well as hockey players. If you turn your feet at the wrong angle, you lose your balance. If you don't push off hard enough, you just...stop. Here is a good video of how one can progress. As you see, he starts with a shorter slide (about 6 ft.), then moves to longer (about 8 ft.)The guy leaves both his feet on the board, but when you get really good, you can glide on one foot--not a technique for beginners. I tried. I looked like a penguin attempting flight. 

Your heart rate goes up amazingly quickly, and it takes a while to build up to any sort of time on it. I have to take a LOT of breaks. Mel and I did some plyos, weights, and other conditioning in between. So, you can make it like circuit training, if you have adjustable weights at home, like PowerBlocks (but you can get "off" brands cheaper, though with fewer weight options).

You might be saying "but this is for skaters--I am a skier!" Yes, this is true. But remember what you were told when you were (or are) learning how to skate ski? Glide on one foot for as long as you can. Glide on the flat part of your foot. Keep your balance. "Hop" from one foot to the other (especially on uphills). Yes, kiddies, you can practice all this fun on a slide board, all the while getting a little core workout and your heart rate up. 

They start at about $100 and can run to over $600. You can also find plans online to make your own for under $100--which is what I did. It is not quite finished. I have to drill the holes in the board & put the pegs in my 2x4 bumpers, then cushion them. But after the wet and nasty crap of today, I am very motivated to finish this iron maiden of cross training. Give it a try if you ever get the chance. I guarantee you will be sore as hell afterwards and be cussing it (and perhaps me) a blue streak. Then again, that is what the off season is for, right?

Extolling the Virtues of CAT Skiing

In one of my first posts, I talked about Classical All-Terrain skis, also known as CAT skis. As a reminder, they look like this:

The photo is from their website: http://www.catskier.com/ and doesn't show them mounted with bindings. Unless a store near you carries them (and they are few and far between), online is the best place to buy them. 

Many people will say that the CAT ski is unnecessary--that a person can get as good a workout with pole hiking and still work on their technique. This is where we will agree to disagree. 

The fact of the matter is, though I did not start taking XC skiing more seriously until I was in my late teens/early 20s, I have been XC skiing since I was 7. I started as we all do: on short skis, with basic equipment. I am old enough to be from the 3-pronged toe binding era, if that gives you any idea how long I have been doing this...

I learned to propel myself forward, how to negotiate turns, and how to fall--always a necessary skill. Some downhill skiing in my youth also helped improve my confidence on the hills, taught me how to better turn, as well as to not be afraid of eating snow. By the time I was 17-18, I got into skate skiing, and fell in love with it. Of course, my technique sucked at first, but overall, I took to it like a duck to water, and that is my main ski technique. But I never quit classic skiing.

The beauty of classic skiing is that, with cheap, wide equipment, you can go out in crap conditions and get a workout. You can go out in deep, new snow on fish scales and enjoy un-groomed terrain. You can control your heart rate easier. But, if you want to go fast or do marathons, reality kicks in, literally: you need good technique, and that means proper kick.

Oh, sure: you can use brute force to muscle through a classic event--if you have it. But, as the terrain gets tougher or the event gets longer, if you don't have good technique, it is absolute hell. 

Try as I might, and did for a long time, I could only improve my technique on classic skills so much, even with lots of official and unofficial coaching. I don't know if I just didn't "get" what was being explained, or if it was more how it was being explained. But, I would take what I had heard, try it on my own repeatedly, and still feel like I wasn't as good or efficient as I could be. 

My now-husband--who is from Texas originally, and said would never XC ski--eventually took up skiing a couple years before we got married (I finally talked him into giving it a try--on flats and fish scales at first, of course). Surprise, surprise, he loved it, and got us into a ski club so he could get better coaching than from me, for classic. He joined the classic group, & I went the skate route (of course). 

It wasn't long before he could outdo me on classic skis based on technique. I could go as long as he could, as my base has always been generally better than his, but I was pissed that he could out-pace me. I did some of the classic classes with him and got better, but still felt like he was stronger. Out of a combination of desire to have another outside fall athletic activity and pure desperation, I bought some CAT skis. 

Holy Difference, Batman. 

I used them all fall, mixing CAT skiing with rollerskiing and cycling. When the snow finally fell, of course I started with the skate skiing--easier to do on thin, man-made groomed snow (and that year Mother Nature was not kind to us skiers). When we finally got good base and deep tracks, I condescended to get on the classic skis with my husband. All of a sudden, I wasn't working that hard. My kick was right where it should have been, when it should have been, without my having to think about it. Why was that?

The simple fact of the matter is that if you don't have proper technique on CAT skis, you will go nowhere. No--really. You will literally go nowhere. You will slide on them, but not move forward. My friend Michelle tried them and got so frustrated. This is because she is a runner, and there is that big of a difference between running and XC skiing. She kept wanting to "run" on the CAT skis, and you simply can't do that. So, I learned very quickly how to move so I could move. 

