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What to Know When Buying Cross-Country Skis

As the darkness of a COVID winter looms, I plan on cross-country skiing my face off. It’s the perfect socially distant winter activity: glide off into solitary oblivion without a chairlift in sight, while getting a kick-ass, gym-free workout. I won’t be the only one out there.

“Many people are turning to nordic, especially if they don’t live near a resort,” says Nick Sargeant, president of the industry organization Snowsports Industries America. Whether travel or general safety is your concern, cross-country skis afford beautiful independence.

“No matter what the situation is—pandemic, weather, holiday, with kids or without—we can go nordic skiing,” says Sargent, who grew up skiing two miles to school and back in Vermont. That ease of access is appealing. Shops across the country are selling much more gear than in past years; in Colorado, Boulder Nordic Sport reports seeing shortages from many manufacturers. This means now is the time to buy.

But cross-country ski gear is undeniably confusing. There are several different types of boots and skis—and different ways to ski them—plus a complex matrix of boot-binding compatibility. Here’s our primer on how to become the nordie you’ve always wanted to be.

Use a Shop

Possibly more so than any other sport, there is massive value in working with a shop to get set up with proper skis, boots, bindings, and poles. (And many shops can help customers over the phone instead of in person, ideal in our COVID world.)

The first question will be: Do you want to ski in tracks at a nordic center or out of tracks in the backcountry? They’ll also ask what other sports you do, and what kind of experience you’re looking to have.

Skate Skis

Skate skiing is exactly what it sounds like: each ski glides forward diagonally, similar to what happens ice skating, every stride starting with a push-off on the inside edge of the opposite ski. Anyone who likes to go fast off the bat, and who plans on skiing exclusively at groomed nordic centers, will likely gravitate toward this discipline. (Though the best way to decide whether you prefer skate or classic skiing is to rent equipment and try them both.) Skate skis have a base that’s smooth from tip to tail.

Nathan Schultz, the owner of Boulder Nordic Sport, suggests investing in at least midrange skate skis, which cost anywhere from $ 300 to $ 500. “It’s way more fun to have high-quality stuff,” he says. “It’s less work.” Why? Higher-end base materials glide and hold wax better, and well-engineered foam or corrugated composite cores make skis lighter and livelier, moving your energy down the trail instead of absorbing it. “Inexpensive skis feel more dead and wooden,” he says.

Classic Skis

(*Photo:* Courtesy Devil’s Thumb Ranch Resort and Spa)

Classic skiing is what you probably think of when you picture cross-country athletes: you move your skis forward in a parallel motion, like you’re running on skis. This discipline can produce just as good of a workout as skate skiing, but it’s typically a little slower and requires more technique to unlock higher speeds. (Most beginners simply walk on skis. The true kick-and-glide motion takes awhile to learn.) Classic skiing is also more versatile. You can go fast in tracks at nordic centers or cruise around off-trail in the woods. The skis look similar to skate models in every way, except they’re usually longer and the tips curve up more. They also have a grippy kick zone under the foot.

Classic skis come in several variations. Waxable models require you to apply a temperature-specific, sticky kick wax to this section of the base, while waxless ones have a fish-scale pattern underfoot that generates kick. In the past few years, some ski makers have started embedding mohair skins, like those used for alpine touring, into the bottom of classic skis, instead of grinding in a fish-scale pattern. (No matter which type of ski you pick, you should still apply glide wax to the tips and tails. More on that below.)

For high-performance classic skiing, mid- to upper-range waxable skis (and a good wax application) will have you kicking and gliding the fastest. However, Schultz says that waxless classic skis meant for in-track skiing work well and “remove one layer of confusion and complexity from an already technical sport.” There’s also a versatile category of waxless skis that work both in tracks and off-trail.

Backcountry Skis

Woman cross country skiing on sunny day. — (*Photo:* VisualCommunications/iStock)

If you want to ski a wide range of off-trail terrain, you’ll need skis that are fatter, shorter, and have metal edges for stability and turning. Otherwise, the underfoot grip zone and the kick-and-glide forward motion are the same as they are on classic skis. “We have a lot of people come to us wanting to shuffle around the lakes and forests of Minnesota and Wisconsin,” says Jenny Beckman, general manager of the Minnesota shop Gear West. “They’re looking for a classic-style setup with very little maintenance. We direct them to waxless skis that can be used in tracks and out.” There are also burlier models that are 60 millimeters (or even fatter) underfoot and can handle low-angle trails from New Hampshire to Montana. A dedicated backcountry classic boot will keep your feet warm while offering higher levels of support for rugged terrain. This type of boot works only with a dedicated backcountry, or BC, binding.

