Winter Sports in a Winter Wonderland
by SarahSE
My husband woke me this morning proclaiming, "Sarah, you have to get up, it's beautiful outside!" Beautiful is a relative term of course, because it was 15 degrees outside. It felt beautiful compared to the deep freeze that Minnesota has been under for the last couple of weeks- 15 degrees is downright balmy! "It's going to get to a high of 23," he then said, like a kid on Christmas morning. We both agreed that it would be a good idea to take advantage of the heat wave and partake in some winter sports.
Originally we were going to have another round of sledding, which is always a good time, but instead we chose to pull our cross country skis out of the back of our storage unit and hit the tiny slopes at Como Park. Kevin and I both own our own cross-country skiing equipment but, as it turns out, we are both horrible at it! It doesn't look hard, necessarily, but cross-country skiing takes a ridiculous amount of coordination. Neither of us consider ourselves athletes in any traditional sense of the word. (Though, when I was in the 2nd grade my soccer team "The Butterflies" did take the state championship in 1989--I still have the medal.) We always try to go skiing at least once each winter, if not more, but we never seem to get any better. Let me paint the picture for you--flailing limbs, snow covered butts, crossed skis-- not a pretty sight! However, we decided that today might very well be the day that everything clicks and we become skiing masters.
It started out alright, I didn't fall when I went down the first little hill, nor did anyone get their eyes poked out by the pointy poles. Then for some reason as I was going down a little hill about 30 minutes later I fell over and I couldn't get back up. At first I was giggling, but after several failed attempts at standing up, I was laughing hysterically. I felt like the lady in the old commercial who said, "I've fallen and I can't get up!" Eventually Kevin had to ski over and physically pull me up out of the snow. By this time were both feeling sore and tired, and it was then and only then that we seemed to finally get the hang of it! Why does it always work that way? At any rate, Minnesota is the perfect place to try out winter sports because there are parks everywhere and plenty of snow. Even though I'm sure that I'll be walking funny tomorrow because of my sore muscles, I definitely want to give cross-country skiing at least one more chance. If anyone has any tips, let me know!
Originally we were going to have another round of sledding, which is always a good time, but instead we chose to pull our cross country skis out of the back of our storage unit and hit the tiny slopes at Como Park. Kevin and I both own our own cross-country skiing equipment but, as it turns out, we are both horrible at it! It doesn't look hard, necessarily, but cross-country skiing takes a ridiculous amount of coordination. Neither of us consider ourselves athletes in any traditional sense of the word. (Though, when I was in the 2nd grade my soccer team "The Butterflies" did take the state championship in 1989--I still have the medal.) We always try to go skiing at least once each winter, if not more, but we never seem to get any better. Let me paint the picture for you--flailing limbs, snow covered butts, crossed skis-- not a pretty sight! However, we decided that today might very well be the day that everything clicks and we become skiing masters.
It started out alright, I didn't fall when I went down the first little hill, nor did anyone get their eyes poked out by the pointy poles. Then for some reason as I was going down a little hill about 30 minutes later I fell over and I couldn't get back up. At first I was giggling, but after several failed attempts at standing up, I was laughing hysterically. I felt like the lady in the old commercial who said, "I've fallen and I can't get up!" Eventually Kevin had to ski over and physically pull me up out of the snow. By this time were both feeling sore and tired, and it was then and only then that we seemed to finally get the hang of it! Why does it always work that way? At any rate, Minnesota is the perfect place to try out winter sports because there are parks everywhere and plenty of snow. Even though I'm sure that I'll be walking funny tomorrow because of my sore muscles, I definitely want to give cross-country skiing at least one more chance. If anyone has any tips, let me know!
posted by SarahSE at 11:46 PM
2 Comments:
Hints to improve cross country skiing - switch to snow shoeing. This is also good exercise but with much less danger of falling over.
I went snow shoeing at Fort Snelling State Park - famous for NO hills. Off-trail 'shoeing' takes you into the deer herds and, if you're lucky, a glimpse at the pack of coyotes who make the park their home.
I did manage to look silly for a little while after I walked out of one shoe and had to carry both until I found a convenient log to use as a bench.
Stick to flat ground and avoid hills at all costs, even the seemingly "little" hills!
Post a Comment
<< Home