Arrived here mid-afternoon Thanksgiving day. On arrival at the venue a 1km man made loop around the Biathlon range was found. Of note there was extensive snow making in progress. There was supposed to be a 2.5km loop ready for official training today. The bad news it did not happen, the good news it shall be there tomorrow for the first a race a 10km Biathlon Sprint Race.  Not all was lost was able to ski and shoot , test and ski in some new skis. The course will not be too challenging, BUT when during the race tomorrow I bet it will be tough.  These races are warm-up races for the American contingent here, in two weeks tryouts start in West Yellowstone.  Unfortunately I have to travel back to Rochester and work next week, then will travel to West next Saturday.

This is a tough time of the year, a few days on snow even less time shooting then Rock & Roll.  Recovery is my main opportunity for improvement. Doing hard training, Motivation no problem, recovery big issue. Work and family obligations eat into recovery time. Finding out that when I start doing more intensity(being every other day, to every day) my body keeps shutting down(heart rate suppression, muscle fatigue) end up not able to do the work planned. Unfortunately two weeks ago I reached one of those times, a little bit scary. Being right before the races that count. So  crossed my fingers cut back some with the intensity, then  revisited some intensity, and luckily skied on snow around Rochester. Tomorrow truth.

Hands High Elbows Bent Produces Up to 20% More Power In Double Pole Technique.

Robert Duncan Douglas MD, other anonymous contributors, from the Level D Institute, (Location Classified)

Due to controversy about whether to reach forward at the start of poling compared to starting the poling motion with hands high closer to head with elbows bent as to which technique produces more power and is also more efficient a study was undertaken to answer this.

Funding was provided by the Level D Foundation. Area 143, and www.JackedUpOldMan.com

Elbows Straight

Elbows Bent Hands High

METHODS:

Study design was approved  by the Institutional Review Committee of the Level D Institute. Study participants underwent rigorous physical trials and extensive background checks. Study consisted of measurement of average power during double pole simulation on Arm ergometer comparing two arm positions. Test subjects were randomized and triple blindfolded. 1. Arms reaching out straight 2. Arms bent at elbows hands higher. Machine used was the “Ergominator” This is a non validated ski specific arm strength machine with instrumented power measurement in order to help skiers dominate in races. Developer hopes to sell a production version for around $600. Currently being developed/perfected in perpetuity by mad engineer. Statistics were done with D*squared modeling. Significance was determined by default.

There is an inductive pickup in the fan housing and 4 magnets spaced equally around the circumference.  As the fan wheel turns it generates a pulse with every magnet passing.  The software measures the time between pulses and calculates velocity and acceleration at each pulse.  Using this data and the fan inertia and fan drag, it calculates the work done at each pulse.  At the end of a pull, it takes the total work during the pull and divides by the duration to get power (in watts) - this is displayed on the LCD in the lower, left corner.  Note that when the power is less than 100 watts, it displays one decimal point.  The average power over the workout duration is displayed in the lower, right corner.  The software recalculates the fan drag during the rundown after every pull, so if you change the outlet damper opening the power will be calculated correctly (it will take 1 stroke to get the new drag value into the calculation)

RESULTS

The Hands High Elbows Bent starting position produced significantly more power D*squared analysis D <0.005 on the range of 20% more.

CONCLUSION:

While this was a lab test not an actual measurement of in vivo Double Poling on the ski tracks the power of the study was so huge that Hands High Elbows Bent is the way to propel one down the trail. In the future we hope to do in vivo tests measuring power output, Muscle blood flow,and relative desaturation of Hb, and variations of tempo.

for reprints or group presentations of study contact Level D Institute. Remember ” Academia is the Art of Turning BS into Airplane Tickets”

In a future post this question will be answered by a study made possible by a  generous grant from the Level D Foundation, www.JackedUpOldMan.com , and Area 143. Not to mention use of the Ergominator an instrumented ski specific arm ergometer that gives accurate power output measurement.  Yes, there may have been other studies but the study to be presented at a later date is the study to quote or reference.                                             “The Ergominator”

Making snow for your household is arduous work, most people think your crazy. Their are hidden rewards when your kids go out and are having fun with it. At Area 143 we have 3 snow-makers and  a groomer with a track-setter. The goal is to make a 150-200m lighted  loop. This would not be possible without the help of a few DieHard  friends. So far there is about 100m lane with a small hill. When you compare this to what most swimmers deal with(50m pool lane) it is awesome. These pictures show the what you can do in 30 hours with homeowner sowmakers and the kids skiing today.

