XC skiing (classic) 50:00 [2] 6.0 km (8:20 / km)
shoes: Rossi R-Skin
Distance is a guess
Second night of xc ski lessons. Tonight's focus was on poling.
Started with double poling. I needed to practice slowing things down so that I get a fuller extension of the arms at the end of the poling. I was rushing to pole again, and was cutting the poling a little short rather than following all the way through.
Back and arms should be in a straight line at the end of the follow through.
Then step - double pole. I had always thought it looked like you step off the back foot and push back on this foot to drive yourself forward. That's how it looks and I was never told otherwise. Instead, step forward / slide the foot forward with the foot going forward as the poles come forward again, then plant the poles and push while both feet glide side-by-side. Again, slow it down enough that I fully follow through to the end of the arm/pole extension for the full push before resetting for the next poling. The crunch and the poling are still explosive, but the pausing near the end ensures the full follow through and also allows me to set up better for the next poling.
If I'm getting ski slap, that's because I haven't moved the foot forward for the next step. Without that foot under me to step forward onto, the back leg shoots out and slaps.
Otherwise, my timing was good.
Interestingly, when I would need to switch to diagonal stride, my side to side weight shift seemed better and more distinct after doing a bunch of step - double poling.
It was about +4C at the Nordic Centre tonight. The snow was still in decent shape but it was nice to have waxless skis so that I wasn't messing with really soft wax or klister.