Sunday, February 7, 2010

Improved Performance Over 2009-10 Ski Season

For the first time since the Como Park Championships on Dec 26, I returned there to ski. All of the rest of December and January had been taken up with skijoring, various excursions (incl. Duluth and the UP) and Sisu ski school. Mellie was quite upset that I didn't take her along this morning, but I figured that after yesterday's City of the Lakes Skijoring Loppet I deserved to ski by myself. I wanted to do it especially to gage my progress after taking the lessons with Sisu.

Conditions were perfect, the snow was not as fast as it had been on 12/26, but immediately noticed the difference. I expended much less effort and was moving better than before. I was curious to see and compare my times on the Forerunner. It was obvious.

Today, on Feb 7 (See GarminConnect 2.7.10), my average speed for 9.75 km was 15.1 km/h, while on Dec 26 (see GarminConnect 12.26.09) it had been 14.5 km/h over 9.25 km. More importantly, along with the improved speed came a drop in average heart rate from 171 bpm to 162 bpm, showing that my skiing had become much more efficient. I'd say that this clearly shows the value of the Sisu ski lessons. Glad I did it and looking forward to another course!

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