Yet a new start, and more counter pressure

Interesting how defensive and even offensive the XC ski community responds to free thinking. People to get more out of their sport, people who dare to differ.
I know many kind and wonderful people in skiing, but all too other they'll think you're weird or even bad for skiing, just because you have a mind of your own.
On the web, they make a point of miss-spelling my nickname to try and ridicule me (I can do that fine myself, thankyouverymuch). If a name is hard to spell, copy-paste it, right? Lack of personal respect can never lend credibility to what you have to say, however heartfelt or well-intended.

OK, about tme then.
I'm back from a week of skiing. The Noords Festival in Reit im Winkl, Germany. Packed with skating tours and lesson, and I even took a classic lesson I sortof enjoyed. It's still not all for me, but at least I know I can sortof make forward progress and at times get my movements roughly in tune. I see it as a change of pace when I want to be out there, but take a break from skating. In weeks such as last week, I can ski until I drop, just too good to be out there. Next day can be a bit hard then.

In the races I didn't fare as well as I'd hoped. Not that I was all prep'd and fit for it, not at all. I just hoped my improved technique owuld get me to the finish line somewhat quickly. Turns out, I lack muscle endurance to stand up steadily, let alone ski properly, when I attempt race speed. The 7.5km skate race felt like a marathon after a beer drinking session. Not that I've ever tried that.
The sprint races were pretty fun, just the soft fresh snow doesn't exactly favor my stature and overweight. Again, it was fun anyway.
The 20km skate "marathon" was really tough on me. More soft snow, and lots falling as we struggled alone. My skis sank way deep each half-stride, where I saw lighter built racers just glide along, which made me quite jealous. I was skiing non-stop (after for some breathers on the big hill) for 93 minutes though, a new first.

Now home, I trying again to pick up my training. Just finish a pre-lunch jog, after having attended the 2 track practices already this week. It feels good, in the tiring way. Planning to get a bike ride in this afternoon, and some skating (slow inlines and poles) tonight. Tomorrow more cycling. Unique for me, but it will need to become normal. Thursday I rode my bike to work as usual, just with a 50km+ detour to pick up something in The Hague. You don't know how out of shape yo are, until you do something that used to be almost daily routine. Yep, very much out of shape. Still, it felt good in the degrading kind of way. Reason more to get fit.

Although I'm no Lars Berger nor will I ever be, I am satisfied with my skating progress on snow. I've found (outside the racing that is) some better balance, and my climbing seems to be quicker and more efficient. I learned for the first time to make a side slip at (some) speed without long snowplowing first.
I still suck at pretty much everything but straight line flatland skiing. Turns, downhilling, bad side poling, etc. Quite content on my freeskating efficiency though, I found myself just leaving the poles hanging in the air, relaxed following other that were poling their way forward, even on steep hills. That suits me well, as I'm all-legs anyway, and they're certainly more used to intensity sports. My long twiggs for arms will need serious weight lifting to put any real pressure on the poles. My abs barely give me a sit-up, let alone an abs workout. No idea how that has gone so bad, pushups never went away as badly.