V1 & V2 Ski Technique

Apparently these aren’t left over doodle bombs that threatened London in WW2, but the critical ski “strokes” in skate skiing. I’m not even sure if stroke is the correct term! Apparently I’m a natural V2’er, I skate off both skis, like one would in downhill. The V1 thing is a little more obtuse, at least to me. Its about skating one ski and sort of pushing, somehow, off the other foot. Yep, that sounds about as accurate as I can describe V1’ing. There’s also a right and left V1.

So my instructor Brigitte from Sweden, ( Ok Dan from Cleveland, I’d even prefer Sven from Norway, but hey you work with the material you’re given!) had me skating around and why I’m not sure they insist on lots of hill work, not little uphill sections but they seem to me giant non stop up hills.  I think Brigitte, err…Dan, was just trying to both intimidate me and impress upon me how far I have to go to get good at the skate ski thing.

Today I managed by my estimate maybe 7k’s of skiing. That included hills, that had me running up, and sucking down the air. I expected the terrain to be undulating, small upslopes and mainly flat sections. I was wrong. Most of the terrain seems more like the upper reached of Central park with those big hills up in Harlem. Not what I was expecting.

Still I have a goal and I am working on it.