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.