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Skiing Ain't Poker
Skiing Ain’t Poker
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\r\nBy Torin Koos
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\r\nSometimes in poker nothing is a good hand. In athletics though the one who holds the best hand wins, most every time. And while a certain intoxicating rush precedes pushing a huge multi-colored pile of chips into play, ski racing isn’t poker. Schedules are kept, heart rates are taken, coaches consulted. When it comes to training, testing equipment or racing, I don’t gamble.
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\r\nFor cross-country national team members late July and early August are the days of constant testing that turn training from an exercise in faith into a scientific experiment. Blood tests and skin fold measurements are taken, strength tests and rollerski velocity trials done, time trials, competed in, and long hours spent in front of the television watching technique videos.
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\r\nFatigue complicates ski performance. Blood tests indicate when muscle damage is out of balance with my body’s rate of repair. White cell counts appraise the body’s immune response as well as overall training load. Iron – hemoglobin, hematocrit, ferritin - are essentials for oxygen transfer. When hemoglobin ([id], [author], [title], [article], [date_edited], [thumb_url]) VALUES drop, a viscous cycle can take place. Training begins to thrash the body more than usual. Recovery becomes harder. The rejuvenation between training sessions take longer. Blood tests - a kind of kaleidoscope into the body’s condition.
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\r\nAn efficiency test with the U.S. Ski Team begins with the electronic whir of quite possibly the world’s longest, widest treadmill. Every three minutes my finger is pricked, heart rate recorded, lactate taken. Every three minutes the treadmill’s paces increases by two kilometers an hour. The first twenty minutes or so go by easily, auspiciously. Still, I remember the last treadmill test and how much the last seconds hurt. I keep thinking, maybe today won’t hurt so bad but know deep down torture wait. Eventually the pace becomes too much, and the treadmill spits me off, rollerskis and all, leaving me spent, my head spinning with fatigue. For the white-coated sport scientists conducting the test is a success when an athlete, for every heart beat can do more physical work, bumping up biomechanical efficiency relative to metabolic cost. Personally, success comes when the test is done and another isn’t another on the schedule for months.
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\r\nWhile the big sport science test weeks of 2004 have past there’s still plenty of work to do. I’m currently on the South Island of New Zealand in search of snow. I hope to have a few good stories to tell before coming back to pear country later this month.
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Andrew Johnson, Torin Koos, Andy Newell, Zack Simons (r to l).
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\r\nTorin Koos 2004 All Rights Reserved
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Written By: TKoosDate Posted: 8/12/2004Number of Views: 342
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