It is better, generally speaking, to have a shorter "glide" phrase on the CAT skis, and mine tends to be a little longer, but I have been working on that, and now my stride is a lot more like my husband's--who also ended up getting a pair, by the way, to better prep for snow. Though he had good technique before, he feels he has gotten even better, thanks to the CAT skis. We now sound like a matched pair of metronomes when we go out together.

So, am I "dissing" pole hiking? Of course not! It is a great--and much cheaper--way to prep for classic XC skiing. All you need are good trail shoes and some old poles. And, can it help you with technique? Yes, it can. But for me, CAT skis solved my problems. As I have been skiing since age 7, of course I probably acquired some bad habits, and my preference for skate skiing likely didn't help. Coaching helped some. Dry land also helped. But the honest truth is that, if it weren't for the CAT skis, I'd still have to think a lot more about my technique. 

I am still a skate-skier at heart, and always do my marathons that way. But, thanks to CAT skis, I am actually considering something like the Seeley Hills Classic--only the 22K to start, of course. However,  a few years ago I would have never even considered a classic-only marathon or half marathon. It just sounded like too much work. It just goes to show you what a difference "getting" proper technique really makes. So, do whatever it takes to do so. You still need good wax and properly flexed skis, of course--but that is a given, in my opinion. Take that out of the equation and, for my money, CAT skis are a sure-thing. 

Braking Down

Let's talk brakes today. Not all rollerskis come with them. Some have them as accessories. The question becomes: are they worth it? It kind of depends on where and how you ski, and the wheels you use.

TYPES OF BRAKES

Pull-up  on the Handle: I get most of my skis from The Rollerski Shop. This is because they have good products at fair prices. Yeah, I know all about how Marwe is supposed to be "the ultimate" rollerski and closest to snow feel, yadda yadda yadda. However, in my experience, any rollerski (RS) that uses RS specific wheels has close-to-snow feel--at least, as close as you will ever get, when you are on asphalt. The Rollerski Shop's brake, new this year, looks like this:

It has no rubber, but as the owner clearly states, it is meant to SLOW you down. And it works at doing so (though not as well with inline wheels, for sure). I had these ancient rollerskis (inline boots mounted to a LONG skate with 3 wheels) that had a similar system, which seems to be the basis for this. The brake is attached to a handle, strapped around your waist. You pull up on the handle, which depresses the metal arch over the wheel. I like it better than the ancient skis, which had a rubber pad the handle pulled on, to get the brake to hit the pavement to stop; it was too close to the ground, and would trip me up going over anything more than small bumps.

Push-back on the Calf Brakes: Powerslide--a speed-skate company based in Germany and relatively new to the rollerski business--has their own brake, similar to others I have seen (V2). It is the "push back your calf" type of set up:

The concept is always the same: push back your calf and depress the rubber brake pad against the wheel to slow down/stop. The problem with these, I think, is that they are dedicated to the manufacturer. They mount to the shaft of the ski in a specific way. However, since shafts are typically a universal width, The Rollerski Shop brake might be more versatile (I am going to play with this later this month). 

I could post more pics etc. But the real question is: do they work? 

ACTUALLY STOPPING?

Well...sort of. The thing is, you just can't stop on a dime with rollerskis, any more than you can do so with inline skates, to be honest. And inline skaters who stop quickly don't have brakes; they are on the super-fast speed skates, and know how to "snowplow," drag a skate, or do a hockey-style stop. 

Brakes are good if you are dealing with steep downhills on which you are trying to control your speed, or you need to slow before getting to an intersection. They are also weighty and sometimes cumbersome, impeding your form a bit, or accidentally engaging when you don't mean them to. 

What Most People Do: It is well for people to learn how to "snowplow" with rollerskis--turning them inwards in a V-shape and going knock-kneed to slow down. When you get advanced, you learn to alternate picking your skis up off the asphalt a bit (while in the V-shape) to slow down. If you watch the start of this video, it is the technique right after "The Parachute." Don't ever try to fall and roll (1st technique)--you simply can't with the freakin' long shafts of rollerskis. And the rest of the video shows techniques you also can't really do with skis. 

When in a Pinch: You can roll right into the grass--but then be prepared to fall, because you decelerate very quickly. Again, it's better than falling on pavement. 

Controlling Speed on Hills: If you are able to, start at the top of a steep hill with one foot in the grass, if the drop-off is not too steep from trail/road to grass--but NEVER in gravel. The foot in the grass (usually the right one) will roll slowly enough to moderate your speed--and you can always just fall into the grass to stop, if needed (which is a lot softer than asphalt...believe me). 

However, if the grassy shoulder is untenable or inconsistent (or maybe has sharp curves you can't see around), just either walk down the hill with skis on (sideways if needed), or take your skis off and walk down the hill. Safety First!

If you ski mostly on flats, brakes are really not necessary, or are needed more if you have a lot of intersections you have to cross and you don't trust cars (which I never do). But, if you do a lot of (more steep) hilly terrain, it might behoove you to get a ski to which you can affix a brake. 

And a word to the wise: ain't nuthin' gonna' help you on wet pavement. If you want to skate in that stuff, you're on your own, pal!