Drove up to the Tug Hill Plateau today, as you can see there is alot snow up there. The pictures are from the Osceola Ski Center in Redfield, NY. The skiing was ok today. This was due to the groomer having to spend most his time clearing trees from the trail. Once he grades the trails the skiing should be spectacular this weekend.  There is also the Salmon Hills Nordic Center up on the Tug Hill Area and according to there web site they will be open this weekend. Wish I had more time to go over there and scout it out. Next weekend will be spent in a four day trip to Canmore to compete in the first Noram. Tomorrow back to Harriet Hollister State Park where yesterday skied 19 miles on less then a 300 meter loop that was skied in the day before. 

In the late 1980’s early 1990’s I needed a an adequate light source to ski in the dark. After searching hard for a while it wasnt possible to find a headlamp that was adequate,  there were some that could be mounted on bicycle handlebars nothing that could be worn on the head. the solution was a nightsun 40w light that was handlebar mounted. Bob Thomas and I constructed two of these. The mount was fabricated out of aluminum flashing and the headband homemade. The light was awesome, a little heavy and cumbersome, but it got the job done. This lamp allowed me to extend the training day in West Yellowstone. It also enabled many back-country assaults into Avalanche lake and even a late night assault of Mt Marcy. 

Now there are many adequate options for night skiing and even night rollerskiing. Currently to rollerski at night the NiteRider Trinewt a 486 lumen LED lamp works well is reliable, its main drawback is it needs to be helmet mounted. It allows to one to ski  into the night although last fall in West my team mates thought I looked like super geek going skiing on the tails with a bike helmet on.

This is not in the DSM IV. As I have matured as an athlete almost into senescence, it has become apparent that a Bipolarish Type disorder has manifested itself. This is manifested that sometimes when training or racing you feel like your in the zone, the flow, basically able to put the hammer down, basically a manic stage in training then after a little bit you  just cannot push your body and also your body does not respond no matter how much you want it it to, thus the depressive phase.Whether this is caused by exogenous or endogenous factors does ‘nt affect the end result. Maybe when one gets older and develops some transient fitness they then drive their bodies like an adolescent in a muscle car. Then fail to recover as you did back in the day and then  become similar to stale burnt toast. 

Most of the people who have a family work, full time then try to compete at any level have all experienced these stages. Fortunately for us even when our bodies won’t go.. it is still quite a pleasure to be outside doing something that we love and derive great physical and mental pleasure from.

Anyway got to go to sleep so that I can go to Burch hill and put the hammer down tomorrow at odark hundred, then do a  time trial Sunday somewhere around here.

This  is the the profile of the 4hr rollerski done Saturday on 3 hrs of intermittent sleep due to work. There is some of the the best terrain for rollerskiing in the Naples, NY area. Its totally awesome one goes up one humongous hill with a great view descends into the valley just to get to the next challenging hill. This was followed on Sunday by a threepeat of Gannette Hill at  just below race pace. actually at the top of Gannette the first time I passes a whole bunch of guys that  I mtn bike with and was going pretty close to race pace HR 182 La 4.2 the other two times I was in the low 170’s and lactate around 2.5. Gannette hill is amn awesome hill to test oneself it is 1.76 miles with over 900 vertical. This was preceded by intervals Fri am on Burch Hill,  Strength, working most of the night and 4hr Hill tour on Sat. It was feeling like winter Sat morning there was fog and frost on the side of the road and 25 deg out. When it is cold out the rollerskis slow down which makes it hard to compare times from when it was warmer out. One can follow markers such as heart rate and Serum lactate quite easily, yet they are surrogate markers and do not reflect what is actually happening at the local muscle level, which is what determines what the performance will really be. Too bad there is not a readily available power meter for cross country skiers.

This time of the year is the time to do specific training. Most of the World Cup skiers are already training on snow or about to. Many of us still have to rely on rollerskiing to get the job done. Currently I can only live vicariously through reports and pictures of others skiing. Unfortunately!!!

To carry on the theme of specificity last yeear I started rollerskiinig around Labor Day. This year I started rollerskiing while I was still skiing. So far I have rolled over 3,000 miles.  The truth about if it made a difference will come out in about 6 weeks.