Boots and Bindings

Skate boots have a stiff sole and a high, supportive ankle cuff, and they should fit snugly, like a cycling shoe, but not as tight as an alpine boot. A classic boot is cut lower, and its sole and ankle are able to flex as you kick and glide. For fit, allow about a thumb’s width of room at the toe, like a running shoe. The same rule applies for both: A nicer boot, often made with carbon, will be lighter and stiffer, yielding better power transfer. It will also pack out less over time. If you’re interested in both skate and classic skiing, you can get away with “combi” boots, which have a structural cuff for skating and a soft enough sole to flex for classic—adequate for both, though optimal for neither.

To a certain degree, the boot you buy will determine what kind of binding you need. (Or vice versa: if you particularly like a certain binding platform, that will limit your boot options.) Nordic boot-binding compatibility can lead you down a path of confusing acronyms. Most boots these days from brands like Alpina, Fischer, Madshus, Rossignol, and Salomon are on an NNN platform, with three NNN-compatible binding platforms—NIS, Prolink, and Turnamic. Ultimately, it’s best to ask a shop employee or a very knowledgeable friend to make sure your gear is copacetic. Skate and classic bindings systems bear the same acronyms. The main difference is that classic bindings have a softer toe bumper than a skate binding to allow more of a kick-and-glide movement. A new type of classic binding shifts up to three centimeters forward or backward. “You can shift the binding forward for extra kick or back for extra glide,” depending on the conditions, says Beckman.

Poles

Skate and classic skiing use the same poles, just cut to different lengths. Skate poles should arrive between your upper lip and your nose when you rest the tip on the ground while wearing boots or street shoes; classic poles should reach the top of your shoulder while you’re wearing boots. Zach Caldwell of Vermont’s Caldwell Sport and West Hill Shop recommends lightweight carbon-fiber poles instead of a carbon-fiber glass blend, so you’re not swinging a heavy pendulum with every pole plant. Make sure the grips and straps fit your hands and wrists properly. “That’s where the power transfer happens,” Caldwell says.

How Much Money Are We Talking?

Top-end gear in any cross-country discipline will cost you between $ 700 to $ 1,000, but you can get a package of boots, bindings, and waxless touring skis for $ 350. Compare that amount to even an entry-level bike and exhale.

Taking Care of Your Gear

Caldwell advises hot waxing your ski bases at regular intervals and then using liquid rub-on wax every time you ski—even the tips and tails of classic skis, no matter what kind of classic ski you have. This helps the skis glide and keeps the bases from drying out. Skipping the hot wax and just using liquids works fine, he says, but regular hot-wax applications will help the overall performance and life span of your new skis.

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Camping Tips, Tricks and Adventures

What You Need to Know Before You Buy a Flashlight

Why buy a dedicated flashlight instead of just using the one built into your smartphone? As you’ve probably noticed, running your phone’s light quickly runs down the battery while providing a very limited amount of illumination. Worse, holding your phone securely while shining its light may feel awkward, particularly in the dark while you’re trying to work on something. And you really don’t want to rely on a light source that breaks easily and stops working when dropped.

Bright light has become a commodity product. You can buy a cheap flashlight online, or even in a gas station, that makes as many lumens as more expensive options. So the differences that may help determine if a light is right for you depend on other factors.

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How Are You Going to Carry It or Store It?

Like a good knife, a flashlight’s job is to be there when you need it. So the most important thing a flashlight can do is to fit into your pocket, nightstand, or glove box.

A very small key-chain flashlight can be carried with you everywhere, every day. But getting it deployed may involve fumbling through your pocket, around whatever else is riding in there, then using both hands to switch it on. A very slim light with a good pocket clip will still easily fit in your pocket but will be much simpler to access. That said, you’ll need to remember to move it between garments, which increases the risk of losing it.

Larger lights are harder to misplace than smaller ones, but they’re also harder to carry. This becomes an advantage at home or in a vehicle when reaching for a large light in the dark—but it’s probably not the one you want to bring backpacking.

The size and form of a light are also going to impact the ways in which you control a flashlight, as well as the amount of run time you’ll be able to get out of its batteries.

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How Are You Going to Power It?

With modern LED technology, the emitters, reflectors, and lenses or optics have shrunk so much that now it’s often the shape and size of the batteries that determine the shape and size of a flashlight.

Lights can be powered by either standard batteries, like the typical AAs, AAAs, and C or D cells we’ve all used for decades, or they can rely on less common, high-discharge rechargeable batteries, like 18650’s or 26650’s.

The advantages of running a common, old-school battery like a AA are low cost and wide availability. You probably already have some AAs in a drawer, and if not, you can buy more at virtually any retail location. But common batteries have limited output, and even lights that require only a single AAA battery aren’t necessarily small enough to fit on your key chain.

