For this year’s Birkie, I decided not to adhere to a rigid training plan, but to just ski as often as I could, wherever I could. We were lucky enough to get some December snow which helped lengthen the ski season quite a bit. Many times, I’ve been able to ski with friends and family, but there have been a few times that I’ve needed to hit a ski trail by myself and whittle the kilometers away with just me and my skis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today’s ski training brought me to the Reforestation Camp near Green Bay, Wisconsin. It’s a beautiful, well groomed trail. There’s a nice 7-mile loop that I just skied four times today, to keep the math simple. 28 miles \/ 45 kilometers in about four hours felt about right for where I need to be for my longest ski before the 50 kilometer Birkie in three weeks. Reforestation Camp is on the flat-side though. There is one section of the Maple\/Yellow trail that I skied that has some nice rolling hills, but there are also some lengthy flat stretches that made me actually look forward to some hills to switch up my technique a bit.<\/p>\n
Last weekend, I was able to hit Minocqua Winter Park for a long ski with my Dad. We covered 19 miles \/ 30 kilometers and got to see parts of the trail that I’ve never seen before. Then on Tuesday, I raced the MadNorSki Elver Park Race series where I got to do some hill repeats and work on some speed work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I sort of model my ski training after the training I did for running a marathon. Long slow skis on the weekend, technique, speed and cross training during the week. We’ll see in three weeks whether this strategy will pay off during the Birkie.<\/p>\n
Here are the trails I’ve hit so far this season. It’s not a bad way to tour beautiful corners of the state in the winter.\u00a0<\/p>\n