I keep getting injured running and I hate that. XC skiing seems like a good alternative, possibly more fun. Thoughts?
I keep getting injured running and I hate that. XC skiing seems like a good alternative, possibly more fun. Thoughts?
run2ski wrote:
I keep getting injured running and I hate that. XC skiing seems like a good alternative, possibly more fun. Thoughts?
XC skiing is great if you are living somewhere where you can do it. You can run all year around. XC skiing maybe 4 month in a year if you are lucky. You need equipment and most likely you need to pay for a ski pass.
No.
Sadie and Erik Bjornsen did. They live in the small town of Winthrop, WA and ran XC/track in high school although they did not compete very much. Both of them have made the US Olympic teams in XC skiing at different distances. You can check out their high school running careers on athletic.net
Their HS competes at the smallest school level in WA state.
https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Athlete.aspx?AID=762309
https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Athlete.aspx?AID=970743
Consider mixing in both. I sustained a severe ankle sprain at the end of XC (running) season my junior year of college and the doc said I would almost certainly miss virtually all of indoor track season. My school also had a Nordic ski team, which was in a total rebuilding year. I asked the doc if he thought I might be able to do that because of the relatively lower impact, and he said it'd be worth a try. So I met with the coach and he said I could try out. I'd only done classic before, so he basically had to teach me skate, but I picked it up relatively quickly. I borrowed equipment from others on the team and from one of my track teammates who had skied competitively in HS, and had a total blast. I wasn't very good, obviously, but my running fitness translated well and as my technique became more sound I could at least mix it up with the back-of-packers. It was a great mental break for me from running too. I did the outdoor season that year and was so-so, but had my best season of XC running ever my senior fall. I skipped indoor track again that year to ski (this time voluntarily), and put up a few decent performances (relatively speaking), especially in classic races, and had a solid outdoor track season as well. My ski coach always told me that if he had had me for another couple of years, he thought I could have been pretty good. I am so grateful I did that though -- I continued to ski after college and now (in my late-30s) still do some citizen races. It is truly a lifetime sport, and continues to provide a great change of pace from running.
Where's the "Like" button? Oh right, LRC doesn't do that.
I was a mediocre college runner and have kept running. I did a couple of marathons in my mid-20s and got into the low 2:30s and then injured my hip. So I started ski racing competitively. It took a couple of years but placed into the top 40/50 at US nationals a couple of years in my late 20s and then kept on as a citizen racer/masters skier for decades. Meanwhile kept running in the off season and was a consistent 32 min 10K type into my mid-30s before it all blew up. Had some decent ski seasons as a masters in my 40s and 50s, going sup 2:30 for 50K in my 50s and winning some medals at US nationals. I run more than ski now--not running that fast anymore--but also enjoy skiing when I can. The sports do mix pretty well.