High-discharge rechargeables are capable of powering much more powerful lights and can pack that performance into smaller forms. However, they’re often expensive and hard to find outside of specialty online retailers. Being able to recharge them may sound like an advantage, but it’ll require keeping track of cables and maybe even charging docks.

I find a good middle ground between commonly available batteries and high-performance ones to be CR123 cells. These were widely adopted for digital cameras and other devices, meaning they’re stocked in places like gas stations and grocery stores, but still pack higher outputs and longer run times. They’re shorter and fatter than a AA, which results in lights that may be just small enough to fit on your key chain if only one is required but still be large enough to fill your hand if your light needs two or three. Some CR123 flashlights, like those in the Foursevens Mini range, may also be capable of running the high-discharge rechargeable version of the CR123, known as the RCR123, resulting in higher light outputs. Do not attempt to run those unless the flashlight manufacturer specifically states they’re compatible, though; RCR123s can destroy unsuitable flashlights.

If you do want a flashlight that relies solely on rechargeable batteries, look for one that builds a charger into the light itself, requiring only a cable to be plugged into it for charging. Skipping charging docks gives you one less thing to carry or lose.

If you run flashlights powered by common batteries, it’s worth buying lithium ones. Not only do those boast a ten-year shelf life and better stand up to cold temperatures, but they may also offer improved performance if a light is designed to take advantage of their increased power outputs.

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How Are You Going to Operate It?

Flashlights come with either push-button or twist-cap interfaces. Buttons are easier and faster to operate and can be manipulated with a single hand. Twist caps are less likely to be activated accidentally while riding in a pocket or a pack and can be built into smaller packages, but they typically require two hands to operate.

Buttons are packed into a flashlight’s side or its tail. Side buttons are easier to use with an underhand grip, as you may hold a light while casually walking along a trail. Tail-cap buttons require an overhand grip, which you use if you’re holding a light over your shoulder. Tail-cap buttons can either be exposed, preventing a light from standing on its tail, or shrouded, allowing that tail to stand.

These days, both buttons and twist caps tend to operate multiple light modes, which you access by quickly cycling between on and off or presses and holds. Because it’s easy for a light maker to offer multiple modes of operation, and because more modes make for more marketing, most flashlights now come with more available settings than is practical.

Whether it’s a very dim light output designed to help retain your night vision, or the maximum output available, determine which mode or modes you’re going to use most often, and make sure they’re easily accessible on any light you buy. The last thing you want to do is spend time trying to cycle through clicks and twists and various strobe patterns just to turn a light on during an emergency. This can be achieved either by a simple interface that matches your preferences or through a user-programmable function that allows you to customize a light’s function to your needs.

Much more so than their commonly inflated performance claims, it’s these factors that are going to help you find a flashlight that truly meets your needs.

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Camping Tips, Tricks and Adventures

Everything You Need to Know About Period Tracking

“Track your period and train smarter.” That was the promise of FitrWoman, an app I downloaded on my phone last fall. I’d decided to try it out because my fitness level seemed to drop off precipitously last year. Even though I was healthy and there were no major changes in my training, my endurance tanked. My joints and muscles were unrelentingly tight and brittle. My body didn’t seem to recover—ever. I’d have one or two good weeks followed by a lackluster one where I could barely rally to run more than three miles and do some physical therapy exercises. The cycle repeated over and over.

All year, I tried every trick in the book to get back on track, but blindly following the advice of the latest fitness articles and sports research papers felt like a crapshoot (and not a very smart strategy). I was desperate for some concrete guidance. When nothing else seemed to help, I wondered if I should pay more attention to my hormones and menstrual cycle. Honestly, even though I’ve written about the myriad ways that women’s cycles can impact health and performance, I don’t regularly think about it in the context of my own life. I don’t compete at a high level, and I wasn’t training for a goal race. I like to run, swim, practice yoga, and play outside as much as possible, and I wasn’t sure my period really mattered. But I’m in my early forties, and recently my period started acting finicky when it used to run like clockwork.

To the extent that I did think about my period, I considered it a liability when it came to sports—a nuisance at best, and a barrier to peak race-day results at worst. And I’m not alone. A 2016 study in the journal PLOS One found that 55.4 percent of female athletes felt that their monthly cycle impacted their training or performance. However, menstruation is usually a taboo and embarrassing topic to discuss with friends, coaches, and teammates—so most women are left with few strategies to mitigate the effects of their cycle on their workouts except to grin and bear it. In fact, according to a 2019 analysis of responses from over 14,000 female Strava users, 72 percent said they have received no education about exercise and their periods.

