Gene wrote:

"Concerning (1), the training issue is exactly an example of the point
about the differences between skating and classical. But to take it
further, why is that when faced with considerable new snow citizen
skate
racers consider whether to switch over to classical technique? This
was being anticipated Birkie week and the comment was always that
striding might be easier."


Surely mid- to back-of-the-packers like ourselves are tempted
to switch to classical in fresh snow because we know there will
be lots of front-of-the-packers skiing the track in for us, and so our
times will compare more favourably to the fast classical skiers
than they should. So, as scientific evidence that
classical elicits a lower HR in racing than skating does,
that falls somewhat short of convincing.

In skating, it takes a lot more than some front-runners
to speed things up---they generally
slow things down on the steeper climbs
when conditions are soft.

Best, Peter