Guaranteed Skiing Improvement for Eastern and Western Skiers

You guys on the East and West Coasts can easily increase your skiing
performance... I'd reccomend finding the closest mountain with a
vertical gain of 1500 to 2000 feet that has a paved road to the top.
Rollerski up it once or twice a week and you'll be cranking come
winter... In the midwest, we aren't as fortunate. Unless you call a
600 foot gain a big climb...

Jay Tegeder
"I faders spar for framtids segrar"

I *should* be all set. After all, we have lots of mountains here in Maine...

The challenge is finding one that has been paved in the last 20 years, that
is wide enough that a roller skier and a car can both use it, and that is
near enough to not involve a day-long excursion.

For example, here in L-A (Lewiston-Auburn) the rolls up into Grafton Notch
and Evans Notch are two of few hills that fit the hill-specific-bill quite
nicely. Of course, they mean a 75 minute drive each way, so a 90 minute
warm-up/workout/cool-down becomes a 4 hour endeavor.

(Gould Academy in Bethel uses these.)

Neither my colleagues nor my family would tolerate me doing that twice
weekly. Twice monthly perhaps.

And of course, IMHO (wimp that I am) any hill that involves a strenuous
60-90 minute steady climb requires at least two skiers so a car can be
placed at the top to avoid the constipation curing race to the bottom.

I'm curious. How many on this newsgroup actually have access to reasonably
quality roads with safe traffic conditions and varied terrain within 20
minutes of home?

Peter Elias


"Jay Tegeder" wrote in message
om...
You guys on the East and West Coasts can easily increase your skiing
performance... I'd reccomend finding the closest mountain with a
vertical gain of 1500 to 2000 feet that has a paved road to the top.
Rollerski up it once or twice a week and you'll be cranking come
winter... In the midwest, we aren't as fortunate. Unless you call a
600 foot gain a big climb...

Jay Tegeder
"I faders spar for framtids segrar"

I suppose "safe" is in the eye of the beholder, but I find the roads
around my house safe enough if you avoid prime commuting hours. I live
at the top of a "hill" that can be skied up about 700 vertical feet.
It's broken into 2 climbs with about a mile of flat road between. Or
we could try skiing up the back side in one uninterrupted climb if we
had some of the new all-terrain rollerskis (unmaintained dirt road on
the back).

But the PA just told me the x-rays show my wrist still isn't healing,
so the doctor will probably want to operate on it again... after
spending 4 of the last 12 months in a cast. :-(

-Mitch


On Mon, 4 Aug 2003, pheski wrote:

I'm curious. How many on this newsgroup actually have access to reasonably
quality roads with safe traffic conditions and varied terrain within 20
minutes of home?

Peter Elias


"Jay Tegeder" wrote in message
om...
You guys on the East and West Coasts can easily increase your skiing
performance... I'd reccomend finding the closest mountain with a
vertical gain of 1500 to 2000 feet that has a paved road to the top.
Rollerski up it once or twice a week and you'll be cranking come
winter... In the midwest, we aren't as fortunate. Unless you call a
600 foot gain a big climb...

Jay Tegeder
"I faders spar for framtids segrar"

Is that Sunrise/Sunset Mt.? How long does it take you to do 1000 feet. For
me Mohonk is 60 minutes classical from the Rondout side, and 50 from the
Wallkill side.

Gary Jacobson- off to do the 1 km hill out my front door. 6 repeats until
I'm a puddle of sweat.


"revyakin" wrote in message
om...
I hear you Jay.

We have a "mountain" with ~1000 feet gain in Northern NJ with a
one-way (for cars) road to the top. One summer I used to drive for 1.5
hours to that place on every Saturday and climb it 3 times per
workout. The following winter was the best ski season I've ever had.


(Jay Tegeder) wrote in message
. com...
You guys on the East and West Coasts can easily increase your skiing
performance... I'd reccomend finding the closest mountain with a
vertical gain of 1500 to 2000 feet that has a paved road to the top.
Rollerski up it once or twice a week and you'll be cranking come
winter... In the midwest, we aren't as fortunate. Unless you call a
600 foot gain a big climb...