Yet according to experts, understanding how women experience the menstrual cycle is fundamental to sports and performance. “Women’s physiology changes dramatically across the whole cycle,” says Emma Ross, the former head of physiology for the English Institute of Sport, which supports British Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Hormones like estrogen and progesterone ebb and flow throughout the month, influencing everything from how women respond to training, metabolize nutrients, and regulate body temperature and hydration levels. In other words, my fueling needs and ability to recover from workouts may change depending on whether I’m in a low-hormone phase or a high-hormone phase.

In an attempt to get to the bottom of why my fitness was stuck in the doldrums, I tracked my period for two months using two apps: Clue and FitrWoman.

According to experts, understanding how women experience the menstrual cycle is fundamental to sports and performance.

Let’s back up for a minute. You may remember from biology class that there are two phases of the menstrual cycle. The first phase is the follicular phase, which kicks off when a woman starts her period: the body prepares to release an egg from an ovary and begins to rebuild the uterine lining. Generally, hormones are low during this period but start to rise. Ovulation occurs mid-cycle, when the egg is released. This marks the end of the follicular phase and the beginning of the luteal phase, when hormone levels are generally high and the body prepares to either accept a fertilized egg and support a pregnancy, or the body gets ready to shed the uterine lining.

In the past few years, researchers have begun to dig deeper into sex differences in sports science, with a particular focus on the impact of the menstrual cycle. There is mounting anecdotal evidence that when you adjust training protocols to the specifics of female physiology, athletes perform better. The biggest endorsement for period tracking came last summer, when it was revealed that the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team—who won a historic fourth World Cup last July—tracked their cycles leading up to and during the tournament. The team implemented training, nutrition, recovery, and sleep strategies based on where each player was in their cycle. Chelsea F.C. Women (a women’s soccer club based in England), the Brisbane Lions Women’s team (an Australian Football League women’s team), and others have also followed suit.

While recognizing monthly fluctuations can be useful, period tracking isn’t a silver bullet. There isn’t enough high-quality research to create evidence-based guidelines, especially given women’s highly variable experiences with their period. In a Twitter thread, Kirsty Elliot-Sale, an associate professor at Nottingham Trent University and a researcher on female physiology, cautioned: “We, the scientific community, have not yet reached a consensus on the direction or magnitude of changes that occur during the menstrual cycle and as such it is impossible for us to guide women’s sport on this basis.” (In July of this year, Elliott-Sale and her colleagues published a meta-analysis of the research on the menstrual cycle and exercise performance in the journal Sports Medicine, and called for further investigation because of the inconclusive results.)

However, menstrual cycle tracking can be an opportunity to empower women to appreciate their own physiology, says Dr. Ellen Casey, associate attending physiatrist in the Women’s Sports Medicine Center at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. “If it’s really true that risk of injury and performance fluctuates across the menstrual cycle, we can either say, ‘That sucks,’ and not deal with it, or we can say, ‘This is fascinating. Are there things we can learn from this? Can we harness these changes and train in certain ways at certain times?’”

In the past, most women have relied on pen and paper to keep tabs on their periods, if they did at all. Today there is no shortage of apps to help women understand their bodies better. It’s all part of the booming “femtech” market, broadly defined as products, apps, and digital services centered around women’s health and well-being. The category is projected to be worth $ 50 billion by 2025, according to Frost and Sullivan, a marketing consulting firm.

While most period-tracking apps are geared toward ovulation and fertility, a growing number like Clue and Flo allow women to log exercise and energy levels as well as more traditional symptoms like cramps and cravings. Garmin and Fitbit also offer period-tracking functions, so women can make notes on their cycle alongside their runs, bikes, and swims. MyFlo suggests different physical activities that may be more suited to the current phase of your cycle. The app then sorts through your data and looks for patterns and trends.

FitrWoman, which is targeted specifically to active women, takes things a step further: in addition to menstrual cycle and activity tracking, it provides educational snippets on what’s happening in your body based on your current menstrual cycle phase, and offers strategies to mitigate those effects. On the home screen, you can swipe through a few slides and read how hormonal fluctuations may affect your physiology, training, and nutrition. There’s a link to recipes, too, which are tailored to support training and recovery for the phase you’re in.

Each day, I opened the apps, clicked on the calendar (the main hub in both apps), and reported any symptoms I experienced that day. In FitrWoman, I scrolled a single page and chose from 20 different symptoms.

Clue, on the other hand, groups symptoms into nine categories (bleeding, pain, emotions, sleep, energy, cravings, digestion, mental, and exercise). Each category has four options: like cramps, headache, ovulation, and tender breasts for pain; or happy, sensitive, sad, or PMS for emotions. Just swipe and tap to log the relevant symptoms. I also have the option to create custom tags. Each month, I noted when my period started, its flow, and how long it lasted. The apps then predicted when my next period would start.

