My Painless Ski Marathon

Depends what you're looking for. Sounds like you're training yourself
to go well at L3 over the long haul. I find some L4 work (on skis,
elliptical trainer in the gym) is good for extra reserves, as well as
conditioning my system for carrying over the hills. I don't see any
speed work mentioned, or terrain for that matter. Dick Taylor (No Pain,
No Gain?) argues that in addition to training speed separately,
mostly on benign terrain, learning to increase tempo between the
hills makes time and improves conditioning and reserves.

There are a number of good sports powders and gels out there. Be
careful about the marketing and scientific claims, since they all
make them and there's been very little well-designed, independent,
double-blind research done with larger sample including cross-sections
of the athletic population. I'm not fond of Hammer Gel powder's taste,
but was given some cannisters free. My favorites, what I buy, are
Accelerade and Cytomax (with or w/o protein powder added). I've found
my body reacts better to having a little protein in the mix, especially
in harder or longer workouts. Love those 'tour de taste' events!

Gene

wrote:

Thanks for the responses and great questions. I will try to answer
your questions without enumerating all the details of my training plan
and pre-race preparation...

Training: I am in good shape (by my standards), perhaps the best I've
been in since college 18 years ago. My training includes 3-4 hours/wk
of long/slow distance, biking or skiing with or w/o poles, 1-2 hours a
week of level 3 interval workouts (running or skiing) or a race, some
strength (double-polling). I don't do much in level 4, maybe that's
where I'm lacking.

I've never used hammer gel, I assume it's going to be 95% the same as
Gu or PowerGel, Skier Girl, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
I'll look at the hammergel site and see if they can sell me on it.

Thanks again,
Jon