Jogging helping skiing?

Recent holiday in Val d'Isere was my 11th week of skiing since I started back in April 2010 at the tender age of 40 something.

For the first few holidays I tended to suffer with a lot of fatigue and burning in my quads which I put down to bad technique. After some lessons and a bit more concentration the quad pain disappeared as my technique improved. However, I then typically suffered with calf pain particularly by day 3 but easing off by the end of the week. This didn't stop me skiing but it was a bit irritating. I think I raised this on the forum at some point for comments.

I decided to embark on a fitness regime last summer cutting out salt/sugar etc and trying to increase my exercise regime. I've lost about a stone in weight (not that I was really overweight before) but the biggest change has been a regular twice weekly run. I run about 2 to 3 miles each time on a mixture of tarmac and off road. I'm finding that I now stretch most days as I can feel muscles wanting to tighten up. The last time I did any running was in my teens! I've used mountain biking as my main form of exercise for the last 20 years or so.

Anyway, I had little or no calf pain during our last holiday. I don't think my skiing has improved since the last holiday (in fact it had been a 12 month gap and I felt very rusty) and I'm definitely not getting any younger! Same boots, very similar ski choice, same amount of skiing per day.

Therefore I've diagnosed running = stronger and more resilient calf muscles. Discuss!!

bedrock barney wrote:Therefore I've diagnosed running = stronger and more resilient calf muscles. Discuss!!

Aside from the running being good for your general fitness in any case, I'd think it might be more likely to be the stretches helping your calves...

And, TBH, I'd pick the mountain biking - with the balance and variable effort (assuming that your running is not up and down hills) as maybe being a better ski-supporting exercise.

But, always best to do what you most enjoy! 8)

There are three main elements that will assist with skiing, fitness, strength and mobility.

Less experienced and improving skiers tend to find fitness an issue, mainly because they are fighting the turn. As technique improves, and also confidence, we remain far more relaxed when skiing. Hence, we need to use much less energy, and the demand for fitness recedes. Having said that, it does none of us any harm to remain fit. (During my athletics career, I ran over 20,000 miles).

Strength is very important in skiing. We have all leaned back in our boots, heading for some kind of potential disaster, and strength will enable you to haul yourself forwards. Then someone skis out in front of you, and it is strength that will enable the quick turn required. Keeping your strength up is a safety issue. Cycling, on the road or in the gym, is excellent for strengthening the quads. Add to that some home exercises, single leg squats, 100 a day on each leg. You don't go the full squat, one third of a squat does it. Until 2 years ago, I carried out 500 per day but one of my physios said this was too many.

Mobility is important for minimising/eliminating muscles strains. Adding a few stretches after the strength exercises is easily done.

Important is that the first couple of hours of your ski holiday should be on a slope well within capability. Even after nearly 50 years of skiing, I still give a little time each day to practising drills on easy slopes ~ I'm still looking to improve!