The main problem I face in this year’s Birkie is that I haven’t trained at all for it. We’ve had no snow in our area of New York to train on. I managed to stay in decent shape with weekend runs and gym workouts but I caught a virus three weeks ago and had to stop training. Now that I have decent snow in Wisconsin, I’m doing a crash course, which I call the Jackrabbit Johansson workout.
Jackrabbit Johansson is the father of American cross country skiing.
After growing up in his native Norway, he became a successful engineer. He was living in New York City, when the market crash of 1929 wiped out everything he owned at the age of 60. Always an outdoorsmen, he took his family to Lake Placid, started from scratch with a guide business, and lived off the land hunting and fishing. He built ski trails all over the Northeast U.S. and Quebec. He lived to be 112, and skied a few miles in the American Birkebeiner at the age of 104! This photo of Jackrabbit shows him prepping his skis for the Canadian Marathon at the age of 100.
In 1932, he was named the U. S. Olympic coach for the nordic ski team at the Lake Placid winter Olympics. Jackrabbit ‘s idea of training was to take the entire team on a three day camping trip up Mt. Marcey the week before the games, to “toughen them up.” Needless to say, it didn’t work and the team flopped in the games.
I’m following Jackrabbit’s crash method and am trying to "toughen up" for the race. I skied another 17 kilometers today. It feels very comfortable and I’m going much faster than the first day. That’s a third of the distance, so maybe it will be enough to survive. Who knows?
Jackrabbit Johansson is the father of American cross country skiing.
After growing up in his native Norway, he became a successful engineer. He was living in New York City, when the market crash of 1929 wiped out everything he owned at the age of 60. Always an outdoorsmen, he took his family to Lake Placid, started from scratch with a guide business, and lived off the land hunting and fishing. He built ski trails all over the Northeast U.S. and Quebec. He lived to be 112, and skied a few miles in the American Birkebeiner at the age of 104! This photo of Jackrabbit shows him prepping his skis for the Canadian Marathon at the age of 100.In 1932, he was named the U. S. Olympic coach for the nordic ski team at the Lake Placid winter Olympics. Jackrabbit ‘s idea of training was to take the entire team on a three day camping trip up Mt. Marcey the week before the games, to “toughen them up.” Needless to say, it didn’t work and the team flopped in the games.
I’m following Jackrabbit’s crash method and am trying to "toughen up" for the race. I skied another 17 kilometers today. It feels very comfortable and I’m going much faster than the first day. That’s a third of the distance, so maybe it will be enough to survive. Who knows?
Weather here has been very cold. This is today's sunrise in Wisconsin at 10 below:
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