At first, chronicling daily symptoms was like starting a brand-new puzzle. I was excited to dig in and figure out what all the pieces would reveal about my physiology. For example, I noticed that I typically feel great in the follicular days between the end of my period and ovulation, when my hormone levels are relatively low. I’m happy. I have plenty of energy. And I feel strong during my runs and strength sessions, so I can push myself harder.

On the flip side, during the luteal phase I tend to feel flat, battle daily headaches, and have less energy and motivation to work out. This makes sense, since estrogen and progesterone levels are high, which can lead to bloating and fatigue. I also want to eat all the sweet and salty foods I can get my hands on during this time. “We know that cravings are likely caused by increased insulin resistance in this phase,” says Georgie Bruinvels, an exercise physiologist and the creator of FitrWoman. This can make blood-sugar levels more unstable. Instead of criticizing myself for being lazy and giving into my cravings, I was more proactive about fueling throughout the day to keep my blood sugar stable and switched up harder workouts for yoga, swimming, or a rest day during this phase.

Both apps also let women share information with their real-life coach. FitrWoman uses FitrCoach, a separate fee-based platform on which coaches can see where an athlete is in her menstrual cycle and which symptoms they’ve logged. It also sends a notification if an athlete hasn’t logged a period, which may be a sign of amenorrhea, the absence of menstruation. Amenorrhea can have a long-term impact on a woman’s health and signal the presence of a larger issue like the female athlete triad, or relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S).

Since many women don’t talk openly about their menstrual cycle, this setup can be a way to facilitate these private conversations, says Adam St. Pierre, an ultrarunning coach based in Boulder, Colorado. Previously, athletes would send him a text or email, or leave a note in their training log when they started their period or if they experienced troublesome symptoms. “It wasn’t super scientific,” he says. “FitrCoach allows for more tracking, letting me make sure things are going well.” The equivalent setup for Clue is called Clue Connect: you can invite others to view your cycle, such as a coach, partner, family member, or friend. The app will show them the dates for your past, current, and predicted periods, fertile windows, and PMS. Other symptoms remain private.

While logging symptoms and collecting data about my cycle was easy, figuring out what it all meant and how I could apply it to my life wasn’t so simple. Both apps provide educational information about menstruation and common symptoms, but the information is generic. I had to triangulate between FitrWoman, exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist Stacy Sims’s book Roar (the go-to training and nutrition guide for female athletes), and my own experience to determine which adjustments I could make and when.

There is currently no easy way to step back and get a macro-level view of my cycle and symptoms alongside my training log in either app. While FitrWoman syncs with Strava, I can only see that information for an individual day, not on a weekly or monthly basis. My basic activity stats (distance, pace, time, calories, elevation gain, etc.) automatically feed into my FitrWoman calendar and appear alongside symptoms I’ve logged for that day. The data isn’t pushed to my Strava feed. Plus, I normally use TrainingPeaks, not Strava, to track my workouts, and right now the app doesn’t sync with TrainingPeaks. So I had to manually jump back and forth between all the apps, making it harder to see trends and process the overall picture of my health and performance. Bruinvels says FitrWoman plans to develop a higher-level view of the data over a longer time period and overlay it with training information. It may also move toward predicting when symptoms are likely to occur based on previous cycles. (The timeline for these developments is unclear.)

For its part, Clue does begin to analyze your reported data after you complete two cycles. It plots recurrent symptoms across each recorded cycle and predicts when you’re likely to experience them based on past cycles. It also presents an overview: the average length of a cycle, the average length of a period, and the typical cycle length variation. Clue’s cycle analysis starts to get at the macro-level insights I crave and provides the data points to start piecing together the puzzle.

Admittedly, I wanted period tracking to be a fix, and to offer me a prescriptive path back to better fitness and strength. But it’s never that easy. I’m still in the process of parsing out the data and testing different adjustments to get back on track.

Still, the simple act of noticing how I felt each day gave me a framework to interpret the signals my body was sending. Instead of berating myself for a bad run or lack of energy during strength workouts, I can put those workouts into context: Where am I in my cycle? What’s going on with my body that may make me feel this way? Should I expect to feel good today? Now I have a plausible explanation for how I feel, putting a stop to some of the second-guessing going on in my head.

“There’s no part of the cycle that’s negative,” Sim says. “It’s about gaining awareness of how you are across your cycle” and learning to work with that.

If you want to take a peek under the hood and understand your menstrual cycle and how it affects you, here are some tips to get you started.

How to Start Tracking Your Period

Demystify Your Cycle

Whether you use an app, a fitness tracker, or pen and paper, the first step is to commit to tracking your menstrual cycle and determine its length. “Not every woman’s period is a textbook 28 days,” Sims says. Cycle length can vary greatly from woman to woman, and even fluctuate from month to month. Even women at the same phase of their cycles can have vastly different experiences and symptoms, so it’s important to understand the influence of hormones in your own body.

