<p align="justify"><span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1255" src="https://sofits.ca/wp-content/uploads/121109_Sofits-Skipping2.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="515" />DO YOU LACK STRONG, GENERAL FITNESS? </b></u> </span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="font-size: large;">Good fitness will carry you pretty far in skiing, even if your technique is not perfect. If you are lacking basic fitness, you are in the group that will see huge gains in a short time, simply by exercising consistently. </span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="font-size: large;">Our dryland session is not enough! Before the ski season begins: Aim for 3 - 4 aerobic sessions a week and 2 strength sessions. (Friday’s session includes both 1 aerobic and 1 strength as well as technique) Spin classes or new-runners’ groups are a fun way to increase your fitness. Or ski stride in the park once a week in addition to Friday’s workout. Add a weekly strength class to supplement our Friday strength. And don’t forget to stretch it out. Join a yoga class or find a class online. </span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="font-size: large;">Start where you are at, don’t worry about keeping up with others, and aim for consistently showing up. Don’t worry too much about interval training until you have a “base”. Aim for consistency rather than speed to prevent injury. Intervals can be added in later. </span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="font-size: large;">Note that activities such as dog walking or easy hiking, although good for general health, will do little to improve your skiing. These generally fall below zone 1. </span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="font-size: large;"><u><b>ALREADY FIT AND ACTIVE, BUT WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR PERFORMANCE ON SKIS?</b></u></span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="font-size: large;">This is harder! It requires great motivation and patience, not to mention attention to detail and the willingness to ski on your own at times. </span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="font-size: large;">First, dedicate portions of each ski to technical practice. For example, the first 15 minutes can be a warm up without poles, or a double pole session. Or find a hill on which to practice your climbs and descents a number of times. Skiing is similar to swimming in that technique is paramount. Pick one technical point and focus on that. Grab opportunities to be filmed, or take a private or semi-private or small group lesson. </span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="font-size: large;">Work daily at double poling. Many recreational skiers avoid using double poling, and this is particularly true for women. In the right conditions it is considerably easier than diagonal stride. If you are competent at it, it is one way to go faster with less effort and a lower heart rate. It is also fundamental to skate skiing. (Elite skiers use double pole for at least 1/3 of their mileage, and have been known to double pole entire races. )</span></p>
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<p align="justify"><span style="font-size: large;">Secondly, you will need to have a clear idea of your ski specific heart rate zones. And we are not talking about the generic formulas based on age or the fanciful numbers generated by watches and treadmill computers. Time trials or short races are perfect for capturing your own personal numbers. If you have been participating in running races and know your average heart rate for the race, you are in luck! Zones can be calculated from that number. Classic ski zones and running zones are usually about the same.Once you have verified your heart rates for a while you will probably have a good idea of how each zone feels, but recreational runners have been found to generally misjudge their effort levels, particularly when in groups.   Ask Jo-Ann for more details if you are interested in this.
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<p align="justify"><span style="font-size: large;">Focus on “polarizing” your training so that it is either super easy and slow (</span><span style="font-size: large;">elite skiers spend 8o % of their training time in zones 1 and 2) or really hard (elite skiers spend above 20% of their training time in zones higher than zone 3). </span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="font-size: large;">Each workout should have a specific focus (for examples, strength on skis, zone 1 recovery, long slow distance in zones 1-2, high-end intervals in zone 4 or 5, or speed work, and occasionally just a fun group ski without worrying about hard you are going). You will need an accurate HRM with a chest strap and the confidence and will power to adhere to limits. </span></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="font-size: large;">It also goes without saying that the focus should always be on good technique, whether skiing easy or hard. </span></p>