Off season condtioning

DelCarpenter · Joined: 06 Nov 2008 Posts: 499 Location: Cedar Falls, IA

A modified toboggan makes a fairly decent platform for sailing on hard packed snow. In Dec. 1994 I added a 1/2" thick piece of plywood between two of the toboggan supports about 2/3rds of the way forward from the stern. The screws to attach the plywood were screwed in from the bottom of the toboggan. A one-bolt base (minus the thick bolt) was attached to the plywood with screws going down into the plywood. No fin so the set-up didn't work at all for going upwind. But I could walk up wind anytime I wanted to whether the hard packed snow was on land or on ice. Be careful with the sail angle and your stance to prevent rounding up on gusts & going head over heals. I always wore a helmet & elbow & knee pads.

Getting the sail size right is more difficult on hard packed snow. Often I needed to run 3-5 steps to get started moving. Once going just a slight amount of being over powered leads to rounding-up. In the summer on a lake 8 mph is slow but still pleasant. The same wind with a toboggan on hard packed snow was a no go for me. I figure I needed about 12 mph.

Isobars, Christmas time is not the coldest time of the year in Iowa. For today, the record low in Rome & Lake Pleasant NY is -18 F, for Cedar Falls/Waterloo IA the record low is -33 F. Last year some time in January we hit our lowest ever at -34 F. The average low for Rome & Lake Pleasant NY for today is 11 F with an average high of 29. The average low today for Cedar Falls & Waterloo is 9 F with an average high of 27 F.

I must also admit our record high for today is 60 F (I don't know when; it wasn't in the last 30 years) and the record high for today for Rome & Lake Pleasant NY is 55 F. (All weather details complements of Weather Underground.)

Snow fall is a different story. The effect of the Great Lakes on Rome / Lake Pleasant weather gives them gigantic amounts of snow compared to anywhere in IA.

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

Other approaches to off-season fitness maintenance keep popping into my mind. I often do McGuff's 5-exercise whole-body Superslow "Big 5" routine (from the "Body by Science" book and extensive website) using cables rather than Nautilus machines to REALLY expand their compound exercise advantage to our whole body. On HIIT circuit days I'll add flying trapeze leaps to the cable workout to set my lungs and legs on fire while focusing on my WSing muscles. A good gym and some imagination make a great combination.

ctuna · Joined: 27 Jun 1995 Posts: 1125 Location: Santa Cruz Ca

If I lived where snow hit the ground I would have a season
pass at a ski resort. Kind of hit or miss over the last decade
to do that in California (there were a lot of no snow years )
It seem to have come back a little the last two.

cascade747 · Joined: 16 Jul 2009 Posts: 16

I just ordered this book...looks interesting.
https://www.amazon.com/Health-Fitness-Windsurfing-Henrik-Beyer/dp/1514666111
I liked to use my ergometer (rower) when the weather is icky.
Female 68 in decent shape.

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

Within reason, it's usually more important how one uses their exercise equipment than what equipment they use.

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

I've tried countless very carefully selected exercise programs and concepts to get in shape for each new WSing season. Only two of them made me feel solid and really ready for those first couple of months back on the water.

One was WSing all winter, practical in New Mexico but not in upstate NY. The other was extensive crossover sports using the same muscles all winter, most notably dirt bikes and snowmobiles. Anything different, including intense and extensive gym time often simulating WSing, leaves me downright weak until halfway through a new season. Oh, I got really fit and fully ready for what I was doing in the gym, but not so much for what I wanted to do on the water come March ... and April ... and May. By the time the days began getting shorter in June, I felt really ready for the new season and long sessions.

A wide, extensive, intensive variety of strength development, HIIT, periodization, and nutrition programs beats nothing, but by how much is hotly debated by professional trainers and researchers. Many of them are convinced that anything but actually performing a sport or a sport movement (e.g., a throw, a golf club or racquet swing, a kick) EXACTLY as performed in competition (precisely identical hardware, ROM, speed/power profiles, etc.) will hurt performance by developing incorrect muscle memory and movement patterns. That's why some college and pro coaches and teams stress skill drills and practice games equal to or more than weight training.

I, for one, was overjoyed to find research and techniques supporting GREATLY reduced but much smarter gym time. I envy people who actually enjoy their gym time, but then it's easy to see why some do: because they're mostly just chatting and occasionally waving their arms around rather than actually working out. I don't think more than 5%-10% of the people in my gym put forth any significant and beneficial effort, as evidenced by sotto voce trainer comments, very low levels of effort, extensive research opposing what they're (mostly not) doing, and zero results in years despite spending three days there every week.

I've asked a few of our trainers (most have degrees in various related fields and compete in fitness sports) about which approach is more valid and about why they don't offer advice to people doing dangerous, useless, or counterproductive activities every day in the gym. Their virtually unanimous answers are "They don't want to hear it" and "very few of them are here to work hard".

In fact, those trainers don't even teach the really challenging exercises or levels of effort until and unless their client expresses or demonstrates a strong desire and motivation to push themselves for greater benefit. These trainers know that the average gym-goer benefits more from sustained mild exercise than from quitting because it got too hard. Many gym regulars also don't know that even maintaining, let alone improving, their fitness is impossible without increasing one's speed, resistance, power, aerobic/anaerobic effort, etc.

This is all part of what you need to know and practice to achieve the goals you stated, Sacandagalady. Exercising smarter rather than just longer is very important and useful once we get past our 20s (as a round number plucked out of the air) or have -- er, TAKE -- less time to exercise.

Sacandagalady · Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Posts: 42

Thanks Isobars for your very informative and thought-provoking thoughts on windsurfing, pre-season training and optional activities. I for one head to the gym and rarely socialize other than to say hello to one friend. When I am there, it is to work, and I usually spend close to an hour doing so. On the other hand, no one there at the Y is there to socialize

, but instead are on their phones texting constantly...UGH...

Thankfully, I can ride a bike at this time of the year when the weather is in the 30's and snow is cleared from the roads and somewhat dry. That really helps immensely and supplements most of what I do on "gym" days.

Certainly tweaking the speed, reps, and sets done is certainly up for review and anything additional I do is an added bonus.

Unfortunately I am not yet retired and finding time for everything I want to do is somewhat of an issue of sorts.

Thanks to all for the interesting, informative ideas and thoughts of getting through a long winter, dreaming for the milder weather and incoming windsurfing season.

Sacandagalady