Sims also recommends using an at-home ovulation predictor kit to determine when you’re ovulating, especially if your app doesn’t provide this information. (Clue does. FitrWoman doesn’t.) This will tell you more precisely when you’re entering the higher-hormone luteal phase of your cycle.

If you’re taking hormonal birth control, it’s a little more complicated. For IUD users, you still experience natural hormonal fluctuations, even if you don’t get a period, and can track your cycle and find your monthly patterns. However, if you’re on combined hormonal birth control, you don’t experience the same high- and low-hormone phases, since the contraceptive provides stable levels of estrogen and progesterone for three weeks out of every month. “You can track, but you’re not going to have the same benefit as if you were using your natural cycle,” Sims says. While you may identify days when you feel good and bad, the whole concept of employing specific strategies for high-hormone versus low-hormone phases doesn’t apply.

Note Patterns and Trends

Sims recommends tracking your cycle for at least three months. This will begin to give you enough data so that you can start to see trends. “If you track for one or two months, what you experience may just be an off day,” she says. “But if it happens three times, then you know there may be a real pattern.” Overlay this information with your training log to spot connections between the menstrual cycle and workouts and races.

While the research isn’t quite strong enough yet to make general recommendations, simply increasing your body literacy is beneficial. Ross, the UK-based physiologist, says that when you’re in tune with the physical and emotional experience of your cycle, you may be more confident in planning your training, nutrition, and recovery, which can eliminate a lot of anxiety.

Adjust, Adjust, Adjust

Once you notice patterns, begin to dial in your training and nutrition. “It doesn’t have to be prescriptive like, ‘I’m in a low-hormone phase so I’m going to do high-intensity training this day, this day, and this day,’” Sims says. Instead, use those patterns as signals for when to ramp up activities or take things down a notch.

For example, during the high-hormone phase when women are likely to feel flat physiologically, it’s not the best time to work hard. Instead, focus on technique like running drills. “With drills, you get the neuromuscular stimulus when the body is tired. Then, when you do the same drills when hormones are more optimal, you’ll perform that much better,” says Sims.

While “listen to your body” feels like cliché advice, it’s still a good mantra. Every woman’s experience is different across her cycle, and there’s no one-size-fits-all template. Pay attention to what’s happening and make reasonable adjustments based on your personal experience.

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Camping Tips, Tricks and Adventures

Here’s what you need to know about skiing Vail Resorts this winter.

The company just released a plan that includes reservations and masks for upcoming season. Here’s everything you need to know.

It might mean your favorite powder run might not get tracked up as quick, but it comes at a cost. Emphasizing its commitment to safety in the age of COVID-19, Vail Resorts recently released its operation plan for the upcoming season at its 34 North American resorts. Included in the new schussing strategy: face coverings and social distancing protocols, including a “reservation” system for skiers and riders. One can only suspect that other resorts are examining the policy for their own operations.

“To help protect our guests, our employees and our communities amid this pandemic, some changes will be required this season,” wrote Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz in the letter posted on the company’s website. “Our goal to design an approach that can remain in place for all of this season…While it will be a little different than we are used to, we are very optimistic it will be a great season.”

Read full letter here: http://news.vailresorts.com/corporate/vailresorts/winter-operating-plan-2020-letter.htm

Read more about the reservation system here

Below is a synopsis of the skiing and riding protocols:

Face Coverings

Guests will be required to wear face coverings in every part of the resorts’ operations, which includes loading and riding in chairlifts and gondolas; when inside all buildings; and during all ski and snowboard lessons.

Physical Distancing

Lifts and Dining:Physical distancing will be promoted on chairlifts and gondolas, seating only related parties together and distancing singles (opposite sides of four- and six-person lifts and gondola cabins). On-mountain restaurants will be open in limited capacities, with cafeteria-style dining, cashless transactions, and spaced-out seating. No bars will be open, but they will sell packaged libations.

Reservation system:Vail Resorts is also implementing a new reservation system for all skiers and riders. (“The good news,” writes Katz, “is that we operate many of the largest mountain resorts in North America, and for the vast majority of the season, we believe everyone who wants to get on our mountains will be able to.”). As part of the system, early season before Dec. 8 will be reserved for pass holders only (no day ticket sales); and all pass holders will be required to make a reservation before arriving at the mountain. Pass holders will be able to make as many week-of reservations as their pass type and availability allow, and will also be able to book up to seven Priority Reservation Days between Dec. 8-April 4), or as many days as their pass allows during the booking window of Nov. 6 until Dec. 7. Katz added they don’t believe pass holders will need a reservation to access their partner resorts (Telluride, Sun Valley, Snowbasin, Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, Hakuba or Rusutsu). Day tickets will be sold on a space available basis after Dec. 8, through websites and call centers only (no ticket window sales).