Jay Tegeder
"I faders spar for framtids segrar"

Just saw Jacobson go by out my front window. Only his upper body
showed above the bushes, fast and smooth going uphill. I would have
believed he was on snow if it wasn't for the pouring rain. Guess he
shoudn't have stalled so long . . . .


Bruce Mardiney
Rosendale NY

On Tue, 05 Aug 2003 19:41:06 GMT, "Gary Jacobson"
wrote:

One thing about roller skiing clasical style up steep grades is that I don't
feel that it imitates snow skiing. For one, some of the grades I do on
wheels I'd be herringboning or edge running, and two I feel that I just
"horse" roller skiing steep grades. But I do feel that the muscles used are
the same and the load on O2 transport is great, and there fore in a gross
way there is great specificity.

Gary Jacobson- stalling


Rosendale, New York

Yes, that's Sunrise Mt. In fact, I saw the sun rising once from it...
when John Hart and me met there in late August '00 (?).

It takes about 30 min to get to the top, and the distance is about 6
miles I believe. You can do most of it V2ing, but the final climb is
pritty brutal, esp on a hot summer. Then you have to get down which
takes about 15 min. Speed reducers on Aeros help a lot.

That year ('00) I've had the best Greylock rollerski race and that's a
2400 feet gain over the same 6-7 miles. I did not get a chance to
train at SRM in '01 and '02 and my times at Greylock sucked.

Now SRM is 2.5 hours away; fortuntaley I still have some nice rolling
hills here in Oyster Bay, Long Island, but none of them compares to
SRM. I would go there again just for fun... want to join?

Andrey.

"Gary Jacobson" wrote in message ...
Is that Sunrise/Sunset Mt.? How long does it take you to do 1000 feet. For
me Mohonk is 60 minutes classical from the Rondout side, and 50 from the
Wallkill side.

Gary Jacobson- off to do the 1 km hill out my front door. 6 repeats until
I'm a puddle of sweat.


"revyakin" wrote in message
om...
I hear you Jay.

We have a "mountain" with ~1000 feet gain in Northern NJ with a
one-way (for cars) road to the top. One summer I used to drive for 1.5
hours to that place on every Saturday and climb it 3 times per
workout. The following winter was the best ski season I've ever had.


(Jay Tegeder) wrote in message
. com...
You guys on the East and West Coasts can easily increase your skiing
performance... I'd reccomend finding the closest mountain with a
vertical gain of 1500 to 2000 feet that has a paved road to the top.
Rollerski up it once or twice a week and you'll be cranking come
winter... In the midwest, we aren't as fortunate. Unless you call a
600 foot gain a big climb...

Jay Tegeder
"I faders spar for framtids segrar"

The great thing about SRM is that you DONT need a car shuttle to get
back down: using caution you can safely roll down on rollerskis.
That's why I don't like extremely steep hills: they all are
"irreversible".

"Ken Roberts" wrote in message ...
Yes, Sunrise Mt in NJ is a pleasant place. But not much vertical -- the
climbing section is moderately steep, but not long.

I would go there again just for fun...
[coming from]
. . . here in Oyster Bay, Long Island

For _training_ there's lots better hills in upstate NY, closer to Long
Island and closer to major highways. Want to join?

And in NJ there's better _training_ hills which are also closer to major
highways. Like Sharon and I were on Montana Rd a few weeks ago Saturday,
working together to provide car shuttles back down.

Ken

The great thing about SRM is that you DONT need a car shuttle

The car shuttle problem is why the hilly northeast is not necessarily a
training paradise.

Actually there is a much longer hill, but gentler than the steep part of
Sunrise Mt, pretty close to the Rail Trail near Amenia NY. Might be closer
to Long Island than SRM, by way of 684 and 22.

Ken