Weekly Notices
February 22, 2010
Hello loppet group skiers. The conditions at Otway are better than ever...very fast indeed. This week we will meet wednesdy at 1630 instead of 1830, in order to get in a daylight skate ski. Great for those who can make it; we will discuss plans for this weekend's races in Smithers. For those interested, the Smithers club is providing a pasta supper on friday night, followed by a classic marathon (various distances) on saturday, and a skate marathon for sunday. This event is a highlight of the northern loppet circuit.
February 16, 2010
For Wednesday, Feb. 17: We will be classic skiing this week and due to the warmer temps as of late it is likely we could be using klisters for wax. Please bring your skate ski equipment just in case, but plan to classic. This week's melt-freeze conditions might be a good opportunity to experience challenging wax conditions.
And a reminder, Smither's annual marathon weekend is just around the corner, on Feb. 28, 29 with a classic 50km on the saturday and skate for the sunday. The following weekend is Burns Lake's 50km skate marathon. Both are excellent fun events and welcome all levels of skiers.
February 7, 2010
Check out the notice for the Bulkley Valley Marathon - two marathons (skate and classic) over two days, with distances up to 51 km on each day. Smithers has great trails and some of the best snow conditions in the province for XC skiing, so this is definitely a weekend for the loppet skier to put on their calendar.
We've got lots of time to get some training in - this Wednesday meet Nikki at 6:30 for intervals. This week is a skating technique workout. We would like to mention that skiers that want to do the alternate technique of whatever's posted (i.e. skating instead of classic and vice versa), yet still participate in the workout, are welcome.
January 25, 2010
Hello fellow loppeteers,
Following some discussion, we have decided to change loppet group practice to Wednesdays at 18:30 instead of thursdays at 1900. I hope this fits well with your respective schedules. The decision was based on a few factors, including the proximity of interval sessions to weekend races and giving our bodies' a chance to recover from such a workout in time for a saturday event, and enabling more people to join our group who are otherwise occupied on thursdays.
Hope to see you all this wednesday at 1830 and on skate gear,
Nikki.
January 20, 2010
Congratulations to everyone who took part in the Caledonia Loppet on the weekend! Despite the uncertainty about where the course went, it was a great scene out there.
Sadly, the Hallis Lake Loppet has been cancelled due to a lack of snow. What a bummer! On the positive side, their organizers are considering a 50 km marathon option for next year, which would be great. For those who love the classic technique, the next available event is the BC Cup in Prince George next Sunday. It's a chance to ski a great and challenging course that we're not allowed to ski the rest of the time; 12.5 km for men and 7.5 km for women. A great way to improve your speed for loppets.
This Thursday is classic technique. Meet Nikki at 7:00 in front of the cabin.
January 13, 2010
Hi Skiers,
Here's hoping y'all know that the Caledonia Loppet is this Sunday! It's a big turnout already. You must, however, sign up on Zone 4 by Thursday night to go in it, and it says "No exceptions!" This week at the loppet group practice (7:00 Thursday) we're skating. Intensity work will be short in duration, so we're not still recovering from it on Sunday.
January 5, 2010
Happy New Year, skiers! We resume loppet group workouts this week, Thursday at 7:00 (classic technique). This will be an important intensity workout and good practice for the upcoming Caledonia Loppet on January 17. The temperature cut-off for practices is -20C, as recorded on the Otway weather station (see this site).
December 24, 2009
Our Thursday night practices for the next two weeks fall on Christmas Eve and New Years, so we'll resume in the first week of January. This is an important time to be getting in some skiing, though, as the Caledonia marathon is only 3 weeks away.
The most important workouts are once-weekly long, easy distance skis that should be pushing a couple of hours. Check out the training plan for suggestions for intensity workouts, but the best one to start with is a half hour ski (plus warmup and warmdown) at 'Zone 3,' your loppet pace. Give 'er, but at an intensity level that allows you to keep control of your breathing and your technique. You should feel at the end like you could've kept going. The long interval is a real teacher about pacing. A half-hour +/- route that has a bit of everything is: 1) Warm up on Pine Flats, 2) start with Antlers, 3) followed by Northern Lights, 4) followed by Dog On It, 5) finish back at lodge.
December 15, 2009
See the example training plan, which has kindly reviewed by Olympian and former UNBC nordic ski coach Tuppy Hoehn. The article introduces training for cross-country skiing, and presents the training schedule that we'll be sampling from on Thursday evenings. It would be good to take a look prior to this Thursday - we'll briefly go over the concept of training zones prior to beginning our warmup.
- December 9, 2009
Skiers,
Bring classic skis for this Thursday, December 10. We'll be skiing at low intensity (your breathing rate shouldn't be so intense that can't carry on a conversation with the skier beside you), and focusing on technique. I won't be able to make it, but Barry Hagen, who has some great classic skiing tips, is going to help Nikki lead the group.
Waxing should be easy - the skiing has been great at Otway. The relatively high humidity means that breathing is easier than you'd expect, but grip waxing strictly by the temperature numbers (i.e. green) may be a bit slippery. Recommendations: Swix VR 40, blue, blue extra; Rode blue multigrade. If you find your wax draggy, you can quickly adjust it with a single thin layer of something faster on top (Swix green, VR 30).
Look here for a link to the example training plan by early next week.
John Hagen