Pre Season Conditioning

[GrimSurfer]

Each season, I get an opportunity to reflect on how my pre season exercise activity prepared me for XC skiing.

I’m 50 km into ski season now, which isn’t much. Finished shake down of near gear. Some things good, some things could be better.

Good - Conditioning from running 5-10k three times a week, 40 minute treadmill HIITs a week, 5-10% incline power walks a week, or combinations thereof to the tune of 120-140 minutes of high intensity cardio/wk.

Bad - Flexibility. Always a bane of my existence. Marginal hip flexor performance, tight hamstrings.

Middling - Hydration. Keeping ahead of this curve is somewhat easier with Hydralyte but it’s always a work in progress. Potassium and Magnesium rich foods and supps. It’s ok most of the time but a few long sessions in a row invite cramping of calves and hamstrings. Core and lats feel double poling, but no DOMS afterwards. Wish I had a rowing machine…

Y’all?

[Montana St Alum]

My mountain biking in the warmer season prepares me for skiing in the colder season and vice versa. I live (and ski and bike) above about 6500', so that really helps as well. I actually began tele skiing for the purpose of preparing for mountain biking in "the other season". Alpine skiing wasn't doing the job. Also, at my age, a few weeks in between sports are enough to degrade fitness. I'm close enough to Moab to have the transition between sports short enough to mitigate that just because it's considerably warmer there than in the Wasatch.

This year, I've added in L-citrulline as a supplement. I tend towards hypertension. My BP was often around 130/80. With L-citrulline, it's now often around 105/60. L-C is easily absorbed and converted into L-Arginine (which is not well absorbed) which is very effective at improving nitric acid metabolism. That relaxes the vascular system lowering BP and improving blood flow. The other effect I've noticed is that my recovery from overuse injuries is much faster. I've been skiing harder this season and endured fewer aches and pains I think, because tendons are just getting more blood flow.

[GrimSurfer]

6500’ is some serious altitude training. Kudos.

[Montana St Alum]

The other GOOD (!) thing about L-Citrulline is that it is advised that you not supplement with it, if you are on BP meds or Viagra.
I can see why!

But yes, altitude training is good. Every summer, I've still been able to non-stop the climb up "Puke Hill" which tops out about 9800". We'll see how next summer goes.

[GrimSurfer]

I can see that.

I’m on a light bp med that gets me to 120/80. Watch the sodium obviously, and bump up K and Mg. If I took that supp you mentioned, I’d be face down in my Cheerios.

Resting rate 44-46 bpm. Regularly hold ~160 for intervals of several minutes during high intensity workouts.

I’m pretty much at sea level, give or take 100 meters or so. If I was in the mountains, things would sure be different. LOL.

[mca80]

Great info. I too am 130s over 80s despite a healthy diet and tons of exercise. Webmd indicates no real side effects to L-C. Potential for gout and other stuff keeps me from taking a diuretic.

[Montana St Alum]

My resting is higher, around 58.
I just checked my last ride on Strava (I know, one of THOSE guys!).
My "best 20-minute HR" was 172 BPM.

And yes, 130/80 isn't bad. The inspiration was a BP spike above that. L-C is indeed safe (edit: but I did clear it with my doctor - I'm not on any meds that could interact). During the summer, I have a couple of 12 oz cans of low sodium V8 per day. Each of those has 1250 mg of K, and the evening can helps with vodka absorption!

[Krummholz]

Bad - Flexibility. Always a bane of my existence. Marginal hip flexor performance, tight hamstrings.

Middling - Hydration. Keeping ahead of this curve is somewhat easier with Hydralyte but it’s always a work in progress. Potassium and Magnesium rich foods and supps. It’s ok most of the time but a few long sessions in a row invite cramping of calves and hamstrings. Core and lats feel double poling, but no DOMS afterwards. Wish I had a rowing machine…

Y’all?
[/quote]

Time to start doing Yoga…

[GrimSurfer]

I used to do a fair amount of stretching when I surfed regularly, which is the functional part of yoga. Probably should get back to that.

Occasionally use a hard roller and tiger tail to get the kinks out… along with massage. The COVID lockdowns buggered the latter (with good reason, mind you).

TBH, this takes up a lot of time. Skiing ~2 hrs a day, give or take. Running/treadmill work slightly less. Not counting prep time etc. Manageable in retirement. Borderline impossible as a parent and full time worker.

That’s why I track stuff. You just can’t afford to skip many days without an impact on fitness. Trackers reinforce this by providing cold, hard feedback.

[GrimSurfer]

Good workout today. Weather OK but snow conditions needed some improvement. Need 20+ cm, stat!

Not my hardest ski but there’s only so much “driving” that can be done when dodging fallen debris. Tomorrow is unlikely to be better but I need to get time on the planks before the weather goes off (+8C) later in the week.