First Solo Rollerski, a Minor Disaster

Two women bikers asked me if I was training for
something. They thought I looked pretty funny
with my poles sticking up.

I decided to mix it up and went rollerskiing instead of running. I rode my bike to the intersection of Como Ave. the University of Minnesota Transitway, a dedicated bus route between the Minneapolis and St. Paul UMN campuses. Here, I switched from sandals to ski boots and started. The first obstacles were several major expansion joints on the north slope of the bridge across the BNSF tracks. I was thinking to myself that I would better unstrap my skis for the downward portion of this stretch. The bridge curves westward to Mineapolis and fortunately, the concrete turned into blacktop on the downward slope, without any joints.

I decided to ski to the Gopher football stadium and then do some intervals up the slope to the top of the bridge. Except for a couple of bridges with more expansion joints it was pretty smooth sailing. I was on the home stretch towards my turn-around point when I got a tad off balance and sat down, in slow motion. Not slow enough since the tip of my left thumb and the knuckle and nail of my right middle finger had a close encounter with the rough blacktop surface. The thumb tip was ripped off and my nail was neatly punctured  on the middle finger. It was amazing how uncomfortable these two small wounds made me feel. I did not take the time to scrutinize my injuries till I got home, but it felt like many more fingers were compromised.

T'is nothing but a flesh wound. Still, I did buy some full-finger
leather gloves at Menard's for my next outing.

Both fingers were bleeding profusely and I was dripping all over myself. The bicycle gloves I wore became squishy and the grip on my poles slippery. I did make an effort to do three repetitions up the bridge but then decided to get home and take care of my injuries.

The approach:

Sisu Year-Round Group 5: Classic Skiing

SISU Weekly Updates (our weekly e-mail reminder):

When: Tuesday June 6th, 6:30pm
Where: Battle Creek Water Park
What: Classic Rollerskiing
Coaches: Ben P, Mike N
Notes:Classic Rollerskiing - look out, here we come....again. More on upper body this week. Still balance drills too.

Our expectations were for a repeat of last week's training. The reality looked a little different because of the weather: at almost 40 C (102 F) it felt like training in a sauna. I am glad we did not have any bounding in the hills of Battle Creek West, that would have been harder. The squirts from my water bottle, the wind, rolling down the hill along Lower Afton Road between laps of double poling and some cold Gatorade from the coaches' ice chest provided the relief to make the session bearable.

This session included the following:

• Warm-up (if you can call it a warm-up when the temp hovers above 35C)
• 1 lap crunch double-pole
• 1 lap crunch-medium-full double pole
• 8 laps full double pole
• video review
• anther series of 7 full double poling (instead of the classic ski technique which I cannot do because I have skate-only roller skis)
• cool-down ski back to parking

Garmin Connect provides a great visual of the intervals, both in terms of HR and elevation

Coaches comments, especially during the video review were very helpful. During my first couple of laps Mike urged me to make sure to relax my shoulders. Correcting that was a matter of swinging my arms forward more dynamically. Subconsciously I must still quite afraid of falling on something other than snow and I have to work on turning this fear into something more akin of respect. Ben's comment on my hips and center of gravity being too far back made perfect sense and I tried to take that leap of faith of falling into my double pole plant. Amazing what a difference this makes. Both Ben and Mike gave me positive feedback, Mike said it's like cheating.

For next week I have to make sure I don't forget my helmet. Just as when biking or motorcycling I do not like to tempt fate ...

Sisu Year-Round Group 4: Classic Skiing

Weekly e-mail preview:

When:  Tuesday May 31st, 6:30pm  
Where:  Battle Creek Water Park
What: Classic Rollerskiing
Coaches: Ben P, Mike N

Classic Rollerskiing - look out, here we come.  Learn to do it, or specific strength DP for those more advanced.

Got myself some Pursuit Rollerskis from Rollerskishhop.com and the last pair of Salomon Pilot bindings from Backcountry.com. I do have to say that I am a little worried about this: concrete and blacktop are quite a bit harder than even icy snow. But I am trusting that our able instructors Ben and Mike will be conveying the necessary skills and I am also going invest in some protective gear.

There was a surprise when I arrived, apparently Ben had gotten hurt at the very end of our last session. He tore a muscle in his calf, just while standing and supervising us. It sounds like he won't be able to do anything strenuous for three months and sure enough, he showed up with a leg brace and compression sock.

Since I don't own classic or combi roller skis I skated. There was a short warm-up in the water park lot while waiting for the stragglers. A few wobbles but nothing too dangerous. My main issue using rollerskis for the first time was putting them on. No problem with ski one, but ski two was problematic. At the car, I sat on the back, hatch open, and later, trail side, I used a fence post for support. No real problem and shaking the skis off wasn't an issue, either.

Warm-up continued when rolling from the water park lot to Lower Afton Rd. I was a bit worried about down hills but there was nothing major. After we got to the Lower Afton Rd. lot the real work began.

Series 1: 7 reps of legs only, emphasizing glide with one ski off the ground and bringing ctr. of gravity above push-off ski.

Series 2: 4 reps of crunch double poles, working the core. No help from the arms, not too much follow-through! Of course I hadn't been listening and used my arms too much. Both Mike and Ben yelled "you're cheating." I got closer to good form in the further sequences.

Series 3: 3 reps of full arm push, crunch and follow-through.

Cool down completing the loop back to water park. There was at least one downhill with a sharp turn at the bottom. Twigs and leaves on the ground didn't do anything to increase my comfort level but I made it.

A word about my Pursuit Rollerskis: they worked great though I will invest in a pair of the slowest wheels. They did seem quite a bit faster than the Marwes, which almost everyone else was using. After getting used to being on rollerskis, they felt nimble, very similar to being on actual skis, allowing to maneuver by quick stepping. I do miss that full snow plow, though ...