Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Wrap-Up to the Winter Season

I actually started to get sick of cross country skiing.

Twice a week since December sure paid off. But too much of anything is sometimes not a good thing.

Until I got Spanky into it.

                                     

This was right before she let fly with that little thing in her hand.


And I even talked her into trying a race, the third time on skinny skis.



The good news is, she wasn't last. Not bad for a rookie. The better news is that she likes the sport. So we did a little 4 mile round trip from Mt Bachelor to Todd Lake.



On the way back, though, her blood sugar plummeted. Made for a long slog home.

If you're still debating the merits of Nordic skiing for fitness, consider this: I've run exactly 4 times since the Portland Marathon in October, yet two days ago I set a personal best for a 5k race at 22:09. That's 30 seconds faster than I did at the end of last summer, a full season of training. All I've done over the winter is two fitness classes and the cross country skiing each week. And a bit of cycling on the rollers.

True, the fitness classes are brutal; lots of lunges and plyometrics and core work. The skiing is harder. But it all helped get me ready for the running season.

Incidentally, that personal best goes back to pre-1990. I don't recommend taking 20 years off.

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