“There is no doubt this season will be different, but we are committed to what matters most: working to protect your safety and wellbeing and providing you with great skiing and riding this winter,” concludes Katz.

Photo Tom Cohen, Vail Resorts

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Outdoor News video: Know these guys? If so, call the TIP Hotline

The Minnesota DNR needs your help. A trail camera in Isanti County has captured images of what appear to be a couple of grouse poachers, and the DNR is looking for any information. The Turn In Poachers number is (800) 652-9093.

Categories: Minnesota Videos

Tags: Poaching, Ruffed grouse

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Know these guys? If so, call the TIP Hotline

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10 Things to Know About the Coronavirus Outbreak

The coronavirus disease—officially known as COVID-19—is hitting Europe and the Middle East and has made landfall in the U.S. with more than 100 cases. Like a lot of you, we’ve followed the outbreak with a mix of dread and fascination, and with frequent refreshes to the amazing coronavirus map published by Johns Hopkins. The good news is that activities in the mountains—where people can remain at a safe distance from each other—will probably continue to be safe. But everything from yoga to the Olympics could get dicey.

Coronaviruses might live for up to nine days on countertops.

Nobody knows yet just how long the COVID-19 virus can remain viable on surfaces, but other coronaviruses—a category of virus that can cause illnesses ranging from common colds to deadly diseases like SARS and MERS—can stick around for up to nine days. That means you’ll want to be careful about what you touch (looking at you, iPhone and airplane tray table). One of the most common forms of transmission is to get virus particles on your hands and then rub your eyes, mouth, or nose. Fortunately, SARS and MERS can both be killed by alcohol solutions (62 percent alcohol or more) or hydrogen peroxide, so possibly the new coronavirus can, too. In hospitals, technicians also use more powerful Cavicide to disinfect sensitive areas, although it’s nasty stuff and best used by gloved professionals.

The most effective protocol is to wash your hands with hot soapy water for 20 seconds or so. The foaming and rubbing action is important as it works viral particles out of the folds of your skin. Then apply an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. It takes alcohol 15 to 20 seconds to break down the lipid envelope that surrounds the virus proteins. Luckily, enveloped viruses are the easiest to destroy with alcohol. And while some enterprising homemakers have pointed out that ethanol may be more destructive to viruses than rubbing alcohol, it’s also more dehydrating to your skin, so use hand sanitizer.

It’s much deadlier than the flu and has the potential to kill millions of people.

Everyone from NPR to the president has made the point that the flu is currently a greater threat to public health than COVID-19. But the phrasing here is key. In a typical flu season, between 12,000 and 61,000 Americans will die from the flu. And COVID-19 is just getting started; by the time of this article’s publication, it had already killed more than 3,000 people worldwide. But COVID-19 has the world on edge because of what it could do. Experts think it has the potential to infect an enormous percent of the global population—some say as many of 70 percent of all adults—and cause enormous social and economic disruption.

What makes COVID-19 so scary? Well, it’s highly transmissible: one infected person is likely to give the virus to between two and three others. There are a few reasons for this. One, because COVID-19 is new, no one in the world has any immunity. Two, most—roughly 80 percent—of the cases are mild or even asymptomatic, which means that those people with few symptoms can walk around infecting others rather than spending a couple of weeks laid up in bed. Three, the incubation period is relatively long: people can harbor the virus for two weeks or so before getting sick.

So how deadly is it to individuals? “Globally, about 3.4 percent of reported COVID-19 cases have died,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization’s director, on March 3. That’s still much higher than the flu (0.1 percent) but lower than SARS (10 percent), MERS (34 percent), or Ebola (50 percent).

Lastly, and frighteningly, it appears that you can get reinfected. Unlike the flu, whose victims build up immunity to a specific strain after their illness, there have been reports of people recovering from COVID-19 and then getting it again.

Fun things might be canceled.

For now, things like Mount Everest season, the Summer Olympics, and your favorite yoga class are still a go. But Olympic organizers are understandably worried. Dick Pound, a senior member of the International Olympic Committee told the Associated Press last week that the IOC could afford to wait until May to make a decision about whether to move forward with the Games. The question they’re asking themselves: “Is this under sufficient control that we can be confident about going to Tokyo or not?” And if the virus is not under control, according to Pound, “you’re probably looking at a cancellation.”

