Essay on "Why Bikers should XC Ski"

Quoted message said:

I just wrote up an essay about why bikers should XC ski and posted it
at my AllBike website.

Here's a link: http://allbikemag.com/article.php?id=520

Feedback appreciated!

--JP

Nice essay. In my area, XC skiing and bicycling do appeal to the same
type of person. And the great thing about XC skiing is that there is no
helmet debate!

SMS said:

Quoted message said:

I just wrote up an essay about why bikers should XC ski and posted it
at my AllBike website.

Here's a link: http://allbikemag.com/article.php?id=520

Feedback appreciated!

--JP

Nice essay. In my area, XC skiing and bicycling do appeal to the same
type of person. And the great thing about XC skiing is that there is no
helmet debate!

You just /wear one/--no questions asked?

;-)
--
Live simply so that others may simply live

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I just wrote up an essay about why bikers should XC ski and posted it
at my AllBike website.

Here's a link: http://allbikemag.com/article.php?id=520

Feedback appreciated!

My only comment is that here, I can bike straight out of my driveway, where
I have to drive up into the mountains to XC ski in the winter. So XC skiing
is never going to be a daily activity for me, just something I can enjoy on
the weekends.

Obviously, YMMV, according to the climate you live in.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
http://www.bicyclemeditations.org/
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

Quoted message said:

I just wrote up an essay about why bikers should XC ski and posted it
at my AllBike website.

Here's a link: http://allbikemag.com/article.php?id=520

Feedback appreciated!

--JP

Good essay but I discovered much to my dismay that skis don't have
brakes. I stick to the bike and the studded snow tires. 🙂
John Kane, Kingston ON Canada

Yeah, it's different for everyone. I'm just encouraging bikers who live
where there's snow to not forget the skis! For instance, when I lived
in Ann Arbor, it was a half-hour ride thru minimall hell to get to good
riding roads but inside town there were 3 very nice XC areas (all 3
golfcourses but heck I'd see foxes out there and such---a hilly, woodsy
golf course in winter is a wild, quiet, pretty place) and one was just
a block from my house, so for me XC was closer than cycling was. Now,
AA has lots of cyclists but it seemed like maybe there were only like 3
people who ever used the nearby golf course for XC skiing, judging by
the tracks. I never saw anyone else out there in person, in several
years. But I know there were probably a couple dozen avid cyclists in
my same neighborhood. My goal is to encourage folks like that to get
out and ski in winter if they're not already. At least to ski when it's
reasonable to, to not neglect it entirely. Several bike racers did ski
at another golf course but there were a couple dozen racers in the
area. XC just seems underappreciated. Altho I know that many cyclists
DO indeed love it already. The more the merrier! Heck, I'd think that
every bike mag should run a "what to do in a snowy winter" article that
strongly pushes XC and speedskating in addition to weights and
occasional rides. And they should play UP how simple and hugely fun
both of these sports can be. --JP

Aw, c'mon! Feet don't have brakes either and who's complaining? OK,
they don't glide. But single-unit gliding things like skis or skates
are easily braked by skidding them. I can stop from skiing 20mph about
as fast as I could if I'd been running fast. Just another easy tech to
learn. Don't give up on the boards! : ) You're lucky---I bet you have
snow up there quite often, or "over there" since you're probably east
of me, since I'm in mid-Mich. Or maybe you get good black ice for
speedskating on lakes, rivers? You can brake those, too! --JP

Hey, I just expanded and reorganized the essay. Hopefully better and
clearer. Man, I never knew XC had so many cool things to offer cyclists
that had never been written about before! Ho ho! JP

JeffOYB said:

I just wrote up an essay about why bikers should XC ski and posted it
at my AllBike website.

Not all bikers should XC ski. One of the reasons I took up riding was
that the shoes have really stiff soles. I have trouble with running and
other exercises that require my feet to flex a lot. It can be very
painful. XC ski boots flex in the sole at just the wrong place for me.

I could downhill ski, I suppose, but I'd rather just ride.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Let's not escape into mathematics. Let's stay with reality. --
_`\(,_ | Michael Crichton
(_)/ (_) |

In article <[email hidden]>,

David L. Johnson said:

JeffOYB said:

I just wrote up an essay about why bikers should XC ski and posted it
at my AllBike website.

Not all bikers should XC ski. One of the reasons I took up riding was
that the shoes have really stiff soles. I have trouble with running and
other exercises that require my feet to flex a lot. It can be very
painful. XC ski boots flex in the sole at just the wrong place for me.

I sometimes wonder if ice skating is a good complementary
exercise to riding. Maybe it could provide some training
benefits to track racers? At any rate, I think ice skating
has more in common with riding than skiing (or running):

like a cyclist, an ice skater is working against the inexorable
tug of gravity by mechanically reducing friction, delicately
balances on a surface/human interface that's thinner than a
human foot, can maintain a straight line rather than drawing a
lot of S's, and doesn't want much foot flex. And skating, like
cycling, is mostly lower-body work.

Quoted message said:

I could downhill ski, I suppose, but I'd rather just ride.

You could ride to the skating rink :-)

cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Well, there are always exceptions, that's true. Especially if ya got no
snow! I note, however, that ski skating often uses a boot that doesn't
flex in the ball hardly at all. Many ski skate boots are very stiff
(there are probably a few design styles out there, though). --JP

Speedskating offers HUGE crossover benefits for cyclists. And not just
trackies. There used to be much more emphasis on this kind of
crosstraining in cold areas. As my essay notes, our best local team
logo had a wheel, skate, & ski on it probaby for decades. (Detroit
Sports Club---Wolverines---courtesy of Mike Walden and the Clare Young
family.)

XC skiing offers HILLS and distances which closely match cycling
terrain and efforts. And power still likely mostly comes from legs but
the CORE does the rest. Cyclists need to have strong cores. ---Still
one can end up with too much mass in upperbody, I suppose. But I doubt
it: longdistance work usually strengthens but doesn't bulk up. At any
event when Spring comes, a riding focus will cause a loss of upperbody
weight probably.

There are several famous speedskate marathons that give the distance
aspect that cycling enjoys.

The use of cadence and tempo in both XC ski and speedskating is REALLY
big, equal to the same in cycling. These sports all interact well.

--JP

Tom Keats said:

I sometimes wonder if ice skating is a good complementary
exercise to riding. Maybe it could provide some training
benefits to track racers? At any rate, I think ice skating
has more in common with riding than skiing (or running):

Lots of speedskaters also ride, usually on the track. There are some
Olympic medalists in both sports.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Let's not escape into mathematics. Let's stay with reality. --
_`\(,_ | Michael Crichton
(_)/ (_) |