Why Ski?
How to Ski
Where to Ski
With its beauty and peace, winter is a special time. It’s also the only time of the year that I can do one of my favorite things - cross-country ski. If, like me, you simply love experiencing nature throughout the year, then I can’t imagine anything lovelier or more ideal in many ways than beginning the training year with some cross-country skiing. With just a little investment in equipment, you have another great way to get in a fun but highly effective workout. Here are some tips for getting the most out of the sport.
Why Ski?
Every year, I include cross-country skiing in my winter workouts to build endurance and muscular strength for my next, more-running-specific phase of training. I choose skiing because it’s a great complement to running and because the beauty and fun of exercising in a winter wonderland gives me new mental energy for the training year ahead. It’s just such a fun workout!
When I was preparing for spring marathons, I would do up to three weeks of skiing on very hilly terrain. I would go right from this ski training to focused marathon preparation without a hitch. My coach, Dieter Hogen, used this method with many athletes. For years, junior runners he coached would do two weeks of cross-country skiing, then immediately switch to two to four weeks of running soon before the national indoor track championships. Many times, they had remarkable results, winning their races and setting personal bests. As was the case with me going right into marathon training, these athletes said that cross-country skiing left them mentally refreshed and feeling stronger, and they had no muscular soreness when they started running.
Running history is full of tales of other athletes who cross-country skied relatively close to a competition and prospered. Ingrid Kristiansen, a former world record holder in the marathon, was known to ski throughout the winter in her native Norway. Because of an injury, American Bob Kempainen did much of his training before the 1992 Olympic Marathon Trials on a cross-country ski machine, and still made the Olympic team. Research supports this anecdotal evidence that cross-country skiing provides a great workout. Stephen Seiler, Ph.D., is an exercise physiologist based in Norway who has studied (and competed in) running, cross-country skiing, rowing and cycling. He notes that during cross-country races of 5 to 30 kilometers, elite skiers work at as high a percentage of their cardiovascular maximum as do cyclists doing time trials and runners doing races of similar length. In fact, Seiler reports, “some skiers will reach slightly higher heart rates during a race climb than during a maximal treadmill running test. What this tells us is that the top skiers are working at 100% of [their maximum] many times during a race. When a downhill segment comes, the heart rate drops, but not as much as you might think. Even though oxygen demand for downhill skiing is much lower, the skier doesn’t get much of a break. That heavy oxygen deficit accumulated during the climb is being repaid during the fast downhill, so heart rate may drop only 20 beats. Then we are on a flat. Now heart rate climbs again, to 10-15 beats below max.”
Cross-country skiing is also an excellent substitute for running if you’re injured. It offers all the familiar virtues, but because you’re not getting the jarring effect of foot strike as in running, it’s definitely easier on the joints. So anyone who wants to give their tendons, ligaments and joints a break or has to stop running because of injury can do weeks of cross-country skiing (or ski on rollers) without fear of missing out on their pre-season training or preparations for a marathon.
Last but certainly not least, cross-country skiing is ideally suited as training for general fitness. If you begin your season with cross-country, covering big distances at low intensity will lay a solid base for specific training for running later. It’s also been shown that you strengthen more muscle groups than with running. Stomach, back, arms, chest and shoulders all get a tougher workout. At a moderate intensity, you’ll burn roughly the same number of calories cross-country skiing for an hour as you will running for an hour.
How to Ski
The classic or traditional style of cross-country skiing is an outstanding training aid for developing strength and stamina. How you move is very similar to running. The leg swings forward, makes contact with the ground, then moves over the body’s center of gravity and drives off again. Cross-country skiing over undulating terrain with the weight of equipment, boots and skis, as well as the resistance of the snow, develops a great deal of strength.
Freestyle, or skate skiing, has become much more popular in recent years, and many ski centers now groom trails for skate skiing alongside the trails for classic skiing. As you’ll know if you’ve watched freestyle races in the Olympics, it’s possible to go up to 15 percent faster when skate skiing compared to when classic skiing. (The difference becomes less when conditions are worse, such as the snow being wetter.) Another way of saying this is that skate skiing is more economical than traditional skiing. Seiler notes, “Heart rate, perceived exertion and lactate accumulation are all lower at similar intensities while skating compared to diagonal striding.” Experts speculate that this difference is because more of the work you’re performing while skating goes toward moving the skis forward, and also because of less gripping wax on skate skis leading to decreased friction on the snow. The important thing to remember about this difference is that if you choose skating over traditional skiing, you’ll want to make sure you’re working hard enough to sustain a good workout.
A training schedule for cross-country skiing is very similar to that for running, so you can carry over your basic running schedule to cross-country skiing—long days, hard days, recovery days and so on. The only real difference I make is that I spend more time skiing than on an equivalent running day. One reason is that you’re gliding or going downhill for some of your ski session, so you get little breaks you don’t get in running. A bigger reason is that I can—because there’s so much less impact skiing, it’s not nearly as stressful on bones and soft tissue as running. I usually spend 50% to 100% more time skiing than running; for example, on a day when I normally run for an hour, I’ll ski for 90 minutes to two hours.
As for clothing, there’s very little difference in what you’d wear for running on cold or snowy days. Depending on the session, whether it’s a very long ski or a shorter, more intense session, and what the weather’s like, you’ll need gloves, a ski hat, sunglasses, a tracksuit top and, above all, leggings to protect your thighs against the wind.
Concerning nutrition, drink a lot and take in enough carbohydrates. Neither point is anything new for a runner, but they’re absolutely essential when you’re out doing a long cross-country ski session.
A good support for cross-country skiing is a light yoga program. The two activities complement each other well—you can take the peace and serenity you find on a beautiful winter trail and apply it to yoga, and vice versa. OurYoga for Performancesm program is a great starting point for a practice that will help your skiing.
I hope you have a great time if you’re going off in a group of cross-country skiers, doing long sessions and exciting competitions. Enjoy every bit of skiing and the snowy landscape…perhaps have some mulled wine or hot chocolate in a ski hut afterwards or back at home. To crown the experience, why not go for a sauna, rubbing yourself down with snow between hot and cold baths.
Where to Ski
For starters, of course, anywhere with snow! With a little cooperation from Mother Nature, you can find plenty of places close to home for traditional cross-country skiing—golf courses, bike paths, sometimes even your neighborhood. Groomed trails are usually easy to find, too, and many sites offer a season pass for less than $100. If you really get into cross-country skiing, here are a couple of suggestions for a skiing holiday.
In the U.S.
The Devil’s Thumb Cross-Country Center, in Winter Park, Colorado, has 105 kilometers of trails designed for both skating and gliding style. The routes give wonderful views of the Rocky Mountains. Snow Mountain Ranch offers 100 kilometers of prepared trails in open, wooded, hilly or flat terrain, including a 3-kilometer circuit lit for night skiing. This area is 8 miles west of Winter Park. Check theWinter Park Web site for more information.
Located a short drive from Lake Tahoe, California, the Royal Gorge Resort has the largest groomed track system in North America, with 330 kilometers of trails. You’ll be assured of a good workout, because the resort is located at 7,000 feet of altitude in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Warming huts along the trails sell soup, hot chocolate and other snacks for when you need a breather. For more information, visit the Royal Gorge Web site.
The Craftsbury Outdoor Center, in Craftsbury Common, Vermont, was recently voted one of the ten best groomed skiing sites in North America by the members of the U.S. national team. Situated in northeast Vermont, the center guarantees snow from January through early March, and puts on several well-attended races. Craftsbury’s dining hall is famous for serving healthful vegetarian fare made primarily from local ingredients. See the Craftsbury Center Web site for more information.
See the Web site of Cross Country Skier for more locations in the U.S.
In Europe
Seiser Alm in the Italian South Tyrol offers wonderful conditions for cross-country skiers. The biggest high plateau in Europe with 55 square kilometers at an altitude of 1700 meters has about 60 kilometers of man-made tracks for classic and freestyle. Seiser Alm also has alpine ski lifts. If anyone wants demanding alpine pistes as well as cross-country circuits, Monte Pana is the place. The region is easily reached from the hustle and bustle of the Super Dolomites and offers about 25 kilometers of long-distance tracks. In addition, the routes are only a few kilometers away from the cross-country tracks of Seiser Alm. Seiser Alm is well known as a ski region that gets plenty of sunshine and has spectacular views of the Dolomite mountains. Check theSuperski Web site or go to www.seiseralm.it for more information.
If you want to try Nordic skiing in its homeland, we recommend the following options: Sälen in Sweden, Lillehammer in Norway or Levi in Finland. At each of these destinations you’ll find a huge network of cross-country ski trails.
For more information about the physiological demands of cross-country skiing, see this page on Dr. Stephen Seiler’s Web site.
