First classic practice with Vakava

I survived my first classic practice with Vakava last night! Whew, what a relief. I was incredibly nervous, not going to lie.

We skied for an entire hour an a half, with very few breaks. Very unlike any other classic workout I’ve done! With Sisu skiers, we tended to rest fairly often. When I’ve skied on my own (which isn’t very often), I only usually go about 45 minutes or so. So, to go HARD for 1.5 hours almost continually was a major shock to my body. 🙂 My entire body shut down a little after about an 1:10 worth of skiing. I wasn’t able to control my movements much, and I wasn’t able to push it hard then. Guess that’s a sign of a good, hard classic workout.

I was able to keep up decently well — it was a good thing we only did double pole (where you’re decently stable because you’re on two skis). I still have a lot to work on, but felt good that I wasn’t miles behind everyone. I think I was working a lot harder than most of the women out there, though. They were probably actually going level 3 (like we were told) vs. I was going as hard and fast as I could, just to keep up :).

I stayed on top of my skis until the very end, when I crashed going down a fast downhill with a very rough surface. I hadn’t been down anything like it before and didn’t know what to do. Pretty soon I was going way too fast and I couldn’t feel my feet because of the rough surface — next thing you know, I’m on the ground. Bummer. I landed on my backside, of course, the only place I didn’t have protective gear on :).

Next week is a double pole time trial. I’ve never done anything like that before… hmm, should be interesting!