XC Skiing
 

Anyone else cross country skiing in winter, when they can't ride? I'm just askin' is all.

Totally! :)

Ski racing is the most fun of all!

I love nordic skiing I do it as much as I can. It is just like hiking, I get to all my favorite spots off the trail that the ski doos and ATV's can't get to. We have also had a ton of snow so I have been having a great time here. There are many established trails but I don't use them.

I will sometimes go to the more remote area and set up shelters and have a cook out in the snow usually bringing some stew I made previously, it is great to have a warm meal out on the trail and makes the ski back much more bearable. Recently with all the snow I have been able to ski on the streets and sidewalks to get to my favorite spots, it saves me from having to carry my skis.

Check it out. Me and my son heading over to a friend's house for hot chocolate.

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/e.../firstsnow.jpg

I've been thinking about trying it because I hear it is great cross-training but it would mean getting more equipment which is more money. :( It looks like a lot of fun and a lot of fun work.

You can start with waxless skis and basic poles, boots. Craigslist man. What do you weigh and how tall are you?

X-country is great. Since the season is so short here I've turned down a ride to go.

Sure do.

I find that xc skiing makes for a nice break from indoor training. Tomorrow I will be mentally fresh for the computrainer workout. Furthermore, the full-body nature of the workout allows you to really tax the aerobic system - I maintain wicked high heart rates on the skis. Also it burns calories like CRAZY which is nice after the Christmas pig out.

Just got home from a great 1:15 classical ski. It was 0C here today (warm for us) and the VR60 was making for a fast pace. It was almost too much fun today in that I wanted to keep the pace down in order to last more than 2hours. Instead I got caught up in the speed and got fatigued only 1:15 in but averaged a nice 78% of Max HR for the duration hitting 91% at one point.

What types of skiing are you guys doing? I have only skate skied a handful of times this year and mostly do classical. However, I seem like an oddball at times as I rarely diagonal stride on the flats and mostly stick to double poll with single leg kick and hill bound. Herringbone is no fun.

I've been xc skiing 4 times. I've only done skate, and it definitely is a workout. I have terribly inefficient form, so I'm burning calories like crazy trying to keep up with my friend.
I have my first race on tuesday, and I'm hoping i'm not DFL.

I do both, just did 2hr classic today, used my Fischer Crowns (waxless) :D

Yesterday I did my first skate race, got the wax all wrong. The snow was colder than I thought, oh well, when you have one pair of skis prepped that's all you have. 15k in 50 minutes, not too shabby, not great.

5'4" - 123lb. A friend is going to lend me her skis so I will get to try it once...I just don't want to get addicted. ;) I already like playing broomball and ice hockey so if I try sit on the trainer once in a while, I'm close to filled on my free time....at least that's what I tell myself. ;)

I classic and skate. I take lessons from a former coach for Canadian Olympic biathlon,1992 Lilihammer. Good idea to learn proper technique. Great exercise to boot.

Greg Lemond gets out sometimes actually, been a bit since I've seen him though. He just adopted coupla kids.

Cool, lots of people! I just took it up, b/c I'm spending my first winter in Colorado. Skate & classic, I suck at both, worse at skate. It's hilariously difficult. Just what I need for the winter.

I did a lot of x-country skiing when I lived back east - now I do downhill, but I plan on taking a day for a "ski and shoot" on my ski week in Park City. The site was the venue for the 2002 Olympics x-country skiing and biathlon. They offer introductory sessions for amateurs, shooting sessions with air rifles with timed competitions on groomed trails. Should be a cool break from downhill.

That is a great pic!

I enjoy xc and snowshoeing for recovery. I don't work hard at it.

Thanks. :D

Went out and did a couple of loops of the meadow near my folks' place in Tahoe City over the holidays. Very mellow.

i tried it first time this january while in utah. was a great conditioner for the legs and the heart!

xc skiing isn't one of those really expensive sports, you can pick up a good pair of skis for a couple hundred dollars

Add decent bindings, poles, boots, for $250 or so. The dollar is getting trashed against the euro. Stuff is getting spendy nowadays. :(

XC as Winter Cycling Training?
 

I'm a (relatively - couple months) new cyclist in the Boston area, took it up after osteoarthritis in left hip put the kibosh on my running. LOVE it (more than I loved the running) and really getting into it and seeing progress (of the kind I never saw running). Overall it's been a great experience and a very supportive community here in BikeForums.

However; it's berloody Boston. I never really minded the treadmill/elliptical as a snow-on-the-ground standby for a run, but I absolutely despise the stationary bike. I'm definitely going to get rollers for this winter, but it seems to me a pale shadow of a replacement for "real" riding. So I am afraid of losing a lot of the gain I'm making now over the (long) Boston winter.

A friend of mine XC skis as her "stand-in" for when she can't bike, and thinks it's the perfect solution - she also thinks that it'll be easier on my hip, since there's no "pounding" of the type associated with running.

Any thoughts, experience, or "are you out of yer berloody mind"'s?

Thanks - tDH

Well I had my best result this year. 66th overall in the Mora Vasaloppet 35k and 1133th at the Birkebeiner which will put me firmly in wave 2 next year. :)

When I lived in Michigan, I rode all year. But when there was enough snow cover and cold, I switched to cross country skiing. I found it to be quite enjoyeable.

I once picked up a book that talked about the appeals of certain sports. Cyclists and cross country skiing are very similar in being aerobic and requiring a very high level of awareness. It suggested that people who like one would like the other. Also if you have cold weather cycling gear - tights and stuff, you can use that for cross country skiing also.

SInce I moved to central FL, I have not seen much good cross country skiing weather.