Classic tracks, what is ideal?

What is really the ideal distance between the skis in classic tracks? In Norway we have been skiing with 21 cm between the center of our skis for many years, not really thinking about why the distance is 21 cm and if we should change it. However, other people have been thinking about this, and this christmas they have tested 17 cm at Sjusjøen. See also article at langrenn.com. Christian and I went to test the tracks. Our personal test results are as follows (competetive skiing):

Normal tracks (21 cm, lower picture): Good for fast skiing; diagonal skiing, "double kick poling" and down hills.
Narrow tracks (17 cm, upper picture): Good for very steep uphills (more running, than diagonal) and double poling.

We also tested the tracks skiing very slowly. In general we think the narrow tracks are better for slow skiers, i.e. people skiing at low pace and frequency, while the broad tracks most of the time are better for competetive skiers. The best solution will probabley be to change between the two, depending on the terrain formation. I.e. For slow skiers: broad in the downhills and narrow for the rest. Competetive skiers: narrow were flat and in the very steep uphills, broad for the rest.

" I'm dreaming of a white christmas..."

..and my dream came true. The Lillehammer region has again offered perfect skiing conditions this christmas. Since we arrived at Lillehammer 26th of december we have enjoyed lots of snow, good tracks and sunshine. A perfect way to end 2009.

First victory

Sunday we both skied the Norwegian cup races at Lygna. With heavy snowfall and almost a meter of fresh powder snow the day before the competitions, the organisers had a tough job organising the competition. The mass start was changed to individual start, a middle distance of two loops. My race was ok, but as I do not feel to fit at the moment and did some misstakes I was suprised, but pleased, to win the W21 class. I won in front of the two Swedes, Kajsa Richardsson and Elin Vedin. Christian has recovered pretty well after his back injury, but still need some more training to be back in shape. He did an ok race and finished as number 12, our Wing club mate Lars Moholdt won the M21 class. Results can be found here: Results NC Lygna Maps from the competitions an a resport at Ski-o.com.

Merry Christmas

We want to wish all of you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Ski-o, snow and wind at Venabygdsfjellet

Last weekend the first Norwegian cup and WC selection races were held at Venbygdsfjellet. Unfortunatley we missed this competitions, but as the weather forcast reported no snow after the competitions we decided to train there this weekend.

However, the weather in the mountains made it challenging. Despite only a small snowfall the days after the competitions, the wind some places filled the tracks with snow. In the forest the tracks were easy to find and ski, but in the open areas it was sometimes hard to find the tracks, and we had to ski in the terrain were we thougt the tracks might have been. Despite the conditions we had a good ski-o intervall training, 6 forked ski-o intervalls of 7-10 min. See map below.

Heavy snowfall saturday night, made the tracks impossible to find and sunday we decided to skip the map and went for a classic training. It is a beautyfull area for skiing.

Shitty weather?: Indoor training

Sometimes when it is wet, icy and cold outside, indoor training might be the best alternative. To save time, we have two alternatives at home, a cycle trainer and an Ercolina upper body power machine, i.e. "a ski ergometer". And when really shitty weather, we use these alternatives for training.

We spend some hours at these machines every year, and the challenge is to make it as funny as training without moving forward can be. Mostly we therefore watch movies while training, action and sport movies as well as easy animation films can be recommended for such training.

With a cycle mill or "ski ergometer" and some maps you can even have a good o technical training. Intervals with map-reading on the cycle trainer/mill can be recommended, both for orientereers, ski-orienteerers and bike-orienteerers. Always look for opportunities, and alternative ways to train.

A few recommended films for indoor training:

Rocky, Triple X, GI Jane and The incredibles.

Selected for the world cup in St.Petersburg

The Norwegian team for St. Petersburg is selected, 6 men and 2 women are selected for the competitions 13th-18th of january. The competitions will be held in the Leningrad region, St. Petersburg, we will ski a middle distance, sprint, sprint relay and long distance. The junior world championship was organized in the same region in 2003, see map below. Web page for the competitions: http://www.o-worldcup.spb.ru/

The Norwegian team:

Men:

Hans Jørgen Kvåle, Hadeland OL

Lars Moholdt, Wing OK

Ove Sætra Asker SK

Eivind Tonna, Lillomarka OL

Eirik Watterdal, Tønsberg og omegn

Øyvind Watterdal, Tønsberg og omegn

Women:

Marianne Melbye Larsen

Marte Reenaas

Now I can start focusing on the world cup. I am still not training like normal after the virus infection, but I feel better and hope I will be 100% recovered very soon.

Read more at the Norwegian orienteering federation.

Not always as planned; recovering in Trondheim

This weekend snow and ski-o at Venabu is exchanged with a sofa, rain and ice in Trondheim. My cold was worse that I thought, and as I did not feel 100% recovered and had pain in my legs yesterday, I decided to stay in Trondheim to recover this weekend. So although my bag and skis were prepared to leave, I had to skip Venabu Open and instead visited my doctor and physiotherapist. I took some tests at my doctor, I have probably had a virus infection, and need more time to recover. I have to train at low intensity till I am 100% recovered. Fortunately my physiotherapist (Osteopath) did his "magic" and "healed" my legs, with fresh legs I also feel better. I went for a test run this morning, it does not feel great, but OK. Unfortunately Christian is joining me at home with a sore throat this weekend. Just now our goal is to recover, then we have to make a new plan to get in shape for the important competitions in January, the World Cup in Russia and Norwegian championships in both cross-country skiing and ski-o.

National season opening in Norway

Finally, this weekend the first competitions in the Norwegian cup, Venabu Open, will be held at Venabygdsfjellet. Saturday we will ski two sprint competitions, sunday a middle distance mass start. The competitions at Venabygdsfjellet have always been challenging, with both long route choices and areas with very high density of tracks. The map is the M21 middle distance course from the competitions at Venabygdsfjellet last year. The terrain is typical Norwegian mountain terrain, with big open marches and low birch wood. Unfortunately my preparations have not been the best. After returning from Finland I caught a cold once again. That was really not what I needed right now, but I feel better and will most likely ski all the competitions this weekend. We are both looking forward to a great ski-o weekend at Venabygdsfjellet.

Results will be published at the OTO web page.

More about the competitions can be found at Ski-o.com (in norwegian).

Maps Sjusjøen

Here are the maps from the competition at Sjusjøen last Saturday with my route choices:

Winter is back! Need for motivation?

Do you need extra motivation in front of the winter season? Or just can not wait to get out there? This film gives me the goose bumps. Enjoy!

Route choices Ensi Lumin rastit long distance

The long distance in Ensi Lumin rastit was challenging. To see my route choices click the map. I skied the B round first, then A and C, as most of the other girls skiing the same combination as me did a little mistake towards the first control, I skied the whole race alone. My first round (B), was good, I feel I took good route choices and skied well. On the second round I did a mistake on the long cut to the first control, as I did not know exactly where I was when I came out of the forest. This stressed me and I had problems most of the A round, I did a passive route choice to control 2 and lost map contact, and ca. 45 sec, just 100 meters away from the 5th control ( the one most north). The route choice from 5 to 6, skating track, was to long and I lost time. On the C round I skied well, and I feel I did the right choices.