Meanwhile, Everest expedition leader Adrian Ballinger, a fixture on the mountain for the past decade, tells us he’s altered his team’s plans to fly into Kathmandu and avoid major Chinese cities. The season kicks off around April 8, when groups begin flying into Nepal’s capital city. “Of course it’s still an unknown,” said Ballinger, “but the Chinese have hit all deadlines so far, and we have sent full payment for our permits.” Nepal has, to date, reported only one case of coronavirus; however, if the disease were to spread there, it could quickly overwhelm the small nation’s health care resources.

But when it comes to public crowds and normal human interaction, things may get sketchy when the disease starts to spread in the U.S. If the fallout in places like Italy, Spain, and Austria are any indicator, professional sports events could be played in empty stadiums, large gatherings and festivals could be canceled, and hotels and whole neighborhoods could be placed on lockdown.

Yes, you should stock up, but maybe not on what you’re thinking about.

In Hong Kong, coronavirus fears sparked a run on toilet paper, causing supermarket fights and even an armed TP heist. In all seriousness, experts say the most important things to stock up on are prudent amounts of any prescription medication you might need, as well as a small supply of dry goods like rice, beans, oats, and canned food that won’t go bad and that you’ll eat regardless. This is less about fears that supplies will run out and more about not wanting to stand in a pharmacy line during an epidemic (or worse, if you yourself are sick).

Surgical masks probably don’t help.

While most of East Asia is outfitted in doctor’s masks these days, that’s more a social custom than a medical necessity—mask-wearing “fosters a sense of a fate shared, mutual obligation, and civic duty,” anthropologist Christos Lynteris wrote recently in The New York Times. The World Health Organization says not to bother with masks unless you’re a doctor—or you’re sick yourself. The best defense is washing your hands. If you do have to go into a high-risk situation (say, visiting a hospital during an outbreak), the mask to get is not the paper kind but an N95 respirator, which can filter out at least 95 percent of tiny particles. Even then you need to be sure the mask fits snugly against clean-shaven skin—sorry, that dirtbag beard has to go—and that no air seeps in around the edges.

Get ready for “social distancing.”

Places from Japan to Saudi Arabia to Italy are already implementing what public health experts call “social distancing,” which basically means discouraging people from hanging out in groups. This can be anything from canceling school to forbidding social gatherings (the Chinese megacity of Guangzhou has banned eating in restaurants). Should coronavirus hit the U.S. hard, employers will likely call for work-from-home arrangements. But—fair warning—that means actually doing your job. Young bank trainees in Hong Kong were recently named and shamed in the local press for getting caught hiking when they were supposed to be working from home.

You can spread the virus without showing symptoms.

This is part of what makes coronavirus so scary to infectious-disease experts. While SARS could only be transmitted via the obviously sick (i.e., those who were hacking and feverish), coronavirus carriers can fly under the radar with few or no symptoms. A 20-year-old woman from Wuhan infected five members of her family but never had symptoms herself. And another woman infected a coworker at a meeting despite feeling nothing but a bit of fatigue. According to the CDC, people are the most contagious when they are the sickest. However, the agency reported that “some spread might be possible before people show symptoms.”

The difficulty of asymptomatic transmission means both that there are carriers out there spreading the virus around unknowingly and that people who get sick will have no idea where they contracted COVID-19. It’s a recipe for rapid transmission.

The worst part of the pandemic—if it becomes one—will probably occur November through next March.

Coronaviruses fare better in cold air, which is why flu season is in the winter. If the new coronavirus follows the patterns of past pandemics, it will spread during the spring in the Northern Hemisphere, die down over the summer, and then come roaring back as the weather cools in the fall. If the fatality rate is actually above 3 percent, the new coronavirus would be comparable to the 1918 influenza pandemic, which followed a similar pattern. The pandemic actually emerged in late 1917 at a military hospital in France, spread through the winter and spring of 1918, but didn’t really take off until the virus mutated into a more virulent strain that emerged in August of that year and was far deadlier in its second wave than in the first.

Some people are highly infectious “super-spreaders.”

A British businessman attended a sales conference in Singapore, stopped off at a French ski resort to see some friends, then headed back to the UK. Little did he know he was spreading coronavirus the whole way. By the time he realized he was infected, he’d tagged 11 other Britons. Oh, and he still didn’t feel sick himself. No one is exactly sure what makes a super-spreader, but it’s probably a combination of factors, from the host’s immune system to their behavior (if they’re a hand washer) to where they happen to travel. Whatever it is, they’re dangerous. During the SARS epidemic in Singapore, just five super-spreaders managed to be responsible for 144 out of 204 cases.

Don’t panic. It’s not time to go to your doomsday ranch time-share.

In fact, hoarding could make things even more dangerous. If masks and other protective gear are snapped up by the “worried well,” there’ll be nothing left for the people who really need it: